Samuel Ornitz

Samuel Badisch Ornitz (born November 15, 1890 in New York , † March 10, 1957 in Woodland Hills , California ) was an American writer and screenwriter who was known for his socially critical and anti-fascist works. He was one of the Hollywood Ten .

Life

Youth and early professional life

Ornitz was born in New York and grew up on the Lower East Side , in a neighborhood that at the time was heavily influenced by Jewish immigrants. His parents, who came from Poland, were among them . The father was a successful haberdashery dealer . Ornitz attended a public school and a Jewish religious school. He also took courses on cultural topics at the Henry Street Settlement, a social institution that also tried to provide further training. During this time, Ornitz became interested in the social question . At the age of 12 he described himself as a socialist and gave political speeches on the street.

Ornitz began studying at City College , but dropped out after two years. In 1908, deliberately differentiating himself from his two older brothers who entered business life, he accepted a job as a social worker . For the next twelve years he worked for an association that combated child abuse and worked for the New York Prison Association, a charity that campaigned for the rehabilitation of prisoners. He married at the age of 22. With his wife Sadie Lesser he later had two sons, one of whom Arthur J. Ornitz became known as a cameraman.

Beginnings as a writer

In the following years Ornitz increasingly took part in meetings of left-wing groups, which also included theater groups. Under the pseudonym Don Orno he wrote the play Deficit , which was performed in May 1919 as part of an event with "three Poletarian plays at proletarian prices". His first printed work was the one-act play The Sock (1919), also published under the name Don Orno, a story reminiscent of Dostoyevsky's guilt and atonement , in which a young man kills his landlady in order to use the money she has hoarded for a writer suffering from tuberculosis help.

Ornitz now decided to become a writer himself and in 1920 gave up his position as a social worker. He became known after the publication of his first novel Haunch, Paunch and Jowl (1923), one of the most prominent works of the proletarian literary movement and Jewish literature of the time. The book was an account of the so-called Allrightniks , conformist Jews, who measured the value of their lives according to their social status and their successful integration into American society in economic terms. The antihero Meyer Hirsch appears as a corner lawyer, religious hypocrite, lying politician and corrupt judge. Ornitz was an avowed atheist and with this novel, as in later works, campaigned for the abandonment of religious traditions and an assimilation of American Jews, albeit under socialist conditions. From a literary point of view, what is remarkable about Haunch, Pauch and Jowl is the stream of consciousness narrative , as an early example of its use in American literature. The novel was published in German in 1925 under the title Herr Fettwanst .

Ornitz's next work was the children's book Round the World with Jocko the Great (1926), the illustrated story of a circus monkey, with which he affirmed his interest in the world of young people from his time as a social worker. In 1927 Ornitz published the novel A Yankee Passional. The Biography of a Synthetic Self , his only literary work that has no Jewish theme. It tells the story of a Protestant who converted to Catholicism and started a social-religious movement. The protagonist encounters resistance from the curia and at the same time is attacked by Protestant fundamentalists . He dies in the assassination attempt by a right-wing extremist group reminiscent of the Ku Klux Klan .

Screenwriter

Although he had previously shown little interest in film, Ornitz sold two stories to Hollywood studios in 1928 , which were filmed the following year: "Tong War," directed by William A. Wellman as Chinatown Nights (White Asians) on the big screen brought, and "The Case of Lena Smith", the story of an exploited country girl, which Josef von Sternberg processed into the film of the same name . Ornitz came to the conclusion that a combination of film work and social engagement was possible. He went to California in 1929 .

In the years that followed, he wrote scripts for films produced by companies such as RKO and Republic Pictures , mostly lesser-known screen productions. His last work in this productive phase was the screenplay for Three Faces West (1940), an adventure film with John Wayne in the lead role, which dealt with Ornitz's heavily preoccupied topic of fascism in a covert form .

Ornitz was better known in Hollywood for his political commitment than for his scripts. He was a co-organizer of the Screen Actors Guild , initiated anti-fascist events and campaigned for support for the republican cause in the Spanish Civil War . He made opponents when he defended Stalin against accusations of pursuing anti-Semitic policies and of having betrayed the working class with the Hitler-Stalin pact - two positions that he revoked in 1953.

Ornitz also traveled to Europe several times in the 1930s to get an idea of ​​the rise of fascism for himself. After such a trip, he and his friend Vera Caspary wrote the anti-fascist play Geraniums in My Window , which was released on Broadway in the fall of 1934 , but was discontinued after 28 performances. He wrote other plays, but they were not produced.

After the beginning of the Second World War , Ornitz received hardly any engagements as a screenwriter. It was not until 1944 that he was able to sell a script again, this time to Columbia Pictures : They Live in Fear , the story of a German emigrant who survived the Dachau concentration camp . In 1945, China's Little Devils was the last film based on a template by Ornitz.

Later years

His last work for a film studio was two years ago when Ornitz was asked in 1947 to testify before the Committee on Un-American Activities of the House of Representatives about alleged links between filmmakers and the Communist Party of the United States . Like several other writers, actors, and directors known as the Hollywood Ten , Ornitz refused to do so on citing his constitutional rights. He was charged with disobeying Congress and sentenced to one year in prison.

Before serving his prison sentence in 1950, he finished work on his last novel, Bride of the Sabbath (1951). He appeared while he was in prison. In the tradition of the educational novel, Bride of the Sabbath tells the story of a poor Jew from the Lower East Side who succeeds in adapting to American society successfully, but not unconditionally. The book became the author's biggest selling hit and made it to the top of the bestseller lists.

When Ornitz was released for good conduct after nine months in prison, he was already experiencing health problems. He joined unsuccessful lawsuits from colleagues against blacklists in the film industry. In contrast to other members of the Hollywood Ten , he did not continue to work under a pseudonym for Hollywood studios.

Samuel Ornitz died in 1957 at the age of 66 years in the Motion Picture Country Home, a retirement community for former filmmakers in the district of Woodland Hills Los Angeles, to cancer .

Works

Fiction

Novels

• Haunch, Paunch and Jowl. To Anonymous Autobiography. Boni and Liveright, New York 1923. New edition under the title: Allrightniks Row. "Haunch, Paunch, and Jowl". The Making of a Professional Jew. With an introduction by Gabriel Miller. Markus Wiener Publishing, New York 1986, ISBN 0-910129-46-0 . German-language edition: Mr. Fettwanst. An American autobiography. Translated by Erich Posselt. Kurt Wolff, Munich 1925. New edition with a foreword by Robert Neumann, Joseph Melzer, Darmstadt 1969.
• A Yankee Passional. The Biography of a Synthetic Self. Boni & Liveright, New York 1927.
• Bride of the Sabbath. Rinehart, New York 1951.

Plays

• The sock. A play in one act. The Three Pamphleteers, Brooklyn 1919 (under the pseudonym Don Orno).
• Geraniums in My Window. A Comedy in Three Acts. Unprinted (with Vera Capary).

Children's book

• Round the World with Jocko the Great. With illustrations by Caroll C. Snell. The Macaulay Company, New York 1926.

Movies

• One night in the Prater . Original title: The Case of Lena Smith. USA 1929. Director: Josef von Sternberg . Screenplay: Jules Furthman based on the story of the same name by Samuel Ornitz.
• White Asians. Original title: Chinatown Nights. USA 1929. Director: William A. Wellman . Scenario: Ben Grauman Kohn, Oliver HP Garrett and William B. Jutte based on the story "Tong War" by Samuel Ornitz.
• The Sins of the Children. USA 1930. Director: Elliott Nugent. Adaptation: Samuel Ornitz based on the story "Father's Day" by Elliott Nugent and JC Nugent.
• Thirteen Women . USA 1932. Director: George Archainbaud. Screenplay: Samuel Ornitz and Bartlett Cormack based on a novel by Tiffany Thayer.
• Hell's Highway. USA 1932. Director: Rowland Brown. Script: Samuel Ornitz, Rowland Brown and Robert Tasker.
• Men of America. USA 1932. Director: Ralph Ince. Screenplay: Samuel Ornitz and Jack Jungmeyer based on a story by Henry McCarty and Humphrey Pearson.
• Secrets of the French Police. USA 1932. Directed by A. Edward Sutherland . Screenplay: Samuel Ornitz and Robert Tasker based on a story by Ashton Wolfe.
• The Great Jasper. USA 1933. Directed by J. Walter Ruben. Script: Samuel Ornitz and HW Hanemann based on a novel by Fulton Oursler.
• One Man's Journey. USA 1933. Director: John S. Robertson . Script: Samuel Ornitz and Lester Cohen based on the story "Failure" by Katherine Havilland-Taylor.
• One Exciting Adventure. USA 1934. Director: Ernst L. Frank. Screenplay: Samuel Ornitz, William B. Jutte and William Hurlbut based on a story by Franz Schulz and Billy Wilder .
• The Man Who Reclaimed His Head. USA 1934. Director: Edward Ludwig. Screenplay: Samuel Ornitz and Jean Bart based on a play by Jean Bart.
• Three kids and a queen. USA 1935. Director: Edward Ludwig. Screenplay: Samuel Ornitz and Barry Trivers based on a story by Chester Beecroft, Mary Marlind and Harry Poppe.
• Fatal lady. USA 1936. Director: Edward Ludwig. Script: Samuel Ornitz and Horace McCoy based on a story by Harry Segall.
• Follow your heart. USA 1936. Director: Aubrey Scotto. Script: Samuel Ornitz, Nathanael West and Lester Cole based on a story by Dana Burnet.
• Two wise maids. USA 1937. Director: Phil Rosen . Screenplay: Samuel Ornitz based on a story by Endre Bohem.
• A Doctor's Diary. USA 1937. Director: Charles Vidor . Script: Samuel Ornitz and David Boehm based on a story by Joseph Anthony.
• Hit Parade of 1937. USA 1937. Director: Gus Meins . Script: Samuel Ornitz and Bradford Ropes based on a story by Bradford Ropes.
• It could happen to you! USA 1937. Director: Phil Rosen. Script: Samuel Ornitz and Nathanael West.
• Portia on Trial . USA 1937. Director: George Nicholls Jr. Screenplay: Samuel Ornitz and Edward E. Paramore Jr.
• King of the Newsboys. USA 1938. Director: Bernard Vorhaus . Screenplay: Peggy Thompson and Louis Weitzenkorn based on a story by Samuel Ornitz and Horace McCoy.
• Army girl. USA 1938. Director: George Nichols Jr. Screenplay: Samuel Ornitz and Barry Trivers based on a story by Charles L. Clifford.
• Little Orphan Annie. USA 1938. Director: Ben Holmes. Screenplay: Samuel Ornitz and Budd Schulberg based on a story by Samuel Ornitz and Endre Boehm.
• El Milagro de la Calle Mayor. USA 1939. Directed by NA Cuyas and Steve Sekely . Screenplay: Felix Jackson and Enrique Uthoff based on a story by Samuel Ornitz and Boris Ingster.
• Miracle on Main Street. USA 1939. Director: Steve Sekely. Script: Samuel Ornitz, Boris Ingster and Frederick J. Jackson.
• Three Faces West. USA 1940. Director: Bernard Vorhaus. Script: Samuel Ornitz, F. Hugh Herbert and Joseph Moncure March.
• They Live in Fear. USA 1944. Director: Hosef Berne. Screenplay: Samuel Ornitz and Michael L. Simmons based on a story by Ruth Nussbaum and Hilda Stone.
• Circumstantial Evidence. USA 1945. Director: John Larkin. Screenplay: Norbert F. Metzler based on a story by Sam Duncan and Nat Ferber, adapted by Samuel Ornitz.
• China's Little Devils. USA 1945. Director: Monta Bell . Screenplay: Samuel Ornitz.

literature

• Bernard F. Dick: Samuel Ornitz. 'Mazel Tov' to the World. In: Ders .: Radical Innocence. A Critical Study of the Hollywood Ten. University Press of Kentucky, Lexington 1989, ISBN 0-8131-1660-0 , pp. 12-28.
• Milton Henry Hindus: Ornitz, Samuel Badisch. In: Encyclopaedia Judaica . 2nd edition. Macmillan, Detroit et al. a. 2007. Volume 12, p. 479.
• Sanford V. Sternlicht: Samuel Ornitz. 1890-1957. In: Ders .: The Tenement Saga. The Lower East Side and Early Jewish American Writers. University of Madison Press, Madison 2004, ISBN 0-299-20480-4 , pp. 98-102.

Web links

• Samuel Ornitz in the Internet Movie Database (English)

• Samuel Ornitz in the database of Find a Grave (English)