On this day in movie history - The Sting (1973):

The Sting

directed by George Roy Hill,

written by David S. Ward,

was released in the United States on December 25, 1973.
Music by Marvin Hamlisch.

Cast:

Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning, Ray Walston, Eileen Brennan, Harold Gould, John Heffernan, Dana Elcar, Jack Kehoe, Dimitra Arliss, Robert Earl Jones, James Sloyan, Charles Dierkop, Lee Paul, Sally Kirkland, Avon Long, Arch Johnson, Ed Bakey, Brad Sullivan, John Quade, Larry D. Mann, Leonard Barr, Paulene Myers, Joe Tornatore, Jack Collins, Tom Spratley, Kenneth O'Brien, Ken Sansom, Ta-Tanisha, William 'Billy' Benedict, Jack Berle, Nick Borgani, Patricia Bratcher, Robert Brubaker, Robert Buckingham, Peter Eastman, Richard Elmore, Bob Folkerson, Kathleen Freeman, Susan French, Sig Frohlich, Ralph Gambina, Clarke Gordon, Frank Green, Jack Griffin, Bob Harks, George Holmes, Sid Kane, Bruce Kimball, Mike Lally, Alexander Lockwood, Tom McDonough, Jim Michael, Chuck Morrell, Byron Morrow, Richard Niehaus, Jessica Rains, Al Roberts, Edwin Rochelle, Clark Ross, Pearl Shear, Arthur Tovey, Guy Way.

On this day in movie history - Move Over, Darling (1963 movie & novelization):

Move Over, Darling

directed by Michael Gordon,

written by Bella Spewack, Sam Spewack, Leo McCarey, Hal Kanter and Jack Sher,

was released in the United States on December 25, 1963.
Music by Lionel Newman.

Cast:

Doris Day, James Garner, Polly Bergen, Thelma Ritter, Fred Clark, Don Knotts, Chuck Connors, Edgar Buchanan, John Astin, Elliott Reid, Pat Harrington Jr., Alan Sues, Max Showalter, Eddie Quillan, Jack Orrison, Pami Lee, Leslie Farrell.

Recommended reading:

Move Over, Darling

By Marvin H. Albert.

Novelization.

Published by Dell.

Published 1963.

ASIN: B0DT1L53Q7

Description:

So you think you've got troubles? Take Nick for example – a respectable, bright, successful lawyer, blissfully enjoying his wedding night with his luscious new bride. Everything was perfect. Until his other wife showed up. Everyone thought she was dead. But here she was, beautifully, delightfully alive. And kicking. Don’t miss the riotous motion picture starring Doris Day, James Garner and Polly Bergen.

On this day in movie history - To Kill a Mockingbird (1962 movie & novel):

To Kill a Mockingbird

directed by Robert Mulligan,

written by Horton Foote,

based on the novel by Harper Lee,

was released in the United States on December 25, 1962.

Music by Elmer Bernstein.

Cast:

Gregory Peck, John Megna, Frank Overton, Rosemary Murphy, Ruth White, Brock Peters, Estelle Evans, Paul Fix, Collin Wilcox Paxton, James Anderson, Alice Ghostley, Robert Duvall, William Windom, Crahan Denton, Richard Hale, Mary Badham, Phillip Alford, R.L. Armstrong, Walter Bacon, Eddie Baker, Bobby Barber, John Barton, Audrey Betz, Danny Borzage, John Breen, Jess Cavin, Noble 'Kid' Chissell, Jack Clinton, Steve Condit, May Couch, David Crawford, Frank Ellis, Jamie Forster, Charles Fredericks, Raoul Freeman, Herman Hack, Jester Hairston, Chuck Hamilton, Kim Hamilton, Kim Hector, Michael Jeffers, Dick Johnstone, Chester Jones, Colin Kenny, Ethan Laidlaw, Nancy Marshall, Clyde McLeod, Charles McQuary, Charles Morton, Paulene Myers, William H. O'Brien, Charles Perry, Joe Ploski, Hugh Sanders, Barry Seltzer, Edward C. Short, Mabel Smaney, Eddie Smith, Walter Smith, Cap Somers, George Sowards, Ray Spiker, Kim Stanley, Jay Sullivan, Kelly Thordsen, Arthur Tovey, George Tracy, Sailor Vincent, Max Wagner, Bill Walker, Joe Walls, Dan White, Guy Wilkerson, Chalky Williams.

Recommended reading:

To Kill a Mockingbird

By Harper Lee.

First published 1960.

Published by Harper Perennial Modern Classics.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0060935464

ISBN-13: 978-0060935467

Description:

Winner of the 1961 Pulitzer Prize.

Voted America's Best-Loved Novel in PBS's The Great American Read.

“A first novel of such rare excellence that it will no doubt make a great many readers slow down to relish more fully its simple distinction. . . . A novel of strong contemporary national significance.” – Chicago Tribune.

Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep South – and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred.

One of the most cherished stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than forty million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father – a crusading local lawyer – risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.

On this day in television history - M Squad (1959):

M Squad

Season 3. Episode 14.
Episode entitled: The Ivy League Bank Robbers.
Released December 25, 1959.
Directed by Francis D. Lyon.
Written by Stuart Jerome and Maxwell Shane.
Music by Benny Carter.

Cast:

Lee Marvin, Paul Newlan, Carol Ohmart, Jimmy Lydon, Ron Starr, Steve Gravers, Ben Hammer, Denny Niles, Richard Tyler, Howard Wright.

On this day in movie history - Paths of Glory (1957):

Paths of Glory

directed by Stanley Kubrick,

written by Stanley Kubrick,

Calder Willingham and Jim Thompson,

based on the novel by Humphrey Cobb,

was released in the United States on December 25, 1957.
Music by Gerald Fried.

Cast:

Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou, George Macready, Wayne Morris, Richard Anderson, Joe Turkel, Christiane Kubrick, Jerry Hausner, Peter Capell, Emile Meyer, Bert Freed, Kem Dibbs, Timothy Carey, Fred Bell, John Stein, Harold Benedict, Leon Briggs, Paul Bös, Herbert Ellis, Wally Friedrichs, Halder Hanson, James B. Harris, Rolf Kralovitz, Ira Moore, Marshall Rainer, Roger Vagnoid.

On this day in movie history - Force of Evil (1948 movie & novel):

Force of Evil

directed by Abraham Polonsky,

written by Abraham Polonsky and Ira Wolfert,

based on the novel Tucker's People by Ira Wolfert,

was released in the United States on December 25, 1948.
Music by David Raksin.

Cast:

John Garfield, Beatrice Pearson, Thomas Gomez, Marie Windsor, Howland Chamberlain, Roy Roberts, Paul Fix, Stanley Prager, Barry Kelley, Beau Bridges, Paul McVey.

Recommended reading:

Tucker’s People

By Ira Wolfert.

aka The Underworld.

Filmed as Force of Evil (1948), directed by Abraham Polonsky.

Published by Black Curtain Press.

First published 1943.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 1515426157

ISBN-13: 978-1515426158

Description:

When Tucker's People was published in 1943 it was praised by the New York Times for its "blowtorch intensity." The idea for Tucker's People stemmed from Ira Wolfert's coverage as a reporter of the trial of James "Jimmy" Hines, a Tammany Hall district leader who was prosecuted by Thomas E. Dewey for letting Dutch Schultz take over the numbers game in New York. It is "a penetrating, sympathetic novel of frustration and insecurity, a story of little people, many of them decent people, battling against forces they are too feeble to resist and too simple to understand," according to the Saturday Review of Literature.

On this day in movie history - T-Men (1947):

T-Men

directed by Anthony Mann,

written by John C. Higgins,

based on a story by Virginia Kellogg,

was released in the United States on December 25, 1947.
Music by Paul Sawtell.

Cast:

Dennis O'Keefe, Mary Meade, Alfred Ryder, Wallace Ford, June Lockhart, Charles McGraw, Jane Randolph, Anton Kosta, Art Smith, Herbert Heyes, Jack Overman, John Wengraf, Jim Bannon, William Malten.