Janet Green (screenwriter)
{{Short description|British screenwriter (1908–1993)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Janet Green
| image =
| caption =
| birth_name = Ethel Victoria Green
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1908|07|04}}
| birth_place = Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1993|05|30|1908|07|04}}
| death_place = Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England
| restingplace =
| othername =
| occupation = Screenwriter, playwright, actress
| yearsactive =
| spouse = John McCormick
| website =
| awards =
}}
Janet Green (4 July 1908 – 30 May 1993) was a British screenwriter, playwright, and activist best known for the scripts for the BAFTA nominated films Sapphire and Victim, and for the play Murder Mistaken{{cite web|url=https://www.samuelfrench.co.uk/p/13871/murder-mistaken|title=Murder Mistaken|website=Samuel French|accessdate=1 November 2018}} (made into the film Cast a Dark Shadow).{{Cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6a74257a|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312052817/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6a74257a|url-status=dead|archive-date=12 March 2016|title=Cast a Dark Shadow (1955)|website=BFI}} She is also known for her use of filmmaking to deliberately fight against racism and homophobia, including challenging anti-homosexual British laws.{{cite magazine|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-british-film-studios-the-rank-organisation-1961/|date=11 July 2025|access-date=11 July 2025|title=Forgotten British Film Studios: The Rank Organisation, 1961}}{{Cite book |last1=Nelmes |first1=Jill |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-2ekCgAAQBAJ&dq=Janet+Green+homosexuality&pg=PT408 |title=Women Screenwriters: An International Guide |last2=Selbo |first2=Jule |date=2015-09-29 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-137-31237-2 |language=en}}
Biography
She was born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire on 4 July 1908.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2baa03ec7e|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190422103625/https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2baa03ec7e|url-status=dead|archive-date=22 April 2019|title=Janet Green|website=BFI}}
Originally an actress, on stage from 1931, she made appearances in the Aldwych Farces (1930–34) and was involved with entertainment for the armed forces in WW II.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z2mYAwAAQBAJ&dq=janet+green+london+stage+1930-1939&pg=PA369|title=The London Stage 1930-1939: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel|first=J. P.|last=Wearing|date=15 May 2014|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9780810893047|via=Google Books}} She gave up acting in 1945 to focus on writing.https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk › download › GB 1456 JGREEN
Her second husband was the scriptwriter John McCormick, with whom she collaborated on several screenplays."Janet Green." Times [London, England] 18 June 1993: 21. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 31 October 2018.{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmovie.com/artist/janet-green-p160842|title=Janet Green | Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos|website=AllMovie}} They were both under contract to the Rank Organisation from 1956 to 1959.
Green wrote and collaborated with her husband on screenplays for three of the "social issue" films of producer Michael Relph and director Basil Dearden: Sapphire (dealing with racial tension in 1950s London), Victim (the first mainstream examination of homosexuality) and Life for Ruth (religious intolerance).{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U3C5DwAAQBAJ&dq=janet+green+The+Encyclopedia+of+British+Film%3A+Fourth+edition&pg=PA1820|title=The Encyclopedia of British Film: Fourth edition|first1=Brian|last1=McFarlane|first2=Anthony|last2=Slide|date=16 May 2016|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=9781526111968|via=Google Books}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/456049/index.html|title=BFI Screenonline: Dearden, Basil (1911-1971) Biography|website=www.screenonline.org.uk}} They have been described as "three of the finest films in British cinema."{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-2ekCgAAQBAJ&dq=janet+green+screenwriter&pg=PT487|title=Women Screenwriters: An International Guide|first1=Jill|last1=Nelmes|first2=Jule|last2=Selbo|date=29 September 2015|publisher=Springer|isbn=9781137312372|via=Google Books}} Of Sapphire, the New York Post wrote in 1959, "Perhaps the screenplay writer, one Janet Green, deserves her own special notice for a picture that is so special."
She and her husband wrote John Ford's final film 7 Women (1966).{{Cite web|url=https://www.timeout.com/london/film/seven-women|title=Seven Women|website=Time Out London}}
Filmography
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Title ! Notes |
|---|
| 1950
|original story and screenplay |
| 1953
| story and screenplay |
| 1955
|based on her play Murder Mistaken |
| 1956
| Lost | original screenplay |
| 1956
| screenplay by Janet Green and Robert Barr |
| 1956
| original story and screenplay |
| 1958
| screenplay by Janet Green based on novel by Nina Warner Hooke |
| 1959
| Sapphire | original screenplay - nominated for a BAFTA award for best British screenplay in 1960 {{cite web|url=http://awards.bafta.org/award/1960/film/british-screenplay|website=awards.bafta.org|title=BAFTA Awards|accessdate=1 November 2018}} |
| 1960
| based on her 1958 play Matilda Shouted Fire{{Cite web|url=https://variety.com/1959/film/reviews/midnight-lace-1200419666/|title=Midnight Lace|work=Variety|date=1 January 1960}} |
| 1961
| Victim | screenplay by Janet Green and John McCormick - nominated for a BAFTA award for best British screenplay in 1962 {{cite web|url=http://awards.bafta.org/award/1962/film/british-screenplay|website=awards.bafta.org|title=BAFTA Awards|accessdate=1 November 2018}} |
| 1962
| screenplay by Janet Green and John McCormick |
| 1966
| 7 Women | screenplay by Janet Green and John McCormick |
Theatre
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Title ! Notes |
|---|
| 1952
| produced in the UK and the USA / adapted for television and for film (as Cast a Dark Shadow) |
| 1958
| Matilda Shouted Fire | adapted for film as Midnight Lace |
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|nm0337944|Janet Green}}
- {{IBDB name|2380}}
- [http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/download/GB%201456%20JGREEN/ Janet Green Collection] at the British Film Institute (link opens PDF).
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Janet}}
Category:English dramatists and playwrights
Category:English women dramatists and playwrights
Category:British women screenwriters
Category:Writers from Hertfordshire
Category:20th-century British screenwriters