Oscar Profile #347: Richard Brooks

Born May 18, 1912 in Philadelphia, PA to Russian Jewish immigrants Hyman and Esther Sax, Reuben Sax known professionally as Richard Brooks, grew up poor. He studied journalism at Temple University for two years from 1929-1931 before discovering that his parents were going into debt to pay for his education at which time he quit school and rode the freight trains seeking work, but eventually returned to Philadelphia where he found work as a newspaper reporter. It was while working as a reporter that he changed his name, legally changing it in 1943.

Brooks wrote and directed plays for the theatre in the late 1930s and early 1940s, marrying actress Jeanne Kelly in 1941. She became known professionally as Jean Brooks and became a star in Val Lewton’s 1943 film The 7th Victim by which time the marriage had broken up. He joined the marines during the war, but never served overseas. Instead he worked for the film units in Quantico, VA and Camp Pendleton, CA. where he honed his craft and wrote the novel The Brick Foxhole which became the 1947 film, Crossfire. He married second wife Harriette Levin in 1946.

Working for Universal, and then independent producer Mark Hellinger after the war, he wrote the scripts for The Killers and Brute Force, both starring Burt Lancaster. He then went to work for Warner Bros. where he co-wrote 1948’s Key Largo with John Huston. A chance meeting with Cary Grant at a racetrack resulted in Brooks’ first directorial job on 1950’s Crisis starring Grant and José Ferrer.

Brooks’ big breakthrough as a director came with 1955’s Blackboard Jungle starring Glenn Ford, followed by such hits as The Catered Affair with Bette Davis and Debbie Reynolds, Something of Value with Rock Hudson and Sidney Poitier, The Brothers Karamzov with Yul Brynner and Maria Schell and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson. With Oscar nominations for Blackboard Jungle and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof behind him, he won an Oscar for his screenplay of 1960’s Elmer Gantry. With his marriage to Levin having ended in 1957, he married the film’s co-star Jean Simmons following her divorce from Stewart Granger. He helped raise Simmons’ daughter Tracy Granger (named after godfather Spencer Tracy) and the daughter they had together, Kate Brooks (named after godmother Katharine Hepburn).

Passed over by Oscar for 1962’s Sweet Bird of Youth and 1965’s Lord Jim, nominations were again his for 1966’s The Professionals and 1967’s In Cold Blood. In 1969, he directed wife Jean Simmons in The Happy Ending, becoming only the third of six directors to have directed their wives to an Oscar nomination.

Brooks wrote and directed his last critically acclaimed film, Looking for Mr. Goodbar in 1977, the year he and Simmons separated. They would divorce in 1980. He would write and direct just two more films, 1982’s Wrong Is Right and 1985’s Fever Pitch, both of which were critical and commercial flops.

Richard Brooks died of heart failure on March 11, 1992 at the age of 79.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

BLACKBOARD JUNGLE (1955)

This was both the first major film to deal with juvenile delinquency and the first to use a pre-released record, “Rock Around the Clock”, as its theme song. Glenn Ford stars as an idealistic young school teacher who can’t seem to break through to the students who want to learn in a class that is terrorized by a few bullies. Sidney Poitier as a smart kid playing dumb as Vic Morrow as an incorrigible one, were too old for their parts, but play them well. Richard Kiley is also outstanding as a teacher who is bullied into quitting. It was Brooks’ first major hit, earning him an Oscar nod for his screenplay based on Evan Hunter’s novel.

CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF (1958)

Brooks received his second Oscar nomination for adapting Tennessee Williams’ play and his first for directing. Elizabeth Taylor earned her second consecutive Oscar nomination for playing the hot wife, Maggie the Cat, and Paul Newman his first for playing the cold husband, Brick. Burl Ives recreated his Broadway role as Big Daddy, but was nominated for and won the Oscar for a similar role in The Big Country because his star billing in this prevented a supporting actor nomination. Lee J. Cobb received an Oscar nomination for Brooks’ The Brothers Karamazov this year as well.

ELMER GANTRY (1960)

Brooks’ adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’s 1920s novel won him his only Oscar. Curiously, he was not nominated for his direction even though the film was nominated for Best Picture. Burt Lancaster as the title character, a phony evangelist, won Best Actor and Shirley Jones as a preacher’s daughter turned prostitute won a Supporting Actress Oscar. Jean Simmons, who married Brooks in November 1960, was shockingly ignored for a Best Actress nomination for her portrayal of a true believer evangelist. He would later direct her to a nomination for 1969’s The Happy Ending in which Shirley Jones once again plays the bad girl.

IN COLD BLOOD (1967)

The most critically acclaimed film of Brooks’ career, he was nominated for Oscars for both his screenplay and his direction of Truman Capote’s documentary novel. Because Capote had a financial stake in the film, he was precluded from saying anything negative about Brooks’ adaptation. He agreed with Brooks’ cutting the murder trial, which took up fifty pages in the book, down to just four minutes on screen, but he privately disapproved of Brooks’ eliminating much of the background on the murder victims to concentrate on the killers, brilliantly played by former child star Robert Blake and newcomer Scott Wilson.

LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR (1977)

Brooks’ last Oscar nominated screenplay was for his adaptation of Judith Rossner’s best-selling novel based on a real life 1973 murder. We know from the beginning that Diane Keaton’s promiscuous schoolteacher will be murdered, but we don’t know why. Keaton, who would win an Oscar for the same year’s Annie Hall gives an extraordinary performance, arguably the best of her career in this controversial film. Brooks deserved a directing nod as well for the performances he gets from her and Oscar nominated Tuesday Weld as well as William Atherton, Richard Gere, Tom Berenger and Richard Kiley in other key roles.