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.

On this day in movie and book history - Cry of the City (1948) The Chair for Martin Rome (1947)

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.

Recommended reading:

The Chair for Martin Rome

by Henry Edward Helseth.

ASIN: B0007I5CI0
First published 1947.
Published by Pocket Books.
Paperback.

Description:
Condemned killer escapes.

Martin Rome killed a policeman during a robbery. For this the State sentenced him to the electric chair. But before that bleak final moment Martin Rome had business to finish outside the jail – matters of stolen jewels and some human rats and a girl whose very existence he denied to the detectives but whose reality for him transcended all things. The swift, terrifying story of his mad undertaking, the grim revelation it brought to the police and, even more grimly, to Rome itself, is an emotional experience that leaves the reader thrilled and unnerved at the closing page.

“Just about the most real and convincing tough-job that has come in this season. Not easily forgettable.” – Saturday Review of Literature.

Born on this day – Shelley Winters:

Shelley Winters

Actress

August 18, 1920 – January 14, 2006

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

On this day in movie history - I Died a Thousand Times (1955)

I Died a Thousand Times

directed by Stuart Heisler,

written by W. R. Burnett,

was released in the United States on November 9, 1955.

Music by David Buttolph.

Cast:

Jack Palance, Shelley Winters, Lori Nelson, Lee Marvin, Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez, Lon Chaney Jr., Earl Holliman, Perry Lopez, Richard Davalos, Howard St. John, Nick Adams, Dennis Hopper, Ralph Moody, Olive Carey, Dub Taylor, Paul Brinegar, James Millican.