Backstory 2: Interviews With Screenwriters of the 1940s and 1950s

Backstory #2

by Patrick McGilligan

Backstory" is the screenwriter's term for what happens in a plot before the screen story begins. In this companion volume to McGilligan's widely praised Interviews with Screenwriters of Hollywood's Golden Age, fourteen studio scribes active in later decades rail and reminisce about their fifty-plus years of inventing and scripting movies. Richard Brooks, Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon, Arthur Laurents, Ben Maddow, Stewart Stern, Daniel Taradash, and Philip Yordan are among the distinguished figures included.The 1940s were a period of transition for the motion picture industry, from an era of hope and glory and the upheavals of World War II to a postwar era of caution and confusion. The 1950s brought a great decline in the number of films produced and led to the extinction of that peculiar creature, the contract writer.The survivors of Hollywood's most productive years remain wonderfully talkative, however. In this lively collection of interviews they contribute

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, History

356 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Patrick McGilligan is the author of Clint one of America’s pre-eminent film biographers. He has written the life stories of directors George Cukor and Fritz Lang — both New York Times “Notable Books” — and the Edgar-nominated Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light. His books have been translated into ten languages. He lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Reviews

[Kevin Laduu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lopez reads it so it’s gotta be good

[Andrew Godinez · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book I’ve ever read. Masterpiece on all fronts.

[Guy Cranswick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well presented. Most screenwriters are diffident about the screenwriting business