John Balderston was a journalist and playwright before turning to the screen in 1931. In his later years he lamented that so few of his screenplays were his alone. But he was nearly always more successful in collaboration than on his own, and film was a suitable medium for his kind of romantic writing. Working mainly for Universal from 1931 to 1936, Balderston was a principal figure in the Golden Age of Horror. Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932), and The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), all of which he contributed to, are now classics. In most of his other successful work, Balderston speculated about identity switches, time travel, or interplanetary communication. He was at home with the fantastic, and his best work is either poignantly or whimsically scary or genuinely frightening.

John Balderston was born in Philadelphia to Anglo-American parents, Lloyd and Mary Balderston, who divided their time during his early life between America...