The NAMES Above the Title

I was reminded (yet again) of the central importance of the screenwriter while reading the wonderful old Hollywood memoir Fay Wray and Robert Riskin by their daughter Virginia Riskin. (The unlikely marriage between the King Kong star and Mormon-raised Wray and the Jewish lefty playwright from New York flourished until his stroke and death in the 1950s.) Riskin wrote many of Frank Capra's greatest movies, including It Happened One Night, Meet John Doe and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. The writer was known for his witty, sparkling dialogue, his feisty female characters, and his socially-conscious, Depression-era themes. (Check out John Doe if you need a refresher course during this Trump time about fascistic demagogues and how long they've been with us.)

But Capra hogged the credit for his films. (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington was written by Riskin's friend Sidney Buchman -- a member of the Communist Party and later a victim of the Hollywood blacklist. And It's a Wonderful Life was written by a string of writers, including the lefties Dalton Trumbo, Clifford Odets and Dorothy Parker.) Capra was a hugely talented director. But he was a political conservative and a terrible man. And his great films were crafted by writers who believed in the "Common Man" -- like Franklin Roosevelt did.

I just finished writing a a screenplay for a major Hollywood director. If the movie gets made, the screenplay will credit my name first, as it should. I didn't have to fight to get primary screenwriting credit -- the director offered. He's a writer himself and he knows that great movies begin with great scripts.

But Frank Capra tried to puff himself up. He only made himself smaller in the process.

Robert Riskin (left) and Frank Capra