On this day in movie and book history - The Spiral Staircase and Some Must Watch (1946)

 

The Spiral Staircase

directed by Robert Siodmak,

written by Mel Dinelli,

based on the novel Some Must Watch by Ethel Lina White,

was released in the United States on February 20, 1946.

Music by Roy Webb.

 
Cast:

Dorothy McGuire, George Brent, Ethel Barrymore, Kent Smith, Rhonda Fleming, Gordon Oliver, Elsa Lanchester, Sara Allgood, Rhys Williams, James Bell, Erville Alderson, Ellen Corby, Myrna Dell, George Holmes, Stanley Price, Robert Siodmak, Richard Tyler, Charles Wagenheim, Larry Wheat.

Recommended reading:

Some Must Watch

by Ethel Lina White.

Filmed as The Spiral Staircase (1946), directed by Robert Siodmak.

Paperback.

Published by Hinkler Books.

First published 1933.

ISBN 13: 9781743081167

ISBN10: 1743081162

ASIN: 1743081162

Description:

Film director Robert Siodmak took Some Must Watch as the inspiration for his classic, bone-chilling thriller, The Spiral Staircase. In this novel Helen Capel takes the position of lady-help in a remote country house owned by the Warren family. She learns that a murderer is on the loose. All four of his victims were young girls, and the last of these was strangled in a lonely house just five miles away. Helen feels safe inside the house, protected, but the maniac is closer than she fears.

On this day in movie and book history - Phantom Lady (1944 and 1942)

Phantom Lady

directed by Robert Siodmak,

written by Bernard C. Schoenfeld,

based on the novel by Cornell Woolrich,

was released in the United States on January 28, 1944.

Music by Hans J. Salter.

Cast:

Franchot Tone, Ella Raines, Alan Curtis, Aurora Miranda, Thomas Gomez, Fay Helm, Elisha Cook, Jr., Andrew Tombes, Regis Toomey, Joseph Crehan, Doris Lloyd, Virginia Brissac, Milburn Stone.

Recommended reading:

Phantom Lady

by Cornell Woolrich.

Published by Renaissance Literary & Talent.

First published 1942.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 1950369781
ISBN-13: 978-1950369782
 
Description:
 

Phantom lady, I was with you for six hours last night, but I can't remember what you look like, or what you wore—except for that large orange hat. We sat shoulder to shoulder at a little bar in the east Fifties. We ate dinner together, saw a Broadway show together, shared a cab together.

The bartender, the waiter, the usher, the cab driver—none of them remembers you. 

The police say I was home strangling my wife at the moment I met you.

You are the only one who can prove my story—but I don't know your name, or where you live. And I can't search for you from a jail cell....

After spending a night on the town with a mysterious woman, a man arrives home to find his wife strangled to death. Now, the only way to prove his innocence and confirm his alibi is to track down the "Phantom Lady" he was with all night. “Cornell Woolrich deserves to be discovered and rediscovered by each generation." – Ray Bradbury Cornell George Hopley-Woolrich (4 December 1903 – 25 September 1968) is one of America's best crime and noir writers, and sometimes wrote under the pseudonyms William Irish or George Hopley. He invented and mastered the genre of "Pulp-Fiction" and wrote hundreds of short stories, novellas and full-length novels. One of his most famous stories is It Had to be Murder which was adapted into the classic Alfred Hitchcock film Rear Window in 1954. Check out the countless other Woolrich Novels, Novellas and Short Stories, also available as EBooks, from the Estate of Cornell Woolrich and Renaissance Literary & Talent!

On this day in movie history - Criss Cross (1949)

Criss Cross

directed by Robert Siodmak,

written by Daniel Fuchs,

based on the novel by Don Tracy,

was released in the United States on January 19, 1949.

Music by Miklós Rózsa.

Cast:

Burt Lancaster, Yvonne De Carlo, Dan Duryea, Stephen McNally, Esy Morales, Tom Pedi, Percy Helton, Alan Napier, Griff Barnett, Meg Randall, Richard Long, Joan Miller, Edna Holland, John Doucette, Marc Krah, James O'Rear, John 'Skins' Miller, Jean Bane, Ralph Brooks, Dolores Castle, Michael Cisney, Corky (the Dog), Tony Curtis, Gene Evans, Sam Finn, Lee Tong Foo, Timmy Hawkins, Geraldine Jordan, George Lynn, Robert Osterloh, Garry Owen, Kenneth Patterson, Jose Portugal, Isabel Randolph, Suzanne Ridgway, Beatrice Roberts, Stephen Roberts, John Roy, Vito Scotti, Ann Staunton, Diane Stewart, Kippee Valez, Charles Wagenheim, Robert Winkler, Bud Wolfe.

On this day in movie history - Cry of the City (1948)

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.

On this day in movie history - The Killers (1946)

The Killers

directed by Robert Siodmak,

written by Anthony Veiller, John Huston and Richard Brooks,

based on the short story by Ernest Hemingway,

was released in the United States on August 30, 1946.

Music by Miklós Rózsa.

Cast:

Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O’Brien, Albert Dekker, Sam Levene, Vince Barnett, Virginia Christine, Jack Lambert, Charles D. Brown, Donald MacBride, Charles McGraw, William Conrad, Ernie Adams, Audley Anderson, George Anderson, Sam Ash, Frank Baker, Brooks Benedict, John Berkes, Edward Biby, Harry Brown, Phil Brown, Jack Cheatham, James Conaty, Jeff Corey, Gino Corrado, Noel Cravat, Oliver Cross, Rex Dale, Neal Dodd, Mike Donovan, Howard Freeman, Dick Gordon, Robert Haines, Michael Hale, Sam Harris, Harry Hayden, Mark Hellinger, Al Hill, George Hoagland, Jimmie Horan, Geoffrey Ingham, Kenner G. Kemp, Paul Kruger, Ethan Laidlaw, Mike Lally, Perc Launders, Nolan Leary, Vera Lewis, Jack Lomas, Therese Lyon, Frank McLure, Charles Middleton, John Miljan, Howard Negley, Garry Owen, Barbara ‘Red’ Powers, Beatrice Roberts, Wally Rose, William Ruhl, Wallace Scott, John Sheehan, Queenie Smith, Ann Staunton, Jack Tornek, John Trebach, Bill Walker, Milton Wallace, Gabrielle Windsor, Florence Wix.