George Froeschel
Georg "George" Froeschel (March 9, 1891 – November 22, 1979) was an Austrian screenwriter best known for Mrs. Miniver, Quentin Durward, and The Story of Three Loves, while working for MGM in the 1940s and 1950s. Before working in film he was a lawyer and journalist.
Biography
Georg Froeschel was born in 1891, the son of a Jewish banker in Vienna. He wrote his first novel during his time at grammar school, Ein Protest (A Protest). After his postgraduate studies he was Doctor of Laws. In World War I he wrote reports for the k.u.k. army. Following he wrote several novels, of which some were adapted for films in the 1920s. In the 1920s he worked for the Ullstein-Verlag in Berlin.
In 1936 he emigrated to the United States, where he first worked in the editorial office of Chicago's Coronet magazine. His efforts to find a job in Hollywood's film industry were not successful until April 1939, when Sidney Franklin of MGM engaged him as screenwriter.
Films
- 1921: Die Geliebte Roswolskys (GER, Felix Basch; novel)
- 1921: Der Schlüssel zur Macht (AUT, ? ; novel)
- 1923: Nora (GER, Berthold Viertel; novel)
- 1927: Der Anwalt des Herzens (GER, Wilhelm Thiele; novel)
- 1928: Weib in Flammen (GER, Max Reichmann)
- 1929: Skandal in Baden-Baden (GER, Erich Waschneck; novel)
- 1940: Waterloo Bridge (United States, Mervyn LeRoy)
- 1940: The Mortal Storm (United States, Frank Borzage)
- 1942: Mrs. Miniver (United States, William Wyler)
- 1942: Random Harvest (United States, Mervyn LeRoy)
- 1942: We Were Dancing (United States, Robert Z. Leonard)
- 1943: Madame Curie (United States, Mervyn LeRoy)
- 1944: The White Cliffs of Dover (United States, Clarence Brown)
- 1948: Command Decision (United States, Sam Wood)
- 1950: The Miniver Story (United States, H.C. Potter)
- 1951: The Unknown Man (United States, Richard Thorpe)
- 1952: Scaramouche (United States, George Sidney)
- 1953: The Story of Three Loves (United States, Vincente Minnelli, Gottfried Reinhardt)
- 1953: Never Let Me Go (United States, Delmer Daves)
- 1954: Rose Marie (United States, Mervyn LeRoy)
- 1954: Betrayed (United States, Gottfried Reinhardt)
- 1955: The Adventures of Quentin Durward (United States, Richard Thorpe)
- 1956: Gaby (United States, Curtis Bernhard)
- 1958: Me and the Colonel (United States, Peter Glenville)
- 1960: I Aim at the Stars (United States/GER, J. Lee Thompson)
Awards
Froeschel won the Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay for the 1942 film Mrs. Miniver (along with co-writers James Hilton, Claudine West, and Arthur Wimperis).
References
- Rudolf Ulrich: Österreicher in Hollywood. Verlag Filmarchiv Austria, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-901932-29-1, p. 148 and 149 (German)