Ben Hecht - Notable Screenplays

Notable Screenplays

Underworld (1927)

Underworld was the story of a petty hoodlum with political pull; it was based on a real Chicago gangster Hecht knew. "The film began the gangster film genre that became popular in the early 1930s." And along with Scarface, "were the alpha and omega of Hollywood's first gangster craze." In it, he "manages both to congratulate journalism for its importance and to chastise it for its chicanery, by underlining the newspapers' complicity in promoting the underworld image."

"Like so many of his films, Underworld and Scarface are 'stories' that ace-reporter Hecht loved to cover, as much for the larger-than-life qualities of his headliners as for the enormity of their crimes. Love-hate ... fascination-revulsion ... exposé-glorification ... these are the polarities that make Hecht's best films deliciously ambiguous." "Hecht's introduction, which is nothing if not moody and Sandburgian, describes 'A great city in the dead of night - streets lonely, moon-flooded - buildings empty as the cliff-dwellings of a forgotten age."

Hecht was noted for confronting producers and directors when he wasn't satisfied with the way they used his scripts. For this film, at one point he demanded that its director, Josef von Sternberg, remove his name from the credits since Sternberg unilaterally changed one scene. Afterward, however, he relented and took credit for the film's story, which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay - the first year the awards were presented.

The Front Page (1931)

After contributing to the original stories for a number of films, he worked without credit on the first film version of his original 1928 play The Front Page. It was produced by Howard Hughes and directed by Lewis Milestone in 1931. James Harvey writes, "it is Hecht and MacArthur’s Chicago ... that counts most deeply in the imagination of Hollywood. And their play, the first of the great newspaper comedies, did more to define the tone and style, the look and the sound of Hollywood comedy than any other work of its time."

Of the original play, theater producer and writer Jed Harris writes, "...here is a play which reflects miraculously the real as well as the literary personalities of the playwrights. Every line of it glows with a demoniacal humor, sordid, insolent, and mischievous to the point of down right perversity, in which one instantly recognizes the heroic comic spirit of its authors... Both Hecht and MacArthur owe their literary origins to the newspapers of Chicago. Famous crime reporters, their talents were first cradled in the recounting of great exploits in arson, rape, murder, gang war, and municipal politics. Out of a welter of jail breaks, hangings, floods, and whore-house raidings, they have gathered the rich, savory characters who disport themselves on the stage to Times Square Theatre."

Scarface (1932)

After ushering in the beginning of the gangster films with Underworld, his next film became one of the best films of that genre. Scarface was directed by Howard Hawks, with "Hecht the wordsmith and Hawks the engineer...", who became "one of the few directors with whom Hecht enjoyed working." It starred Paul Muni playing the role of an Al Capone-like gangster. "Scarface's all-but-suffocating vitality is a kind of cinematic version of tabloid prose at its best."

The story of how Scarface came to be written represents Hecht's writing style in those days. Film historian Max Wilk interviewed Leyland Hayward, an independent literary agent, who, in 1931, managed to convince Hecht that a young oil tycoon in Texas named Howard Hughes wanted him to write the screenplay to his first book. Hayward wrote about that period:

"So I went back to Hughes, and told him I’d been able to persuade Hecht to do his script; I told him Ben’s terms, - $1,000 per day - and Howard didn’t blink an eye. He nodded, and said 'Okay-it’s a deal. But you tell Hecht I want a real tough shoot-‘em up script that'll knock the audience out of its seats, okay?'

"So Ben went to work,” added Hayward. Hayward was to receive 10% of Hecht’s fees as his commission. "He was a hell of a fast writer – sometimes too fast. I didn’t even know how fast he could go... At the end of the first day I went back to Ben’s house. There he was, typing away... I said 'Ben – please slow down.' Over the next few days, 'while watching the accumulated pages of Hecht’s script growing higher and higher, 'I couldn’t slow the guy down!' sighed Hayward, who only made his commission for each day Hecht worked.

"I came by his home the next day... 'I’ve got an idea. I’m going to finish this damn thing tomorrow,' Ben told me. 'Ben—for God’s sake!' I said. 'Can’t you slow down a little? Hughes isn’t interested in you setting some sort of a speed record for writing!'"

But it was as if young Hayward had set out to flag down an army tank. Nothing stopped Hecht. On the night of the ninth day, Hayward arrived with his daily payment from Hughes, to find Hecht lounging in a chair, enjoying a highball.

"Hecht waved at his stack of manuscript. 'Done', he announced. 'Finished the damn thing'.

"Nine thousand dollars – for the screenplay of Scarface? sighed Hayward. ... Hughes was tickled with Ben’s script; he showed it to Howard Hawks. Hawks loved it, and then they picked up this wonderful young actor from New York, Paul Muni, to play the lead. The picture went out and cleaned up – made a bundle for Hughes… And if old Ben really outsmarted himself on that one... he didn’t care. He was on to something else. Ben was always on to something else."

Twentieth Century (1934)

For his next film, Twentieth Century, he wrote the screenplay in collaboration with Charles MacArthur as an adaptation of their original play from 1932. It was directed by Howard Hawks, and starred John Barrymore and Carole Lombard. It's a comedy about a Broadway producer who was losing his leading lady to the seductive Hollywood film industry, and will do anything to win her back.

It's "a fast-paced, witty film that contains the rapid-fire dialogue for which Hecht became famous. It is one of the first, and finest, of the screwball comedies of the 1930s."

Viva Villa! (1934)

This was the story about Mexican rebel, Pancho Villa, who takes to the hills after killing an overseer in revenge for his father's death. It was directed by Howard Hawks and starred Wallace Beery. Although the movie took liberties with the facts, it became a great success, and Hecht received an Academy Award nomination for his screenplay adaptation.

In a letter from the film's producer, David O. Selznick, to studio head Louis B. Mayer, Selznick discussed the need for a script rewrite:

"I have arranged with Ben Hecht to do the final script of Viva Villa!... On the quality we are protected not merely by Hecht's ability, but by the clause that the work must be to my satisfaction. It may seem like a short space of time for a man to do a complete new script, but Hecht is famous for his speed, and did the entire job on Scarface in eleven days."

Barbary Coast (1935)

Barbary Coast was also directed by Howard Hawks and starred Miriam Hopkins and Edward G. Robinson. The film takes place in late nineteenth century San Francisco with Hopkins playing the role of a dance-hall girl up against Robinson, who runs the town.

Nothing Sacred (1938)

Nothing Sacred became Hecht's first project after he and Charles MacArthur closed their failing film company, which they started in 1934. The film was adapted from his play, Hazel Flagg, and starred Carole Lombard as a small-town girl diagnosed with radium poisoning. "A reporter makes her case a cause for his newspaper. The story "allowed Hecht to work with one of his favorite themes, hypocrisy (especially among journalists); he took the themes of lying, decadence, and immorality and made them into a sophisticated screwball comedy."

Gunga Din (1939)

Gunga Din was co-written with Charles MacArthur and became "one of Hollywood's greatest action-adventure films." The screenplay was based on the poem by Rudyard Kipling, directed by George Stevens and starred Cary Grant and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.. In 1999 the film was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress.

Wuthering Heights (1939)

After working without credit on Gone with the Wind in 1939, he co-wrote (with Charles MacArthur) an adaptation of Emily Bronte's novel, Wuthering Heights. Although the screenplay was cut off at the story's half-way point, as it was considered too long, it was nominated for an Academy Award.

It's a Wonderful World (1939)

Movie historian James Harvey notes that in some respects It’s a Wonderful World is an even more accomplished film –the comedy counterpart to the supremely assured and high-spirited work Van Dyke had accomplished with San Francisco (1936). "Ben Hecht, another speed specialist, wrote the screenplay (from a story by Hecht and Herman Mankiewicz); it’s in his Front Page vein, with admixtures of It Happened One Night and Bringing Up Baby, as well as surprising adumbrations of the nineteen-forties private-eye film.

Angels Over Broadway (1940)

Angels Over Broadway was one of only two movies he directed, produced, and wrote originally for film, the other was Specter of the Rose (1946). Angels Over Broadway was considered "one of his most personal works." It starred Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Rita Hayworth and was nominated for an Academy Award. "The dialogue as well as the script's descriptive passages are chock full of brittle Hechtian similes that sparkle on the page, but turn leaden when delivered. Hecht was an endlessly articulate raconteur. In his novels and memoirs, articulation dominates..."

In the script, he experimented with "reflections of life - as if a ghost were drifiting in the rain." These "reflections" of sidewalks, bridges, glass, and neon make the film a visual prototype of the nineteen-forties film noir.

Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945) and Notorious (1946)

For Alfred Hitchcock he wrote a number of his best psycho-dramas and received his final Academy Award nomination for Notorious. He also worked without credit on Hitchcock's next two films, The Paradine Case (1947) and Rope (1948). Spellbound, the first time Hitchcock worked with Hecht, is notable for being one of the first Hollywood movies to deal seriously with the subject of psychoanalysis.

Monkey Business (1952)

In 1947 he teamed up with Charles Lederer and co-wrote three films: Her Husband's Affairs, Kiss of Death, and Ride the Pink Horse. In 1950 he co-wrote The Thing without credit. They again teamed up to write the 1952 screwball comedy, Monkey Business, which became Hecht's last true success as a screenwriter.