Wednesday, March 18, 2026

The Whistler 1948-03-31 "Bird of Prey"

The basic setup:  A writer steals the identity of a novelist known only by a mysterious pen name.

The Whistler 1948-03-31 "Bird of Prey"
Produced by George W. Allen
Story by George & Gertrude Fass, music by Wilbur Hatch
Whistler:  Bill Forman / Announcer:  Marvin Miller
Cast (credited):  Wally Maher, Sarah Selby
Cast (from script):  Jay Novello, Pat McGeehan, Lois Corbett, ?
Cast (ear):  Bill Bouchey as Lt. Driscoll

The story:  Freelance writer Eddie Smith has come to Havana on the trail of the mysterious bestselling novelist known only by the pen name J. C. Raven.  He asks Raven's agent Barkly Wells for an interview, and Wells refuses to let him see Raven, but agrees to meet again at Wells's apartment.  Eddie begins to suspect that Wells himself is really Raven.  As they leave the bar, Wells is attacked and Eddie apprehends the assailant, but Wells is already dead.  Eddie heads for Wells's apartment, where he finds an offer letter from a Hollywood studio and a complete synopsis for a new J. C. Raven novel.

Eddie takes the offer letter to the studio and presents himself as J. C. Raven, all the while insisting that his name is Edgar Smith—which, after all, it is.  The studio boss Mr. Rosamund takes him on and assigns him an assistant, mousy little Veronica Corbie.  Eddie writes a script from the stolen Raven outline, changing the ending to suit his own taste, and hands it over to Veronica to type up.

Rosamund is thrilled with Eddie's script, especially the ending—and Eddie realizes he's describing the original J. C. Raven ending, not the new ending that Eddie wrote.  Eddie confronts Veronica, who admits that she changed the ending because she thought Rosamund would like it better.  She wanted Eddie to make good after the risks he's taken, pretending to be J. C. Raven.  She says she won't tell anyone Eddie isn't J. C. Raven.  He couldn't be J. C. Raven... because she is.

Veronica explains that she used to work with Barkly Wells at the studio, and, having been unsuccessful in her literary efforts, hit on the idea of creating the mystery author and using Wells as a front.  She would send him outlines, and they would work on the Raven novels together.  Veronica says she'd like to continue the arrangement with Eddie.

Eddie plays up to Veronica for some weeks, taking her out on dates, intending to put up with her for a couple of years until he makes enough money to quit.  Then one day Eddie takes a phone call from a police detective asking to speak to Veronica.  Later, Veronica asks Eddie what happened in Havana the night Barkly Wells was killed; and then Eddie overhears her on the phone agreeing to meet the detective the next day.  Eddie is convinced that Veronica was in love with Barkly Wells and thinks Eddie murdered him, and that she intends to turn Eddie over to the police and ruin everything.  He kills her to silence her.

The twist:  Eddie is about to leave Veronica's apartment when the doorbell rings.  He drags the body behind the davenport and answers the door.  It's the police detective.  When he spoke to Veronica on the phone this afternoon it was just routine, but now it isn't.  They've received a wire from the Havana police that the killer of Barkly Wells has confessed—and he was hired by Veronica Corbie.

Spotlight on George and Gertrude Fass

Consider this exchange in the first scene of "Bird of Prey":

EDDIE:
Now listen, why don't you fix up an appointment for me to talk to this guy Raven...

WELLS:
Guy?  Mr. Smith, has it ever occurred to you that J. C. Raven might be a woman?

EDDIE:
Sure.  I've kicked the idea around... but I won't buy it.  Take that last novel-Undertow.  Could a dame have written it?

Well, "Undertow" was also the title of the Whistler episode of 1948-02-24... also written by George and Gertrude Fass!  It's no wonder, then, that in "Bird of Prey," the mysterious author of Undertow turns out to have been a woman collaborating with a man.

I always think it's a little funny that a husband-and-wife writing team would write a story about a male/female writing team... in which the man steals credit for the woman's ideas and each half of the team at one point murders their collaborator!

And several of the Fasses' other radio scripts involve dysfunctional marriages, infidelity, and/or spouse murder.   Another one that seems potentially close to home for a creative couple is Mollé Mystery Theater "Solo Performance," about married actors:  she dreams of being a husband-and-wife team, but his professional and romantic jealousy lead to murder.  I can only assume that the Fasses must have felt comfortable in their marriage and their creative partnership to keep writing stories about these kinds of themes!  (See also Mystery Time "The White Curtain" for a suspenseful and atmospheric story with an unexpected take on the eternal triangle.)

George Fass, born in Manhattan in 1907 of Russian Jewish parents, was a New York lawyer who wrote plays in the 1930s and early 1940s—including winning a short play prize in 1941 for his radio play "Lincoln, the Lawyer."  Gertrude Kossoff, born in the Bronx in 1909 of Russian Jewish parents, graduated Hunter College in 1930 and was a high school teacher and artist.  The two married around 1942 and collaborated on scripts for radio and television.

The Fasses were particularly highly regarded for their work in television in the 1950s, writing scripts for shows including Colgate Theater, Fireside Theater, Foreign Assignment, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and Peter Gunn.  A piece in Variety of 26 Apr 1950 quotes Kendall Foster, TV director of the William Esty agency:  "'There are not yet any perfectly trained TV writers as such,' Foster believes, 'because the medium is still too new.  However, there are many who are doing fine jobs.'  Among those he cited were George and Gertrude Fass, Jack Bentkover, True Boardman, William Kendall Clarke, William L. Stuart, Lawrence Klee, Margaret Wilder and Lee Roggow."

A piece in Writer's Digest of September 1951 describes the Fasses' creative process:

In the Fass team, there's no division of labor between "idea man" and "technician"—one writer supplying the story line and the other putting it into shape for TV—as there is with some collaborators.  Both George and Gertrude get story ideas and both write scripts, dividing the work according to a special system of their own.  "I understand our method of working together is unusual," George says, in explaining how their team operates.  "Our system is to write every script three times.  When one of us gets an idea for a story, we talk it over together and then the one whose idea it was writes a first draft.  The other one takes this first draft and revises it into a second draft.  Then we talk over the story some more and, finally, the original writer sits down and turns out the final script.  This is a lengthy procedure, but the system works well for us.  And we feel we get a better finished product."

After George's death in 1965, Gertrude Fass taught high school English, wrote children's stories, and was successful as a sculptor.  This two-part profile from the Cybis Porcelain Archive has photos of Gertrude Fass's sculptures as well as some of her paintings and drawings.

Photo and profile of Gertrude Fass from the 1976 Tenafly (New Jersey) High School yearbook

Other notes on "Bird of Prey"

The J. C. Raven story that Eddie steals is called The House in the Swamp, and Rosamund praises "the scene between the old man and the little girl at the edge of the swamp"; the script has "Rosalyn" crossed out and "the little girl" penciled in.  As far as I know this does not correspond to any actual George and Gertrude Fass story, but I wouldn't be surprised!

The script for "Bird of Prey" has some lines that were cut for the final production, including more of Mr. Rosamund praising Veronica's previous work with successful screenwriters, and a deleted scene in which Veronica calls Eddie with her concerns about his script.  The episode works better with the cuts, keeping Veronica more of a non-entity until the dramatic reveal after she changes the story back without consulting Eddie.

The scan of the script in the SPERDVAC library also has handwritten notes in red pencil, apparently from George W. Allen, that identify some of the supporting players!  "Jay" is written next to Rosamund's first line, confirming the distinctive voice of Jay Novello.  Wells's first line is marked "Pat" and he sounds like Pat McGeehan.  Rosamund's secretary is marked "Lois" and she sounds like Lois Corbett; the house manager in the last scene is likely also Corbett.  ("Corbet" is also written on the title page of this script and crossed out.)

Script page 6.  "Joe"?

There's a word or name I'm not sure about next to the first line of the Man who calls the police when Wells is killed; it doesn't quite look like (or sound like) "Jay," but it could conceivably be "Joe."  Whoever he was, he probably doubled as the airline representative on the phone.  (In the script, that character is called "Girl"!)

A note next to Eddie's first line says "Eddie"!

There's no note on Lieutenant Driscoll, but it sounds like frequent Whistler cop Bill Bouchey.

Further listening

Other episodes of The Whistler involving literary plagiarism and/or author identity theft:

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