Dunne was not initially interested in working in the film industry but that was the first place he got a job. Via a recommendation from a friend of his brother he obtained work at Fox as a reader at $35 a week.[2] Also among readers at the time was Leonard Spigelgass. Dunne later recalled:
We got nothing but the worst stuff; all the good books and plays went through the New York readers’ department. We got the pathetic originals written by out-of-work screenwriters. I kept seeing ways that I thought I could improve them. I'd write a synopsis, and I'd make it better. I couldn't help it. It would be an obvious thing that the guy had missed. And when you learn to synopsize a story, you learn to construct it. At the same time, I was moonlighting writing short stories, so all these things came together."[3]
In 1931, Dunne was fired from Fox after less than a year at the studio in a cost-cutting move. He was briefly under contract at MGM, writing a comedy for them, but was unhappy with his work and resigned after handing in his first draft. This script was subsequently filmed as Student Tour (1934), which Dunne never saw.[4][5]
Dunne also worked uncredited on Me and My Gal (1932).
Career progress
The first important screenplay of Dunne's career was The Count of Monte Cristo (1934), produced by Edward Small. Dunne was brought on to the project after the novel had been distilled to a treatment by director Rowland V. Lee and Dan Totheroh, and Dunne helped finesse the script into scenes and did the dialogue. Dunne later credited Lee as an important mentor for him.[6]
Dunne received a lot of acclaim for his adaptation of The Last of the Mohicans (1936) for Small which he wrote with John L. Balderstone. Dunne claimed the script was hurt by later rewrites from another writer, but the script, rather than the original novel, formed the basis of the 1992 film version.[5]
For Universal he wrote Breezing Home (1937) which he later said was the first of what he considered only four original screenplays he would write in his career.[3]
20th Century Fox
After working for various studios, he moved to 20th Century Fox in 1937, where he would remain for 25 years (excepting 4 years civilian war service during World War II), scripting 36 films in total and directing 10. He also produced several of his later films.
His first assignment at Fox was Lancer Spy (1937), with George Sanders. He then did three films in collaboration with Julien Josephson which established him as one of the leading writers at the studio: Suez (1938), Stanley and Livingstone (1939), and The Rains Came (1939).
Notably, he produced the non-fiction short The Town (1944), directed by Josef von Sternberg, which has received some critical acclaim.[8]
Postwar career
Dunne returned to Fox after the war and quickly re-established himself as one of the studio's leading writers with credits including The Late George Apley (1947), and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947).
In 1949 he and Otto Preminger were working on a film The Far East Story which was never made.[9]
Dunne moved into spectacles with David and Bathsheba (1951), based on the story in the Bible but which Dunne considered his second "original". It was a huge hit. Zanuck put Dunne on Queen of Sheba but it was never made.[10]
Dunne turned producer with Way of a Gaucho (1952) which he also wrote.[11][12] As a writer only he worked on The Robe (1953), the first movie in CinemaScope and a huge success. Dunne had enjoyed writing David and Bathsheba but said working on The Robe was "a chore" which he only did "as a favor to Zanuck".[13]
He was announced for a film The Story of Jezebel which was not made. Dunne wrote the sequel to The Robe, Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954), his third original, which was also a hit.
However another spectacle Dunne wrote (from a draft by Casey Robinson), The Egyptian (1954), was a box-office disappointment. Dunne says he acted as an unofficial producer on this film.[13]
Director
Dunne was assigned to produce Prince of Players (1955) from a script by Moss Hart. When he could not find a director he was happy with, Darryl F. Zanuck suggested Dunne to do the job himself.[14]
Dunne later said "I started directing too late and, no question, at the wrong time. Twentieth Century Fox, the studio system, were falling apart. The boat had sailed."[15]
He directed and did some writing on In Love and War (1958), a war time drama, featuring many of the studio's young contract players. Edward Anhalt wrote it and Jerry Wald produced.[17]
In 1962, he directed Lisa, based on the novel The Inspector by Jan de Hartog and featuring Stephen Boyd and Dolores Hart, which was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Picture – Drama. Dunne did not write it.[18][6]
He wrote and directed Blindfold (1966), at Universal. It was his last feature. He was reportedly working on an adaptation of The Consort a novel by Anthony Hextall Smith, but it was never made.[21]
In addition to screenwriting, Dunne wrote syndicated newspaper articles and was a contributor to The New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly magazines.
He wrote speeches for various Democratic politicians such as Adlai Stevenson.[4]
He also wrote a stage play, Mr. Dooley's America (1976), based on his father's humor, and another, Politics (1980).
His books include Mr Dooley Remembers (1963) and Take Two: A Life in Movies and Politics (1980). His short stories appeared in the New Yorker and his essays were regular features of Time, the Los Angeles Times, and the Harvard Review.[22]
Awards
He was a winner of the Laurel Award (1962) and the Valentine Davies Award (1974).
The week before he died he was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Writers Guild.[4]
Before World War II, he was a member of the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, a group founded in May 1940 that advocated military materiel aid to Britain as the best way to keep the United States out of the war.
The original credits for The Robe (1953) gave Dunne the sole screenplay credit, when in fact Hollywood Ten member Albert Maltz had made significant contributions. In 1997, the WGA restored full writing credits to blacklisted writers whose names were left out of films they worked on. The following is from the WGA's "Blacklisted Writers Receive Credit" press release of April 2, 1997:
In the case of The Robe there was an extraordinary amount of information gathered to indicate that Maltz was entitled to shared screenplay credit. In addition, Philip Dunne did not believe he deserved sole screenplay credit but it was not until many years later that he learned that a blacklisted writer had worked on the project. Amanda Dunne, Philip's widow, confirms that Philip would have been happy to share screenplay credit with Maltz.
Dunne's political stance was decidedly liberal and reformist, but he was also determinedly anti-Communist. His involvement in the Committee for the First Amendment can arguably be read as just that—support for Constitutional free speech against a government entity (HUAC) that, to Dunne, seemed determined to usurp those rights. At various times dating to before the Second World War, he clashed with fellow members of the Screen Writers Guild who he felt were "pro-Stalin" Communists. Dunne's anti-Communist leanings would seem to be verified by his uninterrupted employment as a screenwriter on major Hollywood productions throughout the blacklist period, despite his quite vocal denunciation of HUAC.[citation needed]
Personal life
Dunne married the former Amanda Duff (1914–2006) on July 13, 1939.[24] They had three children.
In 1980, he published his memoirs, Take Two: A Life in Movies and Politics.
"Never in all my years in this chancy and unstable profession did I ever realize that I was sleepwalking along a precipice. I ignored the fact that the rate of professional mortality among screen writers is extremely high...It wasn't courage or arrogance or insensitivity; I suspect it was the irascible Horatio Alger in my blood. If I had it to do all over again I would perish of sheer fright."
"All over town the industrious communist tail wagged the lazy liberal dog."
"Had I known it was the Golden Age of Hollywood, I would have enjoyed it more."
James Dalton Trumbo was an American screenwriter who scripted many award-winning films, including Roman Holiday (1953), Exodus, Spartacus, and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944). One of the Hollywood Ten, he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947 during the committee's investigation of alleged Communist influences in the motion picture industry.
Ringgold Wilmer Lardner Jr. was an American journalist and screenwriter. A member of the "Hollywood Ten", he was blacklisted by the Hollywood film studios during the late 1940s and 1950s after his appearance as an "unfriendly" witness before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) leading to Lardner's being found guilty of contempt of Congress.
Joseph Leo Mankiewicz was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Mankiewicz had a long Hollywood career, and won both the Academy Award for Best Director and the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in consecutive years for A Letter to Three Wives (1949) and All About Eve (1950), the latter of which was nominated for 14 Academy Awards and won six.
The Front is a 1976 drama film set against the Hollywood blacklist in the 1950s, when artists, writers, directors, and others were rendered unemployable, having been accused of subversive political activities in support of Communism or of being Communists themselves. It was written by Walter Bernstein, directed by Martin Ritt, and stars Woody Allen, Zero Mostel and Michael Murphy.
Abraham Lincoln Polonsky was an American film director, screenwriter, essayist and novelist. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Body and Soul but in the early 1950s was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios, after refusing to testify at congressional hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee, in the midst of the McCarthy era.
Howard E. Koch was an American playwright and screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood film studio bosses in the 1950s.
Michael Wilson was an American screenwriter.
Albert Maltz was an American playwright, fiction writer and screenwriter. He was one of the Hollywood Ten who were jailed in 1950 for their 1947 refusal to testify before the US Congress about their involvement with the Communist Party USA. They and many other US entertainment industry figures were subsequently blacklisted, which denied Maltz employment in the industry for many years.
Carl Foreman, CBE was an American screenwriter and film producer who wrote the award-winning films The Bridge on the River Kwai and High Noon, among others. He was one of the screenwriters who were blacklisted in Hollywood in the 1950s because of their suspected communist sympathy or membership in the Communist Party.
Hugo Dansey Butler was a Canadian-born screenwriter working in Hollywood who was blacklisted by the film studios in the 1950s.
Jean Rouverol was an American author, actress and screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios in the 1950s.
Walter Bernstein was an American screenwriter and film producer who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios in the 1950s because of his views on communism. Some of his notable works included The Front (1976), Yanks (1979), and Little Miss Marker (1980). He was a recipient of Writers Guild of America Awards including the Ian McLellan Hunter award and the Evelyn F. Burkey award.
Philip Yordan was an American screenwriter of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s who produced several films. He acted as a front for blacklisted writers although his use of surrogate screenwriters predates the McCarthy era. His actual contributions to the scripts he is credited with writing is controversial and he was known to some as a credit-grabber. Born to Polish immigrants, he earned degrees from both University of Illinois and Chicago-Kent College of Law.
David and Bathsheba is a 1951 historical Technicolor epic film produced by 20th Century-Fox and starring Gregory Peck as King David. It was directed by Henry King and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, with a screenplay by Philip Dunne and cinematography by Leon Shamroy.
Isobel Lennart was an award-winning American screenwriter and playwright. She is best known for writing the book for the Broadway musical Funny Girl which premiered in 1964, although she also wrote scripts for successful Hollywood films featuring major stars, some of which received Oscar nominations.
Bernard Gordon was an American writer and producer. For much of his 27-year career he was prevented from taking screen credit by the Hollywood Blacklist. Among his best-known works are screenplays for Flesh and Fury (1952), Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956), and 55 Days at Peking (1963).
Frank Stanley Nugent was an American screenwriter, journalist, and film reviewer, who wrote 21 film scripts, 11 for director John Ford. He wrote almost a thousand reviews for The New York Times before leaving journalism for Hollywood. He was nominated for an Academy Award in 1953 and twice won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Comedy. The Writers Guild of America, West ranks his screenplay for The Searchers (1956) among the top 101 screenplays of all time.
The Hollywood blacklist was an entertainment industry blacklist, broader than just Hollywood, put in effect in the mid-20th century in the United States during the early years of the Cold War. The blacklist involved the practice of denying employment to entertainment industry professionals believed to be or to have been Communists or sympathizers. Actors, screenwriters, directors, musicians, and other American entertainment professionals were barred from work by the studios.
Martin Berkeley was a Hollywood and television screenwriter who collaborated with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the 1950s by naming dozens of Hollywood artists as Communists or Communist sympathizers.
Edward Huebsch, AKA "Eddie Huebsch" and "Ed Huebsch," (1914-1982) was a 20th-century American Communist screenwriter whose career was cut short by the Hollywood blacklist.
1 2 MURRAY SCHUMACH (April 3, 1962). "DIRECTORS CHIDED FOR FILM WRITING: Philip Dunne Urges That Scenarists Be on Sets Best-Known Scripts Used One Line". New York Times. p.43.
↑ Champlin, Charles (April 2, 1991). "How Collaborative Was Their Project Movies: Philip Dunne, screenwriter for 'How Green Was My Valley", recalls conflicts and compromises with director John Ford and producer Darryl Zanuck". Los Angeles Times (Homeed.). p.5.
↑ "Screenwriter Philip Dunne, 84; founded guild, fought blacklist". Boston Globe. June 9, 1992. p.95.
↑ THOMAS F. BRADY (February 28, 1949). "'SWORD IN DESERT' TO STAR ANDREWS: Paul Christian's Illness Causes Change in the Cast of U-I Film About Palestine". New York Times. p.16.
↑ THOMAS M. PRYOR (September 17, 1951). "ZANUCK WILL FILM 'QUEEN OF SHEBA': Success of Fox's 'David and Bathsheba' Has Researchers at Studio Reading Bible". New York Times. p.17.
↑ HOWARD THOMPSON (August 26, 1951). "BY WAY OF REPORT: The South American Way At Fox—Disney Docket CRYSTAL GAZER: AGENDA: OF GANDHI". New York Times. p.X5.
↑ "Drama: Dore Schary Picture List Rated Notable". Los Angeles Times. January 26, 1951. p.A8.
↑ HOWARD THOMPSON (June 8, 1966). "OF PICTURES AND PEOPLE: Blueprint for 'Prince of Players' – A Chinese 'G. W. T. W.' – Other Items". New York Times. p.d11.
↑ Lee Server (1987). Screenwriter: Words Become Pictures. p.109.
↑ "Joi Lansing Now Invited to England". Los Angeles Times. April 9, 1956. p.B9.
↑ Rule, Sheila (June 4, 1992). "Philip Dunne, 84, Screenwriter And an Opponent of Blacklisting". New York Times. p.B.12.
↑ Scheuer, Philip K. (March 5, 1962). "Piped Theater TV Called Death Knell: Philip Dunne Survives 25 Years of Shake-ups at Fox". Los Angeles Times. p.C15.
↑ MURRAY SCHUMACH Special to The (February 14, 1963). "FOX STUDIO BACK IN PRODUCTION: Film Work Resumes After Long Inactivity Film Set for Spring Other Scripts Prepared". New York Times. p.5.
↑ Kimmis Hendrick. The (June 10, 1966). "Dunne: writer who directs: Urgent advice". Christian Science Monitor. p.4.
↑ Freeman, David (May 3, 1992). "A Wide Angle on Hollywood TAKE TWO: A Life in Movies and Politics, By Philip Dunne (Limelight Editions: $17.95, paper; 405 pp.)". Los Angeles Times (Homeed.). p.2.
↑ "Noted screenwriter Philip Dunne, 84". Chicago Tribune. June 5, 1992. p.A8.
↑ "Philip Dunne Weds Miss Duff". New York Times. July 16, 1939. p.32.
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