Born on this day – Charlotte Perkins Gilman:

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Writer

July 3, 1860 – August 17, 1935

Credits:

Books:

40 Short Stories (2004); 65 Great Spine Chillers (1982); A Chamber of Horrors (1965); A Journey from Within (1995); American Christmas Stories (2021); American Fantastic Tales (2009); American Gothic Tales (1996); American Midnight (2019); Benigna Machiavelli (1914); Best Horror Short Stories 1850-1899 (2016); Black Water 2 (1990); Classic Tales of Horror (1976); Concerning Children (1900); Dark (2000); Deadlier (2017); Evil Roots (2019); Growth and Combat (1916); H. P. Lovecraft's Book of the Supernatural (2010); Haunted Houses (1983); Haunting Women (1988); Herland (1915); Herland and Selected Stories (1992); His Religion and Hers (1923); Human Work (1904); Humanness (1913); If I Were a Man (1914); In the Shadow of Edgar Allan Poe (2015); In This Our World (1893); Man-made World (1911); Medusa's Daughters (2020); Moon Stricken (2017); Moving the Mountain (1911); Novels, Stories & Poems (2022); Open at Your Own Risk (1975); Our Brains and What Ails Them (1912); Selected Short Stories from the 19th Century (2000); Social Ethics (1914); Spores of Doom (2025); Suffrage Songs and Verses (1911); Tales from Beyond the Stars (2024); Tales of the Dark (1987); The 9th Fontana Book of Great Horror Stories (1975); The American Fantasy Tradition (2002); The Charlotte Perkins Gilman Reader (1980); The Crux (1910); The Dark Descent (1997); The Diaries of Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1994); The Dress of Women (1915); The Home, Its Work and Influence (1903); The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1935); The Medusa in the Shield (1990); The Oxford Book of American Short Stories (1992); The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales (1992); The Penguin Book of Classic Fantasy by Women (1977); The Treasury of the Fantastic (2000); The Yellow Wallpaper (1892); The Yellow Wallpaper / Herland (2021); The Yellow Wall-Paper and Selected Writings (2020); The Yellow Wall-paper, Herland, and Selected Writings (2009); The Yellow Wallpaper: and Other Writings (1980); The Yellow Wallpaper: And Selected Stories (2024); Unpunished (1997); Weird Women (2020); What Diantha Did (1910); When I Was a Witch & Other Stories (2023); White Fire (1991); Witches' Brew (1984); With Her in Ourland (1916); Wolf's Complete Book of Terror (1979); Women and Economics (1898).

Movies and television:

Confinement (2009); Dead Meat Podcast (2023); HERESY! (2021); Mad/woman (2022); New Chilling Tales: The Anthology (2019); Paper Walls (1992); Scary Stories Around the Fire (2023); The Haunted Woman (2019); The Midnight Matinee the Redfield Arts Audio Podcast the Yellow Wallpaper (2023); The Paper Wall (2023); The Yellow Wallpaper (1977 / 1989 / 2012 / 2013 / 2015 / 2017 / 2021); There Might Be Cupcakes (2017); Transfer (2018); Try Not to Die (2025); Where the Girls Are? (2002); Yellow Wallpaper (2020 / 2022).

Recommended reading - Double Indemnity (novel & screenplay):

Double Indemnity

By James M. Cain.

Filmed as:

Double Indemnity (1944), directed by Billy Wilder.

Double Indemnity (1973), directed by Jack Smight.

Published by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard.

Published 1943.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 9780679723226

ISBN-13: 9780679723226

Description:

“An American masterpiece.” – Ross Macdonald.

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

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.

Double Indemnity: The Complete Screenplay

By Billy Wilder, Raymond Chandler, Jeffrey Meyers.

Published by University of California Press.

Published 2000.

ISBN-10: 0520218485

ISBN-13: 9780520218482

Description:

On every level -- writing, direction, acting -- Double Indemnity (1944) is a triumph and stands as one of the greatest achievements in Billy Wilder's career. Adapted from the James M. Cain novel by director Wilder and novelist Raymond Chandler, it tells the story of an insurance salesman, played by Fred MacMurray, who is lured into a murder-for-insurance plot by Barbara Stanwyck, in an archetypal femme fatale role. From its grim story to its dark, atmospheric lighting, Double Indemnity is a definitive example of World War II-era film noir. Wilder's approach is everywhere evident: in the brutal cynicism the film displays, the moral complexity, and in the empathy we feel for the killers. The film received almost unanimous critical success, garnering seven Academy Award nominations. More than fifty years later, most critics agree that this classic is one of the best films of all time. The collaboration between Wilder and Raymond Chandler produced a masterful script and some of the most memorable dialogue ever spoken in a movie.

This facsimile edition of Double Indemnity contains Wilder and Chandler's original -- and quite different -- ending, published here for the first time. Jeffrey Meyers's introduction contextualizes the screenplay, providing hilarious anecdotes about the turbulent collaboration, as well as background information about Wilder and the film's casting and production.

Shannon Hale, on words:

Words can fall hard like a boulder loosed from a cliff.

Words can drift unnoticed like a weed seed on a breeze.

Words can sing.

- Shannon Hale.

On this day in movie history - Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2003):

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi and Motonori Sakakibara,

written by Al Reinert, Jeff Vintar, Jack Fletcher, Bruce B.L. Jurgens and Ramin Mebdy,

based on the Final Fantasy game franchise by Hironobu Sakaguchi,

was released in the United States on July 2, 2003.
Music by Elliot Goldenthal.

Cast:

Ming-Na Wen, Alec Baldwin, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi, Peri Gilpin, Donald Sutherland, James Woods, Keith David, Jean Simmons, Matt McKenzie, John DeMita, Matt Adler, Steve Alterman, David Arnott, Cathy Cavadini, Lanei Chapman, Vicki Davis, Judi M. Durand, Greg Finley, Jack Fletcher, Julia Fletcher, Barbara Harris, David McCharen, Tracy Metro, David Michie, Richard Penn, David Randolph, Andrea Baker, Atsushi Goto, Tsutomu Isobe, Jun Karasawa, Kiyoshi Kobayashi, Rikiya Koyama, Keiko Toda, Akio Ôtsuka, Eric Aten, John DiMaggio, Alex Fernandez, David Rasner, Dwight Schultz, Annie Wu.

On this day in movie history - Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003):

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

directed by Jonathan Mostow,

written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris,

based on the story by John Brancato, Michael Ferris and Tedi Sarafian,

was released in the United States on July 2, 2003.
Music by Marco Beltrami.

Cast:

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, Kristanna Loken, David Andrews, Mark Famiglietti, Earl Boen, Moira Sinise, Chopper Bernet, Christopher Lawford, Carolyn Hennesy, Jay Acovone, M.C. Gainey, Susan Merson, Elizabeth Morehead, Jimmy Snyder, Billy D. Lucas, Brian Sites, Alana Curry, Larry McCormick, Robert Alonzo, Michael Papajohn, Timothy Dowling, Jon Foster, Mark Hicks, Kim Robillard, Matt Gerald, William O’Leary, Rick Zieff, Rebecca Tilney, Chris Hardwick, Helen Eigenberg, Kiki Gorton, Walter von Huene, Jerry Katell, George A. Sack Jr., Eric Ritter.

On this day in movie history - The Great Escape (1963):

The Great Escape

directed by John Sturges,

written by James Clavell and W. R. Burnett,

based on the book by Paul Brickhill,

was released in the United States on July 2, 1963.
Music by Elmer Bernstein.

Cast:

Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, James Donald, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, Hannes Messemer, David McCallum, Gordon Jackson, John Leyton, Angus Lennie, Nigel Stock, Robert Graf, Jud Taylor, Hans Reiser, Harry Riebauer, William Russell, Robert Freitag, Ulrich Beiger, George Mikell, Lawrence Montaigne, Robert Desmond, Til Kiwe, Heinz Weiss, Tom Adams, Karl-Otto Alberty, Arthur Atkinson.

Born on this day – Ron Silver:

Ron Silver

Actor

Director

Producer

July 2, 1946 – March 15, 2009

Credits:

16th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards (2010); A Father's Revenge (1988); A Secret Promise (2011); A Woman of Independent Means (1995); Ali (2001); Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story (1995); American Experience (1999); American Playhouse (1984); American Tragedy (2000); Baker's Dozen (1982); Best Friends (1982); Betrayal (1978); Big Eddie (1975); Billionaire Boys Club (1987); Black and White (1999); Blind Side (1993); Blue Steel (1990); Broken Promises: The United Nations at 60 (2005); Call It Fiction (2006); CBS Mornings (1990); Chain Reaction (1980); Charlie Rose (2000); Chicago Hope (1996–1997); Cineficción Radio (2021); Crossing Jordan (2007); Cutaway (2000); Danger Zone (1996); Deadly Outbreak (1995); Dear Detective (1979); Eat and Run (1986); Enemies, A Love Story (1989); Entertainment Tonight (1991); Exposure (2001); Fahrenhype 9/11 (2004); Festival in Cannes (2001); Find Me Guilty (2006); For Love of Liberty: The Story of America's Black Patriots (2010); Forgotten Prisoners: The Amnesty Files (1990); Garbo Talks (1984); Girl 6 (1996); Hardball with Chris Matthews (2005); Having Babies (1978); HBO First Look (2001); Heat Vision and Jack (1999); Here's Boomer (1980); Hill Street Blues (1983); In the Company of Spies (1999); Jack (2004); Kane & Abel (1985); Kissinger and Nixon (1995); Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1995–1996); Late Night with David Letterman (1982–1988); Law & Order (2004–2007); Law & Order: Trial by Jury (2006); Lifepod (1993); Live Wire (1992); Live with Kelly and Mark (1990); Love Is Strange (1999); Lovesick (1983); Loyalty & Betrayal: The Story of the American Mob (1994); Married to It (1991); Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story (2002); McMillan & Wife (1975); Moving Image Salutes Steven Spielberg (1994); Mr. Saturday Night (1992); Murder at the Mardi Gras (1978); New York: A Documentary Film (1999); Night of 100 Stars III (1990); Oh, God! You Devil (1984); On the Record w/ Brit Hume (2004); PoliWood (2009); Pop Culture Beast's Halloween Horror Picks (2015); Ratz (2000); Real Time with Bill Maher (2004); Red Mercury (2005); Reversal of Fortune (1990); Rhapsody in Bloom (1998); Rhoda (1975–1978); Romancing the Stone (1984); Screen Two (1990); Semi-Tough (1977); Shadow Zone: The Undead Express (1996); Silent Rage (1982); Silkwood (1983); Skeletons (1997); Skin (2003–2005); Strictly Courtroom (2008); The 17th Annual CableACE Awards (1995); The 40th Annual Tony Awards (1986); The 42nd Annual Tony Awards (1988); The 44th Annual Tony Awards (1990); The 46th Annual Tony Awards (1992); The 47th Annual Tony Awards (1993); The 48th Annual Golden Globe Awards 1991 (1991); The 50th Annual Tony Awards (1996); The 61st Primetime Emmy Awards (2009); The 63rd Annual Academy Awards (1991); The 82nd Annual Academy Awards (2010); The Arrival (1996); The Arsenio Hall Show (1989); The Beneficiary (1997); The Dennis Miller Show (1992); The Entity (1982); The Good Policeman (1993); The Goodbye People (1984); The Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts (1994 / 2003); The Mac Davis Show (1976); The Making of 'Ali' (2001); The Practice (2001); The Return of the World's Greatest Detective (1976); The Rockford Files (1976); The Stockard Channing Show (1980); The Ten (2007); The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1990–1991); The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (1992); The West Wing (2001–2006); The White Raven (1998); The Wisher (2002); Timecop (1994); Trapped in Silence (1986); Trying Times (1987); Tunnel Vision (1976); Veronica's Closet (1998–1999); Welcome to L.A. (1976); When Billie Beat Bobby (2001); Who Is Henry Jaglom? (1995); Wiseguy (1988–1989); Word of Honor (1981); Xenophobia (2008).