Stirling Silliphant: The Fingers of God (25 page)

“What I am saying here is that, once you’ve done all your spade work — got your locations in mind, have dressed the sets, selected the wardrobe, decided on the weather, cast your characters and know more about them than the average guy ever knows about his wife — at that point, if you take more than two or three months to write a script, I don’t ever wanta have lunch with that writer. Too fucking depressing to consider.

“Let me sum it up by saying that it shouldn’t take the writer any longer to write his script than it takes the director to shoot it or the actors to get it right.”

Stirling Silliphant “got it right” more often than not, and more often than most. He was both a craftsman and a businessman, someone who just did the damn job, sometimes because he wanted to, and sometimes because he had to, but he did it. When the source was inspired — when he found a way to make it touch his own life, as with
Route 66
or
Charly
or
In the Heat of the Night
or
The Grass Harp
or
The New Centurions
or
The Silent Flute
 — the results were personal, revealing, and moving. Even with pictures that turned out to be worth less than the paper they were typed on, he found ways to invest himself in the characters and tried to engage the audience to do the same.

Not all screenwriters’ lives are the Hollywood tragedy the wags gripe about. Billy Wilder said that of the oppressors that “theirs may be the kingdom, but ours is the power and the glory.” Stirling Silliphant had the gift of writing scripts that could be taken straight to the soundstage and, when the director did his job right, the results went straight to the heart.

“Stirling could do anything with both hands tied behind his back,” said Charles Matthau. “He was so able, so instinctually smart and emotionally intelligent. He was a great storyteller and he could ‘get’ something that was cerebral or something that was not on the nose and he could distill that quality while moving the story along. When you combine that kind of a brilliant mind with the great craft he had, and instinct about what not to write, that is, skipping over the boring parts, you get that he’s one in a million.”

John Corcoran, whose long interview with Silliphant about the martial arts developed into a mentor-protégé relationship, got a call from him six months after the series had run, “and [he] said that a
Variety
staffer asked him to do an interview about his martial arts involvement. He said he told her that she should talk to me since I had already done the quintessential interview with him on the subject. He told her he had nothing left to say about the subject. I never heard from her, and I got the clear impression that SS didn’t want to grant the interview. But I felt his endorsement of me and my work to an important media professional was a wonderful compliment.”

Michael Ventura touched on the downside of Silliphant’s literary fecundity. “He had a marvelous gift, and he sold it out,” he lamented. “I’d written a piece (in 1986) for
LA Weekly
titled ‘A Swastika in the Snow’ in which I quoted Stirling and
Route 66.
I wrote another piece for
LA Weekly
around that time, directly about
Route 66,
in which I called Stirling’s writing ‘jukebox existentialism.’ He liked that a lot and quoted it back to me. In any case, after I wrote those pieces, he wanted to meet me. I hadn’t expected that — I simply wanted to meet and thank the writer who’d meant so much to me at such a crucial period of life. Stirling spoke to me without hypocrisy and almost without self-pity. He justified nothing and blamed no one. Stirling enjoyed calling himself a whore… As he’d written long ago: ‘Every criminal acquits himself before he’s judged. Every violator considers himself excused by circumstances. Don’t you acquit him, don’t you excuse him.’
[305]
Well, I hadn’t come for hero worship. I’d come to say, ‘Thank you.’ I believed it. I did it. Stirling was right. What he knew didn’t save him but maybe it saved me. What could he have been, had he believed in the integrity he helped teach me? I am grateful I said my thanks to that damaged man, eye to eye. He saw in me evidence that his best work mattered. It was all I could give him.”
[306]

Stirling Silliphant’s legacy is larger than he could have known, even if it isn’t all he may have wished. In a business where everybody blames the director for the good stuff and the writer for the bad (if they give him any credit at all), Silliphant is an anomaly. Whether he was writing from the heart or for the wallet, an incomparable percentage of his scripts actually got made, even if many of those he wanted to get made, didn’t. Their sheer number assures him an impressive percentage of hits versus an expected number of flops. Beyond that, his moral and philosophical beliefs found kinship with the public, and his technical skills were of such caliber as to persuade money people to risk a trip off the fence to invest. As a man, he was an acute judge of character, both on the page and in real life, yet learned to expect from others no more than they were able to deliver. This is the refuge of the writer: when life hands you lemons, don’t make lemonade right away, save them for when you’re thirsty.

More importantly, Stirling Silliphant was the first screenwriter of the modern age to create and ply a public persona. In an era when a best-selling novelist might, at best, land a quickie guest appearance in the last ten minutes on
The Tonight Show,
Silliphant was a frequent interview subject on any number of talk shows, newspapers, magazines, panels, lectures, and even TV game shows. He made the public aware that, as the WGA would say in a publicity campaign, years later, “somebody wrote that.”

Back in 1953, when he quit his well-paid publicity job at Fox, it was because, “it was time either to write or be unhappy for the rest of my life.” He spent the next forty-three years proving he’d made the right decision.

As compiled by the Writers Guild of America in 1992 and cross-referenced with the
Internet Movie Database,
this is a list of Silliphant’s registered credits. Most dates reflect when Silliphant did the actual work rather than when the project was released. Feature films are shown in
CAPS:

1953

THE JOE LOUIS STORY
(producer; uncredited contribution)
UA

1955

Mickey Mouse Club
Disney/ABC-TV
(various episodes)

5 AGAINST THE HOUSE
(also producer)
Columbia

1956

Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Revue TV

“A Bottle of Wine”

“The Manacle”

“Jonathan”

“Never Again”

Zane Grey Theatre
Dick Powell/CBS-TV

“No Man Living”

“The Three Graves”

Ford Theatre
NBC-TV

“The Idea Man”

Studio 57
Dumont TV

“Mr. Cinderella”

General Electric Theatre
CBS-TV

“Never Turn Back”

HUK!
UA
(script from own novel)

Stage 7
CBS-TV

“The Warriors”

NIGHTFALL
Columbia

Jane Wyman Fireside
NBC-TV

“The Thread”

1957

Suspicion
NBC-TV

“Meeting in Paris”

MARACAIBO
UA
(novel)

THE LINE-UP
Columbia

Chicago Manhunt
TV

“Neighborhood Killer”

DAMN CITIZEN
Universal-International

Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Revue TV

“The Perfect Crime”

“The Glass Eye”

Perry Mason
CBS-TV

“The Case of the Nervous Accomplice”

“The Case of the Fan Dancer’s Horse”

West Point Story
CBS-TV

“Ambush”

M-Squad
NBC-TV

“Neighborhood Killer”

1958

Naked City
ABC-TV

“Goodbye, My Lady Love”

“The Shield”

“Even Crows Sing Good”

“Burst of Passion”

“And a Merry Christmas to the Force on Patrol”

“Ladybug, Ladybug”

“The Manhole”

“Ticker Tape”

“Susquehanna 4-7598”

“Stakeout”

“The Canvas Bullet”

“The Bird Guard”

“Line of Duty”

“Welfare Island” (possibly never filmed)

“Sidewalk Fisherman”

“Nickel Ride”

“The Other Face of Goodness”

“Meridian”

“Violent Circle”

Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Revue TV

“The Canary Sedan”

“Little White Frock”

“Return of the Hero”

Suspicion
CBS-TV

“Voice in the Night”

“The Woman Turned to Salt”

Rescue 8
Screen Gems, Syndicated

“102 to Bakersfield” (as “Loren Dayle”)

“The Ferris Wheel” (as “Loren Dayle”)

1959
Naked City
ABC-TV

“The Canvas Bullet”

“A Wood of Thorns”

“The Bloodhounds”

“The Scorpion’s Sting”

“A Piece of the Action”

“Baker’s Dozen”

“Four Sweet Corners”

“The Rebirth”

“A Running of Bulls”

“Turn of Events”

“Beyond Truth”

“The Bumper”

“Hey, Teach!”

“Fire Island”

Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Revue TV

“Graduating Class”

“The Crystal Trench”

Markham
CBS-TV

“Image of Love”

“The Altar”

“Mutation”

“The Seamark”

“The Nephews”

“The Dual”

Tightrope
CBS-TV

“Appointment in Jericho”

“Stand on Velvet”

Man from Blackhawk
ABC-TV

“Biggest Legend”

“The Trouble with Toliver”

Alcoa-Goodyear Theatre
NBC-TV

“Medals for Harry”

“Corporal Hardy”

“The Silent Kill” (story only)

Adventure Showcase
CBS-TV

“Brock Callahan”

1960

VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED
MGM
(coscript)

Route 66
CBS-TV

“Black November”

“Sheba”

“The Quick and the Dead”

“Play it Glissando”

“A Fury Slinging Flame”

“Lay Out at Glen Canyon”

“Legacy for Lucia”

“Three Sides of a Coin”

“The Strengthening Angels”

“Man on the Monkey Board”

“Swan Bed”

“A Lance of Straw”

Naked City
ABC-TV

“A Death of Princes”

“Pedigree Sheet”

“A Succession of Heartbeats”

General Electric Theatre
CBS-TV

“Learn to Say Goodbye”

Checkmate
CBS-TV

“The Cyanide Touch”

Brothers Brannagan
CBS-TV

“Equinox”

Mr. Lucky
CBS-TV

“Hair of the Dog”

June Allyson Show
Dupont/Four Star/CBS-TV

“So Dim the Light”

1961

Route 66
CBS-TV

“A Long Piece of Mischief ”

“And the Cat Jumped Over the Moon”

“Some of the People, Some of the Time”

“Burning for Burning”

“Birdcage on My Foot”

“The Mud Nest”

“Mon Petite Chou”

“A Month of Sundays”

“Blue Murder”

“Incident on a Bridge”

“The Opponent”

“The Trap at Angie’s Corner” (possibly never filmed)

“The Newborn”

“Most Vanquished, Most Victorious”

“Don’t Count the Stars”

“An Absence of Tears”

“Effigy in Snow”

“Sleep On Four Pillows”

“Fly Away Home” I and II

THE SINS OF RACHEL CADE
(coscript)
Warner Bros.

1962

Route 66
CBS-TV

“...Shall Forfeit His Dog and Ten Shillings to the King”

“Give the Old Cat a Tender Mouse”

“A Bunch of Lonely Pagliaccis”

“Only by Gunning Glimpses”

“Hey, Moth, Come Eat the Flame”

“Lizard’s Egg and Owlet’s Wing”

“From an Enchantress Fleeing”

“Hell is Empty, All the Devils Are Here”

“Between Hello and Goodbye”

“Love is a Skinny Kid”

“Kiss the Maiden, All Forlorn”

“There I Am, There I Always Am”

“Go Read the River”

“You Never Had It So Good”

“Aren’t You Surprised to See Me”

“How Much a Pound is Albatross”

”One Tiger to a Hill”

“Ever Ride the Waves in Oklahoma?

“Across Walnuts & Wine”

Naked City
ABC-TV

“Prime of Life”

“Five Cranks for Winter…Ten Cranks for Spring”

“Torment Him Much and Hold Him Long”

1963

Route 66
CBS-TV

“Child of Night”

“Like This It Means Father…Like This Bitter…This Tiger”

“ A Long Way From St. Louie”

“I’m Here to Kill a King”

“Come Out, Come Out Wherever You Are”

“Same Picture, Different Frame”

“Where Are the Sounds of Celli Brahms?”

“The Stone Guest”

“A Cage in Search of a Bird”

“Two Strangers & an Old Enemy”

“But What Do You Do in March?”

“Peace, Pity, Pardon”

“The Cruelest Sea of All”

“In the Closing of a Trunk”

“Somehow It Gets to Be Tomorrow”

“Fifty Miles From Home”

“Suppose I Said I Was the Queen of Spain?”

1964

Rawhide
CBS-TV

“Marshlight”

Chrysler Theatre
Hope Enterprises/NBC-TV

“The Shattered Glass”

“Murder in the First”

“The Sojourner”

Route 66
CBS-TV

“This is Going to Hurt Me More Than It Hurts You”

“Where There’s a Will There’s a Way” (I and II)

1965

Chrysler Theatre
Hope Enterprises/NBC-TV

“The Highest Fall of All”

THE SLENDER THREAD
Paramount

1966

Wings of Fire
NBC-TV
(Movie of the Week)

1967

Maya
MGM TV

“Caper of the Golden Roe”

“Blood of the Tiger”

IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT
UA

Wings of Fire
NBC-TV/Universal

1968

MARLOWE
MGM

CHARLY
Cinerama Releasing

1969

A WALK IN THE SPRING RAIN
(also producer)
Columbia

THE LIBERATION OF L.B. JONES
(coscript)
Columbia

1971

Longstreet
(also producer)
ABC-TV
(Movie of the Week)

Longstreet
(TV series; also producer)

“Please Leave the Wreck for Others to Enjoy”

“The Shape of Nightmares”

“The Way of the Intercepting Fist”

“A World of Perfect Complicity”

MURPHY’S WAR
(Paramount)

SHAFT
(exec. producer only)
MGM

1972

A World of Love
(two TV pilots)
Paramount

THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE
(coscript)
Twentieth Century-Fox

The New Healers
Paramount
(pilot)

Movin’ On
(TV pilot)
Screen Gems

THE NEW CENTURIONS
Columbia

SHAFT’S BIG SCORE
(exec. producer only)
MGM

1973

SHAFT IN AFRICA
(also Exec. Prod.)
MGM

A Time for Love
(also Prod)
ABC-Paramount
(Movie of the Week)

1974

THE TOWERING INFERNO
Fox/WB

1975

The First 36 Hours of Dr. Durant
(pilot; also producer)
Columbia TV

Rodriguez
(TV pilot)
RSO Films

THE KILLER ELITE
UA
(coscript)

WHEN TIME RAN OUT
Warner Bros.
(coscript)

Death Scream
(Robert Stigwood)

1976

THE ENFORCER
Warner Bros.
(coscript)

1977

TELEFON
UA
(coscript)

THE SWARM
Warner Bros.

1978

CIRCLE OF IRON
Avco-Embassy
(coscript)

Pearl
I-II-III (also producer)
ABC-Warner Bros.
(mini-series)

1979

Salem’s Lot
(exec. producer only)
CBS-Warner Bros.

1980

Hardcase
NBC-TV
(pilot)

Golden Gate
ABC-TV
(Movie of the Week)

1981

Fly Away Home
(also exec. producer)
ABC-TV
(Movie of The Week/pilot)

1982

Travis McGee
ABC-TV
(pilot)

1984

Welcome to Paradise
(also producer)
CBS-TV
(pilot)

1985

Space
CBS-TV
(five episodes of mini-series)

Mussolini: The Untold Story
(also exec. prod.)
NBC-TV
(mini-series)

1986

OVER THE TOP
Warner Bros.
(coscript)

1987

CATCH THE HEAT
Trans-World Entertainment

The Three Kings
(also producer)
ABC
(Movie of the Week)

Harry’s Hong Kong
Aaron Spelling
(Supervising Producer)

1989

The Brotherhood of the Rose
(exec. prod. only)
NBC-TV
(Movie of the Week)

1992

Sidney Sheldon’s ‘The Stranger in the Mirror’
ABC
(Movie of the Week)

The Flying Aces
Showtime
(mini-series)

THE GRASS HARP
Fine Line Features
(released 1995)

1993

GUNMAN II
(a.k.a.
Salween
)
distributor unknown

1994

Day of Reckoning
NBC-TV
(novel)