On this day in movie and book history - The Anderson Tapes (1971)

The Anderson Tapes

directed by Sidney Lumet,

written by Frank Pierson,

based on the novel by Lawrence Sanders,

was released in the United States on June 17, 1971.

Music by Quincy Jones.

Cast:

Sean Connery, Dyan Cannon, Martin Balsam, Ralph Meeker, Alan King, Dick Anthony Williams, Val Avery, Garrett Morris, Stan Gottlieb, Christopher Walken, Conrad Bain, Margaret Hamilton, Anthony Holland, Scott Jacoby, Judith Lowry, Meg Myles, Norman Rose, Max Showalter, Janet Ward, Paul Benjamin, Richard B. Shull.

Recommended reading:

The Anderson Tapes

by Lawrence Sanders.

Filmed as The Anderson Tapes (1971), directed by Sidney Lumet.

Published by DELL PUBL CO.
First published 1970.

ISBN-10: 0440102170
ISBN-13: 9780440102175
 
Description:

With clockwork precision, Lawrence Sanders outlines the inspiration, planning and execution of an ambitious robbery of an apartment building on New York's Upper East Side in The Anderson Tapes, the best-selling thriller that established him as one of the most popular suspense writers of his generation. The premise is clever – the entire story is told in surveillance tape transcripts and reports from law enforcement agencies, each of which seems to be observing some aspect of the situation in which the robbery takes place.

John "Duke" Anderson was recently paroled from Sing Sing, after serving time on a charge of breaking and entering. A rich woman picks him up one evening and takes him back to her apartment, in a small but elegant building on the Upper East Side. 

Anderson is intrigued by the situation in the building, seeing it as a possible target for a large-scale robbery. He needs backing, though, and he gets it through his contacts with the underworld. What Anderson does not know is that much of what he is already doing is being captured as evidence through electronic surveillance. The catch is that the different entities doing the surveillance are not communicating with each other. The evidence is assembled and the puzzle solved, after the robbery takes place and ends violently, by NYPD Capt. Edward X. Delaney.

The Anderson Tapes marks the first appearance in a Sanders novel of Delaney, a character who will be central to the author's Deadly Sin series of thrillers. Sanders brilliantly unfolds the story in short, fact-filled chapters constructed as police reports and tape transcripts, some of which are tantalizingly garbled. The Anderson Tapes won for Sanders the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar as the Best First Mystery Novel of 1970.

On this day in movie and reading history - Night and the City (1992 and 1938)

Night and the City

directed by Irwin Winkler,

written by Richard Price,

based on the novel by Gerald Kersh,

was released in the United States on October 23, 1992.

Music by James Newton Howard.

Cast:

Robert De Niro, Jessica Lange, Cliff Gorman, Alan King, Jack Warden, Eli Wallach, Barry Primus, Gene Kirkwood, Gerard Murphy, Clem Caserta, Anthony Canarozzi, David W. Butler, Byron Utley, Margo Winkler, Maurice Shrog, Regis Philbin, Joy Philbin, Richard Price, Franklin Dennis Jones, Thomas Mikal Ford, Peter Bucossi, Bert Randolph Sugar, Nathaniel E. Johnson, Brenda Denmark, Barry Squitieri, Lisa Vidal, Carol Woods, Joseph D'Onofrio, Michael Badalucco, Deborah Watkins, Nandan Sage, Harsh Nayyar, Ben Lin, John Polce, Rosalind Malloff, Kennan Scott, Henry Milligan, Victor Machado, Chuck Low, Lou Polo, Louis Cantarini, John Quinn, Philip Carlo, Cameron Lane, Sharrieff Pugh, Mitchell Tex Low, Mick Cunningham, Dave Reilly, Leslie Bart, Ann Devaney, Lorenzo Palminteri, Catherine Russell, Ed Bannister, David Boston, Angel Brown, Alfred Cole, Ronnie Cuber, Dan Gifford, Gary Gold, Jennifer C. Johnson, Diane Kimbrell, Leslie Lawrence, John Maczko, Felicia Peluso, Michael Rispoli, Beverley Sutherland, Michael Tenaglia, Paul Zimmerman.

Recommended reading:

Night And The City

by Gerald Kersh.

Published by London Books.

First published 1938.

ISBN-10: 0995721734

ISBN-13: 9780995721739

Description:

Harry Fabian is a cockney wide boy trying to make it big in the Soho underworld of the 1930s. He is a Flash Harry in an expensive suit, a chancer operating in a cosmopolitan corner of the city where villains, spivs, prostitutes and strong-arm men thrive. But his ambition and reckless nature are pushing him towards more and more extreme acts - and a day of reckoning. Night And The City is a classic work of social-realist fiction that captures the vibrant yet seedy underbelly of London between the world wars. Its author Gerald Kersh was high-profile, prolific and hugely popular at his peak, but would later drift into hardship and obscurity. His writing is now being rediscovered. A maverick character in his own right, Kersh's life was as colourful as those of his most flamboyant creations. As well as a highly respected novel, Night And The City was twice filmed - in 1950 and 1992 - and it is the first of these adaptations that is today regarded as one of the best of the British film-noir genre. Directed by Jules Dassin and starring Richard Widmark and Googie Withers, it was shot in a post-war landscape heavy with menace and charm - just like the book on which it was based.

On this day in movie history - I, the Jury (1982)

I, the Jury

directed by Richard T. Heffron,

written by Larry Cohen, and based on the novel by Mickey Spillane,

was released in the United States on October 9, 1982.

Music by Bill Conti.

Cast:

Armand Assante, Barbara Carrera, Laurene Landon, Alan King, Geoffrey Lewis, Paul Sorvino, Judson Scott, Barry Snider, Julia Barr, Jessica James, Frederick Downs Jr., Mary Margaret Amato, F.J. O'Neil, William G. Schilling, Robert Sevra, Don Pike, Timothy Meyers, Leigh Harris, Lynette Harris, Gwyn / Gwynn Gillis, Mike Miller, Alex Stevens, Bobbie Burns, M. Sharon Madigan, Richard Russell Ramos, Norman Blankenship, Daniel Faraldo, H. Richard Greene, Felicity Adler, Jodi Douglas, Lee H. Doyle, Cheryl Henry, Michael Fiorello, Herb Peterson, Richard Dahlia, Aaron Barsky, Ernest Harada, Larry Pine, Joe Farago, Alan Dellay, Jack Davidson, Loring Pickering, Corinne Bohrer, Bobby Astyr, Roger Caine, Michael Cullum, Samantha Fox, Linda Hamil, David Lauren, Candida Royalle, Marlene Willoughby.