Born on this day – Lee J. Cobb:

Lee J. Cobb

Actor

December 8, 1911 – February 11, 1976

Credits:

12 Angry Men (1957); Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937); Alle origini della mafia (1976); American Masters (1989–2003); Anna and the King of Siam (1946); Annie, the Women in the Life of a Man (1970); Arthur Miller on Home Ground (1979); Bad Men of the West (1974); Blood, Sweat and Fear (1975); Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre (1963); Boomerang! (1947); Buckskin Frontier (1943); But Not for Me (1959); Call Northside 777 (1948); Captain from Castile (1947); Cinemassacre's Monster Madness (2007); Come Blow Your Horn (1963); Compression (2024); Coogan's Bluff (1968); Danger on the Air (1938); Day of Triumph (1954); Death of a Salesman (1966); Double Indemnity (1973); Dr. Max (1974); Exodus (1960); Flight Characteristics of the P-51 Airplane (1944); Frontier Justice (1958); General Electric Theater (1960–1962); Golden Boy (1939); Goodyear Playhouse (1956); Gorilla at Large (1954); Green Mansions (1959); Gunsmoke (1974); Heat of Anger (1972); Henry Fonda: The Man and His Movies (1982); Hopalong Cassidy: Public Hero #1 (2001); How the West Was Won (1962); In Like Flint (1967); Incendiary Attack for Japanese Cities (1945); Inside the Jury Room (2008); Johnny O'Clock (1947); La legge violenta della squadra anticrimine (1976); La polizia sta a guardare (1973); Last Moments (1974); Lawman (1971); Lights Out (1951); Lux Video Theatre (1955); Macho Callahan (1970); Mackenna's Gold (1969); Mafia (1968); Man of the West (1958); Mark il poliziotto spara per primo (1975); McCloud (1973); Medic (1955); Men of Boys Town (1941); Miami Exposé (1956); Movie Night Extravaganza (2022); Naked City (1961); Nick the Sting (1976); North of the Rio Grande (1937); On the Waterfront (1954); Our Man Flint (1966); Paris Calling (1941); Party Girl (1958); Playhouse 90 (1957–1959); Producers' Showcase (1955); Role Model: Gene Wilder (2008); Rustlers' Valley (1937); Sirocco (1951); Somerset Maugham TV Theatre (1951); Startime (1960); Strictly Courtroom (2008); Studio One (1957); Suddenly an Eagle (1976); Tales of Tomorrow (1951); That Lucky Touch (1975); The 12th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (1960); The 27th Annual Academy Awards (1955); The 31st Annual Academy Awards (1959); The 50th Annual Tony Awards (1996); The Alcoa Hour (1956); The Brazen Bell (1962); The Brothers Karamazov (1958); The Bull of the West (1972); The Dark Past (1948); The Dean Martin Show (1970); The Devil's Children (1962); The DuPont Show of the Month (1959–1960); The DuPont Show with June Allyson (1961); The Exorcist (1973); The Family Secret (1951); The Fighter (1952); The Final Hour (1965); The Ford Television Theatre (1954); The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1962); The Garment Jungle (1957); The Great Ice Rip-Off (1974); The Left Hand of God (1955); The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970); The Linkletter Show (1967); The Luck of the Irish (1948); The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956); The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950); The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973); The Merv Griffin Show (1973); The Miracle of the Bells (1948); The Moon Is Down (1943); The Phantom Creeps (1939 / 1949); The Racers (1955); The Road to Denver (1955); The Song of Bernadette (1943); The Tall Texan (1953); The Three Faces of Eve (1957); The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1964); The Trap (1959); The Vanishing Shadow (1934); The Virginian (1962–1966); The Young Lawyers (1970–1971); They Came to Rob Las Vegas (1968); Thieves' Highway (1949); This Thing Called Love (1940); To Confuse the Angel (1970); Tonight We Raid Calais (1943); Trapped Beneath the Sea (1974); Ultimatum (1973); Vincent Van Gogh: A Self-Portrait (1961); Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (1959); Winged Victory (1944); Yankee Pasha (1954); Zane Grey Theatre (1956–1958).

On this day in movie history - They Came to Rob Las Vegas (1968):

They Came to Rob Las Vegas

directed by Antonio Isasi,

written by Antonio Isasi, Lluis Josep Comeron, Jorge Illa and Jo Eisinger, based on the novel by André Lay,

was released in Spain on October 31, 1968.
Music by Georges Garvarentz.

Cast:

Gary Lockwood, Elke Sommer, Lee J. Cobb, Jean Servais, Georges Géret, Jack Palance, Fabrizio Capucci, Roger Hanin, Gustavo Re, Daniel Martín, Maurizio Arena, Enrique Ávila, Gérard Tichy, Rubén Rojo, Ingrid Spaey, Carlos Ballesteros, Luis Barboo, Rossella Bergamonti, Antonio Casas, Beni Deus, Fernando Hilbeck, José Marco, Julio Pérez Tabernero, George Rigaud, Lorenzo Robledo.

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.

On this day in movie history - Coogan’s Bluff (1968):

Coogan’s Bluff

directed by Don Siegel,

written by Herman Miller, Dean Riesner and Howard Rodman,

based on the novel by Herman Miller,

was released in the United States on October 2, 1968.
Music by Lalo Schifrin.

Cast:

Clint Eastwood, Lee J. Cobb, Susan Clark, Tisha Sterling, Don Stroud, Betty Field, Tom Tully, Melodie Johnson, James Edwards, Rudy Diaz, David Doyle, Louis Zorich, Meg Myles, Marjorie Bennett, Seymour Cassel, John Coe, Skip Battyn, Albert Popwell, Conrad Bain, James Gavin, Albert Henderson, James McCallion, Syl Lamont, Jess Osuna, Jerry Summers, Antonia Rey, Marya Henriques.

On this day in movie history - Thieves’ Highway (1949):

Thieves’ Highway

directed by Jules Dassin,

written by A. I. Bezzerides,

based on the novel Thieves’ Market by A. I. Bezzerides,

was released in the United States on September 20, 1949.
Music by Alfred Newman and Cyril J. Mockridge.

Cast:

Richard Conte, Valentina Cortese, Lee J. Cobb, Barbara Lawrence, Jack Oakie, Millard Mitchell, Joseph Pevney, Morris Carnovsky, Tamara Shayne, Kasia Orzazewski, Norbert Schiller, Hope Emerson, Walter Baldwin, Robert Bice, Howland Chamberlain, David Clarke, Roy Damron, Jules Dassin, Al Eben, Robert Foulk, Joe Haworth, Percy Helton, Ted Jordan, Frank Kreig, Saul Martell, Edwin Max, John Merton, Ann Morrison, James Nolan, David Opatoshu, Frank Richards, Maurice Samuels, Mario Siletti, Irene Tedrow, George Tyne, Dick Wessel, Harry Wilson.

On this day in movie history - On the Waterfront (1954):

On the Waterfront

directed by Elia Kazan,

written by Budd Schulberg,

was released in the United States on July 28, 1954.
Inspired by the series of articles entitled Crime on the Waterfront by Malcolm Johnson,

published in the New York Sun from November–December, 1948.
Music by Leonard Bernstein.

Cast:

Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Pat Henning, Leif Erickson, James Westerfield, Tony Galento, Tami Mauriello, John F. Hamilton, John Heldabrand, Rudy Bond, Don Blackman, Arthur Keegan, Abe Simon, Eva Marie Saint, Martin Balsam, Dan Bergin, Zachary Charles, Jere Delaney, Robert Downing, Michael V. Gazzo, Fred Gwynne, Thomas Handley, Anne Hegira, Pat Hingle, Katherine MacGregor, Barry Macollum, Tiger Joe Marsh, Edward McNally, Donnell O'Brien, Mike O'Dowd, Nehemiah Persoff, Johnny Seven.

On this day in movie history - 12 Angry Men (1957):

12 Angry Men

directed by Sidney Lumet,

written by Reginald Rose,

based on the 1954 teleplay Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose,

was released in the United States on April 10, 1957.
Music by Kenyon Hopkins.

Cast:

Martin Balsam, John Fiedler, Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, Edward Binns, Jack Warden, Henry Fonda, Joseph Sweeney, Ed Begley, George Voskovec, Robert Webber, Rudy Bond, Tom Gorman, James Kelly, Billy Nelson, John Savoca, Walter Stocker.