On this day in movie history - Five Star Final (1931 movie & play):

Five Star Final

directed by Mervyn LeRoy,

written by Byron Morgan, Robert Lord,

based on the play Five Star Final by Louis Weitzenkorn,

released in the United States on September 10, 1931.
Music by Leo F. Forbstein, Vitaphone Orchestra.

Cast:

Edward G. Robinson, Marian Marsh, H.B. Warner, Anthony Bushell, George E. Stone, Frances Starr, Ona Munson, Boris Karloff, Aline MacMahon, Oscar Apfel, Purnell Pratt, Robert Elliott, James P. Burtis, Richard Carlyle, Frank Darien, James Donlan, Evelyn Hall, Gladys Lloyd, Arnold Lucy, Franklin Parker, William H. Strauss, David Torrence, Harold Waldridge, Polly Walters, Jack Wise.

Recommended reading:

Five Star Final

A Melodrama in Three Acts

Play by Louis Weitzenkorn.

Filmed as Five Star Final (1931), directed by Mervyn LeRoy.

ASIN: B000GDF9TI
Published by Samuel French.
First Edition.
Published 1931.
Hardcover.

Description:

Tabloid newspaper editor publishes a 20-year-old murder case to boost newspaper sales. A decision that leads to tragedy.

On this day in movie history - Key Largo (1948):

Key Largo

directed by John Huston,

written by Richard Brooks and John Huston,

based on the play by Maxwell Anderson,

was released in the United States on July 16, 1948.
Music by Max Steiner.

Cast:

Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore, Claire Trevor, Thomas Gomez, Harry Lewis, John Rodney, Marc Lawrence, Dan Seymour, Monte Blue, William Haade, Jay Silverheels, Rodd Redwing.

On this day in movie history - Double Indemnity (1944 movie & books):

Double Indemnity

directed by Billy Wilder,

written by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler,

based on the novel by James M. Cain,

was released in the United States on July 3, 1944.
Music by Miklós Rózsa.

Cast:

Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Porter Hall, Jean Heather, Tom Powers, Byron Barr, Richard Gaines, Fortunio Bonanova, John Philliber, Raymond Chandler, Bess Flowers, Betty Farrington, Teala Loring, Sam McDaniel, Miriam Nelson, Douglas Spencer.

Recommended reading:

Double Indemnity

By James M. Cain.

Filmed as:

Double Indemnity (1944), directed by Billy Wilder.

Double Indemnity (1973), directed by Jack Smight.

Published by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard.

Published 1943.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 9780679723226

ISBN-13: 9780679723226

Description:

“An American masterpiece.” – Ross Macdonald.

“No one has ever stopped reading in the middle of one of Jim Cain’s books.” – Saturday Review of Literature.

Walter Huff was an insurance salesman with an unfailing instinct for clients who might be in trouble, and his instinct led him to Phyllis Nirdlinger. Phyllis wanted to buy an accident policy on her husband. Then she wanted her husband to have an accident. Walter wanted Phyllis. To get her, he would arrange the perfect murder and betray everything he had ever lived for.

Tautly narrated and excruciatingly suspenseful, Double Indemnity gives us an X-ray view of guilt, of duplicity, and of the kind of obsessive, loveless love that devastates everything it touches. First published in 1935, this novel reaffirmed James M. Cain as a virtuoso of the roman noir.

Double Indemnity: The Complete Screenplay

By Billy Wilder, Raymond Chandler, Jeffrey Meyers.

Published by University of California Press.

Published 2000.

ISBN-10: 0520218485

ISBN-13: 9780520218482

Description:

On every level -- writing, direction, acting -- Double Indemnity (1944) is a triumph and stands as one of the greatest achievements in Billy Wilder's career. Adapted from the James M. Cain novel by director Wilder and novelist Raymond Chandler, it tells the story of an insurance salesman, played by Fred MacMurray, who is lured into a murder-for-insurance plot by Barbara Stanwyck, in an archetypal femme fatale role. From its grim story to its dark, atmospheric lighting, Double Indemnity is a definitive example of World War II-era film noir. Wilder's approach is everywhere evident: in the brutal cynicism the film displays, the moral complexity, and in the empathy we feel for the killers. The film received almost unanimous critical success, garnering seven Academy Award nominations. More than fifty years later, most critics agree that this classic is one of the best films of all time. The collaboration between Wilder and Raymond Chandler produced a masterful script and some of the most memorable dialogue ever spoken in a movie.

This facsimile edition of Double Indemnity contains Wilder and Chandler's original -- and quite different -- ending, published here for the first time. Jeffrey Meyers's introduction contextualizes the screenplay, providing hilarious anecdotes about the turbulent collaboration, as well as background information about Wilder and the film's casting and production.

On this day in movie history - Two Seconds (1932):

Two Seconds

directed by Mervyn LeRoy,

written by Harvey Thew,

based on the play by Elliott Lester,

was released in the United States on May 28, 1932.
Music by W. Franke Harling.

Cast:

Edward G. Robinson, Vivienne Osborne, Guy Kibbee, Preston Foster, J. Carrol Naish, Frederick Burton, Harry Beresford, Dorothea Wolbert, Berton Churchill, William Janney, Edward McWade, Gladys Lloyd, Lew Brice, James P. Burtis, Jill Dennett, Adrienne Dore, Charles E. Evans, Helena Phillips Evans, June Gittelson, Otto Hoffman, Fred Howard, John Kelly, Matt McHugh, Franklin Parker, Sam Rice, Larry Steers, Luana Walters, Allen Wood, Harry Woods.