Born on this day – Jay Dratler:

Jay Dratler

Writer

September 14, 1910 – September 25, 1968

Books:

Doctor Paradise (1957); Dream of a Woman (1958); Ducks in Thunder (1940); Goya. A portrait of the artist as a man (1936); Manhattan Side Street (1936); The Judas Kiss (1955); The Pitfall (1947); Without Mercy (1957); Zeppelin, the story of lighter-than-air craft (1937).

Plays:

A Grape for Seeing (1965); The Women of Troy (1966).

Movies and television:

Alcoa Theatre (1959); Breaking Point (1963–1964); Burke's Law (1964); Call Northside 777 (1948); Confessions of Boston Blackie (1941); Dancing in the Dark (1949); Fly-By-Night (1942); Get Hep to Love (1942); Girls Under 21 (1940); Higher and Higher (1943); I Aim at the Stars (1960); Impact (1949); It Comes Up Love (1943); It's in the Bag! (1945); La Conga Nights (1940); Laura (1944); Lux Video Theatre (1956); Meet Boston Blackie (1941); Naked City (1961); Perry Mason (1959); Pitfall (1948); Robert Montgomery Presents (1950); Studio 57 (1958); That Wonderful Urge (1948); The 20th Century-Fox Hour (1957); The Addams Family (1964); The Dark Corner (1946); The Desperate Hours (1955); The Fabulous Oliver Chantry (1953); The Las Vegas Story (1952); The New Addams Family (1998); The Revlon Mirror Theater (1953); The Thin Man (1958); The Wife Takes a Flyer (1942); We're Not Married! (1952); Where Did You Get That Girl? (1941).

On this day in movie history – Pitfall (1948 movie & novel):

Pitfall

directed by André de Toth,

written by Karl Kamb, André de Toth and William Bowers,

based on the novel The Pitfall by Jay Dratler,

was released in the United States on August 24, 1948.
Music by Louis Forbes.

Cast:

Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, Jane Wyatt, Raymond Burr, John Litel, Byron Barr, Jimmy Hunt, Ann Doran, Selmer Jackson, Margaret Wells, Dick Wessel.

Recommended reading:

The Pitfall

By Jay Dratler.

Introduction by Jay Dratler Jr. & Timothy J. Lockhart.

Published by Stark House Press.

First published 1939.

ASIN: B0BGMFDDKV

ISBN-13: 979-8886010084

Description:

Jon Forbes is a happily married screenwriter in Hollywood when his cop friend Mac tells him about a gal named Mona he’s interested in. Her husband is in jail, and she knows that Mac is the cop who put him there. So, Mac asks Forbes to set her up for him. Take her out, introduce her to him as a friend.

But that’s where Forbes’s troubles begin. Because happily married or not, Mona gets into his blood immediately. And he into hers. And now he’s not only lying to his wife, but trying to avoid Mac as well. He and Mona have no idea where this will lead, but they both know it can’t end well. But neither of them figure just how far Mac will go to get Forbes out of the way once he discovers his friend’s betrayal. Nor what Forbes will do to protect his own.