Ben Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, journalist, and novelist. A successful journalist in his youth, he went on to write 35 books and some of the most enjoyed screenplays and plays in America. He received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some seventy films.
Charles Gordon MacArthur was an American playwright, screenwriter, and 1935 winner of the Academy Award for Best Story.
Twentieth Century is a 1934 American pre-Code screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks and starring John Barrymore and Carole Lombard. Much of the film is set on the 20th Century Limited train as it travels from Chicago to New York City. Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur adapted their 1932 Broadway play of the same name – itself based on the unproduced play Napoleon of Broadway by Charles Bruce Millholland – with uncredited contributions from Gene Fowler and Preston Sturges.
John Lee Mahin was an American screenwriter and producer of films who was active in Hollywood from the 1930s to the 1960s. He was known as the favorite writer of Clark Gable and Victor Fleming. In the words of one profile, he had "a flair for rousing adventure material, and at the same time he wrote some of the raciest and most sophisticated sexual comedies of that period."
Underworld is a 1927 American silent crime film directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Clive Brook, Evelyn Brent and George Bancroft. The film launched Sternberg's eight-year collaboration with Paramount Pictures, with whom he would produce his seven films with actress Marlene Dietrich. Journalist and screenwriter Ben Hecht won an Academy Award for Best Original Story.
Lee Garmes, A.S.C. was an American cinematographer. During his career, he worked with directors Howard Hawks, Max Ophüls, Josef von Sternberg, Alfred Hitchcock, King Vidor, Nicholas Ray and Henry Hathaway, whom he had met as a young man when the two first came to Hollywood in the silent era. He also co-directed two films with legendary screenwriter Ben Hecht: Angels Over Broadway and Actor's and Sin.
Star Spangled Rhythm is a 1942 American all-star cast musical film made by Paramount Pictures during World War II as a morale booster. Many of the Hollywood studios produced such films during the war, generally musicals, frequently with flimsy storylines, and with the specific intent of entertaining the troops overseas and civilians back home and to encourage fundraising – as well as to show the studios' patriotism. This film was also the first released by Paramount to be shown for 8 weeks.
Secrets of a Secretary is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film directed by George Abbott, and starring Claudette Colbert and Herbert Marshall. The film was stage actress Mary Boland's first role in a talkie.
Jimmy the Gent is a 1934 American pre-Code comedy-crime film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring James Cagney and Bette Davis and featuring Allen Jenkins. It was the first pairing of Cagney and Davis, who would reunite for The Bride Came C.O.D. seven years later.
Design for Living is a 1933 American pre-Code romantic comedy film directed by Ernst Lubitsch from a screenplay by Ben Hecht, based on the 1932 play of the same name by Noël Coward. Starring Fredric March, Gary Cooper, and Miriam Hopkins, the film is about a woman who cannot decide between two men who love her, and the trio agree to try living together in a platonic friendly relationship.
New Adventures of Get Rich Quick Wallingford is a 1931 American pre-Code crime / romantic comedy film directed by Sam Wood and starring William Haines as a con artist and Jimmy Durante as his pickpocket buddy. The film is based on a series of stories by George Randolph Chester published in Cosmopolitan.
The Cheat is a 1923 American silent drama film produced by Famous Players–Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures, and is a remake of Cecil B. DeMille's 1915 film of the same name using the same script by Hector Turnbull and Jeanie MacPherson. This version stars Pola Negri and was directed by George Fitzmaurice.
Seven Keys to Baldpate is a lost 1925 American silent comedy mystery film based on the 1913 mystery novel by Earl Derr Biggers and 1913 play by George M. Cohan. Previously made in Australia in 1916 and by Paramount in 1917, this version was produced by, and starred, Douglas MacLean and was directed by Fred C. Newmeyer. Out of seven film adaptations of the story made between 1916 and 1983, this version is the only one that is now considered lost. The story was remade again later in 1929, 1935, 1946, and 1947. It was also remade in 1983 under the title House of the Long Shadows, featuring John Carradine, Peter Cushing, Vincent Price, and Christopher Lee.
Song of Love is a 1929 American pre-Code musical film directed by Erle C. Kenton and starring Belle Baker and Ralph Graves. It was released by Columbia Pictures on November 13, 1929. The film was the film debut of Belle Baker. The film contained songs but was also issued in a silent version. Actress Eve Arden made her film debut in the film, appearing under her real name, Eunice Quedens.
Warming Up is a 1928 American baseball film starring Richard Dix and Jean Arthur, directed by Fred C. Newmeyer, and released by Paramount Pictures in the Movietone sound system as Paramount's first sound film.
The Gay Defender is a lost 1927 American silent drama film directed by Gregory La Cava and written by Ray Harris, Grover Jones, Herman J. Mankiewicz, George Marion Jr., Sam Mintz, and Kenneth Raisbeck. The film stars Richard Dix, Thelma Todd, Fred Kohler, Jerry Mandy, Robert Brower, Harry Holden, and Fred Esmelton. The film was released on December 10, 1927, by Paramount Pictures.
The Lawyer's Secret is a 1931 American pre-Code crime film directed by Louis J. Gasnier and Max Marcin and written by Lloyd Corrigan, James Hilary Finn, and Max Marcin. The film stars Clive Brook, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Richard Arlen, Fay Wray, Jean Arthur, Francis McDonald, and Harold Goodwin. The film was released on June 6, 1931, by Paramount Pictures.
Silence is a 1931 American pre-Code crime film directed by Louis J. Gasnier and Max Marcin and written by Max Marcin, adapted from his play. The film stars Clive Brook, Marjorie Rambeau, Peggy Shannon, Charles Starrett, Willard Robertson, John Wray and Frank Sheridan. It was released on August 29, 1931, by Paramount Pictures.
Shoot the Works is a 1934 American pre-Code comedy film directed by Wesley Ruggles and written by Claude Binyon, Gene Fowler, Howard J. Green and Ben Hecht. It is based on the Gene Fowler and Harold Hecht 1932 play The Great Magoo. The film stars Jack Oakie, Ben Bernie, Dorothy Dell, Alison Skipworth, Roscoe Karns, Arline Judge and William Frawley. The film was released on June 29, 1934, by Paramount Pictures, preceding by two days the beginning of the most rigorously enforced version of the Hollywood Production Code, which came into effect on July 1, 1934.
Soak the Rich is a 1936 American comedy film written and directed by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, and starring Walter Connolly, John Howard, Mary Zimbalist, Lionel Stander, Ilka Chase and Alice Duer Miller. It was released on January 17, 1936, by Paramount Pictures.
