Biography
An American screenwriter (usually in collaboration), Tunberg has also produced some of his films. He began by supplying the plots for musicals featuring such stars as the Ritz Brothers,
Betty Grable,
Sonja Henie,
Glenn Miller's orchestra,
Deanna Durbin,
Dorothy Lamour, and
Shirley Temple (for whom he wrote a comedy called
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm which has nothing to do with the classic story of that title and which would have made a fine Temple vehicle.) Tunberg was also adept at costumers:
Kitty (1945, in which
Paulette Goddard rises from social outcast to society belle in 18th-century England),
The Scarlet Coat (1955, about Benedict Arnold),
Libel (1959),
Taras Bulba (1962), and
Beau Brummel (1954). In later years, Tunberg wrote some weak comedies for
Doris Day,
Jackie Gleason, and
Deborah Kerr. He has also shown a serious side;
Scandal at Scourie (1953) involves a community's prejudice when
Greer Garson and
Walter Pidgeon, playing a Protestant couple, wish to adopt a Catholic child;
The Seventh Dawn (1964) is a war story with
William Holden; and
Night into Morning (1951) is downright grim, in which
Ray Milland loses his family in a fire and turns to drinking. Tunberg's best effort by far is
Ben Hur (1959). His worst screenplay is probably
Harlow (the
Carol Lynley version, 1965) but considering the source material (Irving Shulman's "biography"), it could have been a lot worse. ~ All Movie Guide