On this day in movie history - The Big Sleep (1978):

The Big Sleep

directed and written by Michael Winner,

based on the novel by Raymond Chandler,

was released in the United States on March 13, 1978.
Narrated by Robert Mitchum.
Music by Jerry Fielding.

Cast:

Robert Mitchum, Sarah Miles, Richard Boone, Candy Clark, Joan Collins, Edward Fox, John Mills, James Stewart, Oliver Reed, Harry Andrews, Colin Blakely, Richard Todd, Diana Quick, James Donald, John Justin, Simon Fisher Turner, Martin Potter.

On this day in movie history - Call Northside 777 (1948):

Call Northside 777

directed by Henry Hathaway,

written by Jerome Cady, Jay Dratler, Leonard Hoffman and Quentin Reynolds,

was released in the United States on February 13, 1948.

Based on the true 1932 Joseph Majczek case,

and articles written by James P. McGuire and Jack McPhaul,

published in the Chicago Daily Times in 1944.

Narrated by Truman Bradley.

Music by Alfred Newman.

Cast:

James Stewart, Richard Conte, Lee J. Cobb, Helen Walker, Betty Garde, Kasia Orzazewski, Joanne De Bergh, Howard Smith, Moroni Olsen, John McIntire, Paul Harvey, Robert Adler, Richard Bishop, Larry J. Blake, John Bleifer, Truman Bradley, Dollie Caillet, Michael Chapin, George Cisar, Jane Crowley, Jimmy Dime, Abe Dinovitch, Rex Downing, Eddie Dunn, Lew Eckles, Ben Erway, Joseph Forte, Helen Foster, Stanley Gordon, Walter Greaza, Jonathan Hale, Buck Harrington, Percy Helton, Samuel S. Hinds, Perry Ivins, Robert Karnes, Leonarde Keeler, Cy Kendall, J.M. Kerrigan, Carl Kroenke, Paul Kruger, Henry Kulky, Charles Lane, Philip Lord, Jack Mannick, E.G. Marshall, Norman McKay, George Melford, Charles Miller, Edward Peil Jr., George Pembroke, Wanda Perry, Arthur Peterson, Joe Ploski, William Post Jr., Addison Richards, Thelma Ritter, Richard Rober, Dick Ryan, Peter Seal, Lester Sharpe, George Spaulding, Ray Spiker, Lionel Stander, Ann Staunton, Freddie Steele, George Turner, George Tyne, Bill Vendetta, Otto Waldis, Duke Watson, Robert B. Williams.

On this day in movie history - Rope (1948 movie & play):

Rope

directed by Alfred Hitchcock,

written by Arthur Laurents and Hume Cronyn,

based on the play by Patrick Hamilton,

was released in the United States on September 25, 1948.
Music by David Buttolph, Francis Poulenc and Leo F. Forbstein.

Cast:

James Stewart, Dick Hogan, John Dall, Farley Granger, Edith Evanson, Douglas Dick, Joan Chandler, Cedric Hardwicke, Constance Collier, Alfred Hitchcock.

Recommended reading:

Rope: A play

By Patrick Hamilton.

First published 1929.

a.k.a Rope’s End.

Filmed as Rope (1948), directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Published by Constable.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0094508607

ISBN-13: 978-0094508606

Description:

Genre: Drama.

Characters: 6 males, 2 females.

Scenery: Interior.

For the mere sake of adventure, danger, and the "fun of the thing," Wyndham Brandon persuades his weak-minded friend, Charles Granillo, to assist him in the murder of a fellow undergraduate, a perfectly harmless man named Ronald Raglan. They place the body in a wooden chest, and to add spice to their handiwork, invite a few acquaintances, including the dead youth's father, to a party, the chest with its gruesome contents serving as a supper table. The horror and tension are worked up gradually; thunder grows outside, the guests leave, and we see the reactions of the two murderers, watched closely by the suspecting lame poet, Rupert Cadell. Finally, they break down under the strain and confess their guilt.

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 - Anatomy of a Murder (1959):

Anatomy of a Murder

directed by Otto Preminger,

written by Wendell Mayes,

based on the novel by Robert Traver,

was released in the United States on June 29, 1959.
Music by Duke Ellington.

Cast:

James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O'Connell, Eve Arden, Kathryn Grant, George C. Scott, Orson Bean, Russ Brown, Murray Hamilton, Brooks West, Ken Lynch, John Qualen, Howard McNear, Alexander Campbell, Ned Wever, Jimmy Conlin, Royal Beal, Joseph Kearns, Don Ross, Lloyd Le Vasseur, James Waters, Joseph N. Welch, Danny the Dog, Duke Ellington, Irv Kupcinet, Lawrence K. Paquin, Chuck Ramsay, Mrs. Joseph Welch.