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Saroyan, William

The history of films made by Saroyan or based on his writing begins in 1942. Few know he wrote and directed a film entitled The Good Job at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1942 under unusual circumstances. Shortly after the US entered WWII in late 1941, Louis B. Mayer, director of MGM, called on Saroyan to write a film treatment to raise the morale of Americans suffering from the trauma of the war against Japan.
In short time Saroyan wrote an elaborate scenario,“The Human Comedy.” Louis Mayer bought the rights for $60,000, a fabulous sum at the time. It went into production almost immediately. Saroyan had understood that he would be the director. Mayer, however, was reluctant and confronted Saroyan by asking him if he had ever directed a movie. Saroyan answered he had not, but said he was sure he could.
In one of our discussions on this unhappy episode Saroyan said he told Louis Mayer that if he was given just three days and technical support he would write, produce, and direct a film. Mayer agreed. According to Saroyan, three days later he brought in a two reel, twenty minute, film called The Good Job, based on his story “A Number of Poor” of 1939. The film was appreciated by Mayer and others at MGM and was ultimately released as an “MGM Miniature”. Nevertheless, Mayer refused to allow Saroyan to direct The Human Comedy. An angry Saroyan offered to buy back his script, but Louis Mayer refused. Saroyan left the studio, denounced the film, and quickly produced a novel based on the scenario. The book appeared in 1943 as his first and most famous novel just as the enormously successful film staring Mickey Rooney was released. It capitalized on its enormous success. Ironically, though Saroyan disowned the film, he won an Oscar for the best scenario of 1943.