Oral Histories

Interview of Abby Mann

Screenwriter and producer. Known for writing the script for Judgment at Nuremberg.
Subtitle:
Recollections of Abby Mann
Series:
Oral History of the Motion Picture in America
Topic:
Film and Television
Biographical Note:
Screenwriter and producer. Known for writing the script for Judgment at Nuremberg.
Interviewer:
Farber, Stephen
Interviewee:
Mann, Abby
Supporting Documents:
Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library's Center for Oral History Research.
Length:
1.5 hrs.
Language:
English
Copyright:
Interviewee Retained Copyright
Series Statement:
These interviews with prominent individuals in the motion picture industry were completed under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Film Institute to the UCLA Department of Theater Arts. The project was directed by Howard Suber, UCLA Department of Theater Arts. The UCLA Oral History Program provided technical advice but was not involved in respondent selection, research participation, research preparation, interviewing, editing, or transcript preparation.
Abstract:
Differences between writing for television and writing for motion pictures; Judgment at Nuremberg; A Child Is Waiting; adapting novels to film; Ship of Fools; Katherine Anne Porter; F. Scott Fitzgerald; The Detective; conflict between artist and propagandist; reception of The Condemned of Altona in West Germany; casting Ship of Fools and The Detective; Stanley Kramer; importance of structure in screenwriting; current work on After the Fall; McCarthyism in Hollywood; commercial pressures on filmmaking decisions.