Adapting Classic Novels Not the Only Tool in her Kit: Silent Screenwriter Dorothy Farnum

With 47 writing credits and 2 for acting it’s absurd that once again most biographical sites name Dorothy Farnum as an actress first, then a screenwriter. Her father, William, acted in 146 films and her uncle Dustin acted in 42. They were actors. She was a screenwriter.

Born to a family of actors in New York City on June 10, 1900, Farnum’s life spanned the early years and massive growth of both the new century and the new medium of film. Her early mastery of literature and French history from her boarding school education came in handy later in her career when adaptations of classic Old-World novels became her bread and butter.

Farnum began her screenwriting career in 1919 with an original screenplay called The Broken Melody, which told the story of an up-and-coming artist in Greenwich Village. Her work quickly caught the eye of the major stars of the day as her second piece, Good References (1920), about an unemployed young woman who steals another’s ID to gain a good job, starred Constance Talmadge. Farnum followed this with a film for Lionel Barrymore, The Great Adventure (1921), also about an artist, so it seems she had already created a niche for herself by writing about elites.

Farnum and John Barrymore worked together when she adapted Clyde Fitch’s play Beau Brummel in 1924, a fictional telling of the life of a real British military officer and friend to future King George IV. By that point adaptations became a bit of a specialty for Farnum. That same year she adapted Tess of the D'Urbervilles, from the Thomas Hardy novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman (1891). Babbitt by novelist Sinclair Lewis came next on her docket. Having been friends for a while before the assignment Farnum let Lewis know her plans for the script, something he appreciated.

In 1925 she brought Kathleen Norris’ Rose of the World to screens. In 1926 it was Rafael Sabatini’s Bardelys the Magnificent. Another story of a noble ne’er do well, irresistible to women, the film proved a perfect vehicle for silent film idol John Gilbert. Never a Jane of One Trade Farnum interspersed these adaptation assignments with many of her own original screenplays. Of these, The Pagan (1929) stands out as a vehicle for heartthrob Ramon Navarro and Redemption (1930) gave John Gilbert another womanizer to bring to life.

All this work came from several of the main studios of the day including Warner Bros., MGM, and United Artists. Then in 1930, she moved to Paris to work with the Gaumont-British production company as films transitioned from Silent to Sound. Her last known credit is 1934’s Lorna Doone, produced in the UK, after which she seems to have retired.

Of her personal life, there is some record of an early marriage to composer Earnest Andersson from 1917 to 1921 when they divorced followed by a 1923 marriage to Maurice Barber, general manager of the Cinema Finance Company. This marriage lasted until his death in France in 1950. At some point, she returned to the U.S. as she died in Andover, Massachusetts in January of 1970. 

Research for this column comes from the book When Women Wrote Hollywood, edited by Rosanne Welch.

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