Lenore J. Coffee

Birth : 1896-07-13, San Francisco, California, USA

Death : 1984-07-02

History

From Wikipedia Lenore Jackson Coffee (13 July 1896, San Francisco – 2 July 1984, Woodland Hills, California) was an American screenwriter, playwright and novelist. Coffee began her career when she answered an ad requesting a screen story for the actress Clara Kimball Young and was awarded a one-year contract at $50 a week. She was twice nominated for an Academy Award for best Adapted Screenplay. The first time was for Street of Chance in 1929/30, adapted from the story by Oliver H. P. Garrett, in collaboration with Howard Estabrook. The second time was with Julius J. Epstein in 1938 for Four Daughters, based on Fannie Hurst's novel Sister Act. Coffee was married to writer and director William J. Cowen. One of her ancestors was U.S. General John Coffee, Chief of Staff to Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans in 1814.

Movies

Cash McCall
Screenplay
Wealthy hotshot Cash McCall makes his money by purchasing unsuccessful businesses, whipping them into shape and then selling them for a huge profit. When Cash comes across Austen Plastics, a small manufacturing corporation on its last legs, he realizes it might be a gamble to buy the company. But when Cash finds out that the company's owner is the father of his old flame, Lory, he buys the business just to get a second chance at romance.
Another Time, Another Place
Novel
In England during WWII, an American news correspondent’s affair with a married British correspondent ends tragically when he is killed in action. Fearing a nervous breakdown as a result of his death, she travels to Cornwall to mourn with his family without any intention of revealing her relationship with him.
Footsteps in the Fog
Screenplay
A Victorian-era murder mystery about a parlour maid that discovers that her employer may have killed his first wife.
The End of the Affair
Screenplay
During the 1940s, Maurice Bendrix, a writer recently discharged from the armed service, falls in love with Sarah Miles, whom he interviews for a book. Sarah is married, but she and Maurice eventually give in to their mutual attraction, leading to an affair that lasts several months. Maurice's jealousy, along with the bombing of London by the Germans, seemingly leads to the end of their relationship. However, the reasons are later revealed to be more complex.
Young at Heart
Screenplay
The lives and romances of three sisters in a musical family; the youngest daughter's life is complicated by the subsequent arrival of a charming composer and a cynical music arranger.
Sudden Fear
Screenplay
Actor Lester Blaine has all but landed the lead in Myra Hudson's new play when Myra vetoes him because, to her, he doesn't look like a romantic leading man. On a train from New York to San Francisco, Blaine sets out to prove Myra wrong...by romancing her. Is he sincere, or does he have a dark ulterior motive?
Lightning Strikes Twice
Screenplay
Sent to a dude ranch in the west to recover her health, a New York actress falls in love with a ranch owner recently acquitted of the murder of his wife.
Beyond the Forest
Screenplay
Rosa, the self-serving wife of a small-town doctor, gets a better offer when a wealthy big-city man insists she get a divorce and marry him instead. Soon she demonstrates she is capable of rather deplorable acts -- including murder.
The Guilt of Janet Ames
Story
A hard-drinking reporter tries to help the embittered widow of the soldier who had saved his life during the war.
Tomorrow Is Forever
Screenplay
In 1918, Elizabeth MacDonald learns that her husband, John Andrew, has been killed in the war. Elizabeth bears John's son and eventually marries her kindly boss. Unknown to her, John has survived but is horribly disfigured and remains in Europe. Years later, on the eve of World War II, Elizabeth refuses to agree to her son's request to enlist and is stunned when an eerily familiar stranger named Kessler arrives from abroad and becomes involved.
Till We Meet Again
Screenplay
An American pilot is shot down over Nazi-occupied France and is taken to a convent by the Resistance. The young novice nun Clothilde is interested in him and is willing to help him escape to England, but the pilot must continue his mission undercover by posing as the husband of a different woman.
Marriage Is a Private Affair
Screenplay
Theo has had many boyfriends who wanted to marry her. Since her mother, Mrs. Selworth, has been married many times, Theo is unsure of commitment. Without much thought, she finally accepts the proposal of Air Corps Lieutenant Tom West. After the honeymoon, Tom's father dies and Tom goes into the defense industry. When Theo has a baby, she hates the idea of being matronly and wants to be the old party girl. The problem is that her husband is working constantly. She looks to her friends, who are having their own problems, and to her old flame Captain Lancing. To decide on what she wants to do with her baby and her life, Theo must grow up.
Old Acquaintance
Screenplay
Two writers, friends since childhood, fight over their books and lives.
The Gay Sisters
Screenplay
The eldest (Barbara Stanwyck) of three sisters protects their Fifth Avenue mansion from a developer (George Brent) she once married.
The Great Lie
Screenplay
After a newlywed's husband apparently dies in a plane crash, she discovers that her rival for his affections is pregnant with his child.
The Way of All Flesh
Screenplay
Paul Kriza is a cashier of a bank in a small town, and the happy husband of Anna and the father of four children. He is sent to New York to deliver some securities for the bank. There, he is tagged as easy-pickings by a con-game gang and Mary Brown, gang accomplice, proves he is. Waking up in the morning he discovers he has been robbed of the securities and, when he confronts the gang, he is hit on the head and taken out to be left on a railroad track. He comes to, struggles with the henchman and the man is killed when a train comes roaring by. Paul escapes but his watch is found and he is reported as the dead man. But he can't go home again.
My Son, My Son!
Screenplay
A self-made success is determined to give his son the lavish upbringing he himself was denied. Not surprisingly, the son grows up to be spoiled rotten, causing grief and pain to everyone who loves him.
Stronger Than Desire
Additional Writing
An attorney handling a murder case in unaware his own wife played a crucial role in the killing.
Good Girls Go to Paris
Story
Jenny Swanson, a waitress on a college campus, is dying to visit Paris. Thanks to English professor Ronald Brooke, she manages to make her dream come true. Besides seeing the sights in the French capital she makes friends with a wealthy family there, the Brands.
Four Daughters
Screenplay
Musician Adam Lemp and his four equally musical daughters, Emma, Ann, Kay, and Thea, live happily together. Each daughter has an upstanding young man for whom she cares. However, the arrival of a cynical, slovenly young composer named Mickey Borden turns the household upside-down, and romantic and tragic complications ensue.
White Banners
Screenplay
A homeless woman named Hannah drifts into the lives of the kindly Ward family, in a small Indiana town in 1919. Hannah makes herself useful as a cook and housekeeper and stays with the Wards... but her real interest is in meeting their neighbor, teenager Peter Trimble. It turns out that Peter is the son she bore out of wedlock and gave up for adoption, and now Hannah has returned to town to see what sort of young man her son has become.
Suzy
Screenplay
A French air ace discovers that his showgirl wife's first husband is still alive.
Age of Indiscretion
Original Story
A book publisher finds his business floundering, which prompts his socially ambitious wife to desert him for a society millionaire, leaving him with their young son. The publisher's fortunes improve dramatically, however, when a best-selling romance novelist decides to publish her new book with his firm. In the meantime, his ex-wife has married the millionaire, and she and her new mother-in-law come up with a plan to sue her ex-husband for custody of the boy.
Vanessa: Her Love Story
Screenplay
The Victorian wife of a mad baron waits years for a British soldier sent to Egypt.
Vanessa: Her Love Story
Adaptation
The Victorian wife of a mad baron waits years for a British soldier sent to Egypt.
Evelyn Prentice
Screenplay
A criminal lawyer's wife faces blackmail when she has an affair.
Such Women Are Dangerous
Additional Dialogue
An aspiring young writer becomes infatuated with a successful romance novelist, who realizes his life as a philandering Lothario is suddenly threatened.
All Men Are Enemies
Screenplay
A British aristocrat falls in love with an Austrian woman before they are separated with the outbreak of World War I.
Four Frightened People
Screenplay
Malaya tropical island romantic love triangle adventure thriller, about a cruise ship where Bubonic plague breaks out. Four people are able to leave the ship in a tiny boat and make it to a desert island, where many adventures ensue and, of course, the two men fight over the beautiful young schoolteacher who is with them.
Torch Singer
Screenplay
When she can't support her illegitimate child, an abandoned young woman puts her up for adoption and pursues a career as a torch singer. Years later, she then searches for the child she gave up.
Downstairs
Screenplay
In the Austrian manor of Baron and Baroness von Burgen, the relationship between the upstairs aristocracy and the downstairs staff is quite positive. The servants seem to enjoy their time together, and some even fall in love, as head butler Albert and maid Anna have done. But when lecherous new chauffeur Karl Schneider enters the house, affairs and blackmail follow, and the harmony of the home is slowly destroyed.
Night Court
Writer
A corrupt night court judge tears an innocent young family apart in his efforts to elude a special prosecutor.
Arsène Lupin
Dialogue
A charming and very daring thief known as Arsene Lupin is terrorizing the wealthy of Paris, he even goes so far as to threaten the Mona Lisa. But the police, led by the great Guerchard, think they know Arsene Lupin's identity, and they have a secret weapon to catch him.
Possessed
Screenplay
Marian is a factory worker determined to leave the assembly line behind and move up in the world.
Honor of the Family
Writer
Intrigue and greed come between an immoral woman and the man who loves her. This film is believed lost.
The Squaw Man
Screenplay
Jim Wyngate, an English aristocrat, comes to the American West under a cloud of suspicion for embezzlement actually committed by his cousin Lord Henry. In Wyoming, Wyngate runs afoul of cattle rustler Cash Hawkins by rescuing the Indian girl Naturich from Hawkins. Wyngate marries Naturich, but then learns that his cousin Lord Henry has been killed and has cleared his name before dying. As Wyngate has long loved Lady Diana, Lord Henry's wife, he is perplexed at his situation. But fate takes a hand and resolves matters as Wyngate could not have predicted.
Mothers Cry
Adaptation
Having raised four children alone, widow Mary Williams still manages to love her eldest son, vicious and sadistic Danny Williams, who has led a life of crime and now returns to inflict his insane behavior on the family household.
Street of Chance
Writer
'Natural' Davis (William Powell) is a respected gambler who follows a ruthless code of honor with those who cheat against him. His wife, Alma (Kay Francis), wants to divorce him because of his addiction and lifestyle, but they agree on a reconciliation and second honeymoon together and 'Natural' promises to give up gambling. However, his plans change when his brother, 'Babe' (Regis Toomey), arrives in town looking to score big, and 'Natural' has to devise a plan quickly to put him off gambling forever.
The Bishop Murder Case
Writer
The murders start with the body of Robin. He is found with a arrow through the heart, but Vance deduces that the body was placed and not found where he was killed. The note found dealing with the murder was part of a nursery rhyme and signed by 'Bishop'. The only witness may have been Mrs. Drukker and Adolph, but they are not talking. As the murders progress, each one is accompanied by a nursery rhyme. It is up to Philo Vance to unravel the clues and unmask the identity of the murderer 'Bishop'.
Desert Nights
Writer
A con man with his beautiful accomplice and a hostage steals a half million dollars worth of diamonds but finds they're all lost in the desert without water.
Chicago
Screenplay
Based on a true story, two-timing boozing wife Roxie Hart kills her lover in cold blood after he leaves her, and finagles her way out being indicted. The basis for Kander/Ebb's 1975 Broadway musical of the same name and its Oscar-winning 2002 film adaptation.
The Angel of Broadway
Screenplay
Babe Scott, a cabaret dancer who is constantly searching for sensational material to shock her customers, conceives of burlesquing a Salvation Army girl and attends mission meetings on the East Side for atmosphere. There she meets Jerry Wilson, an honest truckdriver and friend of the Army captain. Although the act is a success, Babe is disillusioned to find Lonnie, a fellow worker who has been romancing her, stealing her money and making overtures to Big Bertha, the hard-boiled club hostess.
Lonesome Ladies
Story
Released on July 3, 1927
The Night of Love
Screenplay
Montero, son of a Gypsy leader, is about to take a bride according to primitive ritual, when the Duke de la Garda demands his right as feudal lord--to take the bride to his castle for a night. Rather than accede to the duke's advances, the girl chooses death by her own hand. Montero swears vengeance.....
For Alimony Only
Writer
A stormy marriage of 6 months between Narcissa and Peter Williams ends in a bitter quarrel, and to gain his freedom Peter offers her more alimony than he can afford. Then he meets Mary Martin, who restores his faith in marriage. With business reverses, Peter falls behind in his alimony payments and neglects his new wife. Narcissa, however, manages to support Bertie Waring, a young sofa-hound; but she protests the delayed alimony and Mary is forced to take a job with an interior decorating establishment. Peter goes to Narcissa to appeal to her generosity, at the moment when Mary (unaware of Narcissa's identity as her husband's first wife) is working in Narcissa's apartment; seeing them together, Mary leaves in humiliation and accepts an invitation from Bertie....
The Volga Boatman
Screenplay
During the Russian Revolution Princess Vera, though betrothed to Prince Dimitri, is attracted to the peasant Feodor.
East Lynne
Writer
This most famous of Victorian melodramas was more than half a century old, and had already been filmed several times when it came to the screen once again in 1925. Director Emmett J. Flynn had an all-star cast and kept close to the original story.
Hell's Highroad
Writer
Judy Nichols (Leatrice Joy), a poor girl from Chicago, has decided she cannot marry without money. Her sweetheart, Ronald McKane, a struggling civil engineer (Edmund Burns), is encouraging her to join him in New York, but she only goes when she is bequeathed an inheritance. Unfortunately, the amount adds up to less than ten dollars a week. When she meets banker Sanford Gillespie (Robert Edeson), she convinces him to help McKane out financially. Once McKane has become a success, Judy marries him, but then he becomes interested in another woman. Judy seeks revenge and asks Gillespie to ruin her estranged husband, offering him anything he wants in return.
The Swan
Writer
The Swan (1925) is a silent film produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film is based on Melville Baker's 1923 Broadway play adaptation, The Swan, of Ferenc Molnar's play A Hattyu Vigjatek Harom Felvonasbarn. This film was directed by Dimitri Buchowetzki, a recent Russian immigrant working for Famous Players-Lasky. Buchowetzki had directed pictures in Russia, Sweden, and Germany. The story of this film was remade in 1930 as One Romantic Night, an early talkie for Lillian Gish, and in Technicolor as a 1956 vehicle for Grace Kelly.
The Rose of Paris
Writer
A French orphan who grew up in a convent sets out to see Paris. It turns out that she is the heir to a fortune but doesn't know it, and has been lured to Paris by one of the heirs who does know who she is; he plans to swindle her out of her inheritance so he can have everything.
Fools Highway
Writer
Mike Kildare, a swaggering youth from New York City's Bowery at the turn of the century, comes to the defense of Mamie Rose, a mender in a secondhand clothing shop, when his own gang of Irish-Americans insult her.
Thundering Dawn
Screenplay
Jack Standish feels responsible for the failure of the partnership with his father and goes to the South Seas where he falls prey to alcohol, is seduced by Lullaby Lou, a vamp, and tricked by a brutal plantation owner, Gordon Van Brock.
Thundering Dawn
Story
Jack Standish feels responsible for the failure of the partnership with his father and goes to the South Seas where he falls prey to alcohol, is seduced by Lullaby Lou, a vamp, and tricked by a brutal plantation owner, Gordon Van Brock.
Daytime Wives
Story
The Age of Desire
Writer
Janet Loring is a young widow with a young son. She marries millionaire Malcolm Trask, but doesn't tell him about her previous marriage or her son, Ranny. Abandoned to the streets by Janet, Ranny eventually moves in with a bookseller and her granddaughter Margy. As the years go by Janet comes to regret abandoning her son and takes out ads looking for him. Marcio, a vicious blackmailer, sends Ranny to Janet posing as her son, not knowing that the young boy actually is her son. Complications ensue.
Wandering Daughters
Writer
Wandering Daughters
Temptation
Story
Temptation film
The Dangerous Age
Writer
Married for 22 years, Mary Emerson treats her husband, John, more like a son than a husband. He is stung by her rebuffs and, therefore, succumbs to the youthful charms of Gloria Sanderson, whom he meets on a business trip. But just after he mails a letter to Mary telling her that he will not return, John finds Gloria in the arms of her fiancé.
Sherlock Brown
Adaptation
The secret formula for the world's most powerful explosive has been stolen from the U.S. government. William Brown, a clerk who aspires to be a detective, has just received his badge from some anonymous Midwestern agency, and manages to get himself embroiled in the intrigue.
The Face Between
Writer
The Face Between
The Right That Failed
Screenplay
The Right That Failed
Alias Ladyfingers
Adaptation
When Rachel Stetherill's daughter marries a man of whom she disapproves, Rachel disowns her. Five years later her daughter, now widowed, is killed. Her young son comes under the influence of a professional safecracker and is soon on his way to becoming a hardened criminal. Twenty yeas later the Stetherill family lawyer learns that the infamous thief known as Ladyfingers bears a striking resemblance to Rachel's husband--and has fallen in love with Enid, Mrs. Stetherill's young ward. Complications ensue.
Hush
Writer
A woman finds her marriage on the rocks after she reveals to her husband some but not all the details of her one-time relationship with a current associate of his.
For the Soul of Rafael
Writer
The Fighting Shepherdess
Writer
A young woman fights to keep her Wyoming sheep ranch from being overrun and destroyed by cattle ranchers.
The Forbidden Woman
Story
A beautiful French actress is the unwitting force behind the suicide of one of her admirers. A scandal erupts, threatening to destroy her reputation.
The Better Wife
Screenplay
Charmian Page has developed a great affection for the child of Sir Richard. When the child is seriously hurt in a car crash that has killed his mother Lady Beverly, who was on her way to see her lover, Charmian persuades her wealthy father to pay for the operation that saves the child. Sir Richard marries Charmian for his child's sake, but remains aloof towards her for the memory of Beverly. When he learns the truth about his late wife's infidelity, he begs for Charmian's forgiveness, realizing she is the better wife.
The Better Wife
Story
Charmian Page has developed a great affection for the child of Sir Richard. When the child is seriously hurt in a car crash that has killed his mother Lady Beverly, who was on her way to see her lover, Charmian persuades her wealthy father to pay for the operation that saves the child. Sir Richard marries Charmian for his child's sake, but remains aloof towards her for the memory of Beverly. When he learns the truth about his late wife's infidelity, he begs for Charmian's forgiveness, realizing she is the better wife.