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Jules Furthman

 
Writer: Jules Furthman
  • Born: Mar 05, 1888 in Chicago, Illinois
  • Died: Sep 22, 1966 in California
  • Occupation: Writer, Director
  • Active: teens-'30s
  • Major Genres: Drama, Romance
  • Career Highlights: The Big Sleep, Rio Bravo, To Have and Have Not
  • First Major Screen Credit: The Frame Up (1917)

Biography

A Northwestern University alumnus, American screenwriter Jules Furthman paid his literary dues as a magazine and newspaper writer. He was 30 years old and an established talent when he entered the upstart film industry in 1915. During World War I, Furthman sidestepped the anti-German sentiments of the era by using the "nom de plume" Jules Grinnell. A brief fling at film directing between 1919 and 1921 did not set box-office fires, but did imbue Furthman with a heightened understanding of directorial pressures and responsibilities. Thus armed, he was able to work harmoniously with contentious "genius" director Josef von Sternberg, contributing screenplays to many of Sternberg's best efforts, including Underworld (1927), The Docks of New York (1928), Shanghai Express (1932) and Blonde Venus (1932). He also produced Sternberg's last American film, the risible Jet Pilot (1957). As an adaptor of literary works, Furthman possessed the newspaperman's knack of boiling down reams of detail to the bare essentials, as witness his contributions to Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) and The Big Sleep (1945); conversely, he could take a slight literary piece and successfully build it up to feature length, as he did in collaboration with William Faulkner in the movie version of Hemingway's To Have and Have Not (1944). The last three mentioned films were directed by Howard Hawks, with whom Furthman also worked successfully on Only Angels Have Wings (1939) and Rio Bravo (1959). Perhaps Jules Furthman's most delicate assignment (in concert with Von Sternberg, Geza Herczeg and Karl Vollmoeller) was to take the censor-baiting stage play The Shanghai Gesture, change its locale from a brothel to a gambling house, and alter the main character's name from Mother Goddam to Mother Gin Sling--and still retain the smoky, exotic, verboten atmosphere of the original material. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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Jules Furthman
Born March 5, 1888
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Died September 22, 1966
Oxford, England
Occupation Screenwriter
Years active 1915 - 1959

Jules Furthman (March 5, 1888 - September 22, 1966) was a magazine and newspaper writer before working as a screenwriter.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, during World War I he wrote under the name "Stephen Fox." Furthman wrote screenplays for a number of important or popular films, including: The Docks of New York (1928), Thunderbolt (1929), Merely Mary Ann (1931), Shanghai Express (1932), Bombshell (1933), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Come and Get It (1936), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946) and Nightmare Alley (1947). He wrote credited screenplays for eight films directed by Josef Von Sternberg and an equal number for Howard Hawks.

He was nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for Mutiny on the Bounty.

In 1920, he married the actress Sybil Seely, who played in five films directed by Buster Keaton and stopped acting after giving birth to their child in 1923. They remained together until his death.

Jules Furthman was the brother of writer Charles Furthman. Jules Furthman died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1966 in Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. His remains were brought home and interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

List of Screenplays

  • Steady Company (1915) (story) (as Julius G. Furthman)
  • Bound on the Wheel (1915) (story) (as Julius G. Furthman)
  • Chasing the Limited (1915) (scenario)
  • Mountain Justice (1915) (story) (as Julius G. Furthman)
  • A Fiery Introduction (1915) (story) (as Julius G. Furthman)
  • Quits (1915) (as Julius G. Furthman)
  • The Little Blonde in Black (1915)
  • High Play (1917) (scenario) (as Jules Grinnell Furthmann)
  • The Frame-Up (1917)
  • The Shackles of Truth (1917) (story) (as Julius Grinnell Furthman)
  • The Masked Heart (1917) (story) (as Julius Grinnell Furthmann)
  • Souls in Pawn (1917) (story)
  • The Mantle of Charity (1918) (as Stephen Fox)
  • A Camouflage Kiss (1918) (as Stephen Fox)
  • Hearts or Diamonds? (1918)
  • Up Romance Road (1918) (as Stephen Fox)
  • A Japanese Nightingale (1918)
  • Hobbs in a Hurry (1918) (scenario) (as Stephen Fox)
  • All the World to Nothing (1918) (as Stephen Fox)
  • Wives and Other Wives (1918) (as Stephen Fox)
  • When a Man Rides Alone (1919) (as Stephen Fox)
  • Where the West Begins (1919)
  • Brass Buttons (1919) (as Stephen Fox)
  • Some Liar (1919) (scenario) (as Stephen Fox)
  • A Sporting Chance (1919) (as Stephen Fox)
  • This Hero Stuff (1919) (story) (as Stephen Fox)
  • Six Feet Four (1919) (as Stephen Fox)
  • Victory (1919) (as Stephen Fox)
  • The Lincoln Highwayman (1919) (adaptation)
  • The Pleasant Devil (1919) (story) (as Steven Fox)
  • Would You Forgive? (1920)
  • The Valley of Tomorrow (1920) (as Stephen Fox)
  • Treasure Island (1920) (as Stephen Fox)
  • Leave It to Me (1920) (scenario)
  • The Twins of Suffering Creek (1920) (scenario)
  • A Sister to Salome (1920)
  • The Great Redeemer (1920) (adaptation)
  • The White Circle (1920)
  • The Man Who Dared (1920) (as Julius G. Furthman)
  • The Skywayman (1920)
  • The Texan (1920) (scenario)
  • The Iron Rider (1920) (scenario)
  • The Land of Jazz (1920)
  • High Gear Jeffrey (1921)
  • The Cheater Reformed (1921)
  • The Big Punch (1921)
  • The Blushing Bride (1921)
  • Colorado Pluck (1921)
  • Singing River (1921)
  • The Last Trail (1921)
  • The Roof Tree (1921)
  • Pawn Ticket 210 (1922)
  • Gleam O'Dawn (1922)
  • The Ragged Heiress (1922)
  • Arabian Love (1922)
  • The Yellow Stain (1922)
  • Strange Idols (1922)
  • Calvert's Valley (1922)
  • The Love Gambler (1922)
  • A California Romance (1922)
  • Lovebound (1923)
  • St. Elmo (1923)
  • North of Hudson Bay (1923)
  • The Acquittal (1923)
  • Condemned (1923)
  • Try and Get It (1924) (adaptation)
  • Call of the Mate (1924)
  • Romola (1924) (titles)
  • Sackcloth and Scarlet (1925)
  • Any Woman (1925)
  • Before Midnight (1925)
  • Big Pal (1925)
  • The Wise Guy (1926)
  • You'd Be Surprised (1926)
  • Hotel Imperial (1927)
  • The Love Wager (1927)
  • Casey at the Bat (1927)
  • Fashions for Women (1927)
  • The Way of All Flesh (1927)
  • Barbed Wire (1927)
  • The City Gone Wild (1927)
  • Abie's Irish Rose (1928)
  • The Dragnet (1928)
  • The Docks of New York (1928)
  • The Case of Lena Smith (1929)
  • Thunderbolt (1929) (story)
  • New York Nights (1929) (adaptation)
  • For the Defense (1930) (story)
  • Common Clay (1930)
  • Renegades (1930) (adaptation)
  • Morocco (1930) (adaptation)
  • Body and Soul (1931)
  • Cuerpo y alma (1931)
  • Merely Mary Ann (1931)
  • The Yellow Ticket (1931)
  • Over the Hill (1931)
  • Shanghai Express (1932)
  • Blonde Venus (1932) (story) (uncredited)
  • Bombshell (1933)
  • China Seas (1935)
  • Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
  • Come and Get It (1936)
  • Spawn of the North (1938)
  • Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
  • The Way of All Flesh (1940) (story)
  • The Shanghai Gesture (1941)
  • The Outlaw (1943)
  • To Have and Have Not (1944)
  • The Big Sleep (1946)
  • Moss Rose (1947)
  • Nightmare Alley (1947)
  • Pretty Baby (1950) (story)
  • Peking Express (1951)
  • Jet Pilot (1957)
  • Rio Bravo (1959)

External links


 
 
Learn More
The Blushing Bride (1921 Comedy Film)
Barbed Wire (1927 Drama Film)
You'd Be Surprised (1926 Film)

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