Frank Gruber's Human Encyclopedia goes to Hollywood: "Death of a Champion" (1939)

This post winds up our Frank Gruber weekend extravanganza. On Friday we had a review of Brass Knuckles: The Oliver Quade Human Encylopedia Stories, yesterday we looked at Gruber's 11-point Mystery Story Formula, and today we go to the movies.

In the intro to Brass Knuckles, Gruber makes several references to Hollywood's interest in the Human Encyclopedia series. In 1936, when the series was still appearing in Thrilling Detective, he got offers from both David O. Selznick and Sam Goldwyn. Excited, Gruber signed a deal with Selznick that turned out to be a 30-day option for $200. When the option was not excercised, other studios lost interest until the radio show Information Please went on the air, and once again Gruber appeared to have a hot property. His agent was tossing around numbers like $75,000 from MGM and $100,000 from Warner Brothers, but those deals too failed to materialize.

Eventually Gruber got a Hollywood agent, who made something real happen: he sold the stories to Paramount for $2500. The result was Death of a Champion, released in 1939 and based on the Black Mask story "Dog Show Murder." Paramount apparently had plans for a series, but - most likely due to poor casting - this was the only film produced. 

As a mystery film, it's not too bad. It's definitely a B movie, but Paramount put enough into it to produce a film on a par with most of the Charlie Chans. But they really took very little from Gruber's work. They used the name and concept of Oliver Quade the Human Encylopedia. They used the dog show setting. They used the names of two supporting characters, though their roles in the film bear little resemblance to those in the short story. And they used a scene where Quade is trapped in a locked room and uses his encyclopedic knowledge to create Greek Fire and escape. That's it. Everything else was invented by the screenwriters.

The film follows the tried and true formula of so many Chan and Thin Man movies, where the suspects are assembled in one room and the detective tricks the killer into revealing himself. And that works okay. The main problem, as I see it, was the casting of Lynne Overman as Quade. In the pulp stories, Quade is a young and dynamic con-man type. Overman was over 50, with a squeaky voice and a mild demeanor. And despite the fact that he looks like Red Skelton, viewers were expected to believe he was a babe magnet. (Contrary to the image on the poster above, Overman does not wear a deerstalker or use a magnifying glass.)

Lynne Overman and Donald O'Connor

Quade's assistant Charlie Boston (a Sam Cragg type) is not here at all. Instead, Quade's partner is 14-year old Donald O'Connor, known in the film only as Small Fry. O'Connor gives the best performance of the movie (reminding me of a teenaged Christian Slater), and does most of the detecting. Though he's supposed to be a Human Encyclopedia-in-training, he's more interested in reading a pulp mag called Detective Horror. 

The action starts with the murder of a Great Dane, resulting in the murder of three humans, veering far afield from the doings in "Dog Show Murder." The acting is okay, and the script a few good one-liners, so I did enjoy the movie, even though it didn't merit a sequel.

A special tip of the coonskin cap goes out to the Almanack follower known as Rittster. When I reviewed Gruber's Simon Lash - Private Detective back in January, I whined about the fact I had not seen the film version, called Accomplice. Rittster was kind enough to send me a DVD featuring a double feature. Accomplice - and Death of a Champion. Thanks again, guy!

Frank Gruber's 11-Point "Can't Miss" Mystery Story Formula

Here's the Gruber recipe for surefire mystery story sales, as presented in his memoir "The Life and Times of the Pulp Story." That piece appeared in Brass Knuckles: The Oliver Quade Human Encyclopedia Stories (1966), reviewed here yesterday.  I suspect the same formula appeared in his 1967 book The Pulp Jungle, but I can't lay hands on any of my three copies at this moment to check.

Enough from me. Take it away, Mr. G . . .

I used to analyze stories. What elements were required? After a period of time I evolved a formula for mystery short stories. It consisted of eleven elements. With those eleven elements in a mystery plot, I could not miss. I used to work out each element at a time, concentrating on one until I had it licked, the going on to the next. Most writers of mysteries inject the eleven elements into their stories anyway, but by putting them down one at a time I became conscious of them. Once I had worked out these eleven elements, the job of coming up with plots for mystery stories was greatly simplified.

I did not create this 11-point formula at one time. I evolved it over a period of about two years beginning back in 1934. I had perfected it by about the middle of 1936.

To this day I claim that this plot formula is foolproof. You can write a perfectly salable mystery story with perhaps only seven or eight of these elements, but get them all into a story and you cannot miss. Here are the eleven elements:

1. THE HERO. A hero must be colorful. He must have an occupation that is colorful or he must be a colorful person. In general, I have followed the theory that a regular policeman or detective is not colorful. Just think a moment about the greatest detective in all detective fiction - Sherlock Holmes - and you will quickly grasp what I mean by colorful.

2. THEME. This, to me, is the most important element of any mystery story plot. By theme I mean subject matter, what the story is about in addition to, over and above, the ACTUAL MURDER plot. To illustrate:
     "Death and the Main" is about fighting cocks. I give a reasonably inside account of how gamecocks are raised, how they are fought, etc. This is knowledge not possessed by the average reader and believe me, I did not know it until I read up on the subject, for the purpose of this story.
    My book, The Lock & the Key was about locksmiths. A liberal education in making locks and keys was thrown into the murder plot. I knew absolutely nothing about locks and keys until I did research on the subject. I know no more than is in the book.
     If you have ever read Dorothy Sayres’ excellent English mysteries, you will find that THEME figures superbly. In The Nine Tailors, the reader earns all about church bells, the art of bell-ringing, etc. In Murder Must Advertise, Miss Sayres discusses advertising in all its phases.
     HOWEVER . . . knowledge of a subject should be used sparingly. The mystery reader may not be as interested in the subject as you are.

3. VILLAIN. Let’s face it, the hero of detective fiction is a Superman. The villain must therefore be a super-Superman or have plenty of assistants. The odds must ALWAYS be against the hero.

4. BACKGROUND. The story must be played against a colorful or unusual background. The streets of a big city are not necessarily colorful. If they’re not, make them so.

5. MURDER METHOD. Here again, the “unusual” should be considered. Shooting, stabbing, etc. are acceptable, but the circumstances surrounding them should be “unusual.”

6. MOTIVE. Actually, there are only two reasons for murder - hate and greed, but there are many subdivisions of these and the “motive” should be as unusual as possible.

7. CLUE. Somewhere in the story, there must be a clue for the alert reader. Sure, try to fool the reader, but the clue must be there if the reader should want to check back on you, after the story is over.

8. TRICK. In the grand finale, when all seems lost, when the hero cannot possibly win out, he must snatch victory from apparent defeat. By a trick . . . and here the word “unusual” applies.

9. ACTION. The story must have pace and movement. It must not consist of talk, talk, talk, about the missing button, etc.

10. CLIMAX. A grand, smashing climax is necessary. Unusual.

11. EMOTION. The hero should be personally involved in some manner. He should be doing this, over and beyond the call of duty. Or, beyond the money paid him for doing it.

Tomorrow: A look at Death of a Champion, the 1939 movie based on Gruber's Human Encyclopedia story "Dog Show Murder."

Forgotten Books: BRASS KNUCKLES, The Oliver Quade Human Encylopedia Stories by Frank Gruber

Frank Gruber created Oliver Quade, the Human Encyclopedia, back in 1936, and sold his first few adventures to Thrilling Detective. The gimmick was that Quade had read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica four times and knew all the facts by heart. He employs this knowledge as a book huckster, selling a one-volume condensed version called the Compendium of Human Knowledge for $2.95. And while he’s at it, he just happens to solve murders.

At the time, Gruber was eager to crack Black Mask, going to the extent of courting the favor of Joe Shaw, but having no luck. When Fanny Ellsworth took the magazine’s reins, though, his luck changed. He had sold stories to her at Ranch Romances, and she was a fan of the Human Encyclopedia.

For Oliver Quade’s debut in Black Mask, Gruber gave him an assistant named Charlie Boston and cranked up the humor. That first story, “Ask Me Another,” leads off this book. Included are eight other Black Mask tales (including “Funny Man,” featured below) and one from Thrilling Detective. 

For anyone who’s read one of Gruber’s Johnny Fletcher & Sam Cragg novels, these stories are immediately familiar. Oliver Quade is clearly the prototype of Johnny. The only difference is that Johnny has not read the encyclopedia, and the book he sells is Every Man a Samson. Sam Cragg is basically Charlie Boston with muscles. So - if you like the Johnny Fletcher books, you’re sure to enjoy these stories too.

To me, the book’s main attraction is a 40-page memoir called “The Life and Times of the Pulp Story,” a sort of warm-up to his book The Pulp Jungle, published a year later in 1967. There are great stories here, touching on people Gruber knew well, like Joe Shaw, Carroll John Daly and Steve Fisher, and many others he merely crossed paths with.

One major feature of “The Life and Times” is Gruber's eleven-point formula for creating a sure-fire mystery story. I’ll be featuring that tomorrow here on the Almanack, and invite to come on back to take a squint at it.

Then on Sunday I’ll review the 1939 film Death of a Champion, the one and only Human Encyclopedia movie.  It’s based on one of the Black Mask stories in this book, “Dog Show Murder.” Hope to see you here for that one too.

 (click to enlarge)

Be sure to visit pattinase for more great Forgotten Books.

WRITE WITH FIRE! Charles Gramlich shows you how.

If you were to choose just one book on writing for yourself - or someone on your Christmas list - you’d be hard-pressed to find a better choice than Write With Fire.

There’s something here for everyone, from rank beginner to seasoned pro, and certainly for those like me, who are somewhere in between. I wish I’d had this book twenty years ago, so I could have started following some of this advice sooner.

Part One, comprised of tips for writers, makes up over half the book. The tips run the gamut from dealing with writer’s block, to getting started, creating strong characters, generating suspense, constructing a strong ending, and optimizing your chances of making a sale. Charles really empties his trick bag, sharing his secrets for getting ideas, finding time to write, and staying motivated, right down to the nitty gritty of  punctuation and problem words.

Part Two goes beyond the tips, exploring subjects like critique groups, blogging, what makes a good horror story, and lessons learned from other writers.

Part Three is more personal, where Charles relates how his own experiences brought him to writing, and how his writing has affected his life.

Write With Fire covers so much territory I couldn't list it all, so I scanned the contents pages for you. Check them out! Bottom line: If you really want to write with fire (and who doesn't?), you need this book.

As an afterword, I’m offering a tip of my own to Charles and his publisher Borgo Press. The way they’ve marketed this book is just fine, but they might find additional readers with another edition aimed directly at the Bathroom Reader crowd. Each chapter is short and to the point, and each tackles a different subject. Just right for those multitaskers determined to miss no opportunity at self-improvement! (Personally, though, lest you get the wrong idea, I read this entire book in the living room. On the couch. With dogs on my lap. Really.)

A "Who, Me?" Inteview AND La Ronde Chapter 10

Cullen Gallagher has done me and five other guys the honor of posting interviews over at Pulp Serenade. The main topic of discussion: Discount Noir. OK, I can't recommend the crap I said, but you won't want to miss the words of Chad Eagleton, Loren Eaton, Gerald So, Al Tucher and John Weagly. Check it out right HERE. And if you don't yet own a copy of Discount Noir, you can remedy that by clicking the cover over on the left.

PLUS: Patti Abbott's La Ronde rolls merrily along, this week with a rockin' installment by Graham Powell called "It's Raining Down in Texas." This one features a guest appearance by the work of art pictured above. Check it out right HERE.

Once again, here's the full line-up to date:
Part 1: The Dish Ran Away With the Spoon by Patti Abbott
Part 2: Blinded by the Brilliance of his Own Reflection by Dana King
Part 3: Provocateur by K.A. Laity

Part 4: Enter the Fat Lady by Sandra Seamans
Part 5: It's a Dog's Life by Rob Kitchin   

Part 6: The Lesser Evil by Evan Lewis

Part 7: Mirror Image by Eric Beetner
Part 8: La Ronde by Nigel Bird
Part 9: Knocked Out Loaded by Kassandra Kelly

At the Movies: Perry Mason solves The Case of the Lucky Legs (1935)

Print Your Own Bookmarks

Just Looking: Sinners and Shrouds by Jonathan Latimer