Born on this day – Alice White:

Alice White

Actress

August 25, 1904 – February 19, 1983

Credits:

3-Ring Marriage (1928); A Trip Thru a Hollywood Studio (1935); A Very Honorable Guy (1934); A Woman of the Sea (1926); Annabel Takes a Tour (1938); Big City (1937); Breakfast at Sunrise (1927); Broadway Babies (1929); Broadway Highlights No. 2 (1935); Coronado (1935); Cross Country Cruise (1934); Employees' Entrance (1933); Fashion News (1930); Flamingo Road (1949); Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1928); Gift of Gab (1934); Girls' Town (1942); Girls Will Be Boys (1929); Harold Teen (1928); Hollywood and the Stars (1963); Hollywood on Parade No. A-12 (1933); Hollywood on Parade No. A-13 (1933); Hollywood on Parade No. B-6 (1934); Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical History - The 1920s: The Dawn of the Hollywood Musical (2008); Hot Stuff (1929); Jimmy the Gent (1934); King for a Night (1933); King of the Newsboys (1938); Lingerie (1928); Luxury Liner (1933); Mad Hour (1928); Naughty Baby (1928); Picture Snatcher (1933); Playing Around (1930); Secret of the Chateau (1934); Show Girl (1928); Show Girl in Hollywood (1930); Show of Shows (1929); Sweet Mama (1930); Sweet Music (1935); Sweethearts on Parade (1930); Telephone Operator (1937); The American Beauty (1927); The Ann Sothern Show (1958); The Big Noise (1928); The Dice Woman (1926); The Dove (1927); The Girl from Woolworth's (1929); The Hollywood Gad-About (1934); The Naughty Flirt (1930); The Night of January 16th (1941); The Private Life of Helen of Troy (1927); The Satin Woman (1927); The Sea Tiger (1927); The Widow from Chicago (1930).

Author humor:

Why we read:

Recommended reading - Double Indemnity (1943):

Double Indemnity (1943).

By James M. Cain.

Published by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 9780679723226

ISBN-13: 978-0679723226

Description:

“An American masterpiece.” – Ross Macdonald.

Walter Huff was an insurance salesman with an unfailing instinct for clients who might be in trouble, and his instinct led him to Phyllis Nirdlinger. Phyllis wanted to buy an accident policy on her husband. Then she wanted her husband to have an accident. Walter wanted Phyllis. To get her, he would arrange the perfect murder and betray everything he had ever lived for.

Tautly narrated and excruciatingly suspenseful, Double Indemnity gives us an X-ray view of guilt, of duplicity, and of the kind of obsessive, loveless love that devastates everything it touches. First published in 1935, this novel reaffirmed James M. Cain as a virtuoso of the roman noir.

“No one has ever stopped reading in the middle of one of Jim Cain’s books.” – Saturday Review of Literature.

Recommended reading - The Age of Dimes and Pulps: A History of Sensationalist Literature, 1830-1960 (2018):

The Age of Dimes and Pulps: A History of Sensationalist Literature, 1830-1960 (2018).

By Jeremy Agnew.

Published by McFarland.

Illustrated edition.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 1476669481

ISBN-13: 978-1476669489

Description:

From the dime novels of the Civil War era to the pulp magazines of the early 20th century to modern paperbacks, lurid fiction has provided thrilling escapism for the masses. Cranking out formulaic stories of melodrama, crime and mild erotica – often by uncredited authors focused more on volume than quality – publishers realized high profits playing to low tastes. Estimates put pulp magazine circulation in the 1930s at 30 million monthly.

This vast body of "disposable literature" has received little critical attention, in large part because much of it has been lost – the cheaply made books were either discarded after reading or soon disintegrated. Covering the history of pulp literature from 1850 through 1960, the author describes how sensational tales filled a public need and flowered during the evolving social conditions of the Industrial Revolution.

Ann Patchett, on writing:

That's the way I work.

I get it all plotted in my mind, and then I write it down.

- Ann Patchett.

On this day in movie history - Sniper: The White Raven (2022):

Sniper: The White Raven

directed by Marian Bushan,

written by Marian Bushan and Mykola Voronin,

based on the true life and experiences of Mykola Voronin,

was released in Ukraine on August 24, 2022.
Music by Nadiia Odesuk / Nadya Odesyuk.

Saturday, August 24, 2024.

My forthcoming nonfiction book on movies is going through its final revisions, with 437 pages complete.

I first saw Sniper: The White Raven back in April (2024), on The Movie Channel.

After watching it, I had to include and recommend it in my book.

Based on the true life and experiences of Mykola Voronin, an ecologist, teacher and writer.

He lived a simple life off the grid with his wife, Nastya, in Donbas, Ukraine.

In 2014, Russian soldiers invaded and murdered his wife.

Mykola, fueled by rage and the need for justice and vengeance for his wife, enlisted in the Ukrainian Army.

He trained, became a sniper, and fought back.

He switched from idealistic pacifist to warrior, assigning himself the codename Raven, in reference to the White Raven symbol his wife placed in stones outside their home.

Mykola vowed to defend Ukraine.

Russia senselessly invaded Ukraine again in 2022.

This movie and true story couldn’t be more topical or important.

Powerful.

Real.

Raw.

Tragic.

Heartbreaking.

We stand with Ukraine.

Victory to Ukraine.

Glory to Ukraine.

Slava Ukraini.

Cast:

Pavlo Aldoshyn, Maryna Koshkina, Andrey Mostrenko, Roman Semysal, Oleg Drach, Roman Yasinovskiy, Oleg Shulga, Vadim Lyalko, Vadim Kurilko, Vladyslav Dmytrenko, Eugen Volosheniuk, Oleksandr Bykov, Serhiy Artemenko, Egor Kozlov, Zachary Shadrin, Olena Chervonenko, Demyan Radzivilyuk, Alina Karpenko, Anatoly Tikhomirov, Yanina Andreeva, Evhen Chernykov, Igor Parkhomenko, Vitaliy Kovalskyy, Oleksiy Storozhuk, Vitaliy Belskyy, Aleksandr Dyumin, Oleksiy Nakonechnyi, Andriy Yakubov, Kyrylo Goz, Vitaly Kalyuzhny, Mike Parish, Adrian Petriw.