On this day in movie history - Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991):

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

directed by James Cameron,

written by James Cameron and William Wisher,

was released in the United States on July 3, 1991.
Music by Brad Fiedel.

Cast:

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick, Earl Boen, Joe Morton, S. Epatha Merkerson, Castulo Guerra, Danny Cooksey, Jenette Goldstein, Xander Berkeley, Leslie Hamilton Gearren, Ken Gibbel, Robert Winley, Peter Schrum, Shane Wilder, Michael Edwards, Jared Lounsbery, Casey Chavez, Ennalls Berl, Don Lake, Richard Vidan, Tom McDonald, Jim Palmer, Guss Williams, Gwenda Deacon, Don Stanton, Dan Stanton, Colin Patrick Lynch, Noel Evangelisti, Nikki Cox, Lisa Brinegar, DeVaughn Nixon, Tony Simotes, Diane Rodriguez, Dalton Abbott, Ron Young, Charles Robert Brown, Abdul Salaam El Razzac, Mike Muscat, Dean Norris, Charles A. Tamburro, Rob Jordan, Terrence Evans, Denney Pierce, Mark Christopher Lawrence, Pat Kouri, Van Ling, Michael Albanese, Ed Arneson, Bret A. Arnold, Dean Blanke, Debra Casey, Jim Dahl, Martin Deluca, Jennifer Jacono, Gavin Kelly, Takao Komine, Joel Kramer, Anne Merrem, Mic Rodgers, Richard Ruskin, Scott Shaw, Steven Stear, Sven-Ole Thorsen, Randy Walker, William Wisher.

On this day in television history - M Squad (1959):

M Squad

Season 2. Episode 40.
Episode entitled: Death Is a Clock.
Released July 3, 1959.
Directed by Robert Ellis Miller.
Written by Rik Vollaerts.
Music by Benny Carter.

Cast:

Lee Marvin, Paul Newlan, Madlyn Rhue, Douglas Henderson, Stacy Harris, James Seay, Claire Carleton, Vernon Rich, Walter Bacon, Richard LaMarr, George Selk.

On this day in movie history - Double Indemnity (1944 movie & books):

Double Indemnity

directed by Billy Wilder,

written by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler,

based on the novel by James M. Cain,

was released in the United States on July 3, 1944.
Music by Miklós Rózsa.

Cast:

Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Porter Hall, Jean Heather, Tom Powers, Byron Barr, Richard Gaines, Fortunio Bonanova, John Philliber, Raymond Chandler, Bess Flowers, Betty Farrington, Teala Loring, Sam McDaniel, Miriam Nelson, Douglas Spencer.

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.