Meet Seton I. Miller, Writer-Producer (1950) 🇺🇸
Figured in terms of cold cash, the creative work of Seton I. Miller has to this date taken in close to 150 millions at the box offices of the world.
by Paul Manning
This is the estimated gross of the 54 released “A” pictures which Miller has scripted, and, in some cases, has also produced. Since his first script, “Paid to Love,” a Virginia Valli/Charles Farrell starrer of 1926, his stub pencils have scrawled out money maker after money maker. He has at the present time in various stages of work screen plays 55, 56, and 57. Robert Stillman Productions, searching for the best story brains they could beg, borrow, steal, or buy, hit the Hollywood jackpot by forming a partnership between Stillman and Miller. This was several months ago before any actual work was done on the first Stillman production, “The Sound of Fury.”
A quick glance at the type of stories scripted successfully by Miller will give witness to the wisdom of the Stillman decision, “Scarface,” “The Crowd Roars,” “G Men,” “Kid Galahad,” Robin Hood, The Dawn Patrol, The Sea Hawk, and many, many others equally as commercial.
The Miller sense of story values and the dollar saving technique of getting all the kinks ironed out of the script with weeks of pre-shooting rehearsals coincided perfectly with those of producer Robert Stillman, and these two have worked out this system perfectly with their initial film, The Sound of Fury. Howard Hawks was the first to recognize Seton Miller’s talent for writing, and their affiliation lasted for several years. A close observance at the fine directorial touch of Hawks gave Miller that subtle understanding of the close relations between the written word and the actual shooting on the sound stages. This understanding has made a Seton Miller screen play one of the most desired scripts by Hollywood’s top directors.
With Miller now under the Robert Stillman banner, associate producer of those box office smashes, “Champion” and “Home of the Brave,” it does seem sensible to expect a run of good, merchandiseable films to be the natural result. — P. M.
—
Good Things to Come from Hollywood… All About Eve
by Paul Manning
All About Eve is the closest to screen champagne this editor has seen in many a movie moon. The droll sparkle of its dialogue, the dramatic reaches of the individual performances, and the easy going continuity of 138-minute running time will distinguish this among films. Mark another hit for Darryl Zanuck [Darryl F. Zanuck] and his fair-haired boy, Joe Mankiewicz, respectively the producer, writer-director. Any adjective you may choose at random, any superlative that is, will well apply to this super film. Here are a few from my book, dramatic achievement, exciting, tempestuous romance, and brilliant, sophisticated dialogue, the plain spoken kind which is not above the heads of the average moviegoer, and zestful, breathtaking comedy. The above accolade sums up my reasons for calling All About Eve a form of screen champagne from a studio fast becoming a synonym for screen sensations which enter the rare champagne class. Bravo! — P. M.
At upper left, in a scene from 20th-Fox’s All About Eve, Anne Baxter, left, stagestruck theatre fan, ingratiates herself with a famous Broadway actress, Bette Davis, right. Brought to the actress’ dressing room by Celeste Holm, wife of playwright Hugh Marlowe, she listens as stage director Gary Merrill talks with Miss Davis.
At right, in another scene from the film, is depicted the culmination of Miss Baxter’s subsequent acting career as she receives an award for the best performance of the year, and is congratulated by Miss Davis as Merrill and George Sanders look on.
Darryl F. Zanuck, lower left, produced All About Eve, while Joseph L. Mankiewicz wrote the original screen play and directed the picture.
Special selling treatment is being used.
—
Miss Darwell to Scully
Hollywood — Jane Darwell, Academy-Award winner, was recently signed by producer Peter Scully for three films in his “Latham Family” series for Monogram.
She will portray a new character in the series, a likeable although meddlesome neighbor of Raymond Walburn, who stars in the series.
Her first picture under the pact is “Father’s Wild Game” which went before the cameras at Charleston Flats, back of Mount Wilson in California’s Sierra Madre mountains. Herbert I. Leeds, directs.
Miss Darwell, who recently completed a featured role as a newspaper stand operator in Paramount’s “The Lemon Drop Kid,” won the Academy award for her performance as Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath.
—
Exhibitor’s Paul Manning, center, is pictured at a recent meeting on the coast with western star Roy Rogers and Republic president Herbert Yates.
Collection: Exhibitor Magazine (Studio Survey), October 1950