On this day in movie history - The Big Steal (1949):

The Big Steal

directed by Don Siegel,

written by Gerald Drayson Adams, Daniel Mainwaring and Geoffrey Homes,

was released in the United States on June 29, 1949.
Based on the short story The Road to Carmichael's by Richard Wormser, published in The Saturday Evening Post (1942).
Music by Leigh Harline.

Cast:

Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, William Bendix, Patric Knowles, Ramon Novarro, Don Alvarado, John Qualen, Pascual García Peña.

On this day in movie history - Race Street (1948):

Race Street

directed by Edwin L. Marin,

written by Martin Rackin,

was released in the United States on June 22, 1948.
Based on the story Race Street by Maurice Davis,

originally published in Turf and Sport Digest (1945).
Music by Roy Webb.

Cast:

George Raft, William Bendix, Marilyn Maxwell, Frank Faylen, Harry Morgan, Gale Robbins, Cully Richards, Mack Gray, Russell Hicks, Tom Keene, William Forrest, James Nolan, George Turner, Richard Benedict, Dean White, Freddie Steele.

On this day in movie history - The Dark Corner (1946):

The Dark Corner

directed by Henry Hathaway,

written by Jay Dratler, Bernard C. Schoenfeld,

based on the story by Leo Rosten, serialized in Good Housekeeping (1945),

was released in the United States on May 8, 1946.
Music by Cyril J. Mockridge.

Cast:

Lucille Ball, Clifton Webb, William Bendix, Mark Stevens, Kurt Kreuger, Cathy Downs, Reed Hadley, Constance Collier, Eddie Heywood, Colleen Alpaugh, Charles Cane, Ellen Corby, Peter Cusanelli, Ralph Dunn, John Elliott, Mary Field, Alice Fleming, John Goldsworthy, Eugene Goncz, Vincent Graeff, Chuck Hamilton, Eloise Hardt, Sam Harris, John Kelly, Colin Kenny, Molly Lamont, Hope Landin, Thomas Louden, Donald MacBride, Frank Marlowe, Thomas Martin, Matt McHugh, Harold Miller, Tom Monroe, Forbes Murray, Steve Olsen, Lee Phelps, Joe Ploski, Raisa, Isabel Randolph, John Russell, Pietro Sosso, Douglas Spencer, Frieda Stoll, Charles Tannen, Minerva Urecal, Charles Wagenheim, Regina Wallace, Gisela Werbisek, Lynn Whitney.

On this day in movie history - The Blue Dahlia (1946):

The Blue Dahlia

directed by George Marshall,

written by Raymond Chandler,

was released in the United States on April 18, 1946.
Music by Victor Young.

Cast:

Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, William Bendix, Howard Da Silva, Doris Dowling, Hugh Beaumont, Tom Powers, Howard Freeman, Don Costello, Will Wright, Frank Faylen, Walter Sande, Mae Busch, Anthony Caruso, Noel Neill.

On this day in movie history - Detective Story (movie & play):

Detective Story

directed by William Wyler,

written by Robert Wyler and Philip Yordan,

based on the play by Sidney Kingsley,

was released in the United States on October 24, 1951.
Music composed by Miklós Rózsa and Victor Young.

Cast:

Kirk Douglas, Eleanor Parker, William Bendix, Cathy O'Donnell, George Macready, Horace McMahon, Gladys George, Joseph Wiseman, Lee Grant, Gerald Mohr, Frank Faylen, Craig Hill, Michael Strong, Luis Van Rooten, Bert Freed, Warner Anderson, Grandon Rhodes, William 'Bill' Phillips, Russell Evans, Charles Campbell, Edmund Cobb, Ann Codee, Catherine Doucet, Pat Flaherty, Harper Goff, Howard Joslin, Donald Kerr, George Magrill, Mike Mahoney, James Maloney, Lee Miller, Ralph Montgomery, Burt Mustin, Jack Perry, Robert S. Scott, Jack Shea, Kay Wiley.

Recommended reading:

Detective Story

A play in three acts

By Sidney Kingsley.

First published 1949.

Published by Legare Street Press.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 1022892851

ISBN-13: 978-1022892859

Description:

Sidney Kingsley's classic play, first performed on Broadway in 1949, is a gripping and intense drama that explores the seedy underbelly of crime and punishment in New York City. The play's intricate plot, complex characters, and dark themes make it a timeless classic of American theater.

The scene is the squad room and office in a New York police station. The playwright presents a fascinatingly realistic picture of routine cases brought into a metropolitan police station in the course of a day. Out of the welter of human misery, vice and stupidity there emerges the tragic and moving case of a decent young fellow who has stolen money from his employer. Though a woman who is in love with him comes to his help and the employer is offered everything that has been taken from him, the case has fallen into the hands of McLeod, a hardworking detective whose experience in police work has developed in him a mania for punishing all law breakers, whom he regards as incorrigibles. Nothing will satisfy him but brutal punishment. He is at work at the same time on a case involving an abortionist whose attorney, failing to move him by other means, forces McLeod's wife to confess to her husband that she had herself some years before made use of the services of the abortionist in question. Since McLeod worships his wife and finds in her the only happiness of his existence, his world collapses about him. The climax comes when McLeod gets involved with another prisoner who attempts to escape from the squad room with the aid of a revolver taken from one of the detectives. McLeod is shot and killed. This climax is a fitting end to McLeod's career. To the last, he had been bent upon doing what he considered his duty in seeing that criminals obeyed the letter of the law at no matter what cost."