John L. Balderston

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John Lloyd Balderston (born October 22, 1889 in Philadelphia , † March 8, 1954 in Los Angeles ) was an American journalist , playwright and screenwriter .

Life

John L. Balderston, who initially worked as a journalist for various newspapers, including New York World , was a correspondent in Europe during the First World War .

In the late 1920s, the American publisher and theater producer Horace Liveright approached Balderston, who had been living in London for several years. Balderston was to acquire the stage rights to Bram Stoker's Dracula for Liveright . Liveright had previously unsuccessfully negotiated rights with Stoker's widow Florence on several occasions. Balderston's negotiations were successful and Liveright was granted the rights to stage the stage version of Dracula in America. Balderston was commissioned to rewrite the stage play originally written by Hamilton Deane for the American market. After Dracula was successful on Broadway , Universal acquired the film rights for Dracula , but did not film the novel, but the play Deanes and Balderstons.

In 1931, Balderston was hired by Robert Florey , the originally intended director of Frankenstein , to work with him to adapt Peggy Webbling's play Frankenstein: An Adventure in the Macabre as a script. However, after work on the script was finished, Florey was replaced by James Whale and Balderston was not named as a screenwriter in the credits .

Balderston wrote other scripts for horror films, such as Karl Freund's The Mummy from 1932. The original version of the script came from Nancy Potham and was initially called Cagliostro . Since the people in charge at Universal Studios seemed too confused about the script, they asked Balderston to rewrite the script. Balderston redesigned the entire plot, so that little of the original version remained. The film became another hit for Boris Karloff and Universal Studios. With the mummy, Balderston invented a new film monster that was not based on a literary model, such as Mr. Hyde , Frankenstein's creature or the vampire , but was similarly successful in film, as demonstrated by countless remakes and imitations.

For the film Berkeley Square , Balderston adapted his play of the same name together with Sonya Levien . Balderston worked again with Karl Freund in 1935, directing Mad Love , Karl Freund's second and last film. The script was written in collaboration with PJ Wolfson and Guy Endore , based on the novel Les Mains d'Orlac by Maurice Renard . As a sequel to Dracula , Balderston wrote the screenplay for Dracula's daughter in 1936 . Balderston's version has been rewritten several times by a team of authors from Universal Studios. As in 1931, Garrett Fort was named in the credits as a screenwriter.

1936 Balderston was nominated for the Oscar for the screenplay adaptation to Bengali (Lives Of A Bengal Lancer ) nominated . He received another nomination in 1945 for the adaptation of the screenplay for Das Haus der Lady Alquist ( Gaslight ).

In 1952 appeared in the shadow of the crown a remake of the film, The Prisoner of Zenda ( The Prisoner of Zenda ), which used again Balderstons screenplay from 1937. John L. Balderston's last film work was the script for Red Planet Mars , a science fiction film that appeared in 1952.

Filmography (selection)

literature

  • William K. Everson: classic horror film (OT: Classics of the horror film ). Goldmann, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-442-10205-7

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://archives.nypl.org/the/21456
personal data
SURNAME Balderston, John L.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Balderston, John Lloyd (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American playwright, journalist, screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH October 22, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia
DATE OF DEATH March 8, 1954
Place of death los Angeles