Guy Endore
Encyclopedia
Samuel Guy Endore born Samuel Goldstein and also known as Harry Relis, was a novelist and screenwriter. During his career he produced a wide array of novels, screenplays, and pamphlets, both published and unpublished. A cult favorite of fans of horror, he is best known for his novel The Werewolf of Paris
which occupies a significant position in werewolf literature, much in the same way that Dracula
does for fans of vampires.
He was nominated for a screenwriting Oscar for The Story of G.I. Joe
(1945
), and his novel Methinks the Lady . . . (1946) was the basis for Ben Hecht
's screenplay for Whirlpool
(1949
).
Isidor changed their name in an attempt to move beyond the events of the past, and he placed the children in a Methodist orphanage. During this time, Isidor sold an invention and dreamt that his dead wife willed the children to have a European education, so he sent them to Vienna with the newfound windfall.
The children lived in Vienna for five years under the care of a Catholic governess, but when Isidor disappeared and their funds ran short, they returned to Pittsburgh and lived together.
, and acquired more by renting out his bed to a wealthier student while he slept on the floor.
He received a B.A. in 1923 and an M.A. in 1925, both in European languages.
He later taught fiction writing at the Los Angeles People’s Education Center.
and The Curse of the Werewolf
(based on his novel The Werewolf of Paris
). Although many of his films were at the time derided by critics, they have acquired a cult following in recent years.
Throughout his career Endore showed himself to be fascinated with hypnotism and the inability of characters to control their own actions, centering his stories on supernatural maladies such as lycanthropy and hypnosis. Mad Love
, Peter Lorre
’s American debut, involves a man who, after an accident, is fitted with the hands of a murderer which try to continue in their gruesome career. His novel Methinks The Lady..., which was made into a movie with Gene Tierney
, centered around a woman affected by a quack hypnotist. Even his Fred Astaire
and Ginger Rogers
comedy, Carefree
, still includes Rogers being put under hypnosis.
Endore began his movie writing career in 1935, when he wrote the story for Rumba
, an insipid star vehicle for George Raft
and Carole Lombard
, which was given a scathing review in the New York Times.
From there he began working on horror films. He worked on the screenplay for Mark of the Vampire
with Bela Lugosi
. He also wrote the 19-page treatment that eventually became The Raven
, for which he was never credited. A number of other horror films followed, interspersed with more mainstream films including the Oscar-nominated (G.I. Joe
), a John Wayne
movie (Lady from Louisiana
), and a Ginger Rogers
/Fred Astaire
picture (Carefree
).
His Hollywood career ended in 1969 with a made for TV movie entitled Fear No Evil, for which he wrote the story. It was the first US Television “Movie of the Week” and a success in the ratings, spawning a sequel in later years.
, who was a fellow student at the time. Endore was motivated by the Great Depression
world he lived in to promote leftist philosophies.
While living in Hollywood Endore was interviewed several times and wrote articles for multiple leftist publications, including Black and White, The Clipper, and New Masses.
Endore was a member of the Communist Party
in Hollywood and was investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee
during its search for Communist infiltration of the film industry. He was, however, never called before a “witch-hunting committee” and did not spend any time in jail.
Because of his Communist associations, some studios blacklisted him and he had to sell his screenplays under the pseudonym Harry Relis. (Relis was actually the husband of Endore's wife's eldest sister.) However, he remained defiant, claiming that he was a failure as a human being if he was not subversive to everything HUAC stood for.
After the Khrushchev Report
he abandoned the fight against the blacklist, only a few years before the reinstatement of many leftist sympathizers in the film industry. This has cast him into obscurity amongst the more prominent pro-Communist writers.
Endore also did not create prominent works of leftist fiction, instead choosing to compose what he believed would sell.
He became a devoted proponent to the Synanon
Foundation, a controversial southern California commune dedicated to reforming and rehabilitating drug addicts and alcoholics. (Later, as the Church of Synanon, it started its own utopian social movement.) He composed pamphlets and a published history of the commune, Synanon.
He also became a pamphleteer for many anti-racist causes, writing The Crime at Scottsboro about the Scottsboro boys
and their subsequent trial, and two works on “Sleepy Lagoon”, known also as the “Chicano Scottsboro”.
Endore also studied and was greatly inspired by Marx, as well as mysticism
, yoga
, vegetarianism
, theosophy
, and anti-vivisectionism.
Sleepy Lagoon Murder
During the year 1940 Guy Endore became heavily involved with the case of 17 Mexican teenagers incarcerated for a murder. Although there was scant evidence, a complete lack of eye witnesses, and no murder weapon to be found, they were put away in a wave of hysteria spread through the newspapers of LA. Endore became involved when he looked into the case and was startled by the lack of evidence. He proceeded to write a pamphlet entitled the Sleepy Lagoon Mystery which went over in detail the mistakes and oversights involved in the case. Giving a speech on the Al Jarvis radio show, Endore referred to Sleepy Lagoon as “the name of a disgrace which should be on the conscience of every decent American – and especially every decent person who lives in Los Angeles – because we allowed it to happen here.” To bring his readers over to his way of thinking Endore used scare tactics, threatening his readers that, should they allow this to happen, they could, in essence, be next. For the next year he corresponded often with the defense, gave interviews, and spoke on radio shows in an attempt to help the teens. At the end his attempts were a success and, with the information exposed in his pamphlet and a change in common opinion, the verdict was reversed.
The Werewolf of Paris
The Werewolf of Paris is a horror novel by Guy Endore. The novel follows Bertrand Caillet, the main character, who turns into a werewolf.-Plot summary:Bertrand is born on a Christmas Eve to a woman who had been molested by a priest...
which occupies a significant position in werewolf literature, much in the same way that Dracula
Dracula
Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor...
does for fans of vampires.
He was nominated for a screenwriting Oscar for The Story of G.I. Joe
The Story of G.I. Joe
The Story of G.I. Joe, also credited in prints as Ernie Pyle's Story of G.I. Joe, is a 1945 American war film directed by William Wellman, starring Burgess Meredith and Robert Mitchum. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Mitchum's only nomination for Best Supporting Actor.The...
(1945
1945 in film
The year 1945 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Paramount Studios releases theatrical short cartoon titled The Friendly Ghost, featuring a ghost named Casper.* With Rossellini's Roma Città aperta, Italian neorealist cinema begins....
), and his novel Methinks the Lady . . . (1946) was the basis for Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of...
's screenplay for Whirlpool
Whirlpool (1949 film)
Whirlpool is a thriller film noir directed by Otto Preminger and written by Ben Hecht and Andrew Solt, adapted from Guy Endore's novel Methinks the Lady. The film Stars Gene Tierney, Richard Conte, José Ferrer, Charles Bickford and Constance Collier in her final film role.The drama combines...
(1949
1949 in film
The year 1949 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:*Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello...
).
Early life
Endore was born Samuel Goldstein in New York to Isidor and Malka Halpern Goldstein. His father was a coal miner, inventor, and investor from Pittsburgh who often had difficulty making ends meet. His mother committed suicide when he was four, possibly due to their unstable and often insufficient livelihood.Isidor changed their name in an attempt to move beyond the events of the past, and he placed the children in a Methodist orphanage. During this time, Isidor sold an invention and dreamt that his dead wife willed the children to have a European education, so he sent them to Vienna with the newfound windfall.
The children lived in Vienna for five years under the care of a Catholic governess, but when Isidor disappeared and their funds ran short, they returned to Pittsburgh and lived together.
Education
He scraped together money to attend Columbia UniversityColumbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, and acquired more by renting out his bed to a wealthier student while he slept on the floor.
He received a B.A. in 1923 and an M.A. in 1925, both in European languages.
He later taught fiction writing at the Los Angeles People’s Education Center.
Hollywood
After graduating, Guy married Henrietta Portugal and in the 1930s they moved to Hollywood. Despite his eventual blacklisting, Endore had a fairly successful career in Hollywood, working on scripts or story ideas for big name pictures of the time. He made his name in the supernatural arena, with such movies as Mark of the VampireMark of the Vampire
Mark of the Vampire is a 1935 horror film, starring Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allan, Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, and Jean Hersholt and directed by Tod Browning...
and The Curse of the Werewolf
The Curse of the Werewolf
The Curse of the Werewolf is a British film based on the novel The Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore. The film was made by the British film studio Hammer Film Productions and was shot at Bray Studios.-Plot:...
(based on his novel The Werewolf of Paris
The Werewolf of Paris
The Werewolf of Paris is a horror novel by Guy Endore. The novel follows Bertrand Caillet, the main character, who turns into a werewolf.-Plot summary:Bertrand is born on a Christmas Eve to a woman who had been molested by a priest...
). Although many of his films were at the time derided by critics, they have acquired a cult following in recent years.
Throughout his career Endore showed himself to be fascinated with hypnotism and the inability of characters to control their own actions, centering his stories on supernatural maladies such as lycanthropy and hypnosis. Mad Love
Mad Love (1935 film)
Mad Love is a 1935 American horror film adaptation of Maurice Renard's story The Hands of Orlac. Directed by German-émigré film maker Karl Freund, the film stars Peter Lorre as Dr. Gogol, Frances Drake as Yvonne Orlac and Colin Clive as Stephen Orlac. The plot revolves around Doctor Gogol's...
, Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M...
’s American debut, involves a man who, after an accident, is fitted with the hands of a murderer which try to continue in their gruesome career. His novel Methinks The Lady..., which was made into a movie with Gene Tierney
Gene Tierney
Gene Eliza Tierney was an American film and stage actress. Acclaimed as one of the great beauties of her day, she is best remembered for her performance in the title role of Laura and her Academy Award-nominated performance for Best Actress in Leave Her to Heaven .Other notable roles include...
, centered around a woman affected by a quack hypnotist. Even his Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
and Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....
comedy, Carefree
Carefree (film)
Carefree is a 1938 musical film starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. With a plot similar to screwball comedies of the period, Carefree is the shortest of the Astaire-Rogers films, featuring only four musical numbers...
, still includes Rogers being put under hypnosis.
Endore began his movie writing career in 1935, when he wrote the story for Rumba
Rumba
Rumba is a family of percussive rhythms, song and dance that originated in Cuba as a combination of the musical traditions of Africans brought to Cuba as slaves and Spanish colonizers. The name derives from the Cuban Spanish word rumbo which means "party" or "spree". It is secular, with no...
, an insipid star vehicle for George Raft
George Raft
George Raft was an American film actor and dancer identified with portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s...
and Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard was an American actress. She was particularly noted for her comedic roles in the screwball comedies of the 1930s...
, which was given a scathing review in the New York Times.
From there he began working on horror films. He worked on the screenplay for Mark of the Vampire
Mark of the Vampire
Mark of the Vampire is a 1935 horror film, starring Lionel Barrymore, Elizabeth Allan, Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, and Jean Hersholt and directed by Tod Browning...
with Bela Lugosi
Béla Lugosi
Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó , commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in several of Ed Wood's low budget films in the last years of his...
. He also wrote the 19-page treatment that eventually became The Raven
The Raven
"The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in January 1845. It is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow descent into madness...
, for which he was never credited. A number of other horror films followed, interspersed with more mainstream films including the Oscar-nominated (G.I. Joe
The Story of G.I. Joe
The Story of G.I. Joe, also credited in prints as Ernie Pyle's Story of G.I. Joe, is a 1945 American war film directed by William Wellman, starring Burgess Meredith and Robert Mitchum. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Mitchum's only nomination for Best Supporting Actor.The...
), a John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
movie (Lady from Louisiana
Lady from Louisiana
Lady from Louisiana is a 1941 disaster film starring John Wayne. It was produced and directed by Bernard Vorhaus for Republic Pictures.-Plot:...
), and a Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....
/Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
picture (Carefree
Carefree (film)
Carefree is a 1938 musical film starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. With a plot similar to screwball comedies of the period, Carefree is the shortest of the Astaire-Rogers films, featuring only four musical numbers...
).
His Hollywood career ended in 1969 with a made for TV movie entitled Fear No Evil, for which he wrote the story. It was the first US Television “Movie of the Week” and a success in the ratings, spawning a sequel in later years.
Leftism
While he attended Columbia, he was heavily influenced towards the political left by Whittaker ChambersWhittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers was born Jay Vivian Chambers and also known as David Whittaker Chambers , was an American writer and editor. After being a Communist Party USA member and Soviet spy, he later renounced communism and became an outspoken opponent later testifying in the perjury and espionage trial...
, who was a fellow student at the time. Endore was motivated by the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
world he lived in to promote leftist philosophies.
While living in Hollywood Endore was interviewed several times and wrote articles for multiple leftist publications, including Black and White, The Clipper, and New Masses.
Endore was a member of the Communist Party
Communist party
A political party described as a Communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government...
in Hollywood and was investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities or House Un-American Activities Committee was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security"...
during its search for Communist infiltration of the film industry. He was, however, never called before a “witch-hunting committee” and did not spend any time in jail.
Because of his Communist associations, some studios blacklisted him and he had to sell his screenplays under the pseudonym Harry Relis. (Relis was actually the husband of Endore's wife's eldest sister.) However, he remained defiant, claiming that he was a failure as a human being if he was not subversive to everything HUAC stood for.
After the Khrushchev Report
On the Personality Cult and its Consequences
On the Personality Cult and its Consequences was a report, critical of Joseph Stalin, made to the Twentieth Party Congress on February 25, 1956 by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. It is more commonly known as the Secret Speech or the Khrushchev Report...
he abandoned the fight against the blacklist, only a few years before the reinstatement of many leftist sympathizers in the film industry. This has cast him into obscurity amongst the more prominent pro-Communist writers.
Endore also did not create prominent works of leftist fiction, instead choosing to compose what he believed would sell.
He became a devoted proponent to the Synanon
Synanon
The Synanon organization, initially a drug rehabilitation program, was founded by Charles E. "Chuck" Dederich, Sr., in 1958, in Santa Monica, California, United States...
Foundation, a controversial southern California commune dedicated to reforming and rehabilitating drug addicts and alcoholics. (Later, as the Church of Synanon, it started its own utopian social movement.) He composed pamphlets and a published history of the commune, Synanon.
He also became a pamphleteer for many anti-racist causes, writing The Crime at Scottsboro about the Scottsboro boys
Scottsboro Boys
The Scottsboro Boys were nine black teenage boys accused of rape in Alabama in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial...
and their subsequent trial, and two works on “Sleepy Lagoon”, known also as the “Chicano Scottsboro”.
Endore also studied and was greatly inspired by Marx, as well as mysticism
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
, yoga
Yoga
Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...
, vegetarianism
Vegetarianism
Vegetarianism encompasses the practice of following plant-based diets , with or without the inclusion of dairy products or eggs, and with the exclusion of meat...
, theosophy
Theosophy
Theosophy, in its modern presentation, is a spiritual philosophy developed since the late 19th century. Its major themes were originally described mainly by Helena Blavatsky , co-founder of the Theosophical Society...
, and anti-vivisectionism.
Activism
Although more famous for his work in Horror, Endore was a committed activist, attempting to protect with words those who were mistreated by the American culture and legal system. He supported non-governmental drug rehab programs, tried to use literature to illuminate what he considered to be historical oversights, wrote pamphlets in defense of the Scottsboro boys and involved himself deeply in the defense of those arrested in the Sleepy Lagoon trial.Sleepy Lagoon Murder
Sleepy Lagoon murder
Sleepy Lagoon murder was the name that newspapers and radio commentators used to describe the alleged murder of Jose Diaz, whose body was found on the Williams Ranch near a lagoon in southeast Los Angeles, California, on August 2, 1942...
During the year 1940 Guy Endore became heavily involved with the case of 17 Mexican teenagers incarcerated for a murder. Although there was scant evidence, a complete lack of eye witnesses, and no murder weapon to be found, they were put away in a wave of hysteria spread through the newspapers of LA. Endore became involved when he looked into the case and was startled by the lack of evidence. He proceeded to write a pamphlet entitled the Sleepy Lagoon Mystery which went over in detail the mistakes and oversights involved in the case. Giving a speech on the Al Jarvis radio show, Endore referred to Sleepy Lagoon as “the name of a disgrace which should be on the conscience of every decent American – and especially every decent person who lives in Los Angeles – because we allowed it to happen here.” To bring his readers over to his way of thinking Endore used scare tactics, threatening his readers that, should they allow this to happen, they could, in essence, be next. For the next year he corresponded often with the defense, gave interviews, and spoke on radio shows in an attempt to help the teens. At the end his attempts were a success and, with the information exposed in his pamphlet and a change in common opinion, the verdict was reversed.