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 20^th 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.