Mildred Horn
Mildred Horn was a film critic and screenwriter, best known for her work on the Kroger Babb exploitation film Mom and Dad.
Horn was born in Erie, Pennsylvania and studied at Academy High School.[1] She later moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, where she became a film critic for a local paper.
When Horn was sent to review Kroger Babb's production of Child Bride, she was horrified that such a "cheap, crude, mislabeled morality play would be shown in a major Indiana family theater". In Horn's opinion the film was material for a shoddy sideshow tent at some backwoods county fair.[2] Babb later met with Horn, instead of writing a scathing review, Horn and Babb entered into a personal and professional relationship that would last forty years until his death in 1983. They enjoyed a common-law marriage after 1944, only making it official when Babb's first wife Toby consented to a divorce in the late 60s.[2]
Together with Babb and Jack Jossey they formed "Hygienic Productions" (later renamed "Hallmark Productions"),[3] and she wrote the screenplay for their best known production, Mom and Dad. The film was presented in a unique way, and included lectures and the sale of hygiene books that Horn wrote.[4]
Horn also wrote the screenplays for Why Men Leave Home, a film about female beauty, and Prince of Peace, a passion play. and now resides in Palm Springs.
Selected works
Films
- Mom and Dad, screenplay (1945)
- The Prince of Peace aka The Lawton Story, screenplay (1949)
- Why Men Leave Home aka Secrets of Beauty, screenplay (1951)
Books
- Man and Boy (1944)
- Woman and Girl (1944)
References
- ^ Erie, PA, Times: "Erieite Wins Fame as Hollywood Screen Writer." 16 December 1951.
- ^ a b Friedman, David F. (1990) A Youth in Babylon: Confessions of a Trash-Film King NY:Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-608-X.
- ^ Marshall, Wendy L. (2005). William Beaudine: from silents to television. Metuchen, N.J: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-5218-7.
- ^ Briggs, Joe Bob.(2003) Profoundly Disturbing: Shocking Movies That Changed History!, Universe Publishing, ISBN 0-7893-0844-4
   | This article about an American screenwriter is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |