Happy Birthday to Charles Durning, Zero Mostel, and Ben Hect.
I watched Wirlpool in honor of Ben Hect. He is a great screenwriter who wrote comedy, drama and action films. The film has a great cast of Gene Tierney, Richard Conte and Jose Ferrer and directed by Otto Preminger. Jose catches Gene stealing from a store and blackmails her and hypnotizes her to get her to bend to his will, which even subconsciously she will not follow his lecherous plans. Gene is framed for murder. Richard who plays her husband is the only one who really believes that Gene is innocent and tries to prove his wife's innocence. I won't give away the film noir, but it is very well plotted.
In my days of wanting to be a screenwriter I read a biography of Ben Hect. He had quite a life. One of my favorite quotes on Hollywood writing is by his friend Mankiewicz, “In a novel a hero can lay 10 girls and marry a virgin for a finish. In a movie this is not allowed. The hero as well as the heroine, has to be a virgin. The villain can lay anybody he wants, have as much fun as he wants, cheating and stealing getting rich and whipping servants, but you have to shoot him in the end.”
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