Max Catto

Maxwell "Max" Jeffrey Catto (born July 29, 1907 in Manchester , England ; † March 12, 1992 ) was a British writer who is also known under the pseudonyms Max Finkell and Simon Kent .

Life

Max Catto was born Maxwell Jeffrey Catto in Manchester , England , in 1907 . After completing his electrical engineering studies at the University of Manchester , he moved to London , where he lived from then on. He began writing in the 1930s and from 1937 his first works were published, including the plays Green Waters (1937) and They Walk Alone (1939) and the novels River Junk (1937) and The Hairy Man (1939).

He served in the Royal Air Force during World War II . After the war he resumed his work as a writer of adventure novels, some of which he published under the pseudonym Simon Kent. Exotic locations like the Caribbean in playing with fire ( Fire Down Below , 1954), and lots of action, as in The Devil at Four ( The Devil at Four O'Clock , 1958), marked his novels. Some of his books have been translated into German.

A number of his novels served as a literary model for movies, as for Carol Reed's circus drama Trapeze ( Trapeze , 1956) with Burt Lancaster , Tony Curtis and Gina Lollobrigida , for the adventure film playing with fire ( Fire Down Below , 1957) with Rita Hayworth , Robert Mitchum and Jack Lemmon or Mervyn LeRoy's The devil at four ( The devil at 4 O'Clock , 1961) with Spencer Tracy and Frank Sinatra .

Works (selection)

Novels

• River Junk (1937)
• The Hairy Man (1939)
• Ginger Charley (1939)
• The Flanagan Boy (1949)
• The Killing Frost (1950) - Irrevocable
• For the Love of Doc (1951)
• The Sickle (1952)
• The Mummers (1953)
• A Prize of Gold (1953)
• Gold In The Sky (1956) - The Long Road to Kimungu
• The Devil at Four O'Clock (1958) - The devil comes at four
• The Melody Of Sex (1959)
• Mister Moses (1961) - Mister Moses
• D-Day In Paradise (1963)
• The Tiger In The Bed (1963) - Men like Tiger
• I Have Friends In Heaven (1965)
• Love From Venus (1965) - The love of Venus
• Bird On The Wing (1966)
• The Banana Men (1967)
• Murphy's War (1969)
• King Oil (1970)
• The Fattest Bank In New Orleans (1971)
• Sam Casanova (1973)
• Mister Midas (1976)
• The Empty Tiger (1977)

Novels under the pseudonym Simon Kent

• Fleur-de-Lys Court (1950)
• A Hill in Korea (1953)
• Fire Down Below (1954) - Playing with fire
• The Doctor On Bean Street (1954)
• Ferry to Hong Kong (1957) - Ferry to Hong Kong
• The Lions At The Kill (1959) - The prey of the lions
• Charlie Gallagher My Love! (1960)

Plays

• Green Waters (1937)
• They Walk Alone (1939)
• Punch Without Judy (1940)

Filmography (selection)

Literary template

• 1948: Daughter of Darkness (Daughter of Darkness) - Director: Lance Comfort (with Anne Crawford )
• 1955: Keyword: Berlin-Tempelhof (A Prize of Gold) - Director: Mark Robson (with Richard Widmark )
• 1956: Trapeze (Trapeze) - Director: Carol Reed (with Burt Lancaster , Tony Curtis and Gina Lollobrigida ) based on The Killing Frost
• 1956: On the Front Line (A Hill in Korea) - Director: Julian Amyes (with George Baker )
• 1957: Playing with Fire (Fire Down Below) - Director: Robert Parrish (with Rita Hayworth , Robert Mitchum and Jack Lemmon )
• 1959: Ferry to Hong Kong (Ferry to Hong Kong) - Director: Lewis Gilbert (with Curt Jurgens and Orson Welles )
• 1960: Seven Thieves (Seven Thieves) - Director: Henry Hathaway (with Edward G. Robinson ) by The Lions At The Kill
• 1961: The devil comes to four (The Devil at 4 O'Clock) - Director: Mervyn LeRoy (with Spencer Tracy and Frank Sinatra )
• 1965: South of the Pangani River (Mister Moses) - Director: Ronald Neame (with Robert Mitchum)
• 1971: The Lullaby of the Damned (Murphy's War) - Director: Peter Yates (with Peter O'Toole )

Web links

• Max Catto in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Max Catto in the Internet Broadway Database