In the summer of 2005, the Writers Guild of America surveyed its members to determine the greatest produced screenplays ever written.
As you might expect, it’s a travelogue of the high points in cinema, American and otherwise, from 8 1/2 and ADAPTATION to WHEN HARRY MET SALLY and WITNESS.
The list, along with links to historical facts about some of the highest ranking scripts, can be found here.
The Los Angeles Times magazine does top 10 list of lines from film noir. The Black List provides the screenwriters.
This month the LA Times magazine features a list of the best 10 lines in film noir, as recommended by mystery fiction scholar Otto Penzler. You can find it here along with clips of each iconic scene.
They did not include, however, the credited screenwriters’ names with the lines.
So we’ll do it here:
10. Dwight Taylor
I WAKE UP SCREAMING (1941) – Lonely detective Ed Cornell to Jill Lynn, when asked what would be the good of living without hope:
“It can be done.”
9. Orson Welles
TOUCH OF EVIL (1958) – Madame Tana to Hank Quinlan, after the corrupt sheriff asks her to tell his future:
“You haven’t got any. Your future is all used up.”
RESERVOIR DOGS (1992) – Mr. Pink to Mr. Orange, as he sees his fellow thug has been shot:
“Is it bad?”
Mr. White looks back and responds:
“As opposed to good?”
OUT OF THE PAST (1947) – Jeff Bailey to Kathie Moffat, after she double crosses him:
“You’re like a leaf that the wind blows from one gutter to another.”
THE GRIFTERS (1990) – Myra Langry to Roy Dillon, admiringly recalling her former con-artist partner:
“He was so crooked he could eat soup with a corkscrew.”
BODY HEAT (1981) – Matt Walker to Ned Racine, as he relentlessly flirts with her after being told she’s married and not interested:
“You’re not too smart, are you? I like that in a man.”
TAXI DRIVER (1976) – Travis Bickle writing in his diary:
“All my life needed was a sense of someplace to go. I don’t believe that one should devote his life to morbid self-attention. I believe that someone should become a person like other people.”
3. John Paxton
CROSSFIRE (1947) – Cpt. Finlay to Leroy, after shooting his friend. Leroy:
“Captain, is he dead?”
The cop:
“He was dead for a long time. He just didn’t know it.”
2. Ted Tally
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991) – Clarice Starling when a prison guard asks,
“Is it true what they’re saying-he’s some kind of vampire?”
Agent Starling:
“They don’t have a name for what he is.”
1. Andrew Solt
IN A LONELY PLACE (1950) – Dix Steele to Laurel Gray, after realizing that they’re over:
“I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me.”
Check Total Film’s choices for the “Best of the Black List: 50 Great Unproduced Scripts.”
http://bit.ly/dJFAmD
Any egregious oversights?
