Valentine Davies

A notable, if not prolific, Hollywood screenwriter of the 1940s and 50s, Valentine Davies penned scripts which have a marked fondness for nostalgia, fantasy and unabashed sentiment. A novelist, he took up screenwriting in the early 40s, though it took several years before he began regularly receiving screen credit. Davies hit his stride at 20th Century-Fox; some of his most notable work was in collaboration with the team of producer William Perlberg and writer-director George Seaton, specialists in genial, amusing, if slightly bland, family entertainments. After writing the musical "Three Little Girls in Blue" (1946), Davies first collaborated with Perlberg and Seaton, writing the original story for which he was both most acclaimed and best remembered. "Miracle on 34th Street" (1947), the tale of a department store Santa who turns out to be the real thing, deftly combined farce, romance, whimsy and a Frank Capra-style populism and won Davies an Oscar for Best Original Story.