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This June, Prime Video is bringing you a lot of entertainment, from the much-anticipated streaming release of Robert Eggers‘ Nosferatu to all the beloved K-dramas coming to Prime Video next month. However, for the purposes of this article, we are only including the films that are coming to Prime Video this month and have an 85% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score. So, check out the 10 best films that are coming to Prime Video in June 2025 with an 85% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

12 Angry Men (June 1) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100% Credit – United Artists

12 Angry Men is a legal drama film directed by Sidney Lumet from a screenplay by Reginald Rose. Based on Reginald Rose’s 1954 television play of the same name, the 1957 film revolves around twelve men serving as jury members on a murder trial, but their prejudices and doubts get...

The first time Marilyn Monroe, as the perfectly named Sugar Kane Kowalczyk, walks onto the screen in Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot, even the train—with a whistle of steam—can’t resist catcalling her. Heading off to front the Sweet Sues, an all-girl brass band starting a residency as the house band at a posh Florida hotel, Sugar Kane has vowed to land a rich hubby, and the way she retrieves a flask of whiskey from her garter, it’s hard to imagine any man passing up the opportunity. And yet, most men that enter Wilder’s frame are far more interested in Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis, dolled-up in drag to secure places in the Sweet Sues and hide out from the gangsters they witnessed mowing down a snitch and his associates in a garage—a recreation of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Even the gangsters,...

Actors love to talk about authenticity, but if that were all it took, we wouldn't need them at all -- cops, lawyers, and singles on the prowl could just play themselves. There's more to it than that, of course, but sometimes it doesn't hurt to have a background in the role being played. Many former Marines have done well as actors, using their discipline for our entertainment. And as it turns out, many thespians with actual criminal records do a great job of playing crooks onscreen. As 2024's Oscar-nominated film "Sing Sing" depicts, theater programs can serve as therapy, and serve to reform offenders.

Throughout the history of the movie business, real-life criminals have found the movie business to be more comfortable than their former under-the-table careers. Audiences, in turn, can often tell when a guy onscreen really looks like he could kill or beat you. In some cases, showbiz...

The Turner Classic Movies (TCM) network unveiled themes, spotlights, and stars it will feature in 2025, as well as the year’s tentpole events and returning podcasts. Last year the network celebrated its 30th anniversary.

Among offerings this year will be 31 Days of Oscar, the second iteration of Two-for-One films, Summer Under the Stars and monthly birthday celebrations of the legends who made their mark on the industry. Also announced during the festival was the renewal of Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Paul Thomas Anderson’s stewardship to TCM through 2025.

TCM will celebrate a different star every month, including Elvis Presley on what would have been his 90th birthday, Peter Sellers, Angela Lansbury, Rock Hudson, Paul Newman, Tony Curtis and Donald O’Connor on what would be their 100th birthdays, as well as Dick Van Dyke, on his 100th birthday in December. Other stars featured throughout the year include George Raft, Barbara Stanwyck,...

Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Paul Thomas Anderson have renewed their commitment to Turner Classic Movies, and George Stevens Jr. and Michael Schultz will be honored at the TCM Classic Film Festival in April, it was announced Saturday.

TCM also noted that new episodes of Two for One will return to the channel in April, with filmmakers and Ben Mankiewicz co-hosting a double feature on Saturday nights. Joe Dante, Kathy Bates and Jamie Lee Curtis will be among the guests.

TCM will continue to celebrate a different star every month, like Elvis Presley on what would have been his 90th birthday; Peter Sellers, Angela Lansbury, Rock Hudson, Paul Newman, Tony Curtis and Donald O’Connor on what would have been their 100th birthdays; and Dick Van Dyke on his 100th birthday in December.

George Raft, Barbara Stanwyck, Red Skelton, Mae West, Gary Cooper and Merle Oberon will also be featured throughout 2025.

During its 31st year,...

Humphrey Bogart owes his involvement in his most famous movie, Casablanca, to the gangster character he played in High Sierra. By starring as Rick Blaine opposite Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca, Bogart solidified his status as one of Hollywood's biggest stars and the stage for him to become a cinematic icon. Prior to the film, Bogart was already a veteran actor, but hardly the top actor in the industry.

Most of his acting experience stemmed from Humphrey Bogart's numerous gangster movie roles. Though most weren't particularly memorable or have any individual importance to his career, they kept him busy through much of the 1930s. Toward the end of the decade, Bogart's roles grew more and more significant, with the actor appearing in films like Dark Victory with Bette Davis in Angels With Dirty Faces. All of these parts can be seen as stepping stones toward Bogart joining the Casablanca cast as the male lead,...

Courtesy of Eureka Entertainment

by James Cameron-wilson

In January of this year something extraordinary happened. For the first time, United Artists’ Black Tuesday was shown on British television, having been originally banned for its violence. The film noir classic of 1954 stars Edward G. Robinson, one of the four giants of Hollywood’s gangster genre, alongside James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart and George Raft. At the time that Edward G. starred in Black Tuesday, he was in something of a career slump, but, in spite of his modest physical stature, he still manages to bring to bear his characteristically brutal persona. Perhaps even more surprising is how good the film is, a sort of forgotten masterpiece from the Argentinean helmer Hugo Fregonese who, in his time, had directed such stars as Gary Cooper, James Mason, Joel McCrea, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Taylor, Lee Marvin and Stewart Granger, but who is largely forgotten today,...

Humphrey Bogart is a Hollywood legend and a staple of classic American cinema who starred in countless timeless films, such as The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, and The Big Sleep. Born in New York, New York, Bogart established himself as a promising star of the stage before transitioning into movies and signing a contract with Warner Bros. Initially, Bogart started out playing second-fiddle roles to notable stars such as George Raft and James Cagney before gaining audiences' attention with his performance in High Sierra, leading him to become one of the most popular leading men on the silver screen.

Before films like The Wolf of Wall Street and other modern Hollywood movies explored the complexities of avarice, a Western known as The Treasure of Sierra Madre did it first, teaching audiences that gold has a way of "changing a man's soul so he ain't the same kind of guy he was before finding it." Released in 1948, John Houston's masterpiece starred Humphrey Bogart and became a powerful indictment of capitalism by focusing on the insidious way greed takes hold in the human soul when the opportunity presents itself.

In The Treasure of Sierra Madre, three men journey to a foreign country hoping to find gold. One of these men won't return home, and the other two will never be the same again because once that yellow metal gets hold of them, it blackens their souls. That lesson is as relevant today as ever, just like The Treasure of Sierra Madre.

Ah, Casino Royale. Everyone loved that classic James Bond thriller starring... Woody Allen, Peter Sellers, and Orson Welles? That's right, 40 years before the 007 franchise was rebooted with Daniel Craig in Casino Royale, writer Ian Fleming's book was adapted into one of the goofiest, most ridiculous movies ever made. As the search for a new James Bond continues, let's look back on the undoubtedly weirdest moment in the history of the franchise.

1967's Casino Royale was a marquee affair, with a budget that was nearly 12 times as big as 1962's Dr. No. It attracted one of the best casts of the '60s David Niven, Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, Woody Allen, Joanna Pettet, Orson Welles, Daliah Lavi, Deborah Kerr, William Holden, Charles Boyer, Jean-Paul Belmondo, George Raft, John Huston, Jacqueline Bisset, Peter O'Toole, and Ronnie Corbett. Casino Royale wasn't just bloated on-screen; it was overstuffed off-screen as well. The...

The 1960s were a great time for stylish heist movies, with many classics which are still loved by fans decades later. The heist genre initially sprung out of film noir, but it gradually developed its own identity, and it came to encompass romantic comedies, action thrillers and even spy movies. The 1960s marked a boom for the genre, after films like Rififi and The Killing brought about a new wave of enthusiasm in the 1950s.

Heist movies in the 1970s got much grittier and darker, in line with the trends of New Hollywood. By contrast, the 1960s delivered some more stylish and lighthearted capers, such as Ocean's 11 and How to Steal a Million. This era was defined by suave thieves pulling off intricately plotted heists, and there wasn't much of the violence and bloodshed that's usually associated with crime movies.

Related 20 Best Heist Movies Of All Time, Ranked

The...

Bugsy is one of the lesser-known mafia films of the 1990s, perhaps because it was overshadowed by Goodfellas. It starred quite a few famous actors, just like Goodfellas, and was successful at the box office. It even won more awards at the Oscars, getting two, compared to the one that Goodfellas received. However, it seems more often that Goodfellas is recognized as an iconic mob story while Bugsy fades into the past. Bugsy tells a true story just as unique as Goodfellas, chronicling the changes in the life of a gangster once he explores a new horizon out west in America. While gangster films seemed to be evolving in the 80s and 90s, Bugsy honored the older styles and traditions of mafia movies.

Bugsy follows Ben "Bugsy" Siegel, played by Warren Beatty, as he tries to change the way that the mob makes money. In the film, Ben helps the...

Casablanca was one of nine movies to feature the duo of Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet. Widely regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time, the legendary 1942 film never would have become the cinematic icon that it is today without Casablanca's star-studded cast. Featuring a handful of Hollywood's most talented actors at the time, Casablanca delivered Academy Award-winning performances from Humphrey Bogart and Claude Reins, as well as some of the most memorable roles in the careers of Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid.

For some, like Bergman and Bogart, Casablanca was their first and last collaboration. But for two of its supporting cast members, Casablanca was just the second in a string of movies to utilize both their talents. The film, when viewed on its own, doesn't hint at the recurring partnership between Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre in Hollywood, as the actors never shared a scene. But...

Any kid who ever dreamed of striding the boards, meticulously prepping for their glamorous on-camera close-up, or adorning the walls of teenagers all over the world as the most fetching heartthrob on the planet, did not entertain for a second that steady work as less-than-studly screen presence like M Emmet Walsh could be its own gloriously gruff reward. If you were born with a face that looked like it went 12 rounds with Sonny Liston before exiting the birth canal, or walked in heels like they were a pair of Carhartts, you're probably destined to be a working stiff like the rest of us for the remainder of your life.

And there is dignity in this. There is meaning. And not to get your hopes up too high, but if you can strut across the stage like you were born to it, hold the gaze of a camera, or fire off one-liners with buffoonish aplomb,...

American actress and singer, Mae West, was a trailblazer of an entertainer who became a popular film star during the Great Depression for her carefree, independent characters and humorous double entenders that made her a silver screen icon. West started performing on the Vaudeville circuit at a young age and established herself on Broadway before moving to Hollywood and transitioning to film. After signing a two-year contract with Paramount Pictures, West made her feature debut in the 1932 pre-Code drama, Night After Night, starring George Raft.

Song and dance man or gangster? Few stars of Hollywood’s Golden Era could claim they were equally well known for two such diverse genres. Yet, the legendary James Cagney worked hard to be able to make such a claim.

He was born on July 17, 1899, in New York City. His family was poor, and Cagney was sickly as a child. While growing up in a rough neighborhood, he learned a variety of skills, including tap dancing, street fighting, baseball and boxing. When he was 19, his father died, and he took odd jobs to help support his mother and siblings. On a whim, he auditioned for a role of a chorus girl in a local production. Although he had never had professional training, he landed the role and learned the dances from watching the other performers – and it never bothered him to dress as a girl and perform. Despite his mother...

Actors do not get to pick the roles that make them stars. They might have an inkling in certain cases that a part has the potential to catapult them off the B-list (look no further than Humphrey Bogart convincing George Raft to surrender the lead in Raoul Walsh's 1941 gangster classic "High Sierra"), but, ultimately, the public chooses. And this can be the source of lifelong agony for actors who envisioned entirely different careers for themselves.

Take Christopher Plummer. The great Canadian actor worked steadily in theater, film, and television for over seven decades. He was equally at home playing Cyrano de Bergerac on Broadway or hamming it up as a paganistic reverend in Tom Mankiewicz's irredeemably silly "Dragnet." He won an Oscar, two Tonys, and two Primetime Emmys, and seemed to be having the time of his life even in the worst of movies (and they don't get...

I’ve loved gangster movies since I was four years old and saw Humphrey Bogart and Sylvia Sidney in Dead End (1937) on TV, and Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde (1967) at the movies (My dad pinched a lobby card for me). Every Friday night, a local NYC station ran old crime flicks on a slot called “Tough Guys.” Bogart, James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, and George Raft were the faces over the title. Today that might be Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Wesley Snipes, and James Gandolfini.

The gangster and crime genre produced some of the most influential films in cinema history. Mervyn LeRoy’s Little Caesar (1931), William A. Wellman’s The Public Enemy (1931), and Howard Hawks’ Scarface (1932), get a lot of credit for breaking ground in topics beyond criminality, shattering sexual taboos as well as the boundaries of acceptable visual violence. High Sierra (1941) and White Heat...

With his 1959 comedy "Some Like It Hot," director Billy Wilder crafted a Prohibition-era fantasia, telling a wild, exaggerated story of dangerous gangsters on the tail of witless witnesses. Those two male musicians (Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in one of the great cinematic double acts) end up masquerading as women to evade being found out by the mob, and in the process fall in love with a fellow musician, a singer who sparks the interest of both men.

It's that wacky screwball cross-dressing comedy that makes "Some Like It Hot'' the classic that it is, but the movie's first act actually draws from a tragic and violent historical event. While the musical comedy comprises most of the meat of the movie (as well as what most viewers remember), the Prohibition-era backdrop of speakeasies and dirty dealings was very important for Wilder.

The movie's basic premise came from a French film from 1935, "Fanfare of Love,...

British director Mike Hodges, known for directing “Get Carter,” “Croupier” and “Flash Gordon,” died in Dorset, England on Dec. 17. He was 90.

His death was announced by Mike Kaplan, longtime friend and producer of “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead.”

Hodges’ crime dramas came at the beginning of his career — “Get Carter” (1971) and “Pulp” (1972) — and the end — “Croupier” (1999) and “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” (2003). In addition to his crime dramas he was known for his campy, stylized take on “Flash Gordon.”

Andrew Sarris wrote in the Observer in 2000, “Director Mike Hodges has become one of the most under-appreciated and virtually unknown masters of the medium over the last 30 years” and “Mr. Hodges has been hailed by everyone from Martin Scorsese to Pauline Kael as a stylist of the first order.”

Hodges adapted “Get Carter” — one of the greatest British gangster movies of all time — himself from a novel by Ted Lewis.

Humphrey Bogart is one of the great icons of classic Hollywood. His trademark snarl and surprising romantic heroism sealed his legendary status in pop culture at large. For how inescapable his impact was, it's hard to imagine a period in sound film before him. But his rise to stardom took time. He wasn't exactly gunning down Nazis in Casablanca in his first year on the Warner Bros. lot.

What he was doing for most of his '30s performances was playing the background gangster in the studio's many crime melodramas. In movies with titles like "Bullets or Ballots" and "Racket Busters," audiences could rely on him showing up, grimacing, and probably dying in a moral way by movie's end. If he wasn't in a gangster movie, he could be oddly miscast, such as his appearance as an Irish stable master in the Bette Davis weepie "Dark Victory." No role was...

Film noir represents the illusive charm of black and white cinema and of its stars that graced the silver screen in its glory years in the 40s and 50s.

Film Noir meaning “black film” in french coined by the critic Nino Frank in 1946, defined an era of stylish visually moody black-and-white crime mysteries. The plot of the film could be told in one dramatic photo promoting the central figure either portraying the private investigator, grifter and the elusive femme fatale. The images are always bold and the use of lighting and shadows created a noir universe that invites you into an erotic and scandalous world of deceit and conspiracy.

Robert Coburn, Ernest Bachrach, and A.L. “Whitey” Schafer’s portraits captured the A-list superstars Robert Mitchum, Barbara Stanwyck, Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Humphrey Bogart to the character actors of the period Gale Sondergaard, Delores del Rio and George Raft who...

Irene Papas, the Greek actress who starred in such films as The Guns of Navarone, Z, Zorba the Greek and dozens of other films, playing opposite many of Hollywood’s biggest stars, died Wednesday in her hometown of Chilimodion. She was 93.

No cause of death was given, but Papas was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in the mid-2010s.

Greece’s Ministry of Culture and Sports confirmed the news. “Magnificent, majestic, dynamic, Irene Papas was the personification of Greek beauty on the cinema screen and on the theater stage, an international leading lady who radiated Greekness,” Minister Lina G. Mendoni said in a statement.

Hollywood & Media Deaths 2022: A Photo Gallery

Papas was a veteran of French and Italian cinema as well as Hollywood. During her nearly six-decade screen career, she starred with such screen legends as Gregory Peck, Kirk Douglas, Katharine Hepburn, Richard Burton, James Cagney, Maximilian Schell, David Niven,...

Box office is big news this week, not so much for its totals as for its totemic significance. Throngs will greet Top Gun: Maverick, but will kids join the grownups to see a nearly 60 year-old actor starring in a sequel to a 36 year-old hit? At the other end of the audience spectrum, will seniors conquer their torpor to catch the new Downton and even lure their kids – the movie is dubiously titled Downton Abbey: A New Era to motivate the youth quadrant.

These are edgy days for an industry seeking clues to two big puzzles: Does a broad demographic truly crave a return to the cool comfort of their movie theaters? And, if so, what sorts of movies would best combat their streamer fatigue?

In Los Angeles there’s one dark portent: The multiscreen Landmark Theater on Pico, long the cathedral of indie films, will shut its doors forever shortly...

This knockout comedy rates as one of Hollywood’s funniest ever — although it could be ‘cancelled’ any day now, so get ready to deny ever having laughed at it. Ultimate movie star glamour meets the apex of screenwriting hilarity: liberated by 101 cross-dressing jokes Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond jam sly sex innuendo into almost word spoken. We still don’t know how the censors passed one of of Marilyn Monroe’s costumes: Raymond Durgnat described the resulting visual effect as ‘The Hanging Gardens of Marilyn.’ Everybody’s tip top in this one: Jack Lemmon prances, Tony Curtis does his Cary Grant imitation, and Billy Wilder tosses in a score of his favorite 1920s tunes.

Some Like It Hot 4K

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1959 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 121 min. / Street Date February 8, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, George Raft, Pat O’Brien, Joe E. Brown.

Gangster icons aren’t always determined by top billing. Sometimes it’s decided by a flip of a coin. Director Howard Hawks’ 1932 gangster classic Scarface recently celebrated its 90th anniversary. Producer Howard Hughes was so committed to presenting a realistic depiction of mob violence that the film pushed the Motion Picture Production Code to its limit. Paul Muni puts in a gritty, animalistic performance in the title role of Antonio “Tony” Carmonte, modeled after Al Capone, but the actor with the gangland bona fides was the co-star, George Raft.

Hired for his dark and menacing presence, Raft doesn’t have many lines in Scarface. To give the inexperienced actor something to do, Hawks directed him to flip a nickel. Raft practiced the toss to perfection, setting the film up for one of the most memorable mob movie moments: a coin rolling across a floor to a dead stop.

Raft would...

In film history, the anthology genre is the most challenging. Episodic films often have several directors and screenwriters which gives them an inconsistent tone and quality. But the genre’s pitfalls haven’t stopped such filmmakers including Akira Kurosawa (“Dreams”), the Coens (“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”), Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez (“Sin City”); Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese (“New York Stories”); and Joe Dante, John Landis, George Miller and Steven Spielberg (“Twilight Zone: The Movie”).

Wes Anderson joined them with his latest film “The French Dispatch,” which received a nine-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival. The comedy brings to life three stories from an American magazine published in a fictional French city and features his stock company of actors including Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Adrien Brody and Owen Wilson.

If you are a fan of the genre, here are the best anthology movies that...

Robert Sacchi, the actor who so closely resembled Humphrey Bogart that he starred in the 1980 20th Century Fox comedy The Man With Bogart’s Face, died June 23 in Los Angeles after a brief illness, according to a family spokesperson. He was 89.

The Rome-born, Brooklyn-raised actor played Bogart or Bogart look-alikes in several films, TV shows and commercials, including on the series Fantasy Island, Sledge Hammer! and Cybill and Tales From the Crypt on which he lent his voice. He also played Bogart in Phil Collins’ 1990 music video for “I Wish It Would Rain Down.”

Sacchi also starred in a one-man show, Bogey’s Back, and in touring productions of Play It Again, Sam. He even had a top 10 hit single in Germany with 1982’s “Jungle Queen,” a rap performed in Bogart-ese.

In The Man With Bogart’s Face, directed by Robert Day and based on Andrew J. Fenady’s book, Sacchi starred as Sam Marlowe,...

Actor Robert Sacchi, known for his close resemblance to Humphrey Bogart, died June 23 at Barlow Respiratory Hospital in Los Angeles after a brief illness. He was 89.

Sacchi played the title role in the 1980 feature “The Man With Bogart’s Face.” He also appeared in many films, TV shows and commercials playing Bogart or a Bogart look-alike. That list includes appearances on the sitcom “Cybill,” a Phil Collins musicvideo and “Fantasy Island,” as well as his one-man show, “Bogey’s Back” and touring productions of Woody Allen’s comedy “Play It Again, Sam.”

He also played other characters in such works as the Mike Hodges-Michael Caine movie “Pulp,” the Anthony Quinn-Yaphet Kotto drama “Across 110th Street” and “Die Hard 2,” among others. He also had a top 10 hit in Germany with the 1982 single “Jungle Queen” and authored the book “Willie Pep Remembers … Friday’s Heroes.”

“The Man With Bogart’s Face...

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By Raymond Benson

The witty, controversial, and fabulous actress/comedienne Mae West displays her jewelry to the coat check girl. “Goodness, what beautiful diamonds!” the girl exclaims. Mae West coolly replies in her sultry, New York-accented signature voice, “Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie.”

The line was also the title of West’s memoir, published in 1959, and is one of her many memorable utterances, along with “Come up and see me sometime.”

Kino Lorber has just released in restored, high-definition presentations every Mae West film made between 1932-1940—the Paramount years, plus one with Universal. This review will cover the first four out of nine titles, with the remaining five to come in a later “Part Two.”

Hollywood knew that Mae West would be trouble (but a possible box office winner) before she was invited to the west coast to star in films.

Still the fiercest and most cinematic of the first wave of gangster classics, Howards Hughes and Hawks’s pre-Code rule-breaker was the one that brought down the ban on ‘glamorous’ gangster movies. In this case classic hardly means dated: the cars and clothes are vintage but the sex and violence are sizzling hot. Paul Muni is the primitive killer who falls in love with submachine guns and George Raft is his loyal trigger man. Karen Morley and especially Ann Dvorak are indeed the hottest pre-Code seducers in film. Plus, Boris Karloff contributes a mobster snarl as a lightly-disguised Bugs Moran. It’s a bullet-ridden city, that’s for sure, and the filmmakers frequently use expressionist effects: like X Marks The Spot!

Scarface

Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 37

1932 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 93 min. 33 sec. + 95 min. 34 sec. / Scarface, Shame of a Nation / Street Date April 28, 2021 / Available from / 34.95 (au)

Starring: Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, Karen Morley,...

James Cagney and George Raft in Each Dawn I Die (1939) will be available on Blu-ray April 27th from Warner Archive

Framed for manslaughter after he breaks a story about city corruption, reporter Frank Ross is sure he’ll prove his innocence and walk out of prison a free man. But that’s not how the system works at Rocky Point Penitentiary. There, cellblock guards are vicious, the jute-mill labor is endless, and the powers Ross fought on the outside conspire to keep him in. Frank’s hope is turned to hopelessness. And he’s starting to crack. Two of the screen’s famed tough guys star in this prison movie that casts a reform-minded eye on the brutalizing effects of life in the slammer. James Cagney “hits a white-hot peak as [Ross,] the embittered, stir-crazy fall guy” (Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide). And George Raft (Cagney’s friend since their vaudeville days) portrays racketeer Hood Stacey,...

Gloria Henry, who appeared in movies with Gene Autry, Lucille Ball and George Raft before portraying the mother of a chaos-causing kid on the 1960s CBS comedy Dennis the Menace, has died. She was 98.

Henry died Saturday, one day after her birthday, at her home in Los Angeles, her daughter, Erin, told The Hollywood Reporter.

For four seasons starting in October 1959 — and then in reruns for years — Henry played the loving Alice Mitchell opposite Herbert Anderson as her hapless husband, Henry, and Jay North as Dennis on the Screen Gems show that was based on Hank Ketcham’s ...

Gloria Henry, who appeared in movies with Gene Autry, Lucille Ball and George Raft before portraying the mother of a chaos-causing kid on the 1960s CBS comedy Dennis the Menace, has died. She was 98.

Henry died Saturday, one day after her birthday, at her home in Los Angeles, her daughter Erin told The Hollywood Reporter.

For four seasons starting in October 1959 — and then in reruns for years — Henry played the loving Alice Mitchell opposite Herbert Anderson as her hapless husband, Henry, and Jay North as Dennis on the Screen Gems show that was based on Hank Ketcham’s ...

“Since studios keep making remakes, why don’t they at least remake them better?” Billy Wilder had a right to ask me that question 20 years ago, since the many remakes of his movies never matched the originals.

The Wilder conundrum seems relevant today when the studios and streamers are announcing more and more remakes. Paramount says it’s developing Love Story, Flashdance and The Parallax View, among others. It is not remaking The Godfather, which went into production 50 years ago. But there are two projects in the works about the making of the movie, and there also is Francis Coppola’s refreshed Godfather III, made in 1990 and re-edited by Coppola now out under his preferred title Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone.

While I share Wilder’s skepticism about the remake business, a case could be made that the entire gangster genre deserves a revisit.

The Berlin International Film Festival has set its full slate for the upcoming 2021 edition. Berlinale usually follows Sundance with a February festival, but the pandemic has forced organizers to develop a new festival format for 2021. The 71st Berlin International Film Festival is set to take place with the “Industry Event” from March 1 to 5, which will include the European Film Market (EFM), the Berlinale Co-Production Market, the Berlinale Talents, and the World Cinema Fund in online forms. From June 9 to 20, 2021 the Berlinale will launch a “Summer Special” with numerous film presentations in Berlin, both at indoor and outdoor cinemas.

Included in the March event is the traditional film festival slate, which includes the main Berlinale Competition lineup as well as sidebar sections such as Berlinale Special & Berlinale Series, Encounters, Berlinale Shorts, Panorama, Forum & Forum Expanded, Generation, Perspektive Deutsches Kino, and Retrospective. With the exception of the Retrospective, the films will be shown at the March event.

Albert Hughes takes us on a wild journey through the movies that made him, then explains why he’s not a cinephile (Spoiler: He is). Heads up – you’re going to hear some words you’ve never heard on our show before, and only one of them is Metropolis.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Gremlins (1984)

A Christmas Story (1983)

The Candidate (1972)

Menace II Society (1993)

Die Hard (1988)

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Scarface (1983)

Goodfellas (1990)

Full Metal Jacket (1987)

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Midnight Cowboy (1969)

Raging Bull (1980)

Taxi Driver (1976)

Alpha (2018)

Battleship Potemkin (1925)

Metropolis (1927)

True Romance (1993)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)

The Matrix (1999)

Man Bites Dog (1992)

Looney Tunes: Back In Action (2003)

A Serbian Film (2010)

Scarface (1932)

The Book of Eli (2010)

The Departed (2006)

Infernal Affairs (2002)

The Godfather (1972)

Casino (1995)

JFK (1991)

Dead Presidents (1996)

Eve’s Bayou (1997)

Basic Instinct (1992)

Psycho (1960)

The Cremator (1969)

The Firemen’s Ball (1967)

Halloween (2018)

From Hell (2001)

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

Hoffa (1992)

V For Vendetta (2005)

Spartacus (1960)

You Were Never Really Here...

Witness one Robert Lippert, an American independent producer who flourished in multiple eras of Hollywood. We discuss his adaptation to changes in the movie biz in conjunction with a double bill DVD of two typical Lippert shows from the very early fifties, one produced in Hollywood and another in England. Robert Lippert is the proof that ‘Life Finds a Way’ in the movies as well, a sentiment reinterpreted as ‘staying in the game.’

I’ll Get You + Fingerprints Don’t Lie

Forgotten Noir Volume 6

DVD

Vci / Kit Parker

1951, 1952 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / Street Date April 24 2007, 2020

Starring: George Raft, Sally Gray, Clifford Evans; Richard Travis, Sheila Ryan, Sid Melton.

I’ve wanted to review the two ‘programmers’ in this double-bill disc for some time, not realizing that I was really more interested in a producer associated with them. The name Robert L. Lippert pops up continually in the history of some of my favorite genre pictures.

Our 100th Guest! Comedy icon Martin Short joins us to discuss a few of the movies that made him.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Innerspace (1987)

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)

On The Waterfront (1954)

To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)

Terms Of Endearment (1983)

Moby Dick (1956)

The Exorcist (1973)

King Kong (1933)

A History Of Violence (2005)

A Song To Remember (1945)

Some Like It Hot (1959)

Annie Hall (1977)

The Oscar (1966)

Sleeper (1973)

Bananas (1971)

City Lights (1931)

September (1987)

The Harder They Fall (1956)

Bad Day At Black Rock (1955)

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Schindler’s List (1993)

Kiss Me Stupid (1964)

The Ox-Bow Incident (1942)

The Bad And The Beautiful (1953)

Ben-Hur (1959)

Spartacus (1960)

The Ten Commandments (1956)

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

The Graduate (1967)

Klute (1971)

Blow-Up (1966)

Blow Out (1981)

The Godfather (1972)

The Godfather Part II (1974)

The Godfather Part III (1990)

Burn! (1970)

Reflections In A Golden Eye (1967)

Grease 2 (1982)

The Conversation (1974)

Back To The Future (1985)

Other Notable Items

Saturday Night Live TV...

The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history.Above: The Light that FailedShe had the beauty and talent of the most captivating star, the unwavering determination of the most ambitious producer, and the fervent creative vision of the most gifted director. Ida Lupino could fall into any number of categories, yet with a significance that remains almost immeasurable, perhaps the one word best describing this groundbreaking artist is simply this: she was a pioneer. Born February 4, 1918, in South London, Lupino belonged to a revered family of entertainers. Her mother, actress Connie O’Shea (also known as Connie Emerald), and her father, music hall comedian Stanley Lupino, were part of an ancestral dynasty of performers, and young Ida was accordingly encouraged to take the stage during her earliest years. In addition to writing her first play at the age of seven,...

The Oscar winning co-writer and producer of Brokeback Mountain takes us on a cinematic journey through her life, and talks about the pleasures of writing with Larry McMurtry and Joe Bonnano, and what Ken Kesey’s favorite movie was.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Good Night, And Good Luck (2005)

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

Red River (1948)

The Last Picture Show (1971)

Hud (1963)

Piranha (1978)

Battleship Potemkin (1925)

They Drive By Night (1940)

Kings Row (1942)

The Ox-Bow Incident (1942)

The Grapes of Wrath (1942)

Buffalo Bill (1944)

Laura (1944)

Where The Sidewalk Ends (1950)

The Day of the Triffids (1963)

Moby Dick (1956)

Village of the Damned (1960)

Written on the Wind (1956)

Magnificent Obsession (1954)

There’s Always Tomorrow (1956)

All That Heaven Allows (1955)

Twelve Monkeys (1995)

Brazil (1985)

Lost In La Mancha (2002)

The Hamster Factor and Other Tales of Twelve Monkeys (1996)

The Fisher King (1991)

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

The Deer Hunter (1978)

The Godfather (1972)

The Godfather Part II (1974)

A History of Violence...

Although only one of these 1950s B&w thrillers falls within a mile of a hard definition of film noir, all give us glamorous actresses in interesting roles. Claudette Colbert takes her turn at playing a nun, Merle Oberon tries a femme fatale role on for size and Hedy Lamarr does very well for herself as a man-hungry movie star. Kino gives all three excellent transfers, and one comes with an appropriately gossipy audio commentary.

Film Noir the Dark Side of Cinema II

Thunder on the Hill, The Price of Fear, The Female Animal

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1951-58 / B&w / 1:37 Academy, 1:85 widescreen / 84,79,82 min. / Street Date May 12, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 49.95

Starring: Claudette Colbert, Ann Blyth, Robert Douglas, Anne Crawford, Connie Gilchrist, Gladys Cooper, Michael Pate, Phillip Friend; Merle Oberon, Lex Barker, Charles Drake, Gia Scala, Warren Stevens, Phillip Pine, Konstantin Shayne, Stafford Repp; Hedy Lamarr, Jane Powell,...

The star-studded biopic Capone is due to be released via digital platforms on May 12th. Tom Hardy plays Al Capone in his later years in the movie and he looks fantastic. Linda Cardellini, Kyle MacLachlan, and Matt Dillon co-star. Al Capone is America’s best-known gangster and the single greatest symbol of the collapse of law and order in the United States during the 1920s Prohibition era. Capone had a leading role in the illegal activities that lent Chicago its reputation as a lawless city and an interesting variety of Hollywood stars have had the leading role as Al Capone in the many films that have been made that featured him as a character.

The first film about Capone was produced when he was still making headlines. The main character may be named Antonio Camonte, but there’s little doubt as to who producer Howard Hughes had in mind when...

” I just met the swellest dame… She smacked me in the kisser. “

The Glass Key starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake screens at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium(470 E Lockwood Ave) screens Tuesday February 11th. The film begins at 7:00pm. This is the second film in a 3-film ‘Lake and Ladd’ series that continues February 18th with The Blue Dahlia. A Facebook invite can be found Here.

Fast-tracked into production on account of Ladd’s rising stardom, The Glass Key is an adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s 1931 bestseller, previously adapted just seven years prior as a George Raft vehicle of the same name. Here we have Ladd playing Ed Beaumont, something of a fixer for corrupt politician Paul Madvig. Ed falls into a dangerous love triangle with Paul and Paul’s political rival’s daughter, Janet Henry (Lake). Things get even more complicated when Janet’s brother turns up dead,...

Song and dance man or gangster? Few stars of Hollywood’s Golden Era could claim they were equally well known for two such diverse genres. Yet, the legendary James Cagney worked hard to be able to make such a claim.

He was born on July 17, 1899, in New York City. His family was poor, and Cagney was sickly as a child. While growing up in a rough neighborhood, he learned a variety of skills, including tap dancing, street fighting, baseball and boxing. When he was 19, his father died, and he took odd jobs to help support his mother and siblings. On a whim, he auditioned for a role of a chorus girl in a local production. Although he had never had professional training, he landed the role and learned the dances from watching the other performers – and it never bothered him to dress as a girl and perform. Despite his mother...

Mill Creek and Kit Parker package nine mid-range Columbia features from the 1940s and 1950s, not all of them strictly noir but all with dark themes — crime, creepy politics, etc. None have been on Blu-ray, and all but one are in fine condition.

Noir Archive 9-Film Collection

Address Unknown, Escape in the Fog, The Guilt of Janet Ames, The Black Book, Johnny Allegro, 711 Ocean Drive, The Killer That Stalked New York, Assignment: Paris, The Miami Story

Blu-ray

Mill Creek / Kit Parker

1944 -1954 / B&W / 8 x 1:37 Academy; 1 x 1:85 widescreen / 734 min. / Street Date April 23, 2019 / 49.95

Starring: Paul Lukas, Nina Foch, Rosalind Russell, Robert Cummings, George Raft, Edmond O’Brien, Evelyn Keyes, Dana Andrews, Barry Sullivan.

Cinematography: Rudolph Maté, George Meehan, Joseph Walker, John Alton, Joseph Biroc, Franz Planer, Joseph Biroc, Burnett Guffey, Henry Freulich.

Written by Herbert Dalmas, Aubrey Wisberg, Louella MacFarlane, Philip Yordan, Karen DeWolf, Richard English, Harry Essex, William Bowers,...

Here’s looking at you, Humphrey Bogart. The Oscar-winning leading man would’ve celebrated his 119th birthday on December 25, 2018. Best known for playing a tough guy with a heart of gold, Bogart made dozens of films before his untimely death in 1957. But how many of those titles are classics? In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at 20 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Though it may sound like a bit of Hollywood lore, Bogart was indeed born on Christmas Day, 1899, in New York City. After a short stint in the Navy, he started acting onstage and in films, mostly in bit parts as gangsters who met the wrong end of a bullet.

SEEOscar Best Actor Gallery: Every Winner in Academy Award History

His big breakthrough came with the Broadway hit “The Petrified Forest,” in which he played a violent bank robber holed up at...

Here’s looking at you, Humphrey Bogart. The Oscar-winning leading man would’ve celebrated his 119th birthday on December 25, 2018. Best known for playing a tough guy with a heart of gold, Bogart made dozens of films before his untimely death in 1957. But how many of those titles are classics? In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at 20 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Though it may sound like a bit of Hollywood lore, Bogart was indeed born on Christmas Day, 1899, in New York City. After a short stint in the Navy, he started acting onstage and in films, mostly in bit parts as gangsters who met the wrong end of a bullet.

His big breakthrough came with the Broadway hit “The Petrified Forest,” in which he played a violent bank robber holed up at an isolated diner with a hobo and a waitress. When...

Fox touted Black Widow as the first murder mystery in CinemaScope. Ace writer / tyro director Nunnally Johnson tries an ‘All About Eve’ dissection of Broadway swells but in a mystery context, with beaucoup flashbacks. The result is something akin to Rope, with scenes all taking place in apartments with views of Central Park. Nobody complained about the big marquee names Ginger Rogers, Van Heflin, Gene Tierney and George Raft, but I re-watch to marvel over the dreamy, interesting Virginia Leith. Raymond Durgnat encouraged us to indulge our screen fantasies!

Black Widow

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1954 / Color / 2:55 widescreen / 95 min. / Street Date October 16, 2018 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95

Starring Ginger Rogers, Van Heflin, Gene Tierney, George Raft, Peggy Ann Garner, Reginald Gardiner, Virginia Leith, Otto Kruger, Cathleen Nesbitt, Skip Homeier

Cinematography Charles G. Clarke

Art Direction Maurice Ransford, Lyle R. Wheeler

Film Editor Dorothy Spencer

Original Music Leigh Harline

Written...

On March 24, 1933, Paramount and producer B. P. Schulberg unveiled the George Raft and Sylvia Sidney starrer Pick-Up in theaters. The Hollywood Reporter's original review is below.

Pick-Up is a program picture so far above the average that your cash-registers should click a merry tune, even in these sorry times. The picture is packed with down-to-earth speech and sentiment and is of the human interest variety that has been plenty scarce for a long time.

The charm of the film lies for the most part in its simple, straightforward story and the utterly natural and sincere performances of...