10/4/22
Newsletter117
The Crack of Dawn
I have tremendous admiration for director-producer Stanley Kramer (real name, Stanley Kramer, a Jew from NY), who I believe changed the course of Hollywood filmmaking. After serving in WWII, Kramer decided to make an independent movie that would sell, or at least impress people. The film is So This is New York (1948) starring a big radio star at that moment, Henry Morgan, not to be confused with the other Henry Morgan, who changed his name to Harry Morgan (Col. Potter on M*A*S*H) so as not to be confused. I’ve seen So This is New York a number of times (I taped it) – although it’s never shown – and I think it’s extremely funny, although it wasn’t a hit. Stanley Kramer then independently produced Champion (1949), which launched both Kramer’s and Kirk Douglas’s careers. This little indie, shot in 23 days, was a smash success, nominated for five Oscars, and won Best Editing. Then Stanley Kramer managed to make possibly the most interesting, fecund, producing deal in Hollywood history. Instead of dealing with Harry Cohen at Columbia Pictures, Kramer back-doored him and made a deal with his brother, Joe, for 20 movies with complete independence and no oversight. The group of people Kramer put together was astounding and would have a big impact on the course of filmmaking for years to come. Kramer loved serious stories and recognized talent.
In 1950 Kramer produced The Men, the story of handicapped war veterans. This was the debut film of Marlon Brando. It was directed by Fred Zinneman, who would go on to win two Oscars for From Here to Eternity (1953) and A Man for All Seasons (1966). It was written by Carl Foreman, who received an Oscar nomination for it, but didn’t win. When Carl Foreman did win the Oscar for Best Screenplay in 1957 for The Bridge on the River Kwai, both he and his co-writer, Michael Wilson, were blacklisted and didn’t receive credit. When the film won Best Screenplay, the author of the book, Pierre Boulle (who would later write Planet of the Apes), accepted the Oscar, even though he didn’t speak English.
That whole group of movies produced by Stanley Kramer between 1950 and 1954 are incredible. Cyrano de Bergerac (1950), that won Jose Ferrer Best Actor; the classic, High Noon (1952); one of my favorites, Member of the Wedding (1953); Death of a Salesman (1953); The Wild One (1953), one of Brando’s best, and most iconic, movies, which launched the career of Lee Marvin, who appears in several of these movies. The Sniper (1952), directed by good old Edward Dmytryk, and the forerunner of so many movies, about a psycho who is just shooting people. The 5,000 Finger of Dr. T, written by Theodore Geisel, otherwise known as Dr. Suess, and as weird of a movie as has ever been made. The Juggler (1953), the first U.S. production to shoot on location in Israel, which had just come into existence, with Kirk Douglas as a psychotic concentration camp survivor/circus juggler. It’s not a good movie, but it’s certainly worth seeing. All of these Stanley Kramer pictures are worth seeing. And he ended this endeavor, called The Kramer Company, with The Caine Mutiny (1954), which was nominated for Best Picture, made a lot of money, is actually a good movie, and one of Humphry Bogart’s best movies.
I didn’t even mention half of the films. So, the next year, 1955, Stanley Kramer became a director, and that’s a whole different story. But The Kramer Company was a wonderful fluke. And it was caught directly in the middle of Hollywood Blacklist and contained many of its victims.
It is indeed the Crack of Dawn.