Ben Maddow

Ben Maddow (b. August 7, 1909, Passaic, New Jersey - d. October 9, 1992, Los Angeles, California) was a prolific screenwriter and documentarian from the 1930s through the 70s. Educated at Columbia University, Maddow began his career working within the American documentary movement in the 30s.

In 1936 he co-founded the short-lived left-wing newsreel The World Today. Under the pseudonym of David Wolff, Maddow co-wrote the screenplay to the Paul Strand–Leo Hurwitz documentary landmark, Native Land (1942).

He earned his first feature screenplay credit with Framed (1947). Other screenplays include Clarence Brown's Intruder in the Dust (film) (1949, an adaptation of the William Faulkner novel), John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle (1950, for which he received an Academy Award nomination), God's Little Acre (1958, an adaptation of the Erskine Caldwell novel officially credited to Philip Yordan), and, again with Huston, an Edgar Award for Best Mystery Screenplay) and The Unforgiven (1960).

As a documentarian he directed and wrote such films as Storm of Strangers, The Stairs, and The Savage Eye (1959), which won the BAFTA Flaherty Documentary Award. Maddow made his solo feature directorial debut with the striking, offbeat feature An Affair of the Skin (1963), a well-acted story of several loves and friendships gone sour and marked by the rich characterisations which had distinguished his best screenplays.

His final screenplay was for the horror melodrama The Mephisto Waltz (1970).