Born on this day – Jack Smight:

Jack Smight

Director

Producer

Actor

Writer

March 9, 1925 – September 1, 2003

Credits:

The Favorite (1989); Number One with a Bullet (1987); Code of Vengeance (1986); Remembrance of Love (1982); Loving Couples (1980); Fast Break (1979); Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (1978); Damnation Alley (1977); Midway (1976); Airport 1975 (1974); The Man from Independence (1974); Legend in Granite (1973); Frankenstein: The True Story (1973); Linda (1973); Double Indemnity (1973); Partners in Crime (1973); Madigan (1972); Banacek (1972); The Longest Night (1972); McCloud (1971–1972); Columbo (1971); Rabbit, Run (1970); The Traveling Executioner (1970); The Illustrated Man (1969); Strategy of Terror (1969); No Way to Treat a Lady (1968); The Secret War of Harry Frigg (1968); Kaleidoscope (1966); Harper (1966); The Third Day (1965); Kraft Suspense Theatre (1964–1965); Dr. Kildare (1963–1964); I'd Rather Be Rich (1964); Arrest and Trial (1963); East Side / West Side (1963); The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1963); Alcoa Premiere (1963); The Eleventh Hour (1963); The DuPont Show of the Week (1962); Westinghouse Presents: That's Where the Town Is Going (1962); The Defenders (1962); The Law and Mr. Jones (1961); The Enchanted Nutcracker (1961); Theatre '62 (1961); Westinghouse Presents: Come Again to Carthage (1961); Route 66 (1961); Naked City (1961); Our American Heritage (1960–1961); Sunday Showcase (1960–1961); The Twilight Zone (1959–1961); Art Carney Special (1960–1961); Kraft Theatre / The United States Steel Hour (1960); The Robert Herridge Theater (1960); Destiny, West! (1960); The DuPont Show with June Allyson (1959); The Sound of Miles Davis (1959); Oldsmobile Music Theatre (1959); The Ten Commandments (1959); Alcoa Theatre (1958); Suspicion (1957–1958); General Electric Theater (1956–1958); Victor Borge's Comedy in Music III (1958); Studio One (1957–1958); The Seven Lively Arts (1957); Climax! (1956–1957); Star Stage (1955–1956); Goodyear Playhouse (1955); Kraft Theatre / The Philco Television Playhouse (1955); Hollywood Opening Night (1952); Hollywood Theatre Time (1951); One Man's Family (1949).

On this day in movie history - The Green Glove (1952):

The Green Glove

aka The White Road,

directed by Jack Smight,

written by Charles Bennett,

based on a story by Charles Bennett,

was released in the United States on February 28, 1952.
Narrated by John Dehner.
Music by Joseph Kosma.

Cast:

Glenn Ford, Geraldine Brooks, Cedric Hardwicke, George Macready, Gaby André, Jany Holt, Roger Tréville, Juliette Gréco, Georges Tabet, Meg Lemonnier, Paul Bonifas, Jean Bretonnière, Edmond Ardisson, Maurice Bénard, Daniel Cauchy, Jacques Clancy, John Dehner, Guy Henry, Roger Legris, Frédéric O'Brady, Michel Seldow.

On this day in movie history - Number One with a Bullet (1987):

Number One with a Bullet

directed by Jack Smight,

written by Gail Morgan Hickman, Andrew Kurtzman, Rob Riley and James Belushi,

based on a story by Gail Morgan Hickman,

was released in the United States on February 27, 1987.

Music by Alf Clausen.

Cast:

Robert Carradine, Billy Dee Williams, Valerie Bertinelli, Peter Graves, Doris Roberts, Bobby Di Cicco, Ray Girardin, Barry Sattels, Mykelti Williamson, Jon Gries, Richard Minchenberg, Michael Goodwin, LaGena Hart, Alex Rebar, Artie Ripp, Daniel Demorest, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Valerie McIntosh, Eddie Frescas, John Durbin, Tony Pierce, Joyce Cunning, Larry Poindexter, Chris DeRose, Ken Gibbel, Jerome Chambers, Venice Kong, Stacey Binn, David Sargent, Gene LeBell, Nick Cinardo, Angela Elayne Gibbs, Bill Gazzarri, Manuel Márquez, José González, Jeff Jensen, David Efron, Spice Williams-Crosby, Jean Malahni, Casey Griffin, Timothy Noyes, Patricia L. Desmond, Ancel Cook, Shari Shattuck, John Hazelwood, Chris Brown, Willie H. Reaves, Yvette Cruise, Jason Scura, Daniel D. Halleck, Bill M. Ryusaki, Carl Ciarfalio, Manny Perry, Dyee Dysart, Virgil Wilson, Herb Tanney, Kim Marriner, Prince Hughes, Jim Wilkey, Bob Aprea, Michael Yama, Faith Minton, James M. Halty, Lorrie Marlow, Natalie Alexander, George Vasilios Choulos, Gerald Walsh, Ted Mehous, Claude A. Wyle, Kevin Seymour, Hope Kelley, Helen Kelly, Shawn McBurney.

On this day in movie history – Harper a.k.a. The Moving Target (1966 movie & novel):

Harper

directed by Jack Smight,

written by William Goldman,

based on the novel The Moving Target by Ross Macdonald,

was released in the United States on February 23, 1966.

Music by Johnny Mandel.

Cast:

Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, Julie Harris, Arthur Hill, Janet Leigh, Pamela Tiffin, Robert Wagner, Robert Webber, Shelley Winters, Harold Gould, Roy Jenson, Strother Martin.

Recommended reading:

The Moving Target

aka Harper.

By Ross MacDonald.

ISBN-10: 037570146X

ISBN-13: 978-0375701467

Published 1949.

Back cover description:

CRIME FICTION

“Ross Macdonald remains the grandmaster, taking the crime novel to new heights by imbuing it with psychological resonance, complexity of story, and richness of style that remain awe-inspiring. Those of us in his wake owe a debt that can never be paid. – Jonathan Kellerman.

Like many Southern California millionaires, Ralph Sampson keeps odd company. There’s the sun-worshipping holy man whom Sampson once gave his very own mountain; the fading actress with sidelines in astrology and S&M. Now one of Sampson’s friends may have arranged his kidnapping. And as Lew Archer follows the clues from the canyon sanctuaries of the megarich to jazz joints where you get beaten up between sets, The Moving Target blends sex, greed, and family hatred into an explosively readable crime novel.

“Macdonald is one of a handful of writers in the [mystery] genre whose worth and quality surpass the limitations of the form.” – Los Angeles Times.

If any writer can be said to have inherited the mantle of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, it was Ross Macdonald. Between the later 1940s and his death in 1983, he gave the American crime novel a psychological depth and moral complexity that his predecessors had only hinted at. And in the character of Lew Archer, Macdonald redefined the private eye as a roving conscience whop walks the treacherous frontier between criminal guilt and human sin.

VINTAGE CRIME / BLACK LIZARD

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

Double Indemnity

directed by Jack Smight,

written by Steven Bochco, Billy Wilder, Raymond Chandler,

based on the novel by James M. Cain,

released in the United States on October 13, 1973.

Music by Billy Goldenberg.

Cast: Richard Crenna, Lee J. Cobb, Robert Webber, Samantha Eggar, Arch Johnson, Kathleen Cody, John Fiedler, John Elerick, Joan Pringle, Gene Dynarski, Ken Renard, Joyce Cunning, Arnold F. Turner, Rand Brooks, Tom Curtis, John Furlong.

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.