Cool Hand Luke

Stuart Rosenberg, director of the excellent Cool Hand Luke (and the execrable Amityville Horror) has died. Cool Hand Luke is one of those books which is actually quite good, but the memory of which seems to have been almost entirely displaced by the film. Other examples which come immediately to mind are Six Days of the Condor (filmed as Three Days of the Condor), The Cincinnati Kid, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three and several of Walter Tevis's books (The Hustler, The Man Who Fell to Earth and The Colour of Money). I'll think about that some more and try to write something coherent about why. But now I am going to watch Michael Mann's Thief, which I have never seen, on Film Four.

Today's recommendations:
sf: Gateway, Frederik Pohl
crime: Death at the President's Lodging, Michael Innes
music: Waltz for Debbie, Bill Evans
food: tapenade