Cornell Woolrich: Difference between revisions

His biographer, Francis Nevins Jr., rated Woolrich the fourth best [[Crime fiction|crime writer]] of his day, behind [[Dashiell Hammett]], [[Erle Stanley Gardner]] and [[Raymond Chandler]].{{cn|date=October 2023}}

He attended [[Columbia University]] but left in 1926 without graduating when his first novel, ''Cover Charge'', was published.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-05-07 |title=Take Five with Charles Ardai '91 |url=https://www.college.columbia.edu/cct/latest/take-five/take-five-charles-ardai-91 |access-date=2022-05-01 |website=Columbia College Today |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Columbia College (Columbia University). Office of Alumni Affairs and Development |url=http://archive.org/details/ldpd_12981092_023 |title=Columbia College today |last2=Columbia College (Columbia University) |date=1981 |publisher=New York: Columbia College, Office of Alumni Affairs and Development |others=Columbia University Libraries}}</ref> As [[Eddie Duggan]] observes, "Woolrich enrolled at New York's Columbia University in 1921 where he spent a relatively undistinguished year until he was taken ill and was laid up for some weeks. It was during this illness (a ''Rear- Window''-like–like confinement involving a gangrenous foot, according to one version of the story) that Woolrich started writing, producing ''Cover Charge'', which was published in 1926."<ref name=ED>[[Eddie Duggan]] [https://www.academia.edu/6778750/_Writing_in_the_Darkness_The_World_of_Cornell_Woolrich_._Crimetime_1999_ (1999) 'Writing in the darkness: the world of Cornell Woolrich' ''CrimeTime'' 2.6 pp. 113–126.]</ref> ''Cover Charge'' was one of his [[Jazz Age]] novels inspired by the work of [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]]. A second short story, ''"Children of the Ritz''", won Woolrich the first prize of $10,000 the following year in a competition organised by College Humor and First National Pictures; this led to his working as a screenwriter in Hollywood for First National Pictures. While in Hollywood, Woolrich explored his sexuality,<ref name="glbtq">{{Cite news |url=http://www.glbtq.com/literature/woolrich_c.html |title=Woolrich, Cornell |periodical=[[glbtq.com]] |access-date=2007-08-20 |year=2003 |last=Krinsky |first=Charles |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070814195306/http://www.glbtq.com/literature/woolrich_c.html |archive-date=2007-08-14 }}</ref> apparently engaging in what [[FrancesFrancis M. Nevins|Francis M. Nevins]] Jr.]] describes as "promiscuous and clandestine homosexual activity" and by marrying Violet Virginia Blackton, the 21-year-old daughter of [[J. Stuart Blackton]], one of the founders of the [[Vitagraph]] studio. Failing in both his attempt at marriage and at establishing a career as a screenwriter (the unconsummated marriage was annulled in 1933; Woolrich garnered no screen credits), Woolrich sought to resume his life as a novelist:

{{quoteblockquote| Although Woolrich had published six 'jazz-age' novels, concerned with the party-antics and romances of the beautiful young things on the fringes of American society, between 1926 and 1932, he was unable to establish himself as a serious writer. Perhaps because the 'jazz-age' novel was dead in the water by the 1930s when the depression[[Great Depression|Depression]] had begun to take hold, Woolrich was unable to find a publisher for his seventh novel, ''I Love You, Paris'', so he literally threw away the typescript, dumped it in a dustbin, and re-invented himself as a pulp writer.<ref name=ED/>}}

He returned to New York, where he and his mother moved into the [[Hotel Marseilles]] (Broadway and West 103rd Street inon HarlemManhattan's [[Upper West Side]]). Eddie Duggan observes that "[a]lthough his writing made him wealthy, Woolrich and his mother lived in a series of seedy hotel rooms, including the squalid Hotel Marseilles apartment building in Harlem [sic], among a group of thieves, prostitutes and lowlifes that would not be out of place in Woolrich's dark fictional world."<ref name=ED/> Woolrich lived there until his mother's death on October 6, 1957, which prompted his move to the slightly more upscale Hotel Franconia (20 West 72nd Street near Central Park).<ref>Nevins, Francis M. "Introduction," ''Tonight, Somewhere in New York''. Carroll & Graf, 2001.</ref> Duggan wrote:

{{quotationblockquote | [After] Woolrich's mother died in 1957, he [went] into a sharp physical and mental decline.}}

Woolrich did not attend the premiere of Truffaut's film of his novel ''The Bride Wore Black'' in 1968, even though it was held in New York City. He died weighingSeptember 89 pounds and was interred with his mother in the "Shrine of Memories Mausoleum"25, Unit 1, Tier G, Crypt 102 at [[Ferncliff Cemetery]], [[Hartsdale, New York]]1968.<ref>https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/4735/cornell-woolrich {{User-generated source|certain=yes|date=June 2022}}</ref>

Most of Woolrich's books are out of print, and new editions were slow to come out because of estate issues.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}} However, new collections of his short stories were issued in the early 1990s. As of February 3, 2020, the [http://fadedpage.com Faded Page] has seven titles available as [[EBook|ebooks]] in the [[public domain]] in Canada; these may be still under copyright elsewhere. In 2020 and 2021, [[Otto Penzler]]'s "American Mystery Classics" series released new editions of ''Waltz into Darkness'' and ''The Bride Wore Black'' in both hardcover and paperback.

===Short storyfiction collections===

! Year !! Title !! Author Credit !! Notes

|Also published as an Armed Services Edition.

|Includes his noted 1941 [[novella]] ''[[Marihuana (novel)|"Marihuana"]]''. Also published as an Armed Services Edition.

|Published in paperback only.

|''[[Borrowed Crime]]''

|Published in paperback only.

|''[[The Blue Ribbon]]''

|A.k.a.AKA ''"Deadly Night Call"''

|''[[Six Nights of Mystery]]''

|Published in paperback only.

|''[[Nightmare (short story collection))|Nightmare]]''

|Includes both previously published &and unpublished stories.

|''[[Violence (short story collection))|Violence]]''

|Includes both previously published &and unpublished stories.

|''[[Hotel Room (novel)|Hotel Room]]''

|''[[Beyond the Night]]''

|Published in paperback only.

|''[[The Dark Side of Love (novel)|The Dark Side of Love]]''

|''[[The Ten Faces of Cornell Woolrich]]''

|''[[Four Novellas of Fear]]''

==Selected films based on Woolrich's storiesfiction==

* ''[[ConvictedManhattan (1938Love film)|ConvictedSong]]'' (19381934) (storybased ''Faceon Work''the novel), directed by [[LeonLeonard Barsha]]Fields

* ''[[Street of ChanceConvicted (19421938 film)|Street of ChanceConvicted]]'' (19421938) (novelbased ''Theon the Blackshort Curtain''story "Face Work"), directed by [[JackLeon HivelyBarsha]]

* ''[[Phantom Lady (film)|Phantom Lady]]'' (1944) (based on the novel), directed by [[Robert Siodmak]]

* ''[[The Mark of the Whistler]]'' (1944) (based on the story ''"Dormant Account''"), directed by [[William Castle]]

* ''[[Deadline at Dawn]]'' (1946) (based on the novel), the only film directed by stage director [[Harold Clurman]]

* ''[[Black Angel (1946 film)|Black Angel]]'' (1946) (based on the novel), directed by [[Roy William Neill]]

* ''[[The Chase (1946 film)|The Chase]]'' (1946) (based on the novel ''The Black Path of Fear''). directed by [[Arthur Ripley]]

* ''[[Fall Guy (1947 film)|Fall Guy]]'' (1947) (based on the story ''"Cocaine''"), directed by [[Reginald Le Borg]]

* ''[[The Guilty (1947 film)|The Guilty]]'' (1947) (based on the story ''"He Looked Like Murder''"), directed by [[John Reinhardt (director)|John Reinhardt]]

* ''[[Fear in the Night (1947 film)|Fear in the Night]]'' (1947) (based on the story story ''"Nightmare''"), directed by [[Maxwell Shane]]

* ''[[The Return of the Whistler]]'' (1948) (based on the story ''"All at Once, No Alice''"), directed by [[D. Ross Lederman]]

* ''[[I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes]]'' (1948) (based on the story), directed by [[William Nigh]]

* ''[[Night Has a Thousand Eyes]]'' (1948) (based on the novel), directed by [[John Farrow]]

* ''[[The Window (1949 film)|The Window]]'' (1949) (based on the story ''"The Boy Cried Murder''"), directed by [[Ted Tetzlaff]]

* ''[[No Man of Her Own (1950 film)|No Man of Her Own]]'' (1950) (based on the novel ''I Married a Dead Man''), directed by [[Mitchell Leisen]]

* ''[[The Earring]]'' (1951) (based on the story ''"The Death Stone''"), directed by [[León Klimovsky]]

* ''If I Should Die Before I Wake'' (1952),<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/shci.4.2.121_1|title=Two Takes on Gender in Argentine Film Noir|journal=Studies in Hispanic Cinemas|date=May 2008|author=Thompson, Currie K|volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=121–130 |doi=10.1386/shci.4.2.121_1 }}</ref> directed by [[Carlos Hugo Christensen]]

* ''[[Don't Ever Open That Door]]'' (1952) (an [[anthology]] film based on the stories ''"Somebody on the Phone''" and ''"Humming Bird Comes Home''") directed by [[Carlos Hugo Christensen]]

* ''[[Rear Window]]'' (1954) (based on the story ''"It Had to Be Murder''"), directed by [[Alfred Hitchcock]]

* ''[[Obsession (1954 film)|Obsession]]'' (1954) (based on the story ''"Silent as the Grave''"), directed by [[Jean Delannoy]]

* ''[[Nightmare (1956 film)|Nightmare]]'' (1956) (based on the story), directed by [[Maxwell Shane]]

* ''[[Escapade (1957 film)|Escapade]]'' (1957) (based on the story ''"Cinderella and the Mob''"), directed by [[Ralph Habib]]

* ''[[Ah, Bomb!]]'' (1964) (based on the story ''Adventures of a Fountain Pen''), directed by [[Kihachi Okamoto]]

* ''[[The Boy Cried Murder]]'' (1966) (based on the story ''The Boy Cried Murder''), directed by [[George P. Breakston]]

* ''[[The Bride Wore Black]]'' (1968) (based on the novel), directed by [[François Truffaut]]

* ''[[Mississippi Mermaid]] '' (1969) (based on the novel ''Waltz into Darkness''), directed by François Truffaut

* ''[[Kati Patang]]'' (1970) (based on the novel ''I Married a Dead Man''),<ref name=exp>{{cite news |title=Shabnam Still Gets Fan Mail|url=http://www.indianexpress.com/news/shabnam-still-gets-fan-mail/720458/0 |publisher=Indian Express |date=Dec 4, 2010 |access-date=May 7, 2013}}</ref> directed by [[Shakti Samanta]]

* ''[[Seven Blood-Stained Orchids]]'' (1972) (based on the novel ''Rendezvous in Black''), directed by [[Umberto Lenzi]]

* ''[[You'll Never See Me Again]]'' (1973), filmed[[TV for television,Movie]] directed by [[Jeannot Szwarc]]

* ''[[Martha (1974 film)|Martha]]'' (1974) (based on the story ''For the Rest of Her Life''), directed by [[Rainer Werner Fassbinder]]

* ''Gun Moll'' (1975) (based on the story "Collared"), directed by [[Giorgio Capitani]]

* ''[[Union City (film)|Union City]]'' (1980) (based on the story ''"The Corpse Next Door''"), directed by [[Marcus Reichert]]

* ''[[I Married a Shadow]]'' (1983) (based on the novel ''I Married a Dead Man'')

* ''[[Cloak & Dagger (1984 film)|Cloak & Dagger]]'' (1984) (story ''"The Boy Who Cried Murder''"), directed by [[Richard Franklin (director)|Richard Franklin]]

* ''[[I'm Dangerous Tonight]]'' (1990) (based on the story ''"I'm Dangerous Tonight''"), directed by [[Tobe Hooper]]

* ''[[Mrs. Winterbourne]]'' (1996) (based on the novel ''"I Married a Dead Man''"), directed by [[Richard Benjamin]]

* ''[[Rear Window (1998 film)|Rear Window]]'' (1998) (based on the story ''"It Had to Be Murder''"), directed by [[Jeff Bleckner]]

* ''[[Original Sin (2001 film)|Original Sin]]'' (2001) (based on the novel ''Waltz into Darkness''), directed by [[Michael Cristofer]]

* ''[[Four O'Clock (film)|Four O'Clock]]'' (2006) (based on the story ''"Three O'Clock''")

* [http://www.escape-suspense.com/cornell_woolrich/ Radio adaptations of Cornell Woolrich's storiesradio adaptations] on the CBS''[[Suspense (radio show ''drama)|Suspense]]'']

[[Category:WritersNovelists from New York City]]

[[Category:20th-century American LGBT people]]