Born on this day – W. R. Burnett:

W. R. Burnett

Writer

November 25, 1899 – April 25, 1982

Credits:

Books:

Little Caesar (1929); The Silver Eagle (1931); Dark Hazard (1933); The Goodhues of Sinking Creek (1934); High Sierra (1940); Nobody Lives Forever (1943); The Quick Brown Fox (1943); Tomorrow's Another Day (1945); Romelle (1946); The Asphalt Jungle (1949); Little Men, Big World (1951); Vanity Row (1952); Underdog (1957); Conant (1961); Round the Clock At Volari's (1961); The Widow Barony (1962); The Abilene Samson (1963); The Cool Man (1968); Good-bye, Chicago (1981); Four novel omnibus: Little Caesar / The Asphalt Jungle / High Sierra / Vanity Row (1984).

Movies and television:

4 for Texas (1963); 36 Hours to Kill (1936); 77 Sunset Strip (1959); Accused of Murder (1956); Action in the North Atlantic (1943); Arrowhead (1953); Background to Danger (1943); Belle Starr's Daughter (1948); Bonanza (1968); Cairo (1963); Captain Lightfoot (1955); Colorado Territory (1949); Cool Breeze (1972); Crash Dive (1943); Dance Hall (1941); Danger (1950); Dangerous Mission (1954); Dark Command (1940); Dark Hazard (1934); Dr. Socrates (1935); High Sierra (1940); I Died a Thousand Times (1955); Ice Station Zebra (1968); Illegal (1955); Iron Man (1951); King of the Underworld (1939); Kraft Theatre (1949); Law and Order (1932/ 1940 / 1953); Little Caesar (1931); Naked City (1960); Night People (1954); Nobody Lives Forever (1946); Off to See the Wizard (1967); San Antonio (1945); Scarface (1932); Screen Directors Playhouse (1955); September Storm (1960); Sergeants 3 (1962); Short Cut to Hell (1957); Some Blondes Are Dangerous (1937); Stiletto (1969); Studio 57 (1956); Studio One (1952); The Asphalt Jungle (1950); The Asphalt Jungle (1961); The Badlanders (1958); The Beast of the City (1932); The Finger Points (1931); The Getaway (1941); The Great Escape (1963); The Hangman (1959); The Iron Man (1931); The Jackals (1967); The Lawbreakers (1961); The Legend of Jesse James (1965); The Man I Love (1946); The Racket (1951); The Untouchables (1960); The Virginian (1967); The Westerner (1940); The Whole Town's Talking (1935); This Gun for Hire (1942); Vendetta (1950); Wake Island (1942); Wild West Days (1937); Wine, Women and Horses (1937); Yellow Sky (1948).

On this day in movie history - I Died a Thousand Times (1955)

I Died a Thousand Times

directed by Stuart Heisler,

written by W. R. Burnett,

was released in the United States on November 9, 1955.

Music by David Buttolph.

Cast:

Jack Palance, Shelley Winters, Lori Nelson, Lee Marvin, Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez, Lon Chaney Jr., Earl Holliman, Perry Lopez, Richard Davalos, Howard St. John, Nick Adams, Dennis Hopper, Ralph Moody, Olive Carey, Dub Taylor, Paul Brinegar, James Millican.

Recommended reading - The Asphalt Jungle (novel & screenplay):

The Asphalt Jungle

by W. R. Burnett.

Filmed as The Asphalt Jungle (1950), directed by John Huston.

Published by Prion Books Ltd

First published 1949.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 1853753467

ISBN-13: 978-1853753466

Description:

So successful in evoking [the city's] aura that the reader breathes the air of menace that emanates from its implacable personality and shivers at the unmistakeable evidence that blind chance plays a considerable part in determining the course of every life within the city's confines. – New York Times.

The Asphalt Jungle is a gripping tale of the planning and execution of a jewellery store heist in a dark and corrupt Midwestern metropolis. Set amid a seedy urban wasteland of crooks, killers and con-artists, the various members of the gang are steadily undone by personal obsessions, double-crossing and cruel fate.

First published in 1949, W.R. Burnett's hardboiled classic was made into the definitive heist movie by John Huston in 1950, starring Sterling Hayden, Sam Jaffe and Marilyn Monroe. Its screenplay, co-written by Huston was nominated for an Oscar.

A master and pioneer of the gangster genre, W.R. Burnett is the author of over thirty novels - including Little Caesar and High Sierra - and sixty screenplays. He was twice nominated for Academy Awards.

 

The Asphalt Jungle: A Screenplay

by Ben Maddow & John Huston.

Screenplay Library.

Published by Southern Illinois University Press.

Published 1980.

First Edition.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0809309467

ISBN-13: 978-0809309467

Description:

Dore Schary, then head of production at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, bought The Asphalt Jungle while it was still in manu­script in an effort to match the success Warner Brothers had enjoyed with Burnett’s Little Caesar and High Sierra. The choice of Ben Maddow and John Huston as screenwriters assured the artistic success of the screenplay, for few writer/directors could have matched Huston’s ability to develop these characters cinematically.

It was a case of strength building upon strength. Burnett’s fully developed characters were transformed by Maddow and Huston into a screenplay of impressive immediacy. Indeed, the portrayal of the criminals in splendid performances from Louis Calhern, Sam Jaffe, Sterling Hayden, James Whitmore, and Jean Hagen, led Bosley Crowther to lament, “If only it all weren’t so corrupt!” But the characters of Burnett, Maddow and Huston, don’t permit us to romanticize about them or their activities. We share their professional pride in a robbery well planned and are silent accomplices to their mutual treachery.