Philip MacDonald (5 November 1900 – 10 December 1980) was a British-born writer of fiction and screenplays, best known for thrillers.
Life and work
MacDonald was born in London, the son of author Ronald MacDonald and actress Constance Robertson, and grandson of the fiction writer and Christian minister George MacDonald.[1] During World War I he served with the British cavalry in Mesopotamia, later trained horses for the army, and was a show jumper. He also raised Great Danes. After marrying the writer F. Ruth Howard, he moved to Hollywood in 1931. He was one of the most popular mystery writers of the 1930s, and between 1931 and 1963 wrote many screenplays along with a few radio and television scripts.
His detective novels, particularly those featuring his series detective
Anthony Gethryn, are primarily "whodunits" with the occasional locked room mystery. His novel X v. Rex (1933), aka The Mystery of The Dead Police, is an early example of what has become known as a serial killer novel (before the term "serial killer" was coined), in which an insane murderer is killing police officers one after the other. Perhaps his best-known novel is The List of Adrian Messenger.[1]
MacDonald's 1927 novel Patrol was issued as one of the first twenty Penguin Books in 1935. He won the annual Short Story Edgar Award twice, in 1953 for the collection Something to Hide and Other Stories (published in the UK as Fingers of Fear and Other Stories) and in 1956 for the individual short story "Dream No More". He also wrote television scripts for Alfred Hitchcock Presents ("Malice Domestic", 1957) and Perry Mason ("The Case of the Terrified Typist", 1958).
As "W.J. Stuart", MacDonald wrote the novelisation of the 1956 science fiction film Forbidden Planet. He also dabbled in science fiction under his own name, writing at least four SF short stories over a span of decades. Two of them are frequently issued in anthologies ("Our Feathered Friends", 1931, and "Private – Keep Out!", 1949).
Guest in the House (a.k.a. No Time for Terror) (1955)
The List of Adrian Messenger (1959, featuring Anthony Gethryn). Serialised in American newspapers as Murder Seed. The novel has many points of similarity with Macdonald's screenplay for the film Circle of Danger
Death & Chicanery (1962)
As Oliver Fleming
Ambrotox and Limping Dick (1920), with Ronald MacDonald
The Spandau Quid (1923), with Ronald MacDonald
As Anthony Lawless
Harbour (1931)
Moonfisher (1931)
As Martin Porlock
Mystery at Friar's Pardon (1931)
Mystery in Kensington Gore (1932) (a.k.a. Escape)
X v. Rex (1933) (a.k.a. The Mystery of Mr. X and Mystery of the Dead Police). Serialised in American newspapers as 'Who Killed C*ck Robin Hoode?’. (Later republished as Mystery of the Dead Police by Philip MacDonald as Pocket Books #70, 1940)
