On this day in movie history - Heat (movie & novel):

Heat

directed by Dick Richards and Jerry Jameson,

written by William Goldman,

based on the novel by William Goldman,

was released in France on November 12, 1986.
Music by Michael Gibbs.

Cast:

Burt Reynolds, Karen Young, Peter MacNicol, Howard Hesseman, Neill Barry, Diana Scarwid, Joseph Mascolo, Alfie Wise, Deborah Rush, Wendell Burton, Joanne Jackson, Joe Klecko, Peter Koch, Joseph Bernard, Barry Polkowitz, Chris O'Rourke, Reno Nichols, Ron Tombaugh, Mone Swann, Robert Drake, Robert Vento, Joey Villa, Michael Lovell Farris, Alicia Arden.

Recommended reading:

Heat

By William Goldman.

Published 1985.

Published by Grand Central Pub.

First Edition.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 0446512753

ISBN-13: 9780446512756

Description:

Las Vegas security man Nick Escalante, an ex-Marine, chances on to a bizarre kidnapping threat and races into a night-time world of false identities, vicious grievances, and gruesome encounters.

Author of Marathon Man.

“Satisfying … Mr. Goldman is a master storyteller and has done a master’s trick.” – New York Times Book Review.

“Fast-paced action and adventure … losers and winners and God-fearing sinners who turn an exciting story into an exceptional novel.” – Philadelphia Inquirer.

Recommended reading - Marathon Man (1974):

Marathon Man

By William Goldman.

First published 1974.

Published by Random House Publishing Group.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0345439724

ISBN-13: 978-0345439727

Description:

William Goldman's remarkable career spans more than five decades, and his credentials run the gamut from bestselling novelist to Oscar-winning screenwriter to Hollywood raconteur. He's beloved by millions of readers as the author of the classic comic-romantic fantasy The Princess Bride. And he's notorious for creating the most harrowing visit to the dentist in literary and cinematic history – in one of the seminal thrillers of the twentieth century. . . .

MARATHON MAN

Tom "Babe" Levy is a runner in every sense: racing tirelessly toward his goals of athletic and academic excellence – and endlessly away from the specter of his famous father's scandal-driven suicide. But an unexpected visit from his beloved older brother will set in motion a chain of events that plunge Babe into a vortex of terror, treachery, and murder – and force him into a race for his life . . . and for the answer to the fateful question, "Is it safe?"

"Superb . . . One hell of a read." – The Washington Post.

“An exciting – often funny, often sad – chase … Goldman does a masterly job.” – Associated Press.

“Well-plotted, expertly characterized, and fast-paced." – Los Angeles Times.

Born on this day – William Goldman:

William Goldman

Writer

August 12, 1931 – November 16, 2018

Credits:

Books:

Absolute Power (1997); Adventures in the Screen Trade (1983); Blood Sweat and Stanley Poole (1962); Boys and Girls Together (1969); Brothers (1986); Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid (1969); Control (1982); Father's Day (1971); Five Screenplays with Essays (1984); Four Screenplays with Essays (1994); Heat / aka Edged Weapons (1985); Hype and Glory (1990); Magic (1976); Marathon Man (1974); No Way to Treat A Lady (1964); Soldier in the Rain (1963); The Best of All Possible Worlds (1980); The Big Picture (2000); The Color of Light (1984); The Great Waldo Pepper (1975); The Princess Bride (1973); The Season (1969); The Silent Gondoliers (1983); The Temple of Gold (1957); The Thing of It Is... (1967); Tinsel (1979); Wait Till Next Year (1988); Which Lie Did I Tell? (2000); Wigger (1974); Your Turn to Curtsy, My Turn to Bow (1958).

Movies and television:

5 Minutes (2018); A Bridge Too Far (1977); A Cinematic Life: The Art & Influence of Conrad Hall (2010); A Few Good Men (1992); Absolute Power (1997); AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes: America's Greatest Quips, Comebacks and Catchphrases (2005); AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies: America's Greatest Movies (1998); All Aboard: Riding the Rails of American Film (1993); All of What Follows Is True: The Making of 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' (2006); All the President's Men (1976); Amateur (2005); American Experience (2002); American Masters (2000); Animaniacs (2020–2023); Arena (2000); As You Wish: The Story of 'The Princess Bride' (2001); Be Water / 30 for 30 (2014); Biography (1995–2000); Butch and Sundance: The Early Days (1979); Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969); Chaplin (1992); Charlie Rose (1997); Checkpoint Echo (2006); Da Vinci (1996); Dateline NBC (2006); Dolores Claiborne (1995); Dreamcatcher (2003); Fierce Creatures (1997); Film Genre (2002); Film Noir: Bringing Darkness to Light (2006); Fry's Planet Word (2011); Going the Distance: Remembering 'Marathon Man' (2001); Good Will Hunting (1997); Harper (1966); HBO First Look (2003); Hearts in Atlantis (2001); Heat (1986); History vs. Hollywood (2001); Hollywood Insider (2021); Home Movie: The Princess Bride (2020); Inside the Actors Studio (1994); Last Action Hero (1993); Magic (1978); Malice (1993); Marathon Man (1976); Masquerade (1965); Maverick (1994); Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992); Minty Comedic Arts (2019); Miracles and Mystery: Creating 'the Green Mile' (2006); Misery (1990); Misery Loves Company (2002); Movie Night Extravaganza (2022); Moving Pictures (1990); Mr. Horn (1979); NBA 100 Greatest Plays (1999); No Way to Treat a Lady (1968); On Location with 'Gunga Din' (2004); Out of the Shadows: The Man Who Was Deep Throat (2006); Papillon (1973); Pierrot the Fool / Cannes Film Festival (1988); Richard Attenborough: A Life (2014); Screenwriters: Word Into Image (1982); Screenwriting for Dummies (2006); ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway (2007); Soldier in the Rain (1963); Tales from the Script (2009); Talking Pictures (1988); TCM Remembers 2018 (2018); Telling the Truth About Lies: The Making of 'All the President's Men' (2006); The 45th Annual Academy Awards (1973); The 49th Annual Academy Awards (1977); The Chamber (1996); The Garden's Defining Moments (2015); The General's Daughter (1999); The Ghost and the Darkness (1996); The Gospel According to Bill (2010); The Great Waldo Pepper (1975); The Hot Rock (1972); The Human Face (2001); The Making of 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' (1970); The Oscars (2019); The Princess Bride (1987 / 1999 / 2012); The Princess Bride Making Of (1987); The South Bank Show (1990–2009); The Stepford Wives (1975); The War of the Roses (1989); True Love: The Princess Bride Phenomenon - Entering the Zeitgeist (2012); Twins (1988); Under Suspicion (2000); Wild Card (2015); Year of the Comet (1992).

On this day in movie history – Harper a.k.a. The Moving Target (1966 movie & novel):

Harper

directed by Jack Smight,

written by William Goldman,

based on the novel The Moving Target by Ross Macdonald,

was released in the United States on February 23, 1966.

Music by Johnny Mandel.

Cast:

Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, Julie Harris, Arthur Hill, Janet Leigh, Pamela Tiffin, Robert Wagner, Robert Webber, Shelley Winters, Harold Gould, Roy Jenson, Strother Martin.

Recommended reading:

The Moving Target

aka Harper.

By Ross MacDonald.

ISBN-10: 037570146X

ISBN-13: 978-0375701467

Published 1949.

Back cover description:

CRIME FICTION

“Ross Macdonald remains the grandmaster, taking the crime novel to new heights by imbuing it with psychological resonance, complexity of story, and richness of style that remain awe-inspiring. Those of us in his wake owe a debt that can never be paid. – Jonathan Kellerman.

Like many Southern California millionaires, Ralph Sampson keeps odd company. There’s the sun-worshipping holy man whom Sampson once gave his very own mountain; the fading actress with sidelines in astrology and S&M. Now one of Sampson’s friends may have arranged his kidnapping. And as Lew Archer follows the clues from the canyon sanctuaries of the megarich to jazz joints where you get beaten up between sets, The Moving Target blends sex, greed, and family hatred into an explosively readable crime novel.

“Macdonald is one of a handful of writers in the [mystery] genre whose worth and quality surpass the limitations of the form.” – Los Angeles Times.

If any writer can be said to have inherited the mantle of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, it was Ross Macdonald. Between the later 1940s and his death in 1983, he gave the American crime novel a psychological depth and moral complexity that his predecessors had only hinted at. And in the character of Lew Archer, Macdonald redefined the private eye as a roving conscience whop walks the treacherous frontier between criminal guilt and human sin.

VINTAGE CRIME / BLACK LIZARD

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