Howard Winchester Hawks was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era. Critic Leonard Maltin called him "the greatest American director who is not a household name." Roger Ebert called Hawks "one of the greatest American directors of pure movies, and a hero of auteur critics because he found his own laconic values in so many different kinds of genre material." He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for Sergeant York (1941) and earned the Honorary Academy Award in 1974.
Ball of Fire is a 1941 American screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks and starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. The Samuel Goldwyn Productions film concerns a group of professors laboring to write an encyclopedia and their encounter with a nightclub performer who provides her own unique knowledge. The supporting cast includes Oscar Homolka, S. Z. Sakall, Henry Travers, Richard Haydn, Dana Andrews, and Dan Duryea.
Oscar Levant was an American concert pianist, composer, conductor, author, radio game show panelist, television talk show host, comedian, and actor. He was known for his performances in the films Rhapsody in Blue (1945), The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), An American in Paris (1951), and The Band Wagon (1953). He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 for recordings featuring his piano performances. He was as equally famous for his mordant character and witticisms, on radio and later in movies and television, as for his music. He was portrayed by Sean Hayes in the Broadway play Good Night, Oscar, written by Doug Wright. Levant appeared as himself in the Gershwin biopic Rhapsody in Blue (1945).
Richard Weedt Widmark was an American film, stage, and television actor and producer.
Kiss of Death is a 1947 American film noir directed by Henry Hathaway and written by Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer from a story by Eleazar Lipsky. The story revolves around an ex-con played by Victor Mature and his former partner-in-crime, Tommy Udo. The movie also starred Brian Donlevy and introduced Coleen Gray in her first billed role. The film has received critical praise since its release, with two Academy Award nominations.
Broken Lance is a 1954 American Western film directed by Edward Dmytryk and produced by Sol C. Siegel. The film stars Spencer Tracy, Robert Wagner, Jean Peters, Richard Widmark, and Katy Jurado.
The Frogmen is a 1951 American black-and-white World War II drama film from Twentieth Century Fox, produced by Samuel G. Engel, directed by Lloyd Bacon, that stars Richard Widmark, Dana Andrews, and Gary Merrill. The film's storyline is based on operations by United States Navy Underwater Demolition Teams, popularly known as "frogmen", against the Japanese Army and naval forces. It was the first such film about scuba diving and became a popular cultural hit.
"The Ransom of Red Chief" is a short story by O. Henry first published in the July 6, 1907, issue of The Saturday Evening Post. It follows two men who kidnap and demand a ransom for a wealthy Alabamian's son. Eventually, the men are driven crazy by the boy's spoiled and hyperactive behavior, and they pay the boy's father to take him back.
Chris Terrio is an American screenwriter and film director. He is best known for writing the screenplay for the 2012 film Argo, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Terrio also won the Writers Guild Award for Best Adapted Screenplay of 2012 and was nominated for Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay, a BAFTA, and the 2013 Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for this work.
Richard L. Breen was a Hollywood screenwriter and director.
Gregory Ratoff was a Russian-born American film director, actor and producer. As an actor, he was best known for his role as producer "Max Fabian" in All About Eve (1950).
Yellow Sky is a 1948 American Western film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Gregory Peck, Richard Widmark, and Anne Baxter. The story is believed to be loosely adapted from William Shakespeare's The Tempest. The screenplay concerns a band of reprobate outlaws who flee after a bank robbery and encounter an old man and his granddaughter in a ghost town.
Abdulla the Great is a 1955 comedy film. It was directed and produced by Gregory Ratoff who also stars in the title role from a screenplay by Boris Ingster and George St. George, based on the novel My Kingdom for a Woman by Ismet Regeila. The music score was by Georges Auric and the cinematography by Lee Garmes.
National Lampoon's Movie Madness is a 1982 American comedy film produced by National Lampoon as the second film from the magazine. The film was originally produced under the title National Lampoon Goes to the Movies; completed in 1981, the film was not released until 1982, and was reedited and retitled as Movie Madness.
Nob Hill is a 1945 Technicolor film about a Barbary Coast, San Francisco, United States saloon keeper, starring George Raft and Joan Bennett. Part musical and part drama, the movie was directed by Henry Hathaway. It remains one of Raft's lesser known movies even though it was a big success, in part because it was a musical.
The Cobweb is a 1955 American Eastmancolor MGM drama film. It was directed by Vincente Minnelli, and based on a novel by William Gibson. The film stars Richard Widmark, Lauren Bacall, Charles Boyer, and Gloria Grahame
The Sun Also Rises is a 1957 American drama film adaptation of the 1926 Ernest Hemingway novel of the same name directed by Henry King. The screenplay was written by Peter Viertel and it starred Tyrone Power, Ava Gardner, Mel Ferrer, and Errol Flynn. Much of it was filmed on location in France and Spain as well as Mexico in Cinemascope and color by Deluxe. A highlight of the film is the famous "running of the bulls" in Pamplona, Spain and two bullfights.
Benjy is a 1951 American short documentary film directed by Fred Zinnemann. It won an Oscar in 1952 for Documentary Short Subject.
The Razzie Award for Worst Screenplay is an award presented at the annual Golden Raspberry Awards for the worst film screenplay of the past year. The following is a list of nominees and recipients of that award, including each screenplay's author(s).
Invitation to Happiness is a 1939 American drama film directed by Wesley Ruggles and written by Claude Binyon. The film stars Irene Dunne, Fred MacMurray, Charlie Ruggles, Billy Cook, William Collier, Sr. and Marion Martin. The film was released on June 16, 1939, by Paramount Pictures.
