Showing posts with label Martin Balsam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Martin Balsam. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 24, 2026

On this day in movie history - Catch-22 (1970)

Catch-22


directed by Mike Nichols,

written by Buck Henry,

based on the novel by Joseph Heller,

was released in the United States on June 24, 1970.

Music by Richard Strauss.

Cast:
Alan Arkin, Martin Balsam, Richard Benjamin, Art Garfunkel, Jack Gilford, Buck Henry, Bob Newhart, Anthony Perkins, Paula Prentiss, Martin Sheen, Jon Voight, Orson Welles, Bob Balaban, Susanne Benton, Norman Fell, Charles Grodin, Austin Pendleton, Peter Bonerz, Jon Korkes, John Brent, Collin Wilcox Paxton, Philip Roth, Bruce Kirby, Jack Riley, Felice Orlandi, Marcel Dalio, Evi Maltagliati, Elizabeth Wilson, Richard Libertini, Liam Dunn, Olimpia Carlisi, Wendy D’Olive, Gina Rovere, Fernanda Vitobello, Seth Allen, Steve ‘Bunker’ de France.

Wednesday, June 17, 2026

On this day in movie and book history - The Anderson Tapes (1971)


The Anderson Tapes


directed by Sidney Lumet,

written by Frank Pierson,

based on the novel by Lawrence Sanders,

was released in the United States on June 17, 1971.

Music by Quincy Jones.


Cast:
Sean Connery, Dyan Cannon, Martin Balsam, Ralph Meeker, Alan King, Dick Anthony Williams, Val Avery, Garrett Morris, Stan Gottlieb, Christopher Walken, Conrad Bain, Margaret Hamilton, Anthony Holland, Scott Jacoby, Judith Lowry, Meg Myles, Norman Rose, Max Showalter, Janet Ward, Paul Benjamin, Richard B. Shull.

Recommended reading:

The Anderson Tapes

by Lawrence Sanders.

Filmed as The Anderson Tapes (1971), directed by Sidney Lumet.

Published by DELL PUBL CO.
First published 1970.

ISBN-10: 0440102170
ISBN-13: 9780440102175
 
Description:

With clockwork precision, Lawrence Sanders outlines the inspiration, planning and execution of an ambitious robbery of an apartment building on New York's Upper East Side in The Anderson Tapes, the best-selling thriller that established him as one of the most popular suspense writers of his generation. The premise is clever – the entire story is told in surveillance tape transcripts and reports from law enforcement agencies, each of which seems to be observing some aspect of the situation in which the robbery takes place.

John "Duke" Anderson was recently paroled from Sing Sing, after serving time on a charge of breaking and entering. A rich woman picks him up one evening and takes him back to her apartment, in a small but elegant building on the Upper East Side. 

Anderson is intrigued by the situation in the building, seeing it as a possible target for a large-scale robbery. He needs backing, though, and he gets it through his contacts with the underworld. What Anderson does not know is that much of what he is already doing is being captured as evidence through electronic surveillance. The catch is that the different entities doing the surveillance are not communicating with each other. The evidence is assembled and the puzzle solved, after the robbery takes place and ends violently, by NYPD Capt. Edward X. Delaney.

The Anderson Tapes marks the first appearance in a Sanders novel of Delaney, a character who will be central to the author's Deadly Sin series of thrillers. Sanders brilliantly unfolds the story in short, fact-filled chapters constructed as police reports and tape transcripts, some of which are tantalizingly garbled. The Anderson Tapes won for Sanders the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar as the Best First Mystery Novel of 1970.



Tuesday, June 16, 2026

On this day in movie and book history - Psycho (1960)


Psycho


directed by Alfred Hitchcock,

written by Joseph Stefano,

based on the novel by Robert Bloch,

was released in the United States, on June 16, 1960.

Music by Bernard Herrmann.

Inspired by the true 1957 Ed Gein murder case.


Cast:
Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, Janet Leigh, John Gavin, Martin Balsam, John McIntire, Simon Oakland, Frank Albertson, Pat Hitchcock, Vaughn Taylor, Lurene Tuttle, John Anderson, Mort Mills, Virginia Gregg, Paul Jasmin, Jeanette Nolan.

Recommended reading:

 

Psycho

by Robert Bloch.

Filmed as Psycho (1960), directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Published by The Overlook Press.
First published 1959.

ISBN-10: 1590203356
ISBN-13: 9781590203354

Description:

"Psycho all came from Robert Bloch's book." – Alfred Hitchcock.
"Icily terrifying!" – The New York Times.
"Robert Bloch is one of the all-time masters." – Peter Straub.

Norman Bates loves his mother. She has been dead for the past 20 years, or so people think. Norman knows better, though.

Ever since leaving the hospital, he has lived with Mother in the old house up on the hill above the Bates Motel. One night, after a beautiful woman checks into the motel, Norman spies on her as she undresses. Norman can’t help but spy on her.

Mother is there, though. She is there to protect Norman from his filthy thoughts. She is there to protect him with her butcher knife.

If you love to be scared, or are a fan of classic movies, then you know the story of Norman Bates, his mother, and the dark and frightening Bates Motel. Alfred Hitchcock’s taut, shocking scare-fest starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh is a classic movie, as scary today as it was in 1960 when it was first released, and this is the 1959 novel upon which the movie is based.

It was here that the legend of the Bates Motel was born.



Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho
Edited by Richard J. Anobile.

The Film Classics Library.

Published by Universe Books.
First Edition.
Published 1974.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 0876631898
ISBN-13: 978-0876631898

Description:

The Film Classics Library present the most accurate and complete reconstruction of a film in book over 1,300 frame blow-up photos shown sequentially and coupled with the complete dialogue from the original soundtrack, allow you to recapture this film classic in its entirety – at your leisure.

Friday, June 5, 2026

On this day in movie history - P.I. Private Investigations (1987)


P.I. Private Investigations

a.k.a. Private Investigations,

directed by Nigel Dick,

written by John Dahl and David W. Warfield,

based on a story by Nigel Dick,

was released in the United States on June 5, 1987.

Music by Murray Munro.


Cast:
Clayton Rohner, Ray Sharkey, Paul Le Mat, Talia Balsam, Phil Morris, Martin Balsam, William Kerwin, Anthony Zerbe, Robert Ito, Vernon Wells, Anthony Geary, Justin Lord, Richard Cummings Jr., Desiree Boschetti, Andy Romano, Sydney Walsh, Jon St. Elwood, Robert Torti, Nigel Dick.