Sydney Boehm
Sydney Boehm was an American screenwriter and journalist born in 1908 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended Lehigh University and began his career as a journalist at the New York Journal-American from 1930 to 1945. Transitioning to screenwriting in 1948 at the age of 40, Boehm became known for his ability to craft engaging and realistic screenplays during a period when audiences craved fast-paced, gritty films. His notable works include "High Wall," which explores a pilot's murder charge, and "The Undercover Man," which employs documentary techniques to depict the story of the U.S. Treasury's efforts against Al Capone.
Boehm's innovative storytelling is evident in "Union Station," where the action unfolds in a public space, and "When Worlds Collide," which won an Academy Award for special effects. His screenplay for "The Atomic City" earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay, showcasing his talent for complex plots. Among his most acclaimed films are "The Big Heat," which addresses organized crime against the backdrop of contemporary Senate hearings, and "Seven Thieves," known for its intricate narrative. Boehm's contributions to cinema continued until his death in 1990, leaving a lasting impact on the industry.
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Sydney Boehm
Writer
- Born: April 4, 1908
- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Died: 1990
Biography
Sydney Boehm was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1908, and attended Lehigh University from 1925 until 1929. He was a journalist at the New York Journal-American from 1930 until 1945 and a reporter for the Independent News Service. Following his journalistic ventures, he embarked on a new career as a screenwriter. In the twenty years he spent writing for Hollywood, he produced more than two dozen screenplays ranging from crime thrillers to Westerns and science-fiction films. He was renowned for the accuracy with which he captured details, a skill well honed during his years as a journalist and further developed during his years writing screenplays.
Boehm did not write his first screenplay until 1948, when, at the age of forty he began his second career. During the post-World War II era, the public hungered for realistic, fast-moving films. Boehm was well able to feed this hunger with gritty screenplays that kept audiences on the edge of their seats. His first film, High Wall, deals with the dilemma of a pilot in the Air Corps who is charged with murder. He seeks the assistance of a psychiatrist to help him fight the charge. Boehm’s next film, The Undercover Man, employs the documentary technique for which he was widely recognized to present the story of the U.S. Treasury Department agents who brought down the infamous gangster, Al Capone, by nailing him for income tax evasion, resulting in his imprisonment.
In Union Station, released in 1950, Boehm experimented with setting by locating the screenplay’s action in a public place in Chicago and letting the story’s complexity unfold in this location. In When Worlds Collide, released in 1951, he carried his experimentation a major step further by using a broad panoply of innovative special effects in this science-fiction film. This film won an Academy Award for special effects, although most critics considered the screenplay mediocre. Boehm redeemed himself in his next science-fiction offering, The Atomic City, released in 1952. This film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay and was valued for the complexity of its plot, which involved the kidnapping of a physicist’s son by despots bent on trading the boy’s safety for the formula for making an atomic bomb, which the boy’s father possesses.
Two of Boehm’s films, The Big Heat and Seven Thieves, are generally considered his greatest triumphs. The Big Heat, awarded the Edgar Allan Poe Prize in 1953, is based on a novel by William P. McGivern, two of whose other novels, Rogue Cop and Hell on Frisco Bay, Boehm also adapted for film. The Big Heat is the story of a national crime cartel and was precisely right for its time because the U.S. Senate in 1950 had held much publicized hearings on organized crime in America.
Seven Thieves is the story of a dying university professor who wants to commit the perfect crime before he dies. He enlists six miscreants to help him rob a Monte Carlo casino. They pull the job off successfully. Ironically, however, their stolen loot is in bills of such large denominations that they cannot be passed, so they are returned to the casino. This screenplay is generally viewed as Boehm’s most polished production. Boehm died in 1990.