April 1, 1944
This is the article by Ben Hecht mentioned in Sidney Skolsky’s column. If you’re patient, you can dig it out of the files at unz.org.
It starts on Page 24 and continues to Page 43 and you’ll have to be persistent to slog through it, frankly. The more I read of Hecht’s work the more I question his reputation. I’m a big fan of “The Front Page,” but some of his later writing is pretty iffy, especially the bogus article in “Playboy” about the “whitewash” of Paul Bern’s suicide.
A sample:
ladailymirror.com 
“The more I read of Hecht’s work the more I question his reputation.” is as empty and fatuous a critique as I have ever read. I wonder how many of his plays and screenplays you have read to come to that conclusion. Ben Hecht has done more to develop the art of film melodrama than any other writer, producer or director. His tactics and techniques include hallmarks prevalent in films to this day.
Did Hecht ever write foolishly, carelessly, greedily and otherwise beneath his best? Did his abilities decline with age, illness, ego and whatever? Why pick on Ben Hecht? Wilder, Welles, Zanuck, Selznick, Hitchcock and so many other greats have also slipped from their pedestals occasionally or eventually. Do you also question their reputations?
You should check out some Hecht films and Hollywood histories that describe his major contributions to so many film classics. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0372942/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
Be advised, this lapse in your judgment is a carelessness that will not cause me to question your reputation as a valued Los Angeles and Hollywood journalist and historian. Your body of work protects you.
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Ben Hecht also wrote an article on the Black Dahlia murder. His theory was that it was a woman who committed the murder. I think this is the weakest theory of all. Only a man would commit such a crime.
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Hecht’s piece was one of half a dozen done for the Herald-Express by various fiction writers.
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