Each year, there are two Academy Awards given out for screenplays. One is for the best adapted screenplay, which is a screenplay that interprets another source (a novel, short story, a play, a television show or sometimes even another film). The other is for the best original screenplay, which is a screenplay that is not based upon previously published material. It starts as just a screenplay idea in the writer’s mind, and is developed from there.
Learning to write your own original screenplay takes a good amount of research, practice and repetition. Watching movies and studying successful screenplays and writers are some things that you can do to help yourself learn. The following are some of the best original screenplay ideas of the 1940s that are worth checking out.
In 1947, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer won the Academy Award for the Best Original Screenplay. The film was written by Sidney Sheldon and starred Cary Grant, Shirley Temple, and Myrna Loy in a comedy surrounding a seventeen-year-old girl named Susan Turner and her crush on a sophisticated bachelor, Richard Nugent, who gives a lecture about art at her high school. Richard is persuaded to use subterfuge to try and shake the young girl off, eventually falling in love with her older sister Margaret, while Susan happily returns to her high school sweetheart. The film was later adapted to radio in a production starring Cary Grant and Shirley Temple which aired in June of 1949, and was also dramatized as a half-hour radio play with the same cast as the film. Notably, some of the dialogue from the film was slightly modified and used by David Bowie in the song “Magic Dance” from Labyrinth. The line beginning “You remind me of the babe,” is the part in question, with the original, from The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer first using “You remind me of the man,” and following with much the same formula. The patter was also used by the Atomic Fireballs in their biggest hit, “Man With the Hex.”
The film was critically acclaimed in its time, with The New York Times calling it “most agreeable,” and remains a classic today, available in multiple formats for home viewing.
Another original screenplay to win an Academy Award in the 1940s was Woman of the Year, a 1942 film starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. The film follows Tess Harding, an accomplished and well-educated daughter of a diplomat who works as a political affairs columnist. She falls in love with Sam Craig, an average Joe sports writer after a feud between their columns, and the two eventually marry. As they adjust to married life together, Tess is coerced to take on the care of a Greek refugee child, Chris; initially, Sam is unconvinced about taking on an orphan, but he warms to the child. Tess earns the “Woman of the Year” award, and Sam, concerned about leaving Chris alone, decides to stay home with the boy. After Tess leaves, disappointed that Sam will not be with her, he takes Chris back to the refugee home and walks out on the marriage. Tess learns of it only after she has returned from the ceremony to change for photographers; she attempts to reclaim Chris, but he refuses. The next day, she receives an invitation to her father’s home. Since Sam is covering a championship boxing match, he tells her he cannot go. Tess arrives alone, only to find out that her father and her aunt are to be married that night. Their story inspires Tess to attempt reconciliation, and she sneaks into his new home and attempts to prepare breakfast, failing miserably due to her inability to cook. She proclaims a new intention of being nothing more than his wife; Sam tells her that this is the first time he is disappointed in her, because she is going to extremes. The two reconcile when Tess agrees to find the middle ground between being Tess Harding and “little Mrs. Craig.”
Woman of the Year was the first of nine films Katharine Hepburn made with Spencer Tracy; they met for the first time on the shoot. It was during the shoot for the film that Hepburn and Tracy became romantically involved, a relationship that lasted until Tracy’s death in the 1960s. The film was originally shot with a different ending, but it proved unpopular at test screenings. In 1981, the movie was successfully adapted into a Broadway musical of the same name, and it has been honored by the American Film Institute on two of their top 100 lists.
Do you have a screenplay idea that you think would make a great movie or TV show? If you would like to take action and pursue your screenplay idea, New Show Studios can help.
New Show Studios is a company that’s designed specifically for everyday people with ideas for screens big and small. It has all the resources under one roof to develop your screenplay idea into a concept package and present it to an entertainment company through its exclusive licensing agent, SFM Entertainment. SFM Entertainment has over 40 years of experience in the entertainment industry.
Remember that even with the best presentation materials new entertainment development is high risk and there is very little likelihood that your idea will be successfully licensed or result in profit to you.
Learning to write your own original screenplay takes a good amount of research, practice and repetition. Watching movies and studying successful screenplays and writers are some things that you can do to help yourself learn. The following are some of the best original screenplay ideas of the 1940s that are worth checking out.
In 1947, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer won the Academy Award for the Best Original Screenplay. The film was written by Sidney Sheldon and starred Cary Grant, Shirley Temple, and Myrna Loy in a comedy surrounding a seventeen-year-old girl named Susan Turner and her crush on a sophisticated bachelor, Richard Nugent, who gives a lecture about art at her high school. Richard is persuaded to use subterfuge to try and shake the young girl off, eventually falling in love with her older sister Margaret, while Susan happily returns to her high school sweetheart. The film was later adapted to radio in a production starring Cary Grant and Shirley Temple which aired in June of 1949, and was also dramatized as a half-hour radio play with the same cast as the film. Notably, some of the dialogue from the film was slightly modified and used by David Bowie in the song “Magic Dance” from Labyrinth. The line beginning “You remind me of the babe,” is the part in question, with the original, from The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer first using “You remind me of the man,” and following with much the same formula. The patter was also used by the Atomic Fireballs in their biggest hit, “Man With the Hex.”
The film was critically acclaimed in its time, with The New York Times calling it “most agreeable,” and remains a classic today, available in multiple formats for home viewing.
Another original screenplay to win an Academy Award in the 1940s was Woman of the Year, a 1942 film starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. The film follows Tess Harding, an accomplished and well-educated daughter of a diplomat who works as a political affairs columnist. She falls in love with Sam Craig, an average Joe sports writer after a feud between their columns, and the two eventually marry. As they adjust to married life together, Tess is coerced to take on the care of a Greek refugee child, Chris; initially, Sam is unconvinced about taking on an orphan, but he warms to the child. Tess earns the “Woman of the Year” award, and Sam, concerned about leaving Chris alone, decides to stay home with the boy. After Tess leaves, disappointed that Sam will not be with her, he takes Chris back to the refugee home and walks out on the marriage. Tess learns of it only after she has returned from the ceremony to change for photographers; she attempts to reclaim Chris, but he refuses. The next day, she receives an invitation to her father’s home. Since Sam is covering a championship boxing match, he tells her he cannot go. Tess arrives alone, only to find out that her father and her aunt are to be married that night. Their story inspires Tess to attempt reconciliation, and she sneaks into his new home and attempts to prepare breakfast, failing miserably due to her inability to cook. She proclaims a new intention of being nothing more than his wife; Sam tells her that this is the first time he is disappointed in her, because she is going to extremes. The two reconcile when Tess agrees to find the middle ground between being Tess Harding and “little Mrs. Craig.”
Woman of the Year was the first of nine films Katharine Hepburn made with Spencer Tracy; they met for the first time on the shoot. It was during the shoot for the film that Hepburn and Tracy became romantically involved, a relationship that lasted until Tracy’s death in the 1960s. The film was originally shot with a different ending, but it proved unpopular at test screenings. In 1981, the movie was successfully adapted into a Broadway musical of the same name, and it has been honored by the American Film Institute on two of their top 100 lists.
Do you have a screenplay idea that you think would make a great movie or TV show? If you would like to take action and pursue your screenplay idea, New Show Studios can help.
New Show Studios is a company that’s designed specifically for everyday people with ideas for screens big and small. It has all the resources under one roof to develop your screenplay idea into a concept package and present it to an entertainment company through its exclusive licensing agent, SFM Entertainment. SFM Entertainment has over 40 years of experience in the entertainment industry.
Remember that even with the best presentation materials new entertainment development is high risk and there is very little likelihood that your idea will be successfully licensed or result in profit to you.
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