On this day in movie history - Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)

Odds Against Tomorrow

directed by Robert Wise,

written by Abraham Polonsky and Nelson Gidding,

based on the novel by William P. McGivern,

was released in the United States on October 13, 1959.

Music by John Lewis.

Cast:

Harry Belafonte, Robert Ryan, Shelley Winters, Ed Begley, Gloria Grahame, Will Kuluva, Kim Hamilton, Mae Barnes, Richard Bright, Carmen De Lavallade, Lew Gallo, Lois Thorne, Wayne Rogers, Zohra Lampert, Allen Nourse.

Born on this day – Robert Wise:

 

Robert Wise

Director

Producer

Editor

September 10, 1914 – September 14, 2005

Credits:

A Game of Death (1945); A Storm in Summer (2000); Action in Arabia (1944); Albert Whitlock: A Master of Illusion (1981); At Night the Sun Shines (1992); Audrey Rose (1977); Bachelor Mother (1939); Biography (1997–1999); Blood on the Moon (1948); Bombardier (1943); Born to Kill (1947); Citizen Kane (1941); Criminal Court (1946); Dance, Girl, Dance (1940); Destination Gobi (1953); Executive Suite (1954); Femme Fatales (2011); Fifth Avenue Girl (1939); Frank Capra's American Dream (1997); George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey (1984); Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1971); Helen of Troy (1956); I Want to Live! (1958); Mademoiselle Fifi (1944); Mae West and the Men Who Knew Her (1994); Marine Raiders (1944); Memories of Navarone (2000); Music for the Movies: Bernard Herrmann (1992); My Favorite Wife (1940); Mystery in Mexico (1948); Odds Against Tomorrow (1959); Of Human Bondage (1934); Precious Images (1986); Return to Paradise (1953); Rooftops (1989); Run Silent Run Deep (1958); Runamuk (1978); Salute to Oscar Hammerstein II (1972); Seven Days' Leave (1942); Shadows in the Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy (2005); So Big (1953); Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956); Something for the Birds (1952); Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979); 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture' Teaser (1979); Star! (1968); The 43rd Annual Academy Awards (1971); The 57th Annual Academy Awards (1985); The Andromeda Strain (1971); The Baby Maker (1970); The Body Snatcher (1945); The Captive City (1952); The Curse of the Cat People (1944); The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951); The Desert Rats (1953); The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941); The Fallen Sparrow (1943); The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal (1986); The Gay Divorcee (1934); The Haunting (1963); The Hindenburg (1975); The House on Telegraph Hill (1951); The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939); The Informer (1935); The Iron Major (1943); The Magnificent Ambersons (1942); The Sand Pebbles (1966); The Set-Up (1949); The Sound of Music (1965); The Sound of Music: From Fact to Phenomenon (1994); The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939); The Stupids (1996); This Could Be the Night (1957); Three Secrets (1950); Top Hat (1935); Tribute to a Bad Man (1956); Two Flags West (1950); Two for the Seesaw (1962); Two People (1973); Until They Sail (1957); Voice in Exile (1984); West Side Story (1961); Wisdom (1986).

On this day in movie and book history - Somebody Up There Likes Me:

Somebody Up There Likes Me

directed by Robert Wise,

written by Ernest Lehman,

based on the autobiography by Rocky Graziano with Rowland Barber,

was released in the United States on July 4, 1956.

Music by Bronislau Kaper.

Cast:

Paul Newman, Pier Angeli, Everett Sloane, Eileen Heckart, Harold J. Stone, Joseph Buloff, Sal Mineo, Ray Stricklyn, Robert Loggia, Steve McQueen, Angela Cartwright, Jack Orrison, Frank Campanella, Dean Jones.

Recommended reading:

Somebody Up There Likes Me

by Rocky Graziano with Rowland Barber.

Filmed as Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), directed by Robert Wise.

Published by Ecco Press.
Published 1954.

Paperback

ISBN 13: 9780880013932
ISBN 10: 0880013931
ASIN: 0880013931

Description:
The blood-soaked autobiography of a fist-happy hoodlum…

Rocky’s right hand saw him through three stretches in reform school, four man-size prisons, the middle-weight championship of the world, and a career as a television comedian with Martha Raye.

We get a view of what it’s like to be on the lam from truant officers, probation officers, goons, cops, and creeps too stupid to be anything but legitimate. What it’s like to hit first or get hit! – Saturday Review.

On this day in movie and book history - Born to Kill (1947)

Born to Kill

a.k.a. Lady of Deceit and Deadlier Than the Male,

directed by Robert Wise,

written by Eve Greene and Richard Macaulay,

based on the novel Deadlier Than the Male by James Gunn,

was released in the United States on May 3, 1947.

Music by Paul Sawtell.

Cast:

Claire Trevor, Lawrence Tierney, Walter Slezak, Phillip Terry, Audrey Long, Elisha Cook Jr., Isabel Jewell, Esther Howard, Kathryn Card, Tony Barrett, Grandon Rhodes, Demetrius Alexis, Symona Boniface, Ruth Brennan, George Bruggeman, James Carlisle, Ellen Corby, Sayre Dearing, Joe Dixon, Neal Dodd, Jean Fenwick, George Ford, Lee Frederick, Ben Frommer, Harry Harvey, Martha Hyer, Perc Launders, Sam Lufkin, Wilbur Mack, Beatrice Maude, Russell Meeker, Al Murphy, Tommy Noonan, Netta Packer, Jason Robards Sr., Romeo (the dog), Paul Russell, Scott Seaton, Sammy Shack, Stanley Stone, Phil Warren, Napoleon Whiting.

Recommended reading:

Deadlier Than the Male

by James Gunn.

Introduced by Curtis Evans.

Filmed as Born to Kill, aka Lady of Deceit and Deadlier Than the Male (1947), directed by Robert Wise.

Published by Stark House Press.

Film Noir Classics, 7.

First published 1942.

Paperback.

ISBN-13: 979-8886010824

ASIN: B0CW22PDN7

Description:

“Deadlier Than the Male is truly one of the strangest of all American crime novels. In fact it’s one of the strangest of all American novels… It is in no way a pleasant read but it is fascinating in a bizarre, morbid and very unsettling way. Gunn’s style is as extreme and as offbeat as his plotting. This is psychological noir at its darkest.” – Vintage Pop Fictions.

DEADLIER THAN THE MALE.

Helen is in Reno for her second divorce and staying with Mrs. Krantz and her daughter Rachel at their boarding house. Mrs. Krantz’s drinking companion, Laura Pollicker, lives next door. That night she is murdered, and Helen discovers the body—and wastes no time in returning to the San Francisco house she shares with his sister Georgia. How could she know that the very man who meets and marries her sister only days later is the same man who had slit Mrs. Pollicker’s throat.

Sam Wild is a powerful man, tall, muscular, with very little control over his emotions. His friend Mart watches out for him, but Sam sometimes just can’t help himself—he has to kill. Now he’s got a rich wife with an attractive sister, and he’s just biding his time until he can take over Georgia’s money and get rid of her, too. But that’s when Helen steps in with some plans of her own.

On this day in movie history - The Captive City (1952)

The Captive City

directed by Robert Wise,

written by Karl Kamb and Alvin M. Josephy,

based on a story by Alvin M. Josephy,

was released in the United States on April 11, 1952.

Music by Jerome Moross.

Cast:

John Forsythe, Joan Camden, Harold J. Kennedy, Marjorie Crossland, Victor Sutherland, Ray Teal, Martin Milner, Geraldine Hall, Hal K. Dawson, Ian Wolfe, Gladys Hurlbut, Jess Kirkpatrick, Paul Newlan, Frances Morris, Paul Brinegar, Patricia Goldwater, Robert Gorell, Glenn Judd, William C. Miller, Estes Kefauver, Charles Regan, Victor Romito, Charles Wagenheim.