Fallen Angel

London: Peter Davies. Very Good+ in Good+ dj. 1946. First British Edition. Hardcover. [light shelfwear, a touch of soiling to covers, slight bump to bottom right corner of front cover; jacket torn at top of spine with some paper loss, various other small tears and nicks]. The scarce British issue of the novel which served as the basis for one of the best of Otto Preminger's early films (and a worthy follow-up to his classic LAURA). The first of five novels by this author, who apparently also dabbled in screenwriting without any notable success. (The only other film credit I've been able to uncover for her was a story credit for the 1950 noir THE FILE ON THELMA JORDON.) The movie version starred Dana Andrews, supported by Linda Darnell (sexy girl) and Alice Faye (nice girl), the latter making a sort of "comeback" (as well as a change of pace, in a non-musical role) after being absent from the screen for nearly two years. Ironically, however, it ended up being Faye's swan song as a major star after she got into a dispute with studio head Darryl Zanuck over his decision to cut down her role in the picture in favor of Darnell's. Great creepy jacket art -- wish I knew who "K" was. NOTE that there is a small circular stamp on the ffep that reads "Colonial Edition." .