Thursday, August 14, 2025

Born on this day – Angela Clarke:


Angela Clarke


Actress

August 14, 1909 – December 16, 2010

Credits:

A Double Life (1947); Alcoa Premiere (1962); Alias Smith and Jones (1971); All in the Family (1979); Arnie (1970); Backlash (1947); Baretta (1977–1978); Ben Casey (1961); Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953); Blindfold (1966); Bonanza (1965–1970); Bracken's World (1970); Brookside (1983); Cagney & Lacey (1984); Captain Carey, U.S.A. (1949); Cinemassacre's Monster Madness (2009); Combat! (1963); Daniel Boone (1966); Darling, How Could You! (1951); Death Valley Days (1965–1969); Dr. Kildare (1966); Dundee and the Culhane (1967); Fantasy Island (1978); Going My Way (1962); Gunsmoke (1962–1964); Harrad Summer (1974); Her Sister's Secret (1946); Houdini (1953); House of Wax (1953); Insight (1974–1980); It's a Big Country: An American Anthology (1951); Killer in the Mirror (1986); Kojak (1974); MacGyver (1985); Mission: Impossible (1967); Mr. Novak (1965); Mr. Soft Touch (1949); Mrs. Mike (1949); My Favorite Spy (1951); Night Song (1947); Nightmare Honeymoon (1974); Outrage (1950); Petrocelli (1974–1975); Rich Man, Poor Man (1976); St. Elsewhere (1984); The Bounty Hunter (1954); The Doctor and the Girl (1949); The Egyptian (1954); The Ghost of Flight 401 (1978); The Girl Most Likely to... (1973); The Great Caruso (1951); The Gunfighter (1950); The Harlem Globetrotters (1951); The High Chaparral (1968); The Interns (1962); The Killer That Stalked New York (1950); The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima (1952); The Outer Limits (1964); The Partridge Family (1973); The Savage (1952); The Seven Little Foys (1955); The Snake Pit (1948); The Undercover Man (1949); The Untouchables (1962–1963); The Virginian (1966); The Young Lawyers (1970); Undercover Girl (1950); Visions (1977); Voyagers! (1983); Woman in Hiding (1950).

Born on this day – Letitia Elizabeth Landon:


Letitia Elizabeth Landon


Writer

August 14, 1802 – October 15, 1838

Credits:

Books:

Calendar of the London Seasons (1834); Castruccio Castrucani (date?); Duty and Inclination (1838); Ethel Churchill (1837); Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Books (1832–1839); Flowers of Loveliness (1838); Fragments in Rhyme (1822); Francesca Carrara (1834); Lady Anne Granard (1842); Medallion Wafers (1823); Metrical versions of the Odes tr. in Corinne, or Italy by Madame de StaĆ«l (1833); Pictorial Album (1837); Poetic Sketches (1822); Poetical Catalogue of Pictures (1823); Romance and Reality (1831); Schloss's (English) Bijou Almanacks (1836–1839); Subjects for Pictures (1836);  The Book of Beauty (1833); The Easter Gift (1832); The Enchantress and Other Tales / The Novelists Magazine 1 (1833); The Fate of Adelaide (1821); The Female Picture Gallery (1838);  The Golden Violet with its tales of Romance and Chivalry, and other poems (1827); The Improvisatrice and other poems (1824); The Love Letter (1816); The Marriage Vow (date?); The Troubadour (1825); The Venetian Bracelet, The Lost Pleiad, A History of the Lyre and other poems (1829); The Vow of the Peacock and other poems (1835); The Zenana, and minor poems of L.E.L. London (1839); Traits and Trials of Early Life (1836); Versions from the German (1835).

Recommended reading - The Mammoth Book of Private Eye Stories (1988):


The Mammoth Book of Private Eye Stories

Edited by Bill Pronzini and Martin H. Greenberg.

Published by Running Press.
First published 1988,
This revised edition published in 2004.
Paperback.
ISBN-10: 0786713712
ISBN-13: 978-0786713714

Description:

The very best in hardboiled fiction, from such masters as Ross Macdonald, Raymond Chandler, Marcia Muller, Michael Collins, Ed McBain, William Campbell Gault and many more.

With its roots in the American private detective fiction of the 1920s but traceable back as far as Sherlock Holmes, the private eye story remains as popular as ever. Here are 24 of the finest short novels and stories from the hardboiled world of the private eye. The characters in this collection range from the tough, cynical, hard-drinking Philip Marlowe type to hard-hitting female private eyes and the one-armed intellectual Dan Fortune – from masters of the genre past and present.

Ray Bradbury, on writing:


Find out what your hero or heroine wants,
and when he or she wakes up in the morning,
just follow him or her all day.

- Ray Bradbury.

Wednesday, August 13, 2025

On this day in movie history - Hard Times (1975):


Hard Times

aka The Streetfighter,
directed by Walter Hill,
written by Walter Hill, Bryan Gindoff and Bruce Henstell,
based on a story by Bryan Gindoff and Bruce Henstell,
was released in France on August 13, 1975.
Music by Barry De Vorzon.


Cast:

Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Jill Ireland, Strother Martin, Margaret Blye, Michael McGuire, Felice Orlandi, Edward Walsh, Bruce Glover, Robert Tessier, Nick Dimitri, Frank McRae, Maurice Kowalewski, Naomi Stevens, Lyla Hay Owen, John Creamer, Robert Castleberry, Becky Allen, Joan Kleven, Anne Welsch, Fred Lerner, Jimmy Nickerson, Chuck Hicks, Walter Scott, Max Kleven, Valerian Smith, Bob Minor, Larry Martindale, Charles W. Schaefer Jr., Leslie Bonano, Ronnie Philips, Greater Liberty Baptist Church Choir and Congregation, Ron Centanni, M.C. Gainey, Brion James, Laura Misch Owens.

On this day in movie history - The Big Country (1958):


The Big Country

directed by William Wyler,
written by James R. Webb, Sy Bartlett and Robert Wilder,
based on the novel Ambush at Blanco Canyon by Donald Hamilton,
was released in the United States on August 13, 1958.
Music by Jerome Moross.


Cast:

Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston, Burl Ives, Charles Bickford, Alfonso Bedoya, Chuck Connors, Chuck Hayward, Buff Brady, Jim Burk, Dorothy Adams, Chuck Roberson, Bob Morgan, John McKee, Slim Talbot, Richard Alexander, Rudy Bowman, Harry Cheshire, Chuck Hamilton, George Huggins, Jay W. Jensen, Donald Kerr, Burt Mustin, Carey Paul Peck, Jonathan Peck, Stephen Peck, Ralph Sanford, Scott Seaton.

On this day in movie history - Too Late for Tears (1949):


Too Late for Tears

directed by Byron Haskin,
inspired by the April 1947 serial in the Saturday Evening Post,
and the July 1947 novel by Roy Huggins,
was released in the United States on August 13, 1949.
Music by R. Dale Butts.


Cast:

Lizabeth Scott, Don DeFore, Dan Duryea, Arthur Kennedy, Kristine Miller, Barry Kelley, Billy Halop, Denver Pyle, Smoki Whitfield.