George Baxt
Encyclopedia
George Baxt was a prolific American
screenwriter and author
of crime fiction
, best remembered for creating the gay
black detective, Pharoah Love.
noted for their taut suspense and black humour: Circus of Horrors
(1960), the thriller Payroll
(1961) from the novel by Derek Bickerton
and Night of the Eagle
(1962) which he re-wrote following a draft by Charles Beaumont
and Richard Matheson
, though his credit was omitted from the US version which was released as Burn, Witch, Burn.
In 1966 be published A Queer Kind of Death, his first novel, which was met with considerable acclaim, not least for his creation of gay
black detective Pharoah Love. The influential New York Times critic Anthony Boucher
said in his review that, "This is a detective story, and unlike any other that you have read. No brief review can attempt to convey its quality. I merely note that it deals with a Manhattan subculture wholly devoid of ethics or morality, that staid readers may well find it "shocking", that it is beautifully plotted and written with elegance and wit … and that you must under no circumstances miss it." A critical analysis of the book can be found in The Lost Library: Gay Fiction Rediscovered
. Love would be the central figure in two immediate sequels Swing Low Sweet Harriet (1967) and Topsy and Evil (1968) and also two later novels, A Queer Kind of Love (1994) and A Queer Kind of Umbrella (1995).
Baxt also wrote a long series of period mysteries, combining his love of detective stories and Hollywood movies by featuring real celebrities solving fictional murder cases in the style of Stuart M. Kaminsky
's 'Toby Peters' books, starting with The Dorothy Parker Murder Case (1984) and concluding twelve volumes later with The Clark Gable and Carole Lombard Murder Case in 1998, often featuring detective Jacob Singer. Baxt himself appears as a character in The Tallulah Bankhead Murder Case (1987), which is set in 1952 during the HUAC hearings.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
screenwriter and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
of crime fiction
Crime fiction
Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...
, best remembered for creating the gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
black detective, Pharoah Love.
Life and work
George Leonard Baxt was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Polish and Russian immigrants. After working for several years as an agent he moved to Britain in the late 1950s and began a new career as a writer for television and the cinema. His most notable screenplays include three collaborations with director Sidney HayersSidney Hayers
Sidney Hayers was a British film and television director, writer and producer.Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, among his most acclaimed films were Circus of Horrors , The Trap and the occult thriller Night of the Eagle .In British TV, his credits included The Persuaders! and The New Avengers; he...
noted for their taut suspense and black humour: Circus of Horrors
Circus of Horrors
Circus of Horrors is a 1960 British horror film directed by Sidney Hayers. It starred Anton Diffring, Yvonne Monlaur, Erika Remberg, Kenneth Griffith, Jane Hylton, Conrad Phillips, Yvonne Romain and Donald Pleasence....
(1960), the thriller Payroll
Payroll (film)
Payroll is a 1961 British crime thriller starring Michael Craig, and based on the novel by Derek Bickerton. The story is about a gang of villains that stage a wages robbery, which turns into a disaster. Most of the film was shot on location in and around Gateshead and Newcastle upon Tyne...
(1961) from the novel by Derek Bickerton
Derek Bickerton
Derek Bickerton is a linguist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. Based on his work in creole languages in Guyana and Hawaii, he has proposed that the features of creole languages provide powerful insights into the development of language both by individuals and as a...
and Night of the Eagle
Night of the Eagle
Night of the Eagle is a 1962 British horror film directed by Sidney Hayers. The script by Charles Beaumont, Richard Matheson and George Baxt was based upon the 1943 Fritz Leiber novel Conjure Wife. The film was retitled Burn, Witch, Burn! for the US market .-Synopsis:Norman Taylor , a...
(1962) which he re-wrote following a draft by Charles Beaumont
Charles Beaumont
Charles Beaumont was a prolific American author of speculative fiction, including short stories in the horror and science fiction subgenres. He is remembered as a writer of classic Twilight Zone episodes, such as "The Howling Man", "Miniature", and "Printer's Devil", but also penned the...
and Richard Matheson
Richard Matheson
Richard Burton Matheson is an American author and screenwriter, primarily in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres. He is perhaps best known as the author of What Dreams May Come, Bid Time Return, A Stir of Echoes, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and I Am Legend, all of which have been...
, though his credit was omitted from the US version which was released as Burn, Witch, Burn.
In 1966 be published A Queer Kind of Death, his first novel, which was met with considerable acclaim, not least for his creation of gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
black detective Pharoah Love. The influential New York Times critic Anthony Boucher
Anthony Boucher
Anthony Boucher was an American science fiction editor and author of mystery novels and short stories. He was particularly influential as an editor. Between 1942 and 1947 he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle...
said in his review that, "This is a detective story, and unlike any other that you have read. No brief review can attempt to convey its quality. I merely note that it deals with a Manhattan subculture wholly devoid of ethics or morality, that staid readers may well find it "shocking", that it is beautifully plotted and written with elegance and wit … and that you must under no circumstances miss it." A critical analysis of the book can be found in The Lost Library: Gay Fiction Rediscovered
The Lost Library: Gay Fiction Rediscovered
The Lost Library: Gay Fiction Rediscovered, edited by Tom Cardamone, includes appreciations by 28 contemporary writers of significant gay novels and short story collections now out of print. The Lost Library includes an essay on reprints of gay literature by Philip Clark...
. Love would be the central figure in two immediate sequels Swing Low Sweet Harriet (1967) and Topsy and Evil (1968) and also two later novels, A Queer Kind of Love (1994) and A Queer Kind of Umbrella (1995).
Baxt also wrote a long series of period mysteries, combining his love of detective stories and Hollywood movies by featuring real celebrities solving fictional murder cases in the style of Stuart M. Kaminsky
Stuart M. Kaminsky
Stuart M. Kaminsky was an American mystery writer and film professor. He is known for three long-running series of mystery novels featuring the protagonists Toby Peters, a private detective in 1940s Hollywood; Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov, a Moscow police inspector; and veteran Chicago...
's 'Toby Peters' books, starting with The Dorothy Parker Murder Case (1984) and concluding twelve volumes later with The Clark Gable and Carole Lombard Murder Case in 1998, often featuring detective Jacob Singer. Baxt himself appears as a character in The Tallulah Bankhead Murder Case (1987), which is set in 1952 during the HUAC hearings.
Pharoah Love series
- A Queer Kind of Death (1966)
- Swing Low Sweet Harriet (1967)
- Topsy and Evil (1968)
- A Queer Kind of Love (1994)
- A Queer Kind of Umbrella (1995)
Plotkin and Van Larsen series
- A Parade of Cockeyed Creatures; or, Did Someone Murder Our Wandering Boy? (1967)
- "I!" Said the Demon (1969)
- Satan Is a Woman (1987)
Celebrity Murder series
- The Dorothy Parker Murder Case (1984)
- The Alfred Hitchcock Murder Case (1986)
- The Tallulah Bankhead Murder Case (1987)
- The Talking Pictures Murder Case (1990)
- The Greta Garbo Murder Case (1992)
- The Noel Coward Murder Case (1992)
- The Marlene Dietrich Murder Case (1993)
- The Mae West Murder Case (1993)
- The Bette Davis Murder Case (1994)
- The Humphrey Bogart Murder Case (1995)
- The William Powell and Myrna Loy Murder Case (1996)
- The Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Murder Case (1997)
- The Clark Gable and Carole Lombard Murder Case (1998)
Non-series Novels
- The Affair at Royalties (1971)
- Burning Sappho (1972)
- The Neon Graveyard (1979)
- Process of Elimination (1984)
- Who's Next? (1988)
Television
- Sword of FreedomSword of FreedomSword of Freedom was a 1958 drama adventure series for a family audience. Like several of its predecessors , it was produced by Sapphire Films for ITC Entertainment and fitted into the same swashbuckler genre as previous productions...
- Ivanhoe (1958 TV series)Ivanhoe (1958 TV series)Ivanhoe is a British television series first shown on ITV in 1958-59. It featured Roger Moore, in his first starring role, as Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe, in a series of adventures aimed at a children's audience...
- No Hiding PlaceNo Hiding PlaceNo Hiding Place is a British television series that was produced at Wembley Studios by Associated-Rediffusion for the ITV network between 16 September 1959 and 22 June 1967....
- The Defenders (TV series)
- Tales of the Unexpected (TV series)Tales of the Unexpected (TV series)Tales of the Unexpected is a British television series originally aired between 1979 and 1988, made by Anglia Television for ITV. Filming began in 1978.The series was an anthology of different tales...
Movies
- Circus of HorrorsCircus of HorrorsCircus of Horrors is a 1960 British horror film directed by Sidney Hayers. It starred Anton Diffring, Yvonne Monlaur, Erika Remberg, Kenneth Griffith, Jane Hylton, Conrad Phillips, Yvonne Romain and Donald Pleasence....
(1960) - The City of the Dead (1960)
- PayrollPayroll (film)Payroll is a 1961 British crime thriller starring Michael Craig, and based on the novel by Derek Bickerton. The story is about a gang of villains that stage a wages robbery, which turns into a disaster. Most of the film was shot on location in and around Gateshead and Newcastle upon Tyne...
(1961) - Shadow of the CatShadow of the CatShadow of the Cat is a 1961 British horror film directed by John Gilling for Hammer Film Productions. It stars André Morell and Barbara Shelley...
(1961) - Night of the EagleNight of the EagleNight of the Eagle is a 1962 British horror film directed by Sidney Hayers. The script by Charles Beaumont, Richard Matheson and George Baxt was based upon the 1943 Fritz Leiber novel Conjure Wife. The film was retitled Burn, Witch, Burn! for the US market .-Synopsis:Norman Taylor , a...
(1962)
External links
- Baxt bibliography
- Baxt obituary
- profile of Baxt's life and work at http://www.brookspeters.com