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In Remembrance: A. I.
Bezzerides
A. I.
Bezzerides, the screenwriter of such noir classics as Kiss Me
Deadly (1955) and On Dangerous Ground (1952) has passed
away on January 1, 2007 in Los Angeles, CA. He was 98.
Born on August
9, 1908 in Samsun, Turkey, Albert Isaac Bezzerides relocated to
Fresno, California with his family before the age of two. Although
he enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley to study
electrical engineering, he dropped out and moved to Los Angeles when
he realized he wanted to pursue a career as a writer. Often drawing
on his youth growing up in the fruit orchards of Fresno for
material, Bezzerides contributed to the magazine Story. His
1949 novel Thieves’ Market received critical praise about the
seamier side of produce distribution. His earlier novel, 1938’s
The Long Haul, mined similar territory.
Bezzerides
became involved in the film business when The Long Haul was
optioned by Warner Brothers Studios and turned into the feature
They Drive By Night (1940) with George Raft, Humphrey Bogart and
Ida Lupino. His first screenplay, Juke Girl (1942) was
written on assignment for the studio and featured Ronald Reagan as a
politically liberal truck driver helping Oklahoma Dust Bowl
immigrants.
In addition to
original screenplays for films such as Beneath The 12-Mile Reef
(1952), Bezzerides made a specialty out of translating novels onto
the silver screen. He adapted his novel Thieves’ Market into
1949’s Thieves’ Highway. He also adapted the crime novel
Desert Town by Ramona Stewart into Desert Fury (1947),
Joseph Kessel’s novel Coup de Grace into Sirocco
(1951), which starred Humphrey Bogart as a gunrunner in 1925
Damascus, Gerald Butler’s novel Mad With Much Heart became
On Dangerous Ground (1952) for director Nicholas Ray and Kiss
Me Deadly (1955) was adapted from the novel of the same name by
Mickey Spillane.
Bezzerides also
wrote for several television series including The 20th
Century-Fox Hour, Screen Directors Playhouse, Bonanza
and The Virginian. He also co-created the western television
series The Big Valley.
His final
screenplay was for the 1959 film The Jayhawkers!. He was the
subject of the 2005 Greek documentary Buzz. |
