On this day in movie history - Straight Time (1978 movie & novel):

Straight Time

directed by Ulu Grosbard and Dustin Hoffman,

written by Alvin Sargent, Edward Bunker and Jeffrey Boam,

based on the novel No Beast So Fierce by Edward Bunker,

was released in the United States on March 17, 1978.
Music by David Shire.

Cast:

Dustin Hoffman, Theresa Russell, Gary Busey, Harry Dean Stanton, M. Emmet Walsh, Rita Taggart, Kathy Bates, Sandy Baron, Jake Busey, Tina Menard, Stephanie Ericsson, Dave Kelly, Don Sommese, Kit Jee Wong, Peter Kwong, Jane Howard, Ronald L. Mellinger, Michael Blakley, John Colton, Edward Bunker, Corey Rand, John Gilgreen, Mary Craven, Peter Jurasik, Enid Hendershot, James Ray, Stuart I. Berton, Barry Cahill, Susan Sherman, Francesca Drown, Emily Le Rue, Ernest Taylor III, Fran Ryan, Bob Jarvis, Mark F. Hill, Mags Kavanaugh, Daniel Nunez, John McKinley Robertson, Mary Margaret Robinson, Deborah Sahagun.

Recommended reading:

No Beast So Fierce

By Edward Bunker.

Filmed as Straight Time (1978), directed by Ulu Grosbard and Dustin Hoffman.

Published by NO EXIT PRESS.

First published 1973.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 1842432664

ISBN-13: 978-1842432662

Description:

“One of the great crime novels.” – James Ellroy.

An angry and mercilessly suspenseful novel about an ex-con's attempt to negotiate the "straight world" and his swan dive back into the paradoxical security of crime. It is airtight in its construction, almost photorealistic in its portrayal of L. A. lowlife and utterly knowledgeable about the terrors of liberty, the high of the quick score and the rage that makes the finger tighten on the trigger of the gun.