PBS's "American Masters" series: Dalton Trumbo

[CBHagman]

On Wednesday, September 2, PBS is set to devote an episode of the American Masters series to Dalton Trumbo. Check your local station for times.

An introduction to the film:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/dalton-trumbo/introduction-to-trumbo/1165/


The American Masters website:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/

[lavenderdiva]

1. I saw this documentary several nights ago

but didn't see this thread until just now! I'm sorry I missed it earlier!!

this documentary was absolutely riveting. Dalton Trumbo was a master at writing: both screenplays and in his personal life. He must have been a genuis; that's all I can say. To listen to his letter to his daughter's principal, describing the hell she had gone through at school, being ridiculed and scorned for her father's persecution, was amazing. The letters he wrote to his wife and to his friends over the years were beautiful and insightful. I didn't even realize HOW many 'Classics' that he wrote!

And to stand up to the persecutors that ruined his life by putting him on the Hollywood Blacklist, and yet he continued to write such amazing works. He was a very brave man. Even though he had to use pseudonyms for awhile, and his pen-names won two Oscars! Nominated for 3 Oscars, and won 2:

1941: Nominated: Best Writing, Screenplay
for: Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman (1940)

1954: Won: Best Writing, Motion Picture Story
for: Roman Holiday (1953)
The screen credit and award were originally credited to Ian McLellan Hunter who fronted for Dalton Trumbo. In December 1992 the Academy decided to change the records and to credit Mr. Trumbo with the achievement. Ian McLellan Hunter was removed from the Motion Picture Story category and the Oscar was posthumously presented to Trumbo's widow on May 10th, 1993.

1957: Won: Best Writing, Motion Picture Story
for: The Brave One (1956)
Because he was not permitted to work due to the Hollywood blacklist, Trumbo wrote the story - and was nominated - under the pseudonym Robert Rich, who had nothing to do with the film industry and is a nephew of the King Brothers, producers of the film. Although there were rumors at the time that this was the case, the film's producer repeatedly denied the suggestion. It was not acknowledged until several years later that Trumbo had been the writer. He finally received his award on May 2, 1975, presented by then Academy president Walter Mirisch, shortly before his death - although the official screen credit was not changed until many years afterward.

link: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0874308/awards


My thanks to Mr. Trumbo for writing so many wonderful classics that we still enjoy!

some of his screenplays:
A Bill of Divorcement
Kitty Foyle
Our Vines Have Tender Grapes
Roman Holiday
Spartacus
Exodus
Hawaii
The Fixer
Johnny Got His Gun
Papillon
Always

thanks CBH for highlighting this terrific look at Dalton Trumbo-- :hi:

[CBHagman]

2. I found it riveting as well.

The review in the paper suggested that the conceit of having eminent actors -- David Strathairn, Joan Allen et al - reading Trumbo's letters was a bit heavy-handed, but I thought it flowed better than I might have expected. And it's a good thing the Democrats are in control of Congress, because PBS funding could not survive a right-wing assault if the Jesse Helms types ever got a load of that Nathan Lane performance of Trumbo's letter to his adolescent son (Let's just say Mr. Trumbo had not forgotten what it was like to be a teenaged boy and leave it at that). ;-)