Brown Holmes

{{short description|American screenwriter (1907–1974)}}

Brown Holmes (December 12, 1907, Toledo, Ohio – February 12, 1974, Los Angeles County, California) was an American screenwriter who worked for several major Hollywood studios in the 1930s and 1940s.

He was known as Kenneth Dewitt Holmes in his youth.{{Cite news |date=1908-12-12 |title=Society |pages=3 |work=The Dayton Herald |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/98577530/society/ |access-date=2022-03-29}} Holmes' father, Robert Brown Holmes, was a newspaperman.{{Cite news |date=1924-01-05 |title=Former Dayton Newspaperman is Dead in West |page=9 |work=Dayton Daily News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/98578007/former-dayton-newspaperman-is-dead-in/ |access-date=2022-03-29}} Holmes was raised in California.{{Cite news |date=1933-03-19 |title=Former Dayton Youth is Success as Film Writer |pages=3 |work=Dayton Daily News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/98523962/former-dayton-youth-is-success-as-film/ |access-date=2022-03-29}} He had two younger brothers, Richard and Bob.{{Cite news |date=1924-01-05 |title=Notes sport writer is dead here |pages=1 |work=Los Angeles Evening Post-Record |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/98523630/notes-sport-writer-is-dead-here/ |access-date=2022-03-29}} Holmes graduated from Hollywood High School.

Among Holmes' credits are several highly-profile prison films: I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932),{{Cite book |last=Schatz |first=Thomas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yFgXCAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Brown+Holmes%22+-wikipedia+writer&pg=PA144 |title=The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era |year=2015 |publisher=Henry Holt and Company |isbn=978-1-62779-645-3 |language=en}} 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932) and its remake Castle on the Hudson (1940). The first two films had a "hyper-present protagonist", one who appears in nearly every scene, which was uncommon in the 1930s but became a more common style starting with World War II.{{Cite journal |last1=Hoyt |first1=Eric |last2=Ponto |first2=Kevin |last3=Roy |first3=Carrie |date=2014-12-20 |title=Visualizing and Analyzing the Hollywood Screenplay with ScripThreads |url=http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/8/4/000190/000190.html |journal=Digital Humanities Quarterly |volume=008 |issue=4 |issn=1938-4122}}

For the film, I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, Holmes wrote the 86-page treatment from the 12-page outline and worked with Sheridan Gibney on a temporary script before studio executive Darryl F. Zanuck's suggestions.{{Cite book |last1=Green |first1=Howard J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qMIHRqMZUCoC&q=holmes |title=I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang |last2=Holmes |first2=Brown |last3=Gibney |first3=Sheridan |date=1981 |publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press |isbn=978-0-299-08754-8 |language=en}} Holmes and Gibney avoided showing all the brutality of the chain-gang by showing the reactions on the prisoner's faces and letting the audience use their imaginations. Holmes and Gibney had written a powerful ending with an unusual outcome for the time.{{Cite book |last=Nollen |first=Scott Allen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uT84DQAAQBAJ&dq=%22gibney+and+holmes%22+OR+%22holmes+and+gibney%22&pg=PA52 |title=The Making and Influence of I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang |date=2016|publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-6677-1 |language=en}} Holmes had a public feud with writer Howard J. Green, who finalized the screenplay, over the billing."Pictures: Anyway W. U., Postal Benefitted in Feud Of 'Fugitive' Writers". Variety. Nov 22, 1932; 108, 11. Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive. p. 2. Variety reported in 1934 that Holmes would write the sequel to I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, to star Paul Muni, but it was never filmed."Pictures: 'Fugitive' Sequel". Variety. Apr 3, 1934; 114, 3; Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive. p. 3.

His work on the 1933 film Ladies They Talk About was not well received by a Variety reviewer. "In the adaptation Sidney Sutherland and Brown Holmes have tried to overcome basic plot weaknesses through comedy, and much of which is excellent. But writers or director have erred in the picture of prison life painted and also in other ways".Char. "Film Reviews: Ladies They Talk About". Variety. Feb 28, 1933; 109, 12; Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive. p. 15.

He wrote or co-wrote two adaptations of Dashiell Hammett's 1930 detective novel The Maltese Falcon: The Maltese Falcon (1931) and Satan Met a Lady (1936).{{Cite news |last=Friedrich |first=Otto |date=1987-06-14 |title=The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1987/06/14/the-stuff-dreams-are-made-of/bad002a4-d8c9-45f0-967b-fd32afe61bbe/ |access-date=2022-03-23 |issn=0190-8286}}

He was a screenwriter for the Perry Mason film The Case of the Lucky Legs (1935) as well as adding "'snappy' rhythm"{{Cite book |last=Bounds |first=J. Dennis |url=http://archive.org/details/perrymasonauthor0000boun |title=Perry Mason : the authorship and reproduction of a popular hero |date=1996 |publisher=Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-313-29809-7}} dialog to the prior film in the series, The Case of the Curious Bride (1935). He received a critical review of his work on The Case of the Lucky Legs (1935). In a review for Oakland Tribune, Wood Soanes wrote, "It isn't the best part of the series, due in an apparent inability on the part of the adapters, Brown Holmes and Ben Markson, to get the story running along smoothly"Soanes, Wood. "Fox Oakland bill runs to feet and legs". Oakland Tribune. October 14, 1935. P. 16. Via NewspaperArchive. A Variety reviewer also enjoyed the writing in the film. "Slick writing job also sets it up as pretty smart entertainment" and "toward the end, when the solution is approaching the action slows down considerably, only the dialog keeping the picture alive".Char. "Film Reviews: Case of the Lucky Legs. Variety. Nov 13, 1935; 120, 9; Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive. p. 17.

In 1936, Holmes faced two professional challenges. Zachary Zemby sued Holmes, George R. Bilson, Erwin Gelsey, and Warner Bros. for $2,990, accusing them of plagiarizing the film We're in the Money (1935) from Zemby's scenario Alimony and Nuts."Pictures: Warners Sued, Charges 'We're in Money' Thefied". Variety. Jan 22, 1936; 121, 6. p. 6. Later that spring, Holmes and three other writers, William Wister Haines, Richard Macaulay, and Robert Andrews, were dismissed from Warner Bros. These four and 20 others had "signed a protest petition against what they termed discriminatory treatment in the matter of sneak previews". The Writers Guild became involved in the matter, releasing a statement in support of the writers and their desire to attend first screenings of the films in which they have been involved."Pictures: Screen Guild to Make an Issue Of WB Dismissal of Four Writers". Variety. Apr 22, 1936; 122, 6. Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive. p. 3. "Pictures: Hollywood 1936 Calendar". Variety. Jan 6, 1937. 125, 4. Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive. p. 52. {{Cite book |last=Variety |url=http://archive.org/details/variety125-1937-01 |title=Variety (January 1937) |date=1937 |publisher=New York, NY: Variety Publishing Company |others=Media History Digital Library Media History Digital Library}}

About the film Snowed Under (1936), Variety wrote, "Original story by Lawrence Saunders has been accorded intelligent treatment for screen by F. Hugh Herbert and Brown Holmes".Wear. "Film Reviews: Snowed under". Variety. Apr 1, 1936; 122, 3; Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive. p. 16.

Later that year, Holmes worked for Universal Pictures."Pictures: 30 U Scribes on 14 Yarns Is New Peak". Variety. Jul 1, 1936; 123, 3. Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive. p. 4. . He cowrote Oh, Doctor (1937) with Harry Clark. A Variety review noted, "Smooth dialogue keeps this hokey picture from going completely corkscrew and it's sufficiently swift to please the fans in the multiple trade".Shan. "Film review: Oh Doctor." Variety (Archive: 1905-2000); Jun 23, 1937; 127, 2; Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive. p. 33.

The Lady Fights Back (1937) was "adapted by Brown Holmes and Robert T. Shannon along conventional melodramatic lines," according to Variety.{{cite magazine|last=Flinn|first=John C.|title=Film Reviews: Lady Fights Back|magazine=Variety|date=October 27, 1937|page=18}}

About Three Blind Mice (1938), which was written with Lynn Sterling, Edwin Schallert of Los Angeles Times wrote, "Three Blind Mice moves with marked zip once its story really starts evolving. The dialogue is ingenious, and all due praise for that to the writers".Schallert, Edwin. "Three Blind Mice' heads summertime show bill. Los Angeles Times. 23 June 1938: p. 8. It was remade three years later as the musical Moon Over Miami.Walt. "Film Reviews: Moon Over Miami". Variety. Jun 18, 1941. 143, 2. Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive. p. 16.

In 1938, Darryl F. Zanuck of 20th-Century Fox spoke to Variety about Holmes and other promising young writers, saying, "The foundation of production is in the writing department; the rest is architecture, which doesn't meant a thing unless the story stands up, and is strong and sound enough to support the structure".Flinn, John C. "Pictures: Zanuck Analyzes Films". Variety. May 18, 1938. 130, 10. Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive. p. 3.

Holmes left MGM in April 1939."Pictures: Metro Scribes Droop". Variety. Apr 12, 1939; 134, 5; Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive. p. 20.."McGuire to Dual Pact; Other Studio Changes". Boxoffice. Apr 15, 1939; 34, 21. Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive. p. 58.

One of his final films was 1948's Leather Gloves. Variety wrote, "Okay scripting chore was turned in by Brown Holmes, story twists and dialog lifting it about level of ordinary prizefighting plotting".{{cite magazine|last=Brogdon|first=William|title=Pictures: Leather Gloves|magazine=Variety|date=November 3, 1948|page=14|url=https://archive.org/details/variety172-1948-11/page/n13/mode/1up?view=theater|via=Internet Archive}}

Holmes married Janet Banks, secretary to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer casting director Ben Piazza,"Pictures: Writer Marrying Piazza's Sec". Variety. May 30, 1933; 110, 12. Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive p. 4. in 1933.{{Cite news |date=1933-05-31 |title=Studio couple will be married |pages=16 |work=The Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/98276798/studio-couple-will-be-married/ |access-date=2022-03-24}}