Born on this day – Alan Ladd:

Alan Ladd

Actor

Producer

September 3, 1913 – January 29, 1964

Credits:

13 West Street (1962); A Cry in the Night (1956); All Over Town (1937); All the Young Men (1960); American Portrait (1940); And Now Tomorrow (1944); Appointment with Danger (1950); Beyond Glory (1948); Blame It on Love (1940); Botany Bay (1952); Boy on a Dolphin (1957); Branded (1950); Brother Rat and a Baby (1940); Cadet Girl (1941); Calcutta (1946); Captain Carey, U.S.A. (1949); Captain Caution (1940); Chicago Deadline (1949); China (1943); Citizen Kane (1941); Come on, Leathernecks! (1938); Cross-Country Romance (1940); Desert Legion (1953); Drum Beat (1954); Duel of Champions (1961); Duffy's Tavern (1945); Ellery Queen, Master Detective (1940); Eyes of Hollywood (1949); Freshman Year (1938); General Electric Theater (1954–1958); Great Guns (1941); Guns of the Timberland (1960); Hell Below Zero (1954); Hell on Frisco Bay (1955); Her First Romance (1940); Hitler: Beast of Berlin (1939); Hold 'Em Navy (1937); Hollywood Victory Caravan (1945); I Look at You (1941); In Old Missouri (1940); Island of Lost Souls (1932); Joan of Paris (1942); Letter from a Friend (1943); Lucky Jordan (1942); Meat and Romance (1940); Meet the Missus (1940); Military Training (1941); More Worlds to Conquer (1941); Murder at the Vanities (1934); My Favorite Brunette (1947); O.S.S. (1946); Once in a Lifetime (1932); One Foot in Hell (1960); Paper Bullets (1941); Paratrooper (1953); Petticoat Politics (1941); Petunia Natural Park (1939); Photographic Intelligence for Bombardment Aviation (1943); Pigskin Parade (1936); Red Mountain (1951); Rulers of the Sea (1939); Saigon (1947); Salty O'Rourke (1945); Santiago (1956); Saskatchewan (1954); Saturday's Millions (1933); Sauce for the Gander (1940); Secrets of a Nurse (1938); Shane (1953); Skirmish on the Home Front (1944); Souls at Sea (1937); Star Spangled Rhythm (1942); The Badlanders (1958); The Big Land (1957); The Black Cat (1941); The Black Knight (1954); The Blue Dahlia (1946); The Carpetbaggers (1964); The Deep Six (1958); The Glass Key (1942); The Goldwyn Follies (1938); The Great Gatsby (1949); The Green Hornet (1940); The Howards of Virginia (1940); The Iron Mistress (1952); The Last Train from Madrid (1937); The Light of Western Stars (1940); The Man in the Net (1959); The McConnell Story (1955); The Mysterious Miss X (1939); The Proud Rebel (1958); The Reluctant Dragon (1941); This Gun for Hire (1942); Those Were the Days! (1940); Thunder in the East (1952); Tom Brown of Culver (1932); Two Years Before the Mast (1946); Variety Girl (1947); Victory (1940); Whispering Smith (1948); Wild Harvest (1947); Wildcat Bus (1940).

On this day in movie and book history - This Gun for Hire (1942)

This Gun for Hire

directed by Frank Tuttle,

written by Albert Maltz and W.R. Burnett,

based on the novel A Gun for Sale by Graham Greene,

was released in the United States on April 24, 1942.

Music by David Buttolph.

Cast:

Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, Laird Cregar, Alan Ladd, Tully Marshall, Marc Lawrence, Olin Howland, Roger Imhof, Pamela Blake, Frank Ferguson, Victor Kilian, Patricia Farr, Harry Shannon, Charles C. Wilson, Mikhail Rasumny, Bernadene Hayes, Mary Davenport, Chester Clute, Charles Arnt, Earle S. Dewey, Clem Bevans, Lynda Grey, Virita Campbell.

Recommended reading:

A Gun for Sale

by Graham Greene.

Introduction by Samuel Hynes.

Filmed as This Gun for Hire (1942), directed by Frank Tuttle.

Published by Penguin Publishing Group.
First published 1936.
Paperback.

ISBN-10: 014303930X
ISBN-13: 978-0143039303
 
Description:

Raven is an ugly man dedicated to ugly deeds. His cold-blooded killing of a European Minister of War is an act of violence with chilling repercussions, not just for Raven himself but for the nation as a whole. The money he receives in payment for the murder is made up of stolen notes and when the first of these is traced, Raven becomes a man on the run. As he tracks down the agent who has been double-crossing him and attempts to elude the police, he becomes both hunter and hunted: an unwitting weapon of a strange kind of social justice. In doing so, he sets the stage for Greene’s next novel, Brighton Rock. This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction by Samuel Hynes.

On this day in movie history - The Blue Dahlia (1946)

The Blue Dahlia

directed by George Marshall,

written by Raymond Chandler,

was released in the United States on April 18, 1946.

Music by Victor Young.

Cast:

Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, William Bendix, Howard Da Silva, Doris Dowling, Hugh Beaumont, Tom Powers, Howard Freeman, Don Costello, Will Wright, Frank Faylen, Walter Sande, Mae Busch, Anthony Caruso, Noel Neill.