Born on this day – Steve Fisher:

Steve Fisher

Writer

Producer

August 29, 1912 – March 27, 1980

Credits:

Books:

Be Still My Heart (1952); Homicide Johnny (1940); I Wake Up Screaming (1941); Image of Hell (1961); Murder of the Admiral (1936); Murder of the Pigboat Skipper / aka Murder on the S-23 (1937); No House Limit (1958); Satan's Angel (1935); Saxon's Ghost (1969); Take All You Can Get (1955); The Best American Noir of the Century (2010); The Big Dream (1970); The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories (2010); The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps (2007); The Hell-Black Night (1970); The Night Before Murder (1939); Winter Kill (1946).

Movies and television:

77 Sunset Strip (1959); Adventures of the Sea Hawk (1958); Arizona Bushwhackers (1968); Barnaby Jones (1973); Battle Zone (1952); Berlin Correspondent (1942); Betrayed Women (1955); Black Spurs (1965); Cannon (1973); Celebrity Playhouse (1956); Checkmate (1960); City That Never Sleeps (1953); Colt .45 (1958); Combat! (1965); Conflict (1956); Courage of Black Beauty (1957); Crusader (1955); Danger (1951); Dead Reckoning (1946); Decision (1958); Destination Tokyo (1943); Fantasy Island (1978–1981); Flat Top (1952); Fort Utah (1967); General Electric Theater (1959); Have Gun - Will Travel (1957–1959); Hell's Half Acre (1954); Hostile Guns (1967); I Mobster (1959); I Wake Up Screaming (1941); I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes (1948); Jane Wyman Presents the Fireside Theatre (1957–1958); Johnny Angel (1945); Johnny Reno (1966); King of Diamonds (1961–1962); Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1975); Lady in the Lake (1946); Las Vegas Shakedown (1955); Law of the Lawless (1964); Luke and the Tenderfoot (1955 / 1965); Lux Video Theatre (1955); Matt Helm (1975); McMillan & Wife (1972–1973); Men of Annapolis (1958); Miami Undercover (1961); Navy Secrets (1939); New York Confidential (1959); Night Freight (1955); Noose for a Gunman (1960); Nurse from Brooklyn (1938); Peter Gunn (1958); Red Tomahawk (1966); Ripcord (1962–1963); Roadblock (1951); Rogue's Gallery (1968); San Antone (1953); Schlitz Playhouse (1955–1956); Sea of Lost Ships (1953); September Storm (1960); Silent Fear (1956); Song of the Thin Man (1947); Starsky and Hutch (1976–1977); Susan Slept Here (1954); Switch (1978); Tales of Wells Fargo (1957–1960); Terror Street (1953); That's My Man (1947); The 20th Century-Fox Hour (1955–1956); The Best in Mystery (1954); The Big Frame (1952); The Big Tip Off (1955); The Clones (1973); The Court of Last Resort (1957); The Dick Powell Theatre (1961); The Evil Touch (1973); The Ford Television Theatre (1954–1957); The George Sanders Mystery Theater (1957); The Great Gundown (1977); The Hunted (1948); The Last Day (1975); The Lawbreakers (1963); The Loretta Young Show (1958–1959); The Man from the Alamo (1953); The Quick Gun (1964); The Restless Breed (1957); The Revlon Mirror Theater (1953); The Rough Riders (1958); The Shanghai Story (1954); The Toughest Man Alive (1955); The Wild Wild West (1966); To the Shores of Tripoli (1942); Tokyo Joe (1949); Tombstone Territory (1957–1958); Top Gun (1955); Typhoon (1940); U.S. Marshal (1959–1960); Vacation Playhouse (1965); Vicki (1953); Waco (1966); Woman They Almost Lynched (1953); Whispering Smith vs. Scotland Yard (1952); Wire Service (1957); Woman in the Rain (1976); Young Fury (1964).

Recommended reading - Image of Hell by Steve Fisher (1961):

Image of Hell

By Steve Fisher.

ASIN: B000K0C0GM
Published by Dutton.
First Edition
First published 1961.
Hardcover.

Description:

A psychiatrist takes his revenge on a Hollywood actress for rejecting his advances.

On this day in movie history - I Wake Up Screaming, a.k.a. Hot Spot (movie & novel):

I Wake Up Screaming

a.k.a. Hot Spot,

directed by H. Bruce Humberstone,

written by Dwight Taylor and Steve Fisher,

based on the novel by Steve Fisher,

was released in Spain on October 31, 1941.

Music by Cyril J. Mockridge.

Cast:

Betty Grable, Victor Mature, Carole Landis, Laird Cregar, Alan Mowbray, Allyn Joslyn, Elisha Cook, Jr., Chick Chandler, Cyril Ring, Morris Ankrum, Charles Lane, Frank Orth, Gregory Gaye, May Beatty, Stanley Blystone, Heinie Conklin.

Recommended reading:

I Wake Up Screaming

By Steve Fisher.

Paperback.

Published by Vintage.

First published 1941.

ISBN 13: 9780679736776

ISBN 10: 0679736778

ASIN: 0679736778

Description:

The classic novel of sexual obsession and murder amid the star-making machinery of Hollywood in the 1950s.

"She was as white as marble, but she looked lovely.  Her hair was splayed out in fine strands of gold, and her lips were bright, rich red, and there was a green eyeshadow on her eyelids.  You could see that because her eyes were closed and she was lying very still.  She was lying still and she wasn't breathing."

With its portraits of washed-up directors, jaded leading men, and a ruthless cop whose one-track mind leads straight to a cyanide pellet, I Wake Up Screaming is a magnificent thriller by a Hollywood insider whose screenplays included Lady in the Lake and I, Mobster.