Harriet Frank, Jr.

Harriet Frank, Jr.
Harriet Frank, Jr. with her late husband Irving Ravetch in 1993
Born	(1917-03-02) March 2, 1917 Portland, Oregon
Other names	James P. Bonner Harriet Frank
Occupation	Screenwriter, producer
Years active	1947–1990
Spouse(s)	Irving Ravetch (1946–2010) his death

Harriet Frank, Jr. (born March 2, 1917) is an American film writer and producer. Working alongside her husband, Irving Ravetch, Frank received numerous awards during her lengthy career, including the New York Film Critics Circle Awards and the Writers Guild of America Award, and several nominations. Frank and Ravetch are considered one of the all-time great screenwriting couples, and many of their works are recognised classics of their genres.

Frank began her writing career after World War II, under Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's young writer's training program, where she first met her future husband. She married Ravetch in 1946 but worked independently for ten years, finally collaborating with him in 1957, a relationship that continued for the remainder of her career. During 33 years of collaboration, they created the screenplays for a variety of films, mainly adaptations of the works of American authors.

Frank and Ravetch maintained a close working relationship with director Martin Ritt throughout their career, collaborating with him on eight occasions; after initially being suggested by Ravetch to direct The Long, Hot Summer (1958), Ritt would eventually draw the couple out of inactivity on three occasions, hiring them to write the screenplays for Norma Rae (1979), Murphy's Romance (1985) and Stanley & Iris (1990). The latter was both the last film directed by Ritt (who died later that year) and the last for which Frank and Ravetch wrote the screenplay.

Life and career

Early life

Frank as depicted in Amazing Stories in 1953

Frank and Ravetch adapted many of the novels by William Faulkner (pictured) for film. Photograph by Carl Van Vechten

Harriet Frank, Jr. was born and raised in Portland, Oregon.^[1] While her mother worked as a Hollywood story editor, Frank attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), at the same time as her future husband, Irving Ravetch.^[1] Having graduated at different times from UCLA, the two met in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer young writer's training program after World War II.^[2][3]

The couple soon married in 1946, but worked independently for over ten years, with Frank writing for projects such as A Really Important Person (1947), Whiplash (1948) and Run for Cover (1955).^[2][3] The couple first collaborated on the script of an adaptation of William Faulkner's novel The Hamlet in 1957 (released as The Long, Hot Summer), although Frank later said, "...in the end, we created mostly new material, so it wasn't really a true adaptation".^[3]

Collaborations and awards

Martin Ritt, having directed The Long, Hot Summer on suggestion by Ravetch, then directed the couple's next collaboration, The Sound and the Fury (1959), once again an adaptation of a William Faulkner novel.^[3] In 1960, Frank and Ravetch collaborated on two films, Home from the Hill, an adaptation of the novel of the same name, and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, an adaptation of a Tony award-winning play.^[2]

In 1963, Frank and Ravetch reunited with Martin Ritt to write the screenplay for Hud,^[2] adapted from the novel Horseman, Pass By.^[4][5] The film garnered critical acclaim, with the couple sharing a New York Film Critics Circle Award for "Best Screenplay" and a Writers Guild of America Award (WGA Award) for "Best Written American Drama". They were also nominated for an Academy Award in the category of "Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium".^[6]

In 1967, Frank worked alongside her husband and Ritt on Hombre, a Revisionist Western film based on the novel of the same name.^[7] The next year, Frank and Ravetch wrote the screenplay for House of Cards, a mystery film directed by John Guillermin. For House of Cards, Frank was credited, together with her husband, under the pen name of "James P. Bonner".^[8] In 1969, Frank and Revitch returned to the works of William Faulkner, writing the screenplay for a film adaptation of his last novel The Reivers.^[2]

1972 saw Frank and Ravetch write the screenplay for The Cowboys, based on the novel of the same name, and The Carey Treatment, based on the novel A Case of Need by Michael Crichton.^[9] For the latter, the couple were credited under "James P. Bonner", the last time they would adopt the pen name. Two years later, the couple reunited once again with Martin Ritt to write the screenplay for Conrack, based on the autobiographical book The Water Is Wide, with Frank also working as producer. The film was commercially and critically well-received, winning a BAFTA award.^[10] In the same year the couple wrote for an adaptation of the novel The Bank Robber, released as The Spikes Gang. Around this time, Frank also wrote two novels, Single: a novel (1977),^[11] and Special Effects (1979).^[12]

Return to screenwriting

Frank published one piece of science fiction, the novella "The Man from Saturn", in Amazing Stories in 1953

In 1979, following five years of inactivity, Frank and Ravetch returned to screen writing for Norma Rae, with Martin Ritt directing. The film tells the story of a factory worker from the Southern United States who becomes involved in labour union activities.^[13] Unusually, for the couple, the film was based on a true story, that of Crystal Lee Jordan.^[13] It was arguably their best received film,^[14][15] winning numerous awards,^[16][17] including two Academy Awards.^[18][19]

Six years passed before the couple returned to screen writing, this time for the romantic comedy Murphy's Romance, based on a novel by Max Schott. Once again they worked with director Martin Ritt, their seventh project together, and Sally Field, who had played the titular lead role in Norma Rae. Despite Murphy's Romance being well-received (it was nominated for two Academy Awards) it would be another five years before Frank and Ravetch wrote another screenplay; hired by Martin Ritt, the couple wrote the screenplay for Stanley & Iris, loosely based on the novel Union Street.^[20][21]

Legacy

Ten months after the release of Stanley & Iris, on December 8, 1990, Martin Ritt died. Together, the trio of Frank, Ravetch and Ritt had collaborated on eight films and achieved considerable successes.^[20][22] As well as being the last film Ritt worked on, Stanley & Iris also marked the end of Frank and Ravetch's writing careers.

In a career spanning 43 years and 21 film productions (despite lengthy periods of absence), Harriet Frank, Jr. won 4 awards and received many more nominations, sharing them all with her husband. As well as with her husband and Martin Ritt, Frank collaborated extensively with other well-known actors, such as Paul Newman, writing for three of his film appearances (The Long, Hot Summer, Hud and Hombre).

Many of their films not only received critical acclaim upon release, in the form of awards (Norma Rae and Stanley & Iris), but those such as Hud (1963) are considered classics of their genres. The legacy of Harriet Frank, Jr. is today considered inseparable with that of her husband, Ravetch, and together they are considered one of the all-time great screenwriting teams.^[1][23]

Filmography

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

• "Norma Rae screenwriter Irving Ravetch dies aged 89". British Broadcasting Company (BBC). September 22, 2010. Retrieved September 23, 2010. 
• Baer, William (November 2007). Classic American Films: Conversations with the Screenwriters. Praeger. pp. 95–109. ISBN 978-0-313-34898-3.  |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• Niemi, Robert (2006). History in the Media: Film and Television. ABC-CLIO. pp. 331–2. ISBN 978-1-57607-952-2.  |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• American Film Institute (AFI) (1997). The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-20970-1. Retrieved September 23, 2009.
• McGilligan, Pat (1997). Backstory 3, Interviews with Screenwriters of the 1960s. University of California Press. Retrieved March 20, 2012. 

External links

• Harriet Frank, Jr. at the Internet Movie Database