In the early days of Hollywood, most screenwriters were women. Some started out as actresses, others as journalists. Some regularly collaborated with specific directors; others, with female stars.

Yet today few people know about them.

Take Frances Marion. She was one of the most successful screenwriters of all time. She penned 200 produced films, in every possible genre, and even helped create a genre, the prison drama, with "The Big House" (1930), for which she won an Academy Award.

Marion's name should be as recognizable as that of directors Cecil B. De Mille and Erich Von Stro-heim. But it's a familiar Hollywood story: The writer gets the shaft.


Starting next Sunday, the Pacific Film Archive will attempt to redress this lack of recognition. It's launching a series called "Mightier Than the Sword: Women Screenwriters in Hollywood."

The series will run through the end of June, mainly on Sundays and Fridays, so hold on to the schedule. It's made up of 27 films, representing the work of eight female screenwriters, and contains many rare gems that you're just not going to see anywhere else. (For a selection available on video, see Page 56.)

Like an earlier series at New York's Museum of Modern Art last year, the PFA's series is loosely inspired by the book "Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood."

Two things are true of the female screenwriters of old Hollywood -- facts that might at first seem contradictory, but are not: They could write anything; they were hardly limited to writing "women's pictures." And they wrote great women's pictures and great women's roles. It's no coincidence that the golden era of the female screenwriter occurred at the same time as the golden age of the actress. In the 1920s and early '30s, when female screenwriters dominated, actresses ruled the box office to a degree that hasn't been seen since.

These actresses and screenwriters didn't create each other. They were both products of an era. After World War I, women were gaining rights and asserting their sexuality, and the public wanted to see their stories told onscreen.

And the women helped each other. Take, for example, the partnership of Anita Loos and Jean Harlow. Loos' wicked humor and love of sexual innuendo gave Harlow a whole new dimension in their first film together, "Red-Headed Woman" (1932). In that one, Harlow, trying on a dress, asks a salesgirl if she can see through it. When the woman tells her yes, Harlow replies, "I'll take it."

No wonder Loos went on to write three more movies for Harlow, including "Hold Your Man" (1933) and "The Girl From Missouri" (1934), which are on the PFA program.

Marion had close working relationships with a number of female stars. She was best friends with Mary Pickford, who called her "the pillar of my career." Their collaboration "Stella Maris" (1918) kicks off the series next Sunday. Marion also rescued the career of Marie Dressler, for whom she wrote roles in "Anna Christie" (1930), "Emma" (1932) and "Dinner at Eight" (1933).

Marion also influenced the career of Marion Davies, the lover and protege of newspaper czar William Randolph Hearst. Davies was no dramatic actress, but her sparkling, irresistible personality was made for comedy. Marion saw that and wrote a slapstick vehicle for her, "Zander the Great" (1925). It plays May 22 with Davies' best talkie, "Blondie of the Follies" (1932), which Marion co-wrote with Loos. Another screenwriter, June Mathis, is best known for her collaboration with an actor. She pulled strings and used her influence to get Rudolph Valentino cast in "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" (1921), and the rest is history.

"Mightier Than the Sword" is filled with dazzling obscurities. Lenore Coffee, who wrote the Joan Crawford film "Possessed" (1931), also gave us "Arsene Lupin" (1932), a showcase for John and Lionel Barrymore. Lionel is a cranky police inspector; John is a smooth playboy who might be a notorious thief; and along for the ride is Karen Morley, as a woman who sneaks into John's bed.

Then there's Adela Rogers St. Johns. She was a newspaperwoman, novelist and screenwriter who, when it came to scandals, was as ubiquitous as Linda Tripp. If there was a gunshot, she heard it. If there was a love affair, she saw it happen. If there was a confession, she took it down. She was a colorful character, a great gossip, a San Franciscan (like Coffee), and her writings provided source material for three films in the series.

A St. Johns novel formed the basis of the routine Garbo silent "The Single Standard" (1929). She was also the source for two of Norma Shearer's best movies -- the risque "A Free Soul" (1931), based on the novel of the same name, and the silent masterpiece "Lady of the Night" (1925), based on a St. Johns short story.

Other screenwriters, represented in the series by a single film each, are Jeanie Macpherson, Bess Meredyth and Lois Weber.

Macpherson, a former actress who became De Mille's longtime collaborator, wrote "Male and Female" (1919), an opulent Gloria Swanson film. Weber, who directed her own films, wrote "Too Wise Wives" (1921), about women's place in high society. And Meredyth wrote the romantic Garbo silent "A Woman of Affairs" (1928).

The arrangement of the festival, over the course of 12 weeks, will allow viewers to see a lot of movies without overdosing. Some of the titles are so obscure I can't recommend them -- I haven't seen them -- but that in itself is a kind of recommendation. After all, how else are you ever going to see the 1925 version of "Stella Dallas" starring Belle Bennett?

Not everyone will be curious, but for those who are, the PFA is throwing a three-month party.


The 27-film series on female screenwriters of early Hollywood runs next Sunday through June 28 at the Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley Art Museum, 2625 Durant Ave., Berkeley. Call (510) 642-1412. Here is the schedule:

-- Next Sunday (Early Silents):

"The New York Hat" (Anita Loos; 1912)

"Too Wise Wives" (Lois Weber; 1921)

"Stella Maris" (Francis Marion; 1918)

--April 10 (Greta Garbo):

"The Single Standard" (Adela Rogers St. Johns; 1929)

"A Woman of Affairs" (Bess Meredyth; 1928)

--April 12 (By Frances Marion):

"Anna Christie" (1930)

"The Big House" (1930)

--April 17:

"Possessed" (Lenore Coffee; 1931)

"The Girl From Missouri" (Loos; 1934)

--April 19:

"Male and Female" (Jeanie Macpherson; 1919)

"The Women" (Loos; 1939)

--May 15:

"Arsene Lupin" (Coffee; 1932)

"The Secret Six" (Marion; 1931)

--May 17 (Valentino):

"The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" (June Mathis; 1921)

--May 21 (Norma Shearer):

"Lady of the Night" (St. Johns, 1925)

"A Free Soul" (St. Johns, 1931)

--May 22 (Marion Davies):

"Zander the Great" (Marion; 1925)

"Blondie of the Follies" (Marion and Loos; 1932)

--May 24:

"Wild and Woolly" (Loos; 1917)

"The Son of the Sheik" (Marion; 1926)

--May 28:

"Stella Dallas" (Marion; 1925)

--May 29 (Jean Harlow):

"Red-Headed Woman" (Loos; 1932)

"Hold Your Man" (Loos; 1933)

--May 31:

"Lazybones" (Marion; 1925)

--June 21 (By Marion):

"The Champ" (1931)

"Emma" (1932)

--June 28 (By Marion):

"Dinner at Eight" (1933)