Page 7 - 2005-12

John Michael Hayes’ screenplay for The Chalk Garden was criticized because it was said to have
destroyed the essence of the original work (p4). That’s a serious charge. Yet Deborah Kerr, a skilled
actress, said that the script was wonderful and the changes were necessary to make a fine dramatic
picture (p5). Who was right? Hayes was no slouch as a screen-writer. He had written four screenplays
for Alfred Hitchcock, beginning with Rear Window (1954), so we must credit him with skill and
understanding for the task. On this film Hayes was a hired hand. Either he had to wrestle a difficult
structure into submission and did some unintentional damage along the way, or he was instructed to
make changes. Whether any change is for better or worse is very much a personal opinion.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s Dr. Watson is nothing like the duffer played by Nigel Bruce in the Sherlock
Holmes series of the 1940s. Yet the inspired pairing of Basil Rathbone with Nigel Bruce won over all
but the entrenched purist.

Eugene O’Neill was a giant
of American Theatre. It is
not surprising that his epic
plays about brooding,
damaged families -
Mourning Becomes
Electra, Long Days
Journey Into Night - didn’t
work as films. The film
version of one of his more
accessible works The
Hairy Ape (1944) divided
critics because it radically
changed the ending. Some
said it wasn’t O’Neill;
others welcomed the
lightened mood and
reduction in ‘social
significance.’ I’ve seen the
film and read the play and
conclude that the change
to a life-affirming ending
was correct.
Susan Hayward looks apprehensive; suspecting that ship’s stoker
William Bendix is in her apartment, intent on killing her. The Hairy
Ape. United Artists 1944.

Someone powerful makes these decisions. Perhaps the producer should shoulder the blame if things

go wrong.

The Buck Stops Here.
Eric did not think much of Universal’s choice of producer Ross Hunter for a serious work like The
Chalk Garden. Yet ‘casting against type’ at all levels in Hollywood - including the supervisory, in the
belief that a professional, particularly if a specialist from a different genre, will see the wood for the
trees - can work. Hunter had to make sure that American audiences would relate to the story. Since
the film was more successful in the USA than in Britain, perhaps he did everything that Universal
Studios expected of him. Without access to the files, we don’t know the logic of the decision-making.

In a collaborative, yet ego-driven medium like film, the odds of juggling all of the balls all of the time
and not compromising the essentials, are not good. Surprising then, that so many films turn out so
well. It’s just not possible to pick them in advance. In the meantime, I am still searching for a copy of
The Chalk Garden.