GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #38

CORNELL WOOLRICH

Cornell George Hopley Woolrich (1903-1968) was an American writer of crime and mystery stories whose ability to create an atmosphere of terror has been equaled only by Edgar Allan Poe.  Woolrich was a virtual recluse.  So little was known of him that the New York Times obituary was confusing and didn't even mention his most famous book, "Phantom Lady".  He was born in New York City but spent his early years in Latin America with his father, a mining engineer, and in New York with his socialite mother.  While an undergraduate at Columbia he wrote his first book "Cover Charge" (1926) a well-received romantic novel.  The following year "Children of the Ritz" won a $10,000 prize offered by College Humor and First National Pictures, which produced a film of the book in 1929.  While in Hollywood working on the script, Woolrich, a homosexual, married the daughter of a producer.  The union was never consummated and she left him after only a few weeks.

Cornell returned to NYC and Claire Attalie Woolrich, his domineering mother.  They resided at the Marseilles Hotel near Harlem for several decades, and he rarely left their rooms, producing four more novels of sentimental love stories that critics compared to F. Scott Fitzgerald.  His first mystery story appeared in 1934 and thereafter his works were almost exclusively of this genre.  He produced hundreds of stories, too many to be sustained by a single byline.  In addition to writing under his own name, he published works under the names William Irish and George Hopley.  Woolrich's best works appeared before 1950.  A diabetic and self-loathing alcoholic homosexual, he was a bitter, frustrated man who had little desire to live after his mother died in 1957.  Towards the end of his life he developed gangrene in one leg and amputation was necessary.  His death in 1968 left an estate of nearly $1 million that established a scholarship at Columbia in his mother's name.

In 1948 Woolrich won the Edgar from the Mystery Writers of America for his contribution to the short mystery story.  He wrote more than 250 short stories and employed virtually every device ever conceived for the creation of suspense.  One of his methods of inducing a sense of terror was the race against time.  Each day passes on the calendar, each second ticks on the clock, until the suspense becomes unbearable.  His plots were brilliantly contrived and his style was as unpredictable as the man himself, heightening the suspense of the reader, who never knows whether the terror will ultimately be relieved or will be even worse.  Sometimes a plot twist allows an apparent victim to escape while at other times he is doomed.

The depressing mood of many of Woolrich's stories reflected his own life - intense loneliness and despair dominate the atmosphere.  His early stories were in the tradition of Hammett and Chandler - hard-hitting, action-filled adventures of the Black Mask school, though more of his stories appeared in Detective Fiction Weekly and Dime Detective than Black Mask.  But it will be the subtle story of psychological terror that he will be remembered as possibly the finest mystery writer of the 20th Century - tales described as "the every-day gone wrong."

Much of his best work appeared in his "Black" series of novels.  In "Rendezvous in Black" Johnny Marr devotes his life to avenging the death of the girl he loved.  Knowing that one member of a group of men must have been responsible for her death, Marr enters each of their lives, discovers whom they love most, and murders the loved one so that the man will experience the same grief he does.  In "The Bride Wore Black" a similar tale of vengeance unfolds when a woman sees her bridegroom shot dead on the church steps.  She learns the identities of the five men in the car that careened past the church as the shot was fired and sets out to kill each of them in turn.

The first book under the William Irish byline was "Phantom Lady" the now familiar tale of a race against the clock to save the life of an innocent man condemned to death for the murder of his wife whom he did not kill.  Ultimately, even the most unnatural events prove to be the result of human effort.  Nowhere is this demonstrated more terrifyingly than in "Night Has a Thousand Eyes", in which a girl and her father are convinced that he is doomed because of a seer's predictions.  In few other books does the reader so compellingly share the agony of the hunted and the terror of the doomed.  When Woolrich died in 1968, found among his papers were titles of proposed stories he intended to write.  One of them, "First You Dream, Then You Die" could have summed up his entire life.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

NOVELS

1940 "The Bride Wore Black" (Detective Book Magazine Summer 1941)/  1941 "The Black Curtain" (Two Complete Detective Books #13, Spring 1942)/  1942 "Black Alibi"/  1942 "Phantom Lady" (as William Irish.  Detective Fiction May-Oct 1942, and Liberty Apr 10, 1943)/  1943 "The Black Angel" (Liberty Sept 25, 1943)/  1943 "I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes" (s.s. by Irish)/  1944 "The Black Path of Fear" (Detective Novel Magazine Apr 1945)/  1944 "Deadline at Dawn" (Irish, Liberty Nov 4, 1944)/  1944 "After-Dinner Story" (s.s. by Irish)/  1945 "Night Has a Thousand Eyes" (as George Hopley, Liberty Mar 23, 1946)/  1945 "If I Should Die Before I Wake" (s.s. by Irish)/  1946 "The Dancing Detective" (s.s. by Irish)/  1946 "Borrowed Crime" (s.s. by Irish)/  1947 "Waltz into Darkness" (Irish, Detective Novel Magazine Mar 1948)/  1948 "Dead Man Blues" (s.s. by Irish)/  1948 "Rendezvous in Black"/  1948 "I Married a Dead Man" (as Irish)/  1949 "The Blue Ribbon" (s.s. by Irish)/  1950 "Marihuana" (s.s. by Irish)/  1950 "You'll Never See Me Again" (s.s. by Irish)/  1950 "Somebody on the Phone" (s.s. by Irish)/  1950 "Fright" (as Hopley)/  1950 "Savage Bride"/  1950 "Six Nights of Mystery" (s.s. by Irish)/  1951 "Strangler's Serenade" (as Irish)/  1952 "Eyes That Watch You" (s.s. by Irish)/  1952 "Bluebeard's Seventh Wife" (s.s. by Irish)/  1956 "Nightmare" (s.s.)/  1958 "Violence" (s.s.)/  1958 "Hotel Room" (s.s.)/  1959 "Death is My Dancing Partner"/  1959 "Beyond the Night" (s.s.)/  1960 "The Doom Stone"/  1965 "The Ten Faces of Cornell Woolrich" (s.s.)/  1965 "The Dark Side of Love" (s.s.)/  1971 "Nightwebs" (s.s.)/  1978 "Angels of Darkness" (s.s.)/  1981 "The Fantastic Stories of Cornell Woolrich" (s.s.)/  1985 "Darkness at Dawn" (s.s.)/  1987 "Into the Night".

SHORT STORIES

Because Woolrich wrote so many of them, I am only listing those that were used in film, radio, and television adaptations of his work.  The stories are listed alphabetically for reference purposes.

"After-Dinner Story" (Black Mask Jan 1938)/  "All at Once, No Alice" (Argosy Mar 2, 1940)/  "And So to Death" (Argosy Mar 1, 1941)/  "The Black Bargain" (Justice Jan 1956)/  "Bluebeard's Seventh Wife" (Detective Fiction Weekly Aug 22, 1936)/  "The Book That Squealed" (Detective Story Aug 1939)/  "The Boy Cried Murder" (Mystery Book Magazine Mar 1947)/  "Cab, Mister?" (Black Mask Nov 1937)/  "The Case of the Talking Eyes" (Dime Detective Sept 1939)/  "Change of Murder" (Detective Fiction Weekly Jan 25, 1936)/  "Cinderella and the Mob" (Argosy June 23, 1940)/  "C-Jag" (Black Mask Oct 1940)/  "Collared" (Black Mask Oct 1939)/  "The Corpse and the Kid" (Dime Detective Sept 1935)/  "The Corpse Next Door" (Detective Fiction Weekly Jan 23, 1937)/  "Dark Melody of Madness" (Dime Mystery July 1935)/  "Death Between Dances" (Shadow Mystery Magazine Dec 1947)/  "Death Escapes the Eye" (Shadow Mystery Magazine Apr 1947)/  "The Death Rose" (Baffling Detective Mysteries Mar 1943)/  "The Death Stone" (Flynn's Detective Fiction Feb 1943)/  "Dilemma of the Dead Lady" (Detective Fiction Weekly July 4, 1936)/  "Dime a Dance" (Black Mask Feb 1938)/  "Dormant Account" (Black Mask May 1942)/  "Face Work" (Black Mask Oct 1937)/  "Finger of Doom" (Detective Fiction Weekly June 22, 1940)/  "For the Rest of Her Life" (EQMM May 1968)/  "Goodbye, New York" (Story Magazine Oct 1937)/  "He Looked Like Murder" (Detective Fiction Weekly Feb 8, 1941)/  "The Humming Bird Comes Home" (Pocket Detective Mar 1937)/  "I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes" (Detective Fiction Weekly Mar 12, 1938)/  "I'm Dangerous Tonight" (All-American Fiction Nov 1937)/  "I.O.U. - One Life" (Double Detective Nov 1938)/  "If I Should Die Before I Wake" (Detective Fiction Weekly July 3, 1937)/  "If the Dead Could Talk" (Black Mask Feb 1943)/  "It Had to Be Murder" (Dime Detective Feb 1942)/  "Jane Brown's Body" (All-American Fiction Mar 1938)/  "Leg Man" (Dime Detective Aug 1943)/  "The Lie" (Detective Fiction Weekly Oct 9, 1937)/  "The Light in the Window" (Mystery Book Magazine Apr 1946)/  "The Man Upstairs" (Mystery Book Magazine Aug 1945)/  "Marihuana" (Detective Fiction Weekly May 3, 1941)/  "Men Must Die" (Black Mask Aug 1939)/  "Mind Over Murder" (Dime Detective May 1943)/  "Murder Always Gathers Momentum" (Detective Fiction Weekly Dec 14, 1940)/  "Murder at Mother's Knee" (Dime Detective Oct 1941)/  "The Night I Died" (Detective Fiction Weekly Aug 8, 1936)/  "The Night Reveals" (Story Magazine Apr 1936)/  "One Last Night" (Detective Story May 1940)/ "Orphan Ice" (Dime Detective Sept 1942)/  "Post Mortem" (Black Mask Apr 1940)/  "The Red Tide" (Detective Story Sept 1940)/  "Silent as the Grave" (Mystery Book Magazine Nov 1945)/  "Somebody on the Phone" (Detective Fiction Weekly July 31, 1937)/  "They Call Me Patrice" (Today's Woman Apr 1946 - this novelette was later expanded into the novel "I Married a Dead Man")/  "Three Kills for One" (Black Mask July 1942)/  "Three O'Clock" (Detective Fiction Weekly Oct 1, 1938)/  "Through a Dead Man's Eye" (Black Mask Dec 1939)/  "What the Well Dressed Corpse Will Wear" (Dime Detective Mar 1944)/  "You Take Ballistics" (Double Detective Jan 1938)/  "You'll Never See Me Again" (Detective Story Nov 1939).

FILMS

"Convicted" Columbia, 1938.  Rita Hayworth, Charles Quigley, Marc Lawrence, Phyllis Clare.  Director: Leon Barsha.  Based on s.s. "Face Work".  A nightclub entertainer clears her brother of murdering a gold-digger on the very day of his execution.

"Street of Chance" Paramount, 1942.  Burgess Meredith, Claire Trevor, Sheldon Leonard, Louise Platt, Frieda Insecort.  Director: Jack Hively.  Based on the novel "The Black Curtain".  A man, stunned in a street accident, recovers and makes his way home to learn that he has been absent for a year.  During this amnesic period, he discovers, he has been working for a rich man who was murdered on the same day as his own accident.

"The Leopard Man" RKO, 1943.  Dennis O'Keefe, Jean Brooks, Margo, Abner Biberman, James Bell.  Director: Jacques Tourneur.  Based on the novel "Black Alibi".  A brash press agent for a Mexican nightclub rents a panther for publicity purposes, but the animal breaks free.  Later, three people die, the work, the press agent suspects, not of the panther but of a human killer.

"Phantom Lady" Universal, 1944.  Franchot Tone, Ella Raines, Alan Curtis, Thomas Gomez.  Director: Robert Siodmak.  Based on the novel.  A young architect is accused of strangling his wife.  No one believes his alibi that he was in a theater with a woman (the 'phantom lady') he had just picked up in a bar.  His faithful secretary tries to find the woman, identifiable only by the odd hat she wore.

"Mark of the Whistler" Columbia, 1944.  Richard Dix, Janis Carter, Paul Guilfoyle, Porter Hall.  Director: William Castle.  Based on the s.s. "Dormant Account".  This was the second film in "The Whistler" series, based on the popular radio program in which an anonymous whistling narrator unfolds macabre mystery tales.  A vagrant assumes another man's identity in order to claim a dormant bank account and becomes a murderer's target.

"Deadline at Dawn" RKO, 1946.  Susan Hayward, Bill Williams, Paul Lukas, Lola Lane, Joseph Calleia.  Director: Harold Clurman.  Based on the novel, adapted by Clifford Odets.  The lives of a sailor on furlough and a hardened taxi-dancer are brought together by the murder of a cafe hostess.

"Black Angel" Universal, 1946.  Dan Duryea, Peter Lorre, June Vincent, Broderick Crawford, Constance Dowling.  Director: Roy William Neill.  Based on the novel.  The wife of a man awaiting execution for the murder of a blackmailing woman enters the milieu of a sinister nightclub in search of the real killer.

"The Chase" United Artists, 1946.  Robert Cummings, Michele Morgan, Steve Cochran, Peter Lorre, Lloyd Corrigan.  Director: Arthur Ripley.  Based on the novel "The Black Path of Fear".  A penniless veteran finds a wallet belonging to a Miami racketeer and is hired as his chauffeur.  Soon, he flees to Havana with the gangster's abused wife and, when she is stabbed in a nightclub, is accused of her murder.

"Fall Guy" Monogram, 1947.  Robert Armstrong, Clifford Penn, Teala Loring, Elisha Cook, Jr.  Director: Reginald le Borg.  Based on the s.s. "C-Jag".  A man wakes up after a mental blackout to discover that he is covered with blood and accused of the murder of a girl he met at a party and cannot remember.

"Fear in the Night" Paramount, 1947.  Paul Kelly, DeForest Kelley, Kay Scott, Ann Doran.  Director: Maxwell Shane.  Based on the s.s. "And So to Death".  A young man has a nightmare during which he kills a stranger in a room filled with mirrors.  A week later, during a family picnic, he chances upon a country home with a mirrored room - and a corpse.

"The Guilty" Monogram, 1947.  Don Castle, Bonita Granville, Regis Toomey, Elyse Knox, John Litel.  Director: John Reinhardt.  Based on the s.s. "He Looked Like Murder".  A young man returns to the neighborhood where, a year before, a neurotic roomer had killed the twin sister of the girl he loved and shoved her body into an incinerator.

"I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes" Monogram, 1948.  Don Castle, Elyse Knox, Regis Toomey, Robert Lowell.  Director: William Nigh.  Based on the s.s.  A down-and-out vaudevillian, unable to sleep, tosses his tap shoes at a cat howling in the backyard of his cheap rooming house.  Later, a shoe print convicts him of murder.  His distraught young wife tries to clear him.

"Return of the Whistler" Columbia, 1948.  Michael Duane, Lenore Aubert, James Cardwell, Richard Lane.  Director: D. Ross Lederman.  Based on the s.s. "All at Once, No Alice".  A young man finds the French war widow who has disappeared on the eve of their wedding.  She is an inmate in a private asylum, claiming that relatives are keeping her prisoner there in an attempt to get her dead husband's fortune.

"Night Has a Thousand Eyes" Paramount, 1948.  Edward G. Robinson, Gail Russell, John Lund.  Director: John Farrow.  Based on the novel.  A middle-aged sideshow mentalist tries not to draw upon his ability to predict tragic events.  The police keep him from attempting to save the daughter of a friend from doom.

"The Window" RKO, 1949.  Bobby Driscoll, Barbara Hale, Arthur Kennedy, Paul Stewart, Ruth Roman.  Director: Ted Tetzlaff.  Based on the s.s. "The Boy Cried Murder".  Nobody believes an imaginative small boy when he declares that he has seen a neighbor couple stab a man - no one except the murderers.  

"No Man of Her Own" Paramount, 1950.  Barbara Stanwyck, John Lund, Phyllis Thaxter, Richard Denning, Lyle Bettger.  Director: Mitchell Leisen.  Based on the novel "I Married a Dead Man".  Fleeing from the man who betrayed her, a woman on a train heading for San Francisco meets a girl who, like herself, is seven months pregnant.  When the other woman and her husband are killed in a train wreck, the heroine assumes her identity and a new life, until the father of her premature baby finds her and attempts to expose her.

"The Earring" Argentina, 1951.  Mirtha Legrand.  Director: Leon Klimovsky.  Based on the s.s. "The Death Stone".  When a woman goes to see an ex-boyfriend who blackmails her, she leaves behind an earring.  When she returns to retrieve it she finds that he has been murdered.

"The Trace of Some Lips" Mexico, 1952.  Rosario Granados.  Director: Juan Bustillo Oro.  Based on the s.s. "Collared".

"If I Should Die Before I Wake" Argentina, 1952.  Director: Carlos Hugo Christensen.  Based on the s.s.  The plot centers on Lucio, a lovable prankster and class clown whose dad is a detective working on the serial killings of local children.  A girl in his class confides to him that a man living in the woods has been giving her free candy and has offered to take her to a candy house.  She winds up as the next victim.

"Don't Ever Open That Door" Argentina, 1952.  Angel Magana, Roberto Escalada.  Director: Carlos Hugo Christensen.  Based on the stories "Somebody on the Phone" and "The Humming Bird Comes Home".  Two separate stories that have in common the door that separates good from evil.  First a man tries to avenge the death of a sister who commits suicide over gambling debts.  The second is about a former inmate who returns home to his blind mother who believes he is regenerated.

"Obsession" France, 1954.  Michele Morgan, Raf Valone.  Director: Jean Delannoy.  Based on the s.s. "Silent as the Grave".  The story of a couple and their involvement in a murder case that sends an innocent man to the guillotine.

"Rear Window" Paramount, 1954.  James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter.  Director: Alfred Hitchcock.  Based on the s.s. "It Had to Be Murder".  A news photographer, confined to a wheelchair because of a broken leg, amuses himself by sitting at his window and spying on the people living in the apartment building across the courtyard from him.  Gradually he suspects that a murder has been committed.

"Nightmare" United Artists, 1956.  Edward G. Robinson, Kevin McCarthy, Connie Russell.  Director: Maxwell Shane.  Based on the s.s. "And So to Death".  Remake of "Fear in the Night".  In this version the hero is a jazz musician and the house with the mirrored room is located outside New Orleans.

"The Glass Eye" Spain, 1956.  Based on the s.s. "Through a Dead Man's Eye".  With the intention of stealing compensation for a work accident, Enrique kills an old man and tries to forge his signature on the check.

"Escapade" France, 1957.  Louis Jourdan, Dany Carrel.  Director: Ralph Habib.  Based on the s.s. "Cinderella and the Mob".  Some gangsters use a young girl to get to a recently released convict who hid $10 million from a robbery before he was caught.

"The Boy Cried Murder" Universal, 1966.  Veronica Hurst, Phil Brown, Fraser MacIntosh, Beba Loncar.  Director: George Breakston.  Based on the story.  Remake of "The Window".  This time the boy cries murder on a tourist steamer sailing down the Adriatic coast.  Accusations continue at a seaside resort.

"The Bride Wore Black" Lopert, 1967.  Jeanne Moreau.  Director: Francois Truffaut.  Based on the novel.  When her bridegroom is shot dead on their wedding day, a woman takes revenge on several men she suspects of his murder.

"The Mississippi Mermaid" United Artists, 1969.  Jean-Paul Belmondo, Catherine Deneuve.  Director: Francois Truffaut.  Based on the novel "Waltz into Darkness".  A planter in a French possession in the tropics opens his heart to a mail-order bride.  When she disappears with his money, he searches for her.

"Seven Blood-Stained Orchids" Italy, 1972.  Antonio Sabato, Marisa Mell.  Director: Umberto Lenzi.  Based on the novel "Rendezvous in Black".  A woman, survivor of a foiled murder attempt, tries to find the connection with six other women before 'The Half Moon Killer' strikes again.

"Martha" Germany, 1974.  Margit Carstensen, Karlheinz Bohm.  Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder.  Based on the s.s. "For the Rest of Her Life".  Martha, a virginal 31-year old librarian finds herself married to an abusive husband and she becomes paranoid that he wants to kill her.

"Gun Moll" Italy, 1975.  Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni.  Director: Giorgio Capitani.  Based on the s.s. "Collared".  A happy-go-lucky prostitute gets mixed up with the mafia.

"Union City" MGM/UA 1980.  Debbie Harry, Dennis Lipscomb, Everett McGill, Pat Benatar.  Director: Mark Reichert.  Based on the s.s. "The Corpse Next Door".  Harlan, an uptight accountant is obsessed with a thief stealing milk bottles from his apartment.  He eventually finds the culprit, a vagrant, who he savagely beats and hides the body in the murphy bed of the vacant apartment next door.

"I Married a Shadow" France, 1983.  Nathalie Baye, Victoria Abril.  Director: Robin Davis.  Based on the novel "I Married a Dead Man".

"Cloak and Dagger" Universal, 1984.  Henry Thomas, Dabney Coleman.  Director: Richard Franklin.  Based on the s.s. "The Boy Cried Murder".  An 11-year old boy imagines his fantasy world of role-playing video games is reality.

"Mrs. Winterbourne" TriStar, 1996.  Shirley MacLaine, Ricki Lake, Brendan Fraser.  Director: Richard Benjamin.  Based on the novel "I Married a Dead Man".

"Original Sin" MGM, 2001.  Antonio Banderas, Angelina Jolie, Thomas Jane.  Director: Michael Cristofer.  Based on the novel "Waltz into Darkness"

RADIO

TONIGHT'S BEST STORY - WHN radio station.  "The Night Reveals" Apr 16, 1940.  Based on s.s.

SUSPENSE - CBS mystery anthology.  "The Night Reveals" Mar 2, 1943, with Fredric March.  Based on s.s. /  "Last Night" June 15, 1943, with Margo, Kent Smith.  Based on s.s. "The Red Tide". /  "The White Rose Murders" July 6, 1943, with Maureen O'Hara.  Based on s.s. "The Death Rose". /  "The Singing Walls" Sept 2, 1943, with Preston Foster, Dane Clark.  Based on s.s. "C-Jag". /  "After-Dinner Story" Oct 26, 1943, with Otto Kruger.  Based on s.s. /  "The Black Curtain" Dec 2, 1943, with Cary Grant.  Based on novel. /  "The Night Reveals" Dec 9, 1943, with Robert Young, Margo.  Based on s.s. /  "Dime a Dance" Jan 13, 1944, with Lucille Ball.  Based on s.s. /  "The Black Path of Fear" Aug 31, 1944, with Brian Donlevy.  Based on novel. /  "You'll Never See Me Again" Sept 14, 1944, with Joseph Cotten.  Based on s.s. /  "Eve" Oct 19, 1944, with Nancy Kelly.  Based on novel "The Black Angel". /  "The Singing Walls" Nov 2, 1944, with Van Johnson.  Based on s.s. "C-Jag". /  "The Black Curtain" Nov 30, 1944, with Cary Grant.  Based on novel. /  "Library Book" Sept 20, 1945, with Myrna Loy.  Based on s.s. "The Book That Squealed". /  "I Won't Take a Minute" Dec 6, 1945, with Lee Bowman.  Based on s.s. "Finger of Doom" /  "The Black Path of Fear" Mar 7, 1946, with Cary Grant.  Based on novel. /  "Post Mortem" Apr 4, 1946, with Agnes Moorehead.  Based on s.s. /  "The Night Reveals" Apr 18, 1946, with Keenan Wynn.  Based on s.s. /  "You'll Never See Me Again" Sept 5, 1946, with Robert Young.  Based on s.s. /  "They Call Me Patrice" Dec 12, 1946, with Susan Peters.  Based on s.s. /  "You Take Ballistics" Mar 13, 1947, with Jack Webb, Howard da Silva.  Based on s.s. /  "The Black Curtain" Jan 3, 1948, with Robert Montgomery, Jeff Chandler.  Based on novel. /  "Eve" Jan 24, 1948, with June Havoc.  Based on novel "The Black Angel". /  "Nightmare" Mar 13, 1948, with Eddie Bracken, William Conrad.  Based on s.s. "And So to Death". /  "Deadline at Dawn" May 15, 1948, with Helen Walker, John Beal.  Based on novel. /  "If the Dead Could Talk" Jan 20, 1949, with Dana Andrews.  Based on s.s. /  "Three O'Clock" Mar 10, 1949, with Van Heflin.  Based on s.s. /  "The Lie" Apr 28, 1949, with Mickey Rooney, Ed Begley.  Based on s.s. /  "The Night Reveals" May 26, 1949, with Fredric March.  Based on s.s. /  "Momentum" Oct 27, 1949, with Victor Mature.  Based on s.s. "Murder Always Gathers Momentum". /  "Angel Face" May 18, 1950, with Claire Trevor.  Based on s.s. "Face Work".

MOLLE MYSTERY THEATER - NBC radio anthology.  "Dreadful Memory" Nov 30, 1943. Based on unidentified story. /  "The Death Rose" Sept 26, 1944.  Based on s.s. /  "Nightmare" Nov 28, 1944.  Based on s.s. "And So to Death" /  "Deadline at Dawn" Jan 30, 1945.  Based on novel. /  "After-Dinner Story" Mar 20, 1945.  Based on s.s. /  "Marihuana" June 26, 1945.  Based on s.s. /  "A Death is Caused" Oct 12, 1945.  Based on s.s. "Mind Over Murder" /  "Leg Man" Oct 19, 1945.  Based on s.s. /  "Post Mortem" Nov 23, 1945.  Based on s.s. /  "I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes" Dec 14, 1945.  Based on s.s. /  "Dime a Dance" Jan 11, 1946.  Based on s.s. /  "The Mathematics of Murder" Feb 1, 1946.  Based on s.s. "What the Well Dressed Corpse Will Wear" /  "Last Night" Feb 22, 1946.  Based on s.s. "The Red Tide" /  "Silent as the Grave" Aug 9, 1946.  Based on s.s. /  "Nightmare" Aug 30, 1946.  Based on s.s. "And So to Death" /  "Two Men in a Furnished Room" Sept 27, 1946.  Based on s.s. "He Looked Like Murder" /  "Black Alibi" Oct 11, 1946.  Based on novel. /  "Blackmail" Jan 24, 1947.  Based on s.s. "Face Work" /  "The Bride Wore Black" Feb 7, 1947.  Based on novel. /  "The Orphan Diamond" Mar 7, 1947.  Based on s.s. "Orphan Ice" /  "Dime a Dance" Mar 14, 1947.  Based on s.s. /  "Chance" July 18, 1947.  Based on s.s. "Dormant Account" /  "Silent as the Grave" Aug 29, 1947.  Based on s.s. /  "Two Men in a Furnished Room" Nov 28, 1947.  Based on s.s. "He Looked Like Murder" /  "The Earring" Mar 5, 1948.  Based on s.s. "The Death Stone"

LUX RADIO THEATRE - NBC Blue network.  Radio adaptations of motion pictures.  "Phantom Lady" Mar 27, 1944, with Ella Raines, Alan Curtis, Brian Aherne.  Based on novel. /  "Deadline at Dawn" May 20, 1946, with Joan Blondell, Paul Lukas.  Based on novel.

SCREEN GUILD THEATER - CBS - radio adaptations of motion pictures.  "Phantom Lady" Sept 11, 1944, with Ralph Bellamy, Louise Allbritton.  Based on novel.

HOUR OF MYSTERY - ABC anthology.  "Black Angel" June 16, 1946, with Geraldine Fitzgerald.  Based on novel. /  "Phantom Lady" Aug 18, 1946, with Franchot Tone.  Based on novel.

THIS IS HOLLYWOOD - CBS anthology series.  "The Chase" Nov 9, 1946, with Robert Montgomery, Michele Morgan.  Based on novel "The Black Path of Fear"

ESCAPE - CBS anthology series.  "Papa Benjamin" Jan 24, 1948, with Frank Lovejoy, William Conrad.  Based on s.s. "Dark Melody of Madness" /  "Finger of Doom" Mar 19, 1949, with Ed Begley.  Based on s.s.

THE HUNTERS - "You Take Ballistics" Nov 29, 1948.  Based on s.s.

SCREEN DIRECTOR'S PLAYHOUSE - NBC - radio adaptations of motion pictures.  "Night Has a Thousand Eyes" Feb 27, 1949, with Edward G. Robinson, William Demarest.  Based on novel. /  "No Man of Her Own" Sept 21, 1951, with Barbara Stanwyck.  Based on novel "I Married a Dead Man"

RADIO CITY PLAYHOUSE - NBC anthology series.  "Wardrobe Trunk" Apr 4, 1949.  Based on s.s. "Dilemma of the Dead Lady"

STARRING BORIS KARLOFF - ABC mystery anthology.  "Three O'Clock" Nov 30, 1949.  Based on s.s. /  "The Night Reveals" Dec 14, 1949.  Based on s.s. 

MURDER BY EXPERTS - Mutual crime & mystery anthology.  "Nightmare" Feb 19, 1951.  Based on s.s. "And So to Death"

PHILIP MORRIS PLAYHOUSE ON BROADWAY - CBS anthology series.  "Night Has a Thousand Eyes" Aug 19, 1953.  Based on novel.

NIGHTMARE - Mutual mystery & horror anthology hosted by Peter Lorre.  "If I Should Die Before I Wake" Aug 25, 1954.  Based on s.s.

SLEEP NO MORE - NBC dramatic readings by host Nelson Olmstead.  "Three O'Clock" Dec12, 1956.  Based on s.s.

COMICS

"Stories by Famous Authors" by Seaboard Publishing.  Issue #7, Sept 1950.  "The Window" from the short story "The Boy Cried Murder" and based on the 1949 film with Bobby Driscoll.  Cover and art by Henry Kiefer.

TELEVISION

SUSPENSE - CBS mystery anthology.  "Goodbye, New York" Jan 6, 1949, with Meg Mundy.  Based on s.s. /  "Revenge" Mar 1, 1949, with Eddie Albert, Margo.  Based on novel "The Black Path of Fear". /  "The Man Upstairs" Apr 5, 1949, with Mildred Natwick.  Based on s.s. /  "After-Dinner Story" Apr 12, 1949, with Otto Kruger.  Based on s.s. /  "Post Mortem" May 10, 1949, with Sidney Blackmer.  Based on s.s. /  "Nightmare" Nov 7, 1950, with Richard Kiley.  Based on s.s. "And So to Death"

ACTOR'S STUDIO - ABC anthology.  "Three O'Clock" Mar 31, 1949.  Based on s.s.

THE SILVER THEATRE - CBS anthology.  "Silent as the Grave" Nov 21, 1949, with George Reeves, Marsha Hunt.  Based on s.s.

BORIS KARLOFF MYSTERY PLAYHOUSE - ABC anthology.  "Three O'Clock" Dec 1, 1949.  Based on s.s. /  "The Night Reveals" Dec 15, 1949.  Based on s.s.

ROBERT MONTGOMERY PRESENTS - NBC anthology.  "Phantom Lady" Apr 24, 1950, with Robert Montgomery, Ella Raines.  Based on novel. /  "Three O'Clock" June 18, 1951, with Richard Greene.  Based on s.s. /  "I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes" Oct 22, 1951,  Based on s.s.

VIDEO THEATRE - NBC anthology.  "Change of Murder" May 21, 1950.  Based on s.s.

NASH AIRFLYTE THEATRE - CBS drama anthology.  "I Won't Take a Minute" Nov 9, 1950, with Dane Clark.  Based on s.s. "Finger of Doom"

ASSIGNMENT: MANHUNT - NBC crime anthology.  "Through a Dead Man's Eye" July 21, 1951.  Based on s.s.

LIGHTS OUT! - NBC horror & mystery anthology.  "Nightmare" June 16, 1952.  Based on s.s. "And So to Death"

REVLON MIRROR THEATER - CBS drama anthology.  "Lullaby" Oct 3, 1953, with Agnes Moorehead.  Based on s.s. "The Humming Bird Comes Home" /  "Summer Dance" Nov 21, 1953, with Jane Greer.  Based on s.s. "Death Between Dances"

PEPSI COLA PLAYHOUSE - ABC drama anthology.  "Wait for Me Downstairs" Oct 9, 1953, with Arlene Dahl.  Based on s.s. "Finger of Doom"

THE MASK - ABC crime drama.  "Framed for Murder" Feb 7, 1954, with Gary Merrill, Brian Keith.  Based on s.s. "Three Kills for One"

YOUR PLAY TIME - CBS summer replacement drama series.  "Wait for Me Downstairs" June 20, 1954, with Allene Roberts.  Based on s.s. "Finger of Doom" /  "Summer Dance" July 4, 1954, with Jane Greer.  Based on s.s. "Death Between Dances"

THE BEST IN MYSTERY - NBC anthology.  "Lullaby" July 16, 1954, with Agnes Moorehead, Lee Marvin.  Based on s.s. "The Humming Bird Comes Home"

LUX VIDEO THEATRE - NBC adaptations of motion pictures.  "The Chase" Dec 30, 1954, with Pat O'Brien, Ruth Roman, James Arness.  Based on novel "The Black Path of Fear" /  "The Guilty" Oct 11, 1956, with Ralph Meeker, Carol Ohmart.  Based on s.s. "He Looked Like Murder" /  "The Black Angel" Mar 28, 1957, with Anne Bancroft, John Ireland.  Based on novel.

STAGE 7 - CBS drama anthology.  "Debt of Honor" Feb 20, 1955, with Edmond O'Brien, Charles Bronson.  Based on s.s. "I.O.U. - One Life"

FORD TELEVISION THEATRE - NBC anthology.  "Husband" Oct 13, 1955, with Barry Sullivan, Mala Powers. /  "The Blue Ribbon" Nov 10, 1955, with Gene Barry, Scott Brady.  Both stories "Husband" and "The Blue Ribbon" were previously unpublished short stories that appeared in the book "Blue Ribbon".

JANE WYMAN PRESENTS THE FIRESIDE THEATRE - NBC drama anthology.  "Once Upon a Nightmare" Jan 3, 1956, with Jane Wyman.  Based on s.s. "Murder at Mother's Knee"

ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS - CBS mystery anthology.  "The Big Switch" Jan 8, 1956, with Beverly Michaels.  Based on s.s. "Change of Murder" /  "Momentum" June 24, 1956, with Joanne Woodward.  Based on s.s. "Murder Always Gathers Momentum" /  "Post Mortem" May 18, 1958, with Steve Forrest, Joanna Moore.  Based on s.s.

FOUR STAR PLAYHOUSE - CBS anthology.  "The Listener" Feb 2, 1956, with Ida Lupino.  Based on s.s. "The Case of the Talking Eyes"

CLIMAX! - CBS anthology.  "Sit Down with Death" Apr 26, 1956, with Ralph Bellamy.  Based on s.s. "After-Dinner Story"

PLAYHOUSE 90 - CBS anthology.  "Rendezvous in Black" Oct 22, 1956, with Franchot Tone, Laraine Day, Boris Karloff, Viveca Lindfors.  Director: John Frankenheimer.  Based on novel.

GENERAL ELECTRIC THEATER - CBS drama anthology.  "The Earring" Jan 13, 1957, with Greer Garson.  Based on s.s. "The Death Stone" /  "Cab Driver" Apr 14, 1957, with Imogene Coca, Keenan Wynn.  Based on s.s. "Cab, Mister?"

HEINZ STUDIO 57 - DuMont anthology series.  "You Take Ballistics" Feb 13, 1957, with Lee Marvin, Regis Toomey.  Based on s.s.

THE WEB - NBC drama anthology.  "Added Attraction" Aug 4, 1957, with Maxine Cooper.  Based on unidentified story.

GEORGE SANDERS MYSTERY THEATER - NBC anthology.  "The Night I Died" Aug 31, 1957, with Scotty Beckett.  Based on s.s.

SUSPICION - NBC mystery anthology.  "Four O'Clock" Sept 30, 1957, with E. G. Marshall, Richard Long, Nancy Kelly.  Director: Alfred Hitchcock.  Based on s.s. "Three O'Clock"

SCHLITZ PLAYHOUSE - CBS anthology.  "Bluebeard's Seventh Wife" Mar 21, 1958, with Ralph Meeker, Jackie Loughery.  Based on s.s.

ARMCHAIR THEATRE - British syndicated anthology series.  "You'll Never See Me Again" Aug 16, 1959, with Ben Gazzara.  Based on s.s.

MOMENT OF FEAR - NBC anthology.  "Fire by Night" Sept 23, 1960, with Fay Spain.  Based on s.s. "The Night Reveals"

THRILLER - NBC anthology hosted by Boris Karloff.  "Papa Benjamin" Mar 21, 1961, with John Ireland.  Based on s.s. "Dark Melody of Madness" /  "Late Date" Apr 4, 1961, with Edward Platt.  Based on s.s. "The Corpse and the Kid" /  "Guillotine" Sept 26, 1961, with Robert Middleton.  Based on s.s. "Men Must Die".

ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR - CBS anthology.  "The Black Curtain" Nov 15, 1962, with Richard Basehart, Lola Albright.  Based on novel.

JOURNEY TO THE UNKNOWN - syndicated British horror anthology.  "Jane Brown's Body" Oct 10, 1968, with Julie Harris, Stefanie Powers.  Based on s.s,

TV MOVIE - "You'll Never See Me Again" ABC, Feb 28, 1973.  David Hartman, Jane Wyatt, Ralph Meeker, Ben Gazzara.  Based on s.s.

DARKROOM - ABC suspense anthology.  "Guillotine" Jan 8, 1982, with James Coburn, Patti D'Arbanville.  Based on s.s. "Men Must Die"

TV MOVIE - "You'll Never See Me Again" Mar 24, 1986, with Peter Gilmore.  Based on s.s.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS - syndicated anthology, remakes of original shows.  "Four O'Clock" May 4, 1986, with Kenneth Mcmillan.  Based on s.s. "Three O'Clock"

TV MOVIE - "I'm Dangerous Tonight" Aug 8, 1990.  Madchen Amick, Mary Frann, Anthony Perkins, Dee Wallace, Natalie Schafer.  Based on s.s.

FALLEN ANGELS - Showtime film noir anthology series.  "Murder Obliquely" Sept 19, 1993.  Laura Dern, Alan Rickman, Diane Lane.  Based on s.s. "Death Escapes the Eye". /  "A Dime a Dance" Oct 22, 1995.  Jennifer Grey, Eric Stoltz.  Based on s.s. /  "The Black Bargain" Nov 19, 1995, with Miguel Ferrer.  Based on s.s.

THE HUNGER - syndicated anthology series.  "I'm Dangerous Tonight" Sept 21, 1997, with Esai Morales.  Based on s.s. /  "I'm Very Dangerous Tonight" Jan 2, 2000, with Lara Wickes.  Based on s.s. "I'm Dangerous Tonight"

TV MOVIE - "Rear Window" Nov 22, 1998.  Christopher Reeve, Daryl Hannah, Robert Forster.  Based on s.s. "It Had to Be Murder"

TV MOVIE - "She's No Angel" 2002.  Tracey Gold, Kevin Dobson, Dee Wallace.  Based on novel "I Married a Dead Man".

The short stories "One Last Night" and "The Light in the Window" have been used for episodes of foreign television shows.