Born on this day – Cornell Woolrich:

Cornell Woolrich

Writer

December 4, 1903 – September 25, 1968

Credits:

Books:

Cover Charge (1926); Children of the Ritz (1927); Times Square (1929); A Young Man's Heart (1930); The Time of Her Life (1931);  Manhattan Love Song (1932); The Bride Wore Black (aka Beware the Lady) (1940); The Black Curtain (1941); The Black Alibi (1942); Phantom Lady (1942); The Black Angel (1943); The Black Path of Fear (1944); Deadline at Dawn (1944); Night has a Thousand Eyes (1945); Waltz into Darkness (1947); I Married a Dead Man (1948); Rendezvous in Black (1948); Fright (1950); Savage Bride (1950); Marihuana (1951); Strangler's Serenade (1951); You'll Never See Me Again (1951); Hotel Room (1958); Death is my Dancing Partner (1959); The Doom Stone (1960); Into the Night (1987); Nightmare (1956); Violence (1958); Beyond the Night (1959); The Ten Faces of Cornell Woolrich (1965); The Dark Side of Love (1965); Nightwebs (1971); Angels of Darkness (1978); The Fantastic Stories of Cornell Woolrich (1981); Four by Cornell Woolrich (1983); Rear Window (1984); Vampire's Honeymoon (1985); Blind Date With Death (1985); Darkness at Dawn (1985); Night and Fear (2003); Tonight Somewhere in New York (2005); Love and Night (2011); Death in the Air (2020); Senor Flatfoot (2020); All at Once, No Alice (2020); The Drugstore Cowboy (2020); Hot Water (2020); Dilemma of the Dead Lady (2020); The Cornell Woolrich Omnibus (1998); Four Novellas of Fear (2010); Speak to Me of Death (1935); The Screaming Laugh (1938); Through a Dead Man's Eye (1939); Somebody's Clothes-Somebody's Life (1958).

Movies and television:

A Intrusa (1962); Aa bakudan (1964); Actor's Studio (1949); Akai shisen (1980); Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1956–1958); Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1986); Arde, María, arde (1978); Armchair Theatre (1959); Bire on vardi (1963); Black Angel (1946); Children of the Ritz (1929); Climax! (1956); Cloak & Dagger (1984); Colgate Theatre (1950); Convicted (1938); Corsa in discesa (1989); Darkroom (1982); Deadline at Dawn (1946); Die Unschuld der Krähen (1998); Dro itsureba gantiadisas (1965); El ojo de cristal (1956); El pendiente (1951); Escapade (1957); Fall Guy (1947); Fallen Angels (1993–1995); Fear in the Night (1946); Fearful Dream (1966); Ficciones (1974); Four Star Playhouse (1956); General Electric Theater (1957); Gran Teatro (1960); Grande Teatro Tupi (1956); Gun Moll (1975); Hanayome wa nemurenai: Gôu no naka no shussan (1987); Histoires insolites (1979); Hit List (2009); House of Horror (1929); I Married a Shadow (1983); I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes (1948); If I Should Die Before I Wake (1952); I'm Dangerous Tonight (1990); Intrigues (1985); Jane Wyman Presents the Fireside Theatre (1956); Journey to the Unknown (1968); Kamen no hanayome - Kurayami e no waltz (1981); Kuroi kâten (1982); La huella de unos labios (1952); La noche al hablar (1964); Les yeux qui hurlent (1973); Lights Out (1952); Lux Video Theatre (1954–1957); Manhattan Love Song (1934); Manhunt (1951); Martha (1974); Mississippi Mermaid (1969); Moment of Fear (1960); Mrs. Winterbourne (1996); Nash Airflyte Theatre (1950); Never Open That Door (1952); Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948); Nightmare (1956); No Man of Her Own (1950); Obsession (1954); Original Sin (2001); Phantom Lady (1944); Playhouse 90 (1956); Polis 3 (2001); Primera fila (1965); Rear Window (1954 / 1998); Rendez-vous en noir (1977); Robert Montgomery Presents (1950–1951); Schlitz Playhouse (1958); Seven Blood-Stained Orchids (1972); Seven Footprints to Satan (1929); She's No Angel (2002); Shisha to no kekkon (1960); Sít na bludicku (1983); Stage 7 (1955); Street of Chance (1942); Studio 57 (1957); Suspense (1949–1950); Suspicion (1957); The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962); The Best in Mystery (1954); The Boris Karloff Mystery Playhouse (1949); The Boy Cried Murder (1966); The Bride Wore Black (1968); The Chase (1946); The Ford Television Theatre (1955); The George Sanders Mystery Theater (1957); The Guilty (1947); The Haunted House (1928); The Hunger (1997–2000); The Leopard Man (1943); The Mark of the Whistler (1944); The Mask (1954); The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse (1953); The Return of the Whistler (1948); The Revlon Mirror Theater (1953); The Silver Theatre (1949); The Web (1957); The Window (1949); Théâtre d'une heure (1966); Thriller (1961); Tras la puerta cerrada (1964–1965); TV de Vanguarda (1954); TV Teatro (1959); Union City (1980); Vikno navproti (1991); Yoru no wana (1967); You'll Never See Me Again (1973 / 1986); Your Play Time (1954).

Recommended reading:

Four Novellas of Fear

By Cornell Woolrich.

Paperback.

First published 2010.

Published by A. J. Cornell Publications.

ISBN-10: 0972743987

ISBN-13: 978-0972743983

Contents: Eyes That Watch You, The Night I Died, You'll Never See Me Again, Murder Always Gathers Momentum.

Description:

Cornell Woolrich, best known as the author of "Rear Window," is unsurpassed in his ability to create and sustain sheer suspense. In his tales of terror, ordinary people find themselves in the most extraordinary circumstances and, as readers, we share their spine-tingling tension every step of the way. Here, collected for the first time, are four of his most nail-biting novellas.

Eyes That Watch You

Greedy Vera Miller plots her husband’s murder right under the nose of her mute, paralyzed mother-in-law. After all, the old lady won’t be able to tell anyone about the crime. Or will she?

The Night I Died

Nice guy Ben Cook, goaded by his scheming common-law wife, fakes his own suicide and moves to another town all to trick his life insurance company into making a large payout. No one en route or at the new address will recognize him, will they?

You’ll Never See Me Again

Ed Bliss’s new bride, miffed by her husband’s insults about her biscuits, promises that Ed will never have to see her again and storms out! When she doesn t return within a few days, Ed begins to suspect foul play but when he reports the crime to the police, he’s the first one they suspect!

Murder Always Gathers Momentum

For his wife’s sake, Dick Paine approaches a former employer for back wages he is owed but things go terribly wrong and the old boss ends up dead. Now the guilt-ridden Paine, who’d never before committed a crime, is convinced that people will figure out what happened. As his paranoia gathers momentum, anyone he meets is at risk of becoming his next victim.

Cornell Woolrich from Pulp Noir to Film Noir

By Thomas C. Renzi

Published 2006.

Published by McFarland.

Illustrated edition.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 078642351X

ISBN-13: 978-0786423514

Description:

Extremely popular and prolific in the 1930s and 1940s, Cornell Woolrich still has diehard fans who thrive on his densely packed descriptions and his spellbinding premises. A contemporary of Hammett and Chandler, he competed with them for notoriety in the pulps and became the single most adapted writer for films of the noir period. Perhaps the most famous film adaptation of a Woolrich story is Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954). Even today, his work is still onscreen; Michael Cristofer’s Original Sin (2001) is based on one of his tales.

This book offers a detailed analysis of many of Woolrich’s novels and short stories; examines films adapted from these works; and shows how Woolrich’s techniques and themes influenced the noir genre. Twenty-two stories and 30 films compose the bulk of the study, though many other additions of films noirs are also considered because of their relevance to Woolrich’s plots, themes and characters. The introduction includes a biographical sketch of Woolrich and his relationship to the noir era, and the book is illustrated with stills from Woolrich’s noir classics.

On this day in movie history - The Chase (movie & novel):

The Chase

directed by Arthur Ripley,

written by Philip Yordan,

based on the novel The Black Path of Fear by Cornell Woolrich,

was released in the United States on November 17, 1946.
Music by Michel Michelet.

Cast:

Robert Cummings, Michèle Morgan, Steve Cochran, Lloyd Corrigan, Jack Holt, Peter Lorre, Don Wilson, Alexis Minotis, Nina Koshetz, Yolanda Lacca, James Westerfield, Jimmy Ames.

Recommended reading:

The Black Path of Fear

By Cornell Woolrich.

Filmed as The Chase (1946), directed by Arthur Ripley.

ASIN: B000TZ32I8

Published by Ace.

Published 1944.

Mass Market Paperback.

Description:

The Black Path of Fear (1944) tells of a man who runs away to Havana with an American gangster's wife, followed by the vengeful husband, who kills the woman and frames her lover, leaving him a stranger in a strange land, menaced on all sides and fighting for his life.

“A fiendishly ingenious plot … thrilling episodes.” – New York Times.

Recommended reading - The Black Curtain (1941):

The Black Curtain

By Cornell Woolrich.

Filmed as Street of Chance (1942), directed by Jack Hively.

First published 1941.

Published by Centipede Press.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 1613471475

ISBN-13: 978-1613471470

Description:

A man is accused of a murder he cannot remember…

In a nightmare scenario, Frank Townsend has an apparently minor accident on his way home but he arrives to find his wife gone and doesn’t recognize his apartment. He had gone to work on a normal day but didn’t return for more than three years. Suffering from amnesia, he has to rediscover who he is, where he has been, and what he has done. A curtain has fallen to cut off all memories of his life.

First among the memories he wants to recover is whether he has committed the murder of which he has been accused. A mysterious stranger with a gun has been following him while he attempts to simultaneously understand what has happened in his past while doing all he can to extricate himself from a seemingly hopeless situation and regain his reputation. He does not yet know that he is in great jeopardy and there is no one he can trust to rescue him from the abyss.

The Black Curtain is the second of Cornell Woolrich’s celebrated “black” books, following The Bride Wore Black, which established his reputation as America’s greatest noir writer. It was adapted into film as the classic Street of Chance, starring Burgess Meredith and Claire Trevor.

Recommended reading - Nightwebs (1971):

Nightwebs

By Cornell Woolrich.

Short story anthology.

Includes the short story The Corpse Next Door, filmed as Union City (1980), directed by Mark Reichert.

Paperback.

Published Orion Books.

First published 1971.

ISBN 13: 9780752851709

ISBN 10: 0752851705

ASIN: 0752851705

Description:

“Possibly the finest mystery writer of the twentieth century.” – The Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection.

Cornell Woolrich was a haunted man who lived a life of reclusive misery, but he was also a uniquely gifted writer who explored the classic noir themes of loneliness, despair and futility. His stories are masterpieces of psychological suspense and mystery, and they have inspired classic movies like Hitchcock's Rear Window and Truffaut's The Bride wore Black. This collection brings together twelve of his finest, most powerful and disturbing tales.

Contents: Graves for the Living; The Red Tide; The Corpse Next Door; You'll Never See Me Again; Dusk to Dawn; Murder at the Automat; Death in the Air; Mamie 'n' Me; The Screaming Laugh; One and a Half Murders; Dead on Her Feet; One Night in Barcelona; The Penny-a-Worder; The Number's Up; Too Nice a Day to Die; Life is Weird Sometimes.

Recommended reading - The Black Angel, by Cornell Woolrich (1943):

The Black Angel

By Cornell Woolrich.

Filmed as Black Angel (1946), directed by Roy William Neill.

Published by Pegasus Crime.

First published 1943.

ISBN-10: 1605983551

ISBN-13: 9781605983554

Description:

Nothing beats a tale of fatalistic dread by the supreme master of suspense, Cornell Woolrich, whose novels and short stories define the essence of noir nihilism. – Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review.

Along with Raymond Chandler, Cornell Woolrich practically invented the genre of noir. – Newsday.

Woolrich devised and used instruments of psychological torture―his stories. – Time.

Woolrich was a master of the form. – Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal.

You can palpably feel the agony in Woolrich and his work. – James Ellroy.

A classic is back in print! This hypnotic thriller, by one of the originators of the noir form, exposes its heroine to a waking nightmare.

In this classic crime novel, a panic-stricken young wife races against time to prove that her convicted husband did not murder his mistress. Writing in first person from the wife’s viewpoint, Woolrich evokes her love and anguish and, finally, desperation as she becomes an avenging angel in her attempt to rescue her husband from execution.

Recommended reading - Nightmare, by Cornell Woolrich (1964):

Nightmare

By Cornell Woolrich.

Filmed as Fear in the Night (1946), directed and written by Maxwell Shane.

Paperback.

Published by Dell.

Published 1964.

ASIN: B0027Q9XOO

Description:

Anthology of six short stories. Story titles: I'll Take You Home, Kathleen / aka One Last Night; Screen Test / aka Preview to Death; I O U / aka I.O.U.–One Life; Three O'Clock; Nightmare / aka And So To Death; Bequest / aka Implacable Bequest.

Recommended reading - Phantom Lady (1942):

Phantom Lady

By Cornell Woolrich.

Published by Renaissance Literary & Talent.
First published 1942.
Paperback.
ISBN-10: 1950369781
ISBN-13: 978-1950369782

Description:

Phantom lady, I was with you for six hours last night, but I can't remember what you look like, or what you wore—except for that large orange hat. We sat shoulder to shoulder at a little bar in the east Fifties. We ate dinner together, saw a Broadway show together, shared a cab together.

The bartender, the waiter, the usher, the cab driver—none of them remembers you. The police say I was home strangling my wife at the moment I met you.

You are the only one who can prove my story—but I don't know your name, or where you live. And I can't search for you from a jail cell....

After spending a night on the town with a mysterious woman, a man arrives home to find his wife strangled to death. Now, the only way to prove his innocence and confirm his alibi is to track down the "Phantom Lady" he was with all night. “Cornell Woolrich deserves to be discovered and rediscovered by each generation." – Ray Bradbury Cornell George Hopley-Woolrich (4 December 1903 – 25 September 1968) is one of America's best crime and noir writers, and sometimes wrote under the pseudonyms William Irish or George Hopley. He invented and mastered the genre of "Pulp-Fiction" and wrote hundreds of short stories, novellas and full-length novels. One of his most famous stories is It Had to be Murder which was adapted into the classic Alfred Hitchcock film Rear Window in 1954. Check out the countless other Woolrich Novels, Novellas and Short Stories, also available as EBooks, from the Estate of Cornell Woolrich and Renaissance Literary & Talent!