On this day in movie history - Born to Kill (1947 movie & novel):

Born to Kill

aka Lady of Deceit and Deadlier Than the Male,

directed by Robert Wise,

written by Eve Greene and Richard Macaulay,

based on the novel Deadlier Than the Male by James Gunn,

was released in the United States on May 3, 1947.
Music by Paul Sawtell.

Cast:

Claire Trevor, Lawrence Tierney, Walter Slezak, Phillip Terry, Audrey Long, Elisha Cook Jr., Isabel Jewell, Esther Howard, Kathryn Card, Tony Barrett, Grandon Rhodes, Demetrius Alexis, Symona Boniface, Ruth Brennan, George Bruggeman, James Carlisle, Ellen Corby, Sayre Dearing, Joe Dixon, Neal Dodd, Jean Fenwick, George Ford, Lee Frederick, Ben Frommer, Harry Harvey, Martha Hyer, Perc Launders, Sam Lufkin, Wilbur Mack, Beatrice Maude, Russell Meeker, Al Murphy, Tommy Noonan, Netta Packer, Jason Robards Sr., Romeo (the dog), Paul Russell, Scott Seaton, Sammy Shack, Stanley Stone, Phil Warren, Napoleon Whiting.

Recommended reading:

Deadlier Than the Male

By James Gunn.

Introduced by Curtis Evans.

Filmed as Born to Kill, aka Lady of Deceit and Deadlier Than the Male (1947), directed by Robert Wise.

Published by Stark House Press.

Film Noir Classics, 7.

First published 1942.

Paperback.

ISBN-13: 979-8886010824

ASIN: B0CW22PDN7

Description:

“Deadlier Than the Male is truly one of the strangest of all American crime novels. In fact it’s one of the strangest of all American novels… It is in no way a pleasant read but it is fascinating in a bizarre, morbid and very unsettling way. Gunn’s style is as extreme and as offbeat as his plotting. This is psychological noir at its darkest.” – Vintage Pop Fictions.

DEADLIER THAN THE MALE.

Helen is in Reno for her second divorce and staying with Mrs. Krantz and her daughter Rachel at their boarding house. Mrs. Krantz’s drinking companion, Laura Pollicker, lives next door. That night she is murdered, and Helen discovers the body—and wastes no time in returning to the San Francisco house she shares with his sister Georgia. How could she know that the very man who meets and marries her sister only days later is the same man who had slit Mrs. Pollicker’s throat.

Sam Wild is a powerful man, tall, muscular, with very little control over his emotions. His friend Mart watches out for him, but Sam sometimes just can’t help himself—he has to kill. Now he’s got a rich wife with an attractive sister, and he’s just biding his time until he can take over Georgia’s money and get rid of her, too. But that’s when Helen steps in with some plans of her own.

On this day in movie history - Hoodlum Empire (1952):

Hoodlum Empire

directed by Joseph Kane,

written by Bruce Manning and Bob Considine,

based on a story by Bob Considine,

was released in the United States on April 15, 1952.
Music by Nathan Scott.

Cast:

Brian Donlevy, Claire Trevor, Forrest Tucker, Vera Ralston, Luther Adler, John Russell, Gene Lockhart, Grant Withers, Taylor Holmes, Roy Barcroft, William Murphy, Richard Jaeckel, Don Beddoe, Roy Roberts, Richard Benedict, Phillip Pine, Damian O'Flynn, Pat Flaherty, Gertrude Astor, Walter Bacon, Joe Bailey.

Born on this day – Claire Trevor:

Claire Trevor

Actress

March 8, 1910 – April 8, 2000

Credits:

Breaking Home Ties (1987); Murder, She Wrote (1987); The Love Boat (1983); Kiss Me Goodbye (1982); The Cape Town Affair (1967); How to Murder Your Wife (1965); The Stripper (1963); Dr. Kildare (1962); Two Weeks in Another Town (1962); The Investigators (1961); Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1956–1961); Kraft Theatre / The United States Steel Hour (1960); The Untouchables (1959); Wagon Train (1959); Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (1959); Marjorie Morningstar (1958); Playhouse 90 (1957); The Mountain (1956); Producers' Showcase (1956); Schlitz Playhouse (1956); Climax! (1956); Lucy Gallant (1955); Lux Video Theatre (1954–1955); Man Without a Star (1955); The Ford Television Theatre (1953–1954); The High and the Mighty (1954); General Electric Theater (1954); The Stranger Wore a Gun (1953); Stop, You're Killing Me (1952); My Man and I (1952); Hoodlum Empire (1952); Best of the Badmen (1951); Hard, Fast and Beautiful! (1951); Borderline (1950); The Lucky Stiff (1949); The Babe Ruth Story (1948); Key Largo (1948); The Velvet Touch (1948); Raw Deal (1948); Born to Kill (1947); The Bachelor's Daughters (1946); Crack-Up (1946); Johnny Angel (1945); Murder, My Sweet (1944); The Woman of the Town (1943); Good Luck, Mr. Yates (1943); The Desperadoes (1943); Street of Chance (1942); Crossroads (1942); The Adventures of Martin Eden (1942); Texas (1941); Honky Tonk (1941); Dark Command (1940); Allegheny Uprising (1939); I Stole a Million (1939); Stagecoach (1939); Five of a Kind (1938); Valley of the Giants (1938); The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938); Walking Down Broadway (1938); Big Town Girl (1937); Second Honeymoon (1937); Dead End (1937); One Mile from Heaven (1937); King of Gamblers (1937); Time Out for Romance (1937); Career Woman (1936); 15 Maiden Lane (1936); Star for a Night (1936); To Mary - with Love (1936); Human Cargo (1936); Song and Dance Man (1936); My Marriage (1936); Navy Wife (1935); Dante's Inferno (1935); Spring Tonic (1935); Black Sheep (1935); Elinor Norton (1934); Baby, Take a Bow (1934); Wild Gold (1934); Hold That Girl (1934); Jimmy and Sally (1933); The Mad Game (1933); The Last Trail (1933); Life in the Raw (1933); The Imperfect Lover (1932); The Meal Ticket (1931); Good Times (1931).

On this day in movie history – Stagecoach (1939 movie & novel):

Stagecoach

directed by John Ford,

written by Dudley Nichols and Ben Hecht,

based on the short story Stage to Lordsburg by Ernest Haycox,

was released in the United States on February 2, 1939.
Music by Gerard Carbonara.

Cast:

Claire Trevor, John Wayne, Andy Devine, John Carradine, Thomas Mitchell, Louise Platt, George Bancroft, Donald Meek, Berton Churchill, Tim Holt, Tom Tyler, Dorothy Appleby, Frank Baker, Chief John Big Tree, Ted Billings, Wiggie Blowne, Danny Borzage, Ed Brady, Fritzi Brunette, Yakima Canutt, Nora Cecil, Steve Clemente, Bill Cody, Jack Curtis, Marga Ann Deighton, Patricia Doyle, Tex Driscoll, Johnny Eckert, Franklyn Farnum, Francis Ford, Brenda Fowler, Olin Francis, Helen Gibson, Don Hawks, Robert Homans, William Hopper, George Huggins, Si Jenks, Cornelius Keefe, Florence Lake, Al Lee, Duke R. Lee, Theodore Lorch, Chris-Pin Martin, Jim Mason, Louis Mason, Merrill McCormick, J.P. McGowan, Walter McGrail, Paul McVey, Jack Mohr, Kent Odell, Artie Ortego, Vester Pegg, Jack Pennick, Chris Phillips, Joe Rickson, Buddy Roosevelt, Elvira Ríos, Mickey Simpson, Margaret Smith, Chuck Stubbs, Harry Tenbrook, Leonard Trainor, Dorothy Vernon, Mary Kathleen Walker, Blackjack Ward, Bryant Washburn, Whitehorse, Hank Worden.

Recommended reading:

Stage to Lordsburg

By Ernest Haycox.

Filmed as Stagecoach (1939), directed by John Ford.

Short story.

First published 1937.

Published by Fantasy and Horror Classics.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 1447404130

ISBN-13: 978-1447404132

Description:

Ernest Haycox's 1937 short story, Stage to Lordsburg, was a bestseller and a classic of the Western genre. Popularized by the 1939 film adaptation Stagecoach, this Wild West tale vividly portrays Haycox's setting and characters.

Stage to Lordsburg follows a collection of characters as they journey from Tonto, Arizona Territory, to Lordsburg, New Mexico. A series of dangers and perils face the colorful group as they embark on the uncomfortable trip. Ernest Haycox presents a number of cliché Western characters and the point of view shifts between them as the short story progresses. This masterful tale by Ernest Haycox, a prolific writer of Western fiction, is not to be missed by fans of old cowboy narratives.

On this day in movie history - Street of Chance (1942 movie & novel):

Street of Chance

directed by Jack Hively,

written by Garrett Fort,

based on the novel The Black Curtain by Cornell Woolrich,

was released in the United States on October 3, 1942.

Music by David Buttolph.

Cast:

Burgess Meredith, Claire Trevor, Louise Platt, Sheldon Leonard, Frieda Inescort, Jerome Cowan, Adeline De Walt Reynolds, Arthur Loft, Clancy Cooper, Paul Phillips, Keith Richards, Ann Doran, Cliff Clark, Edwin Maxwell, Kenneth Chryst, Kernan Cripps, Ralph Dunn, Ruth Gillette, Gladden James, Milton Kibbee, Helen MacKellar, James C. Morton, Reed Porter, Harry Tyler, Dorothy Vernon, Bess Wade, George Watts, Gloria Williams, Sonny Boy Williams.

Recommended reading:

The Black Curtain

By Cornell Woolrich.

Filmed as Street of Chance (1942), directed by Jack Hively.

First published 1941.

Published by Centipede Press.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 1613471475

ISBN-13: 978-1613471470

Description:

A man is accused of a murder he cannot remember…

In a nightmare scenario, Frank Townsend has an apparently minor accident on his way home but he arrives to find his wife gone and doesn’t recognize his apartment. He had gone to work on a normal day but didn’t return for more than three years. Suffering from amnesia, he has to rediscover who he is, where he has been, and what he has done. A curtain has fallen to cut off all memories of his life.

First among the memories he wants to recover is whether he has committed the murder of which he has been accused. A mysterious stranger with a gun has been following him while he attempts to simultaneously understand what has happened in his past while doing all he can to extricate himself from a seemingly hopeless situation and regain his reputation. He does not yet know that he is in great jeopardy and there is no one he can trust to rescue him from the abyss.

The Black Curtain is the second of Cornell Woolrich’s celebrated “black” books, following The Bride Wore Black, which established his reputation as America’s greatest noir writer. It was adapted into film as the classic Street of Chance, starring Burgess Meredith and Claire Trevor.

On this day in movie history - Crack-Up (1946):

Crack-Up

directed by Irving Reis and James Anderson,

written by John Paxton, Ben Bengal and Ray Spencer,

based on the short story Madman's Holiday by Fredric Brown,

was released in the United States on September 6, 1946.
Music by Leigh Harline.

Cast:

Pat O'Brien, Claire Trevor, Herbert Marshall, Ray Collins, Wallace Ford, Dean Harens, Damian O'Flynn, Erskine Sanford, Mary Ware.