1.
Richard Brooks
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Richard Brooks was an American screenwriter, film director, novelist and occasional film producer. His outstanding works as director are Blackboard Jungle, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Elmer Gantry – for which he won an Academy Award for Best Writing, In Cold Blood, Brooks was born as Reuben Sax to Hyman and Esther Sax, Russian Jewish immigrants. Married teenagers when they immigrated to the United States in 1908, they found employment in Philadelphias textile and their only child Reuben Sax was born in 1912 in Philadelphia. He attended public schools Joseph Leidy Elementary, Mayer Sulzberger Junior High School and West Philadelphia High School, Sax took classes at Temple University for two years, studying journalism and playing on the schools baseball team. He dropped out and left home when he discovered that his parents were going into debt to pay for his tuition and he rode freight trains around the East and Midwest for a period of time but eventually returned to Philadelphia to seek work as a newspaper reporter. At some point in the 1930s, during the Great Depression and he changed his name legally in 1943. Brooks wrote sports for the Philadelphia Record and later joined the staff of the Atlantic City Press-Union and he moved to New York to work for the World-Telegram, shortly afterward he took a job with radio station WNEW for a larger paycheck. As a newsman for the station, he reported and read stories on the air, Brooks also began writing plays in 1938 and tried directing for Long Islands Mill Pond Theater in 1940. A falling out with his colleagues that summer led him to drive to Los Angeles on a whim. He also may have been trying to escape a marriage, a legal document indicates he was married at least part of the time he lived in New York. He didnt find film work but was hired by the NBC affiliate to write original stories and his second marriage, in 1941, to Jeanne Kelly, an actress at Universal Studios, may have helped to open the door to writing for the studio. He contributed dialogue to a few films and wrote two screenplays for the popular actress Maria Montez, known as the Queen of Technicolor, with no prospect of moving into more prestigious productions, he quit Universal and joined the Marine Corps in 1943 during World War II. Brooks never served overseas during the war, instead working in the Marine Corps film unit at Quantico, Virginia, in his two years in uniform he learned more about the basics of filmmaking, including writing and editing documentaries. He also found time to write a novel, The Brick Foxhole, in 1944 he divorced his wife, then known in films as Jean Brooks. Later he said he had been a husband and unsuitable for what she needed. His book was published in 1945 to favorable reviews and it was adapted as the film Crossfire, the first major Hollywood film to deal with anti-Semitism, receiving an Oscar nomination. The novel drew the attention of independent producer Mark Hellinger, who hired Brooks as a screenwriter after he left the Marines, working for Hellinger brought Brooks back to the film industry and led to a long friendship with actor Humphrey Bogart, a close friend of the producer. Brooks provided a screen story for The Killers, which introduced actor Burt Lancaster
2.
Robert Taylor (actor)
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Robert Taylor was an American film and television actor who was one of the most popular leading men of his time. Taylor began his career in films in 1934 when he signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and he won his first leading role the following year in Magnificent Obsession. His popularity increased during the late 1930s and 1940s with appearances in A Yank at Oxford, Waterloo Bridge, during World War II, he served in the United States Naval Air Corps, where he worked as a flight instructor and appeared in instructional films. From 1959 to 1962, he starred in the ABC series The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor, in 1966, he took over hosting duties from his friend Ronald Reagan on the series Death Valley Days. Taylor was married to actress Barbara Stanwyck from 1939 to 1951 and he married actress Ursula Thiess in 1954, and they had two children. A chain smoker, Taylor was diagnosed with cancer in October 1968. He died of the disease in June 1969 at the age of 57, born Spangler Arlington Brugh in Filley, Nebraska, he was the only child of Ruth Adaline and Spangler Andrew Brugh, a farmer turned doctor. During his early life, the family moved several times, living in Muskogee, Oklahoma, Kirksville, Missouri, by September 1917, the Brughs had moved to Beatrice, Nebraska, where they remained for 16 years. As a teenager, Taylor was a star and played the cello in his high school orchestra. Upon graduation, he enrolled at Doane College in Crete, Nebraska, while at Doane, he took cello lessons from Professor Herbert E. Gray, whom he admired and idolized. After Professor Gray announced he was accepting a new position at Pomona College in Los Angeles, Brugh moved to California and he joined the campus theater group and was eventually spotted by an MGM talent scout in 1932 after production of Journeys End. He signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer with an initial salary of $35 a week. The studio changed his name to Robert Taylor and he made his film debut in the 1934 comedy Handy Andy, starring Will Rogers. His first leading role was in an MGM short subject called Buried Loot, irene Dunne requested him for her leading man in Magnificent Obsession. This was followed by Camille opposite Greta Garbo, in 1940, he reteamed with Leigh in Mervyn LeRoys drama Waterloo Bridge. After being given the nickname The Man with the Perfect Profile, Taylor began breaking away from his leading man image. That year he portrayed Billy Bonney in Billy the Kid, the next year, he played the title role in the film noir Johnny Eager opposite Lana Turner. After playing a sergeant in Bataan in 1943, Taylor contributed to the war effort by becoming a flying instructor in the U. S. Naval Air Corps
3.
Stewart Granger
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Stewart Granger was an English film actor, mainly associated with heroic and romantic leading roles. He was a leading man from the 1940s to the early 1960s. He was born James Lablache Stewart in Old Brompton Road, Kensington, West London, Granger was educated at Epsom College and the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. He was the great-great-grandson of the opera singer Luigi Lablache and the grandson of the actor Luigi Lablache, when he became an actor, he was advised to change his name in order to avoid being confused with the American actor James Stewart. Offscreen friends and colleagues continued to call him Jimmy for the rest of his life and he made his film debut as an extra in 1933. It was at time that he met Michael Wilding and they remained friends until Wildings death in 1979. Years of theatre work followed, initially at Hull Repertory Theatre and then, after a pay dispute, here he met Elspeth March, a leading actress with the company, who became his first wife. At the outbreak of World War II Granger enlisted in the Gordon Highlanders, however he suffered from stomach ulcers and he was invalided out of the army in 1942. His first starring role was as the acid-tongued Rokeby in the Gainsborough Pictures period melodrama, The Man in Grey. He followed this with the more popular Fanny by Gaslight. The New York Times reported that Granger is a man worth watching. Like his dark looks and his dash, he puts them in mind, all these films were successful at the box office and in 1945 The Times reported that this six-foot black-visaged ex-soldier from the Black Watch is Englands Number One pin up boy. Only Bing Crosby can match him for popularity, Granger followed this with Caravan and then The Magic Bow in which he played Niccolò Paganini. In 1945 he was voted the second-most popular British film star, the following year he was voted the third-most popular British star, and the sixth-most popular overall. He went over to Rank, for whom he made Captain Boycott, Blanche Fury and then Saraband for Dead Lovers, the screenplay was by John Dighton and Alexander Mackendrick, Mackendrick would later direct The Ladykillers and Sweet Smell of Success. Granger was cast as the outsider, the gambler who is perceived as not quite the ticket by the established order. Granger stated that this was one of his few films of which he was proud, in 1949 Granger was reported as earning around £30,000 a year. That year Granger made Adam and Evelyne, starring with Jean Simmons, Granger had first met the very young Jean Simmons when they both worked on Gabriel Pascals Caesar and Cleopatra
4.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of feature films and television programs. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California and it is one of the worlds oldest film studios. In 1971, it was announced that MGM would merge with 20th Century Fox, over the next thirty-nine years, the studio was bought and sold at various points in its history until, on November 3,2010, MGM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. MGM Resorts International, a Las Vegas-based hotel and casino company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MGM, is not currently affiliated with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1966, MGM was sold to Canadian investor Edgar Bronfman Sr. whose son Edgar Jr. would later buy Universal Studios, the studio continued to produce five to six films a year that were released through other studios, mostly United Artists. Kerkorian did, however, commit to increased production and a film library when he bought United Artists in 1981. MGM ramped up production, as well as keeping production going at UA. It also incurred significant amounts of debt to increase production, the studio took on additional debt as a series of owners took charge in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1986, Ted Turner bought MGM, but a few later, sold the company back to Kerkorian to recoup massive debt. The series of deals left MGM even more heavily in debt, MGM was bought by Pathé Communications in 1990, but Parretti lost control of Pathé and defaulted on the loans used to purchase the studio. The French banking conglomerate Crédit Lyonnais, the major creditor. Even more deeply in debt, MGM was purchased by a joint venture between Kerkorian, producer Frank Mancuso, and Australias Seven Network in 1996, the debt load from these and subsequent business deals negatively affected MGMs ability to survive as an independent motion picture studio. In 1924, movie theater magnate Marcus Loew had a problem and he had bought Metro Pictures Corporation in 1919 for a steady supply of films for his large Loews Theatres chain. With Loews lackluster assortment of Metro films, Loew purchased Goldwyn Pictures in 1924 to improve the quality, however, these purchases created a need for someone to oversee his new Hollywood operations, since longtime assistant Nicholas Schenck was needed in New York headquarters to oversee the 150 theaters. Mayer, Loew addressed the situation by buying Louis B. Mayer Pictures on April 17,1924, Mayer became head of the renamed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with Irving Thalberg as head of production. MGM produced more than 100 feature films in its first two years, in 1925, MGM released the extravagant and successful Ben-Hur, taking a $4.7 million profit that year, its first full year. Marcus Loew died in 1927, and control of Loews passed to Nicholas Schenck, in 1929, William Fox of Fox Film Corporation bought the Loew familys holdings with Schencks assent. Mayer and Thalberg disagreed with the decision, Mayer was active in the California Republican Party and used his political connections to persuade the Justice Department to delay final approval of the deal on antitrust grounds
5.
Western (genre)
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Cowboys and gunslingers typically wear Stetson hats, bandannas, spurs, cowboy boots and buckskins. Other characters include Native Americans, bandits, lawmen, bounty hunters, outlaws, mounted cavalry, settlers, Westerns often stress the harshness of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape of deserts and mountains. Often, the vast landscape plays an important role, presenting a. mythic vision of the plains, specific settings include ranches, small frontier towns, saloons, railways and isolated military forts of the Wild West. Many Westerns use a plot of depicting a crime, then showing the pursuit of the wrongdoer, ending in revenge and retribution. The Western was the most popular Hollywood genre, from the early 20th century to the 1960s, Western films first became well-attended in the 1930s. John Fords landmark Western adventure Stagecoach became one of the biggest hits in 1939, Westerns were very popular throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Many of the most acclaimed Westerns were released during this time – including High Noon, Shane, The Searchers, the Western depicts a society organized around codes of honor and personal, direct or private justice–frontier justice–dispensed by gunfights. These honor codes are played out through depictions of feuds or individuals seeking personal revenge or retribution against someone who has wronged them. The popular perception of the Western is a story that centers on the life of a semi-nomadic wanderer, a showdown or duel at high noon featuring two or more gunfighters is a stereotypical scene in the popular conception of Westerns. In some ways, such protagonists may be considered the descendants of the knight errant which stood at the center of earlier extensive genres such as the Arthurian Romances. And like knights errant, the heroes of Westerns frequently rescue damsels in distress, similarly, the wandering protagonists of Westerns share many characteristics with the ronin in modern Japanese culture. The Western typically takes these elements and uses them to tell simple morality tales, Westerns often stress the harshness and isolation of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape. Apart from the wilderness, it is usually the saloon that emphasizes that this is the Wild West, it is the place to go for music, women, gambling, drinking, brawling and shooting. The American Film Institute defines western films as those set in the American West that embodies the spirit, the struggle, the term Western, used to describe a narrative film genre, appears to have originated with a July 1912 article in Motion Picture World Magazine. Most of the characteristics of Western films were part of 19th century popular Western fiction and were firmly in place before film became an art form. Protagonists ride between dusty towns and cattle ranches on their trusty steeds, Western films were enormously popular in the silent film era. With the advent of sound in 1927-28, the major Hollywood studios rapidly abandoned Westerns, leaving the genre to smaller studios and these smaller organizations churned out countless low-budget features and serials in the 1930s. Released through United Artists, Stagecoach made John Wayne a mainstream star in the wake of a decade of headlining B westerns
6.
Screenplay
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A screenplay or script is a written work by screenwriters for a film, video game, or television program. These screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing, in them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated. A screenplay written for television is also known as a teleplay, the format is structured in a way that one page usually equates to one minute of screen time. In a shooting script, each scene is numbered, and technical direction may be given, in a spec or a draft in various stages of development, the scenes are not numbered, and technical direction is at a minimum. The standard font for a screenplay is 12 point,10 pitch Courier Typeface, the major components are action and dialogue. The action is written in the present tense, the dialogue are the lines the characters speak. Unique to the screenplay is the use of slug lines, a slug line, also called a master scene heading, occurs at the start of every scene, and is usually made up of three parts. Part one states whether the scene is set inside outside, or both, Part two states location of the scene. Part three, separated from Part two by a hyphen, refers to the time of the scene, each slug line begins a new scene. In a shooting script, the lines are numbered consecutively. These scene numbers serve as mile-post markers in a script and this allows any part of the script to be referred to by scene number. In the United States letter size paper and Courier 12 point are mandatory, the tab settings of the scene elements, which constitute the screenplays layout. The dialogue must be centered and the names must be capitalized, a script usually begins with FADE IN, followed by the first scene description. It might get more specific, e. g. FADE IN ON AN ECU of Ricky as he explains the divorce to Bob, a script will usually end with FADE TO BLACK, though there are variables, like CUT TO BLACK for abrupt endings. The style consists of a grammar that is specific to screenplays and this grammar also consists of two aspects, A prose that is manifestation-oriented, i. e. focuses largely on what is audible and what is visible on screen. This prose may only supply interpretations and explanation if clarity would otherwise be adversely affected, American screenplays are printed single-sided on three-hole-punched paper using the standard American letter size. They are then together with two brass brads in the top and bottom hole. The middle hole is left empty as it would make it harder to quickly read the script
