Myles Connolly
Birth : 1897-10-07, Roxbury, Massachusetts, USA
Death : 1964-07-15
History
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Myles Connolly (October 7, 1897 – July 15, 1964) was an author and a Hollywood screenwriter/producer.
Myles Connolly was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts. After graduating from Boston College in 1918 and serving one year in the U.S. Navy during World War I, Connolly worked as a newspaper reporter with The Boston Post. As a reporter, he was able to lay claim to being one of the few journalists ever granted the opportunity to interview President Calvin Coolidge. Both he and his Nashville socialite wife, Agnes (née Bevington), were devout Roman Catholics and each had a sister who was a nun.
Joseph P. Kennedy convinced Connolly to leave Boston to work at the Hollywood movie studio that Kennedy financed, Film Booking Office (FBO), which eventually became RKO. At RKO, Connolly served as associate producer for that studio's earliest Wheeler & Woolsey vehicles. In 1933, his work as a screenwriter-producer of dramatic films was introduced with The Right to Romance.
Connolly eventually befriended director Frank Capra at a cast and crew party for Ladies of Leisure (1930) after actor Alan Roscoe invited Connolly to tag along with him to the event.
Though Connolly chided Capra for turning out frivolities when he thought Capra could produce thought provoking pieces, Connolly did not necessarily follow his own advice. He produced numerous pieces of escapist entertainment such as the Tarzan pictures of the 1940s.
Myles Connolly helped write and produce over forty films. Screenwriting credits include The Right to Romance (1933), Palm Springs (1936), Youth Takes a Fling (1938), and the Charles Vidor film Hans Christian Andersen (1952). Connolly co-wrote the Ann Sothern-Lew Ayres film Maisie Was a Lady (1941) with Elizabeth Reinhardt. In addition, he worked with Sam Fuller to create It Happened in Hollywood. While Myles Connolly collaborated with Frank Capra on State of the Union (1948) and Here Comes the Groom (1951), he was also an uncredited contributor to the Capra films Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and It's a Wonderful Life. His last screenwriting credit was MGM's musical biography of Hans Christian Andersen with Danny Kaye (1952).
Myles Connolly was nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplay for Music for Millions (1944). 1n 1951, he shared the nomination for a Hugo award (Best Dramatic Presentation) for the screenplay of Harvey. In 1952, he was nominated for the Best Written American Musical award by the Writer's Guild of America (WGA) for Here Comes the Groom.
Story
A small-town shoemaker with a knack for spinning yarns, Hans encounters happiness and heartbreak on his road to becoming a full-fledged writer.
Writer
In this Cold War drama, a woman suspects her son is a Communist spy.
Screenplay
Foreign correspondent Pete Garvey has 5 days to win back his former fiancée, or he'll lose the orphans he adopted.
Screenplay
The story of Elwood P. Dowd who makes friends with a spirit taking the form of a human-sized rabbit named Harvey that only he sees (and a few privileged others on occasion also.) After his sister tries to commit him to a mental institution, a comedy of errors ensues. Elwood and Harvey become the catalysts for a family mending its wounds and for romance blossoming in unexpected places.
Screenplay
An industrialist is urged to run for President, but this requires uncomfortable compromises on both political and marital levels.
Writer
A young dance student accidentally cripples a teacher she doesn't like.
Screenplay
Light bio-pic of American Broadway pioneer Jerome Kern, featuring renditions of the famous songs from his musical plays by contemporary stage artists, including a condensed production of his most famous: 'Showboat'.
Screenplay
Abigail Chandler has written her stuffy Boston relatives that she's a successful opera singer in New York. In reality, she works at a burlesque house and is billed as High-C Susie. When her sister Martha comes for a visit, Abigail tries to hide the truth from her.
Story
The title character, played by Edmund Lowe, is a famous magician who fakes his own death -- then reappears as his nonexistent twin brother. It's all part of Gregory's master scheme to pin his "murder" on innocent John Randall (Don Douglas), the husband of Ellen (Jean Rogers), the woman Gregory loves.
Writer
Six-year-old "Mike" goes to live with her pregnant older sister, Babs, who plays string bass in José Iturbi's orchestra. And the orchestra is rapidly turning completely female, what with the draft. As the orchestra travels around the country, Babs' fellow orchestra members intercept and hide her War Office telegram to protect the baby.
Screenplay
A 20-year-old stage actress takes on her most challenging role when she pretends to be her own mother's 12-year-old daughter. Comedy.
Story
Circus owner Buck Rand kidnaps Boy to perform in his show. He forces a pilot to fly him, Boy and his animal trainer out of the jungle. Tarzan and Jane follow them to New York.
Screenplay
Circus owner Buck Rand kidnaps Boy to perform in his show. He forces a pilot to fly him, Boy and his animal trainer out of the jungle. Tarzan and Jane follow them to New York.
Screenplay
A scientific expedition happens to discover that gold exists on Tarzan's escarpment. The villainous Medford and Vandermeer kidnap Jane and Boy to extort from Tarzan the location of the gold.
Story
Showgirl Maisie Ravier finds herself once again out of work. She meets a wealthy playboy who hires her to be his family's new maid. Maisie soon finds herself trying to mend the family's many problems.
Writer
Nightclub owner Steve Larwitt (George Raft) sees his empire of investments collapse as he faces tax evasion charges and attacks by rivals. Believing Steve will be safer in prison for one year, his wife, Brenda (Joan Bennett), testifies against him on advice from his lawyer, Slant Kolma (Lloyd Nolan), who is in love with her. After Steve receives 10 years in Alcatraz, Brenda moves to be near him and avoids advances of airplane builder Tim Nolan (Walter Pidgeon), who knows nothing about her past.
Screenplay
McCrea plays Joe Meadows, whose only ambition as a Kansas farm boy was a life at sea. He moves to New York to try to get a job as a sailor, finds it more difficult than he thought, and meets Helen Brown, who falls for him and uses her feminine wiles to try to prevent him leaving.
Screenplay
A merciless district attorney prosecutes a case that mirrors his own life.
Producer
A spoiled playboy is forced to leave town to avoid the press, which latches on to his statement, while tipsy, that he will give away his fortune. He disguises himself and gets a job as a laborer at a day-care center. He finds himself attracted to the owner, a pretty young girl determined to make life better for her charges, and he soon begins to question his own priorities.
Story
A silent Western star has trouble adjusting to the coming of sound.
Story
A gambler in need of cash plots a romance between his daughter and a wealthy Englishman. The daughter, however, has plans of her own.
Associate Producer
A man escapes from jail in France to free his daughter from her mother's hold.
Associate Producer
To divorce, or not to divorce. That is the question pondered by a married couple of 10 years who miss their burning desire for each other (Clive Brook and Diana Wynyard) in this 1934 film directed by Worthington Miner.
Associate Producer
Against her better judgment, a dedicated and hard-working plastic surgeon (Ann Harding) finds herself falling in love with a playboy (Robert Young). Drama.
Story
Joe and Lucky travel around New England painting barns in exchange for an advertisement on one side. The meet Madge, who is cruelly treated by a her father who plans to marry her off to someone she despises.
Associate Producer
A sportswriter jilted by his globe-trotting girlfriend marries a woman jilted by her boyfriend.
Associate Producer
Two soldiers go absent without leave in Paris during World War I.
Associate Producer
Head railroad man Dan is as ugly as he is honorable. When he spots a drifter who'd hopped a freight held up by a landslide, Dan offers the man a job; then he finds the man was a railroader, too, and takes him under his wing. Engaged to Mary, Dan doesn't notice the growing attraction between his protégé and his intended but focuses instead on running the railroad.
Associate Producer
A young songwriter struggles to make good in New York.
