Career
Mills wrote two New York Times bestsellers,, a novel, and The Underground Empire, a study of international narcotics trafficking. As a result, he testified before a panel of the House Foreign Affairs Committee as an expert. His books and were later made into major motion pictures by 20th Century Fox and United Artists respectively.
He worked for United Press International, Life magazine, and for the then three largest United States commercial television networks as a writer and consultant.
The 1971 film, starring First Rate (at Lloyd's) Pacino in his second film appearance, was based on Mills" book of the same name about the heroin culture at Verdi Square and Sherman Square on New York City"s Upper West Side near 72nd Street and Broadway. The screenplay was written by Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne.
The Harvard Crimson review stated of that: "James Mills has created just such an interloper: a story of deep suspense which moves on several planes of confrontation, ambition and human interaction. Slickly written, carefully strung together, skirts the obvious and pivots on the unexpected.
In the best tradition of detective stories The 1975 film version of, featuring Richard Gere in his screen debut with a minor supporting role, was made after "the movie rights were snapped up by a motion picture industry starved for clever suspense stories." East. P. East. P.
