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William P(eter) McGivern (1922-1982) - also wrote as Bill Peters | |
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American novelist, screenplay writer, who published over 20 novels covering the wide genre of thrillers - homicide detection, espionage, political corruption, the world of psychopath, the crooked cop. McGivern also wrote a number of television films and major feature films, among them the John Wayne vehicle BRANNIGAN (1975), co-scripted with Christopher Trumbo, Michael Butler, and William Norton. McGivern's noir tale of three losers, ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW (1957), was filmed in 1959, starring Robert Ryan and Harry Belafonte. 'Novak leaned back on the bed and the overhead light touched the speculative glimmer in his little eyes. It's a kind of a decisive age though. At thirty-five a guy should know whether or not he's going to make it." He grinned at Earl's puzzled frown, and then his eyes wandered casually over Earl's suit and shoes. "How do you figure you're doing? Got it made yet?"' (from Odds Against Tomorrow) William Peter McGivern was born in Chicago, but grew in Mobile, Alabama. His father was the son of a farmer, and mother, Julia Costello, a dress-maker, who had a shop, Madame Julia's, in Chicago. After quitting high school McGivern started to write. He worked at the Pullman Company and read on his spare time such authors as Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Hawthorne. In 1940 his works were published in Amazing Stories, Short Stories, etc. From 1943 to 1946 he served in the U.S. Army as a line sergeant and won the Soldier's Medal – he jumped on a bombed tanker and opened the valves to release the gas inside, thereby saving its trapped crew. Before returning to the United States he studied at the University of Birmingham. McGivern left the service in January 1946, and worked then for two years as a police reporter for the Philadelphia Bulletin. Between the years 1949 and 1951 McGivern was a reporter and reviewer in Evening Bulletin in Philadelphia. His first novel, BUT DEATH RUNS FASTER, appeared in 1948. It was was followed by several other hard-boiled novels. McGivern received in 1952 an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America and served as president of that organization in 1980. He also taught creative writing at the University of North Carolina. In the 1960s McGivern moved to Hollywood and wrote for TV films, among others for such series as Banyon and Kojak. His novel Odds Against Tomorrow was adapted into screen two years later. In the story a former cop (Ed Begley, Sr.), a war veteran (Robert Ryan), and a black gambler and jazzman (Harry Belafonte) team up for a bank robbery. The enterprise fails because of their own racist hatred and a small town sheriff who turns out to be a vigilant. The film was directed by Robert Wise for Harry Belafonte's company. McGivern was married to Maureen Daly, an editor and author of Seventeenth Summer and other books for young people. With his wife he published a travel book, MENTION MY NAME IN MOMBASA (1958). McGivern died on November 18, 1982. "We're all sisters under the mink." (Gloria Grahame, a gangster moll, to Jeannette Nolan, a blackmailer in The Big Heat, 1953) Several of McGivern's stories dealt with crooked and rogue cops. In THE BIG HEAT (1953) Sergeant Bannion (Glenn Ford) is disturbed after the suicide of colleague Duncan. He becomes suspicious that Duncan was on payroll of corrupt civic leader Alexander Scourby. Bannion ignores warnings and a bomb planted in his car kills his wife. After resigning from the police force Bannion starts his revenge on all those responsible for his wife's death. He discovers a nest of corruption which includes a number of high police officials. The screenplay was written by Sydney Boehm. The film's violence was much debated at the time, especially the gangster's moll Debby (Gloria Grahame) was treated badly. Lee Marvin as the sadistic gunman Vince throws a pot of coffee at her, and one side of her face is burnt and scarred, while the other remains clear and attractive. "I've been rich and I've been poor. Believe me, rich is better," she tells Bannion. Debby helps Bannion and comes forward to identify his wife's killer. The moral focus of the film is on the victims and on the obligation of witnesses to speak out. "Terrific Fritz Lang film links hard-hitting exposé films of the fifties with forties film noir. While it coolly surveys the all-inclusive political/police corruption, it is equally concerned with the corruption of a decent man's soul; among other noir elements are pervading pessimism, ferocious violence, a hero who makes one vital mistake from which there is little chance to recovery - he underestimates his opposition as much as they do him - and the intertwining traits of fatalism and paranoia." (Danny Perry in Guide For the Film Fanatic, 1986) This "tempting indulgence", as McGivern called it, was further examined in the disillusioned crime story, ROGUE COP (1954), directed Roy Rowland, starring Robert Taylor, George Raft, and Janet Leight. Robert Taylor is a crooked police detective who tracks down his brother's killer by turning against the Syndicate that pays him. Detective Edmond O'Brien murders a bookmaker in SHIELD FOR MURDER (1954) and in HELL ON FRISCO BAY (1956) ex-waterfront cop Alan Ladd out of prison goes after the man who framed him for manslaughter. The theme fascinated the author because "the frustration of our society forms a powerful thrust for people to take the law into their own hands and, while this is a tempting indulgence, I have tried to make it plain in my books that it never really works." Brannigan was made in London and had thematic connection's to Clint Eastwood's films Coogan's Bluff and Dirty Harry. John Wayne plays a Chicago cop who is sent to London to pick up a gangster, only to find out that he has apparently been kidnapped by rival mobsters. McGivern's later books had foreign locales, usually Spain or Morocco. Rome provided the background for the counterespionage activities of a young American engineer in MARGIN OF TERROR (1953). NIGHT OF THE JUGGLER (1975, filmed in 1980) was a chase thriller, where a New Yorker pursues the kidnapper of his daughter. For further reading: Crime & Mystery Writers, ed. by Jay P. Pederson (1996); World Authors 1950-1970, ed. by John Wakeman (1975); Philadelphia Suday Bulletin, July 10, 1960. - McGivern's television plays: San Francisco International Airport series (1970), The Young Lawyers series (1970); Banyon series (1970); Kojak series (1973-77). Scripts by Donald P. Bellisario, Ray Brenner, Robert Foster, Jack Laird, Don Paterson, Michael Wagner and others. Cast: Lt Theo Kojak (Telly Savalas), Frank McNeil (Dan Frazer), Lt Bobby Crocker (Kevin Dobson), Det Stavros (Goerge Savalas) Det Saperstein (Mark Russell), Det Rizzo (Vince Conti). - Kojak is a tough, lollipop-sucking cop at New York City's Manhattan South precinct. He has behind a failed marriage and twenty years in the force. Savalas identified strongly with his on-screen persona. Kojak returned in 1989 but by this time Telly Savals was an Inspector. - Screenplays: I Saw What You Did (1965; dir. by William Castle, based on Ursula Curtiss's novel Out of the Dark); The Wrecking Crew (1969; based on Donald Hamilton's Matt Helm story, dir. by Phil Karlson, starring Elke Sommer and Sharon Tate); Brannigan (1975; with others); Night of the Juggler (1975) Selected works:
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