Daily Dialogue — August 28, 2013

“Madness. Madness.”

— The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), screenplay by Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman, uncredited; written by Pierre Boulie (novel)

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is less with more suggested by hobbs001. Today’s suggestion by John Arends.

Trivia: Screenwriters Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman were on the blacklist of people with accused Communist ties at the time the film was made, and went uncredited. The sole writing credit, and therefore the Oscar for best adapted screenplay, went to Pierre Boulle, who wrote the original French novel but did not speak English. Clearly Pierre had not written the English script and this became a long-running controversy between the Academy and the actual authors to achieve recognition for their work. In 1984 the Academy retrospectively awarded the Oscar to Wilson and Foreman. Sadly Wilson did not live to see this; Foreman died the day after it was announced. When the film was restored, their names were added to the credits.

Dialogue On Dialogue: One of the most memorable movie moments from the decade of the 50s.