Eric Taylor (June 17, 1897 – September 8, 1952) was an American screenwriter with over fifty titles to his credit. He began writing
crime fiction
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...
for the
pulps before working in Hollywood. He contributed scripts to
The Crime Club,
Crime Doctor,
Dick Tracy,
Ellery Queen, and
The Whistler series, as well as six
Universal monster movies.
Career
Taylor wrote for various pulp magazines in the 1920s and 30s, including ''
Black Mask'', ''Clues'', and ''Dime Detective''. He published seven stories with ''Black Mask'': "Jungle Justice" (1928), "The Murder Rap" (1928), "Boulevard Louis" (1928), "A Pinch of Snuff" (1929), "Red Death" (1935), "Murder to Music" (1936), and "The Calloused Hand" (1936).
In 1936, Taylor began writing for newly-formed
Republic Pictures. Over the next three years he received a credit on six Republic movies and one with
Universal. Beginning in 1939, Taylor began working with producers
Larry Darmour and
Rudolph Flothow. Taylor's first assignments under Darmour and Flothow were a number of action-adventure movies starring
Jack Holt. From 1940 to 1942, Taylor contributed to eight Ellery Queen movies for
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the multi ...
. In 1942, Columbia replaced Ellery Queen with two other mystery series, both based on radio programs: ''The Crime Doctor'' and ''The Whistler''. Taylor wrote on six Crime Doctor and two Whistler movies. From 1941 to 1946, Taylor also contributed to six Universal monster movies, including entries in the Frankenstein and Dracula series. He wrote two Dick Tracy movies for
RKO Pictures in 1945 and 1947. In the 1950s he returned to Republic Pictures where he wrote six more movies, five of which were
Westerns.
[Eric Taylor (I) (1897-1952)](_blank)
IMDb
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, p ...
, retrieved July 27, 2018.
In the early 1950s Taylor prolifically wrote many episodes for the American television series '
The Roy Rogers Show'', ''
The Adventures of Kit Carson'' and ''
Ramar of the Jungle''.
Personal life
Little is known of Taylor's personal life. He was born in Chicago in 1897 and died in 1952 in San Francisco of a heart attack while on vacation with his wife.
Works
*1953 ''
White Goddess'' (episodes of ''
Ramar of the Jungle'' edited into a feature film)
*1952 ''
Big Jim McLain''
*1952 ''
Colorado Sundown''
*1951 ''
Pals of the Golden West''
*1951 ''
South of Caliente''
*1951 ''
Heart of the Rockies''
*1950 ''
North of the Great Divide''
*1950 ''
Destination Big House''
*1949 ''
Prison Warden''
*1949 ''
The Devil's Henchman''
*1949 ''
The Secret of St. Ives
''The Secret of St. Ives'' is a 1949 American historical adventure film directed by Phil Rosen and starring Richard Ney, Vanessa Brown and Henry Daniell. It is adapted from the 1897 novel '' St. Ives'' by Robert Louis Stevenson.Goble p.442 Set dur ...
''
*1947 ''
Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome''
*1946 ''
Crime Doctor's Man Hunt
''Crime Doctor's Man Hunt'' is a 1946 American mystery film directed by William Castle and starring Warner Baxter, Ellen Drew and William Frawley.Erickson p.203 It is part of the Crime Doctor series of films made by Columbia Pictures.
The ...
''
*1946 ''
The Lie Detector''
*1946 ''
Mysterious Intruder''
*1946 ''
The Spider Woman Strikes Back
''The Spider Woman Strikes Back'' is a 1946 American horror film starring Gale Sondergaard, with a running time of 59 minutes. Despite the similar title and role played by Sondergaard, the film is not a sequel to the Sherlock Holmes film, ''The Sp ...
''
*1946 ''
Just Before Dawn''
*1945 ''
Splitface''
*1945 ''
Doctor's Warning''
*1945 ''
The Doctor's Courage''
*1944 ''
Shadows in the Night
''Shadows in the Night'' is the 36th studio album by Bob Dylan, released by Columbia Records on February 3, 2015. The album consists of covers of traditional pop standards made famous by Frank Sinatra, chosen by Dylan. Like most of his 21st ...
''
*1944 ''
The Whistler''
*1943 ''
Strangest Case''
*1943 ''
Son of Dracula''
*1943 ''
Phantom of the Opera''
*1943 ''
No Place for a Lady''
*1942 ''
The Lido Mystery''
*1942 ''
A Desperate Chance
''A Desperate Chance'' is a 1913 American silent short starring Earle Foxe and Alice Hollister. Directed by Kenean Buel, the drama features the same cast and crew of the film that preceded it that year, '' A Sawmill Hazard''.
Cast
*Alice Hollis ...
''
*1942 ''
The Ghost of Frankenstein''
*1942 ''
A Close Call''
*1941 ''
The Murder Ring''
*1941 ''
The Perfect Crime''
*1941 ''
The Black Cat''
*1941 ''
The Great Swindle''
*1941 ''
Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery
''Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery'' is a 1941 American mystery film directed by James P. Hogan and written by Eric Taylor. It is based on the 1939 play ''The Three Scratches'' by Ellery Queen. The film stars Ralph Bellamy, Margaret Lindsay, Ch ...
''
*1940 ''
Ellery Queen, Master Detective''
*1940 ''
Mutiny of the Seas''
*1940 ''
Black Friday''
*1939 ''
Fugitive at Large''
*1939 ''
Trapped in the Sky''
*1938 ''
Orphans of the Street''
*1938 ''
His Exciting Night''
*1938 ''
Romance on the Run''
*1938 ''
The Case of the Missing Blonde
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...
''
*1937 ''
The Wrong Road
''The Wrong Road'' is a 1937 American crime drama film directed by James Cruze and starring Richard Cromwell, Helen Mack, and Lionel Atwill. The film is now in the public domain.
Plot
A young unmarried couple (Cromwell and Mack), whose ...
''
*1937 ''
Jim Hanvey, Detective''
*1937 ''
Navy Blues''
*1936 ''
Happy Go Lucky''
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Eric
1897 births
1952 deaths
American male screenwriters
Writers from Chicago
Writers from San Francisco
Screenwriters from California
Screenwriters from Illinois
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American screenwriters