Before retiring in the mid-1960s, Charles Bennett had enjoyed a long and distinguished career as a screenwriter in both England and the United States. Specializing in thrillers, whether working with Alfred Hitchcock in the 1930s and early 1940s or Irwin Allen in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Bennett wrote films that often dealt with political or moral corruption, and his characters were often ordinary and innocent people who found themselves in circumstances beyond their control, demanding great physical courage and a strong and resolute moral will.

Born in Shoreham-on-Sea, Sussex, England, the son of Charles Bennett and Lilian Langrishe, Bennett was privately educated. He spent most of his early life as an actor, making his debut at twelve years old on 23 December 1911 in the The Miracle. Six years later, he was serving in France during World War I; afterward, he toured with the Compton Comedy Company...