Richard wrote (about an episode in which McGavin played Mike
Hammer):
"Anyway, "Now Die For It" is copyrighted 1959 (no idea of
first air date). Of interest to this list is that the
teleplay was by Steven Thornley (who did several episodes)
from a story by Curt Cannon. . . .
"The plot involves a teen club called the Dew Drop Club.
Hammer is hired by a friend to investigate the disappearance
(& eventually murder) of his wife's sister, who
frequented the club. . . . I assume this is from one of the
Curt Cannon stories from Manhunt but it has been years since
I read them. I may give them a scan to try and discover the
one that served as a basis for this episode."
The Curt Cannon story has the same title. I read it in one of
the anthologies of Manhunt stories. Turns out McBain recycled
the story himself, as I noted in July 2001:
I just finished reading McBain's second 87th Precinct, The
Mugger. I liked it a lot. I found it particularly interesting
that the book recycles a plot McBain used in one of his Curt
Cannon stories, Now Die In It. SPOILER ALERT The subplot
involving Bert Kling's investigation of his one-time friend's
sister-in-law is exactly the same as Curt Cannon's
investigation in that story. Both friends are married
cabdivers with beautiful sisters-in-law who look just like
the wife once did. Both contact a detective to placate the
wife's worries. Both sisters are pregnant, though this is
known from the outset in the story, but hidden for a while in
the novel. Both sisters hang out in a teen club. Both are
murdered. Both detectives get involved with an older, loose
woman who hangs out in the club and befriended the sister.
Both investigations involve figuring out what subway stop the
sister exited to meet her lover. In both, the detective is
called in by a homicide captain to tells him to stop mucking
about, who found out he was by an anonymous call (however,
drunk detective Cannon is physically beaten, but Kling is
just browbeaten, his job threatened). Whereas the plot makes
up the complete short story, it becomes a subplot in the
novel. The murder is at first thought to be an escalation in
a string of female muggings, but is eventually revealed as a
copycat killing.
Mark
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