by Warren M. Sherk
During the summer of 1965 Dimitri Tiomkin plops down a $2,000 advance, based on a $10,000 option, for the right to film Jorge Amado’s novel Home is the Sailor.
At the time, Jorge Amado (1921–2001), a modernist writer, is still building an audience of readers outside of his home country of Brazil. His novel, A Completa Verdade Sobre as Discutidas Aventuras do Commandante Vasco Moscoso de Aragão, Capitão de Longo Curso, appears in Brazil in 1961. Alfred A. Knopf Inc. publishes the English version in 1964 under the title, Home Is the Sailor; Harriet de Onis provides the translation from Portuguese. The story is set in a small coastal city in Brazil where the protagonist, Vasco Moscoso de Aragão, is reportedly a sea captain, a Master Mariner. Even though he is not any such thing, in the book’s climax he captains a ship out of the harbor and unwittingly saves the ship and its occupants from disaster despite his ignorance.
An American reviewer familiar with Amado’s previous work, “Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon,” calls the writer a “story-teller of extraordinary talent.” Home Is the Sailor is a “Latin-America drama that is as sad as it is humorous, that is as false as it is true.” Truth appears in the original title and English subtitle, “The Whole Truth Concerning the Redoubtable Adventures of Captain Vasco Moscoso de Aragão, Master Mariner.” What is Truth? Is truth found within our reality or in our dreams? Each reader of Amado’s book may come away with their own interpretation of truth.
Amado’s novel is not to be confused with a popular children’s book in circulation at the same time with the same title by Rumer Godden. Two decades earlier, a film version of Home Is the Sailor, to be based on an Eric Hatch story of the same title published in Cosmopolitan magazine, failed to come to fruition as a movie. Nunnally Johnson planned to write and direct with Loretta Young in the lead. And prior to Tiomkin’s optioning of the novel, Robert Lewis and art director Harry Horner, father to film composer James Horner, cite “Home is the Sailor,” based on the Jorge Amado book, as one of four properties to be made in 1965 by their startup company, Enterprise Films.
Dimitri Tiomkin with Max Bercutt
Tiomkin approaches Warner Bros. studio in 1966 with the book’s option in hand. Warner Bros. publicist Max Bercutt slips Tiomkin a copy of the story analysis in the form of a two-page synopsis apparently made at the studio’s behest. In the studio era the story department would provide coverage aimed at executives and others to get the ball rolling.
The production moves forward and in May 1966, Warner Bros. announces Elliott Silverstein will director and Anthony Quinn will star in Home Is the Sailor. The film will be in color and filmed on location in foreign seaports. Letters of intent between Warners and Tiomkin soon follow, including a revised agreement with Tiomkin Musical Enterprises that includes an option for Tiomkin to score the film.
By the end of the summer, Silverstein and Quinn have signed on as co-producers.
Dimitri Tiomkin, himself a composer turned producer, had a number of irons in the fire at the same time. In addition to producing Tchaikovsky and co-producing Mackenna’s Gold, by early 1967 he was scoring The Great Catherine and The War Wagon.
The screenwriter Frank Pierson worked uncredited on the script for Great Catherine and in January 1967 he signs on to write the script for Home Is the Sailor.
Hollywood columnist Dorothy Manners reports, “Dimi not only knows a good story when he reads it, he has bought such yarns as ‘Home is the Sailor’ and ‘MacKenna’s Gold,’ which he sold to Warners and Columbia respectively, — but there’s a little clause in the deals that he composes and conducts the score.
As the press notes, “that’s one way for a musician to make sure he gets to write the score.”
Tiomkin’s retort, “Even if it didn’t have a note of my music in it, it will be a rollicking picture,” in reference to Home Is the Sailor.
By 1969 Warner Bros. had all but abandoned the property and Tiomkin’s lawyer sought a deal with Irwin Margulies, WB vice president in charge of business affairs, to allow Tiomkin to repurchase the rights, along with any scripts, budget estimates, and other pertinent material. The deal apparently was never consummated and may have broken down over communications: Tiomkin was offering 10 percent of the profits from the picture not to exceed $100,000; whereas Margulies was asking for 100 percent of the profits from the picture not to exceed $100,000.
Some years later, in 1976, David Gorton, director of business affairs at WB Pictures, wrote to Tiomkin to inform him of an inquiry by a third party interested in acquiring the story. As with many unproduced films, that is the end of the story.
A number of novels by Jorge Amado have been adapted to film and television; his novel, “Gabriela, Cravo e Canela” became the 1983 film starring Sonia Braga as Gabriela and Marcello Mastroianni as Nacib.
“Home Is the Sailor” remains a worthy candidate for a film adaptation.
Sources
Correspondence courtesy of Olivia Tiomkin
“Great Adventure,” [book review] by Leonard W. Stone, Hartford Courant Magazine, March 22, 1964.
“Lively Arts: At the Movies,” by Les Wedman, Vancouver Sun, January 29, 1965. Mentions plans by Harry Horner and Robert Lewis to produce “Home Is the Sailor.”
“Hollywood Report,” by Dorothy Manners, Indianapolis Star, September 20, 1965.
“35 Warner Bros. Films in Production Schedule,” by Philip K. Scheuer, Los Angeles Times, May 23, 1966.
“Warner Bros. Announces 38 Films,” Spokane Spokesman-Review, May 29, 1966.
“Silverstein, Quinn Join In ‘Home is the Sailor,’” Hollywood Reporter, August 22, 1966.
“Writer Set For New Film,” Wichita Beacon, January 28, 1967. Previously announced in the Los Angeles Times, January 12, 1967.
“Vince Edwards Gets Star Role,” by Dorothy Manners, Indianapolis Star, February 13, 1967.