On this day in movie and book history - Harper (1966) and The Moving Target

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

Born on this day – Robert Webber:

Robert Webber

Actor

October 14, 1924 – May 19, 1989

Credits:

10 (1979); 12 Angry Men (1957); Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1959); Answers (1985); Armstrong Circle Theatre (1951); Arrest and Trial (1963); Art Carney Special (1960); Assassin (1986); Banacek (1972); Banyon (1972); Barnaby Jones (1975); Behind God's Back (1989); Ben Casey (1963); Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre (1963); Brenner (1964); Bret Maverick (1982); Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974); Cannon (1971); Casey's Shadow (1978); Checkmate (1961); Chicago Story (1982); Courage fuyons (1979); Cover Up (1984); Cutter (1972); Darkroom (1981); Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966); Death Stalk (1975); Death Steps in the Dark (1977); $ (1971); Don't Go to Sleep (1982); Don't Make Waves (1967); Double Indemnity (1973); Espionage (1964); Every Man Is My Enemy (1967); Eye Witness (1953); Family Solicitor (1961); Flatfoot in Hong Kong (1975); Gardenia il giustiziere della mala (Gardenia) (1979); Getting Physical (1984); Griff (1973); Half Nelson (1985); Harold Robbins' 79 Park Avenue (1977); Harper (1966); Hauser's Memory (1970); Hawkins (1973); Highway 301 (1950); Hysteria (1965); I Spy (1956); In Like Flynn (1985); Ironside (1973); Janet Dean, Registered Nurse (1954); Judgment Day (1981); Kaz (1978); Kojak (1973); Kraft Mystery Theatre (1955); Kraft Mystery Theatre / The Philco Television Playhouse (1950); Kraft Mystery Theatre / The United States Steel Hour (1960); Kraft Suspense Theatre (1964); Lights Out (1951); L'imprécateur (1977); Love, American Style (1972); Macédoine (1970); Madame Claude (1977); Mama (1955); Mannix (1971); Manon 70 (1968); Martin Kane, Private Eye (1954); McCloud (1971); McCoy (1976); McMillan & Wife (1977); Midway (1976); Mission: Impossible (1972); Modern Romances (1955); Moonlighting (1986); Mr. Broadway (1964); Murder or Mercy (1974); Naked City (1963); New York Confidential (1959); No Man's Land (1984); Not Just Another Affair (1982); Nuts (1987); Omnibus (1953); One Step Beyond (1959); Out There (1951); Play of the Week (1960); Playhouse 90 (1958); Police Woman (1975); Private Benjamin (1980); Quincy, M.E. (1977); Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978); Robert Montgomery Presents (1954); Route 66 (1962); S.O.B. (1981); S.W.A.T. (1975); San Francisco International Airport (1970); Search (1973); Shooting Stars (1983); Something Is Out There (1988); Squadra antifurto (1976); Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land (1983); Starlight Theatre (1950); Stoney Burke (1962); Studio One (1951); Sunday Lovers (1980); Suspense (1950); Switch (1975); Tales of Tomorrow (1952); Tenafly (1973); Tenspeed and Brown Shoe (1980); The Big Bounce (1969); The Bold Ones: The Lawyers (1969); The Choirboys (1977); The Dangerous Mission (1975); The Defenders (1962); The Dick Powell Theatre (1961); The Dirty Dozen (1967); The Final Option (1982); The Fugitive (1964); The Great White Hope (1970); The Greatest Show on Earth (1963); The Hired Killer (1966); The Investigators (1961); The Ladies (1987); The Magical World of Disney (1978); The Magician (1973); The Manhunter (1974); The Movie Murderer (1970); The Name of the Game (1968); The Nun and the Sergeant (1962); The Nurses (1963); The Outer Limits (1964); The Paradine Case (1962); The Phil Silvers Show (1956); The Rifleman (1959); The Rockford Files (1975); The Rogues (1965); The Sandpiper (1965); The Silencers (1966); The Streets of L.A. (1979); The Streets of San Francisco (1974); The Stripper (1963); The Third Day (1965); The Two Lives of Carol Letner (1981); The Virginian (1970); The Warden (1963); The Web (1951); The Young Lawyers (1971); Theatre '62 (1962); Thief (1971); Three Steps to Heaven (1953); Thriller (1961); Too Young to Go Steady (1959); Tous vedettes! (1980); True Story (1957); Wild Geese II (1985); Wrong Is Right (1982).