Seton Ingersoll Miller (May 3, 1902 – March 29, 1974) was an American screenwriter and producer. During his career, he worked with
film director
A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, ...
s such as
Howard Hawks
Howard Winchester Hawks (May 30, 1896December 26, 1977) was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the Classical Hollywood cinema, classic Hollywood era. Critic Leonard Maltin called him "the greatest American director who is ...
and
Michael Curtiz
Michael Curtiz ( ; born Manó Kaminer; since 1905 Mihály Kertész; hu, Kertész Mihály; December 24, 1886 April 10, 1962) was a Hungarian-American film director, recognized as one of the most prolific directors in history. He directed cla ...
. Miller received two
Oscar
Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to:
People
* Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms.
* Oscar (Irish mythology), ...
nominations and won once for
Best Screenplay
Best or The Best may refer to:
People
* Best (surname), people with the surname Best
* Best (footballer, born 1968), retired Portuguese footballer
Companies and organizations
* Best & Co., an 1879–1971 clothing chain
* Best Lock Corporation ...
for fantasy romantic comedy film ''
Here Comes Mr. Jordan'' (1941) along with
Sidney Buchman.
Career
Fox Films
A Yale graduate, Miller began writing stories for silent films in the late 1920s. He signed a contract at
Fox Film Corporation
The Fox Film Corporation (also known as Fox Studios) was an American Independent film production studio formed by William Fox (1879–1952) in 1915, by combining his earlier Greater New York Film Rental Company and Box Office Attractions Film C ...
where his credits included ''
Paid to Love
Paid or PAID may refer to:
* ''Paid'' (1930 film), an American film starring Joan Crawford
* ''Paid'' (2006 film), a Dutch film
*'' Personality and Individual Differences'', a journal
See also
* Paide, the capital of Järva County, Estonia
* ...
'' (1927), ''
Two Girls Wanted'' (1927), ''
High School Hero'' (1927) and ''
Wolf Fangs'' (1927).
''A Girl in Every Port'' and Howard Hawks
Miller's first big hit was ''
A Girl in Every Port'' (1928) directed by
Howard Hawks
Howard Winchester Hawks (May 30, 1896December 26, 1977) was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the Classical Hollywood cinema, classic Hollywood era. Critic Leonard Maltin called him "the greatest American director who is ...
, a crucial film in Hawks' career.
He was reunited with Hawks for ''
Fazil'' (1928) then did two
Rex Bell
Rex Bell (born George Francis Beldam; October 16, 1903 – July 4, 1962) was an American actor and politician. Bell primarily appeared in Western films during his career. He also appeared in the 1930 movie '' True to the Navy'', starring Cl ...
Westerns, ''
The Cowboy Kid
''The Cowboy Kid'' is a 1928 American silent Western film directed by Clyde Carruth and written by James J. Tynan. The film stars Rex Bell, Mary Jane Temple, Brooks Benedict, Alice Belcher, Joseph De Grasse and Syd Crossley. The film was relea ...
'' (1928) and ''
Girl-Shy Cowboy'' (1928).
Miller wrote Hawks' first sound film, ''
The Air Circus
''The Air Circus'' is a 1928 American drama film directed by Howard Hawks and starring Arthur Lake, Sue Carol, David Rollins, and Louise Dresser. It is the first of Hawks's aviation films. The film is notable as the first aviation oriented fi ...
'' (1929) then did ''
The Far Call
''The Far Call'' is a 1929 American lost film directed by Allan Dwan and starring Charles Morton and Leila Hyams. Produced and distributed by the Fox Film Corporation. It is a late silent film with Fox's Movietone sound on film system containing ...
'' (1929) for
Allan Dwan
Allan Dwan (born Joseph Aloysius Dwan; April 3, 1885 – December 28, 1981) was a pioneering Canadian-born American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.
Early life
Born Joseph Aloysius Dwan in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Dwan, was ...
and ''
The Lone Star Ranger
''The Lone Star Ranger'' is a Western novel published by Zane Grey in 1914. The book takes place in Texas, the Lone Star State, and several main characters are Texas Rangers, a famous band of highly capable law enforcement officers. It follow ...
'' (1930). He did a comedy, ''
Harmony at Home
''Harmony at Home'' ( ''She Steps Out'') is a 1930 pre-Code domestic-comedy film directed by Hamilton MacFadden. It was produced and distributed by Fox Film Corporation. It was based on a 1925 Broadway play, ''The Family Upstairs'' by actor, wri ...
'' (1930) then left Fox.
Miller joined Hawks at First National and did ''
The Dawn Patrol'' (1930). After working on ''
Today
Today (archaically to-day) may refer to:
* Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now''
* Current era, present
* The current calendar date
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 ...
'' (1930) he did three for Hawks: ''
The Criminal Code
''The Criminal Code'' is a 1931 American pre-Code romantic crime drama film directed by Howard Hawks and starring Walter Huston and Phillips Holmes. The screenplay, based on a 1929 play of the same name by Martin Flavin, was written by Fred Nib ...
'' (1931) at Columbia, ''
Scarface'' (1932), and ''
The Crowd Roars'' (1932).
He did ''
The Last Mile'' (1932) then adapted the comedy play ''
Once in a Lifetime'' (1932).
Paramount
At Paramount, Miller wrote ''
Hot Saturday'' (1932) and a horror film, ''
Murders in the Zoo
''Murders in the Zoo'' is 1933 pre-Code horror film directed by A. Edward Sutherland, written by Philip Wylie and Seton I. Miller. Particularly dark, even for its time, film critic Leonard Maltin called the film "astonishingly grisly."
Plot
Bi ...
'' (1933).
He did ''
The Eagle and the Hawk'' (1933) for Hawks then ''
Gambling Ship
A gambling ship is a sea vessel of any kind on which gambling takes place.
Historically, international waters began just from land in many countries. Gambling ships, like offshore radio stations, would usually be anchored just outside the th ...
'' (1933). He went to Columbia for ''
Master of Men'' (1933).
At Paramount he did ''
Come On Marines!
''Come On Marines!'' is a 1934 American pre-Code drama film directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Richard Arlen and Ida Lupino.Henry Hathaway
Henry Hathaway (March 13, 1898 – February 11, 1985) was an American film director and producer. He is best known as a director of Westerns, especially starring Randolph Scott and John Wayne. He directed Gary Cooper in seven films.
Backgro ...
then went back to Fox for ''
Murder in Trinidad'' (1934), ''
Marie Galante
Marie-Galante ( gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Mawigalant) is one of the islands that form Guadeloupe, an overseas department of France. Marie-Galante has a land area of . It had 11,528 inhabitants at the start of 2013, but by the start of 2018 th ...
'' (1934) and ''
Charlie Chan's Courage
''Charlie Chan's Courage'' (1934) is the fifth film in which Warner Oland played detective Charlie Chan. It is a remake of the 1927 silent film ''The Chinese Parrot,'' based upon the novel by Earl Derr Biggers''.'' Both are considered lost films.
...
'' (1934).
He worked on ''The Farrell Case'' for
James Cagney
James Francis Cagney Jr. (; July 17, 1899March 30, 1986) was an American actor, dancer and film director. On stage and in film, Cagney was known for his consistently energetic performances, distinctive vocal style, and deadpan comic timing. He ...
and Jack Holt but it was not made.
Warner Bros
For Warner Bros., Miller wrote ''
The St. Louis Kid'' (1934) for James Cagney. After working on ''
Murder on a Honeymoon'' (1935) for RKO, Warners asked him to return to work on further Cagney films: ''
G Men
''G Men'' is a 1935 Warner Bros. crime film starring James Cagney, Ann Dvorak, Margaret Lindsay and Lloyd Nolan in his film debut. According to '' Variety,'' the movie was one of the top-grossing films of 1935. The supporting cast features R ...
'' (1935), and ''
Frisco Kid'' (1935). He wrote a sequel to ''G Men'', ''G Women'' that was not made.
Miller wrote ''
It Happened in New York
''It Happened in New York'' is a 1935 American musical comedy film directed by Alan Crosland and starring Gertrude Michael, Heather Angel and Lyle Talbot.Monaco p.139 It is based on a play ''Bagdad on the Hudson'' by Ward Morehouse and Jean Da ...
'' (1935) for
Universal
Universal is the adjective for universe.
Universal may also refer to:
Companies
* NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company
** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal
** Universal TV, a ...
and ''
Two in the Dark'' (1936) for RKO. At Republic he wrote ''
The Leathernecks Have Landed'' (1936).
Miller went back to Warner Bros to do ''
Bullets or Ballots'' (1937) for
Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson (born Emanuel Goldenberg; December 12, 1893January 26, 1973) was a Romanian-American actor of stage and screen, who was popular during the Hollywood's Golden Age. He appeared in 30 Broadway plays and more than 100 films durin ...
and
Humphrey Bogart. He stayed at the studio to work on ''
Marked Woman
''Marked Woman'' is a 1937 American dramatic crime film directed by Lloyd Bacon and starring Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart, with featured performances by Lola Lane (actress), Lola Lane, Isabel Jewell, Rosalind Marquis, Mayo Methot, Jane Bryan, ...
'' (1937), ''
San Quentin
San Quentin State Prison (SQ) is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in Marin County.
Opened in July 1852, San Quentin is th ...
'' (1937), ''
Back in Circulation
''Back in Circulation'' is a 1937 American film directed by Ray Enright and starring Pat O'Brien and Joan Blondell. Based on the short story "Angle Shooter" by Adela Rogers St. Johns, Blondell plays a fast-moving newspaper reporter who senses ...
'' (1937), and ''
Kid Galahad
''Kid Galahad'' is a 1962 American musical film starring Elvis Presley as a boxer. It was released by United Artists in August 1962 and opened at #9 at the American box office. '' Variety'' ranked it #37 on its list of the top-grossing films of ...
'' (1937). He wrote ''Kit Carson'' for Wayne Morris but it as not made.
He worked on the
Errol Flynn
Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959) was an Australian-American actor who achieved worldwide fame during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles, frequent partnerships with Olivia ...
vehicle, ''
The Adventures of Robin Hood
''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' is a 1938 American Technicolor swashbuckler film from Warner Bros. Pictures. It was produced by Hal B. Wallis and Henry Blanke, directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley, and stars Errol Flynn, Olivia ...
'' (1938), which was a big success. He was put on another Flynn film, a remake of ''
The Dawn Patrol'' (1938).
Miller wrote ''
Valley of the Giants'' (1938), and two with John Garfield, ''
Dust Be My Destiny
''Dust Be My Destiny'' is a 1939 American drama film starring John Garfield as a man who gets into trouble after being sentenced to a work farm.
Plot
Joe Bell (John Garfield) becomes embittered after he is jailed for 16 months for burglary . Late ...
'' (1939) and ''
Castle on the Hudson'' (1939). He did another Flynn swashbuckler, ''
The Sea Hawk'' (1940). He wrote a Western for Flynn, ''Tombstone'' but it was not made.
He left Warners in July 1939 after four years.
Post-Warners
At Universal he adapted ''I James Lewis'' but it does not appear to have been made.
At Columbia he cowrote ''
Here Comes Mr. Jordan'' (1941) which won him an Oscar. At Universal he wrote ''
This Woman is Mine'' (1942). Warners' ''
Secret Enemies
''Secret Enemies'' is a 1942 American drama film directed by Benjamin Stoloff and written by Raymond L. Schrock. The film stars Craig Stevens, Faye Emerson, John Ridgely, Charles Lang, Robert Warwick, and Frank Reicher. The film was released by ...
'' (1942) was based on his story.
20th Century Fox
Miller went to Fox, where he worked on ''
My Gal Sal
''My Gal Sal'' is a 1942 American musical film distributed by 20th Century Fox and starring Rita Hayworth and Victor Mature. The film is a biopic of 1890s composer and songwriter Paul Dresser and singer Sally Elliot. It was based on a biogra ...
'' (1942) and ''
The Black Swan'' (1942).
At Columbia he adapted the play ''Heart of City'' for
Merle Oberon
Merle Oberon (born Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson; 19 February 191123 November 1979) was a British actress who began her film career in British films as Anne Boleyn in ''The Private Life of Henry VIII'' (1933). After her success in ''The Scarle ...
but it was not made.
Paramount: Turning Producer
Miller signed a contract with Paramount to write and produce. He started with ''
Ministry of Fear
''Ministry of Fear'' is a 1944 American film noir directed by Fritz Lang, and starring Ray Milland and Marjorie Reynolds. Based on the 1943 novel by Graham Greene, the film tells the story of a man just released from a mental asylum who finds ...
'' (1944), directed by
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 6 ...
. He was assigned ''The Griswold Story'' but it was not made.
He had written a script of ''
Two Years Before the Mast
''Two Years Before the Mast'' is a memoir by the American author Richard Henry Dana Jr., published in 1840, having been written after a two-year sea voyage from Boston to California on a merchant ship starting in 1834. A film adaptation under th ...
'' for
Edward Small
Edward Small (born Edward Schmalheiser, February 1, 1891, Brooklyn, New York – January 25, 1977, Los Angeles) was a film producer from the late 1920s through 1970, who was enormously prolific over a 50-year career. He is best known for the movi ...
in 1939. The project was bought by Paramount, and Miller also produced. It was directed by
John Farrow
John Villiers Farrow, KGCHS (10 February 190427 January 1963) was an Australian film director, producer, and screenwriter. Spending a considerable amount of his career in the United States, in 1942 he was nominated for the Academy Award for B ...
and he and Miller made two more films together, ''
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...
'' (1947), and ''
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comm ...
'' (1947).
Miller also produced ''
The Bride Wore Boots'' (1946).
Warners & Universal
Miller sold his script for ''
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
'' (1947) to Universal in 1947. It was later remade as ''
Istanbul
Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...
'' (1957).
In August 1947, he signed with Warner Bros to write and produce. He was to start with ''Colt 45'' starring Wayne Morris. It was not made. Instead he wrote and produced ''
Fighter Squadron
A squadron in air force, army aviation, or naval aviation is a unit comprising a number of military aircraft and their aircrews, usually of the same type, typically with 12 to 24 aircraft, sometimes divided into three or four flights, dependi ...
'' (1948) and wrote ''
The Man Who Cheated Himself
''The Man Who Cheated Himself'' is a 1950 American crime film noir directed by Felix E. Feist and starring Lee J. Cobb, Jane Wyatt and John Dall.
Plot
Wealthy socialite Lois Frazer, divorcing her fortune-hunter husband, Howard, finds a gun h ...
'' (1950) originally known as ''The Gun''.
He associate produced ''
The Sound of Fury'' (1950). In 1950 he formed a company with Irvin Rubin.
He wrote and produced ''
Queen for a Day
''Queen for a Day'' is an American radio and television game show that helped to usher in American listeners' and viewers' fascination with big-prize giveaway shows. ''Queen for a Day'' originated on the Mutual Radio Network on April 30, 1945, i ...
'' (1951) at United Artists. He wrote an adaptation of ''
Island in the Sky'' but is not credited on the final film.
Miller wrote ''
The Mississippi Gambler'' (1953) and ''
Bengal Brigade
''Bengal Brigade'' is a 1954 American adventure war film directed by Laslo Benedek and starring Rock Hudson, Arlene Dahl and Ursula Thiess. The film was produced and distributed by Universal Pictures, based on the 1952 novel ''Bengal Tigers' ...
'' (1954) for Universal. He did ''
The Shanghai Story'' (1954) for Republic.
In 1955, he sold a Western script, ''The Staked Plains'' to
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda (May 16, 1905 – August 12, 1982) was an American actor. He had a career that spanned five decades on Broadway and in Hollywood. He cultivated an everyman screen image in several films considered to be classics.
Born and r ...
. He wrote scripts for a Dennis O'Keefe TV series ''Hart of Honolulu''.
In 1957, he wrote ''The Willie Gordon Story'' for
Ray Milland
Ray Milland (born Alfred Reginald Jones; 3 January 1907 – 10 March 1986) was a Welsh-American actor and film director. His screen career ran from 1929 to 1985. He is remembered for his Academy Award and Cannes Film Festival Award-winning ...
to be shot in England but it was not made.
That year he sold a story ''Pete's Dragon'' for the Disney company to make as a vehicle for
Kevin Corcoran
Kevin Anthony "Moochie" Corcoran (June 10, 1949 – October 6, 2015) was an American child actor, director and producer. He appeared in numerous Disney projects between 1957 and 1963, leading him to be honored as a Disney Legend in 2006. Hi ...
.
The eventual film was not made for another two decades.
Miller was credited on the remake of ''
The Last Mile'' (1959).
He wrote ''
Death Valley Days
''Death Valley Days'' is an American old-time radio and television anthology series featuring true accounts of the American Old West, particularly the Death Valley country of southeastern California. Created in 1930 by Ruth Woodman, the progra ...
'' and created a series ''
Rogue for Hire
''Rogue for Hire'' is a 1960 TV series created by Seton I. Miller starring Neville Brand.
Cast
*Neville Brand
Lawrence Neville Brand (August 13, 1920 – April 16, 1992) was an American soldier and actor. He was known for playing villainous ...
''.
Later career
His later credits include ''
Knife for the Ladies
''Knife for the Ladies'' is a 1974 American Western horror film directed by Larry G. Spangler and starring Jack Elam, Ruth Roman and Gene Evans. It was the first production from the company Bryanston Pictures.
Plot
A private detective, Burns, ...
'' (1974).
An unpublished story of his was filmed as ''
Pete's Dragon ''Pete's Dragon'' is the title of two Disney live-action films:
* ''Pete's Dragon'' (1977 film)
* ''Pete's Dragon'' (2016 film)
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