On this day in movie and book history - Cry of the City (1948) The Chair for Martin Rome (1947)

Cry of the City

directed by Robert Siodmak,

written by Richard Murphy and Ben Hecht,

based on the novel The Chair for Martin Rome by Henry Edward Helseth,

was released in the United States on September 29, 1948.

Music by Alfred Newman.

Cast:

Victor Mature, Richard Conte, Fred Clark, Shelley Winters, Betty Garde, Berry Kroeger, Tommy Cook, Debra Paget, Hope Emerson, Roland Winters, Walter Baldwin, Robert Adler, Mimi Aguglia, George Beranger, Oliver Blake, Harry Carter, Dolores Castle, Ken Christy, Davison Clark, Ruth Clifford, John Cortay, Antonio Filauri, Tiny Francone, Howard Freeman, Ed Hinton, Kathleen Howard, Thomas Ingersoll, Robert Karnes, George Magrill, George Melford, Joan Miller, Tom Moore, Thomas Nello, Jane Nigh, Eddie Parks, Emil Rameau, Claudette Ross, Elena Savonarola, Harry Seymour, Konstantin Shayne, Dan Sheridan, Michael Stark, June Storey, Charles Tannen, Helen Troya, Tito Vuolo, Charles Wagenheim.

Recommended reading:

The Chair for Martin Rome

by Henry Edward Helseth.

ASIN: B0007I5CI0
First published 1947.
Published by Pocket Books.
Paperback.

Description:
Condemned killer escapes.

Martin Rome killed a policeman during a robbery. For this the State sentenced him to the electric chair. But before that bleak final moment Martin Rome had business to finish outside the jail – matters of stolen jewels and some human rats and a girl whose very existence he denied to the detectives but whose reality for him transcended all things. The swift, terrifying story of his mad undertaking, the grim revelation it brought to the police and, even more grimly, to Rome itself, is an emotional experience that leaves the reader thrilled and unnerved at the closing page.

“Just about the most real and convincing tough-job that has come in this season. Not easily forgettable.” – Saturday Review of Literature.