William R. Burnett

William Riley Burnett (November 25, 1899 April 25, 1982) was an American novelist and screenwriter. He is best known for the crime novel ''Little Caesar'', the film adaptation of which is considered the first of the classic American gangster movies.

Early life

Burnett was born in Springfield, Ohio. He left his civil service job there to move to Chicago when he was 28, by which time he had written over 100 short stories and five novels, all unpublished.

Writing career

In Chicago, Burnett found a job as a night clerk in the seedy Northmere Hotel. He found himself associating with prize fighters, hoodlums, hustlers and hobos. They inspired '' Little Caesar'' (novel 1929, film 1931). Little Caesar's overnight success landed him a job as a Hollywood screenwriter. ''Little Caesar'' became a classic movie, produced by First National Pictures (Warner Brothers) and starring little known Edward G. Robinson. The Al Capone theme was one he returned to in 1932 with '' Scarface''. Burnett had won the 1930 O. Henry Award for his short story "Dressing-Up" published in Harper's Magazine in November 1929.

Burnett kept busy, producing a novel or more a year and turning most into screenplays (some as many as three times). Thematically Burnett was similar to Dashiell Hammett and James M. Cain but his contrasting of the corruption and corrosion of the city with the better life his characters yearned for, represented by the paradise of the pastoral, was fresh and original. He portrayed characters who, for one reason or another, fell into a life of crime. Once sucked into this life they were unable to climb out. They typically get one last shot at salvation but the oppressive system closes in and denies redemption.

Burnett's characters exist in a world of twilight morality — virtue can come from gangsters and criminals, malice from guardians and protectors. Above all his characters are human and this could be their undoing. In '' High Sierra'' (1941), Humphrey Bogart plays Roy Earle, a hard-bitten criminal who rejects his life of crime to help a sexually appealing crippled girl. In ''The Asphalt Jungle'' (1949), the most perfectly masterminded plot falls apart as each character reveals a weakness. In ''The Beast of the City'' (1932) starring Walter Huston, the police take the law into their own hands when the criminals walk free due to legal incompetence, foreshadowing ''Dirty Harry'' by almost 40 years.

Film work

Burnett worked with many of the greats in acting and directing, including Raoul Walsh, John Huston, John Ford, Howard Hawks, Nicholas Ray, Douglas Sirk, and Michael Cimino, John Wayne (''The Dark Command''), Humphrey Bogart, Ida Lupino, Paul Muni, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood. He received an Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay, Oscar nomination for his script for ''Wake Island (1942 film), Wake Island'' (1942) and a Writers Guild nomination for his script for ''The Great Escape (film), The Great Escape''. In addition to his film work he also wrote scripts for television and radio.

Later years

In later years, with his vision declining, he stopped writing and turned to promoting his earlier work. In his career he achieved huge popularity in Europe, where his anti-hero ideology was enthusiastically embraced.

On his death in 1982, in Santa Monica, California, Burnett was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale), Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Critical reception

Heywood Broun described Burnett's novel ''Goodbye to the Past'' as "written with all the excitement of ''Little Caesar'', and ten times the skill".Advertisement for "Goodbye to the Past", ''The American Mercury'', November 1934, (p. 225).

Works

Novels

* ''Little Caesar'' (Lincoln MacVeagh/The Dial Press - 1929)
* ''Iron Man'' (Lincoln MacVeagh/The Dial Press - 1930)
* ''Saint Johnson'' (Lincoln MacVeagh/The Dial Press - 1930)
* ''The Silver Eagle'' (Lincoln MacVeagh/The Dial Press - 1931)
* ''The Beast of the City'' (Grosset & Dunlap - 1932) [not properly a Burnett novel; credit on the book reads "novelized by Jack Lait, from the screen story by W.R. Burnett"; the book was published concurrently with the release of the M-G-M film, circa March 1932]
* ''The Giant Swing'' (Harper - 1932)
* ''Dark Hazard'' (Harper - 1933)
* ''Goodbye to the Past: Scenes from the Life of William Meadows'' (Harper - 1934)
* ''The Goodhues of Sinking Creek'' (Harper - 1934)
* ''Dr. Socrates'' (O'Bryan House Publishing LLC - 2007) [Originally serialized in Colliers Weekly Magazine in 1935]
* ''King Cole'' (Harper - 1936)
* ''The Dark Command: A Kansas Iliad'' (Knopf - 1938)
* ''High Sierra'' (Knopf - 1941)
* ''The Quick Brown Fox'' (Knopf - 1943)
* ''Nobody Lives Forever'' (Knopf - 1943)
* ''Tomorrow's Another Day'' (Knopf - 1946)
* ''Romelle'' (Knopf - 1947)
* ''The Asphalt Jungle'' (Knopf - 1949)
* ''Stretch Dawson'' (Gold Medal - 1950). The film ''Yellow Sky'' (1948) was based on an early version of the novel.
* ''Little Men, Big World'' (Knopf - 1952)
* ''Adobe Walls: A Novel of the Last Apache Rising'' (Knopf - 1953)
* ''Vanity Row'' (Knopf - 1952)
* ''Big Stan'' (Gold Medal - 1953) - written under pseudonym "John Monahan"
* ''Captain Lightfoot'' (Knopf - 1954)
* ''It's Always Four O'Clock'' (Random House - 1956) - written under pseudonym "James Updyke"
* ''Pale Moon'' (Knopf - 1956)
* ''Underdog'' (Knopf - 1957)
* ''Bitter Ground'' (Knopf - 1958)
* ''Mi Amigo: A Novel of the Southwest'' (Knopf - 1959)
* ''Conant'' (Popular Library - 1961)
* ''Round the Clock at Volari's'' (Gold Medal - 1961)
* ''The Goldseekers'' (Doubleday - 1962)
* ''The Widow Barony'' (Macdonald - 1962)
* ''The Abilene Samson'' (Pocket Books - 1963)
* ''Sergeants 3'' (Pocket Books - 1963)
* ''The Roar of the Crowd: Conversations with an Es-Big-Leaguer'' (C.N. Potter - 1964)
* ''The Winning of Mickey Free'' (Bantam Pathfinder - 1965)
* ''The Cool Man'' (Gold Medal - 1968)
* ''Good-bye, Chicago: 1928: End of an Era'' (St. Martin's - 1981)

Short stories

* ''Round Trip'' (1929)
* ''Dressing-Up'' (1930)
* ''Travelling Light'' (1935)
* ''Vanishing Act'' (1955)

Filmography

*'' Little Caesar'' (1930) - script
*''The Finger Points'' (1931) - script
*''Iron Man (1931 film), Iron Man'' (1931) - based on novel
*''Law and Order (1932 film), Law and Order'' (1932) - based on novel ''Saint Johnson''
*''Beast of the City'' (1932) - script
*'' Scarface'' (1932) - script
*''Dark Hazard'' (1934) - based on novel
*''The Whole Town's Talking'' (1935) - script and based on short story "Jail Break"
*''Dr. Socrates'' (1935) - based on short story
*''36 Hours to Kill'' (1936) - based on short story "Across the Aisle"
*''Wine, Women and Horses'' (1937) - based on novel "Dark Hazard"
*''Wild West Days'' (1937) - from novel ''Saint Johnson''
*''Some Blondes Are Dangerous'' (1937) - based on novel ''Iron Man''
*''King of the Underworld (1939 film), King of the Underworld'' (1939) - based on short story "Dr Socrates"
*''The Westerner (1940 film), The Westerner'' (1940) - uncredited contribution
*''The Dark Command'' (1940) - from his novel
*''Law and Order (1940 film), Law and Order'' (1940) - from his novel
*'' High Sierra'' (1941) - novel, co-script
*''The Get-Away'' (1941) - script
*''Dance Hall (1941 film), Dance Hall'' (1941) - from his novel ''The Giant Swing''
*''This Gun for Hire'' (1942) - script
*''Bullet Scars'' (1942) - uncredited remake of "Dr Socrates"
*''Wake Island (film), Wake Island'' (1942) - script
*''Crash Dive'' (1943) - story
*''Action in the North Atlantic'' (1943) - script
*''Background to Danger'' (1943) - script
*''San Antonio (film), San Antonio'' (1945) - story, script
*''Nobody Lives Forever (film), Nobody Lives Forever'' (1946) - based on novel, script
*''The Man I Love (1947 film), The Man I Love'' (1946) - uncredited contribution to script
*''Belle Starr's Daughter'' (1948) - story, script
*''Yellow Sky'' (1948) - based on novel
*''Colorado Territory (film), Colorado Territory'' (1950) - uncredited remake of ''High Sierra''
*''The Asphalt Jungle'' (1950) - based on novel, uncredited contribution
*''Iron Man (1951 film), Iron Man'' (1951) - based on novel
*''The Racket (1951 film), The Racket'' (1951) - script
*''Vendetta (1950 film), Vendetta'' (1951) - script
*''Law and Order (1953 film), Law and Order'' (1953) - based on novel ''Saint Johnson''
*''Arrowhead (1953 film), Arrowhead'' (1953) - based on novel
*''Dangerous Mission'' (1954) - script
*''Night People (1954 film), Night People'' (1954) - uncredited contribution to script
*''Captain Lightfoot'' (1955) - based on novel, script
*''Illegal (1955 film), Illegal'' (1955) - script
*''I Died a Thousand Times'' (1956) - based on novel ''High Sierra'', script
*''Accused of Murder'' (1957) - based on novel ''Vanity Row'', script
*''Short Cut to Hell'' (1957) - remake of ''This Gun for Hire''
*''The Badlanders'' (1958) - based on novel ''The Asphalt Jungle''
*''The Hangman (1959 film), The Hangman'' (1959) - uncredited contribution to script
*''September Storm'' (1960) - script
*''The Asphalt Jungle (TV series), The Asphalt Jungle'', television series, 13 episodes (1961) - scripts
*''The Lawbreakers'' (1961) - script
*''Sergeants Three'' (1962) - story, script
*''Cairo (1963 film), Cairo'' (1963) - from novel ''The Asphalt Jungle''
*''The Great Escape (film), The Great Escape'' (1963) - script
*''Four for Texas'' (1963) - uncredited contribution to script
*''The Jackals'' (1967) - remake of ''Yellow Sky''
*''Ice Station Zebra'' (1968) - uncredited contribution to script
*''Stiletto (1969 film), Stiletto'' (1969) - uncredited contribution to script
*''Cool Breeze (film), Cool Breeze'' (1972) - from novel ''The Asphalt Jungle''

References

External links

*

W.R. Burnett bibliography

W.R. Burnett (bio)
by John Strausbaugh, at ''The Chiseler''

W.R. Burnett at detnovel.com
*

Portrait of W. R. Burnett, his first wife, Marjorie, and War Cry, the greyhound, Glendale, 1935
Los Angeles TimesPhotographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

“'Pretty Big Once': W. R. Burnett’s Cynical Americana”
by Cullen Gallagher, at the ''Los Angeles Review of Books''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burnett, William R.
1899 births
1982 deaths
20th-century American novelists
American male screenwriters
American crime fiction writers
O. Henry Award winners
Edgar Award winners
Writers from Springfield, Ohio
Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
Novelists from Ohio
American male novelists
American male short story writers
20th-century American short story writers
20th-century American male writers
Screenwriters from Ohio
20th-century American screenwriters