12/19/23
Newsletter #533
The Crack of Dawn
It was the unusually hot summer of 1987 in L.A. I lived in a $400-a-month apartment over a carriage house, behind an abandoned house on Bronson St. in Hollywood. I had been hired to write, and rewrite, Lunatics: A Love Story at $500-a-draft (I would eventually write fourteen drafts). I was working on my (and many other’s) first PC, the Apple 2C, which had no hard drive. You had to constantly change five-inch floppy disks – one disk was the operating system; the other was your saved data – in the one disk drive. A file would hold seven pages of a screenplay. At the end of writing, you simply printed your 15-20 separate files on a dot matrix printer and put them all together as a single thing (page numbers were a problem). It was a pain in the ass, but we didn’t see it that way; we saw it as big improvement over typing the script, then physically cutting and pasting with a scissors and a glue stick.
I was writing in the tiny kitchen that had a window facing west. It was sunset and from my slightly elevated perch I could see miles of Hollywood spread out before me in a warm, “magic hour” light. The night before I had seen the movie Street Smart (1987) for the second time. The movie had so impressed me that I’d gone and seen it again. This was the movie that really launched Morgan Freeman’s career. It’s certainly one of Christopher Reeves’ best films. It was directed by Jerry Schatzberg, who was a famous still photographer who went into movies and had made some interesting films, like Al Pacino’s debut film, Panic in Needle Park (1971). But to me as a struggling screenwriter, what impressed me the most about the film was the script, written by David Freeman, of whom I’d never heard — but then who has ever heard of any screenwriter?
Digressing for a moment: Street Smart was produced by Cannon Films. From 1967 to 1990, Cannon Films, under the energetic guidance of Menachem Golan and Yoram Globus, ultimately produced 848 movies, all of them bad. Except two: Street Smart and Barfly, both in 1987. Charles Bukowski, who wrote the script for Barfly, also wrote a book about the making of the film called Hollywood, so we know that story and I recommend both the film and the book. I have no idea how Street Smart came to be, how something good got past Golan and Globus’s heavy hands, but I’m sure it was a mistake. In any case, Cannon didn’t even try to sell the film, they dumped it on the market, and it came and went.
Anyway, I was sitting there in front of my Apple 2C computer in a sweltering kitchen, above a carriage house, looking out at the sun setting on Hollywood. I was ostensibly rewriting Lunatics, but my mind kept returning to Street Smart with its really smart, well-conceived, and well-constructed, script. Then I thought, “David Freeman is sitting out there,” I pointed out the window, “in Hollywood, in front of a computer or a typewriter, trying to write another screenplay right now.”
I glanced down and there was the phone book. Everyone used to be listed in the phone book. I picked up the phone book, went to F, and there were two David Freemans, both listed in West Hollywood. All right, I thought, “Let’s try the first one.” I dialed the number, it rang twice, then was answered by a male voice saying, “Hello?”
I said, “Is this David Freeman?” I sounded like a come-on from a salesperson, so he hesitantly, though politely, replied, “Yes, this is David Freeman.” I said, “The David Freeman who wrote the movie, Street Smart?” His tone changed completely, “Yes.” I said, “I am a struggling filmmaker, presently writing my second feature film. I just watched Street Smart, twice. You know what?” He said, “What?” truly expecting me to reprimand him for dirty language, or something. I said, “That’s a really good script. That’s exactly what I’m trying to do. How did you do it?”
There was an unnaturally long silence, then David Freeman confessed, “This is the first fan call that I have ever received in ten years in Hollywood.” I said, “I’m pleased to make it. You’re a good screenwriter. How on earth did you write such a good screenplay?” He didn’t answer that, but he sold me on his newly published book of short stories about Hollywood called A Hollywood Education, which I went out and bought, read, and still remember.
I see from his underwritten biographical sketch on Wikipedia that Street Smart was his last film credit, of five, including The Border (1982) with Jack Nicholson, which was a real movie, though not very good; and First Love (1977), which was a real film, though not very good, with Susan Dey and William Katt. Wikipedia doesn’t list his birth or death dates, which is odd. But it appears that after Street Smart, which is truly a first-rate effort, he seems to have hung up his screenwriting gloves and retired. He’s written a few more books. I’m pleased to have been his first fan call.
I have mysteriously synched back with the crack of dawn.
Good day.
I see from his oddly underwritten biographical sketch on Wikipedia that Street Smart was his last film credit, of five. There are no birth or death dates listed on it, which is odd. But after the experience of Street Smart, which is a first-rate effort, he’d had enough, hung up his gloves and retired.
It says he’s from Cleveland, so that’s possibly where he returned. Not very far from Detroit. Or he’s just one more crazy denizen of Hollywood, who almost had something going for a second.
I have mysteriously synched back out to the crack of dawn.
Good day.
A perfectly reasonable response, Mick, and one that many viewers and reviewers would agree with at the time. I personally found "Runaway Train" to be an over-hyped bore, and whatever suspense or drama people liked, I just didn't. Eric Roberts gives me the creeps. However, another Cannon exception -- sort of -- is "Bloodsport," which is a good example of its genre (and Forrest Whitaker's first movie), though not necessarily fine cinema.
Well. Look who popped out of the woodwork. I knew that would get you. No No, bloodsport is fine cinema.