On this day in movie history - Serpico (1973)

Serpico

directed by Sidney Lumet,

written by Waldo Salt and Norman Wexler,

based on the book by Peter Maas,

was released in the United States on December 5, 1973.

Music by Mikis Theodorakis.

Cast:
Al Pacino, John Randolph, Jack Kehoe, Biff McGuire, Barbara Eda-Young, Cornelia Sharpe, Edward Grover, Tony Roberts, Allan Rich, Albert Henderson, Joseph Bova, Woodie King Jr., James Tolkan, Bernard Barrow, Nathan George, M. Emmet Walsh, Ted Beniades, F. Murray Abraham, Judd Hirsch.

Recommended reading:

Serpico

by Peter Maas.
 
First published 1973.
Published by Harper Perennial.
Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0060738189
ISBN-13: 978-0060738181
 
Description:
 
THE CLASSIC TRUE STORY OF THE COP WHO COULDN'T BE BOUGHT.
 
With an Afterword by Frank Serpico.
 

The 1960s was a time of social and generational upheaval felt with particular intensity in the melting pot of New York City. A culture of corruption pervaded the New York Police Department, where payoffs, protection, and shakedowns of gambling rackets and drug dealers were common practice. The so-called blue code of silence protected the minority of crooked cops from the sanction of the majority.

 

Into this maelstrom came a working class, Brooklyn-born, Italian cop with long hair, a beard, and a taste for opera and ballet. Frank Serpico was a man who couldn't be silenced – or bought – and he refused to go along with the system. He had sworn an oath to uphold the law, even if the perpetrators happened to be other cops. For this unwavering commitment to justice, Serpico nearly paid with his life.

 

"I don't think anyone can come away from Serpico without admiration for one man's lonely integrity." – New York Times.
 
"A penetrating . . . exciting story." – San Francisco Chronicle.
 
"[A] raw and moving portrait." – Chicago Sun-Times.
 
"An absorbing story of what one angry, honest man can do." – Detroit News.
 
"Excellent." – Newsweek.

On this day in movie history - Network (1976)

Network

directed by Sidney Lumet,

written by Paddy Chayefsky,

was released in the United States on November 27, 1976.

Music by Elliot Lawrence.

Cast:

Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall, Wesley Addy, Ned Beatty, Arthur Burghardt, Bill Burrows, John Carpenter, Jordan Charney, Kathy Cronkite, Ed Crowley, Jerome Dempsey, Conchata Ferrell, Gene Gross, Stanley Grover, Cindy Grover, Darryl Hickman, Mitchell Jason, Paul Jenkins, Ken Kercheval, Kenneth Kimmins, Lynn Klugman, Carolyn Krigbaum, Zane Lasky, Michael Lipton, Michael Lombard, Pirie MacDonald, Russ Petranto, Bernard Pollock, Roy Poole, William Prince, Sasha von Scherler, Lane Smith, Ted Sorel, Beatrice Straight, Fred Stuthman, Cameron Thomas, Marlene Warfield, Lydia Wilen, Lee Richardson, Robert P. Cohen, Andrew Duncan, Todd Everett, John Gabriel, Tom Gibney, Lance Henriksen, Raymond Martino, John Pashley, Michael Tucker.

Recommended reading:

Mad as Hell:
The Making of Network and the Fateful Vision of the Angriest Man in Movies

by Dave Itzkoff.

Published by Picador.

Published 2015.

ISBN-10: 1250062241

ISBN-13: 9781250062246

Description:

"Dave Itzkoff takes us on an extraordinary journey, and in the process reveals Chayefsky's prognosis for TV, a prognosis we've chosen to ignore even as it's come true before our eyes." – Forbes.

"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

Those words, spoken by an unhinged anchorman named Howard Beale, "the mad prophet of the airwaves," took America by storm in 1976, when Network became a sensation. With a superb cast (including Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, and Robert Duvall) directed by Sidney Lumet, the film won four Oscars and indelibly shaped how we think about corporate and media power.

In Mad As Hell, Dave Itzkoff of The New York Times recounts the surprising and dramatic story of how Network made it to the screen, and of Paddy Chayefsky, the tough, driven, Oscar-winning screenwriter who envisioned a world – outlandish for its time – that is all too real today. Itzkoff vividly re-creates the action behind the camera at a time of swirling cultural turmoil. The result is a riveting account that enriches our appreciation of this prophetic and still-startling film.

On this day in movie history - Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

directed by Sidney Lumet,

written by Kelly Masterson,

was released in the United States on October 26, 2007.

Music by Carter Burwell.

 

Cast:

Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney, Marisa Tomei, Aleksa Palladino, Michael Shannon, Amy Ryan, Sarah Livingston, Brían F. O'Byrne, Rosemary Harris, Blaine Horton, Arija Bareikis, Leonardo Cimino, Lee Wilkof, Damon Gupton, Adrian Martinez, Patrick G. Burns, Jordan Gelber.

On this day in movie history - Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

Dog Day Afternoon

directed by Sidney Lumet,

written by Frank Pierson,

based on the article The Boys in the Bank by P. F. Kluge and Thomas Moore,

published in the September 1972 edition of Life magazine,

was released in the United States on September 21, 1975.

Cast:

Al Pacino, John Cazale, Charles Durning, Chris Sarandon, Penelope Allen, Sully Boyar, Susan Peretz, James Broderick, Lance Henriksen, Carol Kane, Beulah Garrick, Sandra Kazan, Estelle Omens, Marcia Jean Kurtz, Amy Levitt, Gary Springer, John Marriott, Philip Charles MacKenzie, Dick Anthony Williams, Judith Malina, Dominic Chianese, Edwin "Chu Chu" Malave, Lionel Pina.

On this day in movie history - Prince of the City (1981)

Prince of the City

directed by Sidney Lumet,

written by Sidney Lumet and Jay Presson Allen,

based on the novel by Robert Daley,

was released in the United States on August 26, 1981.

Music by Paul Chihara.

Cast:

Treat Williams, Jerry Orbach, Richard Foronjy, Don Billett, Kenny Marino, Carmine Caridi, Tony Page, Norman Parker, Paul Roebling, Bob Balaban, James Tolkan, Steve Inwood, Lindsay Crouse, Matthew Laurance, Tony Turco, Ronald Maccone, Ron Karabatsos, Tony DiBenedetto, Tony Munafo, Robert Christian, Lee Richardson, Lane Smith, Cosmo Allegretti, Bobby Alto, Michael Beckett, Burton Collins, Henry Ferrentino, Carmine Foresta, Conard Fowkes, Peter Friedman, Peter Michael Goetz, Lance Henriksen, Eddie Jones, Don Leslie, Dana Lorge, Harry Madsen, E.D. Miller, Cynthia Nixon, Ron Perkins, Lionel Pina, José Angel Santana, Walter Brooke, Richard Costabile, Peter Costanza, Peter Gannon, Alan King, Ilana Rapp.