On this day in movie history - The Shining (1980 movie & novel):

The Shining

directed by Stanley Kubrick,

written by Stanley Kubrick and Diane Johnson,

based on the novel by Stephen King,

was released in the United States on May 23, 1980.
Music by Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind.

Cast:

Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Barry Nelson, Philip Stone, Joe Turkel, Anne Jackson, Tony Burton, Lia Beldam, Billie Gibson, Barry Dennen, Lisa Burns, Louise Burns, David Baxt, Manning Redwood, Robin Pappas, Alison Coleridge, Burnell Tucker, Jana Shelden, Kate Phelps, Norman Gay, Pauline Chamberlain, Ina Clare, Maxwell Craig, Paul Desbois, Lynda Fisher, Charlie Gray, Aidan Harrington, Alan Harris, George Holdcroft, Barrie Holland, Vivian Kubrick, Aileen Lewis, Bertha Lynn, Derek Lyons, Peter McNamara, Cathy Munroe, Eddie O'Dea, Jennifer O'Neill, Chris Parsons, Glenn Rinker, Bunny Seaman, Guy Standeven, Reg Thomason, Brian V. Towns.

Recommended reading:

The Shining

By Stephen King.

Filmed as:

The Shining (1980), movie directed by Stanley Kubrick.

The Shining (1997), TV miniseries directed by Mick Garris.

Published by Hodder.

First published 1977.

ISBN 13: 9780340920930

ISBN 10: 0340920939

ASIN: 0340920939

Paperback.

Description:

Danny is only five years old, but he is a 'shiner', aglow with psychic voltage. When his father becomes caretaker of an old hotel, his visions grow out of control. Cut off by blizzards, the hotel seems to develop an evil force, and who are the mysterious guests in the supposedly empty hotel?

Somewhere, somehow there is an evil force in the hotel and that too has begun to shine...

On this day in movie history - The Killing (1956 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.