On this day in movie history - The Thrill of It All (1963):

The Thrill of It All

directed by Norman Jewison,

written by Carl Reiner,

based on a story by Larry Gelbart,

was released in the United States on July 17, 1963.
Music by Frank De Vol.

Cast:

Doris Day, James Garner, Arlene Francis, Edward Andrews, Reginald Owen, ZaSu Pitts, Elliott Reid, Alice Pearce, Kym Karath, Brian Nash, Lucy Landau, Paul Hartman, Burt Mustin, Carl Reiner.

On this day in movie history - The Great Escape (1963 movie & book):

The Great Escape

directed by John Sturges,

written by James Clavell and W. R. Burnett,

based on the book by Paul Brickhill,

was released in the United States on July 2, 1963.
Music by Elmer Bernstein.

Cast:

Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, James Donald, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, Hannes Messemer, David McCallum, Gordon Jackson, John Leyton, Angus Lennie, Nigel Stock, Robert Graf, Jud Taylor, Hans Reiser, Harry Riebauer, William Russell, Robert Freitag, Ulrich Beiger, George Mikell, Lawrence Montaigne, Robert Desmond, Til Kiwe, Heinz Weiss, Tom Adams, Karl-Otto Alberty, Arthur Atkinson.

Recommended reading:

The Great Escape

By Paul Brickhill.

Filmed as The Great Escape (1963), directed by John Sturges.

Published by W. W. Norton & Company.

Published 1950.

ISBN-10: 0393325792

ISBN-13: 9780393325799

Description:

"One of the great true stories of the war, and one of the greatest escape narratives of all time." – San Francisco Chronicle.

"Absorbing... spine-tingling... puts the average war book so far in the shadow it's not even funny." – Dallas Times Herald.

"For sheer suspense, puts the fictioneers to shame." – Boston Globe.

"A tense, thrilling, fabulous tale." – Philadelphia Inquirer.

They were American and British air force officers in a German prison camp. With only their bare hands and the crudest of homemade tools, they sank shafts, forged passports, faked weapons, and tailored German uniforms and civilian clothes. They developed a fantastic security system to protect themselves from German surveillance.

It was a split-second operation as delicate and as deadly as a time bomb. It demanded the concentrated devotion and vigilance of more than six hundred men – every one of them, every minute, every hour, every day and night for more than a year.

Made into the classic 1963 war film of the same name starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Richard Attenborough.

16 pages of photographs.

On this day in movie history - Jason and the Argonauts (1963 movie & poem):

Jason and the Argonauts

directed by Don Chaffey,

written by Jan Read, Beverley Cross,

based on the poem The Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes / Apollonius Rhodius,

released in the United States on June 13, 1963.

Music by Bernard Herrmann.

Cast: Todd Armstrong, Nancy Kovack, Gary Raymond, Laurence Naismith, Niall MacGinnis, Michael Gwynn, Douglas Wilmer, Jack Gwillim, Honor Blackman, John Cairney, Patrick Troughton, Andrew Faulds, Nigel Green, Ennio Antonelli, Harold Bradley, John Crawford, Aldo Cristiani, Bill Gudgeon, Eva Haddon, Ferdinando Poggi, Doug Robinson, Davina Taylor, Tim Turner.

Recommended reading:

Jason and the Argonauts

a.k.a. Jason and the Golden Fleece: (The Argonautica)

By Apollonius of Rhodes / Apollonius Rhodius.

Translated by E. V. Rieu.

Filmed as Jason and the Argonauts (1963), directed by Don Chaffey.

Published by Penguin Books.

This edition published 1996.

ISBN-10: 014600163X

ISBN-13: 978-0146001635

Description:

This underrated epic poem is a description of the voyage of Greek hero Jason and the Argonauts to Colchis, modern day Georgia, in search of the Golden Fleece. Written in the third century BCE, The Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes is the only surviving Hellenistic epic.

On this day in movie history - Donovan’s Reef (1963):

Donovan’s Reef

directed by John Ford,

written by Frank S. Nugent and James Edward Grant,

based on a story by Edmund Beloin,

was released in the United States on June 12, 1963.

Music by Cyril Mockridge.

Cast:

John Wayne, Lee Marvin, Elizabeth Allen, Jack Warden, Cesar Romero, Dick Foran, Dorothy Lamour, Marcel Dalio, Mike Mazurki, Jacqueline Malouf, Cherylene Lee, Jeffrey Byron, Edgar Buchanan, Jon Fong, John Alderson, Frank Baker, Clyde Cook, Carmen Estrabeau, Harold Fong, Dan Ford, H.W. Gim, Duke Green, Frank Hagney, Sam Harris, Tom Harris, Freda Jones, June Y. Kim, Richard Kipling, Carl M. Leviness, King Lockwood, Cliff Lyons, Mae Marsh, Michelle Mazurki, Midori, Ron Nyman, Yvonne Peattie, John Qualen, Branscombe Richmond, Chuck Roberson, Scott Seaton, Charles Seel, Leslie Sketchley, John Stafford, Sara Taft, Ralph Volkie, Aissa Wayne, Patrick Wayne, Lee Woodd.

On this day in movie history - The Terror (1963):

The Terror

directed by Roger Corman, Francis Ford Coppola, Jack Hale,

Monte Hellman, Jack Hill, Dennis Jakob and Jack Nicholson,

written by Leo Gordon, Jack Hill and Roger Corman,

was released in France on May 30, 1963.
Music by Ronald Stein.

Cast:

Boris Karloff, Jack Nicholson, Sandra Knight, Dick Miller, Dorothy Neumann, Jonathan Haze.