[1] During the First World War Turner wrote three plays: Nothing New, Peace Time Prophecies or Stories Gone Wrong and Tails Up.
[2] An early published novel of his from 1919, Simple Souls,[3] was made into a movie in 1920 with a scenario by Fred Myton, directed by the American Robert Thornby.
[4] In 1926, Turner's play The Scarlet Lady,[5] a comedy, opened at the Criterion Theatre in London, starring Marie Tempest, a friend and the driving force behind the establishment of the actors' union Equity.
[7] Thereafter, in addition to his solo work, Turner collaborated with other writers, notably Roland Pertwee, with whom he wrote plays, scenarios or dialogues for a number of productions in the early 1930s, including a series of movies directed by John Daumery and William C. McGann, and Irving Asher's now-lost 1935 U.K. production Murder at Monte Carlo directed by Michael Barringer and starring Errol Flynn in his first major role.
[8][9] Turner's work was performed by other leading actors including Margot Grahame (A Letter of Warning, 1932[10]), Nora Swinburne (A Voice Said Goodnight, 1932,[11][12] Cedric Hardwicke, Boris Karloff and Ralph Richardson (The Ghoul, 1933[13]), and Jane Baxter (The Night of the Party, 1935, directed by Michael Powell.