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Paramount+ has announced that the new six-part docuseries Mafia Spies, directed by Tom Donahue and produced by CreativeChaos in association with Danny Strong Productions and See It Now Studios, will premiere on the service on Tuesday, July 16 in the U.S. and Canada.

The series will be available on Wednesday, July 17, in the UK, Australia, Latin America, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Mafia Spies is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

In Mafia Spies, viewers discover real-world spies, gangsters, honeypots, and mistresses that unravel a hidden conspiracy between the CIA and the Chicago mob to assassinate Fidel Castro at a critical time in the Cold War; President Kennedy made it known that there was no living with Castro with missiles 90 miles from American soil.

Based on the book Mafia Spies: The Inside Story of the CIA, Gangsters, JFK, and Castro by Thomas Maier (Masters of Sex), this action-packed...

Dean Martin in "The Silencers" (1966), the first of the Matt Helm spy spoofs.

Cinema Retro has received the following press release:

Turner Classic Movies (TCM), now in its 27th year as a leading authority in classic film, will present the U.S. broadcast premiere of the documentary Dean Martin: King of Cool on Nov. 19, 2021. Director Tom Donahue and producer Ilan Arboleda will appear alongside TCM Host Ben Mankiewicz to introduce the documentary and four of Dean Martin’s most iconic films, including Ocean’s 11 (1960) and The Caddy (1959).

Dean Martin epitomized cool. A founding member of the Rat Pack, Dean was a multi-talented performer who was part of the number one comedy act in America, a chart-topping singer for over half a century and one of the biggest stars in Hollywood and on TV. He was the consummate charmer on stage and off. Yet for all his celebrity, fame, and adoration,...

Dean Martin: King Of Cool director Tom Donahue: “I worked with a really brilliant story producer, author, professor, named Ron Marasco. And Ron really wanted to break down the elements of cool and did it in such an interesting way.”

What is the mystery of cool? What about Dean Martin makes him the epitome of cool and so irresistible to so many different types of people? Food and style and how all the parts relate is what Tom Donahue untangles through interviews, ranging from Dean’s daughter Deana to Jerry Lewis’s son Scotty. There is former assistant choreographer Tommy Tune speaking about Dean’s dancing prowess and Angie Dickinson, Florence Henderson, Peter Bogdanovic and Alec Baldwin singing his praises. Jon Hamm reads excerpts from a poem in his honor, Henry Jaglom quotes Orson Welles on Dean’s genius, and the owner of his favourite restaurant talks about him as a dinner guest.

Exclusive: Move over, Steve McQueen, there is a new “king of cool” in town. You might recall the excellent 1998 documentary titled Steve McQueen: The King of Cool. Well, now a similar name has been awarded to none other than Dean Martin, the subject of a comprehensive and compelling new docu premiering November 19 on Turner Classic Movies, preceded by its world premiere November 14 as part of the program for Doc NYC at the Sva Theatre in New York City. “Cool” defines Martin in every sense of the word.

TCM will not only be hosting the broadcast premiere of Dean Martin: King of Cool but also a film retrospective as a companion to this long-in-the-works look at the talent and mystery of the legendary entertainer, who died at age 78 on Christmas Day 1995 but has never really gone away thanks to an iconic career that covered uncanny success in movies, TV, music, nightclubs...