This is a list of books that appealed to me as I read them. I have simply gone on my fond memories of reading them, some many years ago, in a few cases when I was just a boy. I haven’t re-assessed and no doubt a stint of re-reading would lead to a change of mind for several of them.

   No doubt there are many books on the list that you can’t imagine why they are there. No doubt, also, there are some that you can’t imagine why they are not there but many are probably absent because I haven’t read them as I would make no claims to be widely read.

   I have restricted myself to one title per author, pseudonyms included.

   I haven’t counted as I compiled the list but I think there are 81 titles there. I’m sure there are other I should add if they came to mind. In the meantime this listing should be regarded as a work in progress rather than the finished thing.

Eric Ambler: Passage of Arms (1959)
   I read a lot of Ambler back in the ’60s but this was the one that gripped me more than the others.
H.C. Bailey: Call Mr Fortune (1920)
   I bought an omnibus of the first four Mr Fortune short story collections. I started reading intending to just read this first book but ended reading all four straight off.
Francis Beeding: Death Walks in Eastrepps (1931)
   I can’t remember the details but I remember enjoying it.
Nicholas Blake: The Beast Must Die (1938)
   An author sets out to find the hit-and-run driver who killed his son.
Lawrence Block: A Stab In The Dark (1981)
   The best of the earlyish Scudders.
Edward Boyd and Bill Knox: The View From Daniel Pike (1974)
   Short stories about a Glasgow private eye. Boyd wrote the tv scripts Knox turned them into stories.
Ernest Bramah: Max Carrados (1914)
   Classic short stories about a blind detective.
Howard Browne: The Taste Of Ashes (1957)
The best of Paul Pine, private detective.
Curt Cannon [1]: I’m Cannon — For Hire (1958)
   I enjoyed this story of the down-and-out detective.
Sarah Caudwell: Thus Was Adonis Murdered (1981)
   Witty badinage in the legal chambers and in Greece.
Raymond Chandler: Farewell My Lovely (1940)
   My favourite of the Chandlers.
G. K. Chesterton: The Innocence of Father Brown (1911)
   Another classic short story collection.
Erskine Childers: The Riddle of the Sands (1903)
   Immaculate adventure/spy story
Agatha Christie: Death on the Nile (1938)
   An intricately contrived crime that ties up the loose ends.
Tucker Coe: Kinds of Love, Kinds of Death (1966)
   I enjoyed the whole Mitch Tobin sequence and this first one set the tone nicely.
John Collee: Paper Mask (1987)
   The tale of a doomed hospital porter who steps out of his station.
J. J. Connington: Nemesis at Raynham Parva (1929)
   Domestic crime set in the country, with a cunning twist. [2]
Freeman Wills Crofts: The Groote Park Murder (1925)
   A pre-French Crofts but the intricate plot works.
Len Deighton: The Ipcress File (1962)
   The spy novel becomes working class.
Carter Dickson [3]: The Judas Window (1938)
   One of Carr’s intricate impossible crimes.
Warwick Downing: The Player (1974)
   I’ve forgotten the details but I know I enjoyed it.
Arthur Conan Doyle: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
   Probably Doyle’s best set of short stories. (I’m not chickening out by selecting The Complete SH.)
Friedrich Dürrenmatt: The Pledge (1959)
   Short tale of a detective’s mental deterioration as he seeks a child killer.
Stanley Ellin: Mystery Stories (1956)
   Excellent and varied set of short stories.
G. J. Feakes: Moonrakers and Mischief (1961)
   A little weak in the plot but hilariously funny.
Dick Francis: Enquiry (1970)
   My favourite among many excellent racing thrillers.
R. Austin Freeman: The Red Thumb Mark (1907)
   The meticulous Thorndyke at his intricate best.
Stephen Greenleaf: Beyond Blame (1986)
   My favourite of the Tanner books. The ending stood up which it often didn’t in Greenleaf’s other books, good as they were to read.
Michael Gilbert: Death in Captivity (1952)
   Whodunit and PoW escape novel all in one book.
Donald Hamilton: Death of a Citizen (1960)
   First in an excellent series.
Dashiell Hammet: Red Harvest (1928)
   My favourite of his novels, otherwise I might have gone for a short story collection.
Cyril Hare: Tragedy at Law (1942)
   Pettigrew and the murder of a judge on the circuit that the author knew so well.
Thomas Harris: Red Dragon (1981)
   Excellent story with a captivating villain.
Jeremiah Healy: So Like Sleep (1987)
   My favourite of the early Cuddy’s.
Patricia Highsmith: Deep Water (1957)
   I enjoyed this murderous tale better than her more famous works.
Edward D. Hoch: Diagnosis Impossible (1996)
   Excellent collection of ‘impossible’ crimes concerning Dr Sam Hawthorne.
E. W. Hornung: The Amateur Cracksman (1899)
   First of the tales of Raffles. gentleman-thief.
Geoffrey Household: Rogue Male (1939)
   The best thriller I have read.
Richard Hull: The Murder of My Aunt (1934)
   Excellently humorous ‘inverted’ tale.
Stanley Hyland: Who Goes Hang? (1958)
   The details have gone but I know I enjoyed this tales set in the House of Commons.
Francis Iles [4]: Malice Aforethought (1931)
   Excellent inverted novel.
Dan Kavanagh: Putting the Boot In (1985)
   The best book I have read set around football.
Harry Stephen Keeler: The Amazing Web (1929)
   Typically intricate Keeler tale that all ties together neatly at the end.
Maurice Leblanc: The Confessions of Arsène Lupin (1912)
   Amusing and intricate tales of the French rogue.
John le Carré: Call For the Dead (1961)
   Excellent detective story set in the world of espionage.
Ira Levin: A Kiss Before Dying (1953)
   Has the best single moment I can recall reading.
Dick Lochte: Sleeping Dog (1985)
   Funny and yet enthralling p.i. tale.
Peter Lovesey: A Case of Spirits (1975)
   Excellent impossible crime about the excellent Sergeant Cribb.
Arthur Lyons: All God’s Children (1975)
   A very enjoyable p.i. tale with Jacob Asch.
John D. MacDonald: A Deadly Shade of Gold (1965)
   I read, and enjoyed, the McGee’s a long while ago but this is the one I seem to remember enjoying most.
Philip MacDonald: The Nursemaid Who Disappeared (1938)
   Colonel Gethryn on a case with very little to work on.
Ross Macdonald: The Underground Man (1971)
   My favourite of the Lew Archer books.
Raymond Marshall [5]: Hit and Run (1958)
   Outstanding first person tale of a man who is enticed and becomes wanted for murder.
L.A. Morse: The Old Dick
   I enjoyed this tale of an elderly detective.
John Mortimer: Rumpole of the Bailey (1978)
   The first collection of stories about the Old Bailey hack.
Sara Paretsky: Bitter Medicine (1987)
   My favourite of the Warshawski’s.
Robert B. Parker: Paper Doll (1993)
   Spenser finds the murderer of a businessman’s wife without Hawk’s help.
David Pierce: Down in the Valley (1989)
   The first about private eye Vic Daniel.
Jeremy Pikser: Junk on the Hill (1984)
   I’ve forgotten the details of this but I remember I enjoyed it.
Joyce Porter: Dover and the Unkindest Cut of All (1967)
   Dover investigates forcible castrations.
Talmage Powell: The Girl’s Number Doesn’t Answer (1960)
   The strongest of the five books about Tampa p.i. Ed Rivers
Bill Pronzini: Shackles (1988)
   Nameless is imprisoned and left to die, while working out who his captor is.
Ellery Queen: The Glass Village (1954)
   My favourite Queen though Ellery is not in it.
Patrick Quentin: Puzzle for Fiends (1946)
   Intriguing tale of Peter Duluth institutionalised with amnesia.
Ruth Rendell: A Demon in my View (1976)
   Excellent plot and beguiling story.
Sax Rohmer: The Mystery of Dr Fu-Manchu (1913)
   I loved this as a youngster; Fu-Manchu dominates every page he is on.
James Sallis: The Long-Legged Fly (1992)
   I enjoyed this first in the Lew Griffin series and the second, too, though they started to pall after that.
Sapper: The Female of the Species (1928)
   Bulldog Drummond was racist and objectionable but as a boy I raced through his exploits. This was my favourite as he had to decipher a message to rescue his wife.
Gunnar Staalesen: At Night All Wolves Are Grey (1986)
   Excellent, if bleak, p.i. tale set in Norway.
Rex Stout: In the Best Families (1950) [6]
   Wolfe’s routine is disrupted in this tale.
Josephine Tey: The Franchise Affair (1948)
   A slow build up to a revealing climax as a country solicitor defends two women accused of kidnapping.
Jim Thompson: Pop. 1280 (1964)
   One of Thompson’s riveting tales of a descent into madness.
June Thomson: The Secret Files of Sherlock Holmes (1990)
   Excellent Holmes short story pastiches.
Masako Togawa: The Lady Killer (1985)
   A serial killer in Tokyo.
Peter Tremayne: The Return of Raffles (1981)
   Excellent tale following Raffles’s return from the Boer War.
S. S. Van Dine: The Bishop Murder Case (1929)
   Van Dine is out of favour nowadays but this is one I really enjoyed.
Roy Vickers: The Department of Dead Ends (1947)
   Classic tales of cold cases revived from a single clue.
Henry Wade: Mist on the Saltings (1933)
   A nicely turned out story in which things are as they seemed.
Edgar Wallace: The Fellowship of the Frog
   Another author I read extensively as a boy. This is one of my favourites that I suspect might not stand up to a second reading.
Colin Watson: Hopjoy Was Here (1962)
   A funny, yet involving detective story.
Charles Williams: Dead Calm (1963)
   A riveting tale of skulduggery on the high seas.

      FOOTNOTES:

1. aka Evan Hunter or Ed McBain
2. This is a title that should be read after sampling several of the earlier Connington’s
3. aka John Dickson Carr
4. aka Anthony Berkeley
5. aka James Hadley Chase
6. This is a title that should be read after sampling several of the earlier Nero Wolfe tales, especially And Be a Villain and The Second Confession.

Editorial Comment:   I have one more list of favorite or “best” mysteries to go. I’ll post one from Curt Evans tomorrow. If you’ve been following his reviews on this blog, you won’t be surprised to know that his list consists solely of Golden Age British Detective Novels. Even with that restriction, his list is the longest: 120 books in all. So far.

   Barry Gardner’s recent list has inspired me to do one of my own. I’ve tried to give a good variety by limiting myself to no more than two titles per author (or pseudonym). I’ve also tried to include books that impressed me greatly when read, even if it was twenty years ago and I’d probably not read that book today. On some heavily read authors (McBain, Simenon) titles were chosen nearly at random. Still, it’s a list that I can live with, and one you might find worth checking for titles to try.

Neil Albert, THE JANUARY CORPSE
Eric Ambler, A CORPSE FOR DIMITRIOS
Delano Ames, SHE SHALL HAVE MURDER
Linda Barnes, A TROUBLE OF FOOLS
Lawrence Block, WHEN THE SACRED GINMILL CLOSES
Christianna Brand, GREEN FOR DANGER
Jay Brandon, FADE THE HEAT
Herbert Brean, WILDERS WALK AWAY
Fredric Brown, THE FABULOUS CLIPJOINT
          NIGHT OF THE JABBERWOCK
Paul Cain, FAST ONE
John Dickson Carr, THE THREE COFFINS
Raymond Chandler, FAREWELL, MY LOVELY
         THE LADY IN THE LAKE
George C. Chesbro, BONE
Agatha Christie, AND THEN THERE WERE NONE
          PARTNERS IN CRIME
Liza Cody, BUCKET NUT
Max Allan Collins, TRUE DETECTIVE
K. C. Constantine, THE MAN WHO LIKED SLOW TOMATOES
William J. Coughlin, DEATH PENALTY
Bill Crider, SHOTGUN SATURDAY NIGHT
James Crumley, THE LAST GOOD KISS
Peter Dickinson, KING & JOKER
Jerome Doolittle, BODY SCISSORS
Arthur Conan Doyle, THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES
John Dunning, BOOKED TO DIE
Aaron Elkins, OLD BONES
James Ellroy, THE BLACK DAHLIA
Loren D. Estleman, SUGARTOWN
          PEEPER
Michael Gilbert, DEATH IN CAPTIVITY
Joe Goes, HAMMETT
James W. Hall, UNDER COVER OF DAYLIGHT
Parnell Hall, DETECTIVE
Donald Hamilton, DEATH OF A CITIZEN
Dashiell Hammett, RED HARVEST
          THE MALTESE FALCON
Joseph Hansen, A COUNTRY OF OLD MEN .
Thomas Harris, RED DRAGON
Carl Hiaasen, TOURIST SEASON
Tony Hillerman, DANCE HALL OF THE DEAD
          A THIEF OF TIME
William Hjortsberg, FALLING ANGEL
P. D. James, SHROUD FOR A NIGHTINGALE
Faye Kellerman, DAY OF ATONEMENT
Jonathan Kellerman, WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS
Joseph Koenig, FLOATER
Jonathan Latimer, MURDER IN THE MADHOUSE
Elmore Leonard, CITY PRIMEVIL
Ira Levin, A KISS BEFORE DYING
Michael Z. Lewin, NIGHT COVER
Dick Lochte, SLEEPING DOG
Peter Lovesey, WOBBLE TO DEATH
          THE FALSE INSPECTOR DEW
Arthur Lyons, CASTLES BURNING
Frank McAuliffe, OF ALL THE BLOODY CHEEK
Ed McBain, LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE DEAF MAN
Gregory Mcdonald, FLETCH
John D. MacDonald, THE END OF THE NIGHT
          THE DREADFUL LEMON SKY
Ross Macdonald, THE GALTON CASE
          THE CHILL
Dan J. Marlowe, THE NAME OF THE GAME IS DEATH
Margaret Maron, BOOTLEGGER’S DAUGHTER
Ngaio Marsh, ARTISTS IN CRIME
W. Somerset Maugham, ASHENDEN
Archer Mayor, OPEN SEASON
L. A. Morse, THE OLD DICK
Robert B. Parker, GOD SAVE THE CHILD
Marcia Muller, PENNIES ON A DEAD WOMAN’S EYES
Ridley Pearson, UNDERCURRENTS
Anthony Price, OTHER PATHS TO GLORY
Bill Pronzini, BONES
Ellery Queen, CALAMITY TOWN
          CAT OF MANY TAILS
Barnaby Ross (Queen), THE TRAGEDY OF Y
Dorothy L. Sayers, MURDER MUST ADVERTISE
Laurence Shames, FLORIDA STRAITS
Richard Shattuck, THE WEDDING GUEST SAT ON A STONE
Georges Simenon, MAIGRET GOES HOME
Roger L. Simon, THE BIG FIX
Gerald Sinstadt, THE FIDELIO SCORE
Maj Sjowall/Per Wahloo, THE LAUGHING POLICEMAN
Julie Smith, NEW ORLEANS MOURNING
Richard Stark (Westlake), BUTCHER’S MOON
Rex Stout, TOO MANY COOKS
Grif Stockley, PROBABLE CAUSE
Josephine Tey, THE DAUGHTER OF TIME
Ross Thomas, THE FOOLS IN TOWN ARE ON OUR SIDE
          CHINAMAN’S CHANCE
Jim Thompson, THE KILLER INSIDE ME
          A HELL OF A WOMAN
Arthur W. Upfield, DEATH OF A LAKE
Donald E. Westlake, DANCING AZTECS
Teri White, FAULT LINES
Kate Wilhelm, O, SUSANNAH!
Charles Willeford, MIAMI BLUES
Stuart Woods, CHIEFS
Eric Wright, FINAL CUT

Editorial Comment:   I have one more list like this one to post, and perhaps two. Yours would be welcome, if you’d like to do one. The ground rules are pretty much up to you; any restrictions or boundaries you’d like to place on it are yours to make and to abide by. If you’d care to come up with only a top 10, 15, or 50, that’s fine, too.

    When he agreed to let me reprint this list, Jeff promised to give his reactions when he saw it again. He came up with this list of books and authors 17 years ago, and he hasn’t seen or thought about it since.

At 03:53 PM 4/14/2010, you wrote:

Dear Steve,

    I hope I am not asking too much of you guys again but I was wondering if you had a list of “couples on the run” films. Bonnie and Clyde comes to mind but perhaps something from the 40’s or 50’s? Or more recent than the 60’s? I like the urban man-on-the-run movies [see this previous post] and have seen several from the list already. Do any tales of a (possibly mismatched) couple running from bad guys ring bells? Again, I hope this is not too specific but I have great faith in your encyclopedic knowledge of cinema. Thanks again,

       Josh

          — —

   This is, of course, another follow-up to David Vineyard’s four Top Ten lists of “Man on the Run” thrillers posted here a month or so back. Once again I graciously offered to let him see what he could come up with. Here’s his reply:

   First of all, I’ll limit this to films before the seventies. Saves trying to remember all those bad road pictures of recent years, and I don’t have to include Stallone and Brigitte Nielson in Cobra. Since most of the “man on the run” films end up “couple on the run” at some point this could be a long list, so I’ll just list ones that come to mind fairly easily and hope some others contribute too.

   I’ll also include one or two “two men on the run” films, but the “two girls on the run” films don’t really start until Thelma and Louise, which I’ve already set outside this purview.

   These are neither chronologically or qualitatively ranked. And just so this doesn’t go on forever, I’ll skip team comedies like Laurel and Hardy, Abbot and Costello, and the “Road” pictures of Hope and Crosby since they often ended up with the boys on the run.

   I’m also avoiding the type film where the heroine hides the hero out, but they aren’t really on the run together at any point. I’ve also tried to avoid most buddy pictures — though many technically fit the bill. I’ve also included a few “groups on the run” films.

The 39 Steps. The classic with Robert Donat and Madeline Carroll handcuffed together. One of the brightest films of this sort and the model for all that came after.

The 39 Steps. Good remake from Betty Box, in color with Kenneth More and Tania Elg. Recently re-done for the fourth time for Masterpiece Theater and currently being filmed as a major theatrical release by Robert Towne for 2011 release.

Young and Innocent. Earlier Hitch based on a Josephine Tey novel and with that famous dance hall scene with the killer drummer in black face with a twitch. The innocent man of the title ends up on the run aided by the young daughter of a Scotland Yard Inspector hunting him. Very much a template for The 39 Steps.

Saboteur. Robert Cummings and Priscilla Lane end up on the run together when he is falsely accused of sabotage done by Norman Lloyd. Yet another attempt by Hitch to remake The 39 Steps — it wasn’t until North By Northwest he finally got it the way he wanted.

You Only Live Once. Fritz Lang classic with Henry Fonda and Sylvia Sidney as the Bonnie and Clyde stand-in’s. Recreates the famous bank robbery sequence from Lang’s Spies.

My Favorite Blonde. Conscious comedic version of The 39 Steps with vaudevillian Bob Hope on the run with British Agent Madeline Carroll.

My Favorite Brunette. Early noir send up with Hope and Dorothy Lamour on the run from the law and the crooks after her inheritance. Alan Ladd’s guest shot is surprisingly the only time he played a private eye.

They Live By Night . Solid crime classic with Farley Granger and Cathy Downs as a reluctant Bonnie and Clyde on the run, based on the novel Thieves Like Us by Edward Anderson and remade under that title.

Bonnie Parker Story. Somehow they did Bonnie and Clyde without mentioning Clyde. Dorothy Provine and Jack Hogan. What I remember about this one is that the car the real couple was killed in toured with the film.

Once Upon a Honeymoon. Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers in offbeat comedy as stripper Rogers marries Nazi agent Walter Slezak and is romanced by radio newsman Grant. They both escape after Poland and end up having to escape from Slezak and other Nazis who try and force Grant to become an American Lord Haw Haw. At one point Cary is imprisoned in a concentration camp and just misses being sterilized. From Leo McCarey who directed Going My Way.

Man At Large. Terrific B which has escaped Nazi POW George Reeves and Marjorie Weaver on the run in the US and contacting the fifth column to escape. Very fast and bright in the 39 Steps vein. Though just from the casting you can guess where this is going.

I Wake Up Screaming. Victor Mature ends up being hidden by Betty Grable, and they have to hide from police so technically they are on the run together. Great early noir film with good performances all around and an outstanding one by cop Laird Cregar. Based on Steve Fisher’s novel.

The Defiant Ones . Important racial film has Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier on the run from a chain-gang. Great film with Curtis surprisingly good.

Colorado Territory. Remake of High Sierra as a western from the same director (Raoul Walsh) and writer (W.R. Burnett from his novel), with Joel McCrea and Virginia Mayo in the Bogart and Lupino role, but her role in the chase is somewhat larger in this one.

The Redhead and the Cowboy. Well done western with Confederate agent Rhonda Fleming ending up on the run with cowboy Glenn Ford, who could care less about the Civil War until he comes face to face with choices.

Knight Without Armor. British spy Robert Donat, who has long been undercover in Imperial Russia, ends up on the run with aristocrat Marlene Dietrich in Revolutionary Russia, based on the novel Without Armor by James Hilton. One of the best and classiest pictures no one seems to have seen. Very bright, funny, and wonderfully staged film from the Kordas (Thief of Baghdad, Four Feathers …)

The Adventures of Tartu. Donat again as a Brit spy in Rumania at the beginning of the war to sabotage the Ploesti oil fields with help from Valerie Hobson. Light but enjoyable.

The Burglars. Jean Paul Belmondo and Dyan Cannon evade pursuit by cop Omar Sharif while planning big caper in smart fast film with a classic car chase. Remake of The Burglar with Dan Duryea and Jayne Mansfield and both based on a David Goodis novel.

Belle Starr. The outlaw Gene Tierney and Randolph Scott on the run while pursuing their criminal career. Great cast, but slow as mud.

Ice Cold in Alex. John Mills and Sylvia Syms as an ambulance team and girl trapped in the desert with Nazi soldiers — which side will reach them first?

Blindfolded. Psychiatrist Rock Hudson is hired to help agent who has had a breakdown after torture, but not told where he is taken to treat him, so when everything goes wrong he has to find the locale with sexy Claudia Cardinalle caught up in the chase. Mix of comedy and espionage doesn’t always work, but film has some bright spots.

Escape From Zahrain. Yul Brynner is one of five escaped prisoners along with Madelyn Rhue who’s caught up with them as they escape across the desert from a cruel prison.

Figures in a Landscape. Arty film based on Barry England’s novel with Robert Shaw and Malcolm McDowall on the run after they escape prison. Nice cinematography, but awfully pretentious.

Arabesque. Bright follow up to Stanley Donen’s Charade with scholar Gregory Peck and Arab millionaire Alan Badel’s mistress Sophia Loren on the run as they try to decipher a mysterious message in time to stop the assassination of an Arab prince. It’s no Charade, but gorgeous to look at a much fun with Peck and Loren well matched.

State Secret. Dr. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. is secretly brought in to do brain surgery on dictator of Yugoslavian style country behind the Iron Curtain. When dictator dies Secret Police Chief Jack Hawkins wants him dead and he ends up on the run with actress Glynnis Johns. From Sidney Gilliatt.

Highly Dangerous. Margaret Lockwood is a British etymologist sent behind the Iron Curtain to find out what the bad guys are up to with bugs, but when she is tortured she wakes up thinking she is a the heroine of a BBC radio serial and American journalist Dane Clark her partner. Together they find the secret and end up on the run from dangerous police chief Marius Goring. Original screenplay by Eric Ambler.

Uncertain Glory . Arsene Lupin style French crook Errol Flynn has been caught by policeman Paul Lukas in Nazi occupied France, but together they hideout and plan for Flynn to surrender to the Gestapo instead of real saboteur to save hostages about to be executed — but will Flynn go through with it, or is it just a ploy to escape the guillotine? Screenplay by Max Brand.

Torn Curtain. American defector Paul Newman and girl friend Julie Andrews on the run behind the Iron Curtain when his real mission is revealed. Disappointing Hitchcock film, but the murder of the East German agent in the farm house is a classic piece of Hitchcock.

This Gun For Hire. Alan Ladd is assassin Raven on the run with undercover agent and magician Veronica Lake while her cop boyfriend Robert Preston hunts them as Ladd avenges the double-cross planned by traitor Laird Cregar.

Ministry of Fear. Amnesiac Ray Milland on the run while hunting a spy ring in London during the Blitz with Marjorie Reynolds along for the chase. A Fritz Lang classic. Watch for Dan Dureya in a fine role.

Decision Before Dawn. German soldiers Oskar Werner and O.E. Hasse agree to go back behind German lines in desperate mission as the war is coming to an end. Good film, dark and very stark. Richard Basehart and Gary Merrill are the men who train and dispatch them.

Night of the Hunter. Two children escape psychotic lay preacher Robert Mitchum in Charles Laughton’s classic version of Davis Grubb’s novel. Haunting and beautiful with Lilian Gish and Mitchum wonderfully matched as good vs evil. Fine performances by Gish and Mitchum sometimes overshadow how good the kids are in this one.

Heaven Knows Mr. Allison. Charming John Huston film of marine Mitchum and nun Deborah Kerr evading Japanese when they are wrecked on a small Pacific island.

Raw Deal. Escaped convict Dennis O’Keefe on the run with girl friend Claire Trevor and innocent Marsha Hunt finds himself divided between the two while seeking revenge on sadistic and kinky Raymond Burr. One of Anthony Mann’s best films with a terrific ending. This and T-Men are the two Mann must-see film noirs.

The Great Race. Blake Edwards frenetic comedy is more a couple running than a couple on the run film, but Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood are attractive together, and Jack Lemmon and Peter Falk are a delight as the inept villains of the piece.

It Happened One Night. Frank Capra classic with reporter Clark Gable trying to get the scoop on wacky heiress Claudette Colbert while trying to evade the nation wide search for her. Remade as a musical with Jack Lemmon and June Allison, but see the original.

The Runaround. Fine screwball B film that lifts much of the plot of It Happened One Night, but does it so well no one could possibly care. Rod Cameron and Broderick Crawford are maverick private eyes who leave their hated bosses’ agency and vie with him to recover runaway heiress Ella Raines (heiresses on the run were a staple of films in this era) evading their old bosses men and double crossing each other. Cameron is surprisingly good in a largely comic role and perfectly teamed with Crawford.

The Bride Came C.O.D.. Yet another It Happened One Night variation as pilot James Cagney and runaway heiress Bette Davis battle and fall for each other while on the run from press and private eyes.

Arrest Bulldog Drummond. Good entry in the John Howard Drummond series when he is framed and goes on the run with fiance Phyllis (Heather Angel) to hunt down master criminal George Zucco. Fast paced entry in the series. Hugh and Phyllis’s much postponed marriage was a running gag in the film series.

Desire. Car designer Gary Cooper falls for jewel thief Marlene Dietrich in Spain as she and partner John Halliday try to elude police with his unwitting aide — a bright Frank Borzage film produced by Ernst Lubitch (To Be Or Not to Be, Heaven Can Wait …)

City Streets . Carnival worker Gary Cooper and racketeer’s daughter Slyvia Sidney end up hunted by cops and crooks in this rare Rouben Mamoulian film of Dashiell Hammett’s only original screen story (though he did scenarios for at least one of the Thin Man films and contributed to the script of several Lillian Hellman films). Outstanding look thanks to director and cinematographer Lee Garmes, and co-stars Guy Kibbee and Paul Lukas are unusually nasty pair of bad guys. Just barely fits the definition, but I wanted to get it in.

The Getaway. I’ll extend the date a bit to get this Sam Peckinpah film of Jim Thompson’s novel in with Steve McQueen and Ali McGraw on the run from cops and crooks as he plans one last caper.

Where Danger Lives. Intern Mitchum ends up on the run with Faith Domergue in slight but involving film noir, with Claude Rains wasted as her husband..

The Big Steal. Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer on the hunt and the run in Mexico in a great little noir film which is better than it has any right to be.

Borderline. Undercover cop Claire Trevor is after smuggler Raymond Burr with help from tough Fred MacMurray in Mexico. Burr is even slimier than usual in this one.

Nightfall. Innocent Aldo Ray teams with Anne Bancroft to prove his innocence of crime sadistic that Brian Keith committed in a well done noir based on a David Goodis novel.

Me and the Colonel. Jewish business man Danny Kaye and Polish aristocrat Curt Jurgens along with Jurgen’s servant Akim Tamiroff and mistress Nicole Maurey try to escape of the Nazi’s based on Franz Werfel’s Jacubowsy and the Colonel. “More and more I dislike this Jacubowsky.”

They Met in Bombay. Jewel thieves Clark Gable and Rosalind Russell on the run from thieves help to defeat Japanese invaders with British army in off beat film.

China. Alan Ladd, Loretta Young, and William Bendix fight the Japanese in China on the cusp of the war. Well done.

Detour. Tom Neal runs afoul of one of noir’s most fatal femmes, Ann Savage, in legendary film noir by Edgar Ulmer.

Strange Cargo. Based on Richard Sale’s allegorical novel Not Too Narrow, Not Too Deep about group of men led by Clark Gable and one woman, Joan Crawford, who escape from Devil’s Island and discover salvation or damnation on the voyage. Cast includes Peter Lorre, Albert Dekker, Paul Lukas, and Ian Hunter — who may, or may not, be Christ.

Blood Alley. John Wayne is a drunken sea captain who tries to help Lauren Bacall organize the escape of an entire Chinese village as the Reds close in, based on the novel by A. S. Fleishman. May be the only “city on the run” film.

Beachhead. Tony Curtis and Frank Lovejoy are marines who have to help Mary Murphy and her plantation owner father elude the Japanese occupiers and get message off of Japanese held island.

Assignment in Brittany. Jean Pierre Aumont and Susan Peters elude Nazi’s in WW II thriller from the novel by Helen MacInnes.

Above Suspicion Oxford don Fred MacMurray and bride Joan Crawford help British agent Reginald Owen escape Germany with aide of roguish Conrad Veidt while pursued by Nazi Basil Rathbone. Again based on a novel by Helen MacInnes.

Background to Danger. American agent George Raft and Red agent Brenda Marshall evade the police and Nazi’s in Istanbul with help from Peter Lorre and villainy from Sydney Greenstreet in Raoul Walsh film based on Eric Ambler novel. Screenplay by Frank Gruber and W. R. Burnett.

Pied Piper. Monte Wooley finds himself reluctantly teamed with young Roddy McDowall in France as the Nazis move in, and ends up with a small army of refugee children, based in Nevil Shute’s novel, remade for television with Peter O’Toole. Otto Preminger excellent as a Nazi officer with a secret.

Interrupted Journey. Richard Todd runs off with Valerie Hobson in fine thriller that goes head over heels into the toilet thanks to finale, after a fine effort along the way.

Desperate Moment. Dirk Bogarde is a displaced person framed for homicide and aided by Mai Zetterling in post war Berlin well done film from Martha Albrand’s novel.

Night Has 1000 Eyes. Gail Russell is helped by John Lund in this dark John Farrow film based on Cornell Woolrich’s novel (as George Hopley) when psychic Edward G. Robinson predicts her father Jerome Cowan will die — and he’s never wrong. They are on the run from fate, not the law or bad guys, but the tension is even greater and the sense of being pursued by something inevitable potent.

The Man Between. When Black marketeer James Mason helps Claire Bloom in post war Berlin, he finds himself on the run from both sides.

The October Man. John Mills is aided by Joan Greenwood when he is accused of murder and even he doesn’t know if he did it or not. A fine film, with one of Eric Ambler’s best screenplays.

Brighton Rock. Richard Attenborough is the slimy thug Pinkie hunted by the police for the razor slashing of a journalist and aided by Carol Marsh who loves him despite what he is. Dark film with literate screenplay by Terence Rattigan and Graham Greene based on Greene’s novel replete with the novel’s cruel and devastating ending.

Tiger Bay. Pre-teen Haley Mills has a crush on fugitive Horst Bucholtz pursued by her cop dad John Mills in a fine film.

The Moonspinners. English tourists Haley Mills and Peter McEnery on the run from smugglers in modern Greece. A Disney film based on Mary Stewart’s novel.

The Angry Hills. Robert Mitchum and Elizabeth Mueller are on the run from Nazis in occupied Greece, based on the novel by Leon Uris.

Kidnapped. Multiple versions, but I prefer the Disney with James MacArthur and Peter Finch as David Balfour and Alan Breck on the run in Scotland. Also made with Warner Baxter and Freddie Bartholomew; Dan O’Herlihy and Roddy McDowall; and Michael Caine and Armand Assante. Look for Peter O’Toole in the Disney version.

The Clouded Yellow. Ex-spy Trevor Howard takes a job assisting a butterfly collector and ends up on the run with possibly mad possible killer Jean Simmons in this delightful Brit film on classic lines. A great little thriller.

Lisa. Stephen Boyd is a Dutch policeman who helps a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust (Dolores Hart) evade detention and get to Palestine without papers in this film based on Jan de Hartog’s novel The Inspector.

House of Cards. Ex-boxer turned bodyguard George Peppard helps a French aristocrat boy and his American mother (Inger Stevens) evade the father’s Machivellian military family who plan a right wing coup in wake of the loss of colonial Algeria in a thriller based on the novel by Stanley Ellin. With Keith Michell and Orson Welles.

The Last Run. George C. Scott is an aging gangland driver who helps Trish van de Vere and Tony Musante in one last run. Sven Nykvist photography looks great. John Huston started it, but it was finished by Richard Fleisher.

The Narrow Margin. Cop Charles McGraw must protect witness Marie Windsor on a train on the way to testify in mob case. Great little noir suspense film with a neat twist and a well staged finale. Forget the remake with Gene Hackman.

Espionage Agent. When his marriage to Brenda Marshall ruins his diplomatic career, Joel McCrea poses as traitor, and he and Marshall end up on the run in Nazi Germany.

Berlin Correspondent Foreign Correspondent Dana Andrews helps Virginia Gilmore and her father escape Nazi Germany.

Bomber’s Moon. French farm girl helps American bomber pilot George Montgomery escape when he is shot down over Occupied France.

Cloak and Dagger. Scientist Gary Cooper goes undercover in Europe during WWII to find nuclear secrets with aide of Lili Palmer and OSS agent Robert Alda when the Axis closes in. Tense spy film from Fritz Lang, based on a missions by a former New York Yankees owner Michael Mann and the baseball player turned OSS agent, Moe Berg.

Golden Earrings. When British colonel Ray Milland is trapped behind enemy lines he is hidden by and escapes with gypsy Marlene Dietrich. Dietrich is wonderful and usual heavy Murvyn Vye sings the title song. And how often do you get to see the leading man get his ears pierced? Silly sounding film is actually high quality Hollywood romantic hokum and expertly done all around. Also one of my father’s favorite films.

The High Wall. Excellent minor noir as psychiatrist Audrey Totter helps war hero pilot Robert Taylor escape a mental institution when she becomes convinced he was framed for the crime he thinks he committed. Fine little film with good performance by Taylor, Totter, and Herbert Marshall.

Island Rescue. A hard to categorize film as Glynnis Johns aides commando David Niven in rescuing a prize cow from occupied Guernsey islands during the war — and it’s based on a true story.

Never Let Me Go. Clark Gable and Richard Hadyn try to rescue their Russian wives Gene Tierney and Belita out of Soviet Russia in the post war freeze with help from Kenneth More. Based on the novel Two if By Sea by Andrew Garve.

Break in the Circle. Forest Tucker and Eva Bartok help Polish scientist escape in minor film based on a much better novel by Philip Loraine.

Action of the Tiger. Van Johnson is a tough American skipper helping Martine Carol rescue refugees from Albania, with Herbert Lom great as a colorful and less than trustworthy bandit. Based on John Welland’s novel and directed by James Bond director Terence Young, which makes the presence of Sean Connery as Van’s drunken buddy doubly amusing.

Mister Moses. This one sort of fits. Robert Mitchum and Carroll Baker try to lead African villagers out of valley that is to be flooded by new dam.

The Secret Ways. Richard Widmark helps Sonia Ziemann and her father escape from behind the Iron Curtain based on the novel by Alistair MacLean.

Tarzan the Magnificent. And he pretty much is in one of the best films in the series. Gordon Scott as Tarzan lead Betta St. John, Lionel Jeffries, Alexandra Stewart, and Earl Cameron out of the jungle while escorting brutal criminal Jock Mahoney to trial while being pursued by Mahoney’s insane family, led by psychotic John Carradine. The final battle between Scott and Mahoney is beautifully staged. Rare grown-up Tarzan film. Mahoney replaced Scott later on in the role of the Ape Man.

It’s a Wonderful World. One of the best screwball comedies ever made, from W. S. Van Dyke. Private eye James Stewart and poet Claudette Colbert are reluctantly teamed together when Stewart escapes a train to prison in desperate attempt to save his playboy client (Ernest Truex of all people) from the chair, while pursued by Nat Pendleton and Edgar Kennedy. Guy Kibee is Stewart’s exasperated but loyal boss. This film is not only a good mystery, but it rises to heights of zaniness seldom seen with Stewart and Colbert arcing off each other like bare electrical wires. One of the great gems of screwball comedy. Look for the scene where Stewart poses as a nearsighted Eagle Scout. I swear by my eyes. Screenplay by Ben Hecht from his story with Herman J. Mankiewicz.

   This ought to get anyone started — it’s a pretty wide variety on the subject. As usual, any additions are welcome.

   In the Revised Crime Fiction IV, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and Erle Stanley Gardner are denoted as series characters in a series of three novels by author William F. Nolan:

      The Black Mask Murders. St. Martin’s, 1994.

      The Marble Orchard. St. Martin’s, 1996.
      Sharks Never Sleep. St. Martin’s, 1998.

    None of the above are given credit as fictional characters in other detective novels. Hammett and Chandler both appeared in Chandler, by William Denbow, for example; and obviously Hammett appeared in Joe Gores’ Hammett.

    Question: Are there other novels, ones I’m not thinking of, in which any of the above (including Gardner) appeared as fictional characters?

    And as long as I’m asking, what other real life mystery writers may have shown up as characters in novels written by someone else? Josephine Tey, I know, in a couple of novels by Nicola Upson, but since they were published after 2000, they’re beyond the scope of CFIV. Disregarding the date, are there others?

CHRISTIANNA BRAND – Heads You Lose. John Lane/The Bodley Head, UK, hc, 1941. US hardcover: Dodd Mead, 1942. Hardcover reprint: Ian Henry (UK), 1981. Paperback reprints include: Penguin (UK), several printings, 1950s; Bantam, June 1988 (shown).

    Christianna Brand’s mystery output seems paltry compared to, say, Agatha Christie.

    In the 1950s, Brand produced progressively less in the crime fiction field, focusing more on her children’s writing. According to the IMDb, a handful of her children’s stories were adapted for British TV and one was the subject of a full-length motion picture a few years ago.

    Film makers gave her mystery fiction brief attention in the mid-to-late 1940s, and then she was promptly forgotten. Only Green for Danger (1946), based on her 1944 novel, seems to have been given a proper treatment. Film critic William K. Everson and yours truly agree that this movie is THE classic detective film, with The Kennel Murder Case vying with it for first place.

    Thomas Godfrey, in his English Country House Murders (1989), characterizes our author and her writing thus: “Christianna Brand (Mary Christianna Milne Lewis), the last of the grandes dames of traditional English writing, was, like Josephine Tey, a connoisseur’s writer. Her plots are intelligently premeditated, rich in atmosphere, keenly observed, and subtly set forth.” (page 423)

    Heads You Lose memorably introduces her series sleuth, Inspector Cockrill, like this:

    Heads You Lose was, according to the bibliographies, Christianna Brand’s second book; and there are some rough places in the narrative that seem to show she isn’t quite as accomplished as she would later become. Nonetheless, compared to some other Golden Age writers of the same period, she often reads like Shakespeare.

    Chapter 6, the coroner’s inquest, is a marvelous set piece filled with low comedy and not a little misdirection.

    It isn’t revealing too much to say that Inspector Cockrill doesn’t really solve this case; he lets the other characters eliminate false trails on their own. It’s fun to watch one indolent character exerting himself trying to prove the guilt of another character — but what’s his motivation, to protect a woman or to shift suspicion from himself?

    Cockie also spends a large part of the first half of the book off-stage and gradually assumes a greater presence later; also, we are allowed into his thoughts only intermittently — in fact we spend much of the book inside various other characters’ minds, including, believe it or not, the murderer’s (but without being conscious of it).

    The story has a historical setting, a cosy English village not long after the Dunkirk evacuation, but the war is alluded to only in several places and never intrudes much into the narrative.

    It’s annoying when Brand introduces an impossible crime but doesn’t do much with it — the impossibility is later dismissed in one sentence. But all the characters, major and minor, are well imagined.

    Once she had hit her stride, Christianna Brand could play “The Grandest Game” with the best of them. Heads You Lose shows her warming up for her later, more solidly plotted novels in which she could often out-Christie Christie.

   The following paperback was published in the dark Middle Ages when cover artists were seldom identified. There’s not even a hint of a signature to use as a clue. As far as the cover is concerned, look closely. This is one that tells a complete story, in and of itself.

CHARTER. Reprint paperback, May 1990. Hardcover edition: St. Martin’s, 1982. Prior UK hardcover edition, Collins Crime Club, 1979.

      From the back cover:

In my recent post on C. B. Dignam, I pointed out that it was not even known whether Dignam was male or female. Going on from there, I asked for a list of female mystery writers who hid their gender by using initials in their byline or by deliberately choosing a “male-sounding” pen name.

Commenting on that post, Bill Crider suggested Paul Kruger as a relatively recent example. On the Golden Age of Detection yahoo group, Nick Fuller posted the following:

Thanks, Nick. I think you’ve come up with all that I’ve thought of myself, along with a couple more, although I cannot find anything to suggest that Speedy Death was ever published as by G. M. Mitchell. Can you confirm this?

Strangely enough, you failed to mention an author you discussed in an earlier posting on another subject — Guy Cullingford, pseudonym of Constance Lindsay Dowdy, according to one website.

This comes as a surprise to me. I did not know that Cullingford was female until now, or if I did, I’d forgotten it. In Crime Fiction IV, Al Hubin says that Cullingford was a pen name of C. Lindsay Taylor, which upon further investigation is a shortened version of (Alice) C(onstance) LINDSAY TAYLOR (1907-2000). Dowdy must have been her married name?

     [UPDATE 01/03/07. Al Hubin did some investigatory work and discovered that Dowdy was her maiden name. See comment 3 below.]

In any case, she wrote one book as by C. Lindsay Taylor (Murder with Relish, Skeffington, 1948) and ten as by Cullingford between 1952 and 1991. Only five of them seem to have been published in the US.

The question I posed was of female mystery authors writing as men. I confess that vice-versa hadn’t occurred to me. There must be others besides Keating as Hervey, but other than cases involving male authors who wrote gothic romances under female names, as many did in the 1960s and 70s, this is a question I’ll have to think about some more.

—

The next posting on the same Yahoo group was from Jeffrey Marks, who confirmed exactly what I suspected. There’s a totally obvious candidate for inclusion that hadn’t even occurred to me:

And assuredly there are more, but have we named all of the obvious ones so far? Probably not.

—

Getting back to C. B. Dignam briefly, who unknowingly brought this whole matter on, Google is *fast*. The day after my original post, I thought to double-check to see if there was anything on-line about him or her, and the only relevant blog or website that came up was … mine.

[UPDATE] 03-29-10. An email note from Sheila Mitchell, who was married to H. R. F. Keating, is both relevant and interesting. She says:

“This related to pseudonyms that women have used but you also instance that Harry wrote his Miss Unwin Victorian books under the ambiguous pseudonym of Evelyn Hervey and suggested that this may have some connection with Agatha Christie. Should you be interested it has no connection at all with Christie. He chose Hervey because that was a family name and Evelyn as you rightly say because of its ambiguity. Also interesting that publishers refuse to allow established authors their ambiguity and almost always reveal that of course this is so-and-so writing under the pseudonym X.”

   In his letters and essays Chandler frequently made sharp comments about his colleagues and their literary output. He disliked and sharply criticized such famous crime writers like Eric Ambler, Nicholas Blake, W. R. Burnett, James M. Cain, John Dickson Carr, James Hadley Chase, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy L. Sayers, Mickey Spillane, Rex Stout, S. S. Van Dine, Edgar Wallace. A lot of Chandler’s criticism was negative, but he also esteemed some writers and books. So let’s see, which these are.

   A problem is that he sometimes had a mixed or even inconsistent opinion. When the positive aspects predominate the negative ones I have taken the writer or book on my list.

   The list follows the alphabetical order of the names of the mystery writers. Each name is combined with (only) one source (letter, essay) for Chandler’s statement. I refer to the following books: Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler, edited by Frank MacShane, Columbia University Press 1981 (SL); Raymond Chandler Speaking, edited by Dorothy Gardiner & Kathrine Sorley Walker, University of California Press 1997 (RCS); The Raymond Chandler Papers: Selected Letters and Non-Fiction 1909 – 1959, edited by Tom Hiney & Frank MacShane, Penguin 2001 (RCP); “The Simple Art of Murder,” in: The Art of the Mystery Story, edited by Howard Haycraft, Carroll & Graf 1992.

   I am rather sure that the list is not complete: It does not include all available sources nor all possible writers and books.

         THE LIST:

Adams, Cleve, letter to Erle Stanley Gardner, Jan. 29, 1946 (SL)

Anderson, Edward: Thieves Like Us, letter to Hamish Hamilton, Sep. 27, 1954 (SL)

Armstrong, Charlotte: Mischief, letter to Frederic Dannay, Jul. 10, 1951 (SL)

Balchin, Nigel: The Small Back Room, letter to James Sandoe, Aug. 18, 1945 (SL)

Buchan, John: The 39 Steps, letter to James Sandoe, Dec. 28, 1949 (RCS)

Cheyney, Peter: Dark Duet, letter to James Sandoe, Oct. 14, 1949 (RCS)

Coxe, George Harmon, letter to George Harmon Coxe, Dec. 19, 1939 (SL)

Crofts, Freeman Wills, letter to Alex Barris, Apr. 16, 1949 (RCS)

Davis, Norbert, letter to Erle Stanley Gardner, Jan. 29, 1946 (SL)

Faulkner, William: Intruder in the Dust, letter to Hamish Hamilton, Nov. 11, 1949 (SL)

Fearing, Kenneth: The Big Clock, letter to Hamish Hamilton, Mar. 12, 1949 (SL); The Dagger of the Mind, The Simple Art of Murder

Fleming, Ian, letter to Ian Fleming, Apr. 11, 1956 (SL)

Freeman, R. Austin: Mr. Pottermack’s Oversight; The Stoneware Monkey; Pontifex, Son and Thorndyke, letter to James Keddie, Sep. 29, 1950 (SL)

Gardner, Erle Stanley, letter to Erle Stanley Gardner, Jan. 29, 1946 (but not as A. A. Fair, letter to George Harmon Coxe, Dec. 19, 1939) (SL)

Gault, William, letter to William Gault, Apr. 1955 (SL)

Hammett, Dashiell, The Simple Art of Murder

Henderson, Donald: Mr. Bowling Buys a Newspaper, letter to fredeeric Dannay, Jul. 10, 1951 (SL)

Holding , Elisabeth Sanxay: Net of Cobwebs, The Innocent Mrs. Duff, The Blank Wall, letter to Hamish Hamilton, Oct. 13, 1950 (RCS)

Hughes, Dorothy, letter to Alex Barris, Apr. 16, 1949 (RCS)

Irish, William (Cornell Woolrich): Phantom Lady, letter to Blanche Knopf, Oct. 22, 1942 (SL)

Krasner , William: Walk the Dark Streets, letter to Frederic Dannay, Jul. 10, 1951 (SL)

Macdonald, Philip, letter to Alex Barris, Apr. 16, 1949 (RCS)

Macdonald, John Ross: The Moving Target, letter to James Sandoe, Apr. 14, 1949 (SL)

Maugham, Somerset: Ashenden, letter to Hamish Hamilton, Dec. 4, 1949 (SL)

Millar, Margaret: Wall of Eyes, letter to Alex Barris, Apr. 16, 1949 (RCS)

Nebel, Frederick, letter to George Harmon Coxe, Dec. 19, 1939 (SL)

O’Farrell, William: Thin Edge of Violence, letter to James Sandoe, Aug. 15, 1949 (SL)

Postgate, Raymond: Verdict of Twelve, The Simple Art of Murder

Ross, James: They don’t dance much, letter to Hamish Hamilton, Sep. 27, 1954 (SL)

Sale, Richard: Lazarus No. 7, The Simple Art of Murder

Smith, Shelley: The Woman in the Sea, letter to James Sandoe, Sep. 23, 1948 (SL)

Symons, Julian: The 31st of February, letter to Frederic Dannay, Jul. 10, 1951 (SL)

Tey, Josephine: The Franchise Affair, letter to James Sandoe, Oct. 17, 1948 (RCS)

Waugh, Hillary: Last Seen Wearing, letter to Luther Nichols, Sep. 1958 (SL)

Whitfield, Raoul: letter to George Harmon Coxe, Dec. 19, 1939 (SL)

Wilde, Percival: Inquest, The Simple Art of Murder.