Oscar Profile #555: Nunnally Johnson

Born December 5, 1897, in Columbus, Georgia, Nunnally (Hunter) Johnson was the son of a railway superintendent. Educated in Columbus, he graduated from high school in 1915. Having worked for his local newspaper as a delivery boy, he became a junior reporter for the Savannah Press before moving to New York in 1919, the year he married first wife, Alice Mason with whom he had one child.

Johnson soon became a principal news reporter for the New York Herald Tribune and the New York Evening Post where he also wrote a weekly column. Divorced from Mason in 1925, he continued as a reporter and columnist through 1932 during which he submitted some fifty stories to The Saturday Evening Post and The New Yorker. In 1927, he married second wife, Daisy Marion Byrnes with whom he had a second child.

Arriving in Hollywood in 1932, Johnson was signed to a screenwriting contract with United Artists that lasted a year before he joined 20th Century-Fox where he was given a seven-year contract that ran from 1935-1942. At Fox, he worked on such screenplays as those for The House of Rothschild, Cardinal Richilieu, The Prisoner of Shark Island, and Jesse James before receiving his first Oscar nomination for 1940’s The Grapes of Wrath. Divorced from Byrnes in 1938, he married The Grapes of Wrath actress Doris Bowden in 1940. They had three children together and would remain married until his death thirty-seven years later.

Written while under contract to Fox but released afterwards, Johnson received a second Oscar nomination for 1943’s Holy Matrimony but not for 1944’s The Keys of the Kingdom. An independent writer and producer until he re-signed with Fox in 1949, his films during this period included The Woman in the Window, Along Came Jones, The Southerner, The Dark Mirror, and Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid.

Under contract to Fox again from 1949-1956, Johnson wrote the screenplays for such films as Three Came Home, The Mudlark, My Cousin Rachel, and How to Marry a Millionaire before making his long-delayed debut as a director.

Johnson directed just eight films from 1954 through 1960 including Night People, Black Widow, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, and The Three Faces of Eve, of which he wrote the screenplays for as well.

Later films for which Johnson wrote the screenplays include 1960’s Flaming Star, 1962’s Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation, 1963’s Take Her, She’s Mine, 1964’ The World of Henry Orient co-written with daughter Nora Johnson, and 1967’s The Dirty Dozen.

Nunnally Johnson died March 25, 1977. He was 79.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1940), directed by John Ford

Johnson’s Oscar nominated adaptation of John Steinbeck’s acclaimed novel was faithful to the source material except for lines of dialogue and that had to be changed to conform with the Production Code. Ma Joad’s tacked on hopeful speech was written by producer Daryl F. Zanuck, not Johnson. The performances of the entire cast are extraordinary with Oscar nominated Henry Fonda and Oscar winning Jane Darwell coming off best. Doris Bowden was cast as Fonda’s sister by Zanuck, not Ford, as a favor to Johnson who was her boyfriend at the time. They were married after the film’s release in January 1940.

HOLY MATRIMONY (1943), directed by John M. Stahl

Arnold Bennett’s novel was previously filmed under its original title of Buried Alive and would later become the basis of the 1968 Broadway musical, Darling of the Day, but it’s Johnson’s Oscar nominated version that is best remembered. Monty Woolley was at his best as the reclusive artist who switches places with his dead valet, and Gracie Fields matches him every step of the way as the barmaid who falls in love with him. Johnson’s script also provides strong roles for Laird Cregar, Una O’Connor, George Zucco, Eric Blore, Melville Cooper, Ethel Griffies, and Franklin Pagnborn,

THE MUDLARK (1950), directed by Jean Negulesco

Based on a novel by Andrew Bonnett, Johnson’s screenplay for his little gem is another of his best. Ten-year-old Andrew Ray plays the title character, a street urchin who finds a cameo of Queen Victoria and finds a way of sneaking into Windsor castle in order to meet her. Irene Dunne has her last great screen role as the aging queen who has been in mourning for her beloved Prince Albert for 13 years and comes out of her shell at the urging of the boy. Alec Guinness has one of his great early roles as Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. It earned an Oscar nomination for its costume design.

MR. HOBBS TAKES A VACATION (1962), directed by Henry Koster

This was another fine adaptation from Johnson. Based on the novel by Edward Streeter, it gave James Stewart one of his best light roles as the harried businessman trying to have a restful vacation in vain. Maureen O’Hara is his equally harried wife. The eclectic supporting cast includes Fabian, Lauri Peters, Lili Gentle, John Saxon, John McGiver, Marie Wilson, Reginald Gardiner, and Minerva Urecal, TV’s Tugboat Annie, a standout as the touchy Scandinavian cook who quits after hearing Stewart asking his grandson a question that ends with “a little sun on the beach” thinking he said something forbidden by the Production Code.

THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967), directed by Robert Aldrich

Johnson and Lukas Heller (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?) shared screenplay credit for this adaptation of E.M. Nathanson’s novel. The popular adventure film would be Johnson’s last adaptation, although the characters proved so popular that were used in sequels as late as 1988. Star Lee Marvin, a veteran of World War II, complained that the film had nothing to do with the war it supposed to represent and all the actors, including himself, were too old to be believable as fighting soldiers. Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, and John Cassavetes were among the cast. Cassavetes received the film’s sole Oscar nomination.