Philip Yordan

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Philip Yordan (April 1, 1914 – March 24, 2003) was an American screenwriter who produced many films during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.

He served as a front for blacklisted writers, but his use of survivor screenwriters predates McCarthy's time.

His actual contributions to the scripts he is credited with writing are uncertain, and he was identified to some as a credit grabber.

He received a bachelor's degree at the University of Illinois and a law degree at Chicago-Kent College of Law.

Early life

On April 1, 1914 in Chicago, Philip Yordan was born to Polish Jewish immigrants. He had been writing from a young age. He operated a mail-order beauty supply business out of the family's basement as a child. Yordan was a huge fan of detective stories, and he was considering a career as a writer. He appeared at the Goodman Theatre after graduating from high school and then attending Kent College of Law in Chicago.

According to Yordan, a common anecdote in Hollywood was that he recruited someone else to go through law school for him so he would receive the degree without having to do any of the work.

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He became dissatisfied with a legal career. He began writing stories while working at the Goodman Theatre as an actor. He wanted to write and ended up becoming a playwright. "I loved reading and hoped that I'd write because I looved the idea of a job and of being compelled to go down to an office." Esquire magazine dismissed several short stories with the comment, "Your prose is stilted, but your dialogue is excellent."

Why don't you try writing plays?"

Private life

He was married four times. He was survived by his fourth wife, five children, and two grandchildren after his death.

Source

Career

Any Day Now, a comedic comedy involving a family of Polish Americans, was performed in a small off-Broadway theater in 1941. Dieterle, a director, watched the play and invited Yordan to Hollywood to work on a Dieterle book about jazz history.

In Los Angeles, Yordan did some uncredited writing on The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941), directed by Dieterle, and then recognized as co-writer on the jazz project, Syncopation (1942), directed by Dieterle at RKO.

He also worked at Columbia Pictures as a staff writer for a short time.

Yordan produced a script for the King Brothers Dillinger, but it was too costly to produce. They suggested that he write something less costly. The Unknown Guest (1943), he created a melodrama.

The Kings adored his writing, and they recruited Yordan to write Johnny Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1944), although Dennis Cooper wrote the first draft, which Yordan later rewrote. They all did well enough for Yordan to be able to make Dillinger (1945). He is accused of co-writing the script with William Castle and Robert Tasker, neither of whom were given any credit. Yordan was given an Oscar nomination for his screenplay, the first for Monogram Pictures.

For Republic Pictures and Whistle Stop (1946), Yordan wrote Woman Who Came Back (1945) starring Ava Gardner and Ava Gardner. Yordan was a partner producer on the former. He did uncredited work on Why Girls Leave Home (1945).

The King Brothers used him again for Suspense (1946), then he wrote The Chase (1946) for Nebenzal.

In 1948, Joe MacBeth sold his script to Nasser Studios. (It will be years later)

The Kings had him to do a Western, Bad Men of Tombstone (1949).

According to Patrick McGilligan, Yordan thrived in Hollywood.

Yordan had written a play based on Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie, which was changed to be about a Polish American family and Anna Lucasta. Abram Hill later discovered that he had rewritten the same script for the American Negro Theater in New York. The lighter, more comedic version of the film had received critical acclaim. Yordan received financial assistance and signed a deal with Hill and producer John Wildberg. Anna Lucasta was updated with a gala opening at the Mansfield Theatre on August 30, 1944. It was a huge success, with 957 performances and two film adaptations.

Anna Lucasta had already been hired by several writers to rewrite her script before the show premiered on Broadway. In 1947, Lee Richardson, Antoinette Perry, and Brock Pemberton sued Yordan for not paying them. If Anna Lucasta's performance went on the road with a different cast, the American Negro Theater was guaranteed five percent of all production rights and two percent of the subsidiary rights, but the company received considerably less than that for the Broadway performance and none at all for the tour or any of the films. Anna Lucasta's original production on Broadway starred only a few of the ANT actors.

Yordan created a Polish American family in 1949, like in his original version. Both of the originals, which were produced in 1958, had an all-black cast like the American Negro Theater production, and starred Eartha Kitt, Sammy Davis Jr., and Henry Scott. Only Yordan earned a writing credit for both films.

In 1946, Yordan's play Windy City was staged in Chicago. However, after that, he concentrated on filmmaking.

House of Strangers (1949), Yordan's first film credit for a major studio, was based on a Jerome Weirman novel for Fox. Yordan was fired by developer Sol C. Siegel after an incomplete first draft that Siegel felt wasn't working. Yordan's unfinished script was rewritten by director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who replaced Yordan's dialogue with his own. 341 He directed the film from scratch, using his own redesigned screenplay. When the Screen Writers Guild decided that it should be listed as a joint credit, Mankiewicz resisted to split, and Yordan was awarded sole credit.

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He received an Academy Award for Broken Lance in 1955. It was a reimagining of 1949's House of Strangers, but no one wrote a single word. He received his award for his contribution to House of Strangers, which had been restored to a Western setting and rewritten by producer-writer Michael Blankfort.

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Yordan formed United California Productions, which produced Let's Live a Little in 1948 with actor Bob Cummings and Eugene Frenke.

Security Pictures, Yordan's company, was founded.

He revealed in 1949 that he would write and produce The Big Blonde, based on a Dorothy Parker novel. Irving Lerner was supposed to order. It was not made – Mark Robson's firm acquired the rights to the story.

The Black Book was written by Walter Wanger (1949). He did some uncredited work on Panic in the Streets (1950) and No Way Out (1950), both for Fox.

Sam Goldwyn's Edge of Doom (1950) was based on a Goldwyn story.

In the Deep South (1951), the King Brothers used him for a Western, Drums, and Mutiny, a South Sea film (1952). At Paramount, he wrote Detective Story (1951) and told Mara Maru (1952) at Warners. Yordan was nominated for an Oscar for his detective work, according to a detective story.

For Warner Bros., Yordan adapted Houdini (1953) for Paramount and Blowing Wild (1953). He moved The Men from Earth to Milton Sperling in 1953.

The Big Combo (1955), a co-production with actor Cornel Wilde's company, was produced by Security Pictures; Yordan wrote the script and produced with Sidney Harmon. Yordan said he turned down a $75,000 script in order to produce.

The Man from Laramie (1955) was written by Yordan for James Stewart and Anthony Mann, the last film Stewart and Mann made together.

Yordan's Conquest of Space (1955) for Haskin. He appeared on Joe MacBeth (1955) and did another for Mann, The Last Frontier (1955).

The Harder They Fall (1956), which was directed by Mark Robson, was directed by Yordan.

Columbia's Jerry Wald of Columbia reported in February 1955 that they would produce a film based on Yordan's novel Krakatoa, which would be released as part of Yordan's new deal with Columbia. The film will not be released until more than a decade later.

He created The Wild Party (1956) and wrote Four Boys and a Gun (1957).

Man on Spikes was purchased by He and Harmon, but it wasn't made.

He was seen working on a script for Mario Lanza and Anthony Mann in 1956, but no such thing was ever produced. He related the tale about Street of Sinners (1957) for Security.

Yordan was a writer-producer on Mark Robson's film The Harder They Fall (1956).

In January 1957, he sold a story Diamond in the Rough to Jerry Wald.

Yordan wrote No Down Payment (1957) for Martin Ritt at Fox, and Island Women (1957) at Security.

He wrote the Westerns The Bravados (1958) and The Fiend Who Walked the West (1958) (a recreation of Kiss of Death) at Fox.

W. R. Burnett's Little Man Big World was adapted by Yordan for Robert Ryan, but the film wasn't made.

The King Studios were purchased by both Security and Milton Sperling in 1957.

He wrote and penned Day of the Outlaw (1959) at Security, as well as The Bramble Bush (1960) for Warners. The Tribe That Forgot Its Head was not made, but it was not invented.

In 1959, Yordan and Harmon announced that they would make four films for Columbia. They were going to begin with the Kingdom of Man, a World War II tale.

Assignment: Underwater (1960-61), Yordan's television series Assignment: Underwater (1960-60). In addition, he made some uncredited contributions to The Time Machine's script (1960).

Yordan was able to find work thanks to Ben Maddow's left-wing association, but he had a difficult time finding jobs. They were supposed to divide the money in the middle, with Yordan being the sole credit. Man Crazy, directed by Byron Haskin at Yordan and Sidney Harmon produced Security Pictures: 332 and The Naked Jungle, which was directed by Byron Haskin at Paraphrasedoutput.

Maddow would write several scripts for him, including Men in War (1957) and possibly God's Little Acre (1958), as well as Yordan's first book, Man of the West, on which the 1957 film Gun Glory (1957) was based. (Yordan dismissed the screenwriter's contribution to God's Little Acre.)

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Though he also spoke highly of Yordan, Maddow once recalled his rage and astonishment at passing through England and finding a Penguin version of Man of the West for which he was not compensated.

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Yordan received sole credit for Johnny Guitar (1954) for Republic Pictures, which became a major cult film, although it is unknown how much Yordan contributed to the final script. After seeing the movie years later, Ben Maddow said to have written the entire Johnny Guitar screenplay, but he regrets. Roy Chanslor, the original novel's author and a prolific screenwriter, also wrote a screenplay draft.

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Studs Lonigan (1960), 1960, was written and produced, but blacklisted writers Arnaud D'Usseau and Bernard Gordon did much of the actual writing. Yordan was announced as screenwriter for Bryna Productions' spectacle film Montezuma in February 1960, but later, Dalton Trumbo, who had worked on several scripts for the independent film company, was named as the actual writer.

Yordan had two scripts mixed up and gave a Fox script to Warner Bros. producer Milton Sperling, the Warner Bros' script was cut off at Fox, which was dropped to Darryl F. Zanuck. Zanuck threatened to blackball Yordan at all of the major studios as the writer was under Fox contract.

When the screenwriter wrote The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960), Sperling fired Yordan. Yordan's secretary said she had written it. Yordan, who had spoken out and been given a reward for her efforts, was furious: Sperling later fired her from the project, but Sperling retained a new writer. Yordan continued to do uncredited writing on Murder by Fire Contract and The Lost Missile.

Sam Briskin, the Columbia studio's chief, retained Yordan, provided that he maintains an office on the lot and that his authorship of any scripts would be confirmed. However, Yordan is alleged to have continued to shuttle scripts around town, and he was very rarely seen at Columbia. Yordan was sentenced to return the $25,000 he had already earned after being caught violating the terms of his employment. He was refused admission to Columbia, as well as nearly every other studio in Hollywood.

Yordan, a Hollywood filmmaker, found a job with independent producer Samuel L. Bronston in Spain. Yordan's relationship with Bronston started when he appeared on the $10 million epic King of Kings (1961), directed by Nicholas Ray. Bronston ordered him to set the script for the film, and Yordan hired Ray Bradbury to write the voice-over narration, using an anonymous Italian writer for the script. On the finished film, he continued solely writing credit.

Yordan worked with Bronston to write El Cid (1961) for Mann, but it is more likely that blacklist Ben Barzman and Bernard Gordon scripted Mann's script. Yordan was also confirmed as writing a script for Bronston about the Eiffel Tower's construction.

Yordan was credited on the Triffids (1963), but Bernard Gordon's "front" was credited to him. He continued to work for Bronston (1963), directed by Ray and Guy Green; and Gordon's film "The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), directed by Henry Hathaway (mostly written by Gordon): 55 Days at Peking (1963), directed by Gordon; 55 Days at Peking (1963), directed by Gordon; 55 Days at Peking (1964), directed by Gordon; and George Wood (1964).

Both 55 days at Peking and The Fall of the Roman Empire were box-offices, and Bronston declared bankruptcy. According to Yordan and producer Michael Waszynski, significant sums were diverted for their own use in addition to the company's high production costs and expense estimates.

Security Pictures, 1963, announced that they would make ten films for Allied Artists over two and a half years, including The Tribe That Forgot Its Head; Gretta, based on a book by Erskine Caldwell; a Western called Bad Man's River; and a science fiction film Crack in the World. Several of these were not made.

Yordan designed The Thin Red Line (1964) and Crack in the World (1965).

Later career

Battle of the Bulge (1965), which he produced; Custer of the West (1967) and Krakatoa: East of Java (1968), which he created, was a security unit that was incorporated with cinerama; Gordon and Julian Zimet wrote Custer of the West, a first draft of the Bulge script with Yordan, the first draft of the script.

The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1969), which Yordan wrote and produced, was still in process. He wrote and produced Captain Apache (1971) with Sperling, as well as wrote Bad Man's River (1971).

He made uncredited script contributions to Horror Express (1973), The Mad Bomber (1974), Psychomania (1974), and Pancho Villa (1974).

Brigham (1977) (which he coproduced), Cataclysm (1980), Sun Train to Terror (1985), Bloody Wednesday (1987) (which he coproduced), and The Unholy (1988).

Marilyn Alive and Behind Bars (1992), Dead Girls Don't Tango (1992), and Too Bad About Jack (1994).

Source

Awards

• Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay for Detective Story (1951), and for Best Writing, Original Screenplay for Dillinger (1945).
• Won an Academy Award for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story for Broken Lance (1954), a remake, reset in the West, of the House of Strangers, which was credited solely to Yordan but written in large part by the film's director Joseph L. Mankiewicz who refused to share a co-writing credit.^: 341
• Won a 1952 Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay, for Detective Story (along with credited cowriter Robert Wyler, and Sidney Kingsley, the author of the original stage play).