During the golden age, Hollywood filmmaking was a rough and tumble business, the purview of tough businessmen who had fought their way up from the bottom to become the kings of the classic studios. In that world of self-made men, who could be as brutal with the English language as they often were with competitors and contract talent, Arthur Hornblow, Jr. was an anomaly, a law student turned playwright as much at home living the high-life in a New York nightclub as he was pinching pennies on a film set. A friend of many of the world's most acclaimed playwrights and novelists, he even inspired the name of his friend C.S. Forrester's greatest literary creation, Captain Horatio Hornblower.

Hornblow's father, Arthur Hornblow, was a Broadway playwright and editor of Theatre Arts magazine, which had done a key job spreading new ideas about theatre in the U.S. and promoting the golden age of American drama on Broadway. His son tried production and playwriting, most notably as the adaptor of The Captive, Edouard Bourdet's pioneering play about lesbianism. The production turned a profit on Broadway, but also landed Hornblow and the cast in jail when, late in the run, it was shut down by the New York Police Department as part of the same morality campaign that closed Mae West's Sex.

With his theatrical connections, Hornblow caught the attention of independent producer Samuel Goldwyn, who signed him on in 1929 as a production supervisor although the producer could never pronounce his name right, referring to him as "Arter Hornbloom." Hornblow was quick to realize the new medium of talking films would require a more realistic approach to acting and advised Goldwyn to showcase his biggest star, Ronald Colman, in roles that were close to his own personality. He also helped Goldwyn lure top writers like playwrights Sidney Howard and Elmer Rice and novelist Louis Bromfield to Hollywood and fostered such acclaimed films as Bulldog Drummond (1929), Street Scene (1931) and Arrowsmith (1931), After four years, however, Hornblow grew frustrated with his "invisible" position at the Goldwyn Studios. When the producer refused his request for screen credit, Hornblow resigned. And he did it with such class that he was one of the few people to leave Goldwyn on friendly terms. He would turn to him for advice for the rest of his career.

And what a career it was! Hornblow next moved to Paramount, where he produced a series of classic films. He had his greatest success with glamorous screwball comedies such as Easy Living (1937), starring Jean Arthur and Ray Milland, and Midnight (1939), with Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, John Barrymore and Mary Astor. Hornblow also demonstrated a keen eye for talent. He fostered the young Bob Hope's career by casting him opposite Paulette Goddard in a trio of hit comedies -- The Cat and the Canary (1939), The Ghost Breakers (1940) and Nothing But the Truth (1941). He also cast Constance Ockelman as a sultry seductress in I Wanted Wings (1941), helping develop the peek-a-boo blonde look that would make her a star under the new name he gave her, Veronica Lake.

Perhaps Hornblow's greatest accomplishment at Paramount was fostering the career of Billy Wilder. The two first worked together when Wilder and his partner, Charles Brackett, wrote the script for Midnight (1939), which was directed by frequent Hornblow collaborator Mitchell Leisen. They continued together with the World War II drama Arise, My Love (1940) and the romance Hold Back the Dawn (1941). As Wilder grew tired of other hands tinkering with his scripts, Hornblow found himself increasingly called in to mediate between the writer and Leisen, who directed both films. Finally, Wilder had had enough and insisted he be able to direct his next film. Hornblow backed him up and even helped point him to the perfect property, The Major and the Minor (1942), a smash hit that moved Wilder into the director's chair permanently.

Hornblow was ready for a move, too, and shortly afterwards switched to MGM, ironically just as his marriage to one of the studio's top stars, Myrna Loy, was breaking up. Working at her studio was no problem. The two were so civilized they actually threw a party together to celebrate the breakup. At his new studio, Hornblow contributed to MGM's run of glamorous films exploiting "more stars than there are in the heavens," with glossy entertainments such as The Heavenly Body (1944), with Hedy Lamarr and William Powell, and Weekend at the Waldorf (1945), a Grand Hotel (1932) re-make starring Lana Turner in Joan Crawford's original role. He also contributed to some of the studio's more successful dramatic efforts , including Gaslight (1944), which brought Ingrid Bergman her first Oscar®, and The Hucksters (1947), starring Clark Gable and Deborah Kerr in an indictment of the advertising industry.

When Dore Schary took over as head of MGM, Hornblow had no trouble adapting to his grittier, more socially relevant style, though it occasionally put him on a collision course with outgoing studio head Louis B. Mayer. He made The Hucksters over Mayer's objections that the movies shouldn't criticize other entertainment businesses or professions and also produced John Huston's pioneering film noir The Asphalt Jungle (1950), a film Mayer despised.

With the decline of studio production in the '50s, Hornblow stepped out as an independent producer in 1953. Working with Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, he scored a huge hit with the 1955 screen version of their Oklahoma!, which marked Shirley Jones' screen debut. He then joined forces with Edward Small to bring Witness for the Prosecution (1957) to the screen, hiring Billy Wilder to adapt the hit courtroom drama and direct Charles Laughton, Tyrone Power and Marlene Dietrich. Hornblow would only make one more film, the 1962 war drama The War Lover, starring Steve McQueen and Robert Wagner. He then retired from filmmaking to write children's books with his third wife, former actress Leonora Schinasi. He passed away in 1976.

by Roger Fristoe