Born on this day – John McPherson:

John McPherson (center, seated behind camera).

John McPherson

Cinematographer

Director

Writer

December 30, 1941 - December 21, 2007

Born on this day – Fred Ward:

Fred Ward

Actor

Producer

December 30, 1942 – May 8, 2022

Credits:

A Night with Alexandra Powers - We Are in No Hurry ... (2020); Abandon (2002); Altman on His Own Terms (2000); American Playhouse (1985–1991); Armored (2009); Belle Starr (1980); Best Men (1997); Big Business (1988); Biography (1999); Birdseye (2002); Bob Roberts (1992); Bogart (1990); Cardiac Arrest (1979); Carny (1980); Cartesius (1974); Cast a Deadly Spell (1991); Catchfire (1990); Chain Reaction (1996); Circus (2000); Coast to Coast (2003); Corky Romano (2001); Dangerous Beauty (1998); De película (1986); Dice (2001); Enough (2002); Entertainment Tonight (2022); Equinox (1992); ER (2006–2007); Escape from Alcatraz (1979); Exit Speed (2008); Farewell (2009); Feast of Love (2007); Filter: The Best Things (2000); ...First Do No Harm (1997); Florida Straits (1986); Four Eyes and Six-Guns (1992); FRO Thizzle Reviews (2023); Full Disclosure (2001); Funky Monkey (2004); Georgetown (2002); Ginger in the Morning (1974); Great Books: The Right Stuff (2000); Grey's Anatomy (2006); Gun (1997); Hearts of the West (1975); Henry & June (1990); In Plain Sight (2010); Invasion Earth (1998); Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (2000); Joe Dirt (2001); Leverage (2012); Luck, Trust & Ketchup: Robert Altman in Carver Country (1993); Management (2008); 'Masked & Anonymous' Exposed (2003); Masked and Anonymous (2003); Miami Blues (1990); Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994); Off Limits (1988); Quincy, M.E. (1978); Realizing 'the Right Stuff' (2003); Red Team (1999); Reflections on Short Cuts (2004); Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985); Road Trip (2000); Ropewalk (2000); Secret Admirer (1985); Short Cuts (1993); Silkwood (1983); Southern Comfort (1981); Summer Catch (2001); Super Bloopers and Practical Jokes (1985); Sweet Home Alabama (2002); Swing Shift (1984); T-20 Years and Counting (2003); TCM Remembers 2022 (2022); The 29th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards (2023); The 65th Annual Academy Awards (1993); The Age of the Medici (1973); The Chaos Factor (2000); The Crow: Salvation (2000); The Dark Wind (1991); The Hitchhiker (1987); The Incredible Hulk (1979); The Last Ride (2004); The Making of 'Tremors' (1990); The Player (1992); The Price of Life (1987); The Prince of Pennsylvania (1988); The Right Stuff (1983); The Vivero Letter (1999); The West (1996); The Wild Stallion (2009); 10.5 (2004); 2 Guns (2013); 30 Minutes or Less (2011); Thunderheart (1992); Tilt (1979); Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann (1982); Tremors (1990 / 2018); Tremors II: Aftershocks (1996); True Detective (2015); Two Small Bodies (1993); Two Small Bodies (1993); UFOria (1984); Un bruit qui rend fou (1995); Uncommon Valor (1983); United States of Tara (2009–2010); Wild Iris (2001).

Born on this day – Andrew Shapter:

Andrew Shapter

Director

Writer

Cinematographer

December 30, 1966 – February 23, 2019

 

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, on reading:

Reading is the key that opens doors to many good things in life.

Reading shaped my dreams, and more reading helped me make my dreams come true.

- Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Recommended reading - Street with No Name

 

Street with No Name
A History of the Classic American Film Noir

by Andrew Dickos.
 
Published by The University Press of Kentucky.
Published 2021.
Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0813152194
ISBN-13: 978-0813152196
 
Description:
 
"The best book available on the genre of movies set in the dark, wet streets of the urban US." – Choice.
 
"A concrete, concise study of noir against an impressive historical vista that brings to light the complex relation between alienation and obsession that makes up these films." – Rain Taxi Review.
 
"Dickos provides a sharp critical and psychological evaluation of a genre that continues to mutate long after many pronounced it dead." – Shepherd Express.
 

Andrew Dickos's Street with No Name traces the film noir genre back to its roots in German expressionist cinema and the French cinema of the interwar years. Dickos describes the development of the film noir in America from 1941 through the 1970s and examines how this development expresses a modern cinema. He argues that, in its most satisfying form, the film noir exists as a series of conventions with an iconography and characters of distinctive significance. Featuring stylized lighting and urban settings, these films tell melodramatic narratives involving characters who commit crimes predicated on destructive passions, corruption, and a submission to human weakness and fate.

 

Unlike other studies of the noir, Street with No Name follows its development in a loosely historical style that associates certain noir directors with those features in their films that helped define the scope of the genre. Dickos examines notable directors such as Orson Welles, Fritz Lang, Otto Preminger, and Robert Siodmak. He also charts the genre's influence on such celebrated postwar French filmmakers as Jean-Pierre Melville, Francois Truffaut, and Jean-Luc Godard.

 

Addressing the aesthetic, cultural, political, and social concerns depicted in the genre, Street with No Name demonstrates how the film noir generates a highly expressive, raw, and violent mood as it exposes the ambiguities of modern postwar society.                

Born on this day – George Marshall:

George Marshall

Actor

Writer

Producer

Director

December 29, 1891 – February 17, 1975

Left to right: George Marshall, Claire Trevor, Glenn Ford, and William Holden,

on the set of the movie Texas (1941)

Credits:

Police Woman (1975); The Crazy World of Julius Vrooder (1974); Hec Ramsey (1972); Cade's County (1972); Daniel Boone (1964–1970); Here's Lucy (1969); Hook, Line and Sinker (1969); The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz (1968); Eight on the Lam (1967); Tarzan (1966); Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966); The Wackiest Ship in the Army (1965); Valentine's Day (1964–1965); Advance to the Rear (1964); Dark Purpose (1964); Papa's Delicate Condition (1963); How the West Was Won (1962); The Happy Thieves (1961); Cry for Happy (1961); The Gazebo (1959); It Started with a Kiss (1959); The Mating Game (1959); Imitation General (1958); The Sheepman (1958); The Sad Sack (1957); The Guns of Fort Petticoat (1957); Beyond Mombasa (1956); Pillars of the Sky (1956); Cavalcade of America (1955); Screen Directors Playhouse (1955); The Second Greatest Sex (1955); Destry (1954); Duel in the Jungle (1954); Red Garters (1954); Money from Home (1953); Houdini (1953); Scared Stiff (1953); Off Limits (1952); The Savage (1952); A Millionaire for Christy (1951); Ace of Clubs (1951); Never a Dull Moment (1950); Fancy Pants (1950); My Friend Irma (1949); Lust for Gold (1949); Tap Roots (1948); Hazard (1948); Variety Girl (1947); The Perils of Pauline (1947); Monsieur Beaucaire (1946); The Blue Dahlia (1946); Hold That Blonde! (1945); Incendiary Blonde (1945); Murder, He Says (1945); And the Angels Sing (1944); True to Life (1943); Riding High (1943); Star Spangled Rhythm (1942); The Forest Rangers (1942); Valley of the Sun (1942); Texas (1941); Pot o' Gold (1941); When the Daltons Rode (1940); The Ghost Breakers (1940); Destry Rides Again (1939); You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939); Hold That Co-ed (1938); Battle of Broadway (1938); The Goldwyn Follies (1938); Love Under Fire (1937); Nancy Steele Is Missing! (1937); Can This Be Dixie? (1936); The Crime of Dr. Forbes (1936); A Message to Garcia (1936); Show Them No Mercy! (1935); In Old Kentucky (1935); Music Is Magic (1935); $10 Raise (1935); Life Begins at 40 (1935); 365 Nights in Hollywood (1934); She Learned About Sailors (1934); Wild Gold (1934); Ever Since Eve (1934); Call It Luck (1934); The Big Fibber (1933); Husbands' Reunion (1933); Sweet Cookie (1933); Caliente Love (1933); Easy on the Eyes (1933); Olsen's Big Moment (1933); Towed in a Hole (1932); Their First Mistake (1932); The Soilers (1932); A Firehouse Honeymoon (1932); Alum and Eve (1932); Pack Up Your Troubles (1932); The Old Bull (1932); Strictly Unreliable (1932); Just a Pain in the Parlor (1932); Big Dame Hunting (1932); He Loved Her Not (1931); Hey Diddle Diddle (1930); Uncle's Visit (1929); Puckered Success (1929); Tomato Omelette (1929); Watch My Smoke (1929); No Children (1929); Circus Time (1929); No Vacation (1929); Camping Out (1928); No Sale Smitty (1928); No Picnic (1928); Gentlemen Prefer Scotch (1927); Girls (1927); From a Cabby's Seat (1926); A Parisian Knight (1925); The Sky Jumper (1925); The Big Game Hunter (1925); A Spanish Romeo (1925); The Burglar (1924); Paul Jones, Jr. (1924); The Race (1924); The Hunt (1924); The Fight (1924); The Back Trail (1924); Men in the Raw (1923); Where Is This West? (1923); Don Quickshot of the Rio Grande (1923); The Haunted Valley (1923); West Is West (1922); Smiles Are Trumps (1922); The Jolt (1921); The Lady from Longacre (1921); After Your Own Heart (1921); A Ridin' Romeo (1921); Hands Off! (1921); Why Trust Your Husband (1921); Prairie Trails (1920); Ruth of the Rockies (1920); Charlot, Charlot! (1919); The Adventures of Ruth (1919); The Gun Runners (1919); The Husband Hunter (1918); The Fast Mail (1918); Beating the Limited (1918); When Paris Green Saw Red (1918); Naked Fists (1918); The Midnight Flyer (1918); Quick Triggers (1918); The Man from Montana (1917); The Ninth Day (1917); Squaring It (1917); Right of Way Casey (1917); Meet My Wife (1917); Double Suspicion (1917); Swede Hearts (1917); The Honor of Men (1917); Casey's Border Raid (1917); Bill Brennan's Claim (1917); The Desert Ghost (1917); The Raid (1917); Roped In (1917); Border Wolves (1917); They Were Four (1917); The Comeback (1917); Won by Grit (1917); The Devil's Own (1916); A Woman's Eyes (1916); Love's Lariat (1916); The Committee on Credentials (1916); The Code of the Mounted (1916); Across the Rio Grande (1916); The Waiters' Ball (1916); And the Best Man Won (1915).

Born on this day – Jo Van Fleet:

Jo Van Fleet

Actress

December 29, 1915 – June 10, 1996

Credits:

77 Sunset Strip (1963); 80 Steps to Jonah (1969); Actor's Studio (1949–1950); Alcoa Theatre (1959); Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1956–1961); American Masters (2005); Armstrong Circle Theatre (1953–1955); Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre (1967); Bonanza (1970–1971); Campbell Summer Soundstage (1954); Cinderella (1965); Colorspace Vol. 1 (2010); Cool Hand Luke (1967); Cosmopolitan Theatre (1951); Danger (1954–1955); East of Eden (1955); East of Eden: Art in Search of Life (2005); Encounter (1956); Frontier Circus (1962); General Electric Theater (1959); Great Performances (1971); Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957); Hollywood Heaven: Tragic Lives, Tragic Deaths (1990); I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! (1968); I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955); Inner Sanctum (1954); James Dean's Lost Slideshow (2013); Kraft Suspense Theatre (1964); Kraft Theatre (1955–1956); Kraft Theatre / The Philco Television Playhouse (1952–1955); Kraft Theatre / The United States Steel Hour (1954); Mannix (1970); Max Liebman Spectaculars (1955); Medical Center (1971–1973); Mod Squad (1970); Moving Image Salutes Elia Kazan (1987); Naked City (1962); NBC Experiment in Television (1967); Play of the Week (1960–1961); Police Woman (1977); Power (1980); Robert Montgomery Presents (1955); Route 66 (1963); Satan's School for Girls (1973); Seize the Day (1986); Star Tonight (1955); Summer Playhouse (1964); Suspense (1954); The 14th Annual Tony Awards (1960); The 28th Annual Academy Awards (1956); The 69th Annual Academy Awards (1997); The DuPont Show of the Month (1959–1961); The Ed Sullivan Show (1956); The Family Rico (1972); The Film Society Of Lincoln Center Annual Gala Tribute to Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward (1975); The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1971); The King and Four Queens (1956); The Mask (1954); The Rose Tattoo (1955); The Tenant (1976); The Virginian (1966); The Wild Wild West (1969); This Angry Age (1958); Thriller (1961); Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (1958); Wild River (1960).