Two on a Guillotine, by Henry Slesar

[quamis]

Hello guys, "Two on a Guillotine", the horror film directed by William Conrad in 1965, was adapted from a Henry Slesar pulp short story by himself. ¿Does anyone know the title of the story?

[franklinmarsh]

I've tried looking into this but can't find any info. Despite many sources claiming it was based on a story by, I wonder if they're just taking the film credit 'story by' literally, meaning Henry wrote a story outline that was then turned into a screenplay, rather than the film being adapted from a short story...?

[dem bones]

Dec 22, 2016 12:06:04 GMT franklinmarsh said:

I've tried looking into this but can't find any info. Despite many sources claiming it was based on a story by, I wonder if they're just taking the film credit 'story by' literally, meaning Henry wrote a story outline that was then turned into a screenplay, rather than the film being adapted from a short story...?

Think you're right about this, FM. There's another one I'm interested in locating, if, indeed, it exists. Robert Wilson's In The Picture, the basis for the supernatural episode in Three Cases Of Murder, featuring Orson Welles and Eamon Andrews among others.

[pablomonteagudot]

Hi there!

Two on a Guillotine (1965) is freely adapted from Henry Slesar's short story Legacy of Terror (Amazing Science Fiction Stories, 1958).
The short story has some fantasy-science fiction elements (giant insects) which do not appear in the film.

But the main plot /storyline of the short story has many unmistakable similarities with Two on a Guillotine.

The characters played by Connie Stevens and Dean Jones in the movie are almost identical to the main characters in Legacy of Terror.

There was another case of a Henry Slesar short story freely adapted to the screen: "Bottle Baby", turned into Terror from the Year 5000 (1958, Robert J. Gurney Jr.)


Legacy of Terror was reprinted in the horror anthology Satan's Pets, edited by Vic Ghidalia (Manor Books, 1972)