The Big Book of Reel Murders: Stories that Inspired Great Crime

Introduction

The history of motion pictures is closely intertwined with mystery, crime, suspense, espionage, and detective fiction.

There are any number of arguments about which is the first motion picture of all time, and the definition of what makes a motion picture is often unclear. In 1878, Eadweard Muybridge produced what is acknowledged as the first moving picture — a series of photos of a running horse taken with several cameras, joined together. Identifying the first narrative film is more difficult, but an argument could be made for a very brief, thirty-second vignette titled Sherlock Holmes Baffled, which has been dated as a 1900 production by some film scholars but 1903 by others.

In the film, Holmes walks into a room and sees that he is being burgled. The thief instantly vanishes. Holmes, clearly confused, lights a cigar in an attempt to ignore the event, no doubt to try to deduce what has just happened. But the burglar reappears and, when Holmes tries to take back the stolen items by pulling a pistol from the pocket of his dressing gown and firing it at the crook, he again vanishes, leaving Holmes looking utterly, yes, baffled.

As technology improved, such entrepreneurial inventors as Thomas A. Edison saw the potential of this new form of entertainment, and he produced a series of films showing a man lifting weights, Carmencita (a Spanish dancer), a blacksmith at work, etc. In 1903 his movie production company released The Great Train Robbery, which is famously, although apparently incorrectly, cited as the first narrative film.

The Great Train Robbery is the thrilling story of a gang of outlaws that holds up a train, robs the passengers, and is then chased by a sheriff and his posse. All the actors are uncredited, but the “star,” playing several roles, was G. M. Anderson, who later became better known as the first western film star, Broncho Billy. With a running time of eleven minutes, this cinematic leap wowed audiences, some of whom panicked when they saw a man aiming a gun directly at the camera, fearing he aimed it straight at them. The scene is said to have inspired the final scene in Goodfellas (1990), when Joe Pesci aims his gun at the camera.

The first feature-length multi-reel motion picture also was a crime film, The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906). An Australian production, it captured the life of the notorious bushranger Ned Kelly (1855–1880), an outlaw who terrorized rural Australia.

This collection accepts a broad definition of the category of stories that inspired mystery movies, in part because it is a challenging genre to define. If we think of mystery and crime movies, it is common to think of a murderer being hunted by a detective. That is also the definition of most western movies, the major difference being that there aren’t many horses in mysteries. Furthermore, it is commonplace for horror and supernatural films to feature death and destruction by mysterious hands, with someone trying to identify and locate the cause of the terror.

Crime is a greater motivating factor in motion pictures than any other — even love — and audiences delight in seeing the criminal confronted and defeated on the silver screen. The detective, whether amateur sleuth, official crime fighter, private eye, or espionage agent, is a necessary component of these narratives. These (mostly) heroic figures have had a rich life in films, and this volume barely scratches the surface as it focuses on a single literary form, the short story.

It is fair to say that most of the greatest mystery and crime films were adapted from novels or were original screenplays.

A pause for an indulgent sidebar, please. The greatest films adapted from crime novels are The Third Man, The Maltese Falcon, The Godfather, The Godfather II, Laura, The Thin Man, Out of the Past, Double Indemnity, The Night of the Hunter, Vertigo, and Touch of Evil.

The greatest mystery films made from original screenplays are Chinatown, White Heat, The Sting, Sunset Boulevard, North by Northwest, The Conversation, The Usual Suspects, Body Heat, Dirty Harry, and Mean Streets.

And which are the best films in the mystery genre to have been inspired by short stories? I’d nominate Psycho, On the Waterfront, Witness for the Prosecution, The Letter, Don’t Look Now, The Lodger, The Wild One, Gun Crazy, and Bad Day at Black Rock. I would add The Killers to this list but, sadly, could not get permission to use the Ernest Hemingway story in this collection.

The preponderance of mystery stories historically preferred by readers have been detective tales by such writers as Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ellery Queen, John Dickson Carr, S. S. Van Dine, Erle Stanley Gardner, Ngaio Marsh, Rex Stout, and their colleagues. However, it has proven to be extremely difficult to transfer this genre to the screen. The very demanding exercise of creating a puzzle, throwing in red herrings, and sprinkling in enough clues to keep the fictional detective hopeful and the reader satisfied can be achieved only by creative planning and meticulous execution. Alas, these challenging elements do not translate to motion pictures very well. Observation and deduction are integral to a novel or a story, but they are not exactly cinematic.

Movie audiences are far more interested in seeing action: car chases, explosions, gun fights, fist fights, and such, rather than watching a brilliant detective sit and think. With the exception of some superb but dated films about Van Dine’s Philo Vance and the big-budget forays into nostalgia of several Agatha Christie films, no memorable films have been based on the works of the authors mentioned, though they are among the cream of the crop on the printed page.

The result of the diametrically opposed strengths of the two media are Hollywood productions that feature actors and actresses that audiences like to see on the screen — an advantage over the printed word, where readers can imagine the physical appearances of the characters but cannot be warmed by the charm of Gene Tierney, hear the voice of Humphrey Bogart, revel in the eccentricity of Peter Lorre, bask in the smile of Donna Reed, or marvel at the fearless confidence of Clint Eastwood.

Mystery, crime, and suspense movies remain among the most popular films of this era, just as they have been since the creation of motion pictures, and I confess to being a devotee. In addition to reading every story in this collection (of course!) I watched all but three of the films they inspired. Sometimes I preferred the story, other times the film. They provided different pleasures in most cases, none of which I would willingly have given up.

It’s a wonderful life!

— Otto Penzler