SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24 - WRITERS GUILD AWARD WINNERS 5 films 8:00 p.m. (ET)/5:00 p.m. (PT) THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1939) The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) was RKO StudioÕs last release of the 1930s. It was also one of the studioÕs biggest and best films of 1939, the studioÕs most successful year ever. A sensitive adaptation of Victor HugoÕs epic novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame told the story of a deformed bell-ringerÕs love for a beautiful gypsy woman amidst the turmoil in France under King Louis XI. The film, made brilliant by massive production design, Alfred NewmanÕs rousing score, beautiful camerawork, and performances to match, was a spectacular hit at the box office, despite being released the same year as Gone With the Wind(1939). The filmÕs biggest asset, Charles LaughtonÕs performance as Quasimodo, still stands today as the most moving interpretation of HugoÕs tragic hero. The daunting task of translating HugoÕs literary masterpiece into a movie was entrusted to Sonya Levien, but she was able to make the story relevant to contemporary times, particularly in the way she drew an obvious parallel between the persecuted gypsies of Paris and the treatment of Jews in pre-World War II Germany. The Russian-born Levien grew up in the United States, and began her prolific career by becoming a magazine editor and then a writer. After several pieces of her fiction were adapted for the screen in the early 1920s, Levien became an active screenwriter. She wrote many screenplays during the thirties, culminating with a script for The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), based on an adaptation by Bruno Frank. Levien earned many accolades during her long screenwriting career, including an Academy Award¨ in 1955 for Interrupted Melody. But it was the Screen Writers Guild (now known as the Writers Guild of America) that bestowed perhaps her most distinguished award. In 1953, Levien was the first recipient of the Laurel Award of Achievement, given to that member of the Guild who, in the opinion of the current Board of Directors, has advanced the literature of the motion picture through the years, and who has made outstanding contributions to the profession of the screenwriter. This is an honorary award and is still the GuildÕs highest honor to give. Previous Laurel Award recipients include Albert Hackett & Frances Goodrich (1956), Casey Robinson (1968), Carl Foreman (1969), Dalton Trumbo (1970), Ernest Lehman (1972), Frank Pierson (1992), Paul Schrader (1999), and many others. For Levien's adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame more than $2 million was spent on the production. It marked the screen debut of Maureen O'Hara (as Esmeralda) and the recreation of Paris was built on a vast set in the San Fernando Valley. The famous Hunchback makeup, designed by Perc Westmore, took months to evolve due to Charles Laughton's sense of perfectionism. The actor also insisted that his hump have ample weight to which Westmore replied, 'Why doncha just act it?' This comment made the temperamental Laughton explode, shouting, 'Don't you ever speak to me like that again, you hired hand!' The meticulous attention to detail and the long hours filming under the hot summer sun eventually paid off for Laughton because his performance was universally praised. Regarding the powerful scene when the Hunchback is being punished on the wheel, his director, William Dieterle said, "when Laughton acted that scene, enduring the terrible torture, he was not the poor crippled creature expecting compassion from the mob, but rather oppressed and enslaved mankind, suffering the most awful injustice." Director: William Dieterle Producer: Pandro S. Berman Screenplay: Bruno Frank, Victor Hugo (novel Notre-Dame de Paris) Cinematography: Joseph H. August Music: Alfred Newman Principle Cast: Charles Laughton (Quasimodo, the bell ringer), Cedric Hardwicke (Jean Frollo, Chief Justice of Paris), Maureen OÕHara (Esmeralda, a gypsy), Edmond OÕBrien (Pierre Gringoire, poet), Harry Davenport (Louis XI, King of France), Thomas Mitchell (Clopin, King of Beggars), Walter Hampden (Claude Frollo, Archbishop of Paris) BW-117m. Closed captioning. Descriptive Video. By Scott McGee 10:00 p.m. (ET)/7:00 p.m. (PT) INTERIORS (1978) Interiors (1978) is comedic writer/director Woody AllenÕs first serious dramatic film, and is a stylistic homage to the films of Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. Starring E.G. Marshall (12 Angry Men, 1957), Geraldine Page (1986 Best Actress Academy Award¨ Winner for A Trip to Bountiful), Maureen Stapleton (Bye Bye Birdie, 1963), Diane Keaton (Annie Hall, 1977), and Mary Beth Hurt (The World According to Garp, 1982), the plot concerns MarshallÕs decision to divorce his wife (Page) and marry Pearl (Stapleton), and the chilling effect his choice has on his adult daughtersÕ detached relationships with their parents, each other and their own inner lives. The film was originally titled Anhedonia, meaning the incapacity to experience pleasure. A visually stunning film, Interiors lays bare the emotional struggles of a deliberately isolated family. Within Gordon WillisÕ cinematographic color palette of grays, greens and whites, the appearance of PearlÕs vibrant red dress startles us as much as it does the introspective and wounded women in the film. Daughter Joey (Hurt) calls Pearl a "vulgarian" when her dancing Ð a spontaneous gesture of joy before a passionless family Ð shatters a vase carefully placed by Eve (Page), the abandoned matriarch. In the biography Woody Allen by Eric Lax, Allen's longtime editor Ralph Rosenblum comments on Allen's desire to make a serious film: "Even before he made a movie, he had that Bergmanesque streak. He was going to make funny movies and pull the rug at the very end. I wasn't shocked by the original end of Take the Money and Run (where Virgil is machine-gunned), but I thought it was stupid. But that's something he has carried through all his movies and he will finish his life making serious movies. He says that comedy writers sit at the children's table and he's absolutely right about that. He wants to be remembered as a serious writer, a serious filmmaker. He managed to rescue Interiors, much to his credit. He was against the wall. I think he was afraid. He was testy, he was slightly short-tempered. He was fearful. He thought he had a real bomb. But he managed to pull it out with his own work. The day the reviews came out, he said to me, 'Well, we pulled this one out by the short hairs, didn't we?' Allen was indeed apprehensive about how audiences would respond to Interiors and while watching the film with an acquaintance reportedly said, "It's always been my fear. I think I'm writing Long Day's Journey into Night and it turns into Edge of Night.' It's true the reviews were mixed on Interiors and even Allen wasn't sure he was satisfied with the dialogue. In Lax's biography, the director said, "Take the last speech in the Russian Uncle Vanya. It's extremely poetical, and nobody talks like that, really. Yet that's how I was trying to write in those dramas. After I saw it, with Diane Keaton, it became a very important film in my life. But even among all the people I know in the film business Ð the directors and actors and New Yorkers Ð nobody saw it." Obviously, Allen is mistaken because his peers saw Interiors and nominated it for five Academy Awards¨, including Best Actress (Page), Best Supporting Actress (Stapleton), Best Art Direction, Best Screenplay and Best Director. Director: Woody Allen Producer: Charles H. Joffee, Jack Rollins, Gordon Willis Screenplay: Woody Allen Principle Cast: Kristin Griffith (Flyn), Mary Beth Hurt (Joey), Richard Jordan (Frederick), Diane Keaton (Renata), E.G. Marshall (Arthur), Geraldine Page (Eve), Maureen Stapleton (Pearl), Sam Waterston (Mike) C-92m. By Jessica Handler & Jeff Stafford 12:00 a.m. (ET)/9:00 p.m. (PT) THE HOSPITAL (1971) Dr. Herbert Bock (George C. Scott), the Chief Resident at a sprawling, chaotic New York City hospital, is on the verge of a crack-up. Recently divorced, estranged from his children, overworked, and suffering from impotence, he is no longer the man he used to be, one who enjoyed a reputation as a medical genius. To complicate matters, members of Bock's hospital staff are dying under mysterious circumstances, suggesting a lunatic may be on the loose. The gallows humor of The Hospital was years ahead of its time when it first appeared in 1971 and the film's unusual mixture of black comedy and cynical outrage still appears fresh when compared to the programmed dramatics of TV medical series like E.R.. Screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky was partially inspired to write this attack on institutionalized medicine after his wife's unhappy experience in a hospital while suffering from a neurological disorder. The incompetence and hospital staff apathy she encountered there so enraged Chayefsky that he funneled his frustrations into this screenplay. He also interviewed numerous doctors, nurses, surgeons, and administrators and poured over actual malpractice suits before his scenario began to take shape. Although Chayefsky had only worked on one film Ð the multi-million dollar flop, Paint Your Wagon Ð since his last critical success, The Americanization of Emily in 1964, he was still able to secure full creative approval on every aspect of The Hospital. His first choice for the role of Dr. Bock was George C. Scott even though United Artists wanted him to consider Burt Lancaster and Walter Matthau. Even though Scott's salary demands were at first refused, Chayefsky persisted and got his leading man in the end. For director, Michael Ritchie was hired but almost immediately clashed with Chayefsky over the set design. He was soon fired and replaced with Arthur Hiller who had worked with Chayefsky previously on The Americanization of Emily. As Barbara Drummond, the hospital visitor who seduces Dr. Bock in his office, Jane Fonda was first considered but Scott reportedly vetoed the offer with his comment, "still too much of a hippy, and in need of a bath." Ali MacGraw and Candice Bergen were also considered but Chayefsky had his heart set on Diana Rigg, a graduate of the British Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and an acclaimed London stage actress. Though Rigg at first turned down the role, she changed her mind after Barnard Hughes (cast as her father in the film) visited her in her dressing room after a performance of Abelard and Heloise and told her she was crazy to pass up an opportunity to work with Chayefsky. Filmed at the Metropolitan Hospital on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, The Hospital had its share of expected "fireworks" during production which was no surprise since both Chayefsky and George C. Scott were volatile, opinionated men who rarely compromised on their artistic principles. Scott was going through a difficult period in his marriage to Colleen Dewhurst at the time and was drinking heavily during filming. Some days he simply didn't show up on the set while other days he arrived drunk and unable to work. In some ways his behavior was startlingly similar to the angry, suicidal character he was playing. Regardless, Scott was not an actor who took direction easily. Chayefsky found this out when he offered some acting suggestions to Scott for a specific scene and Scott exploded, screaming 'You do your f**king writing! And I'll do the acting!" Yet, somehow Scott pulled himself together and gave a magnificent performance, which earned his a Best Actor Oscar¨ nomination. Chayefsky did even better. His script for The Hospital won the Academy Award¨ for Best Screenplay (He would also win it for Network in 1976). In Mad as Hell, a biography of Paddy Chayefsky by Shaun Considine, director Arthur Hiller commented on the acclaimed playwright: "People often say to me, 'You've done two pictures with Paddy, how did you get through it?' My answer always is, 'When a genius speaks, I listen.' He's really the only genius I ever worked with. He was way above the rest of us." Director: Arthur Hiller Producer: Howard Gottfried, Jack Grossberg (associate) Screenplay: Paddy Chayefsky Cinematography: Victor J. Kemper Music: Morris Surdin Principle Cast: George C. Scott (Dr. Herbert Bock), Diana Rigg (Miss Barbara Drummond), Barnard Hughes (Edmund Drummond), Richard A. Dysart (Dr. Welbeck), Stephen Elliott (Dr. John Sundstrom), Andrew Duncan (William Mead), Donald Harron (Dr. Milton Mead) C-103m. by Jeff Stafford 1:45 a.m. (ET)/10:45 p.m. (PT) NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959) "I want to do a Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures" is the comment screenwriter Ernest Lehman made to Alfred Hitchcock one day in 1957. With North by Northwest (1959) the ultimate Hitchcock picture is exactly what they produced. All of Hitchcock's trademark themes are here in the story of an everyday man (Cary Grant) caught up in a swirl of mysterious events (spies chasing microfilm) while being helped by a beautiful blonde (Eva Marie Saint). There's a gripping, imaginative chase scene and the entire film wraps up at an unexpected public landmark (Mount Rushmore). North by Northwest came into existence when Hitchcock and writer Ernest Lehman hit a brick wall while working on the nautical thriller, The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959). They messed around for a few weeks while telling the studio the project was going great until one day Lehman thought of creating a pure Hitchcock film. The director could never resist a challenge and immediately clicked with the idea, especially since he'd longed to use Mount Rushmore as a location but never had an appropriate project. So while Hitchcock was filming Vertigo (1958) the two would get together and thrash out the script and further plans for a film that was then called In a Northwesterly Direction. (Oddly enough it was also briefly titled Breathless which a year later would be the English title of the debut feature from Jean-Luc Godard, a rabid Hitchcock fan.) The resulting screenplay was tight, balanced and intricate; Hitchcock later told Francois Truffaut that "In this picture nothing was left to chance." The script also made liberal use of the MacGuffin, Hitchcock's name for a device that keeps the story in motion even though in itself it's practically meaningless. The key MacGuffin in North by Northwest is the secret information sought by James Mason's sinister operation even though we never learn why it matters. This was Hitchcock's personal favorite, one he said had "been boiled down to its purest expression: nothing at all!" By the way, Hitchcock and Lehman never did make The Wreck of the Mary Deare. Michael Anderson ended up directing that one with Gary Cooper and Charlton Heston. From the beginning, Hitchcock and Lehman planned on casting Cary Grant as their innocent leading man even though James Stewart showed extreme interest in the project despite his ignorance of the plot. (When Stewart left to film Bell, Book and Candle (1958), Hitchcock was relieved of the unpleasant task of telling him he didn't get the role.) Thanks to Grant's contractual percentages and a daily pay rate that kicked in when the film took longer than expected for completion, the actor made quite a bit of money from his participation in North by Northwest. It was his fourth and final Hitchcock film and Grant brought his usual debonair charm and a genuine sense of confusion and bewilderment to the part. During shooting Grant said to Hitchcock, "It's a terrible script. We've already done a third of the picture and I still can't make head or tail of it." The comment greatly amused Hitchcock because, far from being a flaw, that exactly mirrored what Grant's character was feeling as well. For the role of the woman spy there was some minor conflict. Grant pushed to have Sophia Loren because he at one time had romantic interest in her but she left to film Two Women in Italy. The studio wanted Cyd Charisse. Hitchcock of course preferred one of his trademark blondes and gave the part to Eva Marie Saint (On the Waterfront (1954), even personally picking out most of her on-screen wardrobe. By the way, see if you can read Saint's lips during her line "I never discuss love on an empty stomach" since the audio was supposedly dubbed over the original line "I never make love on an empty stomach." While the story covers a wide span of the United States, filming was mostly brief location shots and extensive studio work. Hitchcock and cast started in New York in August 1958. A hidden camera was used to film Grant entering the United Nations building but they weren't able to film in the real UN lobby because it had been used somewhat inappropriately in an earlier film so all movies were forbidden there. Instead they filmed on a studio set that had been recreated as accurately as possible. (Hitchcock had gone through the real lobby with a still photographer while pretending to be a tourist and getting numerous snapshots.) The director ran into a similar problem at Mount Rushmore. The Department of InteriorÐwhich operates the monumentÐnot only wouldn't allow filming on the actual sculpture but they also wouldn't give permission for actors to crawl over a reproduction either. A compromise was reached where the actors went between the faces instead of over them, but except for a few exteriors the whole Mount Rushmore scene was filmed at the MGM studios. (Perhaps it's a good thing that Hitchcock gave up his plan to have one of the characters erupt in a sneezing fit while hiding in a statue nose.) The famous scene of Cary Grant being chased through a cornfield by a crop duster is an example of Hitchcock at his best. It came about because he had noticed that when most directors try to make a suspenseful scene they use tight alleyways, shadows barely visible through the gloom and the slow building tension of the approaching menace. So Hitchcock did exactly the opposite: full daylight, completely open space and a very fast machine. Similarly, most directors gradually shorten each individual shot in such a scene as a way of increasing the tension, but Hitchcock kept his shots fairly uniform so that a viewer gets a better idea of how far and where Grant is running. The finished scene lasts around seven minutes with no dialogue and is as remarkable as the shower scene he devised for Psycho a year later. The studio, however, wasn't quite so appreciative. They wanted to cut the film thinking that at 136 minutes it was too long. But Hitchcock's contract prevented that, and he insisted that some of what they were trying to cut was in fact vital to the film. On release, North by Northwest proved Hitchcock knew what he was doing, when it turned out to be a big hit, breaking records at Radio City Music Hall and going on to become the sixth highest grossing film for 1959 (tied with Anatomy of a Murder) which made up for the commercial disappointment of Vertigo. The New York Times and National Board of Review chose it as one of the ten best films of the year. There were three Oscar¨ nominations for Best Editing, Best Art Direction and for Ernest Lehman for Best Original Screenplay. (Years later, Lehman would work with Hitchcock on Family Plot (1976), one of Hitchcock's biggest commercial successes, and another script that was never filmed.) Director: Alfred Hitchcock Producers: Alfred Hitchcock, Herbert Coleman Screenplay: Ernest Lehman Cinematography: Robert Burks Music: Bernard Herrmann Art Direction: William A. Horning, Merrill Pye Principle Cast: Cary Grant (Roger O. Thornhill/George Kaplan), Eva Marie Saint (Eve Kendall), James Mason (Phillip Vandamm), Jessie Royce Landis (Clara Thornhill), Leo G. Carroll (The Professor), Martin Landau (Leonard), Philip Ober (Lester Townsend) C-136m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning. Descriptive Video. By Lang Thompson 4:15 a.m. (ET)/1:15 p.m. (PT) SUNDAY IN NEW YORK (1964) "In the fullest sense of the word, Norman Krasna represents the screenwriter as auteur," wrote film historian Patrick McGilligan. "For the most part, Krasna wrote original plays and screenplays without the benefit (or hindrance) of a collaborator, and his stories and the peculiar themes that have preoccupied him derive from his own rags-to-riches experiences." Although he wrote a few dramas, Krasna specialized in comedy Ð specifically, the comedy of confused or mistaken identities. A winner of the Writers Guild of AmericaÕs prestigious Laurel award in 1960 for the body of his work, he has met with great success as both a playwright and screenwriter. On some occasions, he has combined the two skills by adapting one of his stage hits for the screen, as he did with Sunday in New York (1964). This sex comedy, written just before the sexual revolution swept the country, is slightly risque yet moralistic, so that its young heroine Ð played on film by Jane Fonda Ð flirts with the idea of premarital sex yet remains a virgin at storyÕs end. Fonda plays a 22-year-old from Albany, N.Y., who visits her womanizing brother (Cliff Robertson) in the big city and, although engaged to another man, carries on a flirtation with a stranger (Rod Taylor) she meets on a bus. "If there werenÕt such a thing as a young womanÕs virtue, Norman Krasna would surely have invented it," wrote The New York Times. KrasnaÕs script gave Fonda one of her best early opportunities, providing her for the first time with a chance to play sophisticated comedy. The title tune from Sunday in New York, written by Carroll Coates and Peter Nero and sung by Mel Torme, was nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Song. Krasna (1909-1984) was once hailed as "the Boy Wonder of Hollywood." By the time he was 25, he had had two plays produced on Broadway and had received an Oscar¨ nomination for his original story for The Richest Girl in the World (1934). In addition to writing, he also produced and directed movies. He wrote the original story for Fritz LangÕs Fury (1936) and the story and screenplay for Alfred HitchcockÕs only non-mystery comedy, Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941). Krasna received an Academy Award¨ for the original screenplay of Princess OÕRourke (1943), which he also directed. His many other film-writing credits include Bachelor Mother (1939), White Christmas (1954) and LetÕs Make Love (1960). Producer: Everett Freeman Director: Peter Tewksbury Screenplay: Norman Krasna, from his play Art Direction: Edward C. Carfagno, George W. Davis Cinematography: Leo Tover Costume Design: Orry-Kelly Editing: Fredric Steinkamp Original Music: Peter Nero Principal Cast: Cliff Robertson (Adam Tyler), Jane Fonda (Eileen Tyler), Rod Taylor (Mike Mitchell), Robert Culp (Russ Wilson), Jo Morrow (Mona Harris), Jim Backus (Flight Dispatcher), Peter Nero (Himself) C-105m. Closed captioning. By Roger Fristoe