On this day in movie and book history - To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

 

To Kill a Mockingbird

directed by Robert Mulligan,

written by Horton Foote,

based on the novel by Harper Lee,

was released in the United States on December 25, 1962.

Music by Elmer Bernstein.

Cast:

Gregory Peck, John Megna, Frank Overton, Rosemary Murphy, Ruth White, Brock Peters, Estelle Evans, Paul Fix, Collin Wilcox Paxton, James Anderson, Alice Ghostley, Robert Duvall, William Windom, Crahan Denton, Richard Hale, Mary Badham, Phillip Alford, R.L. Armstrong, Walter Bacon, Eddie Baker, Bobby Barber, John Barton, Audrey Betz, Danny Borzage, John Breen, Jess Cavin, Noble 'Kid' Chissell, Jack Clinton, Steve Condit, May Couch, David Crawford, Frank Ellis, Jamie Forster, Charles Fredericks, Raoul Freeman, Herman Hack, Jester Hairston, Chuck Hamilton, Kim Hamilton, Kim Hector, Michael Jeffers, Dick Johnstone, Chester Jones, Colin Kenny, Ethan Laidlaw, Nancy Marshall, Clyde McLeod, Charles McQuary, Charles Morton, Paulene Myers, William H. O'Brien, Charles Perry, Joe Ploski, Hugh Sanders, Barry Seltzer, Edward C. Short, Mabel Smaney, Eddie Smith, Walter Smith, Cap Somers, George Sowards, Ray Spiker, Kim Stanley, Jay Sullivan, Kelly Thordsen, Arthur Tovey, George Tracy, Sailor Vincent, Max Wagner, Bill Walker, Joe Walls, Dan White, Guy Wilkerson, Chalky Williams.

Recommended reading - To Kill  Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird

by Harper Lee.
 
First published 1960.
Published by Harper Perennial Modern Classics.
Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0060935464
ISBN-13: 978-0060935467
 
Description:
 
Winner of the 1961 Pulitzer Prize.
 
Voted America's Best-Loved Novel in PBS's The Great American Read.
 

“A first novel of such rare excellence that it will no doubt make a great many readers slow down to relish more fully its simple distinction. . . . A novel of strong contemporary national significance.” – Chicago Tribune.

 

Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep South – and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred.

 

One of the most cherished stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than forty million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father – a crusading local lawyer – risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.

Recommended reading - The Chase, by Horton Foote, play & novel (1956/1966):

 

The Chase

by Horton Foote.

 
Play version:
72 pages.
Paperback.
Published by Dramatists Play Service, Inc.
Published 1956.

ISBN 13: 9780822201984
ISBN 10: 0822201984
ASIN: 0822201984
 
Novel version:
Mass Market Paperback.
Published 1966.
Published by Signet Book.

ASIN: B0DT36B11R

Description:

Sheriff Hawes, honest and sincere peace officer, wearied with his job and its usual run of irritating problems, such as runaway boys, small robberies and the like, is making plans for his retirement. A local boy, Bubber Reeves, escapes from the penitentiary where he is serving a life term. He heads for his hometown, obsessed with the idea of killing Hawes who has become for him the symbol of all he hates. The town is terrified of Bubber and wants him killed. Hawes is determined to take him alive and send him back to the penitentiary. Eventually Hawes traces Bubber to a cabin, but Bubber does not want to be captured and forces Hawes to kill him. Heartbroken over his failure, Hawes goes back to the jail to resign immediately, but his wife convinces him that he is needed in his job, and he decides to continue.