SOURCE: “The Great Hack Genius,” in Commentary, Vol. 90, No. 6, December, 1990, pp. 40–8

In the following essay, Epstein assesses Hecht as more interesting as an individual than significant as a writer.

Nowadays, as the media boys down at the ad agency are likely to tell you, the name Ben Hecht doesn't have much carry. Ben Hecht, Ben Huebsch, Ben Hur, one can easily imagine a crossword-puzzle or Trivial Pursuit addict struggling to get the name straight. Persons now of a certain age will recall Hecht as the co-author, with Charles MacArthur, of the play The Front Page, subsequently made into three different film versions. The movie-minded will remember that Ben Hecht was perhaps the foremost Hollywood screenwriter of his day: “the giant,” as Degas said of Meissonier, “of the dwarfs”—a sentiment with which Hecht himself would probably have agreed. Fewer people figure to remember that Ben Hecht was a...