
“And So to Death” (“Nightmare”): filmed two or three times, this story is about a man who has dream that he kills somebody only to find out when he wakes up that it happened and he has to retrace his steps to fill in the gaps and prove his innocence. This was a clever story with a simple solution to the mystery, but all the same, it is unsettling to be in this man’s shoes, unsure whether you can trust your own senses or have any control over your life.
“The Boy Who Cried Murder”: a boy with a reputation for telling tales witnesses a murder through a fire escape and no one will believe him. The killers find out and a cat and mouse game soon follows. This was made into the excellent thriller The Window and was filmed two other times.
“Three O’ Clock”: a man who suspects his wife of being unfaithful to him leaves a timebomb in his basement that should go off when she is believed to be spending time with the man she meets. Things go wrong when he runs into burglars that overpower him and tie him up, they not suspecting there was a bomb to begin with. The man has until 3 o’ clock when the timer goes off and his wife returns home without a clue. Woolrich was the man who invented the ticking clock motif that countless other writers and filmmakers these days take for granted. Anytime there is a countdown in the story you are experiencing, remember it was Woolrich who popularized it. Hitchcock filmed this one for the TV show Suspense.
“Men Must Die” (“Guillotine”): a man is to be executed by guillotine. He sets it up so that someone poisons the executioner’s breakfast. If the man is at the scaffold but the executioner doesn’t do his job, the man’s sentence will be commuted, but darn it, the executioner is still alive after being poisoned and is determined to get to work, no matter how bad he feels. Will the executioner survive long enough to do the job? This one was filmed for the TV show Thiller, hosted by Boris Karloff.
“Rear Window” (“It Had to Be Murder”): any suspense fan knows this one. A man who is laid up from an injury is observing his neighbors through his rear window and comes to suspect one of his neighbors of murder. This was filmed as one of Hitchcock’s best and most memorable movies.
“The Corpse and the Kid” (“Blind Date”): A man kills his cheating wife, and his son decides to cover up for him, by wrapping her (his stepmom) up in a large rug and carrying her to a more convenient drop-off place across town, preferably in the proximity of her lover. Will somebody suspect that he’s carrying a dead body? This one was adapted for Thriller too.
“Dark Melody of Madness” (“Papa Benjamin”): a composer gets his new melody from a secret voodoo ritual and he incites the ire of the cult who want him dead. This was also adapted for Thiller.
“Dormant Account”: a bum finds out that a bank has several unclaimed bank accounts. He fakes his identity to claim one of them only to find out that there are thousands of dollars in it. His fortune turns into regret when his false identity gets some unwanted notoriety, and some people want to kill him, mistaking him for who he claims to be. This one was adapted as one of the Whistler films of the 40s, The Mark of the Whistler.
“He Looked Like Murder”: a man realizes his roommate is a murder suspect and try as he might, he can’t convince himself that his friend is innocent. This one was filmed in the 40s as The Guilty.
Woolrich’s stories of murder, frame-ups, and breathless pursuits are full of variety and make the emotion of fear come alive. This was due to his outlook, which was bleak and lonely. I felt for the guy when I learned about how isolated he was (he dedicated one of his books to his typewriter, for Pete’s sake).
One of the testaments to his ability as a writer was the adaptability of his works. I’m not saying that only adaptable stories are worth reading, but an adaptable story, in my opinion, has a widespread appeal that also fits into a visual narrative. Woolrich pulls this off, although I would say the most impactful part of his writing is the anxiety his characters feel. Whether it’s through paranoia that someone is watching you, insecurity about the fidelity of a loved one, suspicion as to whether not someone close to you is keeping a dark secret, or the alienation of being persecuted, the emotions that Woolrich evokes feel genuine.

Thankfully, a good portion of Woolrich’s stories have returned to print and a good number of these adaptations are on YouTube. Availability for each story varies, but a good book that serves as a Woolrich primer is The Big Book of Reel Murders, edited by Otto Penzler, which contains no less than 8 Woolrich stories, the theme being crime fiction short stories that were adapted into film. Give him a shot. With Noir-vember in full swing, I hope to cover more noir crime fiction before this month is out.
Written by Nick Montelongo
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