Recommended reading - After Midnight, by Helen Nielsen (1966):

After Midnight

by Helen Nielsen.

ASIN: B0007E0IM4

Published by Morrow.

First published 1966.

First Edition.

Hardcover.

Description:

A beautiful suspect with an intense desire to kill. The murder of Roger Warren seemed like an open-and-shut case.The evening before, Roger and his dazzling wife Wanda had moved from one bar to another, fighting loudly and publicly. The next morning, the dead figure of Roger was slumped in a living room chair … while Wanda lay sleeping in bed, a bloodied knife on the pillow beside her. At the District Attorney’s office, the bereaved beauty could remember nothing . . . except an intense desire to kill.

Recommended reading - Black Money, by Ross Macdonald (1966):

Black Money

By Ross Macdonald.

Vintage Crime/Black Lizard.

Published by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

First published 1966.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0679768106

ISBN-13: 978-0679768104

Description:

“A Beautiful job … rich in plot and character…. The denouement is both surprising and shocking and the whole is up to Mr. Macdonald’s extraordinarily high standards.” – The New York Time Book Review.

When Lew Archer is hired to get the goods on the suspiciously suave Frenchman who's run off with his client's girlfriend, it looks like a simple case of alienated affections. Things look different when the mysterious foreigner turns out to be connected to a seven-year-old suicide and a mountain of gambling debts. Black Money is Ross Macdonald at his finest, baring the skull beneath the untanned skin of Southern California's high society.

“It was not just that Ross Macdonald taught is how to write; he taught us how to read, and how to think about life, and maybe in some small but mannered way, how to live.” – Robert B. Parker.

If any writer can be said to have inherited the mantle of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, it was Ross Macdonald. Between the late 1940s and his death in 1983, he gave the American crime novel a psychological depth and moral complexity that his predecessors had only hinted at. And in the character of Lew Archer, Macdonald redefined the private eye as a roving conscience who walks the treacherous frontier between criminal guilt and human sin.

On this day in movie history - Harper (1966):

Harper

directed by Jack Smight,

written by William Goldman,

based on the novel The Moving Target by Ross Macdonald,

was released in the United States on February 23, 1966.

Music by Johnny Mandel.

Cast:

Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, Julie Harris, Arthur Hill, Janet Leigh, Pamela Tiffin, Robert Wagner, Robert Webber, Shelley Winters, Harold Gould, Roy Jenson, Strother Martin.

On this day in movie history - The Chase (1966):

The Chase

directed by Arthur Penn,

written by Lillian Hellman,

based on the play and novel by Horton Foote,

was released in the United States on February 18, 1966.
Music by John Barry.

Cast:

Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, E.G. Marshall, Angie Dickinson, Janice Rule, Miriam Hopkins, Martha Hyer, Richard Bradford, Robert Duvall, James Fox, Diana Hyland, Henry Hull, Jocelyn Brando, Katherine Walsh, Lori Martin, Marc Seaton, Paul Williams, Clifton James, Malcolm Atterbury, Nydia Westman, Joel Fluellen, Steve Ihnat, Maurice Manson, Bruce Cabot, Steve Whittaker, Pamela Curran, Ken Renard, Don Anderson, James Anderson, Walter Bacon, Ray Ballard, Benjie Bancroft, Billy Bletcher, Matilda Brewer, Don Brodie, Tex Brodus, Rufis Burke, Nellie Burt, George Calliga, Dee Carroll, Woodrow Chambliss, Ron Chase, Eduardo Ciannelli, Dort Clark, Richard Collier, Jacqueline D'Avril, George DeNormand, Joe Dominguez, Dan Dowling, Vicki Draves, Charles Fogel, Lori Fontaine, Mel Gallagher, Ray Galvin, Richard Garland, Anthony Ghazlo Sr., Kenneth Gibson, George Golden, Monte Hale, Jill Hill, George Holmes, Clyde Howdy, Michael Jeffers, James Jeter, Kenneth Konopka, Alan Marston, Tina Menard, William Mims, Ernesto Molinari, Ralph Moody, Ruben Moreno, Stevenson Phillips, Bertha Powell, Patricia Quinn, Leoda Richards, Davis Roberts, John Roy, Charles Seel, Bernard Sell, Eddie Smith, Grady Sutton, Curtis Taylor, Susan Tracy, Felipe Turich, Herb Voland, Guy Way, Cathy Williams, Rodney Willis, George Winters, Judith Woodbury, Howard Wright.

Recommended reading - The Chase, by Horton Foote, play & novel (1956/1966):

The Chase

By Horton Foote.

Play version:

72 pages.

Paperback.

Published by Dramatists Play Service, Inc.

Published 1956.

ISBN 13: 9780822201984

ISBN 10: 0822201984

ASIN: 0822201984

Novel version:

Mass Market Paperback.

Published 1966.

Published by Signet Book.

ASIN: B0DT36B11R

Description:

Sheriff Hawes, honest and sincere peace officer, wearied with his job and its usual run of irritating problems, such as runaway boys, small robberies and the like, is making plans for his retirement. A local boy, Bubber Reeves, escapes from the penitentiary where he is serving a life term. He heads for his hometown, obsessed with the idea of killing Hawes who has become for him the symbol of all he hates. The town is terrified of Bubber and wants him killed. Hawes is determined to take him alive and send him back to the penitentiary. Eventually Hawes traces Bubber to a cabin, but Bubber does not want to be captured and forces Hawes to kill him. Heartbroken over his failure, Hawes goes back to the jail to resign immediately, but his wife convinces him that he is needed in his job, and he decides to continue.

Born on this day – Renée French:

Renée French

Actress

Production manager

February 6, 1966 – May 19, 2020

Credits:

Coffee and Cigarettes (2003); Nowhere Fast (1995); Malcolm X (1992); Fishing with John (1991).

Recommended reading - The Complete Stories and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe (1966):

The Complete Stories and Poems

By Edgar Allan Poe.

First published 1849.

This edition published 1966.

Published by Doubleday & Company, Inc.

Hardcover.

ISBN 13: 9780385074070

ISBN 10: 0385074077

ASIN: 0385074077

Description:

This single volume brings together all of Poe's stories and poems, and illuminates the diverse and multifaceted genius of one of the greatest and most influential figures in American literary history.

On this day in music history - Sounds of Silence, by Simon & Garfunkel (1966):

Sounds of Silence

Album by Simon & Garfunkel,

released January 17, 1966.

Track list:

The Sound of Silence (Electric Version); Leaves That Are Green; Blessed; Kathy's Song; Somewhere They Can't Find Me; Anji; Richard Cory; A Most Peculiar Man; April Come She Will; We've Got a Groovy Thing Goin'; I Am a Rock; Blues Run the Game (Studio Outtake - 1965); Barbriallen (Demo); Rose of Aberdeen (Demo); Roving Gambler (Demo).

Born on this day – Andrew Shapter:

Andrew Shapter

Director

Writer

Cinematographer

December 30, 1966 – February 23, 2019

On this day in movie history - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966):

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

directed by Sergio Leone,

written by Age & Scarpelli (aka Agenore Incrocci and Furio Scarpelli), Luciano Vincenzoni and Sergio Leone,

based on a story by Luciano Vincenzoni and Sergio Leone,

was released in Italy on December 23, 1966.
Music by Ennio Morricone.

Cast:

Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef, Aldo Giuffrè, Luigi Pistilli, Rada Rassimov, Enzo Petito, Claudio Scarchilli, John Bartha, Livio Lorenzon, Antonio Casale, Sandro Scarchilli, Benito Stefanelli, Angelo Novi, Antonio Casas, Aldo Sambrell, Al Mulock, Sergio Mendizábal, Antonio Molino Rojo, Lorenzo Robledo, Mario Brega, Richard Alagich, Chelo Alonso, Fortunato Arena, Román Ariznavarreta, Silvana Bacci, Joseph Bradley, Frank Braña, Amerigo Castrighella, Saturno Cerra, Luigi Ciavarro, William Conroy, Antonio Contreras, Domingo Contreras, Axel Darna, Tony Di Mitri, Gianni Di Segni, Alberigo Donadeo, Attilio Dottesio, Luis Fernández de Eribe, Veriano Ginesi, Jesús Guzmán, Víctor Israel, Nazzareno Natale, Ricardo Palacios, Antonio Palombi, Julio Martínez Piernavieja, Jesús Porras, Romano Puppo, Antoñito Ruiz, Aysanoa Runachagua, Enrique Santiago, José Terrón, Franco Tocci, Alfonso Veady.

On this day in movie history - Grand Prix (1966):

Grand Prix

directed by John Frankenheimer,

written by Robert Alan Aurthur,

was released in the United States on December 21, 1966.
Music by Maurice Jarre.

Cast:

James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Yves Montand, Toshirô Mifune, Brian Bedford, Jessica Walter, Antonio Sabato, Françoise Hardy, Adolfo Celi, Claude Dauphin, Enzo Fiermonte, Geneviève Page, Jack Watson, Donald O'Brien, Jean Michaud, Albert Rémy, Rachel Kempson, Ralph Michael, Alan Fordney, Anthony Marsh, Tommy Franklin, Phil Hill, Graham Hill, Bernard Cahier, Masaaki Asukai, Lorenzo Bandini, Raymond Baxter, Roy Beck, Salvatore Billa, Bob Bondurant, Joakim Bonnier, Jack Brabham, John Bryson, Jim Clark, Eugenio Dragoni, Evans Evans, Tiziano Feroldi, Paul Frees, Alain Gerard, Richie Ginther, Noël Godin, Dan Gurney, Arthur Howard, Gilberto Mazzi, Bruce McLaren, Jochen Rindt, Jo Siffert.