John Howard Lawson

John Howard Lawson

출생 : 1894-09-24, New York City, New York, USA

사망 : 1977-08-11

약력

John Howard Lawson (September 25, 1894 – August 11, 1977) was an American writer. He was for several years head of the Hollywood division of the Communist Party USA. He was also the organization's cultural manager and answered directly to V.J. Jerome, the Party's New York-based cultural chief. He was the first president of the Writers Guild of America, West after the Screen Writers Guild divided into two regional organizations. Lawson was one of the Hollywood Ten, the first group of American film industry professionals to be blacklisted during the 1950s McCarthy era. Before going to Hollywood, Lawson wrote several minor pieces before World War I. After the war he wrote a few more pieces and was drawn to European cubist, futurist and constructivist plays. In 1928, Lawson moved to Hollywood where he wrote scripts for films such as The Ship for Shanghai, Bachelor Apartment, and Goodbye Love. In the winter of 1930-1931, it was at this time during the Great Depression that Lawson wrote Success Story. The Theater Guild rejected the script, but Harold Clurman, a reader for them, had recently just formed the Group Theater and needed new scripts. Clurman and Lawson reworked the play during the summer of 1932, and Success Story opened on September 26, 1932 for 121 performances. Lawson would also pen the screenplay based on the play, Success at Any Price in 1934. During the 1930s, leftists accused Lawson of having a lack of ideological and political commitment. New Playwrights Theater associate Mike Gold attacked him in The New Masses on April 10, 1934, calling him a "A Bourgeois Hamlet of Our Time" who wrote adolescent works that lacked moral fiber or clear ideas. Lawson responded a week later in The New Masses in the article "'Inner Conflict' and Proletarian Art" he cited his middle-class childhood as the reason why he could not fully understand the working people. He also recognized that his prosperity and Hollywood connections were suspect in the fight for workers' rights. Due to the criticism, he joined the Communist Party and began a program of educating himself about the proletarian cause. He would soon travel throughout the poverty-stricken South to study bloody labor conflicts in Alabama and Georgia. While in the South, he would submit articles to the Daily Worker, which got him arrested numerous times. These experiences would inspire his next play, Marching Song. It was put on by the radical Theater Union and it opened on February 17, 1937 and ran for sixty-one performances. Lawson, who joined the American Communist Party in 1934, made several films that were political, including Blockade (1938), which starred Henry Fonda. It was a film on the Spanish Civil War for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Story. Lawson also wrote Counter-Attack (1945), a tribute to the Soviet-USA alliance during the Second World War. He also wrote more innocuous films, such as the critically acclaimed Algiers (1938) and the Humphrey Bogart vehicles Sahara and Action in the North Atlantic in 1943.

프로필 사진

John Howard Lawson

참여 작품

Hollywood : la vie rêvée de Lana Turner
Portrait of Julia Jean Turner, from her childhood to her rise of fame as Lana Turner, to her last role.
Arthur Miller: Writer
Self (archive footage)
One of the greatest playwrights of the 20th century, Arthur Miller created such celebrated works as Death of a Salesman and The Crucible, which continue to move audiences around the world today. He also made headlines for being targeted by the House Un-American Activities Committee at the height of the McCarthy Era and entering into a tumultuous marriage with Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe. Told from the unique perspective of his daughter, filmmaker Rebecca Miller, Arthur Miller: Writer is an illuminating portrait that combines interviews spanning decades and a wealth of personal archival material, and provides new insights into Miller’s life as an artist and exploring his character in all its complexity.
Marlon Brando: An Actor Named Desire
Self - Screenwriter (archive footage)
In his early days as an actor, Marlon Brando (1924-2004) was a shy young man with theatrical ambitions, like many others; but his charisma and superb acting skills made him truly unique, so that the doors to the starry sky of Hollywood opened for him. However, his peculiar manners, political commitment and complicated love life always overshadowed his artistic success.
Red Hollywood
Himself (archive footage)
A documentary that examines the films made by the victims of the Hollywood Blacklist and offers a radically different perspective on a key period in the history of American cinema.
The Careless Years
Screenplay
A high school girl from a wealthy family falls for a fellow student from a poor family. Both families disapprove, and, unable to stand the pressure, the couple quit school and flee to Mexico.
Cry, the Beloved Country
Writer
In the back country of South Africa, black minister Stephen Kumalo journeys to the city to search for his missing son, only to find his people living in squalor and his son a criminal. Reverend Misimangu is a young South African clergyman who helps find his missing son-turned-thief and sister-turned-prostitute in the slums of Johannesburg.
The Hollywood Ten
Self
A brief look at The Hollywood Ten, a group of screenwriters and directors charged with contempt of court after challenging the House Un-American Activities Committee and their controversial and self-incriminatory questions during the red scare. With that act of defiance, they were sentenced to one year in prison simply for speaking their minds and exercising their constitutional rights as concerned citizens. This is their story, their version of the facts, and their opinions.
Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman
Screenplay
A nightclub singer uses alcohol in excess to sooth her painful life.
Counter-Attack
Screenplay
Two Russians fight to escape the seven Nazi soldiers trapped with them in a bombed building.
사하라 전차대
Screenplay
조건 하사관(험프리 보가트 역)은 본부와 연락이 끊긴 채 낡은 탱크와 와코, 그리고 지미 병사를 이끌고 사하라 사막을 떠돈다. 본부로 향하던 이들 일행은 사막 한 가운데서 역시 낙오된 채 지원군의 도착만 기다리고 있던 일련의 병사들을 만나게 된다. 영국군 군의관, 할리데이 병장은 모든 지휘권을 군 하사관에게 맡기고 한 대 남은 탱크를 타고 본부를 찾아 떠난다. 이들 일행은 매번 우물을 찾아 나서지만 뜨거운 사하라 사막의 태양 아래 모든 우물은 고갈된 상태였다. 그러는 가운데 우연히 탱크를 발견한 독일군 전투기 조종사가 이들을 향해 사격을 가하고 사상자가 발생한다. 반격을 가한 총탄에 맞아 쓰러진 독일군을 포로로잡고 이들은 다시 우물을 찾아 나서고 마침내 몇 방울씩 떨어지고 있는 우물을 찾고 안도의 한숨을 내쉰다. 한편 독일군과 이탈리아 연합군 역시 우물을 찾아 사하라 사막을 헤매던 중 마침내 군 하사관이 이끄는 부대가 머물고 있는 우물까지 공격해 온다. 군하사관은 자신의 부하인 와코를 본부로 보내고 모두 남아 독일군에 맞서 싸울 것을 다짐하지만 9명으로 100여명의 적과 맞서 싸우기란 쉬운 일이 아니다. 끈질긴 싸움 끝에 결국 독일군은 갈증을 이기지 못하고 몇 안되는 이들 일행에 항복을 한다. 하지만 이미 할리데이 군의관, 프렌치, 윌리엄스, 마이크, 지미 등 대부분의 동료가 전사한 상태였다. 군하사관은 치열했던 전투지 사하라 사막을 둘러보며 이들의 죽음이 결코 헛된 것이 아니었음을 깨닫는데...
Action in the North Atlantic
Screenplay
Merchant Marine sailors Joe Rossi (Humphrey Bogart) and Steve Jarvis (Raymond Massey) are charged with getting a supply vessel to Russian allies as part of a sea convoy. When the group of ships comes under attack from a German U-boat, Rossi and Jarvis navigate through dangerous waters to evade Nazi naval forces. Though their mission across the Atlantic is extremely treacherous, they are motivated by the opportunity to strike back at the Germans, who sank one of their earlier ships.
Four Sons
Screenplay
Four Sons is a 1940 film directed by Archie Mayo. It stars Don Ameche and Eugenie Leontovich. It is a remake of the 1928 film of the same name.
Earthbound
Writer
A murdered man helps his widow bring his killer to justice.
They Shall Have Music
Screenplay
The future is bleak for a troubled boy from a broken home in the slums. He runs away when his step father breaks his violin, ending up sleeping in the basement of a music school for poor children.
Blockade
Writer
A simple peasant is forced to take up arms to defend his farm during the Spanish Civil War. Along the way he falls in love with a Russian girl whose father is involved in espionage.
Algiers
Screenplay
Pepe Le Moko is a notorious thief, who escaped from France. Since his escape, Moko has become a resident and leader of the immense Casbah of Algiers. French officials arrive insisting on Pepe's capture are met with unfazed local detectives, led by Inspector Slimane, who are biding their time. Meanwhile, Pepe meets the beautiful Gaby, which arouses the jealousy of Ines.
Adventure in Manhattan
Adaptation
The story of an egotistical crime writer who gets involved with the case of a notorious art thief (who is believed to be dead) while at the same time romancing a lovely young actress who's in a play that also happens to be the cover for massive jewel job. Art connoisseur and criminologist George Melville is hired to track down art thieves, assisted by perky Claire Peyton and goaded by Phil Bane, the roaring newspaper editor who has employed him. The mastermind poses as a theatrical impresario and stages a war drama, replete with loud explosions, to divert attention from his band of thieves, who are cracking safes in a bank adjacent to the theater.
Party Wire
Screenplay
When a small-town girl's boyfriend leaves in disgrace, gossips spread false reports of her pregnancy.
Success at Any Price
Screenplay
A young man ruthlessly climbs the corporate ladder only to attempt suicide when the stock market crashes.
Success at Any Price
Theatre Play
A young man ruthlessly climbs the corporate ladder only to attempt suicide when the stock market crashes.
Good-bye Love
Writer
A sexy golddigger lands who she thinks is a wealthy big-game hunter from a royal family. What she doesn't know is that not only is he not wealthy, nor a big-game hunter nor from a royal family, but he's only a butler. Complications ensue as he tries to keep up the pretense.
Bachelor Apartment
Writer
A New York playboy, Wayne Carter, dates wild women until he falls for a hard-working stenographer, Helene Andrews.
Our Blushing Brides
Writer
Three department store girls--Connie, Franky, and Gerry--share an apartment on West 91st Street in New York City. Each earns little more than 20 dollars per week. Gerry is the sensible one, but the others throw themselves at amoral rich men in an attempt to hook one and better themselves. They end up being hurt and disappointed despite Gerry's attempts to warn them.
Our Blushing Brides
Dialogue
Three department store girls--Connie, Franky, and Gerry--share an apartment on West 91st Street in New York City. Each earns little more than 20 dollars per week. Gerry is the sensible one, but the others throw themselves at amoral rich men in an attempt to hook one and better themselves. They end up being hurt and disappointed despite Gerry's attempts to warn them.
The Sea Bat
Writer
The sister of a sponge diver killed by a stingray loves an escaped convict posing as a priest.
The Ship from Shanghai
Screenplay
On a yacht sailing from Shanghai to the United States, the sailors, led by the megalomaniac steward, revolt and take control.
Dynamite
Dialogue
Wealthy Cynthia is in love with not-so-wealthy Roger, who is married to Marcia. The threesome is terribly modern about the situation, and Marcia will gladly divorce Roger if Cynthia agrees to a financial settlement. But Cynthia's wealth is in jeopardy because her trust fund will expire if she is not married by a certain date. To satisfy that condition, Cynthia arranges to marry Hagon Derk, who is condemned to die for a crime he didn't commit. She pays him so he can provide for his little sister. But at the last minute, Derk is freed when the true criminal is discovered. Expecting to be a rich widow, Cynthia finds herself married to a man she doesn't know and doesn't want to.