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

The Killing

directed and written by Stanley Kubrick,

dialogue written by Jim Thompson,

based on the novel Clean Break, by Lionel White,

was released in the United States on May 20, 1956.
Music by Gerald Fried.

Cast:

Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards, Jay C. Flippen, Ted de Corsia, Marie Windsor, Elisha Cook Jr., Joe Sawyer, James Edwards, Timothy Carey, Kola Kwariani, Jay Adler, Tito Vuolo, Dorothy Adams, Herbert Ellis, James Griffith, Cecil Elliott, Joe Turkel, Steve Mitchell, Mary Carroll, William Benedict, Charles Cane, Robert B. Williams, Tom Coleman, Rodney Dangerfield, Franklyn Farnum, John George, Art Gilmore, Sol Gorss, Harry Hines, Kenner G. Kemp, Carl M. Leviness, Hal J. Moore, Harvey Parry, Richard Reeves, Frank Richards, Arthur Tovey.

Recommended reading:

Clean Break

By Lionel White.

Filmed as The Killing (1956), directed by Stanley Kubrick.

Published by Chosho Publishing.

First published 1955.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 1958425516

ISBN-13: 978-1958425510

Description:

Johnny Clay, an ex-con determined to strike it rich, has worked out a fool-proof scheme to knock off a racetrack payroll. The two million bucks should be enough to last him a lifetime or two. But a two-faced dame has another idea: Let Johnny do the work, then she'll grab the swag for herself and her boyfriend.

Johnny Clay’s plan to rob the Long Island race track was daring and highly original. Johnny, an ex-convict, had spent his prison years thinking through every possible hitch to his scheme until he was sure it could go off like clockwork.

His four confederates were not known to the police for they were not professional criminals. They had been picked because they were ordinary nondescript men, all with money problems and a touch of larceny in their hearts. Mike Henty was a bartender at the track and George Peatty a cashier, both essential inside men. Martin Unger, a court stenographer, had put up the initial cash and Randy Kennan, a cop, was to get the money away from the track after Johnny had done the actual robbing.

There were in addition three others who were to do a specific jobs for a cash payment. To one of these men fell the assignment of shooting the favorite in the famous Canarsie Stakes. Once this was accomplished, the robbery was set into motion.

The crime in this story is a grand coup, fantastic yet completely possible if everything clicked. So too has Lionel White achieved a grand coup in the telling of the story as he concentrates first on one character then on another, picking up the individual threads and building them into a brilliantly integrated climax. Clean Break is a masterpiece of originality, a highly plotted and ingeniously executed story of suspense.

On this day in movie history - Six Bridges to Cross (1955):

Six Bridges to Cross

directed by Joseph Pevney,

written by Sydney Boehm,

based on They Stole $25,000,000 – And Got Away with It by Joseph F. Dinneen,

inspired by the true 1950 Brink’s Robbery,

was released in the United States on January 19, 1955.
Music by Frank Skinner and Herman Stein.

Cast:

Tony Curtis, George Nader, Julie Adams, Jay C. Flippen, Sal Mineo, Jan Merlin, Richard Castle, William Murphy, Kendall Clark, Don Keefer, Harry Bartell, Tito Vuolo, Gina Aguglia, Ronald Anton, Peter Avarmo, John S. Barratt, Nicky Blair, Ted Bliss, Edward F. Bowers, William Brackman, Paul Bretanus, Ralph Brooks, Charles Buswell, Joseph Cammarata, Gordon B. Clarke, Tom Coleman, Hal Conklin, William Conley, John J. Connolly, Charles J. Conrad, Harry Cooper, Henry M. Coughlin, John F. Dacey, Sayre Dearing, Kem Dibbs, James Diorio, Paul Dubov, Sam Finn, Diane Flaherty, William Flannery, Carl Frank, Jack Gargan, Grant Gordon, Joe Gray, Herbert Gross, Claudia Hall, Chuck Hamilton, Kathleen Hooper, John Hormel, Helen Keeton, Elizabeth Kerr, Manuel P. Kurland, Scott Lee, Peter Leeds, Carey Loftin, Robert Lynn, Edmund M. MacClosky, Helen Mayon, Bob McElroy, James McGah, Edward McNally, Joe McTurk, Doris Meade, Harold Miller, Carl Moore, Dan Moynihan, John J. Muldoon, Mary Newton, William H. O'Brien, Carl O'Bryan, Robert Paolucci, Kenneth Patterson, Pennachi, Michael F. Powers, Joseph Quaranta, George Ramsey, Harry Raven, John Regan, Edward Richardson, Di Di Roberts, Kenny Roberts, Nandy Robie, Charles F. Roche, William Ryan, Cosmo Sardo, Frank E. Sawin Jr., Anabel Shaw, Edward R. Skrickus, James Stone, Hal Taggart, Janice Thomas, Clifford F. Tobey, Larry Turner, Charles Victor, Jean Goodale Wales, Robert T. Walley, Roger White, Howard Wright.