RARA-AVIS: More Philadelphia

From: Moorich2@aol.com
Date: 09 Feb 2002


I second Bill Crider's recommendation of Bart Spicer. Examples of his Carney Wilde novels based in Philadelphia include BLACK SHEEP, RUN (1951) and BLUES FOR THE PRINCE (1950).

David Goodis did base several novels in Philadelphia. One I recall enjoying was the Gold Medal FIRE IN THE FLESH (1957).

Two of William P. McGivern's better known novels, THE BIG HEAT (1952) and SHIELD FOR MURDER (1951) are listed by Hubin as having a Philadelphia setting. I read them so many years ago details on settings long ago faded from my memory. Both were filmed, HEAT by Fritz Lang in 1953 and SHIELD by Edmond O'Brien and Howard Koch in 1954. Lang's HEAT will be familiar to most on this list. I have never seen the movie "Shield for Murder" but it sounds interesting. I did not realize that O'Brien had tried his hand at directing and imagine there is an interesting story behind the co-directing credit with Koch. O'Brien also starred in the film.

McGivern is a writer worthy of revisiting. Coming out of the Ziff-Davis pulps, he hit it big with HB novels in the 1950s. I know he did a lot of television work in the 60s and 70s for series like Kojak. Finally in 1979, his war novel (based on his own WW11 experience) SOLDIERS OF '44 was a bestseller.

Richard Moore

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