Come along, Harry Higgins

This script is based on O. Henry's 1903 short story "A Retrieved Reformation" in which I kept the primary plot, but changed some details, the names of the characters, and added SciFi elements.

Recently I sought out to find a short story to adapt into a short script. I finally landed on a story by O. Henry that was originally published in the April 1903 of The Cosmopolitan Magazine (Yes, that Cosmo). As I started working on the adaptation, I realized that I was going to have a difficult time in adapting it without making changes. As small changes grew to large changes, I decided to add the SciFi element and it turned from an adaptation to "Based on."

Had I written this 60 years ago (12 years before I was born) I would have had no trouble selling it to Rod Serling to turn into a Twilight Zone episode. It's even the perfect length.

Set in 1899, successful safe cracker Harry Higgins decides to hang up his drill for good when he meets the woman of his dreams, only to be tailed by the constable that put him away once already. Oh, and Harry's's an alien. This script would absolutely fit into the mold of a 1960 Twilight Zone episode.

"A Retrieved Reformation" was made into a film three times; in 1915, 1920, and 1928. It was also adapted into a highly successful Broadway play under the title "Alias Jimmy Valentine" which ran 155 performances at Wallack's Theatre in New York in 1910. There was also a radio series called "Alias Jimmy Valentine" that ran in 1938-39.

It should also be noted that the script was written and edited in less than 48 hours. While the plot and some of the dialogue was O. Henry's story, there were some significant changes that required a lot of original dialogue and story adjustment. In some ways I think it was harder to write this than it would have been to simply write an original story. Maybe. I don't know. Actually I think it was about as hard. I think...