On this day in movie history - Le Doulos (1962)

Le Doulos

a.k.a.The Finger Man,

directed and written by Jean-Pierre Melville,

based on the novel by Pierre Lesou,

was released in Italy on December 13, 1962.

Music by Paul Misraki.

Cast:

Jean-Paul Belmondo, Serge Reggiani, Jean Desailly, René Lefèvre, Marcel Cuvelier, Philippe March, Fabienne Dali, Monique Hennessy, Carl Studer, Christian Lude, Jacques De Leon, Jack Leonard, Paulette Breil, Philippe Nahon, Charles Bayard, Daniel Crohem, Charles Bouillaud, Michel Piccoli.

Born on this day – Robert Prosky:

 

Actor

December 13, 1930 – December 8, 2008

Born on this day – Christopher Plummer:

 

Actor

December 13, 1929 – February 5, 2021

Born on this day – James Wright:

Writer

December 13, 1927 – March 25, 1980

Credits:

Poems:

A Blessing; A Note Left In Jimmy Leonard's Shack; A Poem About George Doty In The Death House; A Winter Daybreak Above Vence; As I Step Over A Puddle At The End Of Winter...; At The Executed Murderer's Grave; Autumn Begins In Martins Ferry, Ohio; Beginning; Bologna: A Poem About Gold; Depressed By A Book Of Bad Poetry...; Fear Is What Quickens Me; Goodbye to the Poetry of Calcium; Having Lost My Sons, I Confront The Wreckage Of The Moon...; Hook; In Response To A Rumor That The Oldest Whorehouse In Wheeling...; Lying In A Hammock At William Duffy's; May Morning; Northern Pike; On The Skeleton Of A Hound; Outside Fargo, North Dakota; Rip; Saint Judas; Small Frogs Killed On The Highway; The Jewel; The Journey; The Lambs on the Boulder; The Last Pieta, in Florence; To A Blossoming Pear Tree; To The Muse; Trying To Pray.

Books:

A Wild Perfection: The Selected Letters of James Wright (2005); Above the River, The Complete Poems (1990); Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio—Broadside (1963); Collected Poems (1971); James Wright, In Defense Against This Exile. Letters To Wayne Burns (1985); Moments of the Italian Summer (1976); Saint Judas (1959); Selected Poems (2005); Shall We Gather at the River (1967); The Branch Will Not Break (1963); The Delicacy and Strength of Lace: Letters Between Leslie Marmon Silko and James Wright (2009); The Green Wall (1957); The Temple at Nîmes (1982); This Journey (1982); To a Blossoming Pear Tree (1977); Two Citizens (1973).

Born on this day – Don Taylor:

Director

Actor

Writer

December 13, 1920 – December 29, 1998

 

Born on this day – Ann Richards:

Actress

Writer

Artist

December 13, 1917 – August 24, 2006

Credits:

Writing:

Helen of Troy (play written in the 1970s – exact date unknown); The Grieving Senses (poetry) (1971); Odyssey for Edmond (poetry) (1991).

Movies and television:

Don't Call Me Girlie (1984); General Electric Theater (1960); Breakdown (1952); Sorry, Wrong Number (1948); Love from a Stranger (1947); Lost Honeymoon (1947); The Searching Wind (1946); Badman's Territory (1946); Love Letters (1945); An American Romance (1944); Three Hearts for Julia (1943); 100,000 Cobbers (1942); Random Harvest (1942); Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant (1942); The Woman in the House (1942); Come Up Smiling (1939); The Farmer Goes to Town (1938); Vengeance of the Deep (1938); Timberland Terror (1937); It Isn't Done (1937).

Born on this day – Mark Stevens:

Actor

Director

Producer

December 13, 1916 – September 15, 1994

Born on this day – Ross Macdonald:

Writer

December 13, 1915 – July 11, 1983

Credits:

The Lew Archer novel series: The Moving Target (aka Harper) (1949); The Drowning Pool (1950); The Way Some People Die   (1951); The Ivory Grin / Marked for Murder (1952); Find a Victim (1954); The Barbarous Coast (1956); The Doomsters (1958); The Galton Case (1959); The Wycherly Woman (1961); The Zebra-Striped Hearse (1962); The Chill (1963); The Far Side of the Dollar (1965); Black Money (1966); The Instant Enemy (1968); The Goodbye Look (1969); The Underground Man (1971); Sleeping Beauty (1973); The Blue Hammer (1976); The Name is Archer (1955); Lew Archer, Private Investigator (1977); The Archer Files (2007). The Chet Gordon novel series: The Dark Tunnel / I Die Slowly (1944); Trouble Follows Me (1946). Stand-alone novels, short stories and novellas: Blue City (1947); The Three Roads (1948); Meet Me at the Morgue / Experience with Evil (1954); The Ferguson Affair (1967); The Guilty Ones (1952); The Imaginary Blonde (1953); Midnight Blue (2010); Strangers in Town (2001); Dear Dead Days: 1972 Mystery Writers of America Anthology (1972); Mammoth Book of Short Crime Novels (1986); The Mammoth Book of Private Eye Stories (1988); City Sleuths and Tough Guys (1989); Pulp Frictions: Hardboiled Stories (1996); The Oxford Book of American Detective Stories (1996); Writing Los Angeles (2002); Los Angeles Noir 2 (2010); Books to Die For (2012).

Born on this day – Florine McKinney:

Actress

December 13, 1909 – July 28, 1975

Credits:

Little Joe, the Wrangler (1942); Pardon My Sarong (1942); Take a Letter, Darling (1942); Brooklyn Orchid (1942); Unholy Partners (1941); Blossoms in the Dust (1941); You're the One (1941); A Night at Earl Carroll's (1940); The Philadelphia Story (1940); Escape (1940); Oklahoma Renegades (1940); Waterloo Bridge (1940); And One Was Beautiful (1940); Blazing Barriers (1937); A Star Fell from Heaven (1936); Muss 'em Up (1936); Cappy Ricks Returns (1935); Dizzy Dames (1935); Strangers All (1935); Night Life of the Gods (1935); David Copperfield (1935); The Merry Widow (1934); Student Tour (1934); Hollywood Party (1934); Riptide (1934); Dancing Lady (1933); Beauty for Sale (1933); It's Great to Be Alive (1933); Blue of the Night (1933); Cynara (1932); The Cabin in the Cotton (1932); Horse Feathers (1932); The Miracle Man (1932); One Hour with You (1932).

Michelle Obama, on the arts:

The arts are not just a nice thing to have or to do if there is free time or if one can afford it.

Rather, paintings and poetry, music and fashion, design and dialogue, they all define who we are as a people and provide an account of our history for the next generation.

- Michelle Obama.