Category Archives: Screenwriting

By Robert J. Avrech | September 21, 2016

How to Write a Screenplay

Tweet I get a fair amount of email from readers asking me about writing. More specifically, how do I go about writing a movie? Writing is ninety percent perspiration, ten percent inspiration. In other words do not wait to get struck with inspiration. That’s a load of romantic nonsense. In fact, that’s a sure way […]

Also posted in Hollywood, Movies | Tagged Movies, Screenplays, Writing | 17 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | September 16, 2016

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

Also posted in Art, Design, Friday Fotos, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Painting, True Hollywood Confessions | Tagged Akira Kurosawa, Bauhaus, David Wander, Diane Arbus, Ed Moses, Ito Sekisui V, Jack Lemmon, Josef Israels, Joseph Cornell, Judy Holliday, Morris Engel, Peter Sellers, Picasso, Robert Morris, Robert Zebeck, Shalom of Safed | 8 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | September 9, 2016

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

Also posted in Art, Friday Fotos, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Israel, Israel Defense Forces, Painting, Silent Movies, True Hollywood Confessions | Tagged Billy Al Bengston, Boris Karloff, Charles Sheeler, Edgar Degas, Fan Ho, Gary Cooper, Gerard Castello Lopes, Gleb Derujinsky, Jean Arthur, Katherine Hepburn, Lillian Gish, Mary Obering, Ori Resheff, Otto Dix, Peter Paul Rubens, Saul Bass | 8 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | August 5, 2016

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

Also posted in Art, Gloria Grahame, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Joan Fontaine, Marilyn Monroe, Movies, Painting, Photography, Photography, Los Angeles, Pico-Robertson, Quotes, True Hollywood Confessions | Tagged Crossfire, Edward Hopper, Egon Schiele, Esther Bubley, Frank Lloyd Wright, Gloria Grahame, Henri Rousseau, Ida Wyman, Jimmy Cagney, Joan Fontaine, John Gutman, Lauren Bacall, Marilyn Monroe, Michael Kenna, Mori-Shunkei, N.C. Wyeth, Paul Gauguin, Rebecca Lepkoff, Ruth Orkin, Sacha Goldberger, Stanley Kubrick, William Eggleston | 12 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | July 13, 2016

Hidden Hollywood: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Politically Incorrect in Hollywood

Tweet In 1924 while shooting a film in New York, actress Patsy Ruth Miller (1904-1995) developed a close friendship with author F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda. Frequently, Fitzgerald and Patsy Ruth would go out for dinner while Zelda remained home pleading fatigue. Patsy Ruth eventually realized that Zelda’s fatigue was acute alcoholism. Observes Patsy Ruth: It didn’t […]

Also posted in F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hidden Hollywood, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Patsy Ruth Miller, Photography | Tagged F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hollywood Communists, John Lee Mahin, Lon Chaney, Victor Fleming, Zelda Fitzgerald | 7 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | July 1, 2016

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

Also posted in Art, Design, Fashion, Friday Fotos, Helen Twelvetrees, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Kim Novak, Livia Yarden, Marlon Brando, Movies, Painting, Photography, Photography, Los Angeles, Pico-Robertson, Quotes, The Wit and Wisdom of Hollywood, True Hollywood Confessions | Tagged (My) Burgers, Edvard Munch, Edward Hopper, Fan Ho, Helen Twelvetrees, Horst B. Horst, Kim Novak, Livia Yarden, Miriam Hopkins, On the Waterfront, Patek Philippe, Rare Watches, Robert Motherwell, Sari Srulovitch, Utamaro, William Michael Harnett | 14 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | April 15, 2016

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

Also posted in Automobiles, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, Friday Fotos, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Jean Harlow, Leigh Brackett, Photography, Photography, Los Angeles, Pico-Robertson, True Hollywood Confessions | Tagged 1937, Alfred Stieglitz, Ava Gardner, Bauhaus, Fred Astaire, Gerrit Rietveld, Helen Keller, Helen Lundeberg, Howard Hawks, Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen, Lazlo Willinger, Leigh Brackett, Marianne Brandt, Mogambo, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Patty Duke, Paul J. Woolf, Samaritans, sculpted in steel, The 135MS Roadster, The Big Sleep | 11 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | March 8, 2016

Three Notable Films from Australia on Netflix, Yiddish in the Outback

Tweet One of the joys of Netflix is their vast library of international films that get no theatrical distribution in America. Seraphic Secret goes through periods of screening, including but not limited to, South Korean, British, Chinese, Scandinavian, Japanese, Bollywood, and most recently, Australian movies. Aussie films have a peculiar charm that will have you […]

Also posted in Australia, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Movies, Netflix, Yiddish | Tagged Australian Movies, David Lyons, Emma Booth, golliwog, Jason Clarke, Mia Wasikowska, Netflix, Oi, Oy, Swerve, These Final Hours, Tracks | 12 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | July 3, 2015

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

Also posted in Art, Audrey Hepburn, Brigitte Bardot, Friday Footwear, Friday Fotos, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Livia Yarden, Marilyn Monroe, Movie Posters, Movies, Myrna Loy, Painting, True Hollywood Confessions | Tagged Andy Warhol, Ann Margaret, Ann-Margret, Audrey Flack, Ava Gardner, Bette Davis, Caravaggio, Carole Lombard, Clyfford Still, Ed Rusha, Grace Hartigan, Humphrey Bogart, Jacopo Amigoni, James Cagney, Joseph Cornell, Lauren Bacall, Louise Brooks, Lupe Velez, Natalie Wood, Nicholas Poussin, No One Man, Petrus Christus, Raymond Chandler, Spellbound, Spencer Tracy, Susan Hayward, Veronica Lake | 10 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | July 2, 2015

Raymond Chandler: Advice for Hollywood Screenwriters

Tweet Like every writer or almost every writer, who goes to Hollywood, I was convinced in the beginning that there must be some discoverable method of working in pictures which would not be completely stultifying to whatever creative talent one might happen to possess. But like others before me I discovered that this was a […]

Also posted in Hollywood, Movies, Quotes, Raymond Chandler | Tagged Hollywood Screenwriters, Raymond Chandler, Screenwriting, Screenwriting Technique | 6 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | December 3, 2014

Warning: Hollywood’s Coming for Your Home and Children

Tweet Jewish Action magazine has just published another of my articles about Hollywood as leftist propaganda machine. This time I focus on Hollywood and the family.

Also posted in Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood: Then and Now, Silent Movies | Tagged Breaking Bad, Coming Home, Duck Dynasty, Easy Rider, Friday Night Lights, Hollywood as Propaganda Machine, House of Cards, Housewives Franchise, Hungry Hearts, Mad Men, Modern Family, Moral Inversions, Postmodern Hollywood, Radical Hollywood, Television, The Americans, Tony Soprano John Wayne, Vikings | 17 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | May 29, 2014

The Wisdom of Hollywood Screenwriters — They Died With Their Boots On

Tweet One of the most beautiful and touching films where marriage and family is the central subtext is They Died with Their Boots On (1941), a fanciful retelling of the George Armstrong Custer legend starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. The screenplay is by Æneas MacKenzie,Wally Kline, and Lenore J. Coffee.

Also posted in Errol Flynn, Hollywood, Olivia De Havilland, They Died With Their Boots On, Wisdom of Hollywood Screenwriters | Tagged George Armstrong Custer, Lenore Coffee, Libby Custer, They Died With Their Boots On, Wally Kline, Æneas MacKenzie | 18 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | February 6, 2014

Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1960s: To Kill a Mockingbird

Tweet We continue our survey of the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1960s. For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1950s, click here. For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1940s, click here. For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1930s click here. For the Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1920s click here. 6. To […]

Also posted in Great Movies, Greatest Movies of the 1960s, Hollywood, To Kill a Mockingbird, Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1960s | Tagged Atticus Finch, Boo Radley, Brock Peters, Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, Robert Duvall, Truman Capote | 29 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | November 19, 2013

Confessions of a Shomer Shabbos Hollywood Screenwriter

Tweet Act I: Exposition—In Which the Main Characters and Primary Drama Are Introduced It’s Shabbat morning. I’m in synagogue, praying, where an undertone of chatter is definitely not the norm. For me, a frum-from-birth screenwriter, this synagogue, where my wife and I have been members since we moved to Los Angeles from Brooklyn, is my […]

Also posted in Devil's Arithmetic, Hollywood, Judaism | Tagged A Stranger Among Us, Brittany Murphy, Eric Thal, Kirsten Dunst, Melanie Griffith, Social Propaganda | 37 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | September 17, 2013

Tough Dames, Tough Dialogue

Tweet Less is more. That’s the rule I follow when writing dialogue for one of my films. In truth, when writing a screenplay, I make every effort to draft scenes with no dialogue. Zip. Zero. Nada. Film is, or should be, primarily a visual medium where the story is told using images. But of course, […]

Also posted in Great Dialogue, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars | Tagged Barbara Stanwyck, Cleo Moore, Condemned Women, Henry Fonda, Joan Bennett, Lee Patrick, One Girl's Confession, Sally Eilers, The Lady Eve, The Reckless Moment, Women in Prison Movies | 17 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | September 12, 2013

Tough Guys, Tough Dialogue

Tweet The trick in writing dialogue for movies is to write as little as possible. Less is more. But when you do use dialogue, every word counts; every word a precious jewel that, ideally, delivers the proper balance of tone, characterization, and story. Here are a few examples of brilliant dialogue where we learn everything […]

Also posted in Great Dialogue, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars | Tagged Alan Ladd, Appointment With Danger, Dead Reckoning, Humphrey Bogart, Lizabeth Scott, Robert Taylor, Westward the Women | 18 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | January 30, 2013

Israel Faces Chemical Islam — The Screenplay

Tweet Wide Angle Shots: American liberal-progressives move to disarm law-abiding American citizens. Barack Obama’s vision of a degraded American military gains traction among the elites. America supports the Muslim Brotherhood, a proudly Jew-hating, America-hating, genocidal-yearning gang of Islamic theocrat fascists. Intertitle: Somebody has to take the lead in the fight against the rising tide of […]

Also posted in Islamic Terror, Israel, Israel Defense Forces, Muslim Brotherhood, Obama Watch, Second Amendment | Tagged Benjamin Netanyahu, Chemical Weapons | 6 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | November 6, 2012

How to Write a Screenplay — How to Win an Election

Tweet Seraphic Secret voted early. A few years ago, at our local polling station, an election volunteer looked at yours truly, checked my name on the registration ledger and said: “You’re a Republican? But you look like such a nice man!” That was the last time I voted at a polling station. I decline to […]

Also posted in 2012 Election, Mitt Romney, Obama Watch | Tagged Screenwriting Technique, Voting | 11 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | November 5, 2012

Days of Heaven

Tweet There was a moment on my walk this morning, at about 5:30 a.m., when I just stopped dead in my tracks and watched the horizon change from blue-black to blushing violet. In the movie industry, this stretch of time is known as magic hour. Cinematographers who shoot in these few precious moments, if they […]

Also posted in 2012 Election, Mitt Romney, Movies, Obama Watch | Tagged Big Government, Days of Heaven, Haskell Wexler, Magic Hour, Nestor Almendros, Terence Malick | 18 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | September 28, 2012

Friday Flickers: My Life As A Mankiewicz

Tweet The son of famed writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewics, (All Abut Eve, A Letter to Three Wives, Guys and Dolls, Cleopatra) and the nephew of Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman Mankiewics, Tom Mankiewics (1942-2010) was Hollywood royalty. Humphrey Bogart gave Tom his first drink. He dined with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, and spent an evening […]

Also posted in Hollywood, Tom Mankiewicz | Tagged All About Eve, Hollywood Memoir, Marilyn Monroe | 12 Responses

How I Married Karen

The new book
by Robert J. Avrech

Available in All Major Book Stores

Adobe Digital Edition's version is available through the Lulu store!
About Me
Robert J. Avrech
Los Angeles, California
I'm an Emmy Award winning screenwriter. I'm also an observant Jew, a religious Zionist, a conservative Republican, and a member of the NRA. I've been writing and producing in Hollywood for over twenty-five years. But the focus of my life is my family: my radiant wife, Karen—with whom I have been in love with since I was nine years-old—and my two daughters, who, thankfully, look like Karen. Not too long ago, we had three children. But our son, Ariel, died at the age of twenty-two from cancer. We miss him terribly. We think about him practically every minute of every day. People tell us that time heals, but Karen and I know this is not true. Time grinds away doing its terrible work. Ariel is gone. Yet absence becomes presence.

Ariel Chaim Avrech, ZT'L, May His Righteous Memory be a Blessing.
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Annual Ariel Avrech
Memorial Lectures
Young Israel of Century City

Thirteenth: May 22, 2016
Ben Shapiro: "How You Can Save Israel"

Blog Post
MP3 Audio Stereo (70 MB)

Twelfth: June 7, 2015
Larry Elder: "The New Black Anti-Semitism"

Blog Post
MP3 Audio Mono (50 MB) | Stereo (100 MB)

Eleventh: June 8, 2014
Michael Medved: "Shifting Alliances: Why Liberals No Longer Reliably Support Israel — And Conservatives Do." Blog Post | Audio (mp3 97MB)

Tenth: June 9, 2013
David Horowitz: "The War Against Judaism on the University Campus." Blog Post | Audio (mp3 16MB)

Ninth: June 3, 2012
Joel B. Pollak: "The Mainstream Media's Betrayal of Israel." Blog Post | Audio (mp3 15MB)

Eighth: June 5, 2011
Yossi Klein Halevi: "What is Expected of a Survivor People: Lessons My Father Taught Me." Blog Post | Audio (mp3 18MB)

Seventh: June 13, 2010
Dennis Prager: "Happiness is a Mitzvah, Not an Emotion." Blog Post | Audio (mp3 80MB)

Sixth: June 21, 2009
Rabbi Steven Pruzansky: "Conformity in Jewish Life: Vice, Virtue or Affectation?" Blog Post | Audio (mp3 64MB)

Fifth: June 15, 2008
Rabbi Dr. Gil S. Perl: "What Was the Rosh Yeshiva Reading: Intellectual Openness in 19th Century Lithuania." Blog Post | Audio (mp3 70MB)
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