Recommended reading - Sleeping Beauty, by Ross Macdonald (1973):

Sleeping Beauty

By Ross Macdonald.

Published by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

First published 1973.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0375708669

ISBN-13: 978-0375708664

Description:

# 17 of the Lew Archer Series.

"Ross Macdonald is either part or wholly wizard. . .conjuring the magic of real mystery. . . . A masterpiece." – Chicago Tribune Book World.

"Sleeping Beauty is particularly complex and satisfactory. . . . It is a marvelous formula that Macdonald has found; the wonder is that he keeps improving it." – Newsweek.

"Ross Macdonald remains the grandmaster, taking the crime novel to new heights by imbuing it with psychological resonance, complexity of story, and richness of style that remain inspiring." – Jonathan Kellerman.

In Sleeping Beauty, Lew Archer finds himself the confidant of a wealthy, violent family with a load of trouble on their hands – including an oil spill, a missing girl, a lethal dose of Nembutal, a six-figure ransom, and a stranger afloat, face down, off a private beach. Here is Ross Macdonald's masterful tale of buried memories, the consequences of arrogance, and the anguished relations between parents and their children. Riveting, gritty, tautly written, Sleeping Beauty is crime fiction at its best.

If any writer can be said to have inherited the mantle of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, it is 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 - Slither (1973):

Slither

directed by Howard Zieff,

written by W. D. Richter,

was released in the United States on March 7, 1973.
Music by Tom McIntosh.

Cast:

James Caan, Peter Boyle, Sally Kellerman, Louise Lasser, Allen Garfield, Richard B. Shull, Alex Rocco, Seamon Glass, Wayne Storm, Diana Darrin, Stuart Nisbet, Edwina Gough, Al Dunlap, James Joseph, Virginia Sale, Alex Henteloff, Len Lesser, Garry Goodrow, Raven Grey Eagle, William Noland, Jack Perkins, Moira Sher.

On this day in movie history - The Long Goodbye (1973):

The Long Goodbye

directed by Robert Altman,

written by Leigh Brackett,

based on the novel by Raymond Chandler,

was released in the United States on March 7, 1973.
Music by John Williams.

Cast:

Elliott Gould, Nina van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden, Mark Rydell, Henry Gibson, David Arkin, Jim Bouton, Warren Berlinger, Pancho Córdova, Enrique Lucero, Rutanya Alda, Jack Riley, Jerry Jones, John S. Davies, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

On this day in movie history - The Train Robbers (1973):

The Train Robbers

directed and written by Burt Kennedy,

was released in the United States on February 7, 1973.
Music by Dominic Frontiere.

Cast:

John Wayne, Ann-Margret, Rod Taylor, Ben Johnson, Christopher George, Bobby Vinton, Jerry Gatlin, Ricardo Montalban, Dennis Falt, Ralph Volkie.

On this day in movie history - Incident on a Dark Street (1973):

Incident on a Dark Street

directed by Buzz Kulik,

written by E. Jack Neuman,

was released in the United States on January 13, 1973.
Music by Elmer Bernstein.

Cast:

James Olson, David Canary, Robert Pine, Richard S. Castellano, William Shatner, Murray Hamilton, Gilbert Roland, David Doyle, James Davidson, Kathleen Lloyd, John Kerr, Marlene Clark, Jerome Thor, Valentin de Vargas, Susan Stafford, Tony Giorgio, Jay W. MacIntosh, Marian Collier, Jennifer Kulik, Wesley Lau, Roland La Starza, Earl Eby, Nickolas Konakas, Mike Stokey, Michele Nichols, Owen Orr, Jed Allan, Robyn Millan, Don Barry, Gordon Pinsent, Mark Jenkins, Eddie Quillan, James A. Watson Jr.

Born on this day – Esta TerBlanche:

Esta TerBlanche

Actress

Producer

January 7, 1973 – July 18, 2024

Credits:

All My Children (1997–2011); Daytime's Greatest Weddings (2004); Egoli: Place of Gold (1991); Germination (2013); Knew Amsterdam Radio (2023); K-T.V. (1990-1995); Miss Teen South Africa (1993); One on One with Jasper Cole (2021); Rooi Rose SuperModel 2004 (2004); Spin City (1997); The 15th Annual Soap Opera Digest Awards (1999); The 25th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards (1998); The 26th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards (1999); The 27th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards (2000); The Syndicate (1995–2000); Three Thieves and a Wedding (1991); WakeUp Uncensored (2021).

On this day in movie history - The Exorcist (movie & novel):

The Exorcist

directed by William Friedkin,

written by William Peter Blatty,

based on the novel by William Peter Blatty,

was released in the United States on December 26, 1973.
Music by Jack Nitzsche.
Excerpt from Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield.

Cast:

Ellen Burstyn, Jason Miller, Linda Blair, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty Winn, Jack MacGowran, Father William O'Malley, Father Thomas Bermingham, Peter Masterson, Robert Symonds, Barton Heyman, Rudolf Schündler, Arthur Storch, Vasiliki Maliaros, Titos Vandis, Dick Callinan, William Peter Blatty, Mercedes McCambridge, Eileen Dietz.

Recommended reading:

The Exorcist

By William Peter Blatty.

Published by Harper Paperbacks.

First published in 1971.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 006209436X

ISBN-13: 978-0062094360

Description:

Four decades after it first shook the nation, then the world, William Peter Blatty’s thrilling masterwork of faith and demonic possession returns in an even more powerful form. Raw and profane, shocking and blood-chilling, it remains a modern parable of good and evil and perhaps the most terrifying novel ever written.