Evening star., 1931-12-29
BEN HECHT FIRES
MOVIE BROADS|DE
Pans Films in Acrid Rhymes.
GoIdWyn Says He Dis
charged Him.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, December 29.-Armed
with sharp spears Of poetry and lances
Of caustic adjectives, Ben Hecht, novel
ist-playwright, went atilting yesterday
against the movies.
He was met on a forensic field OF
battle by Samuel Goldwyn, movie mag
nate, who defended himself and Holly
wood with broadsword of statements
and figures.
Hecht led off with few iambic tet-
rameters. One went like this:
Grind out your sterile panorams,
o, camera god of smirk and pose,
Buy up the friars and the lambs.
All your James in underclothes,
And all your bankers high film fans
Can't change the cabbage to rose.
One look at you and TheSpis scramS
Into the night to thumb his nose"
Then Hecht hurled a little prose in
which he said he had quit Hollywood
after signing a $50, ,000-a-year contract
because of the hypocrisy he found
there.
Through With Movies.
He mentioned Mr.. Goldwyn by name.
He called the producers those nervous,
crazy guys" And he made it clear he
was through with the movies.
When Goldwyn saw the printed at
tack he paced back and forth in his Sc
cluded apartment. Newspaper editors
in California interrupted his perambu-
lating to ask by long-distance telephone
if he intended to ignore the jibes.
He did not, but give me little more
time" he told them, and continued his
pacing.
Then he hurled 6oO-word statement
at his critic.
Hecht had not resigned, it stated; he
had been fired.
IT found Mr.. Hecht had not only
my contract, but several Others" Gold
Wyn said. simultaneously he was
working on three pictures. I asked him
about these contracts. His answer was
brief.
SAYS He Fired Hecht.
"'You wouldn't stop me from making
a little easy money, would you?'" he
demanded.
II would. I did. I fired him. q
He can well afford to be through
with motion pictures. l think motion
pictures are pretty well through with
him, for the perfect reason that they've
found him out.
with the fine writer's working con-
scientiously and honest-I mean men
like Sidney Howard-a certain num-
Der of drifters and racketeers had
to be taken in. They are caught and
numbered. The motion picture indus
try has them labeled and flngerprinted.
"At the same time the search for
honest writing talent continues. Writ
ing for the screen Is a very special
talent that has to be backed by GER
tain kind of technical training as well.
Patient With Writers.
I'VE are patient with these men and
women to whom we are looking for the
new literature of the screen. We carry
them for months waiting for the de-
velopment of their talent-for the one
single idea that may justify their exist
ence to us for year or more. Patience,
announcement and money are spent on
them. In return an honest effort is
asked. I mean ordinary decency, a
plain honesty.
Certainly any one who can't give 1t
is through with the screen and the
screen is through with him"
Mr.. Goldwyn glanced at some Of
Hecht's other jibes.
THAT Sam Goldwyn, he's worse than
102 wives /" . he pounded his desk and
shouted don't call it a moHe-it's a
drama. Well, who could stand such
hypocrisy?'"
Then another bit Of verse that started
off like this:
Come Flicker forth you squawktng
hams,
"You pasteboard heart and candied
woes,
You little gibbering diagrams
"Of silly plot and infant prose"
"All I can say about that is that It's
cretty rotten poetry" Goldwyn remarked
with a grin.