Marguerite Roberts

[benwhowell]

I really enjoyed the snappy dialogue in "Ziegfield Girl" (seen last night on TCM.)
Decided to do a little research on the screenplay...discovered it was adapted from a (William Anthony McGuire) story by Marguerite Roberts, Sonya Levien and Annalee Whitmore.
Marguerite's screenplay adapting career spanned almost 40 years and includes "Escape," "Dragon Seed," "Love Has Many Faces" and "True Grit."
Two of her credits really stand out for me and I question why they've never seen a VHS/DVD release.
"Red Sky At Morning" (1971)
Adapted from a Richard Bradford novel and directed by James "They Only Kill Their Masters" Goldstone. Richard Thomas, Desi Arnaz, JR and Catherine Burns star as three friends coming of age in a racially mixed community in New Mexico during WWII. Cast includes Richard Crenna, Claire Bloom and many familiar character actors.
I remember seeing part of this on TV in the '70's. The beautiful cinematography (from Vilmos Zsigmond) is what I remember most. Produced by Hal B. Wallis. From Universal.

"Hollywood Boulevard" (1936)
Marguerite adapted Faith Thomas' story about the sordid side of Hollywood. Robert Florey directed. Florey began his career making experimental, avant-garde shorts-including "The Life And Death Of 9413, A Hollywood Extra" (1928.) "Hollywood Boulevard" is somewhat "experimental." His cast included dozens of silent movie stars...many of whom's careers ended with "talkies." I'm not sure why, but many of these star's scenes were deleted (according to IMDb)-including Louise Brooks, Harold Lloyd, et al. Alas, Gary Cooper's cameo remains.
Florey later directed for TV-including "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "The Twilight Zone" and received an Emmy nomination for "The Loretta Young Show."

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi Ben,

Marguerite Roberts - - now there's a name from the past.
I knew her vaguely but she was a very good friend of Lana Turner and worked on several pictures for her.
She also was friendly with Ava Gardner and Angela Lansbury.

Larry