From MUTE WITNESS to BULLITT
Robert L. Fish was a truly versatile author. As capable in a humorous mode as in a suspenseful one, he was an author whose works could not be contained under one moniker alone.
Under the Robert L. Pike pseudonym, Fish wrote Mute Witness, the classic hardboiled tale that would inspire one of Steve McQueen’s most memorable roles: Frank Bullitt.
For Bullitt, director Peter Yates moved Fish’s story from New York to San Francisco, but the film preserved much of the original plot. Both the book and the film tell of a disgraced cop tasked with guarding a mob kingpin, of that kingpin's brutal murder while in custody, and of the cop’s desperate search for the killer.
But what really immortalized the film was its elaborate car chase scene, an innovatively-shot pursuit that winds through the hills of San Francisco and continues to influence cinema to this day.
Perhaps it is due to this scene that the film went on to outshine its source, no matter how popular Mute Witness was upon its initial publication. While Mute Witness may not be as well-known today as Bullitt, the novel is no less exciting than the film.
Check it out and rediscover a true classic of crime fiction.
