Born on this day – Gerald Kersh:

Gerald Kersh

Writer

August 26, 1912 – November 5, 1968

Credits:

Books:

65 Great Tales Of Horror (1981); A Long Cool Day in Hell (1965); Alien Stories 2 (2002); An Ape, a Dog, and a Serpent (1945); Angel and Cuckoo (1967); Best SF 2 (1956); Brain and Ten Fingers (1943); Classics of the Supernatural (1998); Clean, Bright, and Slightly Oiled (1946); Clock without Hands (1949); Doubles, Dummies and Dolls (1995); Eleven Great Horror Stories (1969); Faces in a Dusty Picture (1944); Fowler's End (1957); Guttersnipe (1954); I Got References (1939); Mark Twain's Medieval Romance (2012); Men Are So Ardent (1936); Men without Bones (1955); More Than Once Upon a Time (1964); Neither Man nor Dog (1946); Night and the City (1938); Nightshade and Damnations (1968); On an Odd Note (1958); One Hundred Years of Science Fiction (1968); Prelude to a Certain Midnight (1947); Sad Road to the Sea (1947); Selected Stories (1943); Sergeant Nelson Of The Guards (1945); Sixty-Five Great Tales of the Supernatural (1979); Stories of the Supernatural (1967); Tales of the Supernatural (1962); The 5th Pan Book of Horror Stories (1964); The 7th Fontana Book of Great Horror Stories (1972); The 8th Pan Book of Horror Stories (1967); The Battle Of The Singing Men (1944); The Best of Gerald Kersh (1960); The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked Room Mysteries (2014); The Brazen Bull (1952); The Brighton Monster (1953); The Dead Look On (1943); The Great Wash / aka The Secret Masters (1953); The Horrible Dummy (1944); The Hospitality of Miss Tolliver (1965); The Implacable Hunter (1961); The Light Fantastic (1971); The Nine Lives of Bill Nelson (1942); The Other Side of the Moon (1949); The Penguin Book of Horror Stories (1984); The Song of the Flea (1948); The Terribly Wild Flowers (1962); The Thousand Deaths Of Mr Small (1951); The Ugly Face of Love (1960); The Unexplained (1998); The Weak and the Strong (1945); The Young Oxford Book of Nasty Endings (1998); The Young Oxford Book of Nightmares (2000); The Young Oxford Book of Timewarp Stories (2001); They Die with Their Boots Clean (1941).

Movies and television:

Danger (1951); Lights Out (1949–1950); Night and the City (1950 / 1992); Nine Men (1943); Orient Express (1952); The True Glory (1945); The Web (1951).

On this day in movie history - Night and the City (1950 movie & novel):

Night and the City

directed by Jules Dassin,

written by Austin Dempster, William E. Watts and Jo Eisinger,

based on the novel by Gerald Kersh,

was released in the United States on June 9, 1950.
Music by Benjamin Frankel and Franz Waxman.

Cast:

Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney, Googie Withers, Hugh Marlowe, Francis L. Sullivan, Herbert Lom, Aubrey Dexter, Maureen Delany, Stanislaus Zbyszko, Mike Mazurki, Ada Reeve, Charles Farrell, Ken Richmond, Edward Chapman, James Hayter, Gibb McLaughlin, Dirk Bogarde.

Recommended reading:

Night And The City

By Gerald Kersh.

Published by London Books.

First published 1938.

ISBN-10: 0995721734

ISBN-13: 9780995721739

Description:

Harry Fabian is a cockney wide boy trying to make it big in the Soho underworld of the 1930s. He is a Flash Harry in an expensive suit, a chancer operating in a cosmopolitan corner of the city where villains, spivs, prostitutes and strong-arm men thrive. But his ambition and reckless nature are pushing him towards more and more extreme acts - and a day of reckoning. Night And The City is a classic work of social-realist fiction that captures the vibrant yet seedy underbelly of London between the world wars. Its author Gerald Kersh was high-profile, prolific and hugely popular at his peak, but would later drift into hardship and obscurity. His writing is now being rediscovered. A maverick character in his own right, Kersh's life was as colourful as those of his most flamboyant creations. As well as a highly respected novel, Night And The City was twice filmed - in 1950 and 1992 - and it is the first of these adaptations that is today regarded as one of the best of the British film-noir genre. Directed by Jules Dassin and starring Richard Widmark and Googie Withers, it was shot in a post-war landscape heavy with menace and charm - just like the book on which it was based.

On this day in movie history - Night and the City (movie & novel):

Night and the City

directed by Irwin Winkler,

written by Richard Price,

based on the novel by Gerald Kersh,

was released in the United States on October 23, 1992.
Music by James Newton Howard.

Cast:

Robert De Niro, Jessica Lange, Cliff Gorman, Alan King, Jack Warden, Eli Wallach, Barry Primus, Gene Kirkwood, Gerard Murphy, Clem Caserta, Anthony Canarozzi, David W. Butler, Byron Utley, Margo Winkler, Maurice Shrog, Regis Philbin, Joy Philbin, Richard Price, Franklin Dennis Jones, Thomas Mikal Ford, Peter Bucossi, Bert Randolph Sugar, Nathaniel E. Johnson, Brenda Denmark, Barry Squitieri, Lisa Vidal, Carol Woods, Joseph D'Onofrio, Michael Badalucco, Deborah Watkins, Nandan Sage, Harsh Nayyar, Ben Lin, John Polce, Rosalind Malloff, Kennan Scott, Henry Milligan, Victor Machado, Chuck Low, Lou Polo, Louis Cantarini, John Quinn, Philip Carlo, Cameron Lane, Sharrieff Pugh, Mitchell Tex Low, Mick Cunningham, Dave Reilly, Leslie Bart, Ann Devaney, Lorenzo Palminteri, Catherine Russell, Ed Bannister, David Boston, Angel Brown, Alfred Cole, Ronnie Cuber, Dan Gifford, Gary Gold, Jennifer C. Johnson, Diane Kimbrell, Leslie Lawrence, John Maczko, Felicia Peluso, Michael Rispoli, Beverley Sutherland, Michael Tenaglia, Paul Zimmerman.

Recommended reading:

Night And The City

By Gerald Kersh.

Published by London Books.

First published 1938.

ISBN-10: 0995721734

ISBN-13: 9780995721739

Description:

Harry Fabian is a cockney wide boy trying to make it big in the Soho underworld of the 1930s. He is a Flash Harry in an expensive suit, a chancer operating in a cosmopolitan corner of the city where villains, spivs, prostitutes and strong-arm men thrive. But his ambition and reckless nature are pushing him towards more and more extreme acts - and a day of reckoning. Night And The City is a classic work of social-realist fiction that captures the vibrant yet seedy underbelly of London between the world wars. Its author Gerald Kersh was high-profile, prolific and hugely popular at his peak, but would later drift into hardship and obscurity. His writing is now being rediscovered. A maverick character in his own right, Kersh's life was as colourful as those of his most flamboyant creations. As well as a highly respected novel, Night And The City was twice filmed - in 1950 and 1992 - and it is the first of these adaptations that is today regarded as one of the best of the British film-noir genre. Directed by Jules Dassin and starring Richard Widmark and Googie Withers, it was shot in a post-war landscape heavy with menace and charm - just like the book on which it was based.