Born on this day – Lee Garmes:

Lee Garmes

Cinematographer

May 27, 1898 – August 31, 1978

Born on this day – Dashiell Hammett:

Dashiell Hammett

Writer

May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961

Credits:

Books:

A Man Called Spade (1944); Books to Die For (2012); Breakdown and Other Thrillers (1968); City Sleuths and Tough Guys (1989); Creeping Siamese and Other Stories (1950); Creeps by Night (2020); Dashiell Hammett: A Retrospective Anthology (2004); Dashiell Hammett: Crime Stories and Other Writings (2001); Dead Yellow Woman (1947); Great Tales of Crime and Detection (1992); Hammett Homicides (1946); Lost Stories (2005); Murder Plus (1992); Nightmare Town and Other Stories (1950); Pulp Frictions: Hardboiled Stories (1996); Red Brain and Other Thrillers (1961); Red Harvest (1929); Return of the Thin Man (2012); San Francisco Noir 2 (2009); Selected Letters of Dashiell Hammett: 1921-1960 (2002); Tales of Mystery (1986); The Adventures of Sam Spade and Other Stories (1944); The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century (2000); The Big Knockover (1966); The Continental Op (1974); The Crime Wave (2007); The Dain Curse (1929); The Glass Key (1931); The Hunter (2013); The Hunter and Other Stories (2013); The Longman Anthology of Detective Fiction (2004); The Maltese Falcon (1930); The Oxford Book of Detective Stories (2000); The Thin Man (1934); They Can Only Hang You Once (1944); Vintage Hammett (2005); Woman In The Dark (1933).

Movies and television:

Monsieur Spade (2024); Cineficción Radio (2021); No Good Deed (2002); Fallen Angels (1995); Miller's Crossing (1990); Sam Spade jagt den Malteser Falken (1986); Bande (1986); When the Raven Flies (1984); The Wizard of Malta (1981); La ciudad maldita (1978); The Dain Curse (1978); The Last Round (1976); The Black Bird (1975); The Wide World of Mystery (1975); Maltézský sokol (1968); Der Steckbrief (1967); The Thin Man (1957–1959); Teledrama (1956–1959); The Fat Man (1951); Studio One (1949); Song of the Thin Man (1947); Secret Agent X-9 (1945); The Thin Man Goes Home (1944); Watch on the Rhine (1943); The Glass Key (1942); Shadow of the Thin Man (1941); The Maltese Falcon (1941); Another Thin Man (1939); Have You Got Any Castles? (1938); Secret Agent X-9 (1937); After the Thin Man (1936); Satan Met a Lady (1936); The Glass Key (1935); Mister Dynamite (1935); Woman in the Dark (1934); The Thin Man (1934); The Maltese Falcon (1931); City Streets (1931); Roadhouse Nights (1930).

Recommended reading - A New Omnibus of Crime (2005):

A New Omnibus of Crime

Edited by Tony Hillerman and Rosemary Herbert.

Published by Oxford University Press.

Published 2005.

ISBN-10: 0195182146

ISBN-13: 9780195182149

Contents:

Introduction; The Man Who Knew How; The Girl with the Silver Eyes; Red Wind; The Wench Is Dead; Gone Girl; The Couple Next Door; By the Scruff of the Soul; A Poison That Leaves No Trace; Photo Finish; The Crime of Miss Oyster Brown; Red Clay; Barking at Butterflies; Running Out of Dog; Hostages; When the Women Come Out to Dance; Flowers That Bloom in the Spring; Woodrow Wilsons Necktie; Loopy; Great Aunt Allies Fly Papers; First Lead Gasser; Chee’s Witch; Breathe Deep; Rumpole and the Bubble Reputation; The Hanged Man; The Holly and the Poison Ivy; Copycat; He Loved to Go for Drives with His Father; Credits; Index.

Description:

Three-quarters of a century ago, Dorothy L. Sayers compiled the classic anthology The Omnibus of Crime, a definitive collection of short fiction that brought together crime and mystery works from the Apocryphal Scriptures to whodunits from the 1920s. Now, reflecting the explosive developments in the genre, Tony Hillerman and Rosemary Herbert celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of that book’s publication with A New Omnibus of Crime. Like Sayers’s volume, this new book is envisioned as a vehicle carrying stories the editors think represent the best in crime and mystery writing in our time. Selections also reflect the tastes of Contributing Editors Sue Grafton and Jeffery Deaver, both of whom have stories in this volume. The anthology begins with a story by Sayers herself; other giants of the genre including Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, are also represented among the twenty-seven works. Hillerman and Herbert introduce each story and place each selection in the context of the literary history of the genre. Several of the writers confide the circumstances and real-life happenings that inspired them to write their stories. The book concludes with stories by Jeffery Deaver, Alexander McCall Smith, and Catherine Aird – all in print for the first time here.

While mystery writers in Sayer’s day shunned the love interest as a distraction from a puzzling plot, some of these stories show how the depiction of love – thwarted or otherwise – can effectively enrich crime writing. In the last seven-plus decades, the use of a distinctly regional voice has also revitalized the genre, as our selection of stories shows. And while Sayer’s contemporaries looked at crime as something that could be solved and “tidied up,” writers here take the view that the effects of crime linger like a stain even after a solution has been reached. Illustrating another more recent trend, pets romp through these pages, some in surprising ways. Like passengers on an omnibus, the stories that keep company here are colorful and mixed. Some will inspire laughter while others will incite chills. All will keep readers turning the pages. We invite you to hop on, take a ride, and get to know them.

Ann Patchett, on reading fiction:

Reading fiction not only develops our imagination and creativity,

it gives us the skills to be alone.

It gives us the ability to feel empathy for people we've never met,

living lives we couldn't possibly experience for ourselves,

because the book puts us inside the character's skin.

- Ann Patchett.

On this day in music history - Spirit of the Ancients: Crystal Bowl Sound Healing, by Tryshe Dhevney (2015):

Spirit of the Ancients: Crystal Bowl Sound Healing

Album by Tryshe Dhevney,
released May 26, 2015.

Track list:

Time Outside Of Time; Breaking Light; A Temple Deep Inside; Emergence; You Have Wings; Walking Turtle Blessing.

On this day in movie history - Big Jake (1971):

Big Jake

directed by George Sherman,

written by Harry Julian Fink and R. M. Fink,

was released in the United States on May 26, 1971.
Narrated by George Fenneman.
Music by Elmer Bernstein.

Cast:

John Wayne, Richard Boone, Maureen O'Hara, Patrick Wayne, Christopher Mitchum, Bobby Vinton, Bruce Cabot, Glenn Corbett, Harry Carey Jr., John Doucette, Jim Davis, John Agar, Gregg Palmer, Jim Burk, Robert Warner, Dean Smith, Ethan Wayne, Virginia Capers, Bill Walker, Jerry Gatlin, Don Epperson, Everett Creach, Jeff Wingfield, Hank Worden, José Ángel Espinosa 'Ferrusquilla', George Fenneman, Bernard Fox, Pedro Galván, Tom Hennesy, 'Chico' Hernandez, Roy Jenson, John Kelly, John McLiam, Anna Pavlova, Chuck Roberson, Maria Rocio, Jorge Russek, Jerry Summers, Lisa Todd, Bambino Veira.

On this day in movie history - The Searchers (1956 movie & books):

The Searchers

directed by John Ford,

written by Frank S. Nugent,

based on the novel by Alan Le May,

was released in the United States on May 26, 1956.
Music by Max Steiner.

Cast:

John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Ward Bond, Natalie Wood, John Qualen, Olive Carey, Henry Brandon, Ken Curtis, Harry Carey Jr., Antonio Moreno, Hank Worden, Beulah Archuletta, Walter Coy, Dorothy Jordan, Pippa Scott, Patrick Wayne, Lana Wood, Gertrude Astor, Pipe Line Begishe, Exactly Sonnie Betsuie, Danny Borzage, Ruth Clifford, Carmen D'Antonio, Tommy Doss, Pete Grey Eyes, Feather Hat Jr., Nacho Galindo, Chuck Hayward, Jack Tin Horn, Harry Black Horse, Away Luna, Robert Lyden, Cliff Lyons, Peter Mamakos, Mae Marsh, Frank McGrath, Bob Many Mules, Jack Pennick, Lloyd Perryman, Prince (dog), Chuck Roberson, Smile White Sheep, Many Mules Son, Percy Shooting Star, William Steele, Chief Thundercloud, Terry Wilson, Billy Yellow.

Recommended reading:

The Searchers

By Alan Le May.

Filmed as The Searchers (1956), directed by John Ford.

Published by Harper & Brothers.
First published 1954.
ISBN-10: 0843961724
ISBN-13: 978-0843961720

Description:

On the Texas frontier, a Comanche war party attacks the Edwards ranch and kills all the inhabitants, except for the two girls carried away with them. In the name of civilization, a group of pioneers take off in hot pursuit, into a savage world of unexpected dangers, false hopes, and darkest despair.

The Searchers

By Edward Buscombe.

Published by British Film Institute.
Published 2022.
ISBN-10: 1839024690
ISBN-13: 978-1839024696

Description:

“The Searchers is an insightful analysis … Replete with a wealth of information on the production of The Searchers, and graced with thought-provoking commentary, Buscombe's book is a stimulating introduction to a great American film.” – Journal of American Culture.

John Ford's masterpiece The Searchers (1956) was voted the seventh greatest film of all time in Sight & Sound's most recent poll of critics. Its influence on many of America's most distinguished contemporary filmmakers, among them Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader, and John Milius, is enormous. John Wayne's portrait of the vengeful Confederate Ethan Edwards gives the film a truly epic dimension, as does his long and lonely journey into the dark heart of America. Edward Buscombe's insightful study provides a detailed commentary on all aspects of the film, drawing on material in the John Ford archive at Indiana University, including Ford's own memos and the original script, which differs in vital respects from the film he made, to offer new insights into the film's production history.