Harold Shillman
Created by Eric Bercovici

Some PI's are thickheaded, and some are pretty down on their luck, but HAROLD SHILLMAN takes the cake. In his one appearance in print, So Little Cause For Caroline (1980), he tries to take his life with a gun, but the bullet bounces off his head! He's then lured out of semi-retirement to find the wandering wife of a Las Vegas casino owner (and crimeboss), and stumbles into the usual deceit and intrigue.

Author Eric Bercovici has done most of his writing for television, so it is no surprise that this book was turned into a made-for-TV movie. The results were so-so, even if it did mark Robert Mitchum's television debut. His sleepy-eyed performance as a dead-tired private eye who just didn't give a damn anymore was dead-on, but was it acting?

Bercovici has written for Hawaii Five-O, I-Spy, McClain's Law, Mission: Impossible, Police Story and other shows across his career, and penned a handful of stand alone novels. He even wrote and produced James Clavell's Shogun for TV.

UNDER OATH

• "...a tight, fast moving book that took me right to the last page."
  (Arthur Lyons)

NOVELS

• So Little Cause For Caroline (1980)

TELEVISION

• ONE SHOE MAKES IT MURDER
  (1982, CBS)
  Based on the novel "So Little Cause For Caroline" by Eric Bercovici
  Screenplay by Felix Culver
  Directed by William Hale II
  Produced by Mel Ferrer
  Supervising producer: Malcolm Stuart
  Executive producers: Arthur Fellows, Terry Keegan
  Starring Robert Mitchum as HAROLD SHILLMAN
  Also starring Angie Dickinson, Mel Ferrer, Jose Perez II, John Harkins, Howard Hesseman, Asher Brauner, Bill Henderson, Catherine Shirriff, William G. Schilling, Andy Martin, Grainger Hines

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith and Dale Stoyer. (July 2003).