90-462: Bigger Than Life is a 1956 American drama film directed by Nicholas Ray and starring James Mason , Barbara Rush and Walter Matthau . Its plot follows an ailing schoolteacher and family man whose life spins out of control when he misuses cortisone . It is based on a 1955 article by medical writer Berton Roueché in The New Yorker , titled "Ten Feet Tall". In addition to starring in
180-465: A 1964 musical of the same name . The Flowering Peach became the basis for the 1970 Broadway musical Two by Two , which starred Danny Kaye . Odets's screenplay for Sweet Smell of Success became the basis for the 2002 musical of the same name starring John Lithgow . Lincoln Center celebrated the centennial of Odets's birth with their 2006 production of Awake and Sing! , directed by Bartlett Sher. It won that year's Tony Award for Best Revival of
270-469: A corticosteroid . Ed makes a remarkable recovery and begins to spend more time with Lou and their young son Richie. However, shortly after beginning his cortisone regimen, Ed begins to abuse the medication. He is subject to turbulent mood swings and begins to lie to his doctor to obtain more. Although Ed has taken a sabbatical from his teaching position, he remains on the local Parent–Teacher Association board. At one of their meetings, Ed blatantly insults
360-757: A Play and sparked an ongoing revival of interest in Odets's work. Another centennial production, Rocket to the Moon , directed by Daniel Fish, was produced by Long Wharf Theater. American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts produced Paradise Lost in 2010, also directed by Daniel Fish. Golden Boy was produced by Lincoln Center with Bartlett Sher again directing. It opened on December 5, 2012, to enthusiastic reviews, subsequently garnering 8 Tony Award nominations. John Lahr declared "In this distinguished, almost symphonic production, Sher and Lincoln Center have done
450-462: A better understanding of the film. According to the taxonomy, combining the type with the genre does not create a separate genre. For instance, the "Horror Drama" is simply a dramatic horror film (as opposed to a comedic horror film). "Horror Drama" is not a genre separate from the horror genre or the drama type. Crime dramas explore themes of truth, justice, and freedom, and contain the fundamental dichotomy of "criminal vs. lawman". Crime films make
540-423: A broader range of moods . To these ends, a primary element in a drama is the occurrence of conflict —emotional, social, or otherwise—and its resolution in the course of the storyline. All forms of cinema or television that involve fictional stories are forms of drama in the broader sense if their storytelling is achieved by means of actors who represent ( mimesis ) characters . In this broader sense, drama
630-612: A chapter of his autobiography to his close friendship with Odets. On August 14, 1963, Odets died of stomach cancer at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital at the age of 57. Odets's ashes were interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale , in Glendale, California. Odets is regarded as one of the American theater's most important playwrights. According to Arthur Miller, "An Odets play was awaited like news hot off
720-590: A cooperative witness. A partial transcript of Odets's testimony can be found in Eric Bentley 's Thirty Years of Treason . Odets was tormented by public reaction to his testimony for the rest of his life. In his autobiography, Kazan recalls incidents of Odets being accosted in New York City streets and snubbed in Hollywood restaurants after his HUAC appearance. His productivity markedly declined after
810-607: A doctor and forges a new prescription at the local pharmacy. While playing football with Richie, Ed grows disproportionately aggressive, pushing the child beyond his limits. The incident disturbs Lou, who observes it from the kitchen window. Wally confronts Lou with research suggesting that cortisone can trigger psychosis in some patients when taken in high doses (known colloquially as "'roid rage"). Ed's mental state further declines, and he continually insults those around him, expressing abject arrogance, grandiosity and anger over minor inconveniences. When Lou attempts to inform Ed that
900-597: A great thing: they have put Odets finally and forever in the pantheon, where he belongs." Odets's early, more left-wing plays, such as Waiting for Lefty , Awake and Sing!, and Paradise Lost, have enjoyed numerous revivals since the 2008 economic crash. The Roundabout Theatre Company presented the first revival of Odets's 1949 play The Big Knife in 2013 at the American Airlines Theatre in New York, with Doug Hughes directing Bobby Cannavale in
990-588: A large house in the Catskill village of Ellenville (1934). The Group spent the summer of 1936 at Pine Brook Country Club in Fairfield County, Connecticut. Its final summer retreat was at Lake Grove, in Smithtown, New York, in 1939. Odets's exposure to Strasberg's philosophy was essential to his development as a playwright. He said in an interview late in life, "My chief influence as a playwright
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#17327908475081080-630: A leftist critique of the low salaries of public school teachers in the United States. In 1998, Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader included the film in his unranked list of the best American films not included on the AFI Top 100 . Drama film In film and television , drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction ) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind
1170-580: A live performance, it has also been used to describe the more high-brow and serious end of the dramatic output of radio . The Screenwriters Taxonomy contends that film genres are fundamentally based upon a film's atmosphere, character and story, and therefore the labels "drama" and "comedy" are too broad to be considered a genre. Instead, the taxonomy contends that film dramas are a "Type" of film; listing at least ten different sub-types of film and television drama. Docudramas are dramatized adaptations of real-life events. While not always completely accurate,
1260-685: A more central component of the story, along with serious content. Examples include Three Colours: White (1994), The Truman Show (1998), The Man Without a Past (2002), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), and Silver Linings Playbook (2012). Coined by film professor Ken Dancyger , these stories exaggerate characters and situations to the point of becoming fable, legend or fairy tale. Examples: Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) and Maleficent (2014). Light dramas are light-hearted stories that are, nevertheless, serious in nature. Examples: The Help (2011) and The Terminal (2004). Psychological dramas are dramas that focus on
1350-591: A mother about her child's intelligence, and seems unbothered when his colleague Wally Gibbs informs him that the woman is the association president. Wally stops at the Avery home and informs Lou of Ed's extravagant and abrasive behavior. Ed returns in the midst of the conversation and makes a snide remark, implying that Wally is attracted to Lou. When Wally leaves, Ed insults Lou, deeming her to be intellectually inferior to him and unworthy of their marriage. After consuming another full prescription of cortisone, Ed impersonates
1440-530: A passage from the Bible recounting the binding of Isaac . When Lou pleads with Ed, he states that he plans to carry out a murder–suicide , killing her and Richie before ending his own life. In a rage, Ed locks Lou in a coat closet, blares the volume on the family's television set, and goes to Richie's bedroom armed with a blade from a pair of scissors. When Ed arrives at Richie's bedroom, he begins to hallucinate , and Richie flees downstairs just as Wally bursts into
1530-633: A person's life and raises their level of importance. The "small things in life" feel as important to the protagonist (and the audience) as the climactic battle in an action film, or the final shootout in a western. Often, the protagonists deal with multiple, overlapping issues in the course of the film – just as we do in life. Films of this type/genre combination include: The Wrestler (2008), Fruitvale Station (2013), and Locke (2013). Romantic dramas are films with central themes that reinforce our beliefs about love (e.g.: themes such as "love at first sight", "love conquers all", or "there
1620-407: A plan for televised repertory theater. He also acted as script supervisor. Two of Odets's finished scripts were aired posthumously: "Big Mitch" (December 10, 1963), and "The Mafia Man" (January 7, 1964). Odets also worked on the libretto for a projected musical version of Golden Boy . He died before the project came to fruition. Playwright William Gibson, a former student of Odets's when he taught at
1710-644: A play about a middle-class Jewish family in the Bronx, initially called I Got the Blues . He worked diligently on this play, sharing drafts of it with Clurman and promising parts to his fellow actors—often the same parts. While at Green Mansions, its 1933 summer rehearsal venue in Warrensburg, New York, the Group performed Act II of the play, soon to be retitled Awake and Sing! , for other camp residents. The audience
1800-641: A play reader for the Guild, invite Odets to a meeting to discuss new theater concepts they were developing with Lee Strasberg . Though initially bewildered by the concept of acting as an art, Odets was nonetheless mesmerized by Clurman's talks and became the last actor chosen for the Group Theatre's first summer of rehearsals in June 1931 at Brookfield Center in Connecticut, thus becoming a founding member of
1890-625: A playwright as unique." Odets's use of local urban speech patterns reflects the influence of Seán O'Casey , another socialist playwright with proletarian concerns. Other hallmarks of Odets's style are his humanistic point of view, and his way of dropping the audience right into the conflict with little or no introduction. Often character is more important than plot, reflecting the influence of Anton Chekhov . The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA; more commonly, HUAC) initiated its Hollywood Investigation in October 1947. The House Committee
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#17327908475081980-580: A radio elocutionist. He appeared in several plays with Harry Kemp 's Poet's Theatre on the Lower East Side. Odets was among America's first real disc jockeys at about this time, at radio station WBNY and others in Manhattan, where he would play records and ad lib commentary. He also functioned as a drama critic, allowing him free entry to Broadway and downtown shows. In this capacity he saw the 1926 Broadway production of Seán O'Casey 's Juno and
2070-464: A specific approach to drama but, rather, consider drama as a lack of comedic techniques. Examples: Ghost World (2001) and Wuthering Heights (2011). According to the Screenwriters' Taxonomy, all film descriptions should contain their type (comedy or drama) combined with one (or more) of the eleven super-genres. This combination does not create a separate genre, but rather, provides
2160-602: A three-volume work, with the second and third volumes to cover the final 23 years of Odets's life. Brenman-Gibson died in 2004, leaving the project unfinished. A full-length biography of Odets is in progress with the cooperation of the Odets Estate, to be published by Random House Doubleday Knopf. Apart from Brenman-Gibson's work, six critical biographies have appeared: by R. Baird Shuman (1962); Edward Murray (1968); Michael Mendelsohn (1969); Gerald Weales (1971); Harold Cantor (1978); and Christopher J. Herr (2003). Odets
2250-470: A union meeting of taxi drivers and vignettes from the workers' fraught lives. A young medical intern falls victim to anti-Semitism; a laboratory assistant's job is threatened if he refuses to spy on a colleague; couples are thwarted in marriage and torn apart by the hopelessness of economic conditions caused by the Depression. The climax is a defiant call for the taxi drivers' union to strike, which brought
2340-412: Is a mode distinct from novels, short stories , and narrative poetry or songs . In the modern era, before the birth of cinema or television, "drama" within theatre was a type of play that was neither a comedy nor a tragedy . It is this narrower sense that the film and television industries, along with film studies , adopted. " Radio drama " has been used in both senses—originally transmitted in
2430-454: Is a character in Names , Mark Kemble's play about former Group Theatre members' struggles in the blacklist era. Odets was the subject of a psycho-biography by psychoanalyst Margaret Brenman-Gibson : Clifford Odets – American Playwright – The Years from 1906–1940 . It was one component of an umbrella project Brenman-Gibson undertook on the subject of creativity. The biography was intended to be
2520-526: Is a final fight to the death; the idea of the protagonists facing death is a central expectation in a war drama film. In a war film even though the enemy may out-number, or out-power, the hero, we assume that the enemy can be defeated if only the hero can figure out how. Examples include: Apocalypse Now (1979), Come and See (1985), Braveheart (1995), Life Is Beautiful (1997), Black Book (2006), The Hurt Locker (2008), 1944 (2015), Wildeye (2015), and 1917 (2019). Films in
2610-431: Is considered iconic in the agitprop genre, is widely translated and anthologized, and continues to be popular. Odets asserted that all of his plays deal with the human spirit persevering in the face of any opponent, whether or not the characters are depicted as struggling with the capitalist system. The highly successful Golden Boy (1937) portrays a young man torn between artistic and material fulfillment. Ironically, it
2700-449: Is hospitalized. When a cab driver visits Ed, Lou—who suspected him of being unfaithful—learns that he works part-time as a dispatcher to help pay their bills. They kiss, and when the doctors expect Lou to leave the room, Ed declares that there are no more secrets. The diagnosis is polyarteritis nodosa , a rare inflammation of the arteries. It is estimated that Ed has only months to live. He agrees to experimental treatments with cortisone ,
2790-421: Is someone out there for everyone"); the story typically revolves around characters falling into (and out of, and back into) love. Annie Hall (1977), The Notebook (2004), Carol (2015), Her (2013) , and La La Land (2016) are examples of romance dramas. The science fiction drama film is often the story of a protagonist (and their allies) facing something "unknown" that has the potential to change
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2880-422: Is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-genre, macro-genre, or micro-genre, such as soap opera , police crime drama , political drama , legal drama , historical drama , domestic drama , teen drama , and comedy-drama (dramedy). These terms tend to indicate a particular setting or subject matter, or they combine a drama's otherwise serious tone with elements that encourage
2970-763: The western super-genre often take place in the American Southwest or Mexico, with a large number of scenes occurring outdoors so we can soak in scenic landscapes. Visceral expectations for the audience include fistfights, gunplay, and chase scenes. There is also the expectation of spectacular panoramic images of the countryside including sunsets, wide open landscapes, and endless deserts and sky. Examples of western dramas include: True Grit (1969) and its 2010 remake , Mad Max (1979), Unforgiven (1992), No Country for Old Men (2007), Django Unchained (2012), Hell or High Water (2016), and Logan (2017). Some film categories that use
3060-471: The 1942–43 season, Odets did not have another Broadway production until 1949. The Big Knife is an allegory about the damaging effects of fame and money on the character of the artist; it also alludes indirectly to the politics of the early Cold War period. The play's harsh critique of Hollywood mores was interpreted as ingratitude on the part of Odets, who had by this time made a significant amount of money writing films. It ran only three months and lost money at
3150-506: The 1982 film Diner speaks only lines from Odets's screenplay for Sweet Smell of Success . The Odets character was played by Jeffrey DeMunn in the film Frances , and by John Heard in the 1983 biography Will There Be A Morning? , both about Frances Farmer . Odets is mentioned in an episode of the television series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip , "The Wrap Party." The episode's subplot dealt with The Hollywood Ten . Odets
3240-470: The Actors Studio, completed the play's book. Though many obituaries lamented his work in Hollywood and considered him someone who had not lived up to his promise, Kazan understood it differently. "The tragedy of our times in the theatre is the tragedy of Clifford Odets," Kazan began, before defending his friend against the accusations of failure that had appeared in his obituaries. "His plan, he said,
3330-493: The Apes (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Blade Runner (1982) and its sequel Blade Runner 2049 (2017), Children of Men (2006), Interstellar (2014), and Arrival (2016). In the sports super-genre, characters will be playing sports. Thematically, the story is often one of "Our Team" versus "Their Team"; their team will always try to win, and our team will show the world that they deserve recognition or redemption;
3420-429: The Bronx while grappling with the stresses of economic collapse. Odets's choice to open the play in medias res , his heightened dialogue style, its blatant bias towards the working class, and the fact that it was the first play on Broadway to focus entirely on a Jewish family distinguish Awake and Sing! from other full-length plays produced on Broadway during this time. Odets became the Group's signature playwright with
3510-597: The New York Times headed his review, "Odets, Where Is thy Sting?"—a phrase that dogged Odets for the rest of his life. Like most screenwriters of the time, Odets worked within the studio system until independent production companies gained prominence in the 1950s. Thus he often wrote drafts for films such as Rhapsody in Blue and It's a Wonderful Life that were handed off to another screenwriter or team for further development. Odets declined to be credited for many of
3600-652: The Paycock . O'Casey's work proved to be a powerful influence on Odets. In the early 1920s, Odets spent four summers as a dramatics counselor at Jewish camps in the Catskills and the Poconos. He toured extensively with stock companies, in particular Philadelphia's popular Mae Desmond Company, playing a large variety of character roles at their theater in Chester, Pennsylvania. His first Broadway break came in 1929 when he
3690-407: The audience jump through a series of mental "hoops"; it is not uncommon for the crime drama to use verbal gymnastics to keep the audience and the protagonist on their toes. Examples of crime dramas include: The Godfather (1972), Chinatown (1974), Goodfellas (1990), The Usual Suspects (1995), The Big Short (2015), and Udta Punjab (2016). According to Eric R. Williams ,
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3780-446: The box office. Odets's 1950 play The Country Girl focuses on the effects of alcohol abuse on creativity and marital relations. It was a critical and box-office success and later adapted for a film starring Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly. Both actors earned Academy Award nominations for their performances. Kelly won Best Actress for her work in the film, and screenwriter George Seaton received an Oscar for his adaptation. Odets's last play
3870-533: The characters' inner life and psychological problems. Examples: Requiem for a Dream (2000), Oldboy (2003), Babel (2006), Whiplash (2014), and Anomalisa (2015) Satire can involve humor, but the result is typically sharp social commentary that is anything but funny. Satire often uses irony or exaggeration to expose faults in society or individuals that influence social ideology. Examples: Thank You for Smoking (2005) and Idiocracy (2006). Straight drama applies to those that do not attempt
3960-518: The company. The Group Theatre proved to be one of the most influential companies in the history of the American stage. It was the first to base its work on an acting technique new to the United States, devised by the Russian actor and director Constantin Stanislavski . It was further developed by Group Theatre director Lee Strasberg and became known as The Method or Method Acting . From
4050-576: The cortisone may be negatively affecting him, Ed reminds her that his polyarteritis will recur without it, and that he will not survive. That night, Ed forces Richie to stay up late into the night to study mathematics, and verbally abuses the child when he is unable to solve certain problems. At dinner, Ed announces he wishes to divorce Lou. The following day, a desperate Richie raids Ed's medicine cabinet, hoping to steal his father's cortisone pills and dispose of them. When Ed corners Richie in his bedroom, Lou phones Wally for help. To chastise Richie, Ed reads
4140-501: The couple had two children: Nora (born in 1945) and Walt (born in 1947). Odets and Grayson divorced in 1951. Nora Odets died at Long Beach, Long Island in 2008; Walt Odets became a clinical psychologist, author, and photographer residing in Berkeley, California. Odets also had relationships with actresses Frances Farmer , Kim Stanley , and Fay Wray . Odets had long suffered from gastrointestinal distress and on July 23, 1963,
4230-473: The course of the film. Thematically, horror films often serve as morality tales, with the killer serving up violent penance for the victims' past sins. Metaphorically, these become battles of Good vs. Evil or Purity vs. Sin. Psycho (1960), Halloween (1978), The Shining (1980), The Conjuring (2013), It (2017), mother! (2017), and Hereditary (2018) are examples of horror drama films. Day-in-the-life films takes small events in
4320-603: The debuts of Waiting for Lefty and Awake and Sing! and his reputation is inextricably connected with the Group Theatre. The two 1935 one-acts Waiting for Lefty and the anti-Nazi Till the Day I Die, along with a number of other works by various playwrights produced by the Group Theatre, are harsh criticisms of profiteers and exploitative economic systems during the Great Depression . They have been dismissed by some critics as left-wing propaganda . But Waiting for Lefty
4410-595: The entire opening night audience to its feet with tumultuous applause. The play does not require a proscenium stage and can be performed in any acting space, including union meeting halls and on the street. Waiting for Lefty' s unexpectedly wild success brought Odets international fame, though its strong pro-union bent caused it to be banned in many U.S. towns and cities. It was produced by a number of left-wing theaters in Britain, Australia, and other English-speaking countries, and has been widely translated. Awake and Sing!
4500-477: The event; he finished only one play and, while he closely advised other filmmakers such as Nicholas Ray and was in demand as a script-doctor, he managed to produce only one entire screenplay of his own, along with his rewrite of Ernest Lehman's Sweet Smell of Success for the production team of Hecht-Hill-Lancaster. In the early 1960s, Odets contracted to write four of a proposed total of 13 teleplays for The Richard Boone Show , NBC's new dramatic anthology born of
4590-427: The events of the previous weeks, he may have a chance of mental recovery. Lou and Richie visit Ed in his hospital room. Ed awakens and, although disoriented, soon recognizes them. Ed, fully able to recall the events, embraces his wife and son. Richard Maibaum wrote the original script with Cyril Hume, which Maibaum thought was "muddied up" by Nicholas Ray. He says Clifford Odets rewrote some scenes. Bigger Than Life
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#17327908475084680-684: The extent that he responded to their questions and reiterated names of Communist Party members who had been previously cited by his friend and former Group colleague Elia Kazan . Before Kazan's final testimony in April 1952, they agreed to name each other. Odets thereby avoided overt blacklisting though the Committee withheld thanks for his testimony, an omission generally construed as signifying their displeasure. He also found it increasingly difficult to garner film assignments. The negative reactions to his testimony confused him as he did not consider himself
4770-481: The family as a whole reacts to a central challenge. There are four micro-genres for the family drama: Family Bond , Family Feud , Family Loss , and Family Rift . A sub-type of drama films that uses plots that appeal to the heightened emotions of the audience. Melodramatic plots often deal with "crises of human emotion, failed romance or friendship, strained familial situations, tragedy, illness, neuroses, or emotional and physical hardship". Film critics sometimes use
4860-492: The film, Mason produced it. Although it was a box-office flop on its initial release, many modern critics hail it as a masterpiece and a brilliant indictment of contemporary attitudes toward mental illness. In 1963, Jean-Luc Godard named it one of the ten-best American sound films ever made. Schoolteacher and family man Ed Avery has been suffering bouts of severe pain and even blackouts. His strange illness begins to concern his wife Lou. After he collapses at home one night, Ed
4950-470: The films on which he worked, but did accept full credit as both screenwriter and director for None but the Lonely Heart (1944), adapted from the novel by Richard Llewellyn and produced by RKO. The film starred Cary Grant , Ethel Barrymore (who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress), Barry Fitzgerald , and Jane Wyatt . Odets wrote the 1957 screenplay for Sweet Smell of Success , based on
5040-416: The future of humanity; this unknown may be represented by a villain with incomprehensible powers, a creature we do not understand, or a scientific scenario that threatens to change the world; the science fiction story forces the audience to consider the nature of human beings, the confines of time or space or the concepts of human existence in general. Examples include: Metropolis (1927), Planet of
5130-717: The general facts are more-or-less true. The difference between a docudrama and a documentary is that in a documentary it uses real people to describe history or current events; in a docudrama it uses professionally trained actors to play the roles in the current event, that is "dramatized" a bit. Examples: Black Mass (2015) and Zodiac (2007). Unlike docudramas, docu-fictional films combine documentary and fiction, where actual footage or real events are intermingled with recreated scenes. Examples: Interior. Leather Bar (2013) and Your Name Here (2015). Many otherwise serious productions have humorous scenes and characters intended to provide comic relief . A comedy drama has humor as
5220-416: The hallmark of fantasy drama films is "a sense of wonderment, typically played out in a visually intense world inhabited by mythic creatures, magic or superhuman characters. Props and costumes within these films often belie a sense of mythology and folklore – whether ancient, futuristic, or other-worldly. The costumes, as well as the exotic world, reflect the personal, inner struggles that the hero faces in
5310-408: The house. In a scuffle, Wally manages to beat Ed unconscious. Ed is subsequently hospitalized and heavily sedated. His doctor, Dr. Norton, informs Lou that the cortisone may have resulted in irreversible brain damage, and that he may never return to his prior mental state. Despite this, Ed will still require strictly-meted doses of the cortisone to survive. Norton states that, should Ed be able to recall
5400-404: The influential magazine Cahiers du cinéma . Jean-Luc Godard called it one of the ten best American sound films. Likewise, François Truffaut praised the film, noting the "intelligent, subtle" script, the "extraordinary precision" of Mason's performance, and the beauty of the film's CinemaScope photography. Modern critics have praised Nicholas Ray 's use of widescreen cinematography to depict
5490-465: The interior spaces of a family drama, rather than the open vistas typically associated with the format, as well as his use of extreme close-ups in portraying the main character's psychosis and megalomania. The film is recognized for its multi-layered examination of the American nuclear family in the Eisenhower era. While the film can be read as a straightforward exposé on medical malpractice and
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#17327908475085580-454: The lead role of Charlie Castle. The role was originated by Odets's former Group Theatre colleague John Garfield . The National Asian American Theatre Company (NAATCO) mounted a highly acclaimed production of Awake and Sing! in 2013 with an all-Asian cast. Performed in a small downtown theatre space in New York's Soho area, the limited run played to sold-out houses. According to New York Times reviewer Anita Gates, "the production easily makes
5670-414: The legal system. Films that focus on dramatic events in history. Focuses on doctors, nurses, hospital staff, and ambulance saving victims and the interactions of their daily lives. Focuses on teenage characters, especially where a secondary school setting plays a role. Clifford Odets Clifford Odets (July 18, 1906 – August 14, 1963) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and actor. In
5760-500: The mid-1930s, he was widely seen as the potential successor to Nobel Prize–winning playwright Eugene O'Neill , as O'Neill began to withdraw from Broadway's commercial pressures and increasing critical backlash. From January 1935, Odets's socially relevant dramas were extremely influential, particularly for the remainder of the Great Depression . His works inspired the next several generations of playwrights, including Arthur Miller , Paddy Chayefsky , Neil Simon , and David Mamet . After
5850-498: The novelette and a first draft by Ernest Lehman and produced by the independent company Hecht-Hill-Lancaster. Starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis, this film noir depicts the underbelly of the newspaper world. The character of J. J. Hunsecker, played by Lancaster, was voted the 35th most despicable villain in 100 years of film by the American Film Institute. Odets directed one other film, for which he also wrote
5940-400: The overuse of prescription drugs in modern American society, it has also been seen as a critique of consumerism , the traditional family structure, and the claustrophobic conformism of suburban life. Truffaut saw Ed's drug-influenced speech to the parents of the parent–teacher association as having fascist overtones. The film has also been interpreted as an examination of masculinity and
6030-558: The play was only modestly successful. The playwright George S. Kaufman and others asked, "Odets, where is thy sting?" Nonetheless, Rocket to the Moon garnered enough attention to place Odets on the cover of Time in December 1938. Rocket to the Moon was followed by Night Music (1940) and Clash by Night (1941), neither of which was successful. Except for his adaptation of Konstantin Simonov 's play The Russian People in
6120-468: The point that ethnicity is transcended by the humanity of frightened, imperfect people facing unpleasant realities." NAATCO was invited by the Public Theater to revive the production under its auspices in 2015. Joel and Ethan Coen's 1990 film Barton Fink contains a number of indirect visual and historical references to Odets's personal appearance, background and career. A minor character in
6210-450: The potential theatrical power of colloquial language. With time on his hands and at Clurman's urging he began to try his own hand at writing plays. Odets's earliest plays were an autobiographical piece, 910 Eden Street , and one about his hero, Beethoven, with the working title Victory . Clurman dismissed both as juvenilia but encouraged Odets to continue writing, while steering him toward familiar milieus. In late 1932, Odets began writing
6300-410: The press, as though through him we would know what to think of ourselves and our prospects." Marian Seldes wrote that " Paddy Chayefsky , who felt competitive with Odets, told an interviewer 'There isn't a writer of my generation, especially a New York writer, who doesn't owe his very breath—his entire attitude toward theatre—to Odets.'" Golden Boy was made into a 1939 film and became the basis for
6390-432: The production of his play Clash by Night in the 1941–42 season, Odets focused his energies primarily on film projects, remaining in Hollywood until mid-1948. He returned to New York for five and a half years, during which time he produced three more Broadway plays, only one of which was a success. His prominence was eventually eclipsed by Miller, Tennessee Williams , and, in the early- to mid-1950s, William Inge . Odets
6480-521: The screen as well as the stage. From this point on he spent most of his life in Hollywood. His initial intention was to make money to help subsidize the Group Theatre's run of his 1935 play Paradise Lost over which the critics were divided, and to help him fulfill his own financial obligations. His first screenplay was produced by Paramount and directed by Lewis Milestone . Starring Gary Cooper and Madeleine Carroll , The General Died at Dawn (1936) received some positive reviews, though Frank Nugent of
6570-493: The screenplay, The Story on Page One (1959). Four of Odets's plays— Golden Boy , Clash by Night , The Big Knife and The Country Girl —have been made into films, though Odets did not write the screenplays. Odets's dramatic style is distinguished by a kind of poetic, metaphor-laden street talk. Arthur Miller observed that, with Odets's first plays, "For the very first time in America, language itself ... marked
6660-447: The start, Odets was relegated to small roles and understudying his Group colleagues. He understudied lead actor Luther Adler in the Group's production of John Howard Lawson 's Success Story during the 1932–33 season. Much to Odets's frustration, Adler never missed a performance, but he gained much knowledge of the playwriting craft by standing in the wings and listening to the play. Odets credited Lawson with giving him an understanding of
6750-534: The story does not always have to involve a team. The story could also be about an individual athlete or the story could focus on an individual playing on a team. Examples of this genre/type include: The Hustler (1961), Hoosiers (1986), Remember the Titans (2000), and Moneyball (2011). War films typically tells the story of a small group of isolated individuals who – one by one – get killed (literally or metaphorically) by an outside force until there
6840-525: The story." Examples of fantasy dramas include The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003), Pan's Labyrinth (2006), Where the Wild Things Are (2009), and Life of Pi (2012). Horror dramas often involve the central characters isolated from the rest of society. These characters are often teenagers or people in their early twenties (the genre's central audience) and are eventually killed off during
6930-578: The term "pejoratively to connote an unrealistic, pathos-filled, camp tale of romance or domestic situations with stereotypical characters (often including a central female character) that would directly appeal to feminine audiences". Also called "women's movies", "weepies", tearjerkers, or "chick flicks". If they are targeted to a male audience, then they are called "guy cry" films. Often considered "soap-opera" drama. Focuses on religious characters, mystery play, beliefs, and respect. Character development based on themes involving criminals, law enforcement and
7020-498: The word "comedy" or "drama" are not recognized by the Screenwriters Taxonomy as either a film genre or a film type. For instance, "Melodrama" and "Screwball Comedy" are considered Pathways, while "romantic comedy" and "family drama" are macro-genres. A macro-genre in the Screenwriters Taxonomy. These films tell a story in which many of the central characters are related. The story revolves around how
7110-499: Was a benefit performance for New Theatre Magazine . Like Lawson, a member of the Communist Party, Odets was by this time influenced by Marxism and his plays became increasingly political. Waiting for Lefty was inspired by the 1934 New York City taxi strike and is written in the format of a minstrel show with interconnected scenes depicting social and economic dilemmas of workers in various fields. The focus alternates between
7200-476: Was admitted to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles to undergo treatment for stomach ulcers. During surgery, doctors discovered that he had metastatic stomach cancer. He received bedside visits from such movie and theater friends as Marlon Brando , Lee Strasberg and Paula Strasberg , Jean Renoir and his wife Dido, Elia Kazan , Harold Clurman , Shirley MacLaine , and Danny Kaye . Renoir dedicated
7290-546: Was born in Philadelphia to Louis J. Odets (born Leib Gorodetsky) and Pearl Geisinger, Russian- and Romanian-Jewish immigrants, and was raised in Philadelphia and the Bronx, New York. He dropped out of high school after two years to become an actor and a writer. Odets pursued acting with great passion and ingenuity. At the age of 19 he struck out on his own, billing himself as "The Rover Reciter." Under this moniker he participated in talent contests and procured bookings as
7380-476: Was cast in two small roles and as understudy to the young Spencer Tracy in Conflict by Warren F. Lawrence. Odets landed his first job with the prestigious Theatre Guild in the fall of 1929 as an extra. He acted in small roles in a number of Theatre Guild productions between 1929 and 1931. It was at the Guild that he befriended the casting director Cheryl Crawford . Crawford suggested that Harold Clurman , then
7470-471: Was enthusiastic but the Group's leadership, Strasberg in particular, still opposed producing it. Until his debut as a playwright, Odets continued to train as an actor with the Group at its various summer rehearsal headquarters in the Connecticut countryside and upstate New York. In addition to Brookfield Center and Green Mansions, these venues included Dover Furnace in Dutchess County (1932) and
7560-454: Was investigating possible subversive communist influences in Hollywood and inevitably subpoenaed Odets in April 1952. He first testified in executive session, and on May 19 and 20 he again testified, this time in public hearing. Odets had belonged to the Communist Party for less than a year, between 1934 and 1935, but continued to sponsor many left-wing, progressive groups, some of which were suspected communist fronts. He cooperated with HUAC to
7650-410: Was not a financial success. Mason, who produced the film as well as starring in it, blamed its failure on its use of the relatively new widescreen CinemaScope format. American critics panned the film, considering it melodramatic and heavy-handed. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called it tedious, "dismal", and "more pitiful than terrifying to watch". However, the film was well received by
7740-584: Was produced on Broadway in 1954. The Flowering Peach was the preferred choice of the Pulitzer Prize jury in 1955, but under pressure from Joseph Pulitzer Jr., the prize instead was given to Tennessee Williams for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof , which the jury had considered the weakest of the five shortlisted nominees. The immediate success of Odets's early plays attracted the attention of Hollywood producers. He first went to Hollywood in early 1936 to write for
7830-409: Was the Group Theatre acting company, and being a member of that company ... And you can see the Group Theatre acting technique crept right into the plays." Odets became the first produced Method-trained playwright with his first publicly presented play, the one-act Waiting for Lefty , on January 6, 1935, at the former Civic Repertory Theatre on Fourteenth Street in New York City. The occasion
7920-443: Was the Group Theatre's biggest commercial success. From Golden Boy on, Odets's work focused more on the dynamics of interpersonal relationships as affected by the moral dilemmas of individual characters. In 1938 the Group presented Rocket to the Moon , a psychological play that explores the failure of human beings to fulfill their creative potential. Leftist critics rebuked Odets for abandoning his formerly overt political stance and
8010-529: Was to ... come back to New York and get [some new] plays on. They'd be, he assured me, the best plays of his life ... Cliff wasn't 'shot.' ... The mind and talent were alive in the man." Odets married actress Luise Rainer in January 1937, just months before she won her first of two consecutive Academy Awards for Best Actress . They divorced in May 1940. He married actress Bette Grayson in 1943, and
8100-640: Was written in 1933 and finally produced by the Group Theatre in February 1935 after the success of Waiting for Lefty . This first of Odets's full-length plays is generally regarded as his masterpiece and has been cited as "the earliest quintessential Jewish play outside the Yiddish theatre." The play concerns the Berger family, who struggle to maintain some respectability and self-esteem in the Longwood section of
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