Writing

Nathanael West

Born — Died

1903-10-17 — 1940-12-22

Place of birth

New York City, New York, USA

Known for

Writing

Credits

11 titles

Nathanael West (born Nathan Weinstein; October 17, 1903 – December 22, 1940) was an American author and screenwriter. He is remembered for two darkly satirical novels: Miss Lonelyhearts (1933) and The Day of the Locust (1939), set respectively in the newspaper and Hollywood film industries. Description above from the Wikipedia article Nathanael West, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known for

Stranger on the Third Floor poster
6.5

Newspaper reporter Michael Ward plunges into a nightmare of guilt, fearing that his "evidence" has sentenced the wrong man to death.

Stranger on the Third Floor

1940

Five Came Back poster
6.4

Twelve people are aboard Coast Airline's flagship the Silver Queen enroute to South America when the airplane encounters a storm and is blown off course. Crashing into jungles known to be inhabited by head hunters, pilots Bill and Joe race against time to fix the engines and attempt a take off. The situation brings out the best and worst in the stranded dozen as they create a makeshift runway and prepare to escape before the natives attack. But damage to the plane and low fuel reserves means that only 5 people can be carried to safety.

Five Came Back

1939

Born to Be Wild poster
7.5

Truck drivers Steve Hackett and Bill Purvis are fired from their jobs with the West Coast Trucking company for not using second-gear going down steep grades. Davis, the company vice-president, surprisingly asks them to carry a load of merchandise to Arrowhead and offers a $1000 bonus. He tells them it is a load of lettuce. Several miles out of Los Angelese, they are stopped by a mob of lettuce-farm workers on strike. When the first crate is tossed off the truck, it explodes and the two pals learn their merchandise is a cargo of dynamite. The workers let them proceed and they crash into a car driven by Mary Stevens, whom they had met at a restaurant. She and her dog, "Butch" (played by a Credited dog named Stooge), join them and they deliver their cargo, and learn unscrupulous real-estate operators have jammed the locks on the dam in order to ruin the ranchers and farmers and take over their property.

Born to Be Wild

1938

I Stole a Million poster
8.0

A cabbie and petty thief dreams of the big heist that will end his thieving ways.

I Stole a Million

1939

Rhythm in the Clouds poster
7.5

Judy Walker is a poor songwriter who, through mistaken identity, gets her songs played on the radio.

Rhythm in the Clouds

1937

It Could Happen to You poster
3.0

A politically charged story about a man who dabbles in crime, with disastrous results, to gain the capital he needs to purchase a school where immigrants are prepared for American citizenship. The school's European teacher dreams of a fascist America. Based on a story by Nathanael West and Samuel Ornitz, who was one of the Hollywood Ten blacklisted during the McCarthy Era.

It Could Happen to You

1937

Behind the camera

Stranger on the Third Floor poster
6.5

Newspaper reporter Michael Ward plunges into a nightmare of guilt, fearing that his "evidence" has sentenced the wrong man to death.

Stranger on the Third Floor

1940

Five Came Back poster
6.4

Twelve people are aboard Coast Airline's flagship the Silver Queen enroute to South America when the airplane encounters a storm and is blown off course. Crashing into jungles known to be inhabited by head hunters, pilots Bill and Joe race against time to fix the engines and attempt a take off. The situation brings out the best and worst in the stranded dozen as they create a makeshift runway and prepare to escape before the natives attack. But damage to the plane and low fuel reserves means that only 5 people can be carried to safety.

Five Came Back

1939

Born to Be Wild poster
7.5

Truck drivers Steve Hackett and Bill Purvis are fired from their jobs with the West Coast Trucking company for not using second-gear going down steep grades. Davis, the company vice-president, surprisingly asks them to carry a load of merchandise to Arrowhead and offers a $1000 bonus. He tells them it is a load of lettuce. Several miles out of Los Angelese, they are stopped by a mob of lettuce-farm workers on strike. When the first crate is tossed off the truck, it explodes and the two pals learn their merchandise is a cargo of dynamite. The workers let them proceed and they crash into a car driven by Mary Stevens, whom they had met at a restaurant. She and her dog, "Butch" (played by a Credited dog named Stooge), join them and they deliver their cargo, and learn unscrupulous real-estate operators have jammed the locks on the dam in order to ruin the ranchers and farmers and take over their property.

Born to Be Wild

1938

I Stole a Million poster
8.0

A cabbie and petty thief dreams of the big heist that will end his thieving ways.

I Stole a Million

1939

Rhythm in the Clouds poster
7.5

Judy Walker is a poor songwriter who, through mistaken identity, gets her songs played on the radio.

Rhythm in the Clouds

1937

It Could Happen to You poster
3.0

A politically charged story about a man who dabbles in crime, with disastrous results, to gain the capital he needs to purchase a school where immigrants are prepared for American citizenship. The school's European teacher dreams of a fascist America. Based on a story by Nathanael West and Samuel Ornitz, who was one of the Hollywood Ten blacklisted during the McCarthy Era.

It Could Happen to You

1937

Men Against the Sky poster
4.6

A draftswoman, the sister of an aging, alcoholic pilot, secretly uses her brother's ideas to solve design problems for an experimental military plane in an attempt to save the company and salvage her brother's reputation.

Men Against the Sky

1940

Ticket to Paradise poster
7.5

A man on his way to closing a million dollar deal has an accident and gets amnesia.

Ticket to Paradise

1936

Let's Make Music poster
6.0

An elderly schoolmarm makes a hit in New York after a bandleader jazzes up her corny song.

Let's Make Music

1941

Follow Your Heart poster
9.0

An eccentric musical family is kept in order by a talented daughter with modest ambitions.

Follow Your Heart

1936

The President's Mystery poster
5.8

The screenplay for this mystery is based upon a story suggested to Liberty Magazine by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It is the tale of a prominent lawyer who shocks his snooty friends, family and colleagues by abruptly abandoning his successful practice and his wife to find true happiness. He soon falls in love with another woman and continues to keep a low profile until he learns that his first wife stands accused of murdering him

The President's Mystery

1936