''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 ...
directed by
Howard Higgin. At the
2nd Academy Awards in 1930,
Elliott J. Clawson 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 - at the time, recently arrived from the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
- 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 Du ...
, was about two construction workers involved in building a
New York 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''.
References
External links
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{{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