On this day in movie history - Love and Bullets (1979)

Love and Bullets

directed by Stuart Rosenberg,

written by Wendell Mayes and John Melson,

was released in the United States on December 9, 1979.

Music by Lalo Schifrin.

Cast:

Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland, Rod Steiger, Henry Silva, Strother Martin, Bradford Dillman, Michael V. Gazzo, Paul Koslo, Val Avery, Sam Chew Jr., Billy Gray, Jerome Thor, Joseph Roman, Albert Salmi, John Hallam, Sidney Kean, Richard Graydon, Alan Bryce, Robin Clarke, Andy Romano, Lorraine Chase, Raynold Gideon, Ramon Chavez, Rik Colitti, Joe Bellucci, Ray Le Fre, Richard Brose, Lon Carli, Karen Wyeth, James Keane, J. Kenneth Campbell, Michael L. Cooley, Alex Donnelley, Gene Earl, Sapp Gruber, Hans Kronig, Marco Lopez, Charles Lucia, Michael Parrent, Clifford A. Pellow, Josef Rainer, Earl W. Smith.

On this day in movie history - Christine (1983)

Christine

directed by John Carpenter,

written by Bill Phillips,

based on the novel by Stephen King,

was released in the United States on December 9, 1983.

Music by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth.

Cast:

Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky, Harry Dean Stanton, Christine Belford, Robert Darnell, Roberts Blossom, Kelly Preston, William Ostrander, Steven Tash, Stuart Charno, Malcolm Danare, David Spielberg.

On this day in movie history - Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)

Star Trek: Nemesis

directed by Stuart Baird,

written by John Logan,

based on a story by John Logan, Rick Berman and Brent Spiner,

was released in the United States on December 9, 2002.

Music by Jerry Goldsmith.

Cast:

Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Tom Hardy, Ron Perlman, Dina Meyer, John Berg, Kate Mulgrew, Shannon Cochran, Jude Ciccolella, Alan Dale, Wil Wheaton, Majel Barrett, Stuart Baird, Bryan Singer, Whoopi Goldberg.

On this day in movie history - 300 (2006)

300

directed by Zack Snyder,

written by Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad and Michael B. Gordon,

based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley,

was released in the United States on December 9, 2006.

Music by Tyler Bates.

Cast:

Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, Dominic West, David Wenham, Michael Fassbender, Tom Wisdom, Andrew Pleavin, Andrew Tiernan, Rodrigo Santoro, Giovani Cimmino, Stephen McHattie, Greg Kramer, Alex Ivanovici, Kelly Craig, Eli Snyder, Tyler Neitzel, Tim Connolly, Marie-Julie Rivest, Sebastian St. Germain, Peter Mensah, Arthur Holden, Michael Sinelnikoff, John Dunn-Hill, Dennis St John, Neil Napier, Dylan Smith, Maurizio Terrazzano, Robert Paradis, Kwasi Songui, Alexandra Beaton, Frédéric Smith, Loucas Minchillo, Nicholas Minchillo, Tom Rack, David Francis, James Bradford, Andrew Shaver, Robin Wilcock, Kent McQuaid, Marcel Jeannin, Jere Gillis, J. Thibodeau, Tyrone Benskin, Robert Maillet, Patrick Sabongui, Leon Laderach, Dave Lapommeray, Vervi Mauricio, Charles Papasoff, Isabelle Champeau, Veronique-Natale Szalankiewicz, Maéva Nadon, David Thibodeau, David Schaap, Jean Michel Paré, Stewart Myiow, Andreanne Ross, Sara Giacalone, Ariadne Bourbonnière, Isabelle Fournel, Sandrine Merette-Attiow, Elisabeth Etienne, Danielle Hubbard, Ruan Vibegaard, Genevieve Guilbault, Bonnie Mak, Amélie Sorel, Caroline Aspirot, Gina Gagnon, Tania Trudell, Stéphanie Aubry, Mercedes Leggett, Stephania Gambaroff, Chanelle Lamothe, Sabrina-Jasmine Guilbault, Manny Cortez Tuazon, Cindy, Atif Siddiqi, Camille Rizkallah, Trudi Hanley, Neon Cobran, Gary A. Hecker, Martin Blais, Devin Delorme, David Leitch, Deke Richards, Darren Shahlavi, Marc Trottier, Duy Vo Van, Agnieshka Wnorowska.

Stephen King, on books:

Books are the perfect entertainment: no commercials, no batteries, hours of enjoyment for each dollar spent. 

What I wonder is why everybody doesn't carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life.

- Stephen King.

Recommended reading - Big Stick-Up at Brinks

Big Stick-Up at Brinks

by Noel Behn.
 
First published 1976.
Published by Putnam.
Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 0399118977
ISBN-13: 978-0399118975
 
Description:
 
A riveting and frequently hilarious insider account of one of the twentieth century’s most outrageous capers.
 

On the evening of January 17, 1950, armed robbers wearing Captain Marvel masks entered the Brink’s Armored Car building in Boston, Massachusetts. They walked out less than an hour later with more than $2.7 million in cash and securities. It was a brazen and expertly executed theft that captured the imaginations of millions of Americans and baffled the FBI and local law enforcement officials.

 

But what appeared on the surface to be the perfect crime was, in fact, the end result of a mind-boggling series of mistakes, miscalculations, and missteps. The men behind the masks were not expert bank robbers but a motley crew of small-time crooks who bumbled their way into a record-breaking payday and managed to elude the long arm of the law for six years.

 

New York Times bestselling author Noel Behn tape-recorded nearly one thousand hours of interviews with the surviving robbers, including motormouthed mastermind Tony Pino, a character so colorful he might have been dreamed up by a Hollywood screenwriter, to tell the uncensored story of the heist forever known as “the Great Brink’s Robbery.” Fun and suspenseful from first page to last, Behn’s true-crime classic was the basis for The Brink’s Job (1978), the Academy Award–nominated film directed by William Friedkin and starring Peter Falk and Peter Boyle.

 

“It had me riveted with suspense, but it also made me laugh until I got hiccups.” – Cosmopolitan.
 

“A King Kong of crime entertainment . . . that no movie could match . . . The Brink’s job [was] a kind of D-Day event in the annals of crime . . . Glorious.” – Kirkus Reviews.

 

“One minute you’re laughing your head off. The next minute you chill with fear. Crooks and crime at their best. Pure magic!” – Harold Robbins.

“The best book about criminals ever written, a rich and beautiful depiction of their lives as well as their work, a book that elevates them from moving-picture types to complete, vivid humans. Noel Behn has taken one of the most extraordinary crimes of the century and turned it into a living tapestry. It’s a wonderful book.” – Paddy Chayefsky, Academy Award–winning screenwriter of Network.

 

“Reads like a Hollywood screenplay, except that it really happened.” – John Barkham Reviews.

Born on this day – Wallace Worsley:

Wallace Worsley (left), with cameraman, Robert Newhard (right),

filming The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923).

Wallace Worsley

Director

Actor

December 8, 1878 – March 26, 1944

Credits:

The Power of Silence (1928); Shadow of the Law (1926); The Man Who Fights Alone (1924); The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923); Is Divorce a Failure? (1923); Nobody's Money (1923); A Blind Bargain (1922); Enter Madame (1922); Rags to Riches (1922); When Husbands Deceive (1922); Grand Larceny (1922); Voices of the City (1921); The Beautiful Liar (1921); The Ace of Hearts (1921); Don't Neglect Your Wife (1921); The Highest Bidder (1921); The Penalty (1920); The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come (1920); The Street Called Straight (1920); A Woman of Pleasure (1919); Playthings of Passion (1919); Diane of the Green Van (1919); Adele (1919); The Goddess of Lost Lake (1918); A Law Unto Herself (1918); Wedlock (1918); Social Ambition (1918); Honor's Cross (1918); An Alien Enemy (1918); The Turn of a Card (1918); Madam Who? (1918); Alimony (1917); A Man's Man (1917); Borrowed Plumage (1917).