Background
Casey Robinson was born on October 17, 1903, in Logan, Utah, the United States.
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, United States
Robinson graduated from Cornell University at the age of 19.
(Bare Knees is a flapper film that's fun to watch just to ...)
Bare Knees is a flapper film that's fun to watch just to see Virginia Lee Corbin showcasing her independence and her pretty figure.
https://www.amazon.com/Bare-Knees-Virginia-Lee-Corbin/dp/B002QH59OM/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Bare+Knees+1928&qid=1580815698&sr=8-1
1928
(This feature was produced by Mack Sennett during the heig...)
This feature was produced by Mack Sennett during the height of his film-making career and featured legendary silent screen comedians Harry Gribbon and Andy Clyde.
https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Parade-Harry-Gribbon/dp/B002WZJL1K/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?keywords=The+Last+Parade+1931&qid=1580815902&sr=8-1-fkmr0
1931
(Kay Francis wrings the last tear from this heart-wrenchin...)
Kay Francis wrings the last tear from this heart-wrenching drama about love and sacrifice costarring Ian Hunter. When a blackmailer (Barton MacLane) suddenly appears in her dressing room and threatens to expose her dark past, London stage star Stella Parish (Francis) goes into hiding, boarding a ship for the States.
https://www.amazon.com/Found-Stella-Parish-Kay-Francis/dp/B0137I9PD4/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?keywords=I+Found+Stella+Parish+1931&qid=1580815936&sr=8-1-fkmr0
1935
("Aye, me Buckos!" Errol Flynn ("The Adventures of Robin H...)
"Aye, me Buckos!" Errol Flynn ("The Adventures of Robin Hood," "The Dawn Patrol") made his swashbuckling debut as a dashing young Irish physician who is exiled into slavery by a tyrannical governor.
https://www.amazon.com/Captain-Blood-Errol-Flynn/dp/B000I3SYUC/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Captain+Blood+%281935%29&qid=1580815987&sr=8-1
1935
(All the world's a stage and there are many fine players i...)
All the world's a stage and there are many fine players in it in this gleeful backstage costume comedy: Olivia de Havilland (as the countess), Brian Aherne (Garrick) and a clever ensemble.
https://www.amazon.com/Its-Love-After-Leslie-Howard/dp/B002KE4ZIC/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=It%27s+Love+I%27m+After&qid=1580816038&sr=8-1
1937
(Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland infuse Hollywood clas...)
Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland infuse Hollywood classics with romance, daring and legendary screen chemistry. That chemistry reaches giddy heights in the screwball romp Four's a Crowd, the only comedy the stars made together.
https://www.amazon.com/Fours-Crowd-Errol-Flynn/dp/B002LH42H2/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Four%27s+a+Crowd&qid=1580816113&sr=8-1
1938
(Bette Davis stars as a hedonistic socialite who learns to...)
Bette Davis stars as a hedonistic socialite who learns to value the simple things in life after being diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor in this three-hanky drama.
https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Victory-Bette-Davis/dp/B000I3U680/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Dark+Victory&qid=1580816172&sr=8-2
1939
(Bette Davis stars in this tangled tale of life and love u...)
Bette Davis stars in this tangled tale of life and love unsatisfied, as a Civil War-era single mother, forced to let her romantic rival raise her daughter.
https://www.amazon.com/Old-Maid-Bette-Davis/dp/B07CT52S91/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=The+Old+Maid&qid=1580816213&sr=8-1
1939
(Bette Davis and Charles Boyer star in this romantic drama...)
Bette Davis and Charles Boyer star in this romantic drama about a French nobleman who falls in love with his children's governess, causing a tragic scandal in 19th-century France.
https://www.amazon.com/All-This-Heaven-Bette-Davis/dp/B001N7E8BG/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=All+This%2C+and+Heaven+Too&qid=1580816649&sr=8-2
1940
(What’s wrong with the younger generation? Concerned when ...)
What’s wrong with the younger generation? Concerned when his son indulges in something forbidden by his faith, Methodist parson William Spence decides to witness the evildoing first hand: he goes to a movie.
https://www.amazon.com/One-Foot-Heaven-Fredric-March/dp/B00TPN7EUM/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=One+Foot+in+Heaven&qid=1580816685&sr=8-2
1941
(It's a quaint turn-of-the-century small town of shady str...)
It's a quaint turn-of-the-century small town of shady streets, swimming holes and the Sunday afternoon clip-clop of horse and buggy.
https://www.amazon.com/Kings-Row-Ann-Sheridan/dp/B00OYG2LLM/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Kings+Row&qid=1580816728&sr=8-1
1942
(Bette Davis magically plays Charlotte Vale, a spinster wh...)
Bette Davis magically plays Charlotte Vale, a spinster who defies her domineering mother (fellow Oscar nominee Gladys Cooper) to discover love, heartbreak, and eventual contentment.
https://www.amazon.com/Now-Voyager-Bette-Davis/dp/B006PJCCCE/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Now%2C+Voyager&qid=1580816779&sr=8-1
1942
(Humphrey Bogart plays Jean Matrac, a World War II French ...)
Humphrey Bogart plays Jean Matrac, a World War II French patriot who escapes Devil's Island, survives a dangerous freighter voyage and becomes a gunner in the Free French Air Corps.
https://www.amazon.com/Passage-Marseille-Humphrey-Bogart/dp/B06XYT2HXV/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Passage+to+Marseille&qid=1580816886&sr=8-1
1943
(The story, based on Emlyn Williams' autobiographical play...)
The story, based on Emlyn Williams' autobiographical play, focuses on the relationship between Miss Moffat and her gifted young prodigy from the mines, Morgan Evans (John Dall).
https://www.amazon.com/Corn-Green-Bette-Davis/dp/B00N11QJ4G/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=The+Corn+Is+Green&qid=1580817088&sr=8-1
1945
(Football coach George Cooper has as many problems managin...)
Football coach George Cooper has as many problems managing his football team as he has at home dealing with his daughters, Ellen and Connie.
https://www.amazon.com/Father-Was-Fullback-Fred-MacMurrary/dp/B00A1AU65I/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Father+Was+a+Fullback&qid=1580817114&sr=8-1
1949
(Harry Street (Gregory Peck) is a writer dying from a hunt...)
Harry Street (Gregory Peck) is a writer dying from a hunting wound during an African safari. As he lies convalescent, he reflects on his failures at love and writing, telling of his writing ambitions and the story of his one true love, Cynthia (Ava Gardner), to his wife (Susan Hayward).
https://www.amazon.com/Snows-Kilimanjaro-Gregory-Peck/dp/B00GNME0G4/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=The+Snows+of+Kilimanjaro&qid=1580817214&sr=8-4
1952
(Ask Mother' says the message scrawled in lipstick at a mu...)
Ask Mother' says the message scrawled in lipstick at a murder scene by an unknown serial killer who preys on women. It’s a sensational story.
https://www.amazon.com/While-City-Sleeps-Dana-Andrews/dp/B007QJ9SLA/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=While+the+City+Sleeps&qid=1580817281&sr=8-2
1956
(Adapted from John Cleary's series of Aussie detective nov...)
Adapted from John Cleary's series of Aussie detective novels, Scobie Malone (also known as Helga's Web and Murder at the Opera House) in the 70s 'Ozploitation' murder mystery with a sexy wink to the crime genre.
https://www.amazon.com/Scobie-Malone-Jack-Thompson/dp/B00KJNXV36/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=Scobie+Malone&qid=1580817319&sr=8-3
1975
director producer screenwriter
Casey Robinson was born on October 17, 1903, in Logan, Utah, the United States.
Robinson graduated from Cornell University at the age of 19. After graduating from Cornell University with a degree in English, Casey Robinson worked as a journalist and high school teacher in Utah.
Upon traveling to Hollywood to visit a college friend, Gerry Duffy, who was working in film, Robinson eagerly changed his career path. Duffy was writing subtitles for the film The Patent Leather Kid, and Robinson was offered a job as an assistant for more than his teacher’s pay. Robinson started out by writing title cards for silent pictures, working on thirteen films from 1927 to 1928 beginning with The Private Life of Helen of Troy.
One of these early projects led to Robinson dropping his first name from his credits. Born Kenneth Casey Robinson, he began using his middle name after the producer of the film Her Wild Oat listed his credit as such. Since nearly everyone associated with the film was Irish, the producer had changed Robinson’s name so that he would fit in and suggested that if Robinson wanted to keep working in the industry, he should just go with it. So he did.
Shortly after Robinson entered the world of films, the industry began to undergo a shift. In 1929, films began to be accompanied by sound which put Robinson’s job writing subtitles in jeopardy. He was forced to switch to writing dialogue, something he was uncomfortable doing. Times Square, released in 1929, was his last silent film (although it did include some dialogue). He then wrote the story for The Last Parade, a gangster film produced by Columbia in 1931, and tried his hand at directing the shorts The Masquerade (for which he also wrote the screenplay) and The Girl from Hong Kong.
Robinson’s first full-length screenplay was Is My Face Red? (1932), written in collaboration with Ben Markson and based on a play Markson had written with Allen Rivkin. This work was followed by Lucky Devils (1933), She Made Her Bed (1934), and Love That Man (1933). None met with much success but the last, I Love That Man, was directed by Harry Joe Brown who would soon help Robinson further his career.
When Brown was made a producer at Warner Brothers in 1935 he gave Robinson a job as a screenwriter. Brown assigned Robinson to work on the film Captain Blood (1935). It was his first big success. A remake of a 1924 swashbuckler film, Robinson's version made stars of Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. Flynn played a doctor who is convicted of treason for helping a wounded rebel. As his punishment, he is sent to Jamaica and sold into slavery. But he manages to escape and become a pirate.
Despite the success of this action film, Robinson was subsequently assigned to write romantic "women’s films." In 1935, he again collaborated with Brown on Found Stella Parish. Kay Francis played an actress who is blackmailed and forced to escape to England, leaving behind her child. Eventually, she is able to return to America and becomes a burlesque star. Hearts Divided (1936) was a romance about an American woman and Napoleon’s brother. Robinson also worked on two more vehicles for Kay Francis - Give Me Your Heart (1936) and Stolen Holiday (1936).
Robinson’s reputation as a writer of "women’s films" grew and he worked on six screenplays for Bette Davis. In the Dictionary of Literary Biography Christopher Adcock described this group of films as "melodramas filled with adultery, sexual innuendoes, and Freudian secrets." In Its Love I’m After (1937), the first of the six, Davis vies with Olivia de Havilland for the affections of Leslie Howard. At the end of the film, this love triangle is solved when Havilland’s character goes back to her fiancée and Davis gets her man. By this time Robinson was being assigned to only A pictures. Dark Victory (1939) stars Bette Davis as a terminally ill woman of wealth. She falls in love with a doctor played by George Brent who takes care of her and tries to discover a cure. But when the doctor leaves one day for a medical convention, Davis’s character hides her pain and dies in his absence. The film earned Davis an Academy Award nomination and boosted Robinson’s reputation with Warner Brothers. The Old Maid (1939) is based on a novel by Edith Wharton. Davis has a child out of wedlock and gives it to her cousin to raise. All This and Heaven Too was another successful adaptation of a novel, this one by Rachel Field. A period film about nineteenth-century France, Davis plays a governess to the Duke De Praslin, played by Charles Boyer.
Robinson also wrote the classic film Now, Voyager (1942). Davis plays Charlotte Vale, a middle-aged, emotionally unstable woman. While on a cruise, she meets and falls for the married Jerry Durrence, played by Paul Henreid. Davis was nominated for another Academy Award for her performance and Joanne L. Yeck, writing in the International Dictionary of Film and Filmmakers, called the part of Vale "perhaps [Davis’s] best-loved role." Adcock described Robinson’s work on the film, writing, "Robinson handles material such as insanity and adultery with taste and style; for all the unseemly behavior inherent in the plot, the film is quite inoffensive, a triumph of screenwriting for that era."
The Corn Is Green was Robinson’s last script for Davis and one of the last for Warner Brothers. An adaptation of a play by Emlyn Williams, Davis plays a teacher in a Welsh mining town who takes a particular interest in the success of one of her students, played by John Dali. Other films Robinson wrote during his prolific period at Warner Brothers include Tovarich (1937), an adaptation of Robert E. Sherwood’s play about two Russians in care of the Czar’s fortune, and King’s Row (1941), based on Henry Bellamann’s novel set in a small town at the turn of the twentieth century. Robinson also worked on two projects for which he received no formal credit: Pride of the Yankees (1942) and Casablanca (1943). Adcock described Robinson’s role in developing the script for the latter classic, writing, "Robinson’s work on Casablanca was extensive; he helped to define and strengthen the romantic relationship between the two main characters, and it was at his suggestion that the Lisa Lund character became a European, rather than the American woman of the original play." More inclined to take only solo credits for his work, Robinson declined to attach his name to the script along with Julius and Philip Epstein and Howard Koch, a decision he would come to regret when the group won the Best Screenplay award for their work.
After leaving Warner Brothers in the mid-1940s, Robinson worked as a freelancer for RKO, Columbia, MGM, and United Artists. His credits from this time include The Macomber Affair (1946) adapted from a Hemingway story, Days of Glory (1944) about World War II (which stared his wife, the ballerina Tamara Toumanova), and the gangster film The Racket Man (1949) Robinson began working for Twentieth Century-Fox. His best work from his time there, which lasted until 1954, was Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952). This film was Robinson’s third adaptation of works by Hemingway (the second, Under My Skin, was released by Twentieth Century-Fox in 1950). In it, a writer played by Gregory Peck prepares for his own death.
After leaving Twentieth Century-Fox, Robinson worked as a producer and screenwriter through the end of the 1950s. In 1950, he worked on a documentary film, The Copenhagen Ballet, about the company with which his wife was a prima ballerina. He wrote one more screenplay, a sequel to his first success, Captain Blood, called Son of Captain Blood (1964), starring Errol Flynn’s own son Sean. In 1973, he moved to Australia where he worked as a consultant to the country’s growing film industry until his death in 1979.
(Adapted from John Cleary's series of Aussie detective nov...)
1975(What’s wrong with the younger generation? Concerned when ...)
1941("Aye, me Buckos!" Errol Flynn ("The Adventures of Robin H...)
1935(All the world's a stage and there are many fine players i...)
1937(Bette Davis magically plays Charlotte Vale, a spinster wh...)
1942(Humphrey Bogart plays Jean Matrac, a World War II French ...)
1943(Bette Davis and Charles Boyer star in this romantic drama...)
1940(The story, based on Emlyn Williams' autobiographical play...)
1945(Bette Davis stars as a hedonistic socialite who learns to...)
1939(This feature was produced by Mack Sennett during the heig...)
1931(Bette Davis stars in this tangled tale of life and love u...)
1939(Football coach George Cooper has as many problems managin...)
1949(It's a quaint turn-of-the-century small town of shady str...)
1942(Bare Knees is a flapper film that's fun to watch just to ...)
1928(Ask Mother' says the message scrawled in lipstick at a mu...)
1956(Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland infuse Hollywood clas...)
1938(Kay Francis wrings the last tear from this heart-wrenchin...)
1935(Harry Street (Gregory Peck) is a writer dying from a hunt...)
1952(A soldier wounded in the War (WWI) becomes a producer and...)
1943Robinson was married three times. His first wife was Audray Dale. He then married Tamara Toumanova, a Russian-American prima ballerina and actress. After their divorce, Robinson got married to Joan Potts.