What Your Story Needs (Tip #35)

On Screen Writing by Edward Dmytryk is not the most marked-up book on writing that I have, but it is one that I return to again and again. Dmytryk directed the Oscar-winning film Crossfire (1947) as well as the highly regarded films The Young Lions, Raintree County and The Caine Mutiny. In total he directed 56 films and later taught at the University of Texas at Austin and USC. I can’t think of an another filmmaker who has better professional and academic credentials than Dmytryk.

“Need is undoubtedly the most common, the most useful, the most malleable, and the most easily understood and accepted basis for a story…In The African Queen two completely diverse personalities are forced to ride the length of a dangerous African river in a dilapidated boat—that is the situation. Their need is two-fold; first, to leave the territory, which is occupied by the enemy, and second, to blow up the German gunboat at the end of their journey. The conflict is also two-fold; first that of the diametrically opposed characters, and second, their battles with the perils of the journey, By the end of the film they have conquered the situation, fulfilled their needs, and resolved both their physical and personality conflicts.”
Edward Dmytryk
On Screen Writing
page 20

Just as I finished this post I learned that The African Queen (Commemorative Box Set) will be released for the first time on Blue-Ray March 23, 2010. The 1951 film directed by John Huston and starring Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart is a classic of classics, and an excellent film/script to study from a filmmaking and screenwriting perspective.

Scott W. Smith

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Screenwriter Millard Kaufman (1917-2009)

Screenwriter Millard Kaufman who died last week at age 92 was twice nominated for an Oscar for writing Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) and Take the High Ground (1953), but he may be more remembered for writing Raintree County which starred Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift. And for those unfamilar with those movies or Kaufman at all will undoubtedly be familiar with a character he helped co-create, Mr. Magoo.

Mr. Magoo first came on the scene in 1949 in the cartoon Ragtime Bear. The near-sighted Mr. Magoo had many incarnations over the years and two short films featuring him won Oscars, Magoo’s Puddle Jumper and When Magoo Flew. Of course, a large part of Mr. Magoo’s charm was the unusual delivery by actor Jim Backus who was the voice of Mr. Magoo. 

Kaufman was born and raised in Baltimore and didn’t set out to be a screenwriter until after World War II where he was a Marine seeing action in Guadalcanal, Guam and Okinawa.  And though Kaufman had a great run from ’49 to ’57 with Magoo, Liz, and Oscar (nominations) he continued to write into old age publishing his first novel Bowl of Cherries when he was 90.

“Years ago, I was working in Italy, and Charlie Chaplin and his family came from Switzerland. We were at a beach north of Rome, and it was a very foggy day and the beach was lousy. At about three o’clock it cleared up, and Chaplin said, ‘I’m going back to the hotel. Unless I write every day, I don’t feel I deserve my dinner.’ That made an impression on me.”
                                                                    Millard Kaufman
                                                                    First At Ninety by Rebcca Mead
                                                                    The New Yorker

Kaufman also wrote a book on screenwriting, Plots and Characters. A Screenwriter on Screenwriting.

 

Scott W. Smith

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