Sonya Levien

Sonya Levien

1888-12-25 Panimunik, Russia Empire 69 Credits

Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sonya Levien (born Sara Opesken; 25 December 1888 – 19 March 1960) was a Russian-born American screenwriter. She became one of the highest earning female screenwriters in Hollywood in the 1930s and would help a number of directors and film stars transition from silent films to talkies. In 1955 she received an Academy Award for her screenplay Interrupted Melody.

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Complete Filmography

State Fair

State Fair

1962

Adaptation

4.9

Texan farmers the Frake family head for the Texas State Fair in Dallas. The parents are focused on winning the competitions for livestock and cooking....

Pepe

Pepe

1960

Story

6.2
Writing

Mario "Cantinflas" Moreno is a hired hand, Pepe, employed on a ranch. A boozing Hollywood director buys a white stallion that belongs to Pepe's boss. ...

Jeanne Eagels

Jeanne Eagels

1957

Screenplay

6.3
Writing

Biographical film based loosely on the life of 1920s stage star Jeanne Eagels.

Bhowani Junction

Bhowani Junction

1956

Screenplay

5.8
Writing

Anglo-Indian Victoria Jones seeks her true identity amid the chaos of the British withdrawal from India.

Oklahoma!

Oklahoma!

1955

Screenplay

6.6
Writing

In the Oklahoma territory at the turn of the twentieth century, two young cowboys vie with a violent ranch hand and a traveling peddler for the hearts...

Interrupted Melody

Interrupted Melody

1955

Writer

5.5
Writing

Interrupted Melody is the inspirational filmed biography of world-renowned Australian soprano Marjorie Lawrence. She’s a foremost Wagnerian, equal to ...

Hit the Deck

Hit the Deck

1955

Screenplay

4.8
Writing

Sailors on leave in San Francisco get mixed up in love and show business.

The Student Prince

The Student Prince

1954

Screenplay

6.4
Writing

A prince has a romance with a barmaid before he must give up personal happiness for duty.

The Merry Widow

The Merry Widow

1952

Screenplay

5.8
Writing

Marshovia, a small European kingdom, is on the brink of bankruptcy but the country may be saved if the wealthy American Crystal Radek, widow of a Mars...

Quo Vadis

Quo Vadis

1951

Screenplay

7.1
Writing

After fierce Roman commander Marcus Vinicius becomes infatuated with beautiful Christian hostage Lygia, he begins to question the tyrannical leadershi...

Three Daring Daughters

Three Daring Daughters

1948

Screenplay

5.7
Writing

Three young girls try to help their divorced mother find the right husband.

Cass Timberlane

Cass Timberlane

1947

Adaptation

5.9

Judge Cass Timberlane marries a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, Virginia Marshland. A baby is stillborn and she turns more and more to attorne...

The Green Years

The Green Years

1946

Screenplay

6.5
Writing

An orphaned young boy is guided by his great-grandfather and strives to go to university to become a doctor. However, the boy's harsh grandfather stan...

State Fair

State Fair

1945

Adaptation

6.6

During their annual visit to the Iowa State Fair, the Frake family enjoy many adventures. Proud patriarch Abel has high hopes for his champion swine B...

Rhapsody in Blue

Rhapsody in Blue

1945

Story

6.4
Writing

Fictionalized biography of George Gershwin and his fight to bring serious music to Broadway.

The Valley of Decision

The Valley of Decision

1945

Screenplay

7.3
Writing

Mary Rafferty comes from a poor family of steel mill workers in 19th Century Pittsburgh. Her family objects when she goes to work as a maid for the we...

The Amazing Mrs. Holliday

The Amazing Mrs. Holliday

1943

Story

6.4
Writing

A missionary tries to outwit the U.S. government and smuggle Chinese orphans into the country.

Ziegfeld Girl

Ziegfeld Girl

1941

Screenplay

6.5
Writing

Discovery by Flo Ziegfeld changes a girl's life but not necessarily for the better, as three beautiful women find out when they join the spectacle on ...

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

1939

Screenplay

7.3
Writing

Paris, France, 1482. Frollo, Chief Justice of benevolent King Louis XI, gets infatuated by the beauty of Esmeralda, a young Romani girl. The hunchback...

Drums Along the Mohawk

Drums Along the Mohawk

1939

Screenplay

6.4
Writing

Albany, New York, 1776. After marrying, Gil and Lana travel north to settle on a small farm in the Mohawk River Valley, but soon their growing prosper...

The Cowboy and the Lady

The Cowboy and the Lady

1938

Screenplay

6.1
Writing

Mary Smith decides after a lifetime of being a shut-in to do something wild while her father is out campaigning for the presidency, so she takes off f...

Kidnapped

Kidnapped

1938

Screenplay, Writer

4.7
Writing

Robert Louis Stevenson's hero David Balfour joins rebel Alan Breck Stewart in 18th-century Scotland.

Four Men and a Prayer

Four Men and a Prayer

1938

Screenplay

6.3
Writing

The sons of a disgraced British officer try to clear his name.

In Old Chicago

In Old Chicago

1938

Screenplay

6.5
Writing

The O'Leary brothers -- honest Jack and roguish Dion -- become powerful figures, and eventually rivals, in Chicago on the eve of its Great Fire.

Reunion

Reunion

1936

Writer

Writing

Newspapers around the world proclaim the birth in Moosetown, Canada of the 3,000th baby brought into the world by the doctor, John Luke, known for del...

The Country Doctor

The Country Doctor

1936

Screenplay

6.0
Writing

A doctor has a rough time obtaining the money for his services in a lumber town until he delivers quintuplets.

Paddy O'Day

Paddy O'Day

1936

Story

7.0
Writing

A wealthy, eccentric collector of stuffed birds and a beautiful Russian singer provide refuge to an orphaned Irish child who has arrived illegally in ...

Here's to Romance

Here's to Romance

1935

Story

Writing

Kathleen Gerard, a high society wife fed up with her husband's artistic "protegées", decides to take one of her own in Nino, a promising tenor, patron...

Navy Wife

Navy Wife

1935

Writer

5.0
Writing

A Hawaiian naval nurse weds a widowed officer partly because he has a crippled daughter.

Change of Heart

Change of Heart

1934

Screenplay

6.2
Writing

Catherine and Mack and their close friends Chris and Madge graduate from a West Coast college and fly to New York City to find work.

As Husbands Go

As Husbands Go

1934

Writer

Writing

Lucille Lingard and her friend Emmie bid farewell to their European friends on their last night in Paris. Lucille has fallen for the debonair Ronald D...

Mr. Skitch

Mr. Skitch

1933

Writer

6.0
Writing

After losing their Missouri home during the Great Depression, the Skitch family pulls up stakes and heads west to California to begin life anew. Comed...

Berkeley Square

Berkeley Square

1933

Screenplay

5.7
Writing

A young American man is transported back to London in the time shortly after the American Revolution and meets his ancestors.

The Warrior's Husband

1933

Writer

Writing

The Warrior's Husband is a satire of the male and female roles in society set in 800 B.C.. Queen Hippolyta (Marjorie Rambeau) rules Pontus with mascul...

State Fair

State Fair

1933

Screenplay

6.2
Writing

The children of Iowa farmers find love, with mixed results, at the state fair.

Cavalcade

Cavalcade

1933

Continuity

5.5

A cavalcade of English life from New Year's Eve 1899 until 1933 is seen through the eyes of well-to-do Londoners Jane and Robert Marryot. Amongst even...

Tess of the Storm Country

Tess of the Storm Country

1932

Writer

6.0
Writing

When Captain Howland decides that his daughter Tess is getting a bit to old to continue to go to sea with him, they move into a small cottage on the c...

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

1932

Screenplay

Writing

A young girl from Sunnybrook goes to live with her wealthy relatives and falls in love with a doctor. Adapted from Kate Douglas Wiggin's famous novel...

After Tomorrow

After Tomorrow

1932

Screenplay

5.8
Writing

In the Depression, Pete and Sidney are good kids, working hard, giving money to their parents, and engaged for three years while they save to get marr...

Delicious

Delicious

1931

Writer

6.2
Writing

A comic group of Europeans coming to the USA have romantic and immigration troubles.

Surrender

Surrender

1931

Writer

5.0
Writing

Story of French prisoner in Germany who falls in love with a German general's daughter. From the novel "Axelle" by Pierre Benoit.

The Brat

The Brat

1931

Writer

5.6
Writing

A society novelist brings a brash young chorus girl home in order to study her for inspiration for his new novel. His family is distraught, but soon h...

Daddy Long Legs

Daddy Long Legs

1931

Writer

4.0
Writing

Wealthy Jervis Pendleton acts as benefactor for orphan Judy Abbott, anonymously sponsoring her in her boarding school. But as she grows up, he finds h...

The Man Who Came Back

The Man Who Came Back

1931

Writer

3.5
Writing

A spoiled carefree rich kid gets into too much trouble for his father who sends him out on his own to prove himself capable of making a respectable ma...

Lightnin'

Lightnin'

1930

Writer

3.7
Writing

Lightnin' and Mary Jones are co-owners of a hotel built right on a state border, used by divorcing wives so they can pretend to be in California while...

Liliom

Liliom

1930

Screenplay, Dialogue

6.8
Writing

A carousel barker falls in love with a young woman. Both are fired from their jobs, and when the young woman becomes pregnant, the carousel barker tri...

So This Is London

So This Is London

1930

Screenplay

7.0
Writing

Hiram Draper is an all-American self-made man with a profound distaste for everything British. Yet he must travel to London with his family. When Juni...

Song o' My Heart

Song o' My Heart

1930

Screenplay

4.4
Writing

Broken hearts in Ireland. Sean is a great tenor, in semi-retirement, living in a village close to Mary, the woman he’s always loved. Mary’s aunt convi...

South Sea Rose

South Sea Rose

1929

Writer

Writing

A French girl raised in the south seas is brought to prim and proper New England by her New England born and bred sea captain husband. She wears short...

Frozen Justice

Frozen Justice

1929

Writer

1.0
Writing

Drama set in Alaska

They Had to See Paris

They Had to See Paris

1929

Scenario Writer

5.7
Writing

Oklahoma mechanic Pike Peters finds himself part owner of an oil field. His wife Idy, hitherto content, decides the family must go to Paris to get "cu...

Lucky Star

Lucky Star

1929

Writer

7.6
Writing

Mary, a poor farm girl, meets Tim just as word comes that war has been declared. Tim enlists in the army and goes to the battlefields of Europe, where...

Behind That Curtain

Behind That Curtain

1929

Writer

3.9
Writing

Sir George hires Hillary Gatt to find out more about Eric who wants to marry Lois. Gatt is murdered and the couple, married, run off to India. Old fri...

Trial Marriage

Trial Marriage

1929

Screenplay

Writing

Constance Bannister enters into a trial marriage contract with Dr. Thorvald Ware and finds happiness with him. She defies his wishes by dancing at a c...

The Younger Generation

The Younger Generation

1929

Screenplay

6.5
Writing

Soap-opera about a social-climbing Jewish man and his old-world parents who are heartbroken by his rejection of them. Young Morris Goldfish follows hi...

The Power of the Press

The Power of the Press

1928

Writer

6.2
Writing

The naive newspaper cub Clem lands a scoop when he's sent out to cover a murder. In his enthusiasm he writes that the main suspect is Jane. When she c...

A Ship Comes In

A Ship Comes In

1928

Writer

5.8
Writing

Film which tells the story of immigrants coming to the United States.

A Harp in Hock

A Harp in Hock

1927

Writer

Writing

A Harp in Hock, also known as The Samaritan, is a lost 1927 American silent melodrama film directed by Renaud Hoffman, produced by DeMille Pictures, a...

The Heart Thief

The Heart Thief

1927

Writer

Writing

Paul Kurt, embittered and disillusioned by war, returns to Budapest and devotes his life to roistering and gambling. He falls in love with Anna Galamb...

The Princess from Hoboken

The Princess from Hoboken

1927

Writer

Writing

To enliven their business, the O'Tooles, restaurant owners in Hoboken, New Jersey, transform their restaurant into the Russian Inn when they hear that...

Christine of the Big Tops

Christine of the Big Tops

1926

Writer

8.0
Writing

When her circus-performer parents die in an accident, Christine (Pauline Garon) is raised by other circus-performers, including Hagan, a balloon-vende...

Why Girls Go Back Home

Why Girls Go Back Home

1926

Screenplay

Writing

Trusting country girl Marie Downey falls in love with touring stage-actor Clifford Dudley. As he becomes a matinee idol on Broadway, she turns a chor...

Salome of the Tenements

Salome of the Tenements

1925

Writer

Writing

A young East Side Jewish reporter gets into a sticky situation when she finds that her new beau is indicting a banker she owes money to.

The Exciters

The Exciters

1923

Writer

Writing

Ronnie Rand, Required to marry before she is 21 or lose her inheritance, Ronnie Rand meets Pierre Martel, member of a gang of thieves, and, convinced ...

Pink Gods

Pink Gods

1922

Writer

Writing

The owner of vast diamond mines, John Quelch is constantly fearful of theft and convinced that any woman will "sell her soul" for diamonds, he deals h...

The Top of New York

The Top of New York

1922

Story

Writing

Hilda lives in a tenement apartment with her aunt, Mrs. Brady, and her crippled younger brother Micky, and works in a department store where her boss ...

First Love

First Love

1921

Story

Writing

The O'Donnells are a typical, everyday family -- Tad (George Hernandez) is a sensible working man, his wife (Fannie Midgely) is a good mother and thei...

Cheated Love

Cheated Love

1921

Writer

Writing

Sonya Schnoema, a Jewish girl, comes to the United States as an immigrant and works in her father's ghetto grocery store, where she gains the affectio...

Who Will Marry Me?

Who Will Marry Me?

1919

Story

Writing

Rosie Sanguinetti's parents arrange her marriage, against her will, to Antonio Mosconi, "Tony the Barber." At the wedding ceremony in her Little Italy...