Hitchcock’s Partner in Suspense: The Life of Screenwriter Charles Bennett

Charles Bennett's Awards and Distinctions

253 charles Bennett’s awards and Distinctions 12/1918 Awarded the Military Medal for Bravery 4/1927 Member of all-star cast Othello, Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Fund, accorded royal patronage 1929 Writes play basis and is co-scenarist of Blackmail, distinguished as first European full-length talkie; first full-length talkie, England; first Hitchcock talkie; first British International Pictures talkie; Banned by Australian censor 1930 The Last Hour becomes the first Nettlefold Studio talkie 1931 Deadlock is the first British talkie using a “Talkie Studio” as a set 9/1932 Deadlock achieves more than 1,400 theater bookings 12/1933 Nominated Corresponding Honorary Member of the Institut Littéraire et Artistique de France 1934 The Secret of the Loch is the first talkie filmed in Scotland 1/1936 Cited as Britain’s “Most Successful Screen-Story Writer” in the Era newspaper on a crucial film forum question: “Should British film producers put international appeal before national character?” 1937 Is the first major British screenwriter to be signed by Hollywood 1940 Selected among twenty-three best scenarists of the year by the editor of Starr-Dust 1941 Foreign Correspondent is nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture 12/1941–43 Becomes commander of Company D, 4th Regiment, California State Militia, First Mounted Patrol charles Bennett’s awards and Distinctions 254 10/1942 Annual New England Writers’ Award is given to Reap the Wild Wind, as reported in LA Daily News 1942, 1943 The 39 Steps and Foreign Correspondent are selected for New York University writing study 2/1943 Honored on four “top 10” lists for Reap The Wild Wind, as reported in LA Daily News 1943 Awarded fifth-time “box-office champion writer” for Reap The Wild Wind, in an unspecified “national trade publication exhibitors poll,” according to LA Daily News, June 22 4/1946 Receives state certificate for voluntary military service to the state of California 1949 Selected a Lord Calvert (whiskey) “Man of Distinction” 8/1954 Receives certificate of charter membership, Writers Guild of America 1955 Headlined in Variety as “Cavalcade’s Finest” for Take Off Zero 1957 Receives Christopher Award for Best TV Direction of The Gift of Dr. Minot 1944–1962 Receives box-office Blue Ribbon Awards for The Story of Dr. Wassell, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Lost World, The Big Circus, and Five Weeks in a Balloon 12/1972 The Secret Agent and Foreign Correspondent are screened at “Written for the Screen,” a salute to screenwriters at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art 7/1975 The 39 Steps is screened in “50 Years of British Cinema” at the Bing Theater, Los Angeles County Museum of Art 1979 Blackmail is screened in the “Fifty Years of Film” series by the British Film Institute at the National Film Theatre, London. 8/2/1979 Receives poem titled “To Charles at Eighty” from the poet Robert Nathan 4/1987 Profiled in Writers Guild of America, West, Newsletter: “Charles Bennett, Born to Write” 1991 Becomes the oldest writer in the history of film under contract to a major studio to write a screenplay 3/18/1992 Becomes an honorary member, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Los Angeles (BAFTA-LA) charles Bennett’s awards and Distinctions 255 1993 Recognized for his “lack of specialization within the American film industry” (Anthony Slide, International Directory of Films and Filmmaking, 1993) 3/1993 Blackmail is screened at the Louvre Auditorium: Cinéma muet en concert 9/1994 Is a Telluride Film Festival honoree 10/1994 Is selected as one of the “100 coolest people in Los Angeles,” Buzz Magazine 3/1995 Receives Writers Guild of America, West, Laurel Award for Lifetime Achievement 3/17/1995 Receives congratulatory letter for WGA Laurel Award from Merrick S. Baker-Bates, British consul general, Los Angeles 3/17/1995 Receives congratulatory letter for WGA Laurel Award from Rt. Hon. Stephen Dorrell, MP, Secretary for National Heritage, DNH Ministry, U.K. ...