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STEPHEN
LONGSTREET: Letter from Cecil B. deMille: 1951.
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| Here it is: The smoking gun. Cecil B. Demille, (1881-1959), best known as an innovative film maker. He directed 79 films and produced 78 as well as an editor on 18 films. Some of his most famous films were "The 10 Commandments", "The Greatest Show on Earth", "Cleopatra" and "Samson and Delilah". So why is this letter "the smoking gun"? Stephen Longstreet always felt cheated for not getting the writing Oscar he deserved for working on this movie. Apparently, thre was no such thing as a "dialogue" writer and so he was pulled from the Oscar nomination and ultimately the award. He felt so strongly about this that he for years told people he had won the Oscar for this film. Even today, Stephen Longstreet is not given credit for working on the movie and let's face it, without the dialogue all you have is a 1951 silent film. The academy of fine arts blew it on this one, but in later years would allow dialogue credits. Unfortunately, the Academy did not retroactively give Oscars to those known to have written dialogue in past films. |
