Joan Harrison (screenwriter)

Joan Harrison (20 June 1907 – 14 August 1994) was an English screenwriter and producer. She became the first female screenwriter to be nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Oscar when the category was introduced in 1940, and was the first screenwriter to receive two Academy Award nominations in the same year in separate categories, for co-writing the screenplay for the films Foreign Correspondent (1940) (original) and Rebecca (1940) (adapted), both directed by Alfred Hitchcock, with whom she had a long professional relationship.

Joan Harrison
Born(1907-06-20)20 June 1907
Guildford, England
Died14 August 1994(1994-08-14) (aged 87)
London, England
EducationSt Hugh's College, Oxford
University of Paris
Occupation(s)Screenwriter
Film producer
Television producer
Spouse
​
(m. 1958)​

Biography
Joan Harrison, second from left, at dinner with the Hitchcocks (24 August 1937)

Born in Guildford, Surrey, Harrison was the daughter of a publisher of two local newspapers.[1] She studied at St Hugh's College, Oxford and reviewed films for the student newspaper. She also studied at the Sorbonne. In 1933, she became Alfred Hitchcock's secretary after answering a newspaper advertisement.[2] She began reading books and scripts for him and became one of Hitchcock's most trusted associates. Harrison appears in a scene in Hitchcock's original version of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), eating dinner with Peter Lorre's character. Hitchcock developed the habit of taking Harrison to dinner and recounting the details of hundreds of murders; Harrison had developed an interest in criminology. She worked with Hitchcock on other areas of his film's production to his wife Alma Reville. The couple became close to Harrison.[3] She was among the screenwriters for Hitchcock film Jamaica Inn (1939) based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier, her first script.[3]

When Hitchcock moved to Hollywood in March 1939 to begin his contract with David O. Selznick to direct films, Harrison emigrated with him as an assistant and writer.[1] She continued contributing to the screenplays for Hitchcock's films Rebecca (1940), another du Maurier adaptation, Foreign Correspondent (1940), Suspicion (1941), and Saboteur (1942).

She became a film producer with Phantom Lady (1944),[4] collaborating with the director Robert Siodmak. She was also credited as one of the screenwriters for Dark Waters (1944) after Phantom Lady star Franchot Tone persuaded her to work on the script as the writer of the original story, Marian Cockrell, was having difficulties with the adaptation.[3] The other films she produced were The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945), Nocturne (1946), Ride the Pink Horse (1947), and They Won't Believe Me (1947). At the time, she was one of only three female producers in Hollywood, the others being Virginia Van Upp and Harriet Parsons. Harrison was an uncredited screenwriter for Ride the Pink Horse (1947) and Your Witness (1950).

Harrison worked in television with Hitchcock together when she produced his TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents (with Norman Lloyd) and Suspicion. She and Lloyd were later producers on the Hammer TV anthology Journey to the Unknown, which ran for a single season in 1968.

A biography of Harrison by Christina Lane, Phantom Lady: Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the Forgotten Woman Behind Hitchcock, was published in 2020.[5]

Personal life

Harrison married thriller novelist Eric Ambler in 1958; the couple remained married until her death in 1994. She and Ambler lived in London for the last 20 years of her life.[2]

Filmography

Awards and nominations
Year Award Category Nominated work Result Ref.
1941 13th Academy Awards Best Original Screenplay (shared with Charles Bennett)
Foreign Correspondent
 Nominated [6]
Best Screenplay (shared with Robert E. Sherwood)
Rebecca
 Nominated

References
  1. Grimes, William (24 August 1994). "Joan Harrison, a Screenwriter And Producer, Is Dead at 83". New York Times. Retrieved 11 July 2008.
  2. Oliver, Myrna (24 August 1994). "Joan Harrison, 83; Producer, Writer for Alfred Hitchcock". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
  3. Shipman, David (26 August 1994). "Obituary: Joan Harrison". The Independent. Archived from the original on 22 October 2020. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
  4. "The New Pictures". Time. 28 February 1944. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012. Retrieved 6 May 2010.
  5. Tonguette, Peter (4 February 2020). "Joan Harrison emerges from Hitchcock's shadow in Phantom Lady". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
  6. Dove, Steve (10 December 2014). "1941: THE 13TH ACADEMY AWARD WINNERS". Oscars. Retrieved 10 January 2020.

Further reading
  • Lane, Christina. Phantom Lady: Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the Forgotten Woman Behind Hitchcock. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2020. Print.
  • Lane, Christina. "Stepping Out from Behind the Grand Silhouette: Joan Harrison's Films of the 1940s", Situation and Film, eds. David E. Gerstner and Janet Staiger. New York: Routledge, 2003. 97–116. Print.
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