{"id":34778,"date":"2014-11-28T11:00:12","date_gmt":"2014-11-28T19:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/?p=34778"},"modified":"2020-10-08T14:22:18","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T21:22:18","slug":"on-midnights-screenplay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2014\/11\/on-midnights-screenplay\/","title":{"rendered":"On Midnight<\/em>‘s Screenplay"},"content":{"rendered":"

“There’s an old story, borne out by production records, about [producer] Arthur Hornblow Jr. deciding to exert his power by handing [Billy] Wilder and [Charles] Brackett’s fully polished draft [of the screenplay for 1939’s Midnight<\/em>] to a staff writer named Ken Englund. (Like many producers, then and now, Hornblow just wanted to put some more thumbprints on it.) Englund asked Hornblow what he was supposed to do with the script, since it looked good enough to him. “Rewrite it,” said Hornblow. Englund did as he was told and returned to Hornblow’s office with a new draft whereupon the producer told him precisely what the trouble was: it didn’t sound like Brackett and Wilder anymore. “You’ve lost the flavor of the original!” Hornblow declared. Englund then pointed out that Brackett and Wilder themselves were currently in their office doing nothing, so Hornblow turned the script back to them for further work. Charlie and Billy spent a few days playing cribbage and then handed in their original manuscript, retyped and doctored with a few minor changes. Hornblow loved it, and the film went into production.”<\/p>\n

– Ed Sikov, On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“There’s an old story, borne out by production records, about [producer] Arthur Hornblow Jr. deciding to exert his power by handing [Billy] Wilder and [Charles] Brackett’s fully polished draft [of the screenplay for 1939’s Midnight] to a staff writer named Ken Englund. (Like many producers, then and now, Hornblow just wanted to put some more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":[],"categories":[3316],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":34902,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2015\/02\/completing-the-filmography-fedora\/","url_meta":{"origin":34778,"position":0},"title":"Completing the Filmography: Fedora","author":"Jandy","date":"February 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"In 1950, Billy Wilder made what is probably the definitive film on Hollywood and aging with Sunset Boulevard, but it seems he wasn't quite done with the topic, returning to it in 1978's Fedora, a film about an iconic actress from the 1940s (very Garbo-esque in accent and distancing demeanor)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/ctf-fedora-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":34779,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2014\/11\/on-german-speaking-billy-wilder-learning-english\/","url_meta":{"origin":34778,"position":1},"title":"On German-speaking Billy Wilder Learning English","author":"Jandy","date":"November 27, 2014","format":"quote","excerpt":"\"For the refugees, a harsh accent was the least of their troubles. The precise cases, endless portmanteaus, and complex syntactical structure of the German language made their transition to English a strain. It required a thorough rearrangement of thought. In German, the verb usually comes at the end of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commonplace"","block_context":{"text":"Commonplace","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/commonplace\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33641,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2014\/02\/stream-it-sunset-boulevard-1950\/","url_meta":{"origin":34778,"position":2},"title":"Stream It!: Sunset Boulevard (1950)","author":"Jandy","date":"February 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"[Showcasing the best and highlighting the newest additions to the various streaming services, including but not limited to Netflix Instant, HuluPlus, Amazon Prime, and Warner Archive Instant.] New on Netflix: Sunset Boulevard A bunch of new stuff hit Netflix at the beginning of the month, as usual, but the immediately\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Sunset-Boulevard-feat1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Sunset-Boulevard-feat1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Sunset-Boulevard-feat1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":34866,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2015\/01\/completing-the-filmography-five-graves-to-cairo\/","url_meta":{"origin":34778,"position":3},"title":"Completing the Filmography: Five Graves to Cairo","author":"Jandy","date":"January 20, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This year instead of doing Blind Spots or other list-based viewing, I'm focusing in on completing filmographies of certain directors - some of which I'm only a few films away from completing and will probably do so pretty quickly, while others may be in progress for quite a while. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/ctf-fivegraves-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":34549,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2014\/11\/stream-it-witness-for-the-prosecution\/","url_meta":{"origin":34778,"position":4},"title":"Stream It!: Witness for the Prosecution","author":"Jandy","date":"November 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"[Showcasing the best and highlighting the newest additions to the various streaming services, including but not limited to Netflix Instant, HuluPlus, Amazon Prime, and Warner Archive Instant.] Stream on Netflix: Witness for the Prosecution I really want to start doing these more often, since a ton of great stuff is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Witness-for-the-Prosecution-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":27298,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/50dmc-33-favorite-remake\/","url_meta":{"origin":34778,"position":5},"title":"50DMC #33: Favorite Remake","author":"Jandy","date":"October 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The 50 Day Movie Challenge asks one question every day, to be answered by a few paragraphs and a clip, if possible. Click here for the full list of questions. Today's prompt: What's your favorite remake? I try not to have an immediate negative reaction when I hear about a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/His-Girl-Friday.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34778"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}