The screen writer (Apr-Oct 1948)

Fred Zinnemann (Continued from Page 13) no answer, the boy took that name for his own. At the UNRRA camp, where directors were trained in psychological work and made every effort to place a child in a milieu which had some degree of comforting familiarity, the child remained undiscovered for a long time. In the midst of friendly faces, he was still lost, without even the solace of his own identity and his own dimly-remembered religious background. , The ambulance incident, also depicted in The Search demonstrates these peculiar mental twists, unrecognized even by those counsellors whose vocation it was to recognize them. No one could anticipate the fact that being transported in an ambulance marked with a Red Cross, that accepted international symbol of mercy, would bring hysteria and frenzy to children who had seen such ambulances used as lethal gas chambers. OCCASIONALLY an episode was discarded because it was "too much" ... in every sense. Such was the story of the first Christmas after the liberation, described to us by one of the directors. Her charges, some two hundred of them, were Christian children between the ages of eight and twelve. Christmas was approaching. It was necessary to somehow divert the children and arouse them from a lethargy of hopelessness since there had been an epidemic of attempted suicide. After inspired scrounging, the derector obtained a hundred and fifty small chickens. A group of the men went out into the forest and cut down a large pine tree. Every member of the staff worked late at night for weeks making homemade ornaments for the tree and simple, homemade toys. Plans for the celebration were kept a secret ; preparations went on behind closed doors. On Christmas Eve the pathetically docile children were led into a room and seated. In their robot-like way they obeyed every order. The doors were opened and the tree, the gifts C L A S S I F I E D CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS are accepted for personal services, things for sale or wanted, specialized and professional services and other miscellaneous fields. All copy subject to approval of The Screen Writer. Rates: 1 time 10c per word; 3 times 8c per word; 6 times 7c per word; 12 times 6c per word. Minimum insertion: 20 words. Full payment must be received with copy. All mail will be forwarded in answer to box numbers. Address: The Screen Writer, 1SSS N. Cherokee Ave., Hollywood 28, California RECORDS FOUR ANTIQUE MUSIC BOX FAVORITES and five Gilbert & Sullivan Handorgan Melodies. $3. CUSTOM RECORDINGS, Box 1047, Hartford, Conn. BOOK PLATES FREE CATALOG, showing hundreds of interesting bookplate designs, sent on request. Antioch Bookplate Company, 214. Xenia Ave., Yellow Springs, Ohio. ORIGINAL HAND PRINTED BOOK PLATES — your design or ours. Lou Appet and Myer Shaffer. 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PHONE GL 5124, APT. 907. and the table laden with chicken were disclosed. Workers from every side urged the children forward and for the first time they refused to respond. They wouldn't approach the tree nor reach for the food. Finally, some of them burst into tears. "Suddenly we realized what we had done," the director told us. "We had reminded them of happier Christmases and of their lost families. They refused to accept it and so break down their painfully acquired pitiful defenses." "I had hysterics," she said. "The men cried." THE honesty of these UNRRA workers in admitting their wellintentioned mistakes was infectious. The writer, the director, everyone working on the film, came to feel that the theoretical search for realism had become a daily, grubbing . . . and rewarding . . . job. I have said, inadvisedly, that the film story for The Search was conceived in its own locale and that it derives its authenticity from this fact rather than because the filming took place there. (As a matter of fact, many of the sequences were actually filmed in Switzerland.) The story was conceived when war overtook Europe. It was brought to the screen when the writer saw the story in actuality and used his skill to edit, emphasize and translate. Perhaps the subject matter for The Search was different from most motion picture subject matter; I cannot but feel that any and all subject matter would profit from this method and that it is by such means the motion picture will reach full stature as a medium. TWICE-SOLD TALES Martin Field is preparing a new edition of Twice-Sold Tales, printed in these pages in May, 1947. His account of how middle-men, agents and producers bought stories at low prices and sold them high, pocketing the profit, brought considerable comment and caused several operators to desist from the practice. He would appreciate information from screen writers who have suffered from the practice recently. 30 The Screen Writer, August, 1948