Born on this day – Ralph Wright:

Ralph Wright

Animator

Writer

Director

Actor

May 17, 1908 – December 31, 1983

Born on this day – Jean Gabin:

Jean Gabin

Actor

Singer

May 17, 1904 – November 15, 1976

Born on this day – Ruth Donnelly:

Ruth Donnelly

Actress

May 17, 1896 – November 17, 1982

Credits:

13 Hours by Air (1936); A Lawless Street (1955); A Slight Case of Murder (1938); Alibi Ike (1935); Annabel Takes a Tour (1938); Army Girl (1938); Autumn Leaves (1956); Behind the Scenes of Cain and Mabel (1936); Blessed Event (1932); Breakdowns of 1944 (1945); Bureau of Missing Persons (1933); Busby Berkeley (1974); Cain and Mabel (1936); Cavalcade of America (1957); Cinderella Jones (1946); Convention City (1933); Cross My Heart (1946); Crossroads (1956); Down to the Sea in Ships (1949); East Side/West Side (1963); Employees' Entrance (1933); Ever in My Heart (1933); Fatal Lady (1936); Female (1933); Fighting Father Dunne (1948); Footlight Parade (1933); Goodbye Again (1933); Hands Across the Table (1935); Happiness Ahead (1934); Hard to Handle (1933); Harris Against the World (1964); Havana Widows (1933); Heat Lightning (1934); Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage (1983); Housewife (1934); How I Play Golf by Bobby Jones, No. 2: 'Chip Shots' (1931); How to Break 90 #6: Fine Points (1933); I'd Climb the Highest Mountain (1951); In All Things Moderation (1914); In Old Sacramento (1946); Jewel Robbery (1932); Johnny Doughboy (1942); Just Around the Corner (1933); Ladies They Talk About (1933); Lilly Turner (1933); Little Miss Broadway (1947); Make Me a Star (1932); Mandalay (1934); Maybe It's Love (1935); Mayor of the Town (1954); Meet the Girls (1938); Meet the Missus (1940); Merry Wives of Reno (1934); Millie's Daughter (1947); Model Wife (1941); More Than a Secretary (1936); Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936); Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939); My Little Chickadee (1940); Personal Maid's Secret (1935); Personal Secretary (1938); Petticoat Politics (1941); Pillow to Post (1945); Portia on Trial (1937); Private Detective 62 (1933); Red Salute (1935); Rise and Shine (1941); Roaring Timber (1937); Romance in the Rain (1934); Rubber Heels (1927); Sailors on Leave (1941); Saved by a Song (1916); Scatterbrain (1940); Sing Sinner Sing (1933); Sleepy Lagoon (1943); Song and Dance Man (1936); Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943); The Affairs of Annabel (1938); The Amazing Mr. Williams (1939); The Bells of St. Mary's (1945); The Doctors and the Nurses (1965); The Fabulous Texan (1947); The Family Next Door (1939); The Gay Vagabond (1941); The Ghost Goes Wild (1947); The Imogene Coca Show (1954–1955); The Imogene Coca Show (1955); The Lady of the Island (1914); The Man Who Lost, But Won (1914); The Rainbow Trail (1932); The Round Up (1941); The Secret of Convict Lake (1951); The Skull (1914); The Snake Pit (1948); The Spider (1931); The Spoilers (1955); The Tenth Commandment (1914); The Way to the Gold (1957); The White Cockatoo (1935); The Wild Blue Yonder (1951); This Is the Army (1943); 'Tis Spring (1933); Transatlantic (1931); Traveling Saleslady (1935); Vacation Daze (1935); When the Heart Calls (1914); Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950); Wicked (1931); Wonder Bar (1934); You Belong to Me (1941).

Recommended reading - The Long Good Friday, screenplay by Barrie Keefe (2006):

The Long Good Friday

screenplay by Barrie Keefe.

Filmed as The Long Good Friday (1980), directed by John Mackenzie.

Published by Methuen Publishing.

Published 2006.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0413722902

ISBN-13: 978-0413722904

Description:

The first British thriller to even approach the cracking vitality of the classic Hollywood gangster movies ...dazzlingly slick. – Daily Mail.

The best British gangster flick of all time. – Empire.

Barrie Keeffe's acclaimed screenplay for the classic film. Harold Shand has made it from Whitechapel to running his own 'corporation' and owning his own yacht and classy mistress. He has the police and the local authorities in his pocket, is planning a major London property development and forging links with the international Mafia. Everything indeed is coming up roses for Harold until the Easter weekend when enemies unknown embark on a series of lethal outrages against his organisation. As the story accelerates to a crazy vortex of violence, Harold discovers he has unwittingly crossed enemies whose connections, expertise and dedication to violence outclass his own.

Recommended reading - In a Lonely Place, by Dorothy B. Hughes (1947):

In a Lonely Place

By Dorothy B. Hughes.

Filmed as In a Lonely Place (1950), directed by Nicholas Ray.

Published by NYRB Classics.

First published 1947.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 1681371472

ISBN-13: 978-1681371474

Description:

Los Angeles in the late 1940s is a city of promise and prosperity, but not for former fighter pilot Dix Steele. To his mind nothing has come close to matching “that feeling of power and exhilaration and freedom that came with loneness in the sky.” He prowls the foggy city night – bus stops and stretches of darkened beaches and movie houses just emptying out – seeking solitary young women. His funds are running out and his frustrations are growing. Where is the good life he was promised? Why does he always get a raw deal? Then he hooks up with his old Air Corps buddy Brub, now working for the LAPD, who just happens to be on the trail of the strangler who’s been terrorizing the women of the city for months...

Written with controlled elegance, Dorothy B. Hughes’s tense novel is at once an early indictment of a truly toxic masculinity and a twisty page-turner with a surprisingly feminist resolution. A classic of golden age noir, In a Lonely Place also inspired Nicholas Ray’s 1950 film of the same name, starring Humphrey Bogart.

Stella Adler, on art:

Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.

- Stella Adler.

On this day in music history - Sing Like A Siren, by Within Temptation & Jerry Heil (2025):

Sing Like A Siren

Song by Within Temptation & Jerry Heil,
released May 16, 2025.