Albert Hackett

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Albert Maurice Hackett February 16 1900 March 16 1995 was an American dramatist and screenwriter most noted for his collaborations with his partner and wife Frances Goodrich Hackett was born in New York City the son of actress Florence Hackett née Hart and Maurice Hackett Not long after marrying screenwriter Frances Goodrich the couple went to Hollywood in the late 1920s to write the screenplay for their stage success Up Pops the Devil for Paramount Pictures In 1933 they signed a contract with MGM and remained with them until 1939 Among their earliest assignments was writing the screenplay for The Thin Man 1934 They were encouraged by the director W S Van Dyke to use the writing of Dashiell Hammett as a basis only and to concentrate on providing witty exchanges for the principal characters Nick and Nora Charles played by William Powell and Myrna Loy The resulting film was one of the major hits of the year and the script considered to show a modern relationship in a realistic manner for the first time was considered to be groundbreaking However this is only because it was written and released before the enactment of the Hollywood Production Code which strictly censored movies from mid1934 until the early 1960s see PreCode The other Nick and Nora films show a steep decline regarding the groundbreaking maturity of the Charleses marriage The Hacketts received Academy Award for Screenplay nominations for The Thin Man After the Thin Man 1936 Father of the Bride 1950 and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers 19551 They won Writers Guild of America awards for Easter Parade 1949 Fathers Little Dividend 1951 Seven Brides for Seven Brothers 1954 and The Diary of Anne Frank 1959 as well as nominations for In the Good Old Summertime 1949 Father of the Bride 1950 and The Long Long Trailer 1954 They also won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics Circle award for their original play The Diary of Anne Frank Some of their other films include Another Thin Man 1939 and Its a Wonderful Life 1946