How Ben Hecht Went from Star Screenwriter to Outspoken Voice for the Jews

In 1928, Ben Hecht received an Academy Award (at the very first ceremony) for his screenplay of Unforgiven; a decade later, called in at the eleventh hour, he rewrote the script for Gone with the Wind. A man of strong moral convictions, Hecht also came to conclusions about his profession that are relevant today. As Edward White writes, he “loathed the philistine ogres in charge of the studios who filled their movies with preaching moralism, but in private treated everyone like dirt,” especially inveighing against men “who have been the targets of rape and bastardy charges and who make seduction a profession [yet] remain honorable figures in Hollywood society.”