Thursday, September 25, 2025

Born on this day – Aldo Ray:


Aldo Ray

Actor

September 25, 1926 – March 27, 1991

Born on this day – Ray Nazarro:


Ray Nazarro

Director

Producer

Writer

September 25, 1902 – September 8, 1986

Ray Nazarro photographed with Adele Roberts during the filming of The Desert Horseman (1946)

Born on this day – William Faulkner:


William Faulkner


Writer

September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962

Credits:

Books:

40 Short Stories: A Portable Anthology (2000); 50 Great American Short Stories (1963); 50 Great Short Stories (1952); 65 Great Tales Of Horror (1981); A Fable (1954); A Rose for Emily (1930); Absalom, Absalom! (1936); As I Lay Dying (1930); Barn Burning (1996); Barn Burning and other stories (1939); Big Woods (1955); Collected Stories (1948); Doctor Martino and Other Stories (1934); First Fiction: An Anthology of the First Published Stories by Famous Writers (1994); Flags in the Dust (1973); Go Down, Moses (1942); Growing Up in the South (1991); Intruder in the Dust (1948); Jealousy and Episode (1977); Knight's Gambit (1949); Light in August (1932); Louisiana Stories (1990); Magical Realist Fiction (1984); Marble Faun and a Green Bough (1960); Mayday (1978); Mosquitoes (1927); New Orleans Sketches (1957); Ole Miss Juvenilia (2018); Pylon (1935); Requiem for a Nun (1950); Road to Glory (1981); Sanctuary (1931); Sanctuary and Requiem for a Nun (1954); Sartoris (1929); Selected Short Stories (1956); Short Story Masterpieces: 35 Classic American and British Stories from the First Half of the 20th Century (1954); Soldiers' Pay (1926); Stories of the Modern South (1977); The Bear (1942); The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century (2000); The Best American Short Stories of the Century (2000); The Best Horror Stories (1977); The Essential Faulkner (2013); The Hamlet (1940); The Mansion (1959); The Marionettes (1978); The Reivers (1962); The Short Story: 30 Masterpieces (1992); The Sound and the Fury (1929); The Town (1957); The Unvanquished (1938); The Wild Palms / If I Forget Thee Jerusalem (1939); These 13 (1931); Three Famous Short Novels (1958); Uncle Willy and Other Stories (1967); Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner (1979); Wishing Tree (1927); World's Great Mystery Stories (1943); Writers At Work: The Paris Review Interviews (1957); Writers: Their Lives and Works (2018); Writing Los Angeles (2002).

Movies and television:

A Rose for Emily (1983); Adventures of Don Juan (1948); Air Force (1943); As I Lay Dying (2013); Background to Danger (1943); Barn Burning (1980); Camera Three (1956–1958); Cheyenne (1956); Climax! (1954–1955); Deep Valley (1947); Dim (1958); Drums Along the Mohawk (1939); Estudio 1 (1977); Fireside Theatre (1952); Flesh (1932); Four Men and a Prayer (1938); Fumée / Smoke (1961); General Electric Theater (1960); God Is My Co-Pilot (1945); Gunga Din (1939); Intruder in the Dust (1949); Invitation au voyage (2021); Kaki Bakar (1995); Land of the Pharaohs (1955); Lazy River (1934); Lux Video Theatre (1953–1957); Mildred Pierce (1945); Mississippi Requiem (2018); Moi, général de Gaulle (1990); Noga (1991); Northern Pursuit (1943); Old Man (1997); Omnibus / Segment: William Faulkner (1952); Playhouse 90 (1958–1960); Playwrights '56 (1955); Relatos Clásicos de Misterio y Terror (2020); Requiem for a Nun (1975); Requiem für eine Nonne (1965); Sanctuary (1961); Slave Ship (1937); Sling Blade (1996); Submarine Patrol (1938); Suspense (1954); Tales from the Hollywood Hills: Golden Land (1988); The Bear (1980); The Big Sleep (1946); The Loneliness Trilogy (2008); The Long Hot Summer (1985); The Long, Hot Summer (1958–1966); The Past Is Never Dead: The Story of William Faulkner (2024); The Reivers (1969); The Road to Glory (1936); The Sound and the Fury (1959 / 2009 / 2014); The Southerner (1945); The Story of Temple Drake (1933); The Tarnished Angels (1957); To Have and Have Not (1944); Today We Live (1933); Tomorrow (1972); Two Soldiers (1986 / 2003); Vacation Playhouse (1964).

Born on this day – Josephine Rector:


Josephine Rector


Writer

Actress

September 25, 1885 – October 1, 1958

Credits:

A Gambler's Way (1914); A Romance of the Hills (1913); Across the Plains (1911); Alkali Ike and the Hypnotist (1913); Broncho Billy and the Sheriff's Kid (1913); Broncho Billy's Bible (1912); Broncho Billy's Christmas Deed (1913); Broncho Billy's Christmas Dinner (1911); Broncho Billy's Reason (1913); Broncho Billy's Sermon (1914); Broncho Billy's Squareness (1913); Hard Luck Bill (1913); Love on Tough Luck Ranch (1912); Snakeville's Fire Brigade (1914); Snakeville's Home Guard (1914); Sophie's Birthday Party (1914); That Pair from Thespia (1913); The Atonement (1914); The Cast of the Die (1914); The Cowboy Samaritan (1913); The Dance at Eagle Pass (1913); The Dance at Silver Gulch (1912); The Last Shot (1913); The Two Ranchmen (1913); The Weaker's Strength (1914); Western Girls (1912).

Just one more chapter ... and another ... and another ...


Everybody should believe in something.

I believe I'll read another chapter.

Jackie Kennedy, on books and reading:


Love of books is the best of all.

Wednesday, September 24, 2025

On this day in movie history – Marlowe (2022 movie & novel):


Marlowe

directed by Neil Jordan,
written by William Monahan,
based on the novel The Black-Eyed Blonde by John Banville,
was released at the Donostia-San Sebastián International Film Festival in Spain on September 24, 2022.
Music by Marcelo Zarvos.

Cast:

Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, Jessica Lange, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Colm Meaney, Daniela Melchior, Alan Cumming, Danny Huston, Seána Kerslake, François Arnaud, Ian Hart, Anton Antoniadis, Julius Cotter, Darrell D’Silva, Kim DeLonghi, Billy Jeffries, David Lifschitz, J.M. Maciá, Patrick Muldoon, Mitchell Mullen, Rosa Rovira, Mark Schardan, Gary Anthony Stennette, Stella Stocker, Michael Strelow.

Recommended reading:


The Black Eyed Blonde

By Benjamin Black.

Filmed as Marlowe (2022), directed by Neil Jordan.

Published by Picador.
First published 2014.
Paperback.

ISBN-10: 144723670X
ISBN-13: 978-1447236702

Description:

A Philip Marlowe novel.

Raymond Chandler’s incomparable private eye is back, pulled by a seductive young heiress into the most difficult and dangerous case of his career.

“It was one of those summer Tuesday afternoons when you begin to wonder if the earth has stopped revolving. The telephone on my desk had the look of something that knows it’s being watched. Traffic trickled by in the street below, and there were a few pedestrians, too, men in hats going nowhere.”

So begins The Black-Eyed Blonde, a new novel featuring Philip Marlowe – yes, that Philip Marlowe. Channeling Raymond Chandler, Benjamin Black has brought Marlowe back to life for a new adventure on the mean streets of Bay City, California. It is the early 1950s, Marlowe is as restless and lonely as ever, and business is a little slow. Then a new client is shown in: young, beautiful, and expensively dressed, she wants Marlowe to find her former lover, a man named Nico Peterson. Marlowe sets off on his search, but almost immediately discovers that Peterson’s disappearance is merely the first in a series of bewildering events. Soon he is tangling with one of Bay City’s richest families and developing a singular appreciation for how far they will go to protect their fortune.

Only Benjamin Black, a modern master of the genre, could write a new Philip Marlowe novel that has all the panache and charm of the originals while delivering a story that is as sharp and fresh as today’s best crime fiction.

Praise for The Black-Eyed Blonde:

“Somewhere Raymond Chandler is smiling, because this is a beautifully rendered hard-boiled novel that echoes Chandler’s melancholy at perfect pitch. The story is great, but what amazed me is how John Banville caught the cumulative effect Chandler’s prose had on readers. It’s hard to quatify, but it’s also what separated the Marlowe novels from the general run of noir (which included some damn fine novelists, like David Goodis and Jim Thompson). The sadness runs deep. I loved this book. It was like having an old friend, one you assumed was dead, walk into the room. Kind of like Terry Lennox, hiding behind those drapes.” – Stephen King.

“Banville channeling Chandler is irresistible – a double whammy of a mystery. Hard to think anyone could add to Chandler with profitable results. But Banville most definitely gets it done.” – Richard Ford.