On this day in movie history - Devil in a Blue Dress (1995):

Devil in a Blue Dress

directed and written by Carl Franklin,

based on the novel by Walter Mosley,

was released in the United States on September 29, 1995.
Music by Elmer Bernstein.

Cast:

Denzel Washington, Tom Sizemore, Jennifer Beals, Don Cheadle, Maury Chaykin, Terry Kinney, Mel Winkler, Albert Hall, Lisa Nicole Carson, Jernard Burks, David Fonteno, John Roselius, Beau Starr, Steven Randazzo, Scott Lincoln, L. Scott Caldwell, Barry Shabaka, Nick Corello, Kenny Endoso, Joseph Latimore, Renée Humphrey, R.J. Knoll, Kai Lennox, Poppy Montgomery, Brendan Kelly, Peggy Rea, Vinny Argiro, Deborah Lacey, Brazylia Kotere, Jeris Poindexter, Frank Davis, Matthew Barry, Mark Cotone, Brian E. O'Neal, G. Smokey Campbell, Alan Craig Schwartz, Steve Sekely, J.D. Smith, Nigel Gibbs.

On this day in movie history - Apocalypse Now (1979 movie & source novella):

Apocalypse Now

directed by Francis Ford Coppola,

written by John Milius and Francis Ford Coppola,

based on the novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad,

was released in the United States on August 15, 1979.
Music by Carmine Coppola and Francis Ford Coppola.

Narrated by Martin Sheen.

Redux version released in 2001.

Cast:

Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne, Dennis Hopper, G. D. Spradlin, Jerry Ziesmer, Harrison Ford, Scott Glenn, Colleen Camp, Cynthia Wood, Linda Beatty, Bill Graham, Francis Ford Coppola, Vittorio Storaro, R. Lee Ermey, Christian Marquand, Aurore Clément, Roman Coppola, Gian-Carlo Coppola, Michel Pitton, Franck Villard, David Olivier, Chrystel Le Pelletier, Robert Julian, Yvon Le Saux, Henri Sadardiel, Gilbert Renkens.

Recommended reading:

Heart of Darkness

By Joseph Conrad.

Mass Market Paperback

First published 1899.

Published by Penguin Books.

ISBN 13: 9780140431681

ISBN 10: 0140431683

ASIN: B001KTM47C

Author Joseph Conrad based this novella on his own personal experiences, during a voyage up the Congo River in 1890.

This novella was the inspiration for the movie Apocalypse Now (1979), directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

Description:

Written in the last year of the nineteenth century, Heart of Darkness can be seen in many ways as the first twentieth-century novel.

Its climate of doubt and vagueness, its loss of moral confidence and its need for belief in the midst of spiritual wilderness, its exploration of the subconscious and its affirmation of individual freedom are all themes that were to have an influence on writers such as Orwell, Godling Céline, Borges and Eliot.

In Heart of Darkness Conrad unfolds the story of Marlow’s search for Mr Kurtz, the company agent whose ‘unlawful soul’ has been ‘beguiled beyond the bounds of permitted aspirations’ in his dealings with the natives of the Belgian Congo. Marlow’s adventure involves him in a crucial reappraisal of his own values. It is Kurtz, however, who attains to a vision of the inexpressible, terrifying reality of the heart in this extraordinary exploration of human savagery and despair.

Book cover image: The Steamer Stanley, by F. Hens.