Clayton Rawson movie

[Bill Mullins]

"Miracles for Sale" based on Death from a Top Hat by Clayton Rawson. This was Tod Browning's last movie (director of "Freaks" and "Dracula").

[Max Maven]

One of three movies based on Merlini novels -- although in one of them, the story was tweaked to be about a different and better known print detective.

[Bill Mullins]

"Miracles for Sale" and "The Man who Wouldn't Die" (1942, based on No Coffin for the Corpse) were both theatrical films. "The Man who Wouldn't Die" used the Rawson novel as source material for one of a series of movies about a private eye, Michael Shayne, played by Lloyd Nolan. Shayne was the creation of Brett Halliday and was the star of a number of pulp novels and short stories.

The Great Merlini (detective star of Rawson's novels) appeared in two television shows as well. In 1950, a 30 minute episode of "Cameo Theatre" called "The Great Merlini" was broadcast, and Rawson was a scriptwriter for it. Chester Morris, a former vaudeville magician, played Merlini. This was to have been a full series. A year later, a 30 minute pilot episode of what was to have been "The Merlini Show", titled "The Transparent Man", was broadcast, also with Rawson as writer. Neither was picked up as a series.

[Frank Yuen]

Bill, do you know if any of the other shows you mentioned are available for viewing?

[Bill Mullins]

As I linked above, "Miracles for Sale" is on youtube. It has also been run on TCM. "The Man Who Wouldn't Die" also is on youtube. The 1951 pilot is here. I'm not aware of the Cameo Theatre episode being available anywhere.

Most of Rawson's fiction is available as ebooks now.

[Frank Yuen]

Thanks for those links Bill!