On this day in movie history - Boxcar Bertha (1972 movie & book):

Boxcar Bertha

directed by Martin Scorsese,

written by Joyce H. Corrington and John William Corrington,

based on the book Sister of the Road: The Autobiography of Boxcar Bertha by Ben Reitman,

released in the United States on June 13, 1972.

Music by Gib Guilbeau and Thad Maxwell.

Cast: Barbara Hershey, David Carradine, Barry Primus, Bernie Casey, John Carradine, Victor Argo, David Osterhout, Grahame Pratt, ‘Chicken’ Holleman, Harry Northup, Ann Morell, Marianne Dole, Joe Reynolds, Jerry Cortez, Louie Elias, Michael Fitzgerald, Gerald Raines, Gayne Rescher, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Martin Scorsese. #Noir

Recommended reading:

Sister of the Road:

The Autobiography of Boxcar Bertha

By Ben Reitman.

Filmed as Boxcar Bertha (1972), directed by Martin Scorsese.

Published by AK Press.

First published 1937.

ISBN-10: 1902593030

ISBN-13: 9781902593036

Description:

Born in the shadows of a railroad yard, of a wandering mother who took her lovers where she found them and a father who was scarcely conscious of her arrival in the world, Bertha Thompson took to the road as soon as the restless impulses of adolescence stirred in her. She was more interested in wanders than those who settled down in homes, more interested in criminals than law-abiding citizens. She wanted to see how they lived, live as they did, know what they were like. As a result of her restlessness and curiosity, she became, in fifteen years of wandering, a hobo, treveling from one end of the country to the other in box-cars, decking passenger trains, and hitchhiking; member of a gang of shoplifters, traveling as the mistress of one of the men; a prostitute working in a Chicago brothel; the mother of a child of an unknown father; and a research worker for a New York social service bureau. Sister of the Road is Bertha s own story of those fifteen years and the record of her conclusions about them. Gifted with a naturally keen intelligence, fearless of consequences to herself, willing and eager to do and be everything which other members of her group did and were, her story is a mine of little-known information and a succession of moving human stories about that vast and growing army of homeless, jobless, wandering women who live by begging, stealing, cheating, prostituting themselves, and occasionally working at legitimate jobs.

On this day in movie history - Shutter Island (2010 movie & novel):

Shutter Island

directed by Martin Scorsese,

written by Laeta Kalogridis,

based on the novel by Dennis Lehane,

was released in the United States on February 19, 2010.

Cast:

Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, Jackie Earle Haley, John Carroll Lynch, Ted Levine, Elias Koteas, Ruby Jerins, Robin Bartlett, Christopher Denham.

Recommended reading:

Shutter Island

By Dennis Lehane.

Published by William Morrow Paperbacks.

First published 2003.

Mass Market Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0062068415

ISBN-13: 978-0062068415

Description:

“Fasten your seat belts for a bumpy, breakneck ride…utterly absorbing… is an express train with no local stops…engrossing.” – Boston Globe.

“The ride this novel provides is as good as entertainment gets.” – Miami Herald.

“Combines the claustrophobia of . . . Agatha Christie . . . with the creepiness of a good Stephen King yarn. . . . Good luck putting this one down. – San Francisco Chronicle Book Review.

“Startlingly original…instantly cinematic… unfolds with increasing urgency until it delivers a visceral shock in its final moments.” – New York Times.

“There is no mystery…about how good this book is; like Mystic River, it’s a tour de force.” – Publishers Weekly.

“A lollapalooza of a corkscrew thriller…sure to be the most talked–about thriller of the year.” – Kirkus Reviews.

“Nightmarish…it’s not a book to start before bedtime. Even if you finish before dawn, Shutter Island will trouble your sleep.” – Orlando Sentinel.

The year is 1954. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule, have come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to investigate the disappearance of a patient. Multiple murderess Rachel Solando is loose somewhere on this remote and barren island, despite having been kept in a locked cell under constant surveillance. As a killer hurricane relentlessly bears down on them, a strange case takes on even darker, more sinister shades – with hints of radical experimentation, horrifying surgeries, and lethal countermoves made in the cause of a covert shadow war. No one is going to escape Shutter Island unscathed, because nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is what it seems. But then neither is Teddy Daniels.

On this day in movie history -The King of Comedy (1983):

The King of Comedy

directed by Martin Scorsese,

written by Paul D. Zimmerman,

was released in the United States on February 18, 1983.
Music by Robbie Robertson.

Cast:

Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, Sandra Bernhard, Diahnne Abbott, Shelley Hack, Margo Winkler, Kim Chan, Frederick De Cordova, Edgar Scherick, Ed Herlihy, Tony Randall, Victor Borge, Joyce Brothers, Catherine Scorsese, Cathy Scorsese, Martin Scorsese, Charles Scorsese, Mick Jones, Joe Strummer, Paul Simonon, Kosmo Vinyl, Ellen Foley, Don Letts, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.

On this day in movie history - Taxi Driver (1976):

Taxi Driver

directed by Martin Scorsese,

written by Paul Schrader,

was released in the United States on February 8, 1976.

Music by Bernard Hermann.

Cast:

Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Albert Brooks, Leonard Harris, Peter Boyle, Steven Prince, Harvey Keitel, Martin Scorsese, Harry Northup, Victor Argo, Joe Spinell, Diahnne Abbott.