On this day in movie history - A Kiss Before Dying (1956)

A Kiss Before Dying

directed by Gerd Oswald,

written by Lawrence Roman,

based on the novel by Ira Levin,

was released in the United States on June 12, 1956.

Music by Lionel Newman.

Cast:

Robert Wagner, Jeffrey Hunter, Virginia Leith, Joanne Woodward, Mary Astor, George Macready, Robert Quarry, Howard Petrie, Bill Walker, Molly McCart, Marlene Felton, Albert Cavens, Robert Ivers, Mickey Martin, Joe McGuinn, Edwin Rochelle, Jack Stoney.

On this day in movie history - Harper (1966)

Harper

directed by Jack Smight,

written by William Goldman,

based on the novel The Moving Target by Ross Macdonald,

was released in the United States on February 23, 1966.

Music by Johnny Mandel.

Cast:

Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, Julie Harris, Arthur Hill, Janet Leigh, Pamela Tiffin, Robert Wagner, Robert Webber, Shelley Winters, Harold Gould, Roy Jenson, Strother Martin.

Recommended reading:

The Moving Target / a.k.a. Harper

by Ross MacDonald.

 

Published in 1949.

ISBN-10: 037570146X
ISBN-13: 978-0375701467
 
Back cover description:
 
CRIME FICTION

“Ross Macdonald remains the grandmaster, taking the crime novel to new heights by imbuing it with psychological resonance, complexity of story, and richness of style that remain awe-inspiring. Those of us in his wake owe a debt that can never be paid. – Jonathan Kellerman.

 

Like many Southern California millionaires, Ralph Sampson keeps odd company. There's the sun-worshipping holy man whom Sampson once gave his very own mountain; the fading actress with sidelines in astrology and S&M. Now one of Sampson's friends may have arranged his kidnapping. And as Lew Archer follows the clues from the canyon sanctuaries of the megarich to jazz joints where you get beaten up between sets, The Moving Target blends sex, greed, and family hatred into an explosively readable crime novel.

 

“Macdonald is one of a handful of writers in the [mystery] genre whose worth and quality surpass the limitations of the form.” – Los Angeles Times.
 

If any writer can be said to have inherited the mantle of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, it was Ross Macdonald. Between the later 1940s and his death in 1983, he gave the American crime novel a psychological depth and moral complexity that his predecessors had only hinted at. And in the character of Lew Archer, Macdonald redefined the private eye as a roving conscience whop walks the treacherous frontier between criminal guilt and human sin.

 

VINTAGE CRIME / BLACK LIZARD

On this day in movie history - This Gun for Hire (1991)

This Gun for Hire

directed by Lou Antonio,

written by Nevin Schreiner,

based on the novel A Gun for Sale by Graham Greene,

was released in the United States on January 9, 1991.

Music by Dana Kaproff.

Cast:

Robert Wagner, Nancy Everhard, Fredric Lehne, John Harkins, John McConnell, Joe Warfield, Kristina Loggia, Patrik Baldauff, Lenore Banks, James Borders, Dean Cochran, David Dahlgren, Margaret Dubuisson, Robert Earle, Ron Flagge, Larry Gamell Jr., Leslie Fortenberry, C. Robert Holloway, George Jones, Danny Kamin, Eliott Keener, Fred Lerner, Soline McLain, Marco St. John, Taylor Simpson, Carol Sutton.