On this day in movie history - A Strange Adventure (1956)

A Strange Adventure

directed by William Witney,

written by Houston Branch,

was released in the United States on August 24, 1956.
Music by R. Dale Butts.

Cast:

Joan Evans, Ben Cooper, Marla English, Jan Merlin, Nick Adams, Peter Miller, Paul Smith, Emlen Davies, Frank Wilcox, Thomas Browne Henry, John Maxwell, Steve Wayne, Wendell Niles, John Pickard, Jack Shea, Ken Terrell, Al Wyatt Sr.

On this day in movie history – Pitfall (1948 movie & novel):

Pitfall

directed by André de Toth,

written by Karl Kamb, André de Toth and William Bowers,

based on the novel The Pitfall by Jay Dratler,

was released in the United States on August 24, 1948.
Music by Louis Forbes.

Cast:

Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, Jane Wyatt, Raymond Burr, John Litel, Byron Barr, Jimmy Hunt, Ann Doran, Selmer Jackson, Margaret Wells, Dick Wessel.

Recommended reading:

The Pitfall

By Jay Dratler.

Introduction by Jay Dratler Jr. & Timothy J. Lockhart.

Published by Stark House Press.

First published 1939.

ASIN: B0BGMFDDKV

ISBN-13: 979-8886010084

Description:

Jon Forbes is a happily married screenwriter in Hollywood when his cop friend Mac tells him about a gal named Mona he’s interested in. Her husband is in jail, and she knows that Mac is the cop who put him there. So, Mac asks Forbes to set her up for him. Take her out, introduce her to him as a friend.

But that’s where Forbes’s troubles begin. Because happily married or not, Mona gets into his blood immediately. And he into hers. And now he’s not only lying to his wife, but trying to avoid Mac as well. He and Mona have no idea where this will lead, but they both know it can’t end well. But neither of them figure just how far Mac will go to get Forbes out of the way once he discovers his friend’s betrayal. Nor what Forbes will do to protect his own.

Born on this day – Rachael Carpani:

Rachael Carpani

Actress

August 24, 1980 – December 7, 2025

Credits:

15th AACTA Awards (2026); 800 Words (2017–2018); ABC News Breakfast (2025); Against the Wall (2011); All Saints (2001); Australia's Funniest Home Video Show (2005); Beat (2022); Cane (2007); Hating Alison Ashley (2005); Home and Away (2001–2024); Ihaka: Blunt Instrument (2000); Law Dogs (2007); McLeod's Daughters (2001–2009); McLeod's Daughters: The Inside Story (2003); NCIS: Los Angeles (2009); Scorched (2008); Stalker (2014); The 49th Annual TV Week Logie Awards (2007); The Glades (2010); The Making of 'Triangle' (2010); The Rachels (2017); The Umbrella Man (2016); The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee (2020); The Way Back (2020); Touched by Romance (2014); Triangle (2009); True Blue (2010); V.C. Andrews' Dollanganger Saga (2015); Weekend Sunrise (2017).

Born on this day – A. S. Byatt:

A. S. Byatt

Writer

August 24, 1936 – November 16, 2023

Credits:

Books:

A Stone Woman (2011); A Whistling Woman (2002); Angels and Insects (1992); Babel Tower (1996); Best European Fiction 2013 (2012); Black Water 2 (1990); Body Art (2011); Deadly Sins (1994); Degrees of Freedom (1994); Dolls' Eyes (2013); Elementals (1998); Ghostly (2015); Life (2013); Medusa's Ankles (2021); Memory (2008); Mistresses of the Dark (1998); New Writing 4 (1995); On Histories and Stories (2000); Passions of the Mind (1990); Peacock & Vine (2016); Portraits in Fiction (2001); Possession (1990); Ragnarok (2011); Raw Material (2011); Short Stories (2009); Sightlines (2001); Still Life (1985); Stories for Mothers and Daughters (2025); Sugar (1987); The Biographer's Tale (2000); The Children's Book (2009); The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye (1994); The Game (1967); The Literary Ghost (1991); The Little Black Book of Stories (2003); The Matisse Stories (1975); The New Uncanny (2008); The Oxford Book of English Short Stories (1998); The Oxford Book of Twentieth-Century Ghost Stories (1996); The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories (1984); The Pink Ribbon (2011); The Shadow of the Sun (1991); The Thing in the Forest (2011); The Virgin in the Garden (1978); The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror Sixth Annual Collection (1993); The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror Twelfth Annual Collection (1999); Unruly Times (1970); White Fire (1991).

Movies and television:

Angels and Insects (1995); Bestseller (2001); Bookmark (1995–1996); Ceramics: A Fragile History (2011); Cover to Cover (1987); Inside the News (1975); Late Night Line-Up (1968); Mark Lawson Talks to... (2009); Medusa's Ankles (2018); Newsnight at 30 (2010); Omnibus (1989); Possession (2002); Read All About It (1978–1979); Roundhead or Cavalier: Which One Are You? (2012); Samtaler i natten (1996); Take It or Leave It (1967–1970); The Andrew Neil Show (1996); The Brains Trust (1996); The Burgess Variations (1999); The Late Show (1992–1994); The South Bank Show (1990); The Worlds of Fantasy (2008); Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022); Un siècle d'écrivains (1997).

Born on this day – Helena Carter:

Helena Carter

Actress

August 24, 1923 – January 11, 2000

Born on this day – Joan Chandler:

Joan Chandler

Actress

August 24, 1923 – May 11, 1979

Born on this day – Dorothy Comingore:

Dorothy Comingore

Actress

August 24, 1913 – December 30, 1971

Credits:

Any Number Can Play (1949); Blondie Meets the Boss (1939); Cafe Hostess (1940); Campus Cinderella (1938); Citizen Kane (1941); Citizen Kane Trailer (1940); Coast Guard (1939); Comet Over Broadway (1938); Compression (2025); Convicted Woman (1940); Fireside Theatre (1951); Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (1939); Golden Boy (1939); Good Girls Go to Paris (1939); Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles (2014); Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939); North of the Yukon (1939); Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise (1939); Outside These Walls (1939); Picture People Vol. 2 No. 7: Children of the Stars (1942); Pioneers of the Frontier (1940); Prison Train (1938); Rebound (1952); Rockin' Thru the Rockies (1940); Romance of the Redwoods (1939); Scandal Sheet (1939); The Awful Goof (1939); The Big Night (1951); The Doctor (1952); The Hairy Ape (1944); The Heckler (1940); The South Bank Show (1988); Trade Winds (1938).