Showing posts with label Martin Balsam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Martin Balsam. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 17, 2026

On this day in movie history - The Anderson Tapes (1971 movie & novel):


The Anderson Tapes

directed by Sidney Lumet,
written by Frank Pierson,
based on the novel by Lawrence Sanders,
was released in the United States on June 17, 1971.
Music by Quincy Jones.


Cast:

Sean Connery, Dyan Cannon, Martin Balsam, Ralph Meeker, Alan King, Dick Anthony Williams, Val Avery, Garrett Morris, Stan Gottlieb, Christopher Walken, Conrad Bain, Margaret Hamilton, Anthony Holland, Scott Jacoby, Judith Lowry, Meg Myles, Norman Rose, Max Showalter, Janet Ward, Paul Benjamin, Richard B. Shull.

Recommended reading:


The Anderson Tapes

By Lawrence Sanders.

Filmed as The Anderson Tapes (1971), directed by Sidney Lumet.

Published by DELL PUBL CO.
First published 1970.
ISBN-10: 0440102170
ISBN-13: 9780440102175

Description:

With clockwork precision, Lawrence Sanders outlines the inspiration, planning and execution of an ambitious robbery of an apartment building on New York's Upper East Side in The Anderson Tapes, the best-selling thriller that established him as one of the most popular suspense writers of his generation. The premise is clever – the entire story is told in surveillance tape transcripts and reports from law enforcement agencies, each of which seems to be observing some aspect of the situation in which the robbery takes place.

John "Duke" Anderson was recently paroled from Sing Sing, after serving time on a charge of breaking and entering. A rich woman picks him up one evening and takes him back to her apartment, in a small but elegant building on the Upper East Side. Anderson is intrigued by the situation in the building, seeing it as a possible target for a large-scale robbery. He needs backing, though, and he gets it through his contacts with the underworld. What Anderson does not know is that much of what he is already doing is being captured as evidence through electronic surveillance. The catch is that the different entities doing the surveillance are not communicating with each other. The evidence is assembled and the puzzle solved, after the robbery takes place and ends violently, by NYPD Capt. Edward X. Delaney.

The Anderson Tapes marks the first appearance in a Sanders novel of Delaney, a character who will be central to the author's Deadly Sin series of thrillers. Sanders brilliantly unfolds the story in short, fact-filled chapters constructed as police reports and tape transcripts, some of which are tantalizingly garbled. The Anderson Tapes won for Sanders the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar as the Best First Mystery Novel of 1970.

Tuesday, June 16, 2026

On this day in movie history - Psycho (1960 movie & books):


Psycho

directed by Alfred Hitchcock,
written by Joseph Stefano,
based on the novel by Robert Bloch,
was released in the United States, on June 16, 1960.
Music by Bernard Herrmann.
Inspired by the true 1957 Ed Gein murder case.


Cast:

Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, Janet Leigh, John Gavin, Martin Balsam, John McIntire, Simon Oakland, Frank Albertson, Pat Hitchcock, Vaughn Taylor, Lurene Tuttle, John Anderson, Mort Mills, Virginia Gregg, Paul Jasmin, Jeanette Nolan.

Recommended reading:


Psycho

By Robert Bloch.

Filmed as Psycho (1960), directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Published by The Overlook Press.
First published 1959.
ISBN-10: 1590203356
ISBN-13: 9781590203354

Description:

"Psycho all came from Robert Bloch's book." – Alfred Hitchcock.

"Icily terrifying!" – The New York Times.

"Robert Bloch is one of the all-time masters." – Peter Straub.

Norman Bates loves his mother. She has been dead for the past 20 years, or so people think. Norman knows better, though.

Ever since leaving the hospital, he has lived with Mother in the old house up on the hill above the Bates Motel. One night, after a beautiful woman checks into the motel, Norman spies on her as she undresses. Norman can’t help but spy on her.

Mother is there, though. She is there to protect Norman from his filthy thoughts. She is there to protect him with her butcher knife.

If you love to be scared, or are a fan of classic movies, then you know the story of Norman Bates, his mother, and the dark and frightening Bates Motel. Alfred Hitchcock’s taut, shocking scare-fest starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh is a classic movie, as scary today as it was in 1960 when it was first released, and this is the 1959 novel upon which the movie is based.

It was here that the legend of the Bates Motel was born.


Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho

Edited by Richard J. Anobile.

The Film Classics Library.
Published by Universe Books.
First Edition.
Published 1974.
Hardcover.
ISBN-10: 0876631898
ISBN-13: 978-0876631898

Description:

The Film Classics Library present the most accurate and complete reconstruction of a film in book over 1,300 frame blow-up photos shown sequentially and coupled with the complete dialogue from the original soundtrack, allow you to recapture this film classic in its entirety – at your leisure.

Friday, June 5, 2026

On this day in movie history - P.I. Private Investigations (1987):


P.I. Private Investigations

aka Private Investigations,
directed by Nigel Dick,
written by John Dahl and David W. Warfield,
based on a story by Nigel Dick,
was released in the United States on June 5, 1987.
Music by Murray Munro.


Cast:

Clayton Rohner, Ray Sharkey, Paul Le Mat, Talia Balsam, Phil Morris, Martin Balsam, William Kerwin, Anthony Zerbe, Robert Ito, Vernon Wells, Anthony Geary, Justin Lord, Richard Cummings Jr., Desiree Boschetti, Andy Romano, Sydney Walsh, Jon St. Elwood, Robert Torti, Nigel Dick.

Friday, April 10, 2026

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


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.

Recommended reading:


Twelve Angry Men

Teleplay by Reginald Rose.

Introduction by David Mamet.

Filmed as:
12 Angry Men (1957), directed by Sidney Lumet.
12 Angry Men (1997), directed by William Friedkin.

Paperback.
Published by Penguin Classics.
First published 1954.
ISBN 13: 9780143104407
ISBN 10: 0143104403
ASIN: 0143104403

Description:

A blistering character study and an examination of the American melting pot and the judicial system that keeps it in check, Twelve Angry Men holds at its core a deeply patriotic faith in the U.S. legal system. The play centers on Juror Eight, who is at first the sole holdout in an 11-1 guilty vote. Eight sets his sights not on proving the other jurors wrong but rather on getting them to look at the situation in a clear-eyed way not affected by their personal prejudices or biases. Reginald Rose deliberately and carefully peels away the layers of artifice from the men and allows a fuller picture to form of them—and of America, at its best and worst.

After the critically acclaimed teleplay aired in 1954, this landmark American drama went on to become a cinematic masterpiece in 1957 starring Henry Fonda, for which Rose wrote the adaptation. More recently, Twelve Angry Men had a successful, and award-winning, run on Broadway.