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The best heist movies fuse elements of many different genres. They encompass a broad range of stories and filmmaking styles because they are so adaptable. As long as a team of characters is all working together to steal something, then it falls under the category of a heist movie. The genre isn't restricted to any tone, time period, or particular style. Of course, the heist genre has more than its fair share of stereotypes, but the best filmmakers know how to use these to their benefit.

The heist genre has produced some of cinema's most gripping thrillers and some of its funniest comedies. Violence features frequently, like in Snatch and Point Break, but it isn't a necessity. Other movies use a heist as the perfect excuse to craft a slick mystery, with the criminals outsmarting their victims without them ever knowing they were there. Whichever approach a heist movie decides to take,...

Plenty of actors have played Abraham Lincoln well, but the actor still most associated with the role is Raymond Massey, who starred in Robert E. Sherwood’s Pulitzer Prizewinning play. The film version was not a hit, as Sherwood’s aim is to capture the melancholy, even the foreboding, of a man who was a natural for politics. In this reading Lincoln tries to resist his ‘call to greatness’ knowing he’s letting himself in for an unhappy life. The Warner Archive’s restoration retrieves the film from old 16mm prints, restoring James Wong Howe’s handsome cinematography.

Abe Lincoln in Illinois

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1940 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 110 min. / Spirit of the People / Available at Amazon.com / General site Wac-Amazon / Street Date , 2022 / 21.99

Starring:

Raymond Massey, Gene Lockhart, Ruth Gordon, Mary Howard, Minor Watson, Alan Baxter, Harvey Stephens, Howard da Silva, Dorothy Tree, Louis Jean Heydt, Clem Bevans, Herbert Rudley,...

Eleanor Parker: Palm Springs resident turns 91 today Eleanor Parker turns 91 today. The three-time Oscar nominee (Caged, 1950; Detective Story, 1951; Interrupted Melody, 1955) and Palm Springs resident is Turner Classic Movies’ Star of the Month of June 2013. Earlier this month, TCM showed a few dozen Eleanor Parker movies, from her days at Warner Bros. in the ’40s to her later career as a top Hollywood supporting player. (Photo: Publicity shot of Eleanor Parker in An American Dream.) Missing from TCM’s movie series, however, was not only Eleanor Parker’s biggest box-office it — The Sound of Music, in which she steals the show from both Julie Andrews and the Alps — but also what according to several sources is her very first movie role: a bit part in Raoul Walsh’s They Died with Their Boots On, a 1941 Western starring Errol Flynn as a dashingly handsome and all-around-good-guy-ish General George Armstrong Custer. Olivia de Havilland...

Oh, MGM. So many classics chills have you provided over the years. It's so good to see your long lost terrors being rediscovered and redistributed. That's right, kids! A fresh crop of vintage spookshow horror is on its way and we've got all the details for you right here!

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment is bringing more classics to DVD in May through the unique “manufacturing on demand” (Mod). The newest selection of available films is a part of MGM’s Limited Edition Collection and available through major online retailers.

This latest batch features:

Mr. Wong, Detective (1938): Mr. Wong investigates the deaths of 3 partners in the poison gas export trade - each death occurring while the person was alone in his quarters. Stars Boris Karloff, Grant Withers, Maxine Jennings. Directed by William Nigh.

The Mystery Of Mr. Wong (1939): Chinese criminologist Mr. Wong investigates the murder of a curio...