On this day in movie history – M*A*S*H (1970):

M*A*S*H

directed by Robert Altman,

written by Ring Lardner Jr.,

based on the novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors by Richard Hooker,

was released in the United States on March 18, 1970.

Music by Johnny Mandel.

Cast:

Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall, Roger Bowen, Rene Auberjonois, David Arkin, Jo Ann Pflug, Gary Burghoff, Fred Williamson, Michael Murphy, Indus Arthur, Ken Prymus, Bobby Troup, Kim Atwood, Timothy Brown, John Schuck, Dawne Damon, Carl Gottlieb, Tamara Wilcox-Smith, G. Wood, Bud Cort, Danny Goldman, Corey Fischer.

Born on this day – Miho Nakayama:

Miho Nakayama

Actress

Singer

March 1, 1970 – December 6, 2024

Credits:

Albums:

After School (1985); All for You (1990); Angel Hearts (1988); C (1985); Catch the Nite (1988); Dé eaya (1991); Deep Lip French (1996); Exotique (1986); Groovin' Blue (1997); Hide 'n' Seek (1989); Jeweluna (1990); Manifesto (1999); Mellow (1992); Merry Merry (1989); Mid Blue (1995); Mind Game (1988); Neuf Neuf (2019); Olive (1998); One and Only (1987); Pure White (1994); Summer Breeze (1986); Wagamama na Actress (1993).

Movies and television:

108: Revenge and Adventure of Goro Kaiba (2019); Ai Uta: Yakusoku no Nakuhito (2019); Aitai Toki ni Anata wa Inai (1991); Aitsu to watashi (1986); Be-Bop highschool: Koko yotaro elegy (1986); Bi bappu haisukuru (1985); Bokura no jidai (2012); Butterfly Sleep (2017); Docchini suruno (1989); FNS Music Festival: Part 1 (2015); FNS Music Festival: Part 2 (2015); Fujiko Fujio no Yume Camera (1986); Goodbye, Someday (2010); Heisei Sasameyuki (2018); Home & Away (2002); I Have to Buy New Shoes (2012); Idol Hotline: Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School- Tokusei Videotape (1988); Keishichô 0 gakari: Seikatsu anzen ka nandemo sôdanshitsu (2021); Kenja no ai (2016); Kimi no Hitomi ni Koishiteru (1989); Kizoku Tantei (2017); Last Letter (2020); Lesson in Murder (2022); Like Shooting Stars in the Twilight (2018); Love 2000 (2000); Love Letter (1995); Love Story (2001); M.U.G.E.N (1999); Mahou no Rinobe (2022); Maido Osawagase Shimasu (1985–1987); Mama wa aidoru! (1987); Marmalade Boy (2018); Meoto manzai (2001); Mikaiketsu no Onna (2018); Mizu no tabibito: Samurai kizzu (1993); Moshimo negai ga kanaunara (1994); Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School (1987); Nami no kazu dake dakishimete (1991); Natsu Taiken Monogatari (1985–1986); Nemureru mori (1998); Ohima nara Kite yo ne! (1987); Oishii kankei (1996); Platonic (2014); Prescription Police (2019); Sailor Fuku Hangyaku Doumei (1986–1987); Shiawase ni naru mittsu no kaimono (2013); Smap×Smap (2010); Somebody Loves Her (1992); Suteki na Kataomoi (1990); Tales of the Bizarre / Segment: Kyôfu no tezawari (1990); The Forest Without Flowers and Fruits (2017); The High School Heroes (2021); Things You Can Tell by Looking at Them (2020); Tokyo biyori (1997); Tokyo Nijusan Ku Onna (2019); Tonneruzu no Mina-san no Okage desu (1988–1997); VS Arashi (2017); W no higeki (2019); Waka Okusama wa Udemakuri (1988); World Open Wide (2016); Yonimo kimyô na monogatari: Autumn 2017 Special (2017); Zatoichi (1989).

Recommended reading - Jim Kane by J.P.S. Brown (1970):

Jim Kane

By J.P.S. Brown

Filmed as Pocket Money (1972), directed by Stuart Rosenberg.

Hardcover.

Published 1970.

Published by E P Dutton.

ISBN 13: 9780803742291

ISBN 10: 0803742290

ASIN: 0803742290

Description:

Content with making an honest living hauling truckloads of horses from Mexico, Jim Kane – ranch hand, cattle trader, and bronco buster – is forced by a twist of fate to return to his job in Arizona, breaking colts for the rodeo.

On this day in music history - Bridge Over Troubled Water, by Simon & Garfunkel (1970):

Bridge Over Troubled Water

Album by Simon & Garfunkel,
released January 26, 1970.

Track list:

Bridge over Troubled Water; El Condor Pasa (If I Could); Cecilia; Keep the Customer Satisfied; So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright; The Boxer; Baby Driver; The Only Living Boy in New York; Why Don't You Write Me; Bye Bye Love; Song for the Asking.

Recommended reading - The Hot Rock (1970):

The Hot Rock

By Donald E. Westlake.

Book # 1 in the Dortmunder series.

Published by Simon & Schuster.

First published 1970.

First Edition.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 0671205412

ISBN-13: 978-0671205416

Description:

John Archibald Dortmunder is the archetypal criminal manque. Brought up in an orphanage in the Midwest, he is 37 years old, served in the "police action" in Korea, was arrested twice for robbery following his release from the service, and was briefly married to a nightclub entertainer named Honeybun Bazoom from whom he was granted an uncontested divorce. For reasons totally beyond his comprehension, Dortmunder is chosen to lead a gang of master hoodlums. Their job: to steal an emerald valued at $500,000. Their employer: Major Patrick Iko, a mustached African diplomat whose country has just lost the gem through a thoughtless political decision. The specialists Dortmunder selects for his impossible mission include: Kelp: an ex-con with a penchant for stealing cars with MD license plates. Stan Murch: a crook who lives with his mother, a cab driver, and collects stereo records of "Sounds of Indianapolis." Roger Chefwick: the railroad nut, a skinny man of late middle age, whose three H-O gauge trains constantly couple and uncouple on H-O gauge track in a waist-high plywood platform in his basement. What follows in this delightful new novel by Donald E. Westlake is an unparalleled mixture of laughter and thrills, featuring a car crash into the New York Coliseum, a free-swinging helicopter attack on a police station, and a wild breakout from an insane asylum on a Tom Thumb locomotive stolen from a nearby amusement park.

Recommended reading - Raging Bull: My Story (1970):

Raging Bull: My Story

By Jake LaMotta, Peter Savage and Joseph Carter.

Introduction by Nick Tosches.

Filmed as Raging Bull (1980), directed by Martin Scorsese.

First published 1970.

Published by Da Capo Press.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0306808080

ISBN-13: 978-0306808081

Description:

Meet Jake LaMotta: thief, rapist, killer. Raised in the Bronx slums, he fought on the streets, got sent to reform school, and served time in prison. Trusting no one, slugging everyone, he beat his wife, his best friends, even the mobsters who kept the title just out of reach. But the same forces that made him a criminal – fear, rage, jealousy, self-hate, guilt – combined with his drive and intelligence to make him a winner in the ring. At age twenty-seven, after eight years of fighting, he became Middleweight Champion of the World, a hero to thousands. Then, at the peak of success, he fell apart and began a swift, harrowing descent into nightmare. Raging Bull, the Bronx Bull's brutally candid memoir, tells it all – fights, jails, sex, money – surpassing, in hard-hitting prose, even the movie that immortalized it.

Recommended reading - The Last Detail (1970):

The Last Detail

By Darryl Ponicsan.

First published 1970.

Published by Skyhorse.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 1510727752

ISBN-13: 978-1510727755

Description:

The Acclaimed Novel That Was the Basis for the Classic Movie Starring Jack Nicholson.

Unlike the other branches of the armed services, the navy draws its police force from the ranks, as temporary duty. The risk is that men on Shore Patrol might bring their humanity to the task. This accounts for the underlying tension in "The Last Detail", which takes place during the height of the Vietnam War. Billy Bad-Ass and Mule Mulhall, two career sailors in transit in Norfolk, awaiting permanent orders, are given a "chaser" duty. Their assignment is to escort and deliver Larry Meadows, an 18-year-old sailor, from Norfolk to Portsmouth, N.H., where he is to serve an eight-year sentence in the brig. It's good duty, on the face of it, until the two old salts realize the injustice of the sentence and are oddly affected by the true innocence of their prisoner, even though he is guilty as charged. Failure, or refusal, to carry out their duty is never a question, no matter how much they hate the detail or how wrong it seems, and yet something must be done, some gesture made in order to help their hapless prisoner survive the long ordeal he faces, and to purge their own sense of shame. "The Last Detail" was Darryl Ponicsan's first book and it catapulted him into the front rank of American novelists. It was made into the 1973 film starring Jack Nicholson, and has become a classic of the Golden Age of American cinema. This new edition of "The Last Detail" coincides with the publication of its long-awaited sequel, "Last Flag Flying", also available from The Wright Press.

On this day in movie history - The Projectionist (1970):

The Projectionist

directed and written by Harry Hurwitz,

was released at the Rochester Film Festival in the United States on October 17, 1970.
Music by Igo Kantor and Erma E. Levin.

Cast:

Chuck McCann, Ina Balin, Rodney Dangerfield, Jára Kohout, Harry Hurwitz, Mike Gentry, Lucky Kargo, David Holliday, Sam Stewart, Alex Stevens, Robert Lee, Stephen Philips, Morocco, Clara Rosenthal, Jacqueline Glenn, Robert Staats, Robert King, Rita Bennett, João Fernandes.

On this day in movie history - Monte Walsh (1970):

Monte Walsh

directed by William A. Fraker,

written by David Zelag Goodman and Lukas Heller,

based on the novel by Jack Schaefer,

was released in the United States on October 7, 1970.
Music by John Barry.

Cast:

Lee Marvin, Jeanne Moreau, Jack Palance, Mitchell Ryan, Jim Davis, G.D. Spradlin, John Hudkins, Raymond Guth, John McKee, Michael Conrad, Tom Heaton, Ted Gehring, Bo Hopkins, John McLiam, Allyn Ann McLerie, Matt Clark, Charles Tyner, Jack Colvin.

On this day in movie history - Violent City (1970):

Violent City

Italian title: Città violenta,

aka The Family,

directed by Sergio Sollima,

written by Sauro Scavolini, Gianfranco Galligarich, Lina Wertmüller and Sergio Sollima,

based on a story by Dino Maiuri and Massimo De Rita,

was released in Italy on September 17, 1970.
Music by Ennio Morricone.

Cast:

Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas, Jill Ireland, Umberto Orsini, Michel Constantin, Ray Saunders, Benjamin Lev, Peter Dane, Corinne Dunne, Richard Dunne, Iver Gilborn, Denny Hulme, Rémy Julienne, Stirling Moss, Beryl Salvatore, George Savalas, Jo Siffert, Robert Spafford, Goffredo Unger, Arnold Williams.