Mending ‘Broken Arrow’ : Writers Guild Considers Award for Blacklisted Screenwriter of 1950 Film

Six years ago, at a ceremony at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, blacklisted screenwriters Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman were posthumously awarded Oscars for “The Bridge on the River Kwai.”

It had been an open secret that Pierre Boulle, who accepted the original Oscar in 1958, did not write the screenplay based on his novel. “Everyone knew Boulle couldn’t speak English, let alone write it,” said Larry Ceplair, co-author of “The Inquisition in Hollywood,” a book about the period.

On Monday, at Ceplair’s instigation, the board of the Writers Guild of America West will vote on another, and perhaps more problematic, posthumous award involving 20th Century Fox’s “Broken Arrow.” Preceding “Dances With Wolves” by 40 years, it was the first film made by a major studio to treat American Indians sympathetically.

For more than 30 years, its true authorship was known to only a handful of people, according to Ceplair.

Hollywood has been haunted for years whether to set the record straight on dozens of movie and TV scripts surreptitiously written by blacklisted writers of the McCarthy era--and credited to other people.

“Broken Arrow” may be the last major film still officially credited to the wrong writer, according to Ceplair.

Although they are not actively opposing the move, Julian Blaustein, the film’s producer, and Dorothy Blankfort, the widow of the man who fronted for the actual screenwriter, are uneasy about dredging up the past. “She (Mrs. Blankfort) finds it painful to be dancing on her husband’s grave,” said Blaustein. “I do too.”

To Ceplair, however, getting the truth out is vital. “The more rumor that’s eliminated from this period--the more people know--the better,” he asserted. “It was an extraordinarily loathsome, cowardly period. And light should be shone into every corner of it.”

When “Broken Arrow” opened in 1950, Albert Maltz, the novelist, playwright and Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker who wrote the screenplay, was not listed in the credits. Along with other members of the so-called Hollywood Ten, he was in prison for refusing to cooperate with the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) investigation of Communist influence in Hollywood.

Like many other screenwriters of that era, Maltz had to resort to finding someone to front for him when Blaustein asked him to write the screenplay for “Broken Arrow,” based on “Blood Brothers,” a novel by Elliott Arnold.

After several people turned Maltz down, he approached his close friend, Michael Blankfort, also a screenwriter and novelist. They had known each other for decades and had dedicated novels to each other.

Blankfort agreed to pretend he had written “Broken Arrow.” And unlike the character played by Woody Allen in the 1976 movie “The Front,” he not only let his name be used for free but also provided the revisions the studio demanded. (For legal purposes, a letter of agreement between Blankfort and Maltz stated that Blankfort would get 10% of the fee but, Ceplair said, in reality Blankfort did not accept any money. The 10% specified in the letter of agreement was paid to Maltz’s agent.) Blaustein said he secretly ran Blankfort’s changes by Maltz.

“If this (arrangement) had gotten out, it would have killed the careers of both Blankfort and Blaustein,” Ceplair said.

Maltz’s widow Esther agrees. “It was an act of courage and it was an act of friendship,” she said.

But the truth remained hidden, and “Broken Arrow,” starring Jeff Chandler as the Apache leader Cochise and James Stewart as an American military scout-turned-prospector who becomes his trusted friend, was a smashing success and helped to further several careers, including that of Blankfort, who won an award from the Screen Writers Guild, as the Writers Guild was then called. (The movie also inspired a radio serial and television series.)

As a result of the blacklist, Maltz’s Hollywood career had ended. After leaving prison, he lived in Mexico for 11 years and did not see “Broken Arrow” until his return to the U.S. in 1962.

In his book about movies of the 1950s, “Seeing Is Believing,” Peter Biskind explained the significance of “Broken Arrow”: “From the earliest Westerns on, Indians had been little more than one-dimensional figures, mere savages, rapers of women, scalpers of settlers, the scourge of wagon trains and the Pony Express.

“During the ‘40s, there appeared a few films more or less sympathetic to Indians, but it was ‘Broken Arrow’ that forever laid this caricature to rest.”

An act of friendship had made possible the release of a movie that is as much about friendship as racism. But the relationship between the two writers was to have a less happy outcome. It was shattered forever after Blankfort testified in 1952 before HUAC as a friendly witness.

“Albert couldn’t stomach that,” said Esther Maltz.

According to “Naming Names,” Victor Navasky’s book about the blacklist, when Blankfort was asked whether any relatives were or had been members of the Communist Party, he reportedly answered, “You are referring to my ex-wife, Laurie, and my cousin, Henry--I have no knowledge of either.”

After hearing that Blankfort had named names in his testimony, Maltz never spoke to his old friend again.

“The one man who has never forgiven me is Albert Maltz,” Blankfort is quoted as saying in “Naming Names,” which was published in 1980, two years before he died. “He wouldn’t acknowledge the death of my father, whom he knew quite well.”

Despite his hurt feelings, it was Blankfort who first contemplated going public with the “Broken Arrow” secret. Ceplair said--and Dorothy Blankfort confirmed--that Blankfort wrote a letter to the Writers Guild acknowledging Maltz’s authorship of “Broken Arrow” but decided to wait a year before mailing it. He never did. Within the year, he slipped and fell at home and died at the age of 74.

Serving as go-between, Blaustein had told Maltz about the letter. “I forget his reasoning, but he said he would prefer not (to have it sent),” the producer said. A year after Blankfort’s death, Maltz changed his mind, authorizing Ceplair to make known his role in “Broken Arrow.”

In 1985, Maltz died of complications from a stroke. He was 76.

Blaustein and Dorothy Blankfort said that they will not challenge the guild’s decision. “Whatever the guild decides is OK with me,” said the writer’s widow, who was unwilling to discuss the issue further.

Guild spokeswoman Cheryl Rhoden declined comment pending the board vote. But Alfred Levitt, a guild board member who was blacklisted himself, predicted that the posthumous award would be granted. “Speaking for myself as a blacklistee . . . we’ve been careful not to hurt people who did us a service,” he said. “But where they are either gone or they are willing, it just seems right to set the record straight.”

Dozens of movies written by blacklisted writers remain attributed to their fronts, but none are works of enduring importance, according to Ceplair. As to the others, “My guess is that there’s few surprises left,” he said. “But . . . only the fronts and writers know for sure.”

Rather than detracting from Blankfort’s reputation, the true story behind “Broken Arrow” “is a credit to both Michael Blankfort and Albert Maltz,” said Esther Maltz. “It really is good for the memory of both men.”