 The only thing as hard as being in prison is being out. 
In Straight Time Dustin Hoffman plays a parolee having a hard time adjusting to life on the outside. Things go well initially. He gets a job. He meets a woman (Theresa Russell, so excellent work there). He stays out of trouble. But civilian life is difficult to navigate, especially when his nosy parole officer (the impressively slimy M. Emmett Walsh) expects the worst of him. It doesn't take long for Hoffman to fold under the pressure, and just like that he's back in the rackets, robberies specifically, and of course they escalate until he's aiming for a big score. Straight Time is Hoffman doing his thing after brilliant efforts in Little Big Man, Straw Dogs, Midnight Cowboy, Marathon Man, All the President's Men, and Lenny. In other words, he's at the height of his abilities and he turns the story of a con making bad choices into a viscerally believable ride. He would move on mainly to less gritty roles the rest of his career. For example, the next year he did Kramer vs. Kramer, and a couple of years after that came Tootsie. So Straight Time is worth seeing just to witness Hoffman in a mode he was moving beyond. If that isn't enough enticement, well, the movie is great. 
 A strange light in your eyes. 
We thought we'd go a bit more modern with our femme fatale today with this production still of American actress Theresa Russell from her 1984 remake of The Razor's Edge. It isn't a pulp style movie, but this shot certainly has the hallmarks. Russell also appeared in such films as Dario Argento's 1982 thriller Tenebre, the 1980 art film Bad Timing, and the 1987 murder mystery Black Widow. We won't be seeing her here again probably, but this was a nice appearance.
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The headlines that mattered yesteryear.
1939—Batman Debuts
In Detective Comics #27, DC Comics publishes its second major superhero, Batman, who becomes one of the most popular comic book characters of all time, and then a popular camp television series starring Adam West, and lastly a multi-million dollar movie franchise starring Michael Keaton, then George Clooney, and finally Christian Bale. 1953—Crick and Watson Publish DNA Results
British scientists James D Watson and Francis Crick publish an article detailing their discovery of the existence and structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, in Nature magazine. Their findings answer one of the oldest and most fundamental questions of biology, that of how living things reproduce themselves. 1967—First Space Program Casualty Occurs
Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when, during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere after more than ten successful orbits, the capsule's main parachute fails to deploy properly, and the backup chute becomes entangled in the first. The capsule's descent is slowed, but it still hits the ground at about 90 mph, at which point it bursts into flames. Komarov is the first human to die during a space mission. 1986—Otto Preminger Dies
Austro–Hungarian film director Otto Preminger, who directed such eternal classics as Laura, Anatomy of a Murder, Carmen Jones, The Man with the Golden Arm, and Stalag 17, and for his efforts earned a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, dies in New York City, aged 80, from cancer and Alzheimer's disease. 1998—James Earl Ray Dies
The convicted assassin of American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., petty criminal James Earl Ray, dies in prison of hepatitis aged 70, protesting his innocence as he had for decades. Members of the King family who supported Ray's fight to clear his name believed the U.S. Government had been involved in Dr. King's killing, but with Ray's death such questions became moot.
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