''Skyscraper'' is a 1928 American silent

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Howard Higgin Howard Higgin (February 15, 1891 - December 16, 1938) was an American writer and director of motion pictures in the 1920s and 1930s. Biography After graduating from the Pratt Institute, Higgin began working at the architectural firm McKim, Mead & ...

. At the

2nd Academy Awards The 2nd Academy Awards, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) on April 3, 1930, at an awards banquet in the Cocoanut Grove of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, honored the best films released between August 1, ...

in 1930,

Elliott J. Clawson Elliott J. Clawson (January 19, 1883 – July 21, 1942) was an American screenwriter. He wrote for more than 80 films between 1913 and 1929. He was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, and died in Vista, California. At the 2nd Academy Awards in 19 ...

was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay). Prints of the film exist.

Cast

* William Boyd as Blondy * Alan Hale as Slim Strede * Sue Carol as Sally *

Alberta Vaughn Alberta Vaughn (June 27, 1904 – April 26, 1992) was an American actress in silent motion pictures and early Western sound films. She appeared in some 130 motion pictures. Early years Born in Ashland, Kentucky, Vaughn was the sister of ac ...

as Jane *

Wesley Barry Wesley Barry (August 10, 1907 – April 11, 1994) was an American actor, director, and producer. Barry began his career as a child actor in silent motion pictures and later became a producer and director of both film and television. As a direc ...

as Redhead *

Paul Weigel Paul Weigel (18 February 1867 – 25 May 1951) was a German-American actor. He appeared in more than 110 films between 1916 and 1945. Selected filmography * '' Naked Hearts'' (1916) - Cecil's Father * '' Each Pearl a Tear'' (1916) - Roger ...

as Redhead's father

Development

In 1927,

Cecil B. DeMille Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cine ...

charged

Ayn Rand Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;, . Most sources transliterate her given name as either ''Alisa'' or ''Alissa''. , 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and p ...

- at the time, recently arrived from the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

- with writing a script for what would become ''Skyscraper''. The original story, by

Dudley Murphy Dudley Bowles Murphy (July 10, 1897 – February 22, 1968) was an American film director. Early life Murphy was born on July 10, 1897 in Winchester, Massachusetts, to the artists Caroline Hutchinson (Bowles) Murphy (1868-1923) and Hermann D ...

, was about two construction workers involved in building a

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

skyscraper who are rivals for a woman's love. Rand rewrote the story, transforming the rivals into architects. One of them, Howard Kane, was an idealist dedicated to his mission and erecting the skyscraper despite enormous obstacles. The film would have ended with Kane's throwing back his head in victory, standing atop the completed skyscraper. DeMille rejected Rand's script, and the completed film followed Murphy's original idea, but Rand's version contained elements she would later use in ''

The Fountainhead ''The Fountainhead'' is a 1943 novel by Russian-American author Ayn Rand, her first major literary success. The novel's protagonist, Howard Roark, is an intransigent young architect, who battles against conventional standards and refuses to com ...

''.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Skyscraper 1928 films 1928 drama films Silent American drama films American silent feature films American black-and-white films Films directed by Howard Higgin Pathé Exchange films 1920s American films