Carl Foreman | |
|---|---|
 Carl Foreman in 1961 | |
| Born | (1914-07-23)July 23, 1914 |
| Died | June 26, 1984(1984-06-26) (aged 69) Beverly Hills,California, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Screenwriter, film producer |
| Spouses |
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| Children | 3, includingJonathan andAmanda |
Carl Foreman,CBE (July 23, 1914 – June 26, 1984) was an American screenwriter and film producer who wrote the award-winning filmsThe Bridge on the River Kwai andHigh Noon, among others. He was one of the screenwriters who wereblacklisted inHollywood in the 1950s because of their suspectedcommunist sympathy or membership in theCommunist Party.
He once said his most common theme was "the struggle of the individual against a society that for one reason or another is hostile."[2] He elaborated that "the stories that work best for me involve a loner, out of step or in direct conflict with a group of people."[3]
Born inChicago,Illinois, to a working-classJewish family, he was the son of Fanny (née Rozin) and Isidore Foreman.[4]
He studied at theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. In 1934, at age 19, he quit college to go to Hollywood. "I was mostly on the bum and saw the underside of Hollywood", he later said.[5]
He soon returned to Chicago and attended the John J. Marshall School of Law, working at a grocery store to earn money.[6][3]
Foreman dropped out of law school and worked as a newspaper reporter, fiction writer (selling stories toEsquire), press agent, play director and carnival barker. "I was one of the few college trained barkers in the business", he said.[7]
Foreman returned to Hollywood in 1938. He worked as a story analyst for several studios and as a film laboratory technician, while continuing to write.[6][8] He was a member of theCommunist Party from 1938 to 1942. "The idea was just in the air", he later said.[9]
Foreman won a scholarship for a screenwriting course, where his teacher wasDore Schary.[2] He later gave credit toMichael Blankfort for mentoring him.[3]
Foreman's first screen credit was for producerSam Katzman atMonogram Pictures,Bowery Blitzkrieg (1941), starring theEast Side Kids.
Foreman provided the original story (for $25) and wrote a script (for $200) for the next East Side Kids film,Spooks Run Wild (1941), withBela Lugosi. Also at Monogram he provided the story for and wrote the script ofRhythm Parade (1942). "I expected recognition but hardly anyone noticed", he said later.[3]
Foreman's career was interrupted by service in theU.S. ArmySignal Corps duringWorld War II, where he was assigned to a unit that made orientation and training films. It was run by directorFrank Capra. During his time in the service, he helped write the script forKnow Your Enemy – Japan (1945). He provided the original story for aJohn Wayne Western,Dakota (1945). Foreman says "I began to learn the craft in a serious way", in this time.[3]
On his return to Hollywood, Foreman became associated with producerStanley Kramer andGeorge Glass. Kramer produced Foreman's next credited screenplay,So This Is New York (1948), starring comedianHenry Morgan, forEnterprise Productions; it was directed byRichard Fleischer. It was a mild success. Foreman wroteThe Clay Pigeon (1949), which Fleischer directed atRKO.
Kramer and Foreman's next film, the boxing taleChampion (1949), was a big success, making a star of actorKirk Douglas. Foreman received anAcademy Award nomination for his script.
Champion had been directed byMark Robson, and he, Kramer and Foreman reunited onHome of the Brave (1949), an adaptation ofArthur Laurents's play. It was another critical and commercial success.
Kramer and Foreman's third film together wasThe Men (1950), which introducedMarlon Brando to cinema audiences; he played a paraplegic soldier. The film, directed byFred Zinnemann, was critically acclaimed although not a popular success. Also acclaimed was their fourth film,Cyrano de Bergerac (1950), an adaptation of the French classic play, starringJosé Ferrer, who won a Best Actor Oscar. It was adapted fromBrian Hooker's English translation ofEdmond Rostand's playCyrano de Bergerac.
Without Kramer, Foreman worked onYoung Man with a Horn (1950), with Douglas.
Foreman and Kramer's next collaboration was the WesternHigh Noon. During production of the film, Foreman was summoned to appear before theHouse Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), as Congress was investigating communist activities in the United States. He testified that he had been a member of the American Communist Party more than ten years earlier while still a young man, but he had become disillusioned with the Party and quit. As a result of his refusal to give the names of fellow Party members, Foreman was classified as an "uncooperative witness" and blacklisted by all of the Hollywood studio bosses.[6]
Some critics have suggestedHigh Noon is an allegory forMcCarthyism.[10] TheWestern film is considered an American classic and was No. 27 onAmerican Film Institute (AFI)'s "100 Years, 100 Movies", and has been selected for preservation in the United StatesNational Film Registry.High Noon, the film that was Foreman's greatest screenwriting accomplishment, made no mention of him as associate producer but did credit him for the screenplay. He was nominated for an Academy Award for this screenplay by fellow members of theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Because of the blacklist, this was the last film Foreman was allowed to work on by a Hollywood studio for the next six years.
In October 1951 Foreman sold his interest in the Stanley Kramer Corporation for a reported $250,000. He formed a new company, Carl Foreman Productions, whose stockholders originally included actorGary Cooper. Foreman signed a three-picture deal withRobert L. Lippert to write, produce and direct the films. Lippert said he "had no doubt of Foreman's Americanism."[11] Yet, his films were never made because of political pressure, which also resulted in Gary Cooper and other investors withdrawing their support. Denied a passport because of the blacklist, Foreman successfully sued theState Department to regain it. In 1952 he immigrated to Britain.[12]
Foreman later said that if the blacklist "hadn't happened I was moving towards becoming a director. That was where the action was."[13]
A number of blacklisted American writers were working in Britain at the time, such asRing Lardner Jr. As "Derek Frye", he and fellow blacklisteeHarold Buchman wrote the thrillerThe Sleeping Tiger (1954) which was directed byJoseph Losey, also blacklisted in the US. Foreman would use the names of friends Herbert Baker, John Weaver, and Alan Grogan on his scripts as a personal signature.[13]
In November 1953 the State Department ordered Foreman to surrender his passport to the U.S. Consul in London, and in September 1954 the Department ruled that Foreman was not entitled to his passport.[14]
In 1954 Foreman worked as an assistant for British directorAlexander Korda. "I was very angry: full of rage, and self-pity", he said of this time.[9]
After working onBorn for Trouble (1955), he wrote a draft of the screenplay forThe Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) forSam Spiegel andDavid Lean. Foreman later fell out with Lean, but was the one who recommended his replacement, fellow blacklisted writerMichael Wilson. The two did not receive a credit on the film. The resultingAcademy Award for adapted screenplay went to French authorPierre Boulle, who had written the source novel but who had no involvement in the script (and could not speak English). The two scriptwriters did not receive credit for their work on this film until 1984, after their deaths, when the two writers' names were added to the award. But by 1958 Foreman was publicly claiming credit for the screenplay.[15][16][17]
Foreman also worked onA Hatful of Rain (1957), for which he received no credit. It was directed by Zinnemann.
Eventually a court ruled that the State Department could not take away someone's passport without a quasi-judicial hearing. In January 1956 Foreman's passport was reinstated and returned to him.[14] In August 1956, Foreman gained approval to go to the United States and testify inexecutive session before the House Un-American Activities Committee, but he refused to become an informant. He invoked the Fifth Amendment to refuse to answer some questions.[6][18]
Bridge on the River Kwai had been a massive commercial and critical success, and Foreman's contribution was recognized. He set up his own production company, Highroad. In March 1957 he signed a deal with Columbia Pictures, which had releasedKwai, to make four films over three years.[18]
In 1957 Foreman announced he would makeInsurrection, about the 1916Easter Rebellion in Ireland, with directorJohn Guillermin. It would have been adapted from a novel by American writerHerman Wouk.[19] But the film was not made.
Foreman wrote and helped produceThe Key (1958), a war film directed byCarol Reed. Highroad next made the comedyThe Mouse that Roared (1959), starringPeter Sellers, which was a big hit.Mouse was meant to be part of a four-picture slate from Foreman worth $11 million; the others wereThe League of Gentlemen (1960),The Guns of Navarone (1961), andHoliday.[20]
Foreman wrote and producedThe Guns of Navarone (1961), based on a best-selling novel byAlistair McLean. (While fictional, it was inspired by the AlliedDodecanese Campaign against Italian-held islands in the Aegean Sea.) He fired directorAlexander Mackendrick shortly before production started, and replaced him withJ. Lee Thompson. The resulting movie was a massive hit. He was intending to follow it withThe Holiday, withAnthony Quinn,Charles Boyer, Earl Holliman andIngrid Bergman,[21] but the film was never produced.
The success ofNavarone enabled Foreman to direct as well as to write and produce his next film,The Victors (1963) for Columbia. A war story, this film was a box office disappointment.
He signed a contract with MGM to adaptThe Forty Days of Musa Dagh, at a fee of $275,000, but this film was never made. In 1962 he said "the bulk of Hollywood movies are old fashioned and creaky. There is nothing here to compare with the ferment of Great Britain, Italy, France or even Poland."[22]
Foreman's next big success was the filmBorn Free (1966), which Foreman produced. In 1968 Foreman announced he would produce a musical,The House of Madame Tellier, based on a story byGuy de Maupassant, with music byDimitri Tiomkin, and book and lyrics byFreddy Douglas.[23] But it was not produced.
He wrote and producedMackenna's Gold (1969) for Columbia. It had the same director,J. Lee Thompson, and starGregory Peck, asNavarone.Gold was his first film shot in the US sinceHigh Noon. "I tried very hard to break the blacklist but I never succeeded", he said.[24] The film was a flop.
The Virgin Soldiers (1969), which his company made for Columbia, was a hit in Great Britain. His company also worked onMonsieur Lecoq (never completed) andOtley (1969). It developed a project calledFifteen Flags, about theAllied intervention in the Russian Civil War, but this was never completed as a film.[7]
Foreman's next big production wasYoung Winston (1972), about wartime prime minister Winston Churchill, which he wrote and produced, withRichard Attenborough directing. It was not particularly successful; neither wasLiving Free (1972), asequel toBorn Free.
He tried to get financing for a film about a rafting trip across the Indian Ocean,Finding Ernie, which he would direct, but it was not made.[25]
In 1975, Foreman returned to the US, and signed a three-picture contract with Universal.[8][26] Foreman co-wrote and helped produce a sequel toNavarone,Force 10 from Navarone (1978). It did not match the success of its predecessor.[citation needed]
He executive producedThe Golden Gate Murders (1979). Foreman's last credit was as writer of disaster movie,When Time Ran Out (1980). This was a notable flop.[citation needed]
His final project was writing the screenplay forThe Yellow Jersey, a proposed film about theTour de France bicycle race. It was to starDustin Hoffman.[8][6]
Foreman was elected to the executive council of the British Film Production Association, was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and was appointed a governor of the British Film Institute (1965–71), the British National Film School and the Cinematographic Film Council.[6]
He was president for seven years of the Writers Guild of Great Britain.[6]
In 1970, Foreman was made aCommander of the Order of the British Empire. Such is his influence on the British film industry, that from 1998 to 2009 there was aBritish Academy Film Award named in his honor; theCarl Foreman Award for the Most Promising Newcomer.
When he returned to the US, he served on the advisory board of the American Film Institute, on the public-media panel of the National Endowment for the Arts, and on the executive board of the Writers Guild of America. He was also a member of the board of directors of the Center Theater Group in Los Angeles.[6]
Carl Foreman was back home in the United States when he died of abrain tumor in 1984 inBeverly Hills, California. The day before he died he was told he would receive the long overdue Oscar credit for writingBridge on the River Kwai.[16]
He married Estelle Barr, and they had a daughter Katie. They divorced. He married again, to Evelyn Smith. Their two children, Amanda and Jonathan, were born in London. He was also survived by his mother, Fanny, and sister Sherry Sobel (mother ofTed Sobel, Los Angeles based sportscaster-reporter-author of memoirTouching Greatness.)[citation needed]
Foreman's daughter,Amanda Foreman, graduated fromColumbia University andOxford University, where she received a PhD in history. She won theWhitbread Prize for her 1998 best-selling biographyGeorgiana: Duchess of Devonshire. She later wrote the history,A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War (2011).
Foreman's son,Jonathan Foreman, graduated in modern history fromCambridge University and earned alaw degree from theUniversity of Pennsylvania. He worked as an editorial writer and senior film critic for theNew York Post. In 2004 he relocated to London to work for theDaily Mail. In 2008, he became a co-founder of the monthly British magazineStandpoint, which explores current affairs from a centre-right position.[citation needed]
Foreman's work onHigh Noon intersected with the period of the secondRed Scare after World War II and theKorean War. During theCold War, some American politicians began to fear communist activities in the United States. Foreman was called beforeHUAC while he was writing the film. By then he had not been a member of the American communist party for nearly ten years. Because he declined to 'name names', or identify other people who had been members, he was classified as an 'un-cooperative witness' by HUAC.[27] WhenStanley Kramer found out some of this, he forced Foreman to sell his part of their company, and tried to get him kicked off making this film.[28]Fred Zinnemann,Gary Cooper, and Bruce Church intervened. An outstanding Bank of America loan helped Foreman remain on the picture, as Foreman had not yet signed certain papers. He moved to England before the film was released, as Congress had established a blacklist and movie studios did not allow persons on it to work for them.[29]
Kramer claimed he had not stood up for Foreman partly because Foreman was threatening to name Kramer as a Communist.[30] Foreman said that Kramer was afraid of what would happen to him and his career if he did not cooperate with the committee. Kramer wanted Foreman to name names and not pleadFifth Amendment rights.[31] Foreman was also pressured byHarry Cohn ofColumbia Pictures (Kramer's new boss); actorJohn Wayne, who was associated with theMotion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals and said he would "never regret having helped run Foreman out of this country". He calledHigh Noon "un-American". Influential society writerHedda Hopper of theLos Angeles Times also pressed Foreman to testify about names.[32]
In addition to screenwriters, directors, actors and producers affected by the confrontations with HUAC, cast and crew members were affected by the Congressional investigation and blacklist. For instance,Howland Chamberlain was blacklisted, whileFloyd Crosby andLloyd Bridges were "gray listed."[33]
In 2002,PBS television made a two-hour film about Foreman's ordeal duringMcCarthyism titledDarkness at High Noon: The Carl Foreman Documents. It was written and directed by outspoken conservativeLionel Chetwynd.
Foreman was also the subject of an episode ofScreenwriters: Words Into Image, directed byTerry Sanders andFreida Lee Mock.
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