On this day in movie history - Dirty Harry (1971):

Dirty Harry

directed by Don Siegel,

written by Harry Julian Fink, R.M. Fink and Dean Riesner,

based on a story by Harry Julian Fink, R.M. Fink and Jo Heims,

was released in the United States on December 23, 1971.
Music by Lalo Schifrin.

Cast:

Clint Eastwood, Andy Robinson, Harry Guardino, Reni Santoni, John Vernon, John Larch, John Mitchum, Woodrow Parfrey, Josef Sommer, Mae Mercer, Albert Popwell, Lyn Edgington, Ruth Kobart, Lois Foraker, William Paterson, Debralee Scott.

Born on this day – Don Siegel:

Don Siegel

Director

Producer

October 26, 1912 – April 20, 1991

On this day in movie history - Charley Varrick (1973):

Charley Varrick

directed by Don Siegel,

written by Dean Riesner and Howard A. Rodman,

based on the novel The Looters by John H. Reese,

was released in the United States on October 19, 1973.
Music by Lalo Schifrin.

Cast:

Walter Matthau, Joe Don Baker, Felicia Farr, Andrew Robinson, Sheree North, Norman Fell, Benson Fong, Woodrow Parfrey, William Schallert, Jacqueline Scott, Marjorie Bennett, Rudy Diaz, Colby Chester, Charlie Briggs, Priscilla Garcia, Scott Hale, Charles Matthau, Hope Summers, Monica Lewis, James Nolan, Tom Tully, Albert Popwell, Kathleen O'Malley, Christina Hart, Craig R. Baxley, Al Dunlap, Virginia Wing, Don Siegel, John Vernon, Robert D. Carver, Joe Conforte, Art Cribbs, Carol Daniels, Thom Dunbar, Richard R. Hogan, Fred Little, Holly Nutter, Fred Scheiwiller, Bob Steele, Carlos Velasquez, Walt Wallace.

On this day in movie history - Coogan’s Bluff (1968):

Coogan’s Bluff

directed by Don Siegel,

written by Herman Miller, Dean Riesner and Howard Rodman,

based on the novel by Herman Miller,

was released in the United States on October 2, 1968.
Music by Lalo Schifrin.

Cast:

Clint Eastwood, Lee J. Cobb, Susan Clark, Tisha Sterling, Don Stroud, Betty Field, Tom Tully, Melodie Johnson, James Edwards, Rudy Diaz, David Doyle, Louis Zorich, Meg Myles, Marjorie Bennett, Seymour Cassel, John Coe, Skip Battyn, Albert Popwell, Conrad Bain, James Gavin, Albert Henderson, James McCallion, Syl Lamont, Jess Osuna, Jerry Summers, Antonia Rey, Marya Henriques.

On this day in movie history - Private Hell 36 (1953):

Private Hell 36

aka Baby Face Killers,

directed by Don Siegel,

written by Collier Young and Ida Lupino,

was released in the United States on September 3, 1953.
Music by Leith Stevens.

Cast:

Ida Lupino, Steve Cochran, Howard Duff, Dean Jagger, Dorothy Malone, James Anderson, William Boyett, Chester Conklin, Richard Deacon, George Dockstader, King Donovan, Bridget Duff, Dabbs Greer, Jerry Hausner, Jimmy Hawkins, Tom Monroe, Chris O'Brien, Kenneth Patterson, Sammy Shack.

On this day in movie history - Play Misty for Me (1971):

Play Misty for Me

directed by Clint Eastwood,

written by Jo Heims and Dean Riesner,

based on a story by Jo Heims,

was released in the United States on August 4, 1971.
Music by Dee Barton.

Cast:

Clint Eastwood, Jessica Walter, Donna Mills, John Larch, Jack Ging, Irene Hervey, James McEachin, Clarice Taylor, Don Siegel, Duke Everts, George Fargo, Mervin W. Frates, Tim Frawley, Otis Kadani, Britt Lind, Paul E. Lippman, Jack Kosslyn, Ginna Patterson, Malcolm Moran, Cannonball Adderley, Boyd Cabeen, Barbara Chrysler, Don Hamilton, William J. Hanzelka, Robert S. Holman, Johnny Otis, James Rodriguez, Walter Scott, Walter Spear, William Tomlinson.

On this day in movie history - The Shootist (1976 movie & novel):

The Shootist

directed by Don Siegel,

written by Miles Hood Swarthout and Scott Hale,

based on the novel by Glendon Swarthout,

was released in the United States on July 21, 1976.
Music by Elmer Bernstein.

Cast:

John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, James Stewart, Richard Boone, Hugh O'Brian, Bill McKinney, Harry Morgan, John Carradine, Sheree North, Rick Lenz, Scatman Crothers, Gregg Palmer, Alfred Dennis, Dick Winslow, Melody Thomas Scott, Kathleen O'Malley, Jack Berle, Johnny Crawford, Chuck Dawson, George Dunn, Duke Fishman, Christopher George, Jonathan Goldsmith, Leo Gordon, Charles G. Martin, Jim Michael, Ernesto Molinari, Ricky Nelson, James Nolan, Nick Raymond, Henry Slate, Bob Steele, Ralph Volkie, John Zimeas.

Recommended reading:

The Shootist

By Glendon Swarthout.

Introduction by Miles Swarthout.

Filmed as The Shootist (1976), directed by Don Siegel.

Published by Bison Books.

First published 1975.

ISBN-10: 0803238231

ISBN-13: 9780803238237

Description:

"Such style...such a strong central idea...the showdown is an unremitting as the build-up." – Sunday Times of London.

"This is an extremely well-written Western and gives the reader vivid insight into the workings of the mind of a wanderer and gunman." – Baton Rouge, Louisiana Sunday Advocate.

"The Shootist by Glendon Swarthout is the taleof the Old West's version of the modern 'hit man'. It is a splendid story, well-told and with a really satisfying ending." – Charleston, South Carolina Evening Post.

The Shootist is John Bernard Books, a man of principle and the only surviving gunfighter in a vanishing American West. He rides into El Paso in the year 1901, on the day Queen Victoria died, there to be told by a doctor that he must soon confront the greatest shootist of all: Death. In such a showdown, against such an antagonist, he cannot win. Most men may end their days in bed or take their own lives, but a man-killer has a 3rd option, one which Books decides to exercise. He may choose his own executioner.

As word spreads that the famous assassin has reached the end of his rope, an assortment of vultures gathers to feast upon his corpse--among them a gambler, a rustler, an undertaker, an old love, a reporter, even a boy. Books outwits them, however, by selecting the where, when, who, and why of his death, and writing in fire from a pair of Remingtons the last courageous act of his own legend. The climatic gunfight itself is an incredible performance by an incredible man, and by his creator, Glendon Swarthout.

The Shootist will rank with such classics as Shane and The Ox-Bow Incident, but it is much more than a Western. When, in the final afternoon of his life, J. B. Books crosses a street and enters a saloon to make something of his death, we cross, we enter, with him. He is us.

From a corner of the south window Gillom Rogers spied on the new lodger. The man unpacked his valise and put things in a drawer of the chiffonier, then hung his Price Albert coat in the closet. When he turned from the closet he was in shirt and vest. The boy's eyes rounded. Sewn to each side of the vest was a holster, reversed, and in each holster was a pistol, butt forward. As he watched, sucking in his breath, the man took the weapons out, revolved the cylinders, filled a chamber in one he had evidently fired, and replaced them before hanging the vest, too, in the closet. The pistols were a pair of nickel-plated, short-barreled, unsighted, single-action .44 Remingtons, obviously manufactured to order. The handle of one was black gutta-percha, the other pearl.

Gillom slipped away to take the horse to the livery, letting the breath of revelation out of his lungs. He was seventeen, and spent much of his time in saloons. He was not yet served, but he enjoyed himself and picked up a great deal of miscellaneous information, some of it true, some of it of doubtful authenticity. But the man in corner room was no stranger to him now. He had heard enough scalp-itch, blood-freeze tales to know that only one man carried a similar pair of guns in a similar manner...

On this day in movie history - The Killers (1964):

The Killers

directed by Don Siegel,

written by Gene L. Coon,

based on the short story by Ernest Hemingway,

was released in the United States on July 7, 1964.
Music by John Williams.

Cast:

Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, Clu Gulager, John Cassavetes, Ronald Reagan, Claude Akins, Norman Fell, Virginia Christine, Don Haggerty, Robert Phillips, Kathleen O'Malley, Ted Jacques, Irvin Mosley, Jimmy Joyce, Burt Mustin.