Antonio Helú Atta (1900–1972) was a Mexican
screenwriter
A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based.
...
and
film director
A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...
.
According to Darrell B. Lockhart, Helú Atta was supposedly the first writer to have created a recurring Mexican detective figure in literature, namely Máximo Roldán. The originality of this character was that he did not belong to a law enforcement agency, but was himself a minor criminal ("Roldán" would be the anagram of "ládron", "thief" in Spanish).
A common theme in Helú Atta's work was the lack of faith of the protagonist in the justice system.
Referring to Helú Atta, the poet
Xavier Villaurrutia
Xavier Villaurrutia y González (27 March 1903 – 25 December 1950) was a Mexican poet, playwright and literary critic whose most famous works are the short theatrical dramas called ''Autos profanos'', compiled in the work ''Poesía y teatro c ...
stated "For the readers of police novels exists a small oasis of police stories by Antonio Helú". According to the writer
Carlos Monsiváis
Carlos Monsiváis Aceves (May 4, 1938 – June 19, 2010) was a Mexican philosopher, writer, critic, political activist, and journalist. He also wrote political opinion columns in leading newspapers within the country's progressive sectors. ...
, Helú Atta was "an author that truly believed in detective literature and dedicated most of his life to it".
Antonio Helú Atta also translated in Spanish works by
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...
and
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion.
He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that t ...
. He was the founder of the magazine ''Selecciones policiacas y de misterio'', the Spanish version of the magazine ''
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine''.
[Lockhart p.107]
Selected filmography
Director
* ''
The Obligation to Assassinate'' (1937)
* ''
The Pretty Indian Girl'' (1938)
* ''
The Hypnotist'' (1940)
* ''
When the Ground Trembled'' (1942)
Screenwriter
* ''
Arm in Arm Down the Street'' (1956)
Novels
* ''Pepe Vargas al teléfono'', 1925. 29 pages.
* ''El centro de gravedad'', 1925.
* ''Los predestinados'', 1925.
Plays
* (co-writer) ''El crimen del insurgentes: comedia policiaca en tres actos'', 1935.
References
Bibliography
* .
*
*
*
External links
*
1900 births
1972 deaths
Mexican crime fiction writers
Mexican film directors
People from San Luis Potosí
20th-century Mexican screenwriters
20th-century Mexican male writers
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