Tuesdays With Tom Benedek: “The Tenacious Mr. Trumbo”
Another weekly guest post from screenwriter Tom Benedek:
THE TENACIOUS MR. TRUMBO
Show business is tough. It takes talent, luck, tenacity. Jobs are scarce. Good work is often overlooked. Reading the recent report on employment within the Writers Guild was no fun. But the enduring truths remain. Great work is rewarded. If you don’t write that script you are dreaming about, you will never know whether it has the potential for greatness.
Dalton Trumbo’s career is an inspiration in many ways. Some people say you make your own luck. You may also dig your own grave — for all the right reasons. By not naming names and being found in contempt of Congress, Trumbo went to prison and blew out his Hollywood career. Making $3,000 a week in the 1940’s, he was the most highly paid writer in town — until he let it all go to stay square with his own moral necessities.
Last week, I sat down with Edward Lewis, producer of Spartacus, Missing, many other highly regarded films, to discuss Dalton Trumbo and The Hollywood Black List. Trumbo was hired by Eddie to adapt Howard Fast’s novel. Fast had been struggling with the adaptation. Kirk Douglas was set to star in the picture for his own production company at Universal. There was another gladiator project at a different studio with Anthony Quinn attached as the lead. The Spartacus producer was in a horse race. Only one gladiator film would get the green light. Lewis needed a screenwriter who wrote quickly. Comedy screenwriter Frank Tarloff recommended Trumbo. Politics did not enter into the decision. Trumbo was a good writer who worked rapidly. That is why he was approached for the assignment, according to Lewis. The producer acted as front for Trumbo. Edward Lewis’s name was on the script throughout production but Dalton Trumbo was doing the writing.
Lewis traveled to London to enlist Lawrence Olivier, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov to act in the film. There the producer sat silently while Olivier introduced him as the wonderfully gifted writer of this fantastic adaptation, Spartacus, to British friends and colleagues.
When it came time to submit the final credits to Universal for Spartacus, Eddie Lewis had his name taken off the script. Dalton Trumbo had been tenaciously working on Eddie Lewis throughout the production process. He wanted his name on the film and pushed the idea again and again.
Months earlier, renowned producer-director Otto Preminger had announced vocally to the worldwide media that Dalton Trumbo would be the screenwriter of his next film, a screen adaptation of the best-selling novel “Exodus”. This was a first. No studio had publicly hired a black listed writer in the 1950s. Universal could hide the true identity of the screenwriter or they could follow Preminger’s bold move and let the world know who the real screenwriter of Spartacus. was. Eventually, Kirk Douglas’ company, Bryna, and Universal signed off on the final list of credits for Spartacus with Dalton Trumbo listed as screenwriter.
Not only did Dalton Trumbo fight the fight in writing the best scripts he possibly could throughout his career, he also fought heroically for the right to work under his own name.
For more background on Trumbo and Spartacus, check out this previous post by Tom.
Tom has two Screenwriting Master Class courses on the horizon: Pages II: Rewriting Your Script and Prep: From Concept to Outline. A great opportunity not only to better your chops as a writer, but also work with Tom, a talented and creative screenwriter, and all-around good guy.
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