Oscar Profile #519: Anthony Veiller

Born June 23, 1903 in New York, New Yo0rk, Anthony Veiller was the son of Oscar nominated actress, Margaret Wycherly, and her husband, playwright Bayard Veiller.

Veiller was a journalist, publicist, and stage manager prior to moving to Hollywood in 1930. He married literary agent Laura Kerr in 1934 with whom he would have a daughter born in 1936. Under contract to RKO from 1934 through 1937 as both a writer and producer, his screenplays included those for Break of Hearts, Star of Midnight, The Ex-Mrs. Bradford, Swing Time (contributing writer only), A Woman Rebels, Winterset, and Stage Door, receiving an Oscar nomination for the latter along with Morrie Ryskind.

One of Veiller’s best screenplays for RKO was Gunga Din which was not produced until 1939. In the U.S. Army during World War II, he was a major in the film office where he worked with Frank Capra on four Why We Fight documentaries. He also collaborated with the British on two of their documentaries including 1944’s Tunisian Victory.

Back in Hollywood after the war, Veiller was divorced from Kerr in 1945, the year he wrote the screenplay for the widely panned Adventure. He rebounded with two major successes in 1946, Orson Welles’ The Stranger and Robert Siodmak’s The Killers, earning an Oscar nomination for the latter. That film also earned him an Edgar Allan Poe award for Best Picture which he shared with Siodamak and producer Mark Hellinger.

In 1948, Veiller wrote the screenplay for Capra’s State of the Union and married second wife, Grace Hornburg. Their son was born later that year. He produced several films between 1949 and 1951 but did not have another screenplay produced until 1952’s Red Planet Mars.

Veiller had a long association with John Huston that began with their war service. His screenplay for Huston’s 1952 film, Moulin Rouge, co-written with the director, earned a Writers Guild of America nomination. Subsequent 1950s films included Huston’s Beat the Devil, Andre De Toth’s Monkey on My Back, King Vidor’s Solomon and Sheba, and Jacques Tourneur’s Timbuktu. Between films he produced the 1958 TV series, The Adventures of Tugboat Annie. In 1960, he wrote various episodes for the TV series, Markham starring Ray Milland.

The screenplays he wrote for Huston for Moby Dick, which Huston made in 1956, and The Man Who Would Be King, which he made in 1975, were not used by the director. His last two screenplays for Huston were, however, both used, resulting in awards recognition for Veiller. 1963’s The List of Adrian Messenger earned him an Edgar Allan Poe nomination and 1964’s The Night of the Iguana earned both Veiller and Huston a Writer’s Guild of America nomination.

Anthony Veiller, who was also a successful antiques dealer in Los Angeles, died of cancer on June 27, 1963, four days after his 62nd birthday. He was buried in the St. Mary Churchyard in Bepton, Chichester, West Sussex, England as was his mother.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

STAGE DOOR (1937), directed by Gregory La Cava

The Oscar nominated screenplay by Morrie Ryskind and Veiller was considerably altered from the play by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman. Katharine Hepburn’s lead role was shortened from the role played on Broadway by Margaret Sullavan. Until she protested, her role was shorter than Ginger Rogers’ role. Adolphe Menjou’s producer character was not in the play. Much of the dialogue in the rooming house between aspiring actresses Hepburn, Rogers, Gail Patrick, Oscar nominee Andrea Leeds, Lucille Ball, Eve Arden, Ann Miller, and their coach, Constance Collier, was improvised during rehearsals.

THE KILLERS (1946), directed by Robert Siodmak

Ernest Hemingway was said to have considered the film made from his short story to be the first film from his works that he thoroughly enjoyed. Burt Lancaster was given top billing in his first film, making him an instant star. The film, in which his character dies in the first scene with the events leading up to his murder are seen in flashback, was so popular that it ran 24 hours a day in New York to keep up with demand. Ava Gardner, seen mostly in minor roles until then, also became a major star upon the film’s release. In addition to Veillers’ screenplay, the film received Oscar nominations for Direction, Film Editing, and Score.

STATE OF THE UNION (1948), directed by Frank Capra

The screenplay for the film version of the 1946 Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse was co-written by Veiller and Myles Connolly. This was Veiller’s first collaboration with Capra since their Why We Fight series for the War Department. Spencer Tracy was the industrialist running for president, Katharine Hepburn, a last minute replacement for Claudette Colbert, was his wife, and Angela Lansbury, then just 22-years-old was the malevolent other woman, more than holding her own against the film’s megastars. Van Johnson, Adolphe Menjou, and Lewis Stone co-star.

MOULIN ROUGE (1952), directed by John Huston

Veiller and Huston collaborated on the screenplay for this fictional account of the life of French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) from a novel by Pierre Lamure. Completed just hours before its Oscar qualifying run in Los Angeles beginning December 23, 1952, the film was shot on location in Paris and at Shepperton Studios in Surrey. Nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Director, Actor (José Ferrer), and Supporting Actress (Colette Marchand), the film won for Art Direction-Set Design and Costume Design. Veiller was not nominated but he and Huston received a WGA nomination for their screenplay.

THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA (1964), directed by John Huaton

Based on Tennessee Williams’ 1962 Broadway play, which starred Patrick O’Neal, Bette Davis, and Tony winner Margaret Leighton in roles played on screen by Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, and Deborah Kerr, the screenplay was another collaboration by Veiller and Huston, and another for which they would receive a WGA nomination. The film received Oscar nominations for Supporting Actress Grayson Hall, Cinematography, Art Direction, and Costume Design. Burton was nominated for his other film that year, Becket, but Gardner, Kerr, and Cyril Delevanti as Kerr’s 98-year-old grandfather were snubbed.