John Monk Saunders

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John Monk Saunders (born November 22, 1897 in Hinckley , Minnesota , † March 10, 1940 in Fort Myers , Florida ) was an American screenwriter and journalist .

Life

Saunders attended the University of Minnesota in St. Paul before during the First World War in the American US Air Force served. After the war, Saunders received a Rhodes Scholarship and studied at Oxford University . From 1922 onwards, the journalist was married to Avis Hughes, but divorced in 1927 and shortly afterwards married the actress Fay Wray . After twelve years, in 1939, the marriage ended in divorce. A year later, Saunders, who struggled with alcohol and drug problems throughout his life, committed suicide in Florida.

Services

After graduating, Saunders worked for various newspapers and magazines such as the Los Angeles Times , Cosmopolitan and the New York Tribune . In 1924 he was an associate editor of American Magazine . Saunders wrote short stories and novels, mostly about his experiences as a pilot in World War I. Saunder's first screenplay was written in 1925 in collaboration with Gerald C. Duffy. The script for the comedy Too Many Kisses was based on Saunder's story A Maker of Gestures . In the same year, Amor appeared in the Skyscraper , the film adaptation of a play by Saunders, again directed by Paul Sloane . As in Too many Kisses, Richard Dix and Frances Howard played the leading roles .

In 1927, William A. Wellman's film Wings was released . A war film that won an Oscar for Best Picture and another trophy for Best Technical Effects in 1929 . Wellman adapted the short story of the same name in Wings Saunders, the story of two friends who joined the Air Force at the outbreak of the First World War and both love the same woman, but in the end realize that their friendship is more important to them than the love for a woman.

Wellman and Saunders worked on the script together in the 1928 war film Legion of the Condemned . The film, with Gary Cooper and Fay Wray in the lead roles, is based in part on Wellman's own experience in the war as a pilot in the Lafayette Escadrille .

Almost all of the other films that were either adaptations of Saunder's short stories or that he wrote the script for varied on the same theme: Pilots in the First World War. In 1931, Saunders received an Oscar for Best Original Story for the war film Start Into Twilight , directed by Howard Hawks in 1930 . The main roles were played by Richard Barthelmess and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. In 1938 a remake of the film appeared with Errol Flynn , David Niven and Basil Rathbone in the leading roles.

In his 1931 screenplay for The Last Flight , based on his short stories Nikki and Her War Birds and A Single Lady , Saunders described the lost generation of combatants, much like Hemingway did in Sun Also Rises . In 1919 Paris, the wealthy American Nikki met several pilots in a circle, who after the war were unable to finish with the war and suffered both mentally and physically from the consequences. The Last Flight has been rediscovered among film historians in recent decades and is considered to be an important representation of the Lost Generation . From his stories about Nikki he also wrote the musical Nikki , which was staged on Broadway in 1931 . The title role in the Broadway performance was played by Fay Wray, while an as yet unknown Archie Leach alias Cary Grant played the main male role of Cary Lockwood (he later took his artist's first name from the character).

In Conquest of the Air, a documentary about aviation from its beginnings to the mid-1930s, Saunders directed part of it.

Filmography

  • 1925: Cupid in the Skyscraper (Shock Punch)
  • 1925: Too Many Kisses
  • 1927: Wings (Wings)
  • 1928: The Legion of the Condemned
  • 1928: The Docks of New York (The Docks of New York)
  • 1929: She Goes to War
  • 1930: Dawn Patrol (The Dawn Patrol)
  • 1931: The Finger Points
  • 1931: The Last Flight
  • 1933: Ace of Aces
  • 1933: The Eagle and the Hawk
  • 1935: Devil Dogs of the Air
  • 1935: I Found Stella Parrish
  • 1935: Heroes of Today (West Point of the Air)
  • 1936: Conquest of the Air
  • 1938: The Dawn Patrol
  • 1940: The Hidden Menace

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Judy Cornes: Alcohol in the Movies, 1898-1962: A Critical History . McFarland, 2015, ISBN 978-1-4766-0736-8 ( google.de [accessed July 11, 2020]).
  2. ↑ John Monk Saunders in the Internet Broadway Database (English)
  3. ^ Judy Cornes: Alcohol in the Movies, 1898-1962: A Critical History . McFarland, 2015, ISBN 978-1-4766-0736-8 ( google.de [accessed July 11, 2020]).
personal data
SURNAME Saunders, John Monk
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH November 22, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Hinckley
DATE OF DEATH March 10, 1940
Place of death Fort Myers