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Carl Foreman is a Director, Scriptwriter and Producer American born on 23 july 1914 at Chicago (USA)

Carl Foreman

Carl Foreman
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Nationality USA
Birth 23 july 1914 at Chicago (USA)
Death 26 june 1984 (at 69 years) at Los Angeles (USA)
Awards Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

Carl Foreman, CBE (July 23, 1914 – June 26, 1984) was an American screenwriter and film producer who wrote the notable film High Noon. He was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses in the 1950s.

Biography

Born in Chicago, Illinois, to a working-class Jewish family, he was the son of Fanny (Rozin) and Isidore Foreman. He studied at the University of Illinois. As a student in the 1930s he became an advocate of revolutionary socialism and joined the American Communist Party.

After graduating from university, Carl Foreman moved to Hollywood where he used his writing talents and training to work as a screenwriter. From 1941 to 1942 he was involved with writing three films but his career was interrupted by service in the United States military during World War II. Returning to writing commercial scripts, by the end of the 1940s, Foreman had become one of the top writers in Hollywood whose successes included the 1949 Kirk Douglas film Champion for which Foreman received an Academy Award nomination.

In 1950, he adapted Brian Hooker's English translation of Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac for the 1950 film version, which starred Jose Ferrer, and for which Ferrer won the Academy Award for Best Actor.

In 1951, during production of the film High Noon, Carl Foreman was summoned to appear before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC). He testified that he had been a member of the American Communist Party more than ten years earlier while still a young man but had become disillusioned with the Party and quit. As a result of his refusal to give the names of fellow Party members, Foreman was labeled as an "uncooperative witness" and blacklisted by all of the Hollywood studio bosses.

Carl Foreman was the screenwriter of High Noon, a film released in 1952 that is seen by some as an allegory for McCarthyism. The Western film is considered an American classic and was No. 33 on American Film Institute's 100 Years, 100 Movies, and has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. This would be the last film he would be allowed to work on by a Hollywood studio for the next six years. High Noon, the film that was Foreman's greatest screenwriting accomplishment, made no mention of his name as associate producer but did credit him for the screenplay, and he did receive an Academy Award nomination for his script from his fellow members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Unemployed, Foreman and some others who had also been blacklisted such as Ring Lardner, Jr. moved to England where they wrote scripts under pseudonyms that were channeled back to Hollywood. In 1956 he co-wrote the screenplay with fellow blacklisted writer, Michael Wilson for the equally acclaimed The Bridge on the River Kwai. Based on the novel by Pierre Boulle, the two were not given screen credit and the Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay went to Pierre Boulle, who did not speak English. This was only rectified posthumously in 1984 and his name was added to the award.

In addition to his writing of screenplays, Carl Foreman produced ten films, including both producing, writing, and directing 1963s anti-war epic The Victors, filmed entirely in the United Kingdom. He also produced and scripted the 1961 smash hit World War II blockbuster The Guns of Navarone, starring Gregory Peck, David Niven, and Anthony Quinn; it remains one of his most popular pictures. He is credited as "presenter" on the smash hit 1966 film Born Free, and both presented and produced its (unsuccessful) sequel, Living Free in 1972. In 1965 he was made a governor of the British Film Institute, serving until 1971. In 1970, Foreman was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Such is his influence on the British film industry, that there is a British Academy Award or BAFTA that bears his name – the Carl Foreman Award for the Most Promising Newcomer.

Nearing the end of his life, Carl Foreman returned to the United States, where he died of a brain tumor in 1984 in Beverly Hills, California. His first marriage resulted in the birth of a daughter, Katie, to Estelle; his second marriage brought him two children, Amanda and Jonathan, born in London to Evelyn.

Foreman's daughter, Amanda Foreman, graduated from Columbia University and Oxford University, where she received a PhD in history. She won the Whitbread Prize for her 1998 best-selling biography "Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire", which was followed in 2011 by the epic non-fiction study "A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War".

Foreman's son, Jonathan Foreman, has a degree in modern history from Cambridge University and a J.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He was an editorial writer and senior film critic for the New York Post before relocating to London in 2004 to work for the Daily Mail. In 2008 he became one of the founders of the monthly British centre-right current affairs magazine Standpoint.

Best films

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
(Scriptwriter)
The Guns of Navarone (1961)
(Scriptwriter)
High Noon (1952)
(Scriptwriter)
Champion (1949)
(Scriptwriter)
Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)
(Scriptwriter)

Usually with

Source : Wikidata

Filmography of Carl Foreman (25 films)

Display filmography as list

Director

The Victors, 2h55
Directed by Carl Foreman
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, War
Themes Political films
Actors George Peppard, Romy Schneider, Albert Finney, Vince Edwards, George Hamilton, Melina Mercouri
Rating68% 3.44363.44363.44363.44363.4436
La guerre ne fait aucun vainqueurs, seulement des survivants. La tuerie détruit autant ceux qui tuent que ceux qui sont tués ; parce qu'elle assassine la décence, le respect de soi-même et finalement la vie elle-même. L'histoire suit les pas d'un bataillon de jeunes soldats américains aux premiers jours de la Bataille d'Angleterre, à travers les violents combats en Italie et en France, jusqu'à la paix difficile, à Berlin.

Scriptwriter

When Time Ran Out..., 2h1
Directed by James Goldstone
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Disaster, Action, Adventure
Themes La fin du monde, Seafaring films, Transport films, Volcanisme, Films about volcanoes, Disaster films, American disaster films
Actors Paul Newman, Jacqueline Bisset, William Holden, James Franciscus, Ernest Borgnine, Edward Albert
Rating46% 2.309922.309922.309922.309922.30992
Shelby Gilmore (William Holden), who owns a newly constructed hotel on a remote Pacific island, wants desperately to marry his secretary, Kay Kirby (Jacqueline Bisset) and proposes to her under the impression that she'll become his seventh wife. Kay is in love with Hank Anderson (Paul Newman), an oil rigger whose scientists are warning him that a nearby active volcano is about to erupt.
Force 10 from Navarone, 1h58
Directed by Guy Hamilton
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, War, Thriller, Action, Adventure
Themes Political films
Actors Robert Shaw, Harrison Ford, Edward Fox, Barbara Bach, Carl Weathers, Franco Nero
Roles Screenstory
Rating63% 3.198433.198433.198433.198433.19843
In 1943, after their successful mission on the Greek island of Navarone, Major Keith Mallory (Robert Shaw) and Sergeant Miller (Edward Fox) are sent to find and kill Nicolai. Originally thought to be a traitor who informed the Germans about Miller and Mallory during the Navarone mission, Nicolai is now known to be Colonel von Ingorslebon, a dedicated German spy believed to have infiltrated the Yugoslav Partisans as "Captain Lescovar" (Franco Nero).
Young Winston, 2h37
Directed by Richard Attenborough, Brian W. Cook
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, War, Biography, Action, Adventure
Themes Films set in Africa, Political films
Actors Simon Ward, Robert Shaw, Jack Hawkins, Anne Bancroft, Anthony Hopkins, Ian Holm
Rating66% 3.3452353.3452353.3452353.3452353.345235
Le scenario est largement inspiré du livre de Winston Churchill, My Early Life (Mes Aventures de Jeunesse) film raconte la jeunesse du futur Premier Ministre britannique .
Mackenna's Gold, 2h2
Directed by J. Lee Thompson
Origin USA
Genres Action, Adventure, Western
Actors Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif, Telly Savalas, Camilla Sparv, Camilla Sparv, Keenan Wynn
Rating66% 3.3485853.3485853.3485853.3485853.348585
An old legend tells of a fortune in gold hidden in the "Cañon del Oro," guarded by the Apache spirits. Along with several others, a man named Adams found it when he was a young man, only to have the Indians capture and blind him, leaving him stranded in the desert after killing his companions. Years later, Marshal MacKenna (Gregory Peck) wounds an old Indian shaman named Prairie Dog (Eduardo Ciannelli) who tried to bushwhack him; Prairie Dog subsequently dies, despite MacKenna's attending to him. MacKenna thereby comes into possession of a map that supposedly shows the way to the treasure. Though skeptical, he memorizes the directions before burning the map.
The Victors, 2h55
Directed by Carl Foreman
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, War
Themes Political films
Actors George Peppard, Romy Schneider, Albert Finney, Vince Edwards, George Hamilton, Melina Mercouri
Rating68% 3.44363.44363.44363.44363.4436
La guerre ne fait aucun vainqueurs, seulement des survivants. La tuerie détruit autant ceux qui tuent que ceux qui sont tués ; parce qu'elle assassine la décence, le respect de soi-même et finalement la vie elle-même. L'histoire suit les pas d'un bataillon de jeunes soldats américains aux premiers jours de la Bataille d'Angleterre, à travers les violents combats en Italie et en France, jusqu'à la paix difficile, à Berlin.
The Guns of Navarone, 2h30
Directed by Alexander Mackendrick, J. Lee Thompson, Peter Yates
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, War, Thriller, Action, Adventure
Themes Seafaring films, Transport films, La bataille de l'Atlantique, Political films
Actors Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn, James Robertson Justice, Anthony Quayle, Stanley Baker
Rating74% 3.7484153.7484153.7484153.7484153.748415
In 1943, the Axis powers plan an assault on the island of Keros — where 2,000 British soldiers are marooned — to bully neutral Turkey into joining them with a display of their military strength. Rescue by the Royal Navy is prevented by two massive radar-directed superguns on the nearby island of Navarone. When aerial bombing efforts fail, Allied Intelligence gathers a team of commandos to infiltrate Navarone and destroy the guns. Led by Major Roy Franklin (Anthony Quayle), the team is composed of Captain Keith Mallory (Gregory Peck), a renowned spy and mountaineer; Colonel Andrea Stavrou (Anthony Quinn) from the defeated Greek army; Franklin's best friend Corporal Miller (David Niven), an explosives expert and former chemistry teacher; Greco-American Spyros Pappadimos (James Darren), a native of Navarone; and "Butcher" Brown (Stanley Baker), an engineer and expert knife fighter.
The Key
The Key (1958)
, 2h14
Directed by Carol Reed
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, War, Romance
Themes Seafaring films, Transport films, Underwater action films, Submarine films, Political films
Actors William Holden, Sophia Loren, Trevor Howard, Oskar Homolka, Bernard Lee, Kieron Moore
Roles Writer
Rating66% 3.3429653.3429653.3429653.3429653.342965
American David Ross (William Holden), a former tugboat captain now in the Canadian army, is hastily commissioned in the Royal Navy and assigned to rotating command of W88, a double-crewed rescue tug then in dry dock due to battle damage. His predecessor was a suicide. The slow, poorly armed tugboats bring in "lame ducks," freighters crippled near England by German attacks. The main danger is from U-boats and aircraft.
The Bridge on the River Kwai, 2h41
Directed by David Lean
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, War, Adventure, Historical
Themes Seafaring films, Pont, Prison films, Transport films, Rail transport films, Political films, Évasion
Actors William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa, James Donald, Percy Herbert
Rating80% 4.048614.048614.048614.048614.04861
In World War II, British prisoners arrive by train at a Japanese prison camp in Burma. The commandant, Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), informs them that all prisoners, regardless of rank, are to work on the construction of a railway bridge over the River Kwai that will connect Bangkok and Rangoon. The senior British officer, Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness), reminds Saito that the Geneva Conventions exempt officers from manual labour.
A Hatful of Rain, 1h49
Directed by Fred Zinnemann
Origin USA
Genres Drama
Themes Medical-themed films, Films about drugs, Théâtre, Films based on plays
Actors Don Murray, Eva Marie Saint, Anthony Franciosa, Lloyd Nolan, Henry Silva, Gerald S. O'Loughlin
Rating71% 3.591293.591293.591293.591293.59129
The setting is a housing project apartment in New York City near the Brooklyn Bridge. Johnny Pope (Don Murray) is a soldier who returns from the Korean War, where a stay in a military hospital has left him secretly addicted to morphine. His emotional distance (and his tendency to stay out all night) alienates him from the apartment's other residents: Johnny's pregnant wife Celia (Eva Marie Saint) and his brother Polo (Anthony Franciosa). Celia is convinced that Johnny is having an affair, but of course the truth is something quite different. Johnny and Polo's father, John Sr. (Lloyd Nolan), arrives in town and stays with them in the small apartment, further complicating a tense situation and leading to a dynamic and dramatic climax.
The Sleeping Tiger, 1h29
Directed by Joseph Losey
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Thriller, Noir, Crime
Actors Dirk Bogarde, Alexis Smith, Alexander Knox, Hugh Griffith, Maxine Audley, Glyn Houston
Rating64% 3.2400453.2400453.2400453.2400453.240045
Two criminals are stalking the streets of London one dark night. Frank Clemmons (Dirk Bogarde), a cocky young man, holds psychiatrist Dr. Clive Esmond (Alexander Knox) up at gunpoint, but Dr. Esmond manages to overpower him. Frank has two options; he can go to prison or he can be a guest at Dr. Esmond’s house where he’ll be a human guinea pig subjected to Dr. Esmond’s scrutiny, which aims to cure him of his criminality. Frank agrees upon the latter. Arriving home from a holiday in Paris, Dr. Esmond’s wife Glenda (Alexis Smith) is taken aback when she sees the new household guest. Glenda has her reservations about Frank and behaves in a cold, aloof manner towards him.
High Noon
High Noon (1952)
, 1h25
Directed by Fred Zinnemann
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Action, Western
Themes Films about religion
Actors Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Katy Jurado, Eve McVeagh, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Bridges
Rating78% 3.9485953.9485953.9485953.9485953.948595
Will Kane (Gary Cooper), the longtime marshal of Hadleyville, New Mexico Territory, has just married pacifist Quaker Amy Fowler (Grace Kelly) and turned in his badge. He intends to become a storekeeper elsewhere. Suddenly, the town learns that Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald), a criminal whom Kane brought to justice, is due to arrive on the noon train.
The Men
The Men (1950)
, 1h25
Directed by Fred Zinnemann
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War, Romance
Themes Medical-themed films, Films about disabilities
Actors Marlon Brando, Teresa Wright, Everett Sloane, Jack Webb, Richard Erdman, Dorothy Tree
Roles Story
Rating70% 3.5475853.5475853.5475853.5475853.547585
Ken is a young infantry lieutenant who leads his platoon through an embattled European town, and advances into an open square and a shot rings out. He is hit in the lower back and in an instant a robust young man is made paraplegic for the rest of his life. In the hospital, Ken is a sullen and resentful patient, and in feeling sorry for himself he finds no sympathy from his fellow paraplegics, including Norm, a bitter and caustic man, and Leo, a happy go lucky patient who smokes cigars and bets on horses. Ken's reluctance to respond to treatment begins to diminish through the persistence of his fiancée, Ellen, who refuses to give up, despite his wish that she do so. With the support too, of Brock, a sympathetic doctor, Ken begins to tackle the program of adjustment. He decides to go through with the wedding, determined to take the vows standing up at the altar. The wedding night however is painful for him and he returns to the hospital. Later, he is involved in a drunk driving accident and is disciplined by his fellow patients. Eventually Ken comes to appreciate that he has responsibilities, especially to his wife, who is also faced with the problems of being married to a paraplegic, a course she has accepted with full knowledge and considerable courage.
Young Man with a Horn, 1h47
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Musical theatre, Musical, Romance
Themes Films about music and musicians, Jazz films, Musical films
Actors Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall, Doris Day, Hoagy Carmichael, Juano Hernández, Jerome Cowan
Roles Writer
Rating71% 3.5925153.5925153.5925153.5925153.592515
As a young boy, after his mother dies, Rick Martin sees a trumpet in the window of a pawn shop. He works in a bowling alley to save up enough money to buy it. Rick grows up to be an outstanding musician, tutored by jazzman Art Hazzard. He lands a job playing for the big band of Jack Chandler, getting to know the piano player Smoke Willoughby and the beautiful singer Jo Jordan.
Cyrano de Bergerac, 1h52
Directed by Michael Gordon
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy-drama, Swashbuckler, Adventure, Historical, Romance
Themes Théâtre, Films based on plays
Actors José Ferrer, Mala Powers, William Prince, Don Beddoe, Morris Carnovsky, Lloyd Corrigan
Rating73% 3.694063.694063.694063.694063.69406
In seventeenth century Paris, poet and supreme swordsman Cyrano de Bergerac (José Ferrer) stops a play from being shown because he cannot stand the bombastic style of the principal actor, Montfleury (Arthur Blake). An annoyed aristocratic fop, the Vicomte de Valvert (Albert Cavens), provokes him into a duel by tritely insulting Cyrano's enormous nose. Cyrano first mocks his lack of wit, improvising numerous inventive ways in which Valvert could have phrased it (much to the amusement of the audience). He then composes a ballade for the occasion on the spot and recites it during the swordfight. With the last line, he stabs his opponent.