The screen writer (Apr-Oct 1948)

Collier Young (Continued from Page 5) trade. Those words: "corny," "coincidental, "wiener," gimmick," etc. I, too, detest them. Yet, I've caught this tired patois right in the front teeth from a number of writers engaged in spurning my suggestions. Couldn't we concede that both sides are guilty? That both camps have come up with a broken string? \ GAIN, how right you are, Mr. ■* *• Taylor, in pointing to that abused word "pace." True, the concern for this priceless ingredient, compounded of moonlight and common sense, is the province of the writer and the director. And it is in this precise relationship that I have seen certain "story experts" perform signal service. Among the directors themselves, there are some remarkable hatchet men. The allegedly ruthless hand of the producer seems like a caress compared to certain directors who direct with a pencil. Time and again the respon sible story man has, with no thought of personal safety, thrown himself into this crossfire to protect the writer. The same service has also been rendered in connection with a star who won an essay contest in high school the year the papers got mixed up and has been a frustrated writer ever since. Mr. Taylor goes on to mention that horrid word "contrive." Indeed, it is a curse on our industry. Such a blight is it that no one sex, class, kind or ethnological group could be alone held responsible for its evils. I flatly deny that this small ragged army of "story experts" could cause it, or cure it. Rather, let us all fall upon our knees and pray for divine guidance. It will take all of thai. Despite the deserved praise which Mr. Taylor heaps upon English films, I would say that our British brothers had better try prayer, too. /^\NLY the other night I suddenly ^— 'woke in the very sweat of discovery. I thought I had subconsciously hit upon a completely new way for a boy to meet a girl. This gleaming nugget I would place at the disposal of some writer who needed it (another service cheerfully rendered by "story experts"). Imagine, then, how dashed I felt the next day to learn that the hero who picks up a fan at the opera and returns same to the heroine, had been used in several pictures before. It all goes to show. . . . Don't you honestly think there's room for both of us in this exacting and exhausting trade. Mr. Taylor? Let us live together in peace. I have your phone number. Have I your respect? OR FOR POPCORN "Do you come to the play without knowing what it is?" "O, yes. Sir, yes. very frequently. I have no time to read playbills. One merely comes to meet one's friends, and show that one's alive." — Fanny Barney, Evelina SAM JAFFE AGENCY ^ HOLLYWOOD OFFICE: 8553 Sunset Boulevard Hollywood 46, California Phone: CRestview 6-6121 NEW YORK OFFICE: 119 West 57th Street New York, N. Y: Phone: Circle 7-2346 The Screen Writer, June-July, 19 + 8 29