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Frances Marion

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1888 - 1973

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The screen writer Frances Marion was not only one of few women who has a huge influence to the film business but was also one of the most successful screen writers at all. 

Frances Marion was born as Marion Benson Owens in San Francisco.

At a young age she already worked as a model and appeared on different stages time and again before she entered the profession of journalism. During World War I she reported from Europe. 

When she later went to Los Angeles she was engaged as an assistant for director Lois Weber which cemented her way into the film business.

Already in 1912 she participated in writing a script for the movie "The New York Hat" (12) but it lasted till 1915 before he was able to put her passion into practice. 

Before she succeeded as a screen writer she acted in front of the camera for few movies, among them "The Jest of Jealousy" (15), "The Wild Girl from the Hills" (15) and "A Girl of Yesterday" (15).

But she soon left the field of acting to her youger colleagues and she dedicated to the writing of scripts and stories. 

She soon became a very busy movie author and she wrote countless scripts in the next years, sometimes using the pen name Frank M. Clifton.
To her well-known works of those years belong "A Sister's Burden" (15), "Camille" (15), "A Circus Romance" (16), "The Battle of Hearts" (16), "The Heart of a Hero" (16), "On Dangerous Ground" (17), "Tillie Wakes Up" (17), "The Poor Little Rich Girl" (17), "The Stolen Paradise" (17), "The Amazons" (17), "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" (17), "Stella Maris" (18), "The Goat " (18), "Captain Kidd, Jr." (19) and "Anna of Green Gables" (19).

When she met the silent movie star Mary Pickford she became her official author for her movies. They were not only associated by her work but were also close friends. 
Besides Mary Pickford, author Frances Marion was also important for the career of the actress Marie Dressler.

During the 20s Frances Marion wrote the scripts for productions like "Pollyana" (20), "The Restless Sex" (20), "Just Around the Corner" (21), "The Eternal Flame" (22), "East Is West" (22), "The French Doll" (23), "The Song of Love" (23), "The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln" (24), "Secrets" (24), "The Lady" (25), "Zander the Great" (25), "The Dark Angel" (25), "Simon the Jester" (25), "Stella Dallas" (25), "Paris at Midnight" (26), "The Son of the Sheik" (26), "The Red Mill" (27), "Madame Pompadour" (27), "Jesse James" (27), "The Sunset Legion" (28), "Kit Carson" (28), "The Masks of the Devil" (28) and "The Awakening" (28).

With the rise of the sound film her influence diminished slowly not at least because of the death of producer Irving G. Thalberg who gave her enormous freedom for her work, something she did not come across with his followers.

Still she was able to realise some noteworthy productions as an author in the 30s like "Anna Christie" (30) with the legendary Greta Garbo, "Good News" (30), "The Big Hous" (30) - for this movie she won her first Oscar, "The Champ" (31) with Jackie Cooper and Wallace Beery - for this work she got her second and last Oscar - "Emma" (32), "Secrets" (33), "Dinner at Eight" (33), "The Prizefighter and the Lady" (33) - for this movie she got another Oscar nomination - "Poor Little Rich Girl" (36), "Camille" (36) and "Love from a Stranger" (37).

Her last script came in1940 into being with "Green Hell" (40).

Besides her activity as a screen writer Frances Marion realised also few movie as a director and producer.

After her career in Hollywood she focused on writing plays and novels.

Frances Marion was among others married with the actor Fred Thomson and the director George W. Hill.
 

Other movies from Frances Marion: 
The Foundling (15) Fanchon, the Cricket (15) Rags (15) Esmeralda (15) A Daugther of the Sea (15) The Foundling (16) The Yellow Passport (16) Then I'll Come Back to You (16) The Social Highwayman (16) The Feast of Life (16) Tangles Fates (16) La vie de Bohème (16) The Crucial Test (16) A Woman's Way (16) The Summer Girl (16) Friday the 13th (16) The Revolt (16) The Gilded Cage (16) The Hidden Scar (16) Bought and Paid For (16) All Man (16) The Rise of Susan (16) A Woman Alone (17) A Hungry Heart (17) A Square Deal (17) A Girl's Folly (17) The Web of Desire (17) The Social Leper (17) As Man Made Her (17) Forget-Me-Not (17) Darkest Russia (17) The Crimson Dove (17) The Divorce Game (17) Beloved Adventuress (17) The Little Princess (17) Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley (18) M'Liss (18) How Could You, Jean? (18) The City of Dim Faces (18) He Comes UpSmiling (18) Johanna Enlists (18) The Temple of Dusk (18) The Misleading Widow (19) The Dark Star (19) A Regular Girl (19) The Cinema Murder (19) The Flapper (20) Humoresque (20) The World and His Wife (20) The Love Light (21) Straight Is the Way (21) Back Pay (22) The Primitive Lover (22) Sonny (22) The Toll of the Sea (22) The Voice from the Minaret (23) The Famous Mrs. Fair (23) The Nth Commandment (23) Within the Law (23) The Eagle's Talons (23) The Love Piker (23) Potash and Perlmutter (23) Through the Dark (24) The Mask of Lopez (24) Galloping Gallagher (24) Cytherea (24) Tarnish (24) In Holllywood with Potash and Perlmutter (24) Sundown (24) A Thief in Paradise (25) His Supreme Moment (25) Ridin' the Wind (25) Lightnin' (25) Graustark (25) Thank You (25) Lazybones (25) The First Year (26) The Tough Guy (26) Partners Again (26) Hands Across the Border (26) The Two-Gun Man (26) The Scarlett Letter (26) Lone Hand Saunders (26) The Winning of Barbara Worth (26) Don Mike (27) Silver Comes Through (27) The Callahans and the Murphys (27) Love (27) Pioneer Scout (28) Bringing Up Father (28) The Cossacks (28) Excess Baggage (28) The Wind (28) Their Own Desire (29) Forever Yours (30) The Rogue Song (30) Let Us Be Gay (30) Wu Li Chang (30) Min and Bill (30) Anna Christie (31) The Secret Six (31) Blondie of the Follies (32) Cynara (32) Peg o' My Heart (33) Going Hollywood (33) Riffraff (36) Knight Without Armour (37)

Regie:
The Love Light (21) Just Around the Corner (21) The Song of Love (23)

Produzentin:
The Nth Commandment (23) Simon the Jester (25)


 
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