Books that should become movies: A License to Steal

If you were to ask someone on the street about who invented the telephone the answer you are likely to get is either Thomas Edison or Alexander Graham Bell. It’s hard to imagine if either inventor could have dreamed what telephones have gone on to become. To think people can walk around with a wireless telephone the way people would walk around with a pocket watch in their time is probably something way beyond either man ever envisioned. Before cellular telephones came along there were many other technological advances that came from the telephone, some of these were the hands-free or speaker phone, call forwarding and conference calls. If you were to ask someone who came up with those advances they probably wouldn’t know, even if they were to look the answer up on the Internet. they still may not find the correct answer. The inventor, and the man who holds the original patents, is Walter L. Shaw.

Walter L. Shaw is hardly a household name, but for some people, especially in South Florida, it may sound like a name they have heard before. Others may say, “Wasn’t he a crook? He broke into a lot of houses and stole jewelry.” For those who recall Walter Shaw in that matter would be correct, except they would be thinking of Walter L. Shaw’s son, Walter T. Shaw who once ran a crew dubbed “The Dinnertime Burglars”. Walter T. has written a book, not only about his life, but the life of his father in “A License to Steal”. The book is not just a re-telling of a retired mobster recalling some his “glory days” back in the mob, it tells so much more and is ripe to be made into a great film.

Some may wonder since the father was the inventor who contributed so much to the telecommunication industry wouldn’t he be rich and therefore the son wouldn’t have to turn to a life of crime? In a perfect world that would probably be true, but sadly we don’t live in that world. While Shaw Sr. was certainly a genius in his own right, he was not the greatest business man. He was a person, as the book reveals, someone who always saw the best in people and trusted them. As a result all these inventions were stolen from him. Having a patent on an invention is one thing, having the ability to keep paying the fees for them is another, not to mention the cost of hiring a lawyer if someone steals those patents.

Every man wants to be able to provide for his family and perhaps in the pursuit of doing so Walter L. Shaw got into business with the wrong people. In the 1950’s he invented something for some Manhattan bookmakers that he, unfortunately, is better known for, the “black box”. This invention not only helped prevent these men’s phones from being tapped, but it also allowed them to make toll-free long distance calls. The nature of the invention came to light at the McClellan Committee Hearings in the summer of 1961. By this time young Walter had met some of the men his father worked with and who he also grew to like and admire. One of them, Carlo Gambino who was the boss of the Gambino crime family, said to young Walter, “You remember one thing about these politicians, these judges, these big corporations. They have a license to steal, but we don’t need one. Your dad’s not the bad guy kid, they are.”

The book goes on to Walter Jr’s life of how he grew up to become a master cat burglar. There are many people who live in South Florida who remembers the crime wave he and his gang perpetrated. If that was all the book entailed, who Walter robbed, how much money they made it may make an okay book, and certainly would not make that interesting a movie.

Thankfully, when Walter T. Shaw decided to pen his book, that’s not the story he set out to tell. In fact, that is not a key part of it at all, but the fact that it is part of his life is what makes his tale all more intriguing. There are two other core elements that make this book primed to become a successful motion picture; it is a story about redemption and also they story of a father and a son.

There are many factors that go into making a successful film, one of them is to have a character one can get behind and goes through a complete character arc by the film’s end. If your main character is pretty much the same person you first met, by the end of the film, who really cares. A great example of this can be seen in the first two “Godfather” movies. At the beginning of the first film, Francis Ford Coppola, had the character of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) very well lit, by the end of “The Godfather: Part II” the character is almost completely in shadows signifying the change this character has gone through since the audience first meets him. In a film version of Walter T. Shaw’s book, his character goes through a complete arc.

Walter Jr. is also a very layered and complex character that has not been seen in other mob movies. Sure, he’s a thief and we’re not supposed to like him or even feel sorry for him with the life he chose to have. He makes no apologies for it in the book, but he fully acknowledges what he did was wrong and that we should never approved of what he did. At the same time he wasn’t all bad. Walter Jr. writes how he has always respected his elders, especially senior citizens. He sites one job he and his crew were casing when the person they were going to rob was a 90-year old woman. As soon as he found out the woman’s age he called his crew off the job. He also brings up times how if he ever found out he stole something with an obvious strong sentimental value, he made sure it got returned. This is someone movie audiences would really enjoy seeing on the silver screen.

Walter Sr. is also someone whose character has not been experienced in a mob movie before. He was a hard worker who got screwed over by corporate America, but did not go on to become some mafia tough guy. This was a man who did not go out womanizing, get into fights or even curse; and all these mafia men respected the hell out of him for it. This profound respect would go on to help save the son’s life one day too. Hopefully, in a film version, these characters traits will be brought along for both the Shaw men.

Walter Jr’s choosing the life he did led to a great estrangement between father and son. The two barely spoke for decades. Walter always thought his father blamed himself for him becoming a part of the mob. His father would go on to be diagnosed with cancer, which would later claim his life. Walter T Shaw’s wife, Diana, who could be perceived a hero in the book and a movie, brought the two men together, and father and son got to spend the last year-and-a-half of the father’s life with one another. At the end of the book, there is a scene where the father gives his son his full forgiveness shortly before he dies. There are no words spoken because Walter Sr. can no longer speak due to his illness, but Walter Jr. fully understands what his father is “saying” to him. Under the right filmmaker, it could become a very powerful moment at the climax of the film.

At this time there is a movie in the works under the title “Abuse of Power”. There is a completed screenplay that has already received a “RECOMMEND” in Hollywood. There is an accomplished movie director attached, Luis Mandoki, and it is rumored that Joaquin Phoenix is eyeing the project as a comeback vehicle for himself. He would make an excellent Walter T. Shaw in a film version, and it wouldn’t be surprising to find this film around for award season.