Post-due credit
KENNETH TURAN almost completely overlooked the writers of all those film noirs he loves [“The Best of the Worst Humanity Has to Offer,” Sept. 10].
He quoted from “Out of the Past” [by Daniel Main Waring, writing as Geoffrey Homes]: “She can’t be all bad, no one is.” And actor Robert Mitchum’s reply: “She comes the closest.” Mitchum, as talented as he was, did not, to my knowledge, ad lib the line on the spot; it was written.
Here are the names of writers for some of his other favorites:
“Detour”: Martin Goldsmith (screenplay); uncredited, Martin Mooney.
“Kiss Me Deadly”: Mickey Spillane and A.I. Bezzerides.
“T-Men”: John C. Higgins and Virginia Kellogg.
“Touch of Evil”: Orson Welles (screenplay); uncredited, Paul Monash and Franklin Coen.
As somebody smart once said, “If it ain’t on the page, it ain’t on the stage.” Or the screen, either!
AMY ALBANI
Oceanside
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