On this day in movie history – Network (movie & book):

Network

directed by Sidney Lumet,

written by Paddy Chayefsky,

was released in the United States on November 27, 1976.
Music by Elliot Lawrence.

Cast:

Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall, Wesley Addy, Ned Beatty, Arthur Burghardt, Bill Burrows, John Carpenter, Jordan Charney, Kathy Cronkite, Ed Crowley, Jerome Dempsey, Conchata Ferrell, Gene Gross, Stanley Grover, Cindy Grover, Darryl Hickman, Mitchell Jason, Paul Jenkins, Ken Kercheval, Kenneth Kimmins, Lynn Klugman, Carolyn Krigbaum, Zane Lasky, Michael Lipton, Michael Lombard, Pirie MacDonald, Russ Petranto, Bernard Pollock, Roy Poole, William Prince, Sasha von Scherler, Lane Smith, Ted Sorel, Beatrice Straight, Fred Stuthman, Cameron Thomas, Marlene Warfield, Lydia Wilen, Lee Richardson, Robert P. Cohen, Andrew Duncan, Todd Everett, John Gabriel, Tom Gibney, Lance Henriksen, Raymond Martino, John Pashley, Michael Tucker.

Recommended reading:

Mad as Hell:

The Making of Network and the Fateful Vision of the Angriest Man in Movies

By Dave Itzkoff.

Published by Picador.

Published 2015.

ISBN-10: 1250062241

ISBN-13: 9781250062246

Description:

"Dave Itzkoff takes us on an extraordinary journey, and in the process reveals Chayefsky's prognosis for TV, a prognosis we've chosen to ignore even as it's come true before our eyes." – Forbes.

"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

Those words, spoken by an unhinged anchorman named Howard Beale, "the mad prophet of the airwaves," took America by storm in 1976, when Network became a sensation. With a superb cast (including Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, and Robert Duvall) directed by Sidney Lumet, the film won four Oscars and indelibly shaped how we think about corporate and media power.

In Mad As Hell, Dave Itzkoff of The New York Times recounts the surprising and dramatic story of how Network made it to the screen, and of Paddy Chayefsky, the tough, driven, Oscar-winning screenwriter who envisioned a world – outlandish for its time – that is all too real today. Itzkoff vividly re-creates the action behind the camera at a time of swirling cultural turmoil. The result is a riveting account that enriches our appreciation of this prophetic and still-startling film.

On this day in movie history - The Turning Point (1952):

The Turning Point

directed by William Dieterle,

written by Warren Duff,

based on a story by Horace McCoy,

was released in the United States on November 14, 1952.
Music by Irvin Talbot, Miklós Rózsa and Victor Young.

Cast:

William Holden, Edmond O’Brien, Alexis Smith, Tom Tully, Ed Begley, Danny Dayton, Adele Longmire, Ray Teal, Ted de Corsia, Don Porter, Howard Freeman, Neville Brand, Carolyn Jones.

On this day in movie history - The Blue Knight (movie & novel):

The Blue Knight

directed by Robert Butler,

written by E. Jack Newman,

based on the novel by Joseph Wambaugh,

a four-part made-for-TV film,

was originally broadcast on NBC from November 11 – 14, 1973.
Music by Nelson Riddle.

Cast:

William Holden, Lee Remick, Joe Santos, Sam Elliott, Eileen Brennan, Vic Tayback, Anne Archer, Lucille Benson, Ja'net DuBois, Mario Roccuzzo, Jamie Farr, David Moody, Gloria LeRoy, Richard Collier, Kenneth Wolger, George DiCenzo, Raymond Guth, Emile Meyer, Ernest Esparza III, John Quade, Janit Baldwin, Arell Blanton, Helen Boll, Simmy Bow, Don Calfa, Lou Cutell, Alan Fudge, John Furlong, Stan Haze, Howard Hesseman, Randy Kirby, Jon Korkes, Arthur Malet, Karmin Murcelo, Rudy Ramos, Paul Reid Roman, Lee Weaver, Jason Wingreen, Richard 'Dub' Wright, Harry Arnie, Katharine Bard, James Beach, Nanci Beck, Norland Benson, Roxanne Bonilla, Claire Brennen, Thomas Paul Carey, Ric Carrott, Stanley Bennett Clay, Patrick Dennis-Leigh, Larry Duran, Joseph X. Flaherty, Ben Frommer, Eddra Gale, Janie Greenspun, Raven Grey Eagle, Margie Haber, Monika Henreid, Janear Hines, Jan-Minika Hughes, J.S. Johnson, Richard E. Kalk, Wayne King Sr., Dudley Knight, Maryann Krakow, Bob Lauher, Norma Lee, David Lipp, Jay W. MacIntosh, E. Jack Neuman, Douglas T. O'Dell, Tim O'Denning, Danny 'Big Black' Rey, Richard Sarradet, Jeffrey Sayre, Christopher Seitz, Ken Smedberg, Nick St. Nicholas, Michael Stearns, Jack Tesler, Russell Thorson, Tom Tolbert, Dino Washington, John Sylvester White, Clint Young.

Recommended reading:

The Blue Knight

By Joseph Wambaugh.

First published 1972.

Published by Grand Central Publishing.

Mass Market Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0446509191

ISBN-13: 978-0446509190

Description:

Ex-cop turned #1 New York Times bestselling writer Joseph Wambaugh forged a new kind of literature with his great early police procedurals. Gritty, luminous, and ultimately stunning, this novel is Wambaugh at his best – a tale of a street cop on the hardest beat of his life.

The Blue Knight.

Twenty and two. Those are the numbers turning in the mind of William "Bumper" Morgan: twenty years on the job, two days before he "pulls the pin" and walks away from it forever. But on the gritty streets of L.A., people look at Bumper like some kind of knight in armor – they've plied him with come-ons, hot tips, and the hard respect a man can't earn anywhere else. Now, with a new job and a good woman waiting for him, a kinky thief terrorizing L.A.'s choice hotels, and a tragedy looming, Bumper Morgan is about to face the only thing that can scare him: the demons that he's been hiding behind his bright and shiny badge...

“Marvelous … realistic, frightening, touching in its humanity. – Detroit Free Press.

“An extraordinary piece of craftsmanship.” – Los Angeles Times.

On this day in movie history - Sunset Boulevard (1950):

Sunset Boulevard

aka SUNSET BLVD.,

directed by Billy Wilder,

written by Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder and D. M. Marshman Jr.,

was released in the United States on August 10, 1950.
Music by Franz Waxman.

Cast:

William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson, Fred Clark, Lloyd Gough, Jack Webb, Franklyn Farnum, Larry J. Blake, Charles Dayton, Cecil B. DeMille, Hedda Hopper, Buster Keaton, Anna Q. Nilsson, H.B. Warner, Ray Evans, Jay Livingston, Fred Aldrich, Joel Allen, Gertrude Astor, Anne Bauchens, Edward Biby, Danny Borzage, Ken Christy, Ruth Clifford, John Cortay, Archie R. Dalzell, Eddie Dew, Peter Drynan, Julia Faye, Al Ferguson, Gerry Ganzer, Rudy Germane, Kenneth Gibson, Joe Gray, Sanford E. Greenwald, Creighton Hale, Chuck Hamilton, James Hawley, Len Hendry, E. Mason Hopper, Stan Johnson, Tiny Jones, Howard Joslin, Arthur Lane, Perc Launders, Alan Marston, William Meader, Gertrude Messinger, Harold Miller, John ‘Skins’ Miller, Lee Miller, Ralph Montgomery, Bert Moorhouse, Jay Morley, Bernice Mosk, Howard Negley, Ottola Nesmith, Eva Novak, Frank O’Connor, Robert Emmett O’Connor, Jack Perrin, Virginia L. Randolph, Bill Sheehan, Sidney Skolsky, Emmett Smith, Roy Thompson, Archie Twitchell, Yvette Vickers, Edward Wahrman, Jack Warden, Henry Wilcoxon.

On this day in movie history - The Wild Bunch (1969):

The Wild Bunch

directed by Sam Peckinpah,

written by Walon Green and Sam Peckinpah,

based on a story by Walon Green and Roy N. Sickner,

was released in the United States on June 18, 1969.
Music by Jerry Fielding.

Cast:

William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O'Brien, Warren Oates, Jaime Sánchez, Ben Johnson, Emilio Fernández, Strother Martin, L. Q. Jones, Albert Dekker, Bo Hopkins, Jorge Russek, Alfonso Arau, Dub Taylor, Chano Urueta, Elsa Cárdenas, Fernando Wagner, Paul Harper, Bill Hart, Rayford Barnes, Stephen Ferry, Sonia Amelio, Aurora Clavel, Elizabeth Dupeyrón.

On this day in movie history - Damien: Omen II (1978):

Damien: Omen II

directed by Don Taylor and Mike Hodges,

written by Stanley Mann and Mike Hodges,

based on a story by Harvey Bernhard,

was released in the United States on June 9, 1978.
Music by Jerry Goldsmith.

Cast:

William Holden, Lee Grant, Jonathan Scott-Taylor, Robert Foxworth, Nicholas Pryor, Lew Ayres, Sylvia Sidney, Lance Henriksen, Elizabeth Shepherd, Lucas Donat, Allan Arbus, Fritz Ford, Meshach Taylor, John J. Newcombe, John Charles Burns, Paul Cook, Diane Daniels, Robert E. Ingham, William B. Fosser, Corney Morgan, Russell P. Delia, Judith Dowd, Thomas O. Erhart Jr., Sorin Serene Pricopie, Robert J. Jones Jr., Rusdi Lane, Charles Mountain, Cornelia Sanders, Felix Shuman, James Spinks, Owen Sullivan, William J. Whelehan, Ian Hendry, Gus Kaprales, Leo McKern.