On this day in movie and book history - 12 Angry Men (1957)

12 Angry Men

directed by Sidney Lumet,

written by Reginald Rose,

based on the 1954 teleplay Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose,

was released in the United States on April 10, 1957.

Music by Kenyon Hopkins.

Cast:

Martin Balsam, John Fiedler, Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, Edward Binns, Jack Warden, Henry Fonda, Joseph Sweeney, Ed Begley, George Voskovec, Robert Webber, Rudy Bond, Tom Gorman, James Kelly, Billy Nelson, John Savoca, Walter Stocker.

Recommended reading:

 

Twelve Angry Men

Teleplay by Reginald Rose.
Introduction by David Mamet.
 
Filmed as:
12 Angry Men (1957), directed by Sidney Lumet.
12 Angry Men (1997), directed by William Friedkin.

Paperback.
Published by Penguin Classics.
First published 1954.

ISBN 13: 9780143104407
ISBN 10: 0143104403
ASIN: 0143104403
 
Description:

A blistering character study and an examination of the American melting pot and the judicial system that keeps it in check, Twelve Angry Men holds at its core a deeply patriotic faith in the U.S. legal system. The play centers on Juror Eight, who is at first the sole holdout in an 11-1 guilty vote. Eight sets his sights not on proving the other jurors wrong but rather on getting them to look at the situation in a clear-eyed way not affected by their personal prejudices or biases. Reginald Rose deliberately and carefully peels away the layers of artifice from the men and allows a fuller picture to form of them—and of America, at its best and worst.

After the critically acclaimed teleplay aired in 1954, this landmark American drama went on to become a cinematic masterpiece in 1957 starring Henry Fonda, for which Rose wrote the adaptation. More recently, Twelve Angry Men had a successful, and award-winning, run on Broadway.

On this day in movie history - Call Northside 777 (1948)

Call Northside 777

directed by Henry Hathaway,

written by Jerome Cady, Jay Dratler, Leonard Hoffman and Quentin Reynolds,

was released in the United States on February 13, 1948.

Based on the true 1932 Joseph Majczek case, and articles written by James P. McGuire and Jack McPhaul, published in the Chicago Daily Times in 1944.

Narrated by Truman Bradley.

Music by Alfred Newman.

Cast:

James Stewart, Richard Conte, Lee J. Cobb, Helen Walker, Betty Garde, Kasia Orzazewski, Joanne De Bergh, Howard Smith, Moroni Olsen, John McIntire, Paul Harvey, Robert Adler, Richard Bishop, Larry J. Blake, John Bleifer, Truman Bradley, Dollie Caillet, Michael Chapin, George Cisar, Jane Crowley, Jimmy Dime, Abe Dinovitch, Rex Downing, Eddie Dunn, Lew Eckles, Ben Erway, Joseph Forte, Helen Foster, Stanley Gordon, Walter Greaza, Jonathan Hale, Buck Harrington, Percy Helton, Samuel S. Hinds, Perry Ivins, Robert Karnes, Leonarde Keeler, Cy Kendall, J.M. Kerrigan, Carl Kroenke, Paul Kruger, Henry Kulky, Charles Lane, Philip Lord, Jack Mannick, E.G. Marshall, Norman McKay, George Melford, Charles Miller, Edward Peil Jr., George Pembroke, Wanda Perry, Arthur Peterson, Joe Ploski, William Post Jr., Addison Richards, Thelma Ritter, Richard Rober, Dick Ryan, Peter Seal, Lester Sharpe, George Spaulding, Ray Spiker, Lionel Stander, Ann Staunton, Freddie Steele, George Turner, George Tyne, Bill Vendetta, Otto Waldis, Duke Watson, Robert B. Williams.

On this day in movie and book history - The Exorcist (1973)

The Exorcist

directed by William Friedkin,

written by and based on the novel by William Peter Blatty,

was released in the United States on December 26, 1973.

Music by Jack Nitzsche.

Excerpt from Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield.

Cast:

Ellen Burstyn, Jason Miller, Linda Blair, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty Winn, Jack MacGowran, Father William O'Malley, Father Thomas Bermingham, Peter Masterson, Robert Symonds, Barton Heyman, Rudolf Schündler, Arthur Storch, Vasiliki Maliaros, Titos Vandis, Dick Callinan, William Peter Blatty, Mercedes McCambridge, Eileen Dietz.

Recommended reading - The Exorcist

The Exorcist: A Novel (1971).

by William Peter Blatty.

Published by Harper Paperbacks

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 006209436X

ISBN-13: 978-0062094360

Description:

Four decades after it first shook the nation, then the world, William Peter Blatty’s thrilling masterwork of faith and demonic possession returns in an even more powerful form. Raw and profane, shocking and blood-chilling, it remains a modern parable of good and evil and perhaps the most terrifying novel ever written.