Janet Green (screenwriter)
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4 July 1908
Janet Green | |
|---|---|
| Born | Ethel Victoria Green 4 July 1908 Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England |
| Died | 30 May 1993 (aged 84) Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England |
| Occupation(s) | Screenwriter, playwright, actress |
| Spouse | John McCormick |
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[1][2] (made into the film Cast a Dark Shadow).[3] She is also known for her use of filmmaking to deliberately fight against racism and homophobia, including challenging anti-homosexual British laws.[4][5]
She was born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire on 4 July 1908.[1]
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.[6][7] She gave up acting in 1945 to focus on writing.[8]
Her second husband was the scriptwriter John McCormick, with whom she collaborated on several screenplays.[9][10] They were both under contract to the Rank Organisation from 1956 to 1959.[8]
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).[11][6][12] They have been described as "three of the finest films in British cinema."[13] 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."[13]
She and her husband wrote John Ford's final film 7 Women (1966).[14]
Green died in Beaconsfield on 30 May 1993.[1]
Filmography
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1950 | The Clouded Yellow | original story and screenplay |
| 1953 | The Good Beginning | story and screenplay |
| 1955 | Cast a Dark Shadow | based on her play Murder Mistaken |
| 1956 | Lost | original screenplay |
| 1956 | The Long Arm | screenplay by Janet Green and Robert Barr |
| 1956 | Eyewitness | original story and screenplay |
| 1958 | The Gypsy and the Gentleman | 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 [15] |
| 1960 | Midnight Lace | based on her 1958 play Matilda Shouted Fire[16] |
| 1961 | Victim | screenplay by Janet Green and John McCormick - nominated for a BAFTA award for best British screenplay in 1962 [17] |
| 1962 | Life for Ruth | screenplay by Janet Green and John McCormick |
| 1966 | 7 Women | screenplay by Janet Green and John McCormick |
