Samuel "Sam" Hoffenstein (October 8, 1890 - October 6, 1947) was a
screenwriter and a musical composer. Born in
Russia, he emigrated to the
United States and began a career in
New York City as a newspaper writer and in the entertainment business. In 1931 he moved to
Los Angeles, where he lived for the rest of his life and where he wrote the scripts for over thirty movies. These movies included
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931),
The Miracle Man (1932),
Phantom of the Opera (1943),
The Wizard of Oz (1939),
Tales of Manhattan (1942),
Flesh and Fantasy (1943),
Laura (1944), and
Ernst Lubitsch's
Cluny Brown (1946).