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Name, Age and Occupation

From Wikipedia - Reading time: 6 min
Name, Age and Occupation
Directed byPare Lorentz
Screenplay byPare Lorentz
Based onradio play Ecce Homo
by Pare Lorentz
Produced byPare Lorentz
StarringRobert Ryan
Frances Dee
CinematographyFloyd Crosby
Production
company
RKO Pictures
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$300,000 (est.)[1]

Name, Age and Occupation is an unfinished 1942 American feature film from Pare Lorentz, and would have been, if completed, his first "entertainment feature."[2] Lorentz started filming in 1939 under contract to RKO Pictures, but RKO stopped production in 1942 for various reasons.[3] The film was itself based on two other unfinished projects of Lorentz - a novel and a documentary.[4] Although the story was fictional, the film "was to document popular participation in the war effort".[5]

The movie helped launch the film career of Robert Ryan, who was cast in the lead role. Although the film was never made, it led to Ryan staying in Hollywood and becoming a film star at RKO.

Background

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Ecce Homo

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By the late 1930s Lorentz was one the most famous documentary filmmakers in the world, having made films such as The River and The Plow That Broke the Plains.[6]

In 1938 he produced a radio play about four unemployed workers,[7] Ecce Homo, which was the basis for the film (Ecce Homo - which meant "behold the man" - was one of the film's working titles).[8] The radio play was first broadcast on CBS in May 1938.[9][10]

Film

[edit]

By the end of 1938 Lorentz announced he would be making a film based on the radio play, sponsored by the Departments of the Interior, Agriculture and Works.[11] It would focus on unemployment. Filming began in 1939, and by May 1940 newspaper reports claimed it was two-thirds completed but that work had been halted so more research could be done.[12] Another reason given was that Congress decided to abolish the United States Film Service.[13]

In 1941, George Schaeffer, then head of RKO Pictures, offered Lorentz a two-film contract at the studio.[14] The first film would be Ecce Homo, now retitled Name, Age and Occupation. [15]

The film was to star Robert Ryan[16][17] and Frances Dee. As it would have been Lorentz's first dramatic film, Ryan felt insecure about the project.[18][19] John Houseman worked on the film until he entered the armed services.[20]

Filming took place throughout the US with limited studio work at RKO.[21] According to director Edward Dmytryk, after 90 days of filming, Lorentz proved unable to respect the schedule and production was cancelled by RKO.[22]

According to a later legal case involving the film, by 16 May 1942 Lorentz had been working on the film for forty weeks at a salary of $1,250 a week. On that date RKO stopped paying him. About eight weeks later he was fired, with the film an estimated twelve weeks short of completion. RKO claims $400,000 had been spent on the film and that $400,000 more would be required to complete it.[15]

The footage ("several tens of thousand feet of industrial footage"[23]) was repurposed for propaganda films.[24][25][26]

The film was cancelled at RKO around the same time the studio cancelled It's All True from Orson Welles.[27] George Schaeffer, who had supported this new ambitious project encouraged by the success of Citizen Kane,[28] had already resigned when the decision was known in July 1942.[29]

The film remained "Lorentz's first and last Hollywood production".[29] He later sued RKO for breach of contract and defamation.[15]

As for Ryan, The Reading Eagle commented "When plans for that picture were shelved, studio bosses forgot Ryan and he twiddled his thumbs for ten months before being assigned bits in Bombardier and The Sky's the Limit.[30]

Premise

[edit]

The film would have told the "25-year odyssey"[31] of a typical American between 1917 and 1942: from his experience as a North-Carolina teenager fighting overseas during World War I,[16] until World War II, focusing on the migration of the family from the South and the problems of unemployment during the Great Depression.[32]

Cast

[edit]

References

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  1. ^ Potter, Robert D. (16 June 1946). "Atomic Medicine". The San Francisco Examiner. p. 4. (subscription required)
  2. ^ Brady, Thomas F. (1942-04-12). "PARE LORENTZ GOES TO WORK IN HOLLYWOOD". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-11-10.
  3. ^ "People: Love or Money". Time. 9 November 1942.
  4. ^ Higham, Charles (2023-11-15). The Films of Orson Welles. Univ of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-33749-7.
  5. ^ Persistence of Vision: The Journal of the Film Faculty of the City University of New York. City University of New York. 1987.
  6. ^ Biesterfeld, Peter (2019-07-10). "How Pare Lorentz became FDR's filmmaker". Videomaker. Retrieved 2023-11-11.
  7. ^ "Pare Lorentz papers, 1914-1994, bulk 1932-1960 | Rare Book & Manuscript Library | Columbia University Libraries Finding Aids". findingaids.library.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2023-11-10.
  8. ^ Weintraub, Stanley (2001). Long Day's Journey Into War: December 7, 1941. Lyons Press. ISBN 978-1-58574-255-4.
  9. ^ "'The River' Runs Through It: The Legacy of Pare Lorentz". International Documentary Association. 2007-11-01. Retrieved 2023-11-10.
  10. ^ "Radio: Programs Previewed: May 23, 1938". Time. 1938-05-23. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 2023-11-10.
  11. ^ "The film, a nation building power in USA". Evening Chronicle. 2 December 1938. p. 12.
  12. ^ "Work of US film service reaches peak in new educational drama". Evening star. 19 May 1940. p. 37.
  13. ^ Sher, Jack (30 June 1940). "Meet Pare Lorentz". Detroit Free Press. p. 66.
  14. ^ "Pare Lorentz may buy backsome of the US Govt Pix". Variety. 11 February 1942. p. 19.
  15. ^ a b Jones, J. R. (2015-05-11). The Lives of Robert Ryan. Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 978-0-8195-7373-5.
  16. ^ Jewell, Richard B. (2016-03-22). Slow Fade to Black: The Decline of RKO Radio Pictures. Univ of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-96424-2.
  17. ^ Jarlett, Franklin (1997-11-01). Robert Ryan: A Biography and Critical Filmography. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-0476-6.
  18. ^ Jones, J.R. (2015). The lives of Robert Ryan. pp. 33–35.
  19. ^ Houseman, John (1972). Run Through. pp. 483–484.
  20. ^ "Entetainment". Daily News. 2 June 1942. p. 17.
  21. ^ Dmytryk, Edward (1978). It's a Hell of a Life, But Not a Bad Living. NYT Times Books. ISBN 978-0-8129-0785-8.
  22. ^ Houseman, John (1980). Run-through: A Memoir. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-41390-3.
  23. ^ Pare Lorentz papers, 1914-1994, bulk 1932-1960 at Columbia University
  24. ^ THOMAS F BRADY (19 July 1942). "ANOTHER COLLISION IN HOLLYWOOD: KO and Mr. Lorentz at Odds on Film Budget -- Other Items". New York Times. p. X3.
  25. ^ THOMAS F BRADY (1 Nov 1942). "PRECEDENTIAL ACTION IN HOLLYWOOD: Pare Lorentz Takes Legal Steps Against a Studio -- Other Random News". New York Times. p. X3.
  26. ^ Benamou, Catherine L. (2007-03-14). It's All True: Orson Welles's Pan-American Odyssey. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-24248-7.
  27. ^ Houseman, John (1989). Unfinished Business: Memoirs, 1902-1988. Applause Theatre Books. ISBN 978-1-55783-024-1.
  28. ^ a b Gottesman, Ronald (1996). Perspectives on Citizen Kane. G.K. Hall. ISBN 978-0-8161-1616-4.
  29. ^ Reading Eagle. Reading Eagle.
  30. ^ "Name, Age and Occupation". Time. Vol. 40, no. 2. October 1942. p. 79.
  31. ^ Balio, Tino (1995). Grand Design: Hollywood as a Modern Business Enterprise, 1930-1939. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-20334-1.
  32. ^ Films in Review. National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. 1968.
  33. ^ a b The Deseret News. The Deseret News.
  34. ^ a b "Daily News (Los Angeles) 2 June 1942 — California Digital Newspaper Collection". cdnc.ucr.edu. Retrieved 2023-11-10.
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