In another thread, we discussed the similarity of two films, The Operation (1990) and Malice (1993).
It’s always been fascinating to me, echoed by one of our commenters, that Douglas Stefen Borghi, the screenwriter on the early film, was not given any kind of credit or acknowledgement on the later film. How did he feel about the similarity of Malice to his script? To my knowledge, there are no articles about this and no lawsuits were ever filed. I have no way to research whether there was any discussion within the Writers Guild. The screenwriters of the second film (Aaron Sorkin and Scott Frank) went on to sterling careers, while Douglas Stefen Borghi almost disappeared without a trace.
There are plenty of references to Borghi in newspaper articles written between 1973 and 1995. Then it stops. There is a newspaper article about him in the L.A. Times on April 18 of 1995, reporting that he was to speak at a writers’ conference at Chapman University on the 22nd. That was the last mention of him in any newspaper in the USA, as per the archives of Newspapers.com. (That also means there is no obituary.)
His name is not a pseudonym. His is a real identity with traceable roots. Ancestry.com reports:
(1) a public listing for him in 1993 with a birthdate of May 9, 1950, as well as an address and phone number in Sherman Oaks.
(2) birth records from the Bronx, showing a Douglas Borghi born on that date.
We know from a 1973 article in the Baltimore Evening Sun that he attended Syracuse University, and was trying to put together a film project in Baltimore with a local man named James Guy. To my knowledge, that project never came to fruition. His yearbook picture at Syracuse shows him as a clean-cut young man and contains little information other than that he was 6’2″. The Baltimore article was written only a year after his graduation, and pictures him with long hair and a mustache.
But none of that seems to be helpful in solving the mystery. Where did he go after April of 1995? Did he just leave showbiz to live the kind of life that never appears in the newspapers? Did he continue his career under another name?
The internet says this: a Douglas S. Borghi, age 75, currently receives mail at PO Box 232, Montrose, CA 91021-0232. That’s the right name, right age, right state, so maybe he just left showbiz to live a quiet life. I’m kinda tempted to contact him and ask him about the whole Operation/Malice thing.
No producers in common, no writers in common.
ImdB claims Malice is a remake of The Operation aka Bodily Harm.
Here’s the main puzzler: Malice has a story credit. You don’t get a story credit for an adapted screenplay. As far as the industry is concerned, that’s an original screenplay.
Operation was a TV movie and apparently wound up in some home video/international releases as suggested by the alternate title very common in that era. TV movies here were better than theatrical releases overseas, so they’d get releases over there. Often they’d get alternate cuts, even, with R-rated content.
But none of that changes the rules on credits and rights when remaking a movie.
I’ve seen neither. The descriptions do not sound all that similar, with Malice focusing on a rapist mystery and Operation focusing on the doctor and his life in shambles.
Now we swerve back into industry rules again. They’re byzantine. Every movie has already been made. Twice. The details matter. That’s how they determine who gets credit on a script that’s had ten people take a pass at it. Who gets a story credit VS a screenwriting credit.
My bet is this: Malice straight up lifted a lot of the details of Operation, but not in specifics. A doctor accused of malpractice and his personal life going awry at the same time? That’s been done dozens of times. You’d need more than that. Exact details.
I’m willing to bet that the original writer looked at the final result and realized fighting wouldn’t be worth it. Small time TV movie writer taking on a big studio production with top industry people? Over what amounted to a few tropes? Likely decided it wasn’t worth it and moved on.
But the similarity is deeper than you implied.
A doctor gives a woman an unnecessary hysterectomy. She sues him for megabucks. It turns out that they are secretly lovers and have cooked up the scheme together to split the proceeds of the resulting lawsuit, which his insurance would cover.
That’s not just a generic scenario that could apply to dozens of films. It’s quite specific. Granted, the script for the later film was more complicated and was filled with misdirection and red herrings, but that similarity alone should have at least prompted a discussion at the Writers Guild.
Maybe he received a buy out with a NDA attached.
Maybe Borghi retired young because he won a big lawsuit against a doctor who gave Borghi’s wife an unnecessary hysterectomy? You know what they say, sometimes life is stranger than art that has been copied from other art.
Scoop – you should absolutely reach out and report back on what he says!
Yep, he’d probably be happy someone took an interest in his work and wanted to know more.
Two years ago he uploaded a bunch of “Jake and the Fat Man” episodes to the internet archive. IMDB says he was co-creator and writer of 6 episodes. So he had that going for him, which is nice.