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Show Writers don't rank high in Hollywood circles, says Oscar winner A story doesn't necessarily necessar-ily need a message, said Edward Anhalt, but it should have a theme. At this point, Anhalt can look back to over 40 years of working in film, most of the time writing scripts for movies and television. He brings his experience to bear when he appears in a screenwriting seminar, part of the 1984 U.S. Film and Video Festival, next week for Park City. He spoke to the Record recently in a phone interview. Anhalt has two Oscars to his credit for writing "Beck-et" "Beck-et" in 1964 and co-writing "Panic in the Streets" (1950) with then-wife Edna. The first thing he says about working with a partner part-ner is that screenwriting broke up his marriage. When the Anhalts labored on the script for "Pride and the Passion" in Spain, he recalled, recal-led, the work was wracked by arguments. "I told an interviewer later there was too much pride and not enough passion," he said. were different from the "Madwoman" stage play, but the director attempted to mix them together. He has written several scripts adapted from other mediums, including novels. "I read through a book and when I come to an interesting interest-ing scene, I rip it out and stick it on the wall. Then I try to thread the scenes together and disregard the rest of the book completely." Whether adapting or writing writ-ing original work, writers have not ranked high in the hierarchy of Hollywood, "Everyone pretends the writer wri-ter isn't there." Anhalt doesn't mind being ignored by the anonymous corporate executives who now run movie studios. "It does no good to know them because they won't be a-round a-round long." He seems to prefer the old movie moguls-tycoons moguls-tycoons from immigrant stock, often uneducated, who had a passion for the movies. In the late 1940s, Anhalt was under contract to Columbia, Col-umbia, which was headed by job (through relatives, he said) writing narration for Pathe Newsreels. He was a cameraman for director Pare Lorent in the the documentary "The City" and worked in the experimental-television division of CBS. During the service in the war, he was film editor for William Wyler's air force documentary, "The Memphis Mem-phis Belle." It's unusual for a writer to come from a technical background of camerawork and editing. But Anhalt recommends it. "I would start every film student as an editor," he said. Currently, Anhalt is more interested in television. He is writing a five-part miniser-ies, miniser-ies, "Peter the Great." His forecast for the movies isn't hopeful. "There will be few theaters," he said. "Movies will be for kids, which they are now." In television, he said, the writing quality is much better than it was 20 years ago. And almost anything you write for TV gets "I read through a book and when I come to an interesting scene, I rip it out and stick it on the wall. Then I try to thread the scenes together." -screenwriter Edward Anhalt Of his award-winning "Panic" story, Anhalt said, "I saw it recently and it aged." On the other hand, he is happier with his screenplay screen-play for "The Young Lions" (which featured Dean Martin, Mar-tin, Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift as World War II soldiers). "It stands up magnificently," he said. He can clearly remember the movies that didn't treat his scripts well. In adapting the play "Luther" for a 1974 movie, Anhalt said he took an anti-Luther viewpoint, which the director switched around to a pro-Luther attitude. Another failure was his work for "Madwoman of Chaillot." Anhalt contended that his themes in the movie the most ferocious mogul of them all, Harry Cohn. Anhalt An-halt liked Cohn. "You could stop and tell him about some story problem and he would discuss it with interest. There's a difference between be-tween being illiterate and being disinterested." But for the most part, writers are ignored. Anhalt is not usually called onto the set while his script is being shot. Occasionally, he has played play-ed short roles for his scripts or other movies. For instance, in-stance, he can be seen in the movie "The Right Stuff." He's the leader of the USSR space program who is shown exulting every time the Soviets score a triumph. Anhalt established his versatility ver-satility long before this. In the late 1930s, he obtained a produced, while many movie scripts lie on the shelf, he said. One challenge, he noted, is that a TV program has to create and sustain a high level of interest. Surprisingly, Surprising-ly, he said, it is easy for a mini-series stretched over several days to maintain interest. Why? "People are so delighted to have something to do tomorrow night," he said. "That's because they don't want to talk to each other " The 40-year-veteran paused paus-ed on the phone and seemed to reflect. "Do I sould cynical," he asked. Edward Anhalt will appear ap-pear at a screenwriting workshop in the Egyptian on Friday, Jan. 27. Time for the session is 2 p.m. |
