John Lee Mahin

John Lee Mahin (August 23, 1902, Evanston, Illinois – April 18, 1984, Los Angeles) was a prolific screenwriter and producer.

He was active in films from the 1930s to the 1970s. He worked on such films as Scarface and The Wizard of Oz, but his name does not appear on the credits to the latter film.

He was a friend and frequent collaborator of director Victor Fleming. They worked on ten films together.

Mahin also wrote the screenplay for Show Boat (1951), the Technicolor remake of the famous 1927 stage musical, which had previously been filmed in 1936. Accordng to musical theatre historian Miles Kreuger in his book Show Boat: The History of a Classic American Musical however, Mahin retained most of the basic structure of the storyline, but little of Oscar Hammerstein II's stage dialogue, preferring to create his own. According to Kreuger, it was Mahin and producer Arthur Freed who introduced the plot device of keeping the lovers Magnolia Hawks and Gaylord Ravenal young at the end, rather than having them age forty years as in the original stage musical.

Filmography - writer's credits

• Moment to Moment (1965)
• The Spiral Road (1962)
• North to Alaska (1960) (screenplay)
• The Barbarians (1960)
• The Horse Soldiers (1959)
• No Time for Sergeants (1958)
• Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957)
• The Bad Seed (1956) (screenplay)
• Lucy Gallant (1955)
• Elephant Walk (1954)
• Mogambo (1953)
• My Son John (1952) (adaptation)
• Show Boat (1951)
• Quo Vadis (1951)
• Love That Brute (1950)
• Down to the Sea in Ships (1949)
• The Yearling (1946) (uncredited)
• Adventure (1945) (uncredited)
• Sabotage Agent (1943)
• Tortilla Flat (1942) (screenplay)
• Woman of the Year (1942) (uncredited)
• Johnny Eager (1942) (screenplay)
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)
• Boom Town (1940)
• The Wizard of Oz (1939) (uncredited)
• Too Hot to Handle (1938) (screenplay)
• Test Pilot (1938) (uncredited)
• The Last Gangster (1937)
• Captains Courageous (1937)
• A Star Is Born (1937) (contributing writer) (uncredited)
• Love on the Run (1936)
• The Devil is a Sissy (1936)
• Small Town Girl (1936)
• Wife vs. Secretary (1936) (screenplay)
• Riffraff (1936) (contributor to dialogue) (uncredited)
• China Seas (1935) (contributor to screenplay construction) (uncredited)
• Naughty Marietta (1935)
• Chained (1934)
• Treasure Island (1934) (screenplay)
• Laughing Boy (1934)
• Eskimo (1933)
• Bombshell (1933) (screenplay)
• The Prizefighter and the Lady (1933)
• Hell Below (1933) (dialogue)
• Red Dust (1932) (screenplay) (as John Mahin)
• Tiger Shark (1932) (contributing writer) (uncredited)
• Scarface (1932) (continuity) (dialogue)
• The Wet Parade (1932) (adaptation) (as John L. Mahin)
• The Beast of the City (1932) (dialogue continuity) (as John L. Mahin)
• The Unholy Garden (1931) (uncredited)

External links

• John Lee Mahin at the Internet Movie Database