William Faulkner On Screen

Today We Live
1933
Faulkner’s first credited film. When director Howard Hawks reads his script, he remarks, “If we change anything it will be like walking over it with muddy feet, I’ll tell you that.”

The Road to Glory
1936
Hawks commissions Faulkner to write this script, set in World War I. While working on it, Faulkner falls for Hawks’s script supervisor, Meta Carpenter, starting a romance that lasts until the 1950s.

Air Force
1943
John Ridgely’s deathbed scene in this World War II drama isn’t working until Faulkner rewrites it to chilling effect.

To Have and Have Not
1944
Bogie and Bacall’s first outing together. Director Hawks has a disaster on his hands until Faulkner moves the setting of Hemingway’s novel from Cuba to Martinique.

The Big Sleep
1946
Raymond Chandler’s classic noir, scripted by Faulkner. Bogie plays detective Philip Marlow; Bacall is the sultry daughter of a rich general.

Vivian (Bacall): “You go too far, Marlowe.”

“Marlowe (Bogart): “Those are harsh words to throw at a man, especially when he’s walking out of your bedroom.”

Intruder in the Dust
1949
Faulkner gets $50,000 for the film rights to his novel. Director Clarence Brown shoots the picture in Oxford.