The Screenplay as a Means of Communication: The Case of Notorious

Abstract

In the classical Hollywood studio system, as in many other modes of production, the script development process is a collaborative one. In the course of this development process, the various interests of the ‘Screen Idea Working Group’ (Macdonald 2010), in most cases producer(s), screenwriter(s) and director, are addressed and negotiated. Deviations from the classical Hollywood model can be found in fringe productions. In the case of the film Notorious (1946), independent producer David O. Selznick was unable to exert a high level of control over the screenplay development by Ben Hecht and Alfred Hitchcock, because of a particular ‘communication gap’: the writing duo worked in New York, while Selznick resided in Hollywood. By tracing the development of one single scene through its various stages, this chapter will demonstrate how and why the scene was developed in that way and consider how the conditions of its development shaped the outcome of the Hecht–Hitchcock collaboration.