Originally, the plan was to feature Ellery Queen this week. Since there are a lot of Ellery Queen books, there was a request to delay that feature in order to give people more time to read those stories. Instead, we're going to focus on DORIS MILES DISNEY, who was hugely popular in the 1960s and early 1970s.
Sadly, her books appear to be out of print, but many used copies are available through BN.com.
From Wikipedia:
Doris Miles Disney (December 22, 1907 – March 9, 1976) was an American mystery writer. She was born in Glastonbury, Connecticut, and died in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Disney wrote 49 novels. Many of her novels were both best sellers and the bases for major feature films.
Disney was known for her character development and the creative mystery surrounding her plots. Most of her main characters were based on acquaintances known to her or her daughter, Elizabeth. Disney liked to use her society experiences as a female character base for novels.
She was survived by one daughter, Elizabeth Miles Disney, a writer and theater actress, as well as a granddaughter, Sarah Elizabeth Laing.
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/d/doris-miles-di
1. A Compound for Death (1943)
2. Murder on a Tangent (1945)
3. Appointment at Nine (1947)
4. Fire at Will (1950)
5. The Last Straw (1954)
aka Driven to Kill
1. Dark Road (1946)
aka Dead Stop
2. Family Skeleton (1949)
Straw Man (1951)
Trick or Treat (1955)
aka The Halloween Murder
Method in Madness (1957)
aka Quiet Violence
Did She Fall or Was She Pushed? (1959)
Find the Woman (1962)
The Chandler Policy (1971)
Who Rides a Tiger? (1946)
aka Sow the Wind
Enduring Old Charms (1947)
aka Death for My Beloved
That Which Is Crooked (1948)
Testimony by Silence (1948)
Count the Ways (1949)
Look Back on Murder (1951)
Heavy, Heavy Hangs (1952)
Do unto Others (1953)
Prescription: Murder (1953)
Room for Murder (1955)
My Neighbor's Wife (1957)
No Next of Kin (1959)
Dark Lady (1961)
aka Sinister Lady
Should Auld Acquaintance (1962)
Here Lies... (1963)
The Hospitality of the House (1964)
aka Unsuspected Evil
The Departure of Mr. Gaudette (1965)
aka Fateful Departure
At Some Forgotten Door (1966)
The Magic Grandfather (1966)
aka Mask of Evil
Night of Clear Choice (1967)
aka Flame of Evil
Voice from the Grave (1968)
Money for the Taking (1968)
Two Little Children and How They Grew (1969)
Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate (1970)
aka Death by Computer
Fatal Choice (1970)
The Day Miss Bessie Lewis Disappeared (1972)
Three's a Crowd (1972)
Don't Go into the Woods Today (1974)
Only Couples Need Apply (1974)
Cry for Help (1976)
Winifred (1976)
STELLA (1950)
"Starring Ann Sheridan, Victor Mature, Leif Erickson, David Wayne, Randy Stuart
Directed by Claude Binyon
Print: black/white
Runtime: 83 min.
Genre: comedy
Print Quality: B
Stella is an out-of-left-field black comedy in which star Anne Sheridan is upstaged by an
uproarious supporting cast. At a family picnic, a none too likeable uncle dies from
accidentally eating poisoned mushrooms. The other family members don't want to be
accused of murder, so they leave it to the stupidest branch of the clan, personified by David
Wayne and Frank Fontaine, to dispose of the body. When it is learned that Uncle had a hefty
insurance policy, the family tries to palm off various corpses as the genuine article. The
final image is of Wayne and Fontaine digging hundreds of holes in the field where uncle is
resting; it seems they can't remember where they buried him! Stella is based on a
somewhat more serious novel by mystery specialist Doris Miles Disney."
"...the Jeff DeMarco of the movie (in the guise of Victor Mature) was actually one of author Doris Miles Disney’s continuing series characters.
In fact FAMILY SKELETON was the second of eight cases for Jeff DiMarco in Disney’s overall output (note the slight change in spelling), spread out between 1946 and 1971. I’ve not read the novel, so I can’t report on the romance that’s a key ingredient of the movie, but the comedy aspects are a definite part of both.
Quoting fromhttp://www.novelguide.com/a/discover/aww_01/aww_01
“Disney skillfully manipulated tone as well as plot, as in FAMILY SKELETON (1949), a Jeff DiMarco story, showing what happens when a family first conceals the accidental killing of a cantankerous uncle and then frantically tries to reclaim his body in order to collect his insurance. Their macabre misadventures were filmed by Fox as STELLA (1950).”
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071209/
http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/2158/
(ABC, 12/3/1974, 90 mins). Amanda Blake, in her TV movie debut and her first role after 18 years on “Gunsmoke,” is a lonely widow who hires a young woman companion, unaware that the girl and her boyfriend are killer-extortionists planning to make her their next victim. Singer/actor Dick Haymes also made his initial TV movie appearance in this adaptation of Doris Miles Disney’s “Only Couples Need Apply” (1973).
Production Company Metromedia Producers Corp. Director Gordon Hessler. Executive
Producer Charles Fries. Producer Gerald I. Isenberg. Teleplay James M. Miller. Based on a Novel by Doris Miles Disney. Photography Jacques R. Marquette. Music Ernest Gold. Editor John A. Martinelli. Associate Producer Gerald W. Abrams.
Cast Amanda Blake (Helen Mercer), Tisha Sterling (Gretchen [“Adele Murphy”]), Dick Haymes (Harold Porter), Sam Groom (Jay), Britt Leach (Fred Hawkes), Edward Marshall (Roy), Ted Gehring (Police sergeant), Dennis Cross (Highway patrolman), Eric Brotherson (Mr. Hall), Lucille Benson (Eunice Russell), Vernon Weddle (Savings officer), Rene Bond (Betty/waitress).
Read more: Betrayal (ABC, 12/3/1974, 90 mins) - Producer, Miles, Dick, and Blake - JRank Articles http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/2158/
http://www.stephaniezimbalist.net/yesterdayschild.
Based on:
Yesterday's Child (1977)
A young couple's three-year-old daughter is kidnapped and no trace is ever found of her. Fourteen years later, a young woman claiming to be that girl shows up at the parents' house.
