On this day in movie history - The Sleeping City (1950):

The Sleeping City

directed and written by George Sherman,

was released in the United States on September 20, 1950.
Music by Frank Skinner.

Cast:

Richard Conte, Coleen Gray, Richard Taber, John Alexander, Peggy Dow, Alex Nicol, Carroll Ashburn, Frank Baxter, Dort Clark, Mickey Cochran, Russell Collins, James Daly, Henry Hart, Ralph Hertz, Tom Hoirer, Richard Kendrick, Jack Lescoulie, Jimmy Little, William Martel, Rod McLennan, Florence Morrison, James O'Neill, Herbert Ratner, Hugh Reilly, Ernest Sarracino, Robert Strauss, Michael Strong, Mimi Strongin, Victor Sutherland, Frank M. Thomas, Frank Tweddell, James J. Van Dyk.

Recommended reading - Jealous Woman (1950):

Jealous Woman

By James M. Cain.

First published in 1950.

Published by Black Lizard Books.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0887390889

ISBN-13: 978-0887390883

Description:

An ambitious Reno salesman. A wealthy would-be divorcée. An insurance policy. It’s a toxic combination in this noir thriller by an MWA Grand Master . . .

Jane Delvan had dark, red hair and plenty of shape of a nice, refined kind. To Ed Horner she was only a little fancy flirtation under the Nevada moon, but he found some peculiar circumstances developing when Jane’s husband, Tom Delavan, himself came to town, followed very shortly afterwards by his first wife, the beautiful but jealous Lady Sperry.

Ed wondered what kind of game Jane Delavan was playing with him, leading him on as she was? And why should Lady Sperry take a heated interest in him of a sudden? What were the cause of secret midnight callers roaming at will through hotel bedrooms? Suddenly Ed Horner found himself slowly being ringed about by a group of hard-hating, highly emotional people who all had motives that involved them in a case of murder and the Jealous Woman.

If Las Vegas is a city of lovers, in Reno, the business is divorce. Six weeks in Reno can erase the darkest marriages, and the only question is how to pass the time – craps or roulette? Jane Delavan is a roulette woman, a stately beauty from back East who is too classy for the motel where she’s shacked up. She’s come for a divorce, but her husband has other ideas. He wants an annulment, and in exchange offers to take out a $100,000 insurance policy on himself – just in case something happens to him before their paperwork goes through. Jane is cunning enough to make sure that if she wants something to happen, it will. Ed Horner is the insurance agent sent to settle the agreement, and it doesn’t take long for Jane to settle him. They fall in love over twenty-five-cent roulette and soon have a bigger score in mind. In the Biggest Little City in the World, a king-size scheme is brewing . . .

“Cleverly plotted.” – The New York Times.

“Swift and absorbing.” – The Wall Street Journal.

On this day in movie history - Sunset Boulevard (1950):

Sunset Boulevard,

aka SUNSET BLVD.,

directed by Billy Wilder,

written by Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder and D. M. Marshman Jr.,

was released in the United States on August 10, 1950.
Music by Franz Waxman.

Cast:
William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson, Fred Clark, Lloyd Gough, Jack Webb, Franklyn Farnum, Larry J. Blake, Charles Dayton, Cecil B. DeMille, Hedda Hopper, Buster Keaton, Anna Q. Nilsson, H.B. Warner, Ray Evans, Jay Livingston, Fred Aldrich, Joel Allen, Gertrude Astor, Anne Bauchens, Edward Biby, Danny Borzage, Ken Christy, Ruth Clifford, John Cortay, Archie R. Dalzell, Eddie Dew, Peter Drynan, Julia Faye, Al Ferguson, Gerry Ganzer, Rudy Germane, Kenneth Gibson, Joe Gray, Sanford E. Greenwald, Creighton Hale, Chuck Hamilton, James Hawley, Len Hendry, E. Mason Hopper, Stan Johnson, Tiny Jones, Howard Joslin, Arthur Lane, Perc Launders, Alan Marston, William Meader, Gertrude Messinger, Harold Miller, John ‘Skins’ Miller, Lee Miller, Ralph Montgomery, Bert Moorhouse, Jay Morley, Bernice Mosk, Howard Negley, Ottola Nesmith, Eva Novak, Frank O’Connor, Robert Emmett O’Connor, Jack Perrin, Virginia L. Randolph, Bill Sheehan, Sidney Skolsky, Emmett Smith, Roy Thompson, Archie Twitchell, Yvette Vickers, Edward Wahrman, Jack Warden, Henry Wilcoxon.

On this day in movie history - The Underworld Story (1950):

The Underworld Story,

directed by Cy Endfield,

written by Henry Blankfort and Cy Endfield,

based on a story by Craig Rice,

was released in the United States on July 26, 1950.
Music by David Rose.

Cast:
Dan Duryea, Herbert Marshall, Gale Storm, Howard Da Silva, Michael O’Shea, Mary Anderson, Gar Moore, Melville Cooper, Frieda Inescort, Art Baker, Harry Shannon, Alan Hale Jr., Stephen Dunne, Roland Winters, Sue England, Lewis L. Russell, Frances Chaney, Stanley Blystone, Jack Mower, Edward Van Sloan.

Recommended reading - The Drowning Pool (1950):

The Drowning Pool (1950).

By Ross Macdonald.

Crime fiction.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0679768068

ISBN-13: 978-0679768067

Description:

When a millionaire matriarch is found floating face-down in the family pool, the prime suspects are her good-for-nothing son and his seductive teenage daughter. In The Drowning Pool, Lew Archer takes this case in the L.A. suburbs and encounters a moral wasteland of corporate greed and family hatred – and sufficient motive for a dozen murders.

Recommended reading - The Wages of Fear (1950):

The Wages of Fear

Original title: Le Salaire de la peur.

By Georges Arnaud.

Originally published in 1950.

This English language translation edition was published in 1968.

Paperback.

Avon edition.

ASIN: B000VDT4KS

Description:

Las Piedras, beaching port. There are hundreds of them, coming from who knows where, to forget the impasse of their existence in the tropics. For a handful of dollars, these low-rankers are ready to do anything. Ready to face kilometers of impassable track, behind the wheel of a dilapidated truck, to transport nitroglycerin. At the slightest deviation, at the slightest shock, it is death. An epic of pure anguish...

Book cover artwork from other editions:

On this day in movie history - The Second Woman (1950):

The Second Woman,

directed by James V. Kern,

written by Mort Briskin and Robert Smith,

was released in the United States on July 7, 1950.
Music by Joseph Nussbaum.

Cast:
Robert Young, Betsy Drake, John Sutton, Florence Bates, Morris Carnovsky, Henry O'Neill, Jean Rogers, Raymond Largay, Shirley Ballard, Vici Raaf, Jason Robards, Sr., Steven Geray, Jimmie Dodd, Smokey Whitfield, Cliff Clark.

On this day in movie history - Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950):

Where the Sidewalk Ends,

directed by Otto Preminger,

written by Ben Hecht,

based on a story by Victor Trivas, Frank P. Rosenberg and Robert E. Kent,

and the novel Night Cry by William L. Stuart,

was released in the United States on July 7, 1950.
Music by Cyril Mockridge.

Cast:
Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, Gary Merrill, Bert Freed, Tom Tully, Karl Malden, Ruth Donnelly, Craig Stevens, Fred Aldrich, Don Appell, Tony Barr, David Bauer, Eddie Borden, Neville Brand.

On this day in movie history - Destination Murder (1950):

Destination Murder,

directed by Edward L. Cahn,

written by Don Martin,

was released in the United States on June 9, 1950.
Music by Irving Gertz.

Cast:
Joyce Mackenzie, Stanley Clements, Hurd Hatfield, Albert Dekker, Myrna Dell, James Flavin, John Dehner, Richard Emory, Norma Vance, Suzette Harbin, Buddy Swan, Bert Wenland, Franklyn Farnum, Steve Gibson’s Redcaps, Leon Alton, Kenneth Gibson, Steve Gibson, James Gonzalez, Robert Locke Lorraine, Harold Miller, Suzanne Ridgway, Steven Ritch, John Roche, Jeffrey Sayre.

On this day in movie history - Night and the City (1950):

Night and the City,

directed by Jules Dassin,

written by Austin Dempster, William E. Watts and Jo Eisinger,

based on the novel by Gerald Kersh,

was released in the United States on June 9, 1950.
Music by Benjamin Frankel and Franz Waxman.

Cast:
Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney, Googie Withers, Hugh Marlowe, Francis L. Sullivan, Herbert Lom, Aubrey Dexter, Maureen Delany, Stanislaus Zbyszko, Mike Mazurki, Ada Reeve, Charles Farrell, Ken Richmond, Edward Chapman, James Hayter, Gibb McLaughlin, Dirk Bogarde.