On this day in music history - Verismo, by Renée Fleming and Marco Armiliato (2009):

The album Verismo,

by Renée Fleming and Marco Armiliato,

was released on August 25, 2009.

On this day in movie history - Smog (1962):

Smog,

directed by Franco Rossi,

written by Franco Brusati, Pasquale Festa Campanile, Massimo Franciosa and Ugo Guerra,

based on a story by Pier Maria Pasinetti, Franco Rossi and Gian Domenico Giagni,

was released at the Venice Film Festival in Italy, on August 25, 1962.
Music by Piero Umiliani.

Cast:
Enrico Maria Salerno, Annie Girardot, Renato Salvatori, Susan Spafford, Isabella Albonico, Joan Houseman, Len Lesser, Howard Koch, Fred Catania, Max Showalter, Peter Opp, Graziella Granata, Loredana Nusciak, M. Brigham, Billie Scheibner, R.E. Brigham, Helen Pallack, Bernard Judge, Dennis Diggin, Peggy Moffitt, Suzanne Reynolds, Jerry Ray, John Phillip Law.

On this day in movie history - Madame Bovary (1949):

Madame Bovary,

directed by Vincente Minnelli,

written by Robert Ardrey,

based on the novel by Gustave Flaubert,

was released in the United States on August 25, 1949.
Music by Miklós Rózsa.

Cast:
Jennifer Jones, James Mason, Van Heflin, Louis Jourdan, Alf Kjellin, Gene Lockhart, Frank Allenby, Gladys Cooper, John Abbott, Harry Morgan, George Zucco, Ellen Corby, Eduard Franz, Henri Letondal, Esther Somers, Frederic Tozere, Paul Cavanagh, Vernon Steele, Dawn Kinney.

On this day in movie history - The Dragon Murder Case (1934):

The Dragon Murder Case,

directed by H. Bruce Humberstone,

written by F. Hugh Herbert, Robert N. Lee and Rian James,

based on the novel by S. S. Van Dine,

was released in the United States on August 25, 1934.
Music by Bernhard Kaun.

Cast:
Warren William, Margaret Lindsay, Lyle Talbot, Eugene Pallette, Helen Lowell, Robert McWade, Robert Barrat, Dorothy Tree, George E. Stone, Etienne Girardot, George Meeker, Robert Warwick, William B. Davidson, Arthur Aylesworth, Charles C. Wilson.

Born on this day – Martin Amis:

Martin Amis

Writer

August 25, 1949 – May 19, 2023

Born on this day – Sean Connery:

Sean Connery

Actor

August 25, 1930 – October 31, 2020

Born on this day – Leonard Bernstein:

Leonard Bernstein

Conductor

Composer

Pianist

Teacher

Writer

Humanitarian

August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990

Born on this day – Ted Key:

Ted Key

Cartoonist

Writer

August 25, 1912 – May 3, 2008

Born on this day – Ruby Keeler:

Ruby Keeler

Actress

Dancer

Singer

August 25, 1909 – February 28, 1993

Born on this day – Ray Heindorf:

Ray Heindorf

Composer

Songwriter

August 25, 1908 – February 3, 1980

Born on this day – Alice White:

Alice White

Actress

August 25, 1904 – February 19, 1983

Credits:

3-Ring Marriage (1928); A Trip Thru a Hollywood Studio (1935); A Very Honorable Guy (1934); A Woman of the Sea (1926); Annabel Takes a Tour (1938); Big City (1937); Breakfast at Sunrise (1927); Broadway Babies (1929); Broadway Highlights No. 2 (1935); Coronado (1935); Cross Country Cruise (1934); Employees' Entrance (1933); Fashion News (1930); Flamingo Road (1949); Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1928); Gift of Gab (1934); Girls' Town (1942); Girls Will Be Boys (1929); Harold Teen (1928); Hollywood and the Stars (1963); Hollywood on Parade No. A-12 (1933); Hollywood on Parade No. A-13 (1933); Hollywood on Parade No. B-6 (1934); Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical History - The 1920s: The Dawn of the Hollywood Musical (2008); Hot Stuff (1929); Jimmy the Gent (1934); King for a Night (1933); King of the Newsboys (1938); Lingerie (1928); Luxury Liner (1933); Mad Hour (1928); Naughty Baby (1928); Picture Snatcher (1933); Playing Around (1930); Secret of the Chateau (1934); Show Girl (1928); Show Girl in Hollywood (1930); Show of Shows (1929); Sweet Mama (1930); Sweet Music (1935); Sweethearts on Parade (1930); Telephone Operator (1937); The American Beauty (1927); The Ann Sothern Show (1958); The Big Noise (1928); The Dice Woman (1926); The Dove (1927); The Girl from Woolworth's (1929); The Hollywood Gad-About (1934); The Naughty Flirt (1930); The Night of January 16th (1941); The Private Life of Helen of Troy (1927); The Satin Woman (1927); The Sea Tiger (1927); The Widow from Chicago (1930).

Author humor:

Why we read:

Recommended reading - Double Indemnity (novel & screenplay):

Double Indemnity

By James M. Cain.

Filmed as:

Double Indemnity (1944), directed by Billy Wilder.

Double Indemnity (1973), directed by Jack Smight.

Published by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard.

Published 1943.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 9780679723226

ISBN-13: 9780679723226

Description:

“An American masterpiece.” – Ross Macdonald.

“No one has ever stopped reading in the middle of one of Jim Cain’s books.” – Saturday Review of Literature.

Walter Huff was an insurance salesman with an unfailing instinct for clients who might be in trouble, and his instinct led him to Phyllis Nirdlinger. Phyllis wanted to buy an accident policy on her husband. Then she wanted her husband to have an accident. Walter wanted Phyllis. To get her, he would arrange the perfect murder and betray everything he had ever lived for.

Tautly narrated and excruciatingly suspenseful, Double Indemnity gives us an X-ray view of guilt, of duplicity, and of the kind of obsessive, loveless love that devastates everything it touches. First published in 1935, this novel reaffirmed James M. Cain as a virtuoso of the roman noir.

Double Indemnity: The Complete Screenplay

By Billy Wilder, Raymond Chandler, Jeffrey Meyers.

Published by University of California Press.

Published 2000.

ISBN-10: 0520218485

ISBN-13: 9780520218482

Description:

On every level -- writing, direction, acting -- Double Indemnity (1944) is a triumph and stands as one of the greatest achievements in Billy Wilder's career. Adapted from the James M. Cain novel by director Wilder and novelist Raymond Chandler, it tells the story of an insurance salesman, played by Fred MacMurray, who is lured into a murder-for-insurance plot by Barbara Stanwyck, in an archetypal femme fatale role. From its grim story to its dark, atmospheric lighting, Double Indemnity is a definitive example of World War II-era film noir. Wilder's approach is everywhere evident: in the brutal cynicism the film displays, the moral complexity, and in the empathy we feel for the killers. The film received almost unanimous critical success, garnering seven Academy Award nominations. More than fifty years later, most critics agree that this classic is one of the best films of all time. The collaboration between Wilder and Raymond Chandler produced a masterful script and some of the most memorable dialogue ever spoken in a movie.

This facsimile edition of Double Indemnity contains Wilder and Chandler's original -- and quite different -- ending, published here for the first time. Jeffrey Meyers's introduction contextualizes the screenplay, providing hilarious anecdotes about the turbulent collaboration, as well as background information about Wilder and the film's casting and production.

Recommended reading - The Age of Dimes and Pulps: A History of Sensationalist Literature, 1830-1960 (2018):

The Age of Dimes and Pulps: A History of Sensationalist Literature, 1830-1960 (2018).

By Jeremy Agnew.

Published by McFarland.

Illustrated edition.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 1476669481

ISBN-13: 978-1476669489

Description:

From the dime novels of the Civil War era to the pulp magazines of the early 20th century to modern paperbacks, lurid fiction has provided thrilling escapism for the masses. Cranking out formulaic stories of melodrama, crime and mild erotica – often by uncredited authors focused more on volume than quality – publishers realized high profits playing to low tastes. Estimates put pulp magazine circulation in the 1930s at 30 million monthly.

This vast body of "disposable literature" has received little critical attention, in large part because much of it has been lost – the cheaply made books were either discarded after reading or soon disintegrated. Covering the history of pulp literature from 1850 through 1960, the author describes how sensational tales filled a public need and flowered during the evolving social conditions of the Industrial Revolution.

Ann Patchett, on writing:

That's the way I work.

I get it all plotted in my mind, and then I write it down.

- Ann Patchett.