The Author Who Tried to Erase His Name from His Own Film

Scandals & Feuds5/5 wildness

The Author Who Tried to Erase His Name from His Own Film

Joseph Wambaugh and The Choirboys / 1970s

When Wambaugh saw the rewritten screenplay, he believed the adaptation had been fundamentally corrupted. He said the filmmakers had “mutilated” his work, and after viewing the completed picture he condemned it as a “dreadful, slimy, vile film” and an insult not only to himself but to “every self-respecting cop in America.” He escalated the dispute publicly by taking out a full-page advertisement attacking what had happened to the book, then sued in an effort to have his name removed from the final credits. Wambaugh subsequently sued Lorimar and received a reported $1 million settlement. The experience permanently changed his attitude toward screen adaptations: he bought back the rights to his novels The Onion Field and The Black Marble so he could retain greater control over their film versions. The film’s hostile reception—including Vincent Canby’s description of it as “cheap and nasty” and a “stylistic and narrative mess”—made the adaptation fight one of the production’s most enduring scandals.