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What I discovered, in working in pictures, what I learned, was the economy of writing,
that was terribly important to me. I remember one incident. Sam had a picture, had a scene
in which they wanted to show the contempt of the wife for her husband. He had Bob Sherwood
writing it, paying him seven or ten thousand dollars, which was a lot of money in those
days, still is, you know. So the scene had pages of dialogue. Sam knew...he just said,
"Words, words, words." An old time writer out there came to him and said, "Mr. Goldwyn,
I can write that scene without any dialogue." And here's what he did. He had a scene of
a limousine driving up in front of an office building. A man gets out, doesn't look back,
doesn't help his wife out. She gets out and stares at him. They go in and get in the
elevator, and on the second floor, a pretty girl gets in, and the man takes his hat off,
and it made their point. There are some writers in Hollywood who are masters at this. I think
Gar Kanin is one. I love Gar's work. Gar, as you know, was married to Ruth Gordon who
recently died. Gar had a picture. Shelley Winters was in it. She was a waitress. He
used three words, and in those three words you knew what this girl was all about. She
was a waitress, with a hand on her hip, and the customer looks up and says, "How's
the goulash?" She takes the gum out of her mouth and says, "It's your stomach."
And you knew what she was all about.