George Simon Kaufman was an American playwright, theater director and producer, humorist, and drama critic. In addition to comedies and political satire, he wrote several musicals for the Marx Brothers and others. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the musical Of Thee I Sing in 1932, and won again in 1937 for the play You Can't Take It with You. He also won the Tony Award for Best Director in 1951 for the musical Guys and Dolls.
Edward Brewster Sheldon was an American dramatist. His plays include Salvation Nell (1908) and Romance (1913), which was made into a motion picture with Greta Garbo.
Jesse Louis Lasky was an American pioneer motion picture producer who was a key founder of what was to become Paramount Pictures, and father of screenwriter Jesse L. Lasky Jr.
The Man Who Came to Dinner is a comedy play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. It debuted on October 16, 1939, at the Music Box Theatre in New York City, where it ran until 1941, closing after 739 performances. It then enjoyed a number of New York and London revivals. The first London production was staged at The Savoy Theatre starring Robert Morley and Coral Browne. In 1990, Browne stated in a televised biographical interview, broadcast on UK Channel 4, that she bought the rights to the play, borrowing money from her dentist to do so. When she died, her will revealed that she had received royalties for all later productions and adaptations of the play.
Helen Marguerite Clark was an American stage and silent film actress. As a movie actress, at one time Clark was second only to Mary Pickford in popularity. With a few exceptions and some fragments, most of Clark's films are considered lost.
Forbidden Paradise is a 1924 American silent drama film, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, produced by Famous Players–Lasky, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film is based on a 1922 Broadway play, The Czarina, by Edward Sheldon, who adapted the Hungarian-language book by Melchior Lengyel and Lajos Bíró. The play starred Doris Keane, in one of her last stage roles, as Catherine the Great. Basil Rathbone costarred with Keane. The film stars Pola Negri as Catherine the Great and Rod La Rocque in the Rathbone role. Clark Gable makes his second appearance on film.
The Song of Songs is a 1933 American pre-Code romantic drama film directed by Rouben Mamoulian, starring Marlene Dietrich as a naive German peasant named Lily who moves to Berlin and suffers a considerable amount of heartache. This particular version of the film was based on the 1908 novel The Song of Songs by Hermann Sudermann. The novel's original title, which translates to English as "The High Song", does indeed refer to the Song of Solomon, which is often described in German as "Das Hohe Lied der Liebe". However, that is not the only possible inference. "HoheLied" has been translated as "ode" "hosannas" "praises" and used in purely secular as well as religious contexts. Most telling in this case is the use in German of the entire phrase to describe the "great song of love" or "ode to love" in Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians. This creates a double layer of meaning to the title of the novel in German, one that could not be duplicated in an English rendition.
Dimitri Buchowetzki (1885–1932) born Dmitry Savelyevych Bukhovecky was a Russian film director, screenwriter, and actor in Germany, Sweden, United States, United Kingdom, and France.
Kick In is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film produced by Famous Players–Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film, based on the 1914 Broadway play by Willard Mack which had starred John Barrymore, was directed by Richard Wallace and starred the legendary Clara Bow in her last film for Paramount Pictures.
The Land of Promise is a 1917 American silent comedy drama film produced by Famous Players–Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Joseph Kaufman and starred Billie Burke and Thomas Meighan. The film is based on the 1913 play The Land of Promise by W. Somerset Maugham, in which Burke starred.
Erstwhile Susan is a 1919 American silent drama film directed by John S. Robertson, produced and distributed by Realart Pictures. It is based on a 1914 novel Barnabetta by Helen Reimensnyder Martin and later Broadway play Erstwhile Susan by Marian De Forest. Minnie Maddern Fiske starred in the Broadway play in 1916. This film version stars Mary Alden and Constance Binney, then an up-and-coming young actress. This film version, once thought to be lost, survives at the Museum of Modern Art.
The Song of Songs is a 1918 American silent drama film produced by Famous Players–Lasky and based on a 1914 stage play version by Edward Sheldon of the 1908 novel by Hermann Sudermann, The Song of Songs. This picture was directed by Joseph Kaufman and stars Elsie Ferguson. This was Kaufman's last film before his death on February 1, 1918, very early on during the 1918 flu pandemic.
Lily of the Dust is a 1924 American silent drama film directed by Dimitri Buchowetzki, starring Pola Negri, produced by Famous Players–Lasky, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. This movie was based on the 1908 novel The Song of Songs by Hermann Sudermann and the 1914 Broadway play The Song of Songs by Edward Sheldon.
The Swan is a 1925 American silent comedy film directed by Dimitri Buchowetzki and starring Frances Howard, Adolphe Menjou and Ricardo Cortez. It was produced by Famous Players–Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures.
Men is a 1924 American silent drama film directed by Dimitri Buchowetzki and starring Pola Negri that was produced by Famous Players–Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures.
Men and Women is a lost 1925 American silent drama film produced by Famous Players–Lasky and released by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by William C. deMille and starred Richard Dix, Claire Adams, and Neil Hamilton. It is based on a play, Men and Women, written years earlier by David Belasco and Henry Churchill de Mille, father of the director.
Arms and the Girl is a 1917 American silent drama film produced by Famous Players–Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Joseph Kaufman and stars Billie Burke. The film is one of the few of director Kaufman's to survive and the earliest known Billie Burke silent to survive.
The Crown of Lies is a 1926 American silent romantic drama film directed by Dimitri Buchowetzki and starring Pola Negri. It was produced and financed by Famous Players–Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures.
The Song of Songs is a 1908 novel by the German writer Hermann Sudermann. It was published in English in 1909, translated by Thomas Seltzer. A new translation by Beatrice Marshall was published in 1913.
Minick is a three-act Broadway play written by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman, based on Ferber's 1922 short story "Old Man Minick", that opened on September 24, 1924. Producer Winthrop Ames staged it at the Booth Theatre on Broadway, with O. P. Heggie in the title role. The play is about an elderly widower who comes to live with his son and daughter-in-law in their Chicago apartment.
