Horace McCoy(1897-1955)

Before the successful film adaptation of his novel On achève bien les chevaux (1969), there were two failed attempts to bring the novel into a feature film. The first one, in 1936, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer purchased the rights to the novel as a potential starring vehicle for Jean Harlow and Clark Gable, but the project fell apart due to the sudden death of Jean Harlow in 1937. The second one, in 1950, when Charles Chaplin optioned the rights to the novel with Norman Lloyd as director and planned to cast his son Sydney Chaplin and newcomer Marilyn Monroe in the lead roles, but the project fell apart again because Chaplin's re-entry permit was revoked while promoting Les feux de la rampe (1952).