Oscar Profile #310: Morrie Ryskind

Born October 20, 1895 in New York City, Morris (Morrie) Ryskind was the son of Russian Jewish immigrants. He attended Columbia University but was suspended shortly before he was due to graduate after he called university president Nicholas Murray Butler “Czar Nicholas” in the humor magazine Jester in 1917. Ryskind was criticizing Butler for refusing to allow Count Nikolai Tolstoy, nephew of Leo Tolstoy, to speak on campus.

From 1922 to 1942, Ryskind was a staple on Broadway where he either wrote or co-wrote many hit plays and musicals. He even supplied the lyrics for the songs in several of the productions. In 1932 he shared the Pulitzer Prize for Drama with George and Ira Gershwin and George F. Kaufman for Of Thee I Sing, the first musical to win the prestigious prize. Other major successes included the Marx Brothers’ classics, The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers as well as Strike Up the Band and Louisiana Purchase.

Ryskind’s first film was the 1929 screen adaptation of The Cocoanuts co-written with Kaufman. The two later collaborated on the 1930 adaptation of Animal Crackers and later on a third Marx Bros. film, A Night at the Opera. He earned back to back Oscar nominations for co-writing the screenplays of 1936’s My Man Godfrey and Stage Door. He then wrote the screenplay for the 1938 Marx Bros.’ Room Service solo. He was uncredited for the “extra dialogue” he supplied 1940’s His Girl Friday, but earned acclaim for his screenplays for 1941’s Penny Serenade and 1943’s Claudia.

For many years he had been a member of the Socialist Party of America. During the 1930s he participated in Party-sponsored activities, even performing sketches at antiwar events, but his politics soon moved to the right. In 1940 he abandoned the Democratic Party, having opposed President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s pursuit of a third term, writing the campaign song for Republican presidential nominee Wendell Willkie.

In 1947, he appeared before the House Committee on Un-American Activities as a “Friendly Witness.” Ryskind never sold another script after that, believing he was shunned because of his appearance before HUAC.

In the 1950s, Ryskind lent money to Charles F. Buckley to help start The National Review, for which he contributed articles. Ryskind briefly joined the John Birch Society, but soon disassociated himself from the group when they began to claim that Roosevelt, Truman, and Eisenhower were part of the Soviet conspiracy. He was also a vocal sympathizer with the anti-Zionist American Council for Judaism.

Starting in 1960, Ryskind wrote a feature column in the Los Angeles Times, which promoted conservative ideas for the next eleven years. He retired from writing altogether in 1978.

Morrie Ryskind died on August 24, 1985 at the age of 89.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

A NIGHT AT THE OPERA, directed by Sam Wood (1935)

Ryskind and George F. Kaufman adapted their stage plays for the film versions of Marx Bros.’ The Cocoanuts and Animal Crackers which came across mostly as filmed stage plays. A Night at the Opera, The Marx Bros.’ first film for MGM, was the only Marx Bros. the two worked together from scratch. How much of the zaniness was due to their creativity and how much was improvised by Groucho and his brothers is difficult to discern. Whatever the case, this is a comic masterpiece. It also has a great deal of music including Groucho’s a version of Kate Smith’s “When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain”.

MY MAN GODFREY, directed by Gregory La Cava (1936)

Co-written with Eric Hatch (Topper) based on Hatch’s novel, the Ryskind-Hatch screenplay for My Man Godfrey is the quintessential depression era screwball comedy that remains evergreen with its sparkling dialogue as delivered by the film’s major cast members, William Powell, Carole Lombard, Gail Patrick, Alice Brady, Eugene Pallette and Mischa Auer. The 1957 remake with David Niven, June Allyson, Martha Hyer, Jessie Royce Landis, Robert Keith and Jay Robinson in those roles credits the novel, but not the original film, but changes the ending to a more realistic one befitting the changing times.

STAGE DOOR, directed by Gregory La Cava (1937)

Ryskind’s longtime collaborator co-wrote the Broadway play with Edna Ferber (Giant), but did not co-write the screenplay with Ryskind. That honor went to Anthony Veiller (The Killers), earning them both an Oscar nomination for their efforts. It was Ryskind’s second in a row for a La Cava film. Katharine Hepburn in Margaret Sullavan’s stage role led a brilliant all-star cast that include Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou, Gail Patrick, Constance Collier, Lucille Ball, Eve Arden, Ann Miller and Andrea Leeds who was the only cast member nominated for an Oscar for her performance.

HIS GIRL FRIDAY, directed by Howard Hawks (1940)

Hawks’ gender bending remake of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s The Front Page has an officially credited screenplay by Charles Lederer, but it is common knowledge that Hecht worked on the screenplay as did Ryskind who is known to have provided “additional dialogue”. The original play still stands on its own and is currently in rehearsals for yet another Broadway revival, but of the four films that have so far been made from it, this Rosalind Russell-Cary Grant-Ralph Bellamy version is far and away the best. The original was released in 1931, the additional remakes in 1974 and 1988.

PENNY SERENADE, directed George Stevens (1941)

Ryskind’s screenplay for Stevens’ sentimental film about a marriage in crisis provided Cary Grant with the first of just two films for which he received an Oscar nomination in his long career. The second was for 1944’s None But the Lonely Heart, neither of which were comedies. Grant’s The Awful Truth and My Favorite Wife comedic co-star, the luminous Irene Dunne, is even better. The two are given great support from Edgar Buchanan as their folksy friend and Beulah Bondi as the lady from the adoption agency who helps the couple.