Kathryn Scola

Biography

Kathryn Scola was an American screenwriter, with a career spanning the 1930s and 1940s. She was born in Paterson, New Jersey on November 6, 1891. Her father was Giuseppe "Joseph" Scola (1859-1900), an Italian-American silk dyer. Her mother was Mary King (1871-1943), an Irish-American. Scola started her screenwriting career in the era of Pre-Code Hollywood, and was known for writing controversial films. The highlights of her career were the films "Baby Face" (1933), about a female social climber who uses sex to advance her social status, "Female" (1933), about a businesswoman who attempts to seduce a male employee, and "Midnight Mary" (1933), about an impoverished and abused woman who turns to crime in search of financial security. Following the strict enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code from 1934 on-wards, Scola was forced to water down her subsequent scripts. In 1935, she scripted an adaptation of the crime novel "The Glass Key" (1931) by Dashiell Hammett. She then wrote scripts for multiple film genres, from romantic comedies to war dramas. In 1949,Scola worked on the original script for a film noir, "Caught", for the independent production company "The Enterprise Studios". Her script was rejected by the censorship board for its "questionable material". The studio fired her and eventually replaced her with fellow scriptwriter Arthur Laurents (1917-2011). This marked the end of Scola's film career. In 1956, Scola co-wrote the script for a teleplay called "In Times Like These". It was produced and released as part of the anthology television series "The 20th Century Fox Hour" (1955-1957). It was her last credited work, before entering a long retirement. Scola died on January 4, 1982, in San Diego, California. She was 90-years-old.