Leonard Spigelgass
Birth : 1908-11-26, Brooklyn, New York, USA
Death : 1985-02-15
History
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Leonard Spigelgass (November 26, 1908 – February 15, 1985) was an American film producer and screenwriter.
Born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, Spigelgass got his start collaborating on the script for Erich Von Stroheim's Hello, Sister! (1933). Additional screen credits include The Big Street (1942), I Was a Male War Bride (1949), Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957), Silk Stockings (1957), Pepe (1960), and Gypsy (1962).
Spigelgass signed on as a staff writer for Universal Studios in 1938 and was a colonel in the US Army Signal Corps.
Spigelgass also was a playwright and penned such dramas as Dear Me the Sky Is Falling, The Wrong Way Light Bulb, and A Remedy for Winter, the comedy A Majority of One, and the book for the musical Look to the Lilies. He also wrote plays for such television series as Playhouse 90 and the novels Million Dollar Baby and Fed to the Teeth.
During his career, Spigelgass wrote the scripts for eleven Academy Award-winning films. He himself was nominated in 1950 for the story for Mystery Street and garnered three Writers Guild of America nominations over the course of his career.
Spigelgass' sister, Beulah Roth, was a political speechwriter for Franklin Roosevelt and Adlai Stevenson, and was married to photographer Sanford H. Roth, a close friend of James Dean. Spigelgass died in Los Angeles, California.
Himself
The Man You Loved To Hate blends revealing interviews, rare photographs, and clips from von Stroheim's legendary and lesser-known works to create a fascinating tribute to one of American cinema's most complex artists.
Writer
Writer
Long-nosed Cyrano de Begerac helps an army officer woo Roxanne, the woman he loves in this animated version of Edmond Rostand's play.
Writer
Mama Rose lives to see her daughter June succeed on Broadway by way of vaudeville. When June marries and leaves, Rose turns her hope and attention to her elder, less obviously talented, daughter Louise. However, having her headlining as a stripper at Minsky's Burlesque is not what she initially has in mind.
Screenplay
A gentle love story about a Japanese businessman and widower, and a Brooklyn widow. But before a happy ending can ensue, they must learn again the lessons of tolerance, kindness and forgiveness.
Theatre Play
A gentle love story about a Japanese businessman and widower, and a Brooklyn widow. But before a happy ending can ensue, they must learn again the lessons of tolerance, kindness and forgiveness.
Story
Mario "Cantinflas" Moreno is a hired hand, Pepe, employed on a ranch. A boozing Hollywood director buys a white stallion that belongs to Pepe's boss. Pepe, determined to get the horse back (as he considers it his family), decides to take off to Hollywood. There he meets film stars including Jimmy Durante, Frank Sinatra, Zsa Zsa Gabór, Bing Crosby, Maurice Chevalier and Jack Lemmon in drag as Daphne from Some Like It Hot. He is also surprised by things that were new in America at the time, such as automatic swinging doors. When he finally reaches the man who bought the horse, he is led to believe there is no hope of getting it back. However, the last scene shows both him and the stallion back at the ranch with several foals.
Screenplay
After three bumbling Soviet agents fail in their mission to retrieve a straying Soviet composer from Paris, the beautiful, ultra-serious Ninotchka is sent to complete their mission and to retrieve them. She starts out condemning the decadent West, but gradually falls under its spell—with the help of an American movie producer. A remake of Ninotchka (1939).
Writer
In this musical-comedy, Dean Martin plays an American hotel mogul who becomes smitten with a young Italian woman (Anna Maria Alberghetti) when buying a hotel in Rome. To marry this gal, he has to get her three older sisters married off.
Screenplay
Biographic movie about the American composer Sigmund Romberg.
Screenplay
A stuffy young lawyer's outlook on life drastically changes when he meets a perky health food enthusiast and her wacky family.
Writer
After their orphanage burns down, a group of children are being transported west by train to Manitoba. All of them are available for adoption and at a stop at Scourie, Ontario little Patsy meets Victoria McChesney. Victoria and her husband Patrick have no children and she immediately decides to adopt the girl. The only condition imposed on them is that as Patsy has been baptized a Roman Catholic the Protestant McChesneys agree to raise her as a Catholic. Patsy is a well-behaved little girl whose only real problem is a school bully, also one of the orphans, who spreads stories that she set their orphanage on fire.
Screenplay
A famous opera singer falls for his sergeant's sister at boot camp.
Writer
A former housemaid (Garson) now works as a confidence trickster, but her plans for a big job in California go awry.
Screenplay
Berkeley university professor adjusts (using alcohol) to tragic fire deaths of wife & son.
Story
When a young woman's skeletal remains turn up on a Massachusetts beach, Barnstable cop Peter Moralas teams with Boston police and uses forensics, with the help of a Harvard professor, to determine the woman's identity, how she died, and who killed her.
Screenplay
After marrying an American lieutenant with whom he was assigned to work in post-war Germany, a French captain attempts to find a way to accompany her back to the States under the terms of the War Bride Act.
Screenplay
In the late 19th century, on board a ship sailing from Jamaica to England, Olivia Harwood, a recent widow, takes on the task of caring for several malaria patients, including Mark Bellis, a mysterious and tormented painter.
Writer
A couple celebrate their tenth anniversary by quarreling their way to divorce court.
Original Story
Bumbling reporter Robert Kittredge has been fired after bungling his latest assignment. His career isn't all he's botched up: his girlfriend Chris is tired of waiting for him to marry her. When he gets a hot tip on some Nazi spies operating in Washington, D.C., he convinces Chris to help him break the story so he can get his job back. The pair soon find themselves in several awkward predicaments as they track the criminals down in a night club, a burlesque show, and face a final showdown at a beauty salon.
Screenplay
Joan Lyons and her friend Patricia Drew are autograph hounds spending most of their day bumping into, and having tea, with the likes of Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon. Based on misinformation from a meddling old-maid governess, Miss Featherstone, Joan also devotes some time to working on the no-problem marriage of her parents to the extent of hiring Dr. Hercules, the strong man from a side show to pay attention to her mother in order to make her father jealous, despite the good advice received from Walter Pidgeon.
Producer
Meek busboy Little Pinks is in love with an extremely selfish showgirl who despises and uses him.
Screenplay
Meek busboy Little Pinks is in love with an extremely selfish showgirl who despises and uses him.
Screenplay
Aloysius 'Butch' Grogan leads a life of criminal activities motivated to provide for a widow and her child. He's on lookout for a gang of safe crackers when he has to also look after the baby of one of the criminals.
Story
Broadway gamblers stumble across a plan by Nazi saboteurs to blow up an American battleship.
Screenplay
Broadway gamblers stumble across a plan by Nazi saboteurs to blow up an American battleship.
Screenplay
A crook with big feet buys shoes that are too tight from a salesman, then decides to use the store as a front for illegal gambling.
Story
A sudden windfall has unexpected consequences on a working class girl during the Great Depression.
Associate Producer
Jim "Lucky" Moore, an insurance salesman, comes up with a novel policy for his friend, Steve: a 'love insurance policy', that will pay out $1-million if Steve does not marry his fiancée, Cynthia. The upcoming marriage is jeopardized by Steve's ex-girlfriend, Mickey, and Cynthia's disapproving Aunt Kitty. The policy is underwritten by a nightclub owner, Roscoe, who sends two enforcers - Abbott and Costello - to ensure that the wedding occurs as planned.
Screenplay
A girl decides to consult her natural father, whom she's never seen, for advice on her mixed-up love life.
Story
Jimmy Hanley learns that his former dancing partner has been killed, leaving a baby boy Sandy, so he takes the baby to live with him and his roommate Boris Bebenko. Theatre manager Allen Rand threatens to fire Jimmy for neglecting his work, but Jimmy's girlfriend Diana squares things by going to dinner with Rand over Jimmy's objections. Sandy catches measles and the quarantine causes Jimmy and Boris to miss a big audition.
Writer
Glamorous and efficient Helen Murphy runs a service that will provide any type of assistance to wealthy customers, but what she's really looking for is a man who can take care of himself.
Writer
An aging actor, trying to make a comeback on Broadway, is surprised when his estranged daughter shows up. It seems that she is an actress and is also trying to make it on Broadway. He tries to re-establish his relationship with her while also trying to hide the fact that she is his daughter from the press.
Associate Producer
When King's beloved horse dies, Princess tries to purchase a new nag, and that's how she inadvertently gets her hands on a "stolen" race horse. Our heroine nearly ends up with a lengthy prison term before the story is resolved during the climactic Big Race.
Screenplay
A power-broker ward-heeler, Bill Grimes, wields more power than the elected politicians and has no problem in getting matters-of-the-city handled in which ever way is best for his needs. But when he tries to fix his adored kid brother's place on the school football team, he meets his match in school-teacher Anne Barry.
Adaptation
A young lady named Hilda who works as a servant for the wealthy Clarksons, sheep farmers, and dreams of being a great singer. An upcoming visit by Sir Julian, a famous composer arriving from London, drives jealous Mrs. Clarkson (an interfering biddy who fancies she can sing - but can't) to send away Hilda, so he doesn't hear Hilda has a good voice. Meanwhile, an infamous outlaw named Stingaree has just arrived in town and kidnaps Sir Julian, then poses as him at the Clarksons, where he meets Hilda a few hours before she is to leave.
Scenario Writer
Peggy and her friend Millie are strolling down Broadway while Jimmy and Mac are trolling Broadway, and the four get together...
Writer
It's not so much that Eloise is a mischievous child, but the darnedest things do happen when she's around.
