Meet Jay Dratler (1950) 🇺🇸
Jay Dratler is one of the young men of real cultural background that Hollywood has been talking about for the past few years.
by Paul Manning
Hollywood has found out that the requisites for topnotch screen entertainment include sincerity, depth, and understanding, and intelligent men like Dratler are being recognized as part of the backbone of this newer, high-level screen fare. He received an Academy Award nomination for his work on Laura and another award for Call Northside 777.
Just as there is a trend in other industries to push bright, well-rounded men into positions of leadership, so, in the film capital, the same thing is happening. Dratler, educated in many countries in Europe, and who has written since he was knee-high to a grip, is easily able to bring the weight of his background to bear. He was born in New York City, and, during several trips abroad, finished his education at the University of Vienna, the Sorbonne, Paris, and in the lanes and byways of Spain, Austria, France, Germany, and England. While abroad, he was a contributor to Time and other American magazines during the days when Hitler was rising to power, and was helpful in smuggling acquaintances out of Germany with the resistance movement. Three novels have come from his pen, Manhattan Sidestreet, Ducks in Thunder, and The Pitfall.
After leaving Europe behind for a while, Dratler settled in California, and after a year at MGM as a writer, began to freelance. Since 1940, he has had at least one, and usually two or three films on the screen every year. Dratler has also been a pioneer in contract negotiations. On The Pitfall, Dratler leased the movie rights to his producer for 10 years, retaining the TV and stage rights. He received 10 per cent of the net receipts of the film, including 16 mm. He also received a salary to do the screen play.
His talent as a writer can be seen in the following anecdote. He and another writer were “smitten” with a story idea a few years ago, and, in four hours of conversation, got it ready to tell. They went from studio to studio telling the story. Finally, they were offered $25,000, and they finally sold it for $50,000.
Dratler’s work on Laura is remembered as being of the highest calibre, and he was nominated for an “Oscar” in 1944. A few years later, the Mystery Writers of America awarded him its counterpart of the “Oscar,” an “Edgar” for his work on Call Northside 777. Now a writer-producer-director at RKO, Dratler is readying a police story called “The Miami Story.” He is anxious to direct the film, but refuses to do so unless he has the consent of the cast. If it is willing, so is he, but if it would rather not, he has no qualms about hiring someone else. He feels that the sincere good feeling of the cast is an essential element of success. — P. M.
—
Good Things to come from Hollywood… “Sunset Boulevard”
I say, are you there, all you guys who have been screaming for something different from Hollywood?
by Paul Manning
Here is the answer, a great big bundle of box office dynamite, Sunset Boulevard. Seldom has a more potent piece of screen entertainment been captured by the movie men of this town, or any other town. The hard-hitting team of Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder has capped a brilliant career with this sensational picture. Those who remember the talents of Gloria Swanson will marvel at her perpetual youth and the matchless artistry which has only grown greater, while those who were not around when La Swanson dominated this movie town will herald a new and shining dramatic star. This is no idle comedy or light hearted musical which will he quickly forgotten. Sunset Boulevard is a startling document of a change in the movie eras. It will be long remembered as one of the outstanding film achievements of this time. — P. M.
At upper left, chatting under a prop lamp post at a reception following a recent Hollywood screening of Paramount’s Sunset Boulevard, are, from left, Paul Manning, Exhibitor; producer-writer Charles Brackett, director-writer Billy Wilder, Anatole Litvak, and a friend, while at right Gloria Swanson and William Holden are seen in a dramatic scene from the film.
At lower left, Cecil B. DeMille, who plays himself in the picture, and Miss Swanson discuss the former cinema queen’s return to the movies, and at right is the picture’s final scene in which Swanson emotes for newsreel cameramen before the police take her away on a murder charge.
Collection: Exhibitor Magazine (Studio Survey), May 1950