This Month in Filmmaking History - November 2021

“A Night at the Opera,” which premiered on this day in history in 1935, marked a new style of comedy for the starring Marx Brothers. George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind wrote the screenplay, with several additional contributing writers to jokes, dialogue, and story. For the five Marx Brothers, who had made a name for themselves with their zany comedic style in Paramount movies and on Broadway, the more structured plot in MGM’s “A Night At The Opera” was a departure from their previous films that were more joke-heavy and less plot-centric. MGM felt the anarchic jokes didn’t bode well with women, and they were right. The new style was a box office hit among both men and women and one of the best performing films for MGM that year.

Read the screenplay transcript for “A Night at the Opera.”

Dean Reisner began his career in film not long after he was born on this day in 1918. At just four years old, “Dinky Dean,” as he was known, played alongside the likes of Charlie Chaplin in films such as “The Pilgrim.” Later, he became a film and television writer, with credits on the Ronald Reagan movie “Code of the Secret Service” and some Clint Eastwood films, including “Dirty Harry.” He won an honorary Oscar for directing “Bill and Coo,” a film that starred birds dressed in human costumes. Reisner passed away in 2002 of natural causes.

“The Big Parade,” a silent war drama film written by Laurence Stallings, debuted on this day in 1925. It depicted the realities of trench warfare during World War I, following a wealthy boy who joins the army and is sent to fight in France, where he subsequently falls in love. It’s arguably one of the most financially successful silent films of all time, grossing nearly $5 million at the US box office. Though the Academy Awards did not exist, the film did win the Photoplay Magazine Medal for best film of the year, which is considered the first significant movie award.

Based on the British comedy TV series, “Bean” premiered as a movie on this day in history in 1997. The story follows the misadventures of Mr. Bean, who goes to America and is tasked with delivering a valuable painting to an LA museum. Richard Curtis and Robin Driscoll, whom both wrote for the television series, wrote the screenplay for the film. Mr. Bean’s personality is described as a “child in a grown man’s body,” so the comedic elements consist of plenty of physical comedy and slapstick. Critics were unimpressed with the film, but that didn’t stop audiences from going to the theater. The movie was a box-office success.

Read the screenplay for “Bean.”

Sir Ronald Harwood, a screenwriter, playwright, and author, was born on this day in history in 1934. He passed away late last year. Harwood wrote the screenplay for the Oscar-winning films “The Pianist” and the Oscar-nominated films “The Dresser” and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.” Harwood was born in Cape Town, South Africa, as Ronald Horwitz, but changed his name to Harwood after moving to London to pursue theater. He was told his name was “too Jewish” for a stage actor. After holding honors such as chairman of The Royal Society of Literature, president of the Royal Literary Fund, and commander of the Order of the British Empire, Harwood was knighted in 2010. He received the National Jewish Theatre Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.

A holiday must-watch in the US, “Home Alone” premiered on this day in history 31 years ago. John Hughes wrote the classic comedy screenplay, which centers on a young boy whose family accidentally leaves him home alone while they go on vacation in France. He’s forced to defend the family home from burglars. Hughes said he came up with the idea for the screenplay while he was getting ready to go on vacation and was making a list of everything he needed to remember to take with him. He thought, “What would happen if I left my 10-year-old kid behind?” The film launched Macaulay Culkin’s career and has since become a favorite Christmas film among American audiences. A sequel premiered in 1992, titled “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.”

Read the shooting script for “Home Alone.”

“Duck Soup,” a Marx Brothers comedy film, premiered on this day in history in 1933. It was one of the brothers' last films for Paramount Pictures and the last movie that featured Zeppo Marx. Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby wrote the screenplay for the pre-Code comedy film, which was not yet subject to the strict Hays Code standards that censored profanity, sex, drugs, and religious ridicule. The film had several titles and script iterations, dubbed “Firecrackers” and “Cracked Ice” at one point. Though not an immediate commercial success as other Marx Brothers films had been, the film inspired other famous artists throughout history, including The Beatles in their movie, “Help!” and filmmakers Woody Allen and Sacha Baron Cohen.

Screenwriter Martin Goldsmith penned the screenplay for “Detour,” a 1945 film noir that premiered on this day in history. Martin Mooney also helped adapt Goldsmith’s novel of the same name, though he is uncredited. The story centers on a hitchhiking pianist who runs into a series of unfortunate events after taking on someone else’s identity. The Motion Picture Association, citing the Motion Picture Production Code, forced a change to the story's ending that saw the main character taken away in a police car since the code did not allow murderers to get away with their crimes in movies.  

Read the screenplay transcript for “Detour.”

Actor, screenwriter, and director Valeria Bruni Tedeschi turns 57 today. The French-Italian filmmaker is perhaps best known for her film “A Castle in Italy,” which was nominated for the Palme d’Or award at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. She also wrote “It’s Easier for a Camel” and “The Summer House.” She’s won or been nominated for more than 60 awards in her filmmaking and acting career.

Celebrated American actor and filmmaker Jodie Foster turns 59 years old today. Her career started in professional modeling when she was just three years old, and she made her acting debut at the age of six. Top billings include her role as Clarice in “Silence of the Lambs” and Iris in “Taxi Driver,” though she has more than 80 acting credits to her name in several TV shows and movies. She’s focused much of the last decade on directing, including episodes Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black,” “Black Mirror,” and “House of Cards.”

The Korean neo-noir action thriller “Oldboy” premiered on this day in history in 2003, the second film in Park Chan-wook’s “The Vengeance Trilogy.” The story is based on the Japanese Manga series by Garon Tsuchiya, illustrated by Nobuaki Minegishi. Experts praised the film for its single-shot action sequence, and it’s now considered one of the best neo-noir films of its time. Neo-noir describes contemporary films that have revived the film noir genre. Joon-hyung Lim and Jo-yun Hwang helped pen the screenplay for the film, which won the Grand Prix jury award at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, with the jury headed by Quentin Tarantino at the time.

Read the screenplay transcript for “OldBoy.”

Jared Bush wrote the screenplay for the Disney musical “Moana,” along with story help from seven other writers, which premiered on this day in history five years ago. The story follows a Polynesian girl who must break the curse set upon her island by a demigod by finding him to set things right. Taika Waititi wrote the initial screenplay for the film, but he joked in a later interview that only a slugline from his draft remained in the final script. The movie marked the 56th animated feature for Walt Disney Studios. It earned an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature.

Read the screenplay transcript for “Moana.”

Actor, producer, and writer Don Lake turns 65 today. The Canadian is best known for his roles in “Space Force,” “Dumb and Dumber To,” and as the voice of Stu Hopps in “Zootopia.”  He also wrote and appeared on more than 100 episodes of the famous “The Bonnie Hunt Show,” a daily syndicated talk show which ran from 2008-2010.

Screenwriter John Briley wrote the screenplay for “Gandhi,” a biographical film about the life of Mahatma Gandhi that premiered on this day in history in 1982. The film follows the leader’s nonviolent protest again the British Raj, and critics praised it for its accurate portrayal of his life. Director Richard Attenborough had been attempting to make a film about the life of Gandhi since the 50s but was thrown setback after setback. It wasn’t until 1980 that production finally began, after screenwriter John Briley helped Attenborough secure two-thirds of the funding for the film through Goldcrest Production Company.

Read the screenplay transcript for “Gandhi.”