Review of Backstory 2: Interview with Screenwriters of the 1940's and 1950's

Backstory 2: Interviews with Screenwriters of the 1940’s and 1950’s. Patrick McGilligan. London, UK: University of California Press, 1991. 417 pages.

By Patrick Charsky

Patrick McGilligan’s Backstory 2: Interviews with Screenwriters of the 1940’s and 1950’s is another triumph in his Backstory series. Through many stories, anecdotes, and advice about Screenwriting, Backstory 2 shows how a select group of Screenwriters managed to live, write, and sustain careers in a time of the Black List and dramatic change in Hollywood. In this review I will present three points that prove the thesis that McGilligan’s book is a success.

The first point concerns writing advice from the group of Screenwriters interviewed for Backstory 2. The second point is about how the Black List affected writers while it was enforced. The last point is about the changes that the Screenwriters endured. On each point there are many examples from the Screenwriters in the book which are informative and lively.

Backstory 2 is similar to Backstory 1: Interviews with Screenwriters of Hollywood’s Golden Age. The book reveals many little known writers who wrote some of the classic films of the 40’s and 50’s. Movies like Rebel without a Cause, The Way We Were, and From Here to Eternity. These films are classics that reflect the time period in which they were made.

These Oral Histories are a joy and a pleasure to read and will prove edifying to anyone with an interest in Screenwriting, Film History, or Hollywood. When I read the book, at times, it felt like going to a writers conference for Screenwriters. So much good advice about writing, about working in the “industry.” Richard Brooks, Garsin Kanin, Arthur Laurents, Philip Yordan, and many others told of their experiences writing screenplays at a time when the “Big Studios” were in decline. Garsin Kanin said the worst thing a writer could do “is to read a newspaper” when starting out to write. I thought that was an interesting comment. What I thought was good habit, Kanin describes as a bad habit.

Almost all of them said they constantly re-write. A good habit, but the hardest part of writing is editing your own work. Arthur Laurents talks about making movies that are meaningful and profitable. He says it’s difficult, but it can be done. Staying true to oneself is of utmost importance to Laurents and it shows in his few, but very well done, films such as Westside Story and The Way We Were. Both films standout as classics with numerous awards, critical praise, and big box office numbers.

The second point which makes Backstory 2 a success and a must read for Screenwriters, Film Historians, and others, is McGilligan’s treatment of how the Black List affected Screenwriters. The interview with Ben Maddow stands out the most. Maddow was on the Black List and couldn’t find work for a solid decade. In the interview, Maddow is evasive and refuses to talk about whether he was a member of the Communist Party. Or whether he named names in the late 1950’s to a California Congressman. It is an excellent interview full of intrigue, perhaps the best interview in the book. Arthur Laurents was also Black Listed. Laurents kept working on Broadway and away from Hollywood. He didn’t seem to be affected as deeply as Maddow was by the Black List.

In McGilligan’s introduction he cites several books for further reading about the Black List. He has a special interest in the History of the Black List in Hollywood. In several interviews there is talk of how the Black List hovered like a dark cloud over Hollywood and rained particularly hard on Screenwriters. His treatment of the Black List shows the injustice that was done to Screenwriters. McGilligan shows how it ruined careers, caused psychological harm, and stomped all over the constitutional right to freedom of speech.

In contrast to McGilligan’s Backstory 1 where writers were struggling to get credits and have successful films which extended their contracts, Screenwriters in the 40’s and 50’s were a new generation where most writers didn’t have contracts. The contract writer became an “endangered species,” according to W. R. Burnett. The Studio system went into steep decline after the rise of television and an anti-trust court ruling that forced the studios to give up control of theater chains. The Big Studios never recovered. The decline of the studios only complicated matters for Screenwriters. Several interviewees were refugees from Hitler’s Germany. Their stories related how they moved to Hollywood and had to start over. Fleeing Nazis, writing clandestinely under the Black List, the rise of TV, all of these factors were obstacles that Screenwriters had to overcome to find long term success and financial stability. Both of which were elusive even to the most cunning like Philip Yordan.

The book is well put together. From one Screenwriter like Arthur Laurents, who writes mostly Romantic movies with many song and dance numbers, to a writer like Curt Siodmak who wrote horror films like Frankenstein meets Wolf Man; still others like Richard Brooks and Stewart Stern who wrote about Political and Social issues similar to the Italian Neo-Realists. The book has a diversity of writers and an attention to detail that left me very pleased after having read it.

I would highly recommend the book to anyone interested in Screenwriting, the History of Screenwriting or Screenwriters. It was like meeting each individual writer and listening to them talk about how they write and how they feel about the movies they made, the business side of Hollywood, and, in some cases the most famous people of the day; like Marlon Brando and Jimmy Dean. A fascinating study.