The Screen Guilds’ Magazine (January 1935)

January, 1935 3 Awards That Mean Something By Sidney Sutherland I F you wanted to find the best soup in the world, it would, manifestly, be absurd to call in as testers a mahout, a taxidermist, a pelican fancier, a hostler and a sky-writer. It would border on intelligence if you summoned a person who, by talent, by preference and by a lifetime of experience, had been identi¬ fied with the making of soup. So, if you want to find the best mo¬ tion pictures of the year it would im¬ pinge upon imbecility if you put the selection up to any human beyond the person who has contributed the most im¬ portant element in the making of pic¬ tures. When the Screen Writers’ Guild voted last month for the five best-written pic¬ tures of 1934, the winners are hence¬ forth justified in regarding the over¬ whelming choice of the craft as an ac¬ colade they may wear with pride and joy. True, it incites one’s vanity to be identified with the concensus of any group which sets out to pick the best films of any given period. But we all know that when such groups do register their selections, the writer is the last factor in the sum total that they have in mind. The box office take; the popularity of the star; the gratuitous stunts of the director; and the puissant influence of a given studio —these are the motivations crouched be¬ hind the decisions of trade papers, the Academy, the critics’ polls, and so on, Second only to the real joy of wTiting is the joy the members of the Guild ex¬ perienced when they finally were given an opportunity to acclaim the pictures which, in their mature and deliberate judgment, best warranted their super¬ lative commendation. In a box in the center of these columns will be found the five champions, with the names of their creators; and the five next-best which deserved the title of 44 Honorable Mention.” And the world ma y be sure that, at last, awards of merit have been conferred free from all partisan persuasion, producer pressure, and professional envy. They are the best-written pictures of the year, and nobody will have the temerity or the ef¬ frontery to deny it! In passing, it is highly interesting, and, I believe, highly important, to ob¬ serve that these five winning pictures are, palpably, the ones in which the studios permitted the writers more lee¬ way than they usually do. You can see, you can feel, you know, as you see them on the screen, that the free rein given the victorious writers of these pic¬ tures bore rich and profitable fruit in the final result. When will producers learn that the only person who can write is a writer! AWARDS FOR FIVE BEST-WRITTEN PICTURES OF 1934 1. "It Happened One Night"—Screen Play by Robert Riskin, from story by Samuel Hopkins. Columbia. 2. "The Thin Man"—Screen play by Albert Hackett and Frances Good¬ rich, from story by Dashiell Ham¬ mett. M.G.M. 3. "The House of Rothschild"—Screen play by Nunnally Johnson and Maude T. Howell. 20th Century. 4. "One Night of Love"—Screen play by S. K. Lauren, Edmund North and James Gow from Charles Bea- han original. Columbia. 5. TIED: "Of Human Bondage"— Screen play by Lester Cohen from Somerset Maugham novel. Radio. "The Gay Divorce e"— Screen play by George Marion Jr., Dorothy Yost and Edward Kaufman from stage play. Radio. ♦ HONORABLE MENTION "The Barretts of Wimpole Street"— Screen play by Donald Ogden Stewart, Ernest Vadja and Claudine West, from Rudolph Besier play. M.G.M. "Viva Villa"—Screen play by Ben Hecht. M.G.M. "20th Century"—Screen play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. Columbia. "Crime Without Passion" — Screen play by Ben Hecht and Charles Mac¬ Arthur. Paramount. "No Greater Glory"—Jo Swerling. Columbia. The first annual dinner-dance at which these Guild selections were made public was an unqualified success. Thursday night, Dec. 20, last, saw the Trocadero Cafe thronged with the greatest aggre¬ gation of literary ability probably ever to assemble in one building! The place was positively magnetic with talent. Of the 750 members of the Guild, more than 500 attended; and the absentees were kept away only by illness, occupation, enforced absence from town, or failure to make reservations in time. Many of those who could not be there sent in their ballots for the best pictures. There were 619 votes cast; and it is cer¬ tain that next year, so great was the suc¬ cess of our first contest, every writer will take part. The Arrangements Committee was forced to turn down nearly 250 tardy requests for reservations, because of the Trocadero’s capacity. Judging from the popularity of the first dinner-dance, the one next December will have to be held in the Stadium! The entertainment was applauded generously; and the innovations of the Champagne Magnum raffles, and the “horse races,” helped to swell the re¬ ceipts. all of which went to the Guild treasury. With the knowledge and ex¬ perience gained at this, our first, gala affair, Guild members may look forward with confidence that next year’s festivi¬ ties will really set a new high in Holly¬ wood affairs. Meantime, John Emerson, that , stal¬ wart old quill wielder and bon vivant, is preparing the Certificates which will soon be engraved and delivered to the talented writers who won this year’s ballot. They will be magnificent speci¬ mens of the engravers’ and printers’ art, and they may well be regarded by the recipients as a badge of glory won on the most difficult writing field in the whole literary world—the one field where the fate of your brainchild is largely in the hands of a dozen other individu¬ als, producer, director, supervisor, actor, camera man, cutter, editor, sound re¬ corder, casting director, exhibitor. Is it any wonder that most of the youngsters writing for pictures are fast growing grey headed as they stand help¬ lessly by and watch what happens to what they write!