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American screenwriter who started his career in Hollywood in the
late 30s. From the late 1950s to the late 1960s Jarrico was blacklisted
on both sides of the Iron Curtain, in the United States and in the
Soviet Union.
Paul Jarrico was born in Los Angeles, California. His father was
a Russian immigrant, lawyer, amateur poet, socialist and Zionist.
Jarrico started to write stories in his youth and while studying
at the University of California, Los Angeles, Jarrico joined the
National Student League, and then the Young Communist League. He
was an active member of the Communist Party between the years 1937
and 1951. In the 1930s Jarrico wrote scripts for the film No
Time to Marry (1937), and co-scripted I Am the Law (1938),
The Little Adventures, (1938) and Beauty for the Asking
(1939).
During World War II Jericho served in the merchant marines in North
Africa and Italy. In the 1940s Jerrico worked in Hollywood for MGM,
writing scripts for such films as The Face Behind the Mask
(1941), directed by Robert Florey and starring Peter Lorre, Men
of the Timberland (1941), and Thousand Cheer (1943).
Song of Russia (1943) was directed by Gregory Ratoff and
produced by MGM under pressure from President Roosevelt to create
sympathy for the Soviets in their wars against Nazi Germany. The
Search (1948) was directed by Fred Zinneman and depicted the
fate of orphaned children in post-war Europe. Not Wanted
(1949) was directed by Ida Lupino and not the credited Elmer Clifton,
who suffered a heart attack on the third day of the production.
Among Jarrico's best screenplays was Tom, Dick, and Harry
(1941), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for his
original screenplay.
In the 1950s a hearing of the House Of Un-American Activities Committee,
at which he refused to testify, blacklisted him. Jarrico's last
major work in Hollywood in the 1950s was the script for THE WHITE
TOWER. It was Howard Hughes's attempt at grandeur, produced by RKO.
The film was based on a novel by James Ramsay Ullman. In the pretentiously
symbolic melodrama a group of people climbs an Alpine mountain.
Glenn Ford played a cynical ex-GI. And Lloyd Bridges was a Nazi
bigot. Howard Hughes fired Jarrico immediately when he heard that
Jarrico had received the subpoena for the hearings.
Jarrico's passport was confiscated after his journey to London
in 1951. His most important project in the following years was Salt
of the Earth (1953), a union-sponsored drama about the appalling
conditions of striking coal miners in New Mexico. The film was written
by Michael Wilson and directed by Herbert J. Biberman - the only
independent production made by blacklisted people in the US film
industry. Salt of the Earth was subsequently blacklisted
and its distribution was prohibited, but later it has gained the
status of a cult film. In 1958 Jarrico left the US and worked in
Europe for 20 years.
During the 1960s Jarrico used such pseudonyms as Peter Achilles
and co-scripted Jovanka e le altre (1960), directed by Martin
Ritt, Call Me Bwana (1963), directed by Gordon Douglas, Der
Schatz der Azteken (1965), directed by Robert Sidmark, Who
killed Johnny Ringo (1966). He also worked for television productions.
Jarrico returned to the United States in 1977 and settled in Santa
Monica, Los Angeles. He has taught at the University of California,
at the University of San Francisco and continued his career as a
screenwriter. Among his later American works is the screenplay for
J. Lee Thompson's Messenger of Death (1988), and scripts
for television, including Ivan Passer's dramatized biography of
Stalin (1992), starring Robert Duvall. Jarrico died at the age of
82 in a car accident returning from an event dedicated to victims
of the black list.
For further reading: Salt of the Earth by Herbet Biberman
(1965); The Inquisition in Hollywood by Larry Ceplair & Steven
Englund (1980, 1983), Hiljaiset sankarit by Matti Salo (1994)
- Other blacklisted screenwriters: Dalton Trumbo, Michael
Wilson, Hugo Butler, Abraham Polonsky (director, screenwriter,
novelist).
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