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The 1940s represent the absolute pinnacle of suspense cinema. This was a decade shaped by global conflict and societal anxiety, conditions that created the perfect storm for stories of paranoia, betrayal, and psychological torment. From this crucible of uncertainty emerged the shadowy world of film noir, the sophisticated psychological thriller, and the modern spy film.

This definitive ranking showcases the ten greatest thrillers of the decade, films that entertained audiences and rewrote the rules of suspense cinema. Each entry on this list combines critical acclaim, box office success, and lasting cultural impact, representing the very best of what made 1940s thriller movies so enduringly powerful.

10. The Stranger (1946)

Director: Orson Welles

Stars: Orson Welles, Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young

Orson Welles’s brutally effective post-war thriller operates on a premise both simple and terrifying: one of the architects of the Final Solution has escaped justice and now lives as a beloved...

Cora Sue Collins, the charming child actress of the 1930s and ’40s who worked alongside such legends as Greta Garbo, Claudette Colbert, Bette Davis, Irene Dunne and Merle Oberon during her brief but sensational career, has died. She was 98.

Collins died Sunday at her home in Beverly Hills of complications from a stroke, her daughter, Susie Krieser, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Collins played younger versions of Colbert in Torch Singer (1933), Frances Dee in The Strange Case of Clara Deane (1932) and Keep ‘Em Rolling (1934), Loretta Young in Caravan (1934), Oberon in The Dark Angel (1935) and Lynn Bari in Blood and Sand (1941).

“I must have the most common face in the world,” she said in a 2019 interview. “I played either the most famous actresses of the ’30s as a child or their child. They made me up to look like everybody.”

The MGM contract player also was William Powell and Myrna Loy’s...

Meryl Streep is the best of the best.

Her performance in Sophie’s Choice (1982) has been voted the greatest Oscar Best Actress winner ever, according to a Gold Derby ballot cast by 21 of our film experts, critics, and editors, who ranked all 97 movie champs.

Diane Keaton ranked second for Annie Hall (1977), with Jodie Foster following in third for The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Liza Minnelli for Cabaret (1972) and Vivien Leigh for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) rounded out the top five.

At the bottom of the list of the Best Actress winners is Mary Pickford for Coquette (1929). Just above that film in the rankings are Luise Rainer for The Great Ziegfeld (1936), Helen Hayes for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1932), Loretta Young for The Farmer’s Daughter (1947), and Marie Dressler for Min and Bill (1931).

Another recent Gold Derby poll of cinema experts declared The Godfather (1972) as the greatest Best Picture Oscar winner of all...

The performance by Meryl Streep in Sophie’s Choice (1982) has been voted the greatest Oscar Best Actress winner ever. The results are from a recent Gold Derby ballot cast by 21 of our film experts and editors, who ranked all 97 movie champs.

Ranking in second place is Diane Keaton for Annie Hall (1977). Following in third place is Jodie Foster for The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Rounding out the top five are Liza Minnelli for Cabaret (1972), and Vivien Leigh for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951).

At the bottom of the list of the Best Actress winners is Mary Pickford for Coquette (1929). Just above that film in the rankings are Luise Rainer for The Great Ziegfeld (1936), Helen Hayes for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1932), Loretta Young for The Farmer’s Daughter (1947), and Marie Dressler for Min and Bill (1931).

Another recent poll had The Godfather (1972) declared as the greatest Best Picture Oscar winner of all time (view...

The Emmy Awards grew up on March 7, 1955. For the first time, the ceremony was broadcast nationally on NBC. Steve Allen, the star of “The Tonight Show,” was the host of the 7th annual awards honoring the best of 1954 programming which was telecast from the Moulin Rouge nightclub on Sunset Boulevard.

One of the seminal live dramas of the 1950’s, Reginald Rose’s searing “12 Angry Men,” which aired on CBS “Studio One,” earned the most Emmys that evening winning with three. The taut drama about a jury of a dozen men decided the fate of a young man accused of murder starred Robert Cummings, Franchot Tone, Edward Arnold and Walter Abel. For years, only an incomplete kinescope of the show, which was adapted into the Oscar-nominated 1957 film, existed.

Finally, a complete copy of the show was discovered in 2003. Rose told me in a 1997 L.A. Times interview that he came up...

by Nick Taylor

Today is the 75th anniversary of Come to the Stable, which has to rank among the most inoffensive, featherweight films to earn seven nominations from Thee Academy Awards. The story of two nuns, Sister Margaret (Loretta Young) and Sister Scholastica (Celeste Holm), who travel all the way from France to a wintry New England township so they can build a hospital. “Why do they go all the way to New England” you might ask, but who cares!

Specific details about why things happen are not the draw of Come to the Stable. A musician/landlord named Bob does not want the nuns to build their new hospital on a hill he owns for some reason, which doesn’t stop them from securing a plot of land and importing two dozen of their Sisters from France. At one point the nuns sneak into a gangster’s suite and...

Social media is always posting clips of belligerent airline passengers having meltdowns even getting into fisticuffs with flight attendants and fellow travelers. But today’s outbursts look positively tame to compared to the ill-behavior of the passengers and even the crew on a plane bound to San Francisco from Honolulu in “The High and the Mighty,” which opened in L.A. on May 27, 1954. The film went into general release in July. They drink, they cry, they fight and even restrain a passenger who has a gun.Meanwhile, the young pilot nearly loses it, the veteran pilot is haunted with memories of a crash, the navigator is a nervous wreck. Smoking, even by the crew, is allowed.

Directed by William A. Wellman, who helmed another airplane classic 1927’s Oscar-winner “Wings,” adapted by Ernest Gann from his best seller and produced by star John Wayne and his partner Robert Fellows, “The High and the Mighty...

Man's Castle.“When you’re dead, you get a hunk of earth. When you’re alive, all you’ve got is that hunk of blue.” This is how Bill (Spencer Tracy), the restless hero of Frank Borzage’s Man’s Castle (1933), explains his insistence on sleeping under the open sky. Borzage’s films always cast their eyes heavenward with exalted sincerity; they offer no sop to modern irony or cynicism. No one should watch them who is not prepared to be enraptured.The essence of Borzage’s romanticism resides in the enchanted spaces his lovers create together: sometimes a semi-permanent home, like the Parisian garret in 7th Heaven (1927), at other times a fleeting idyll of shared fantasy, like the abandoned plantation mansion where the outcast couple in Moonrise (1948) waltz amid the shadows and cobwebs. These magical playhouses are spaces of care and refuge as much as dreamy eroticism; in Man’s Castle,...

Clockwise from top left: Priceless (Screengrab); 2 Days In Paris (Screengrab); Jeffrey (Screengrab); Something’s Gotta Give (Screengrab); The Big Sick (Amazon/Lionsgate); My Man Godfrey (Screengrab)

Lovers of romantic comedies have an array of options on Amazon Prime Video—particularly when it comes to oldies but goodies. Cary Grant classics abound,...

Indie producer Harry Cohn, brother Jack and their associate Joe Brandt created the CBC Film Sales Company in 1918. And on Jan. 10, 1924, the trio formed the Poverty Row studio, Columbia Pictures. According to Enclyclopedia.com, by the mid-20s “Cohn had gained reputation as one of the industry’s toughest businessmen.” That’s putting it mildly.

Though “B” movies and series such as The Three Stooges, “Blondie” and “The Lone Wolf” were the bread and butter of the studio, Cohn slowly attracted top talent and directors and turned such newcomers as Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, William Holden and Kim Novak into stars.

Frank Capra changed the fortunes of the studio. Signing with Columbia in 1928, he made 25 films for Columbia. His optimistic, common man movies attracted critics and audiences alike during the Depression. His 1934 screwball comedy “It Happened One Night,” penned by Robert Riskin and starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, swept the Oscars winning five.

Dan Stevens as Charles Dickens and Christopher Plummer as Ebenezer Scrooge in ‘The Man Who Invented Christmas’ (Photo by Kerry Brown / Bleecker Street)

Once again, the holidays – or is it holidaze? – are upon us, bringing with it a flurry of Christmas movies.

You have your endless parade of cartoons, specials, Christmas-themed episodes of your favorite TV shows, bad holiday comedies (1996’s Jingle All the Way and 2007’s Fred Claus come to mind), and Christmas-set horror movies (1984’s Gremlins). Then there’s the cheesy yet feel-good Lifetime and Hallmark films. And how can we forget the 24-hour marathon of 1983’s A Christmas Story (celebrating its 40th anniversary this year), beginning on Christmas Eve and ending on Christmas Day?

If those don’t do it for you, maybe these lists of Christmas movies will.

Classic Christmas Movies

You can’t go wrong with these classics, which can lighten the hearts of even the most ardent cynics.

Clockwise from bottom left: A Very Harold And Kumar Christmas, Miracle On 34th Street, An American Christmas Carol, It’s A Wonderful LifeGraphic: The A.V. Club

Happy holidays from The A.V. Club to you! If you’re anything like us, the winter season is for curling up in front...

Considering all 10 TV acting Golden Globe categories, the widest age range of the year involves the Best Comedy Actress nominees. 51 years separate reigning champ Jean Smart (71) of HBO Max’s “Hacks” from first-timer Jenna Ortega (20) of Netflix’s “Wednesday,” while the gaps in the other categories range from 27 to 47 years. Smart is looking to break her own record as the all-time oldest recipient of this lead award, but she faces a formidable challenge from Ortega, who could set a new precedent as the youngest winner in this category and second youngest performer to snag a TV Golden Globe of any kind.

Rounding out the 2023 Best Comedy Actress lineup are Selena Gomez, Quinta Brunson, and Kaley Cuoco, making for an average age of 38. Ortega, who would be the first TV acting Golden Globe winner born during the 21st century, is the second youngest contender in this category’s history, after 19-year-old Patty Duke.

In 2019, 74-year-old Michael Douglas triumphed on his first Best TV Comedy Actor Golden Globe bid for “The Kominsky Method” and thus became the oldest person ever honored by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for lead acting on a continuing series. Last year, “Only Murders in the Building” star Steve Martin almost broke this record by two years, but ultimately came up short against Jason Sudeikis. With the reigning champ currently out of contention, Martin now has a second chance to make Golden Globes history.

Martin’s Best TV Comedy Actor bid for the second season of Hulu’s “Only Murders” already makes him the oldest man to ever compete in the category. He surpasses Wilfrid Hyde-White, who was eight months younger than Martin is now when he unsuccessfully vied for the prize as the star of “The Associates” in 1980. He lost to Alan Alda (“M*A*S*H”), who was...

Also out this weekend is a live brodcast of New York’s Metropolitan Opera ’The Hours’ at 133 venues.

Distributors have steered clear of major new releases this weekend ahead of the UK and Ireland December 16 opening of Avatar: The Way Of Water, however there are some notable arthouse titles debuting at the box office.

Cannes premiere The Silent Twins is this weekend’s widest new release, playing in 160 sites for Universal, following Tamara Lawrance and Letitia Wright’s recent British Independent Film Award (Bifa) win for best joint lead performance. The Lure’s Agnieszka Smoczynska directs this Poland-uk co-production, which is Smoczynska’s English-language debut,...

Grant is a suave stranger who stirs up the strained marriage of Niven and Loretta Young in this fey but beguiling seasonal tale

There’s an unworldly charm and odd, innocent solemnity to this Christmas fantasy comedy from 1947, now on rerelease, directed by Henry Koster and starring Cary Grant, David Niven and Loretta Young. Niven plays the sobersided Bishop Henry Brougham, a decent but now careworn man whose overwork has lately caused him to neglect the happiness of his sweet-natured wife Julia (Young) and infant daughter Debby (Karolyn Grimes). As the Christmas season approaches, the bishop is becoming a veritable Scrooge, a role he effectively shares with the wealthy widow Mrs Hamilton (Gladys Cooper). She was instrumental in getting him the bishop’s job in the first place, and is now exhaustingly stringing him along with a promise to fund the building of a vainglorious new cathedral with which the...

John Wayne had been working steadily in movies for over 30 years when principal photography wrapped on Howard Hawkes' "Rio Bravo" in 1958, and the miles were beginning to wear on the screen legend. At the age of 52, retirement was out of the question. He'd launched Batjac Productions only six years prior, and had his heart set on at long last bringing his labor of love, "The Alamo," to life.

If The Duke had his druthers, this is the moment in his career where he would've eased off on the gas a tad and began to experience more of life outside of a film set. In terms of box office success, he'd more than earned it. Why did he have to keep knocking out two or three movies a year like he still had something to prove?

There was a reason, and it's one that keeps many celebrities working their tails off well beyond their primes.

In 2000, three-time film acting Golden Globe winner Jack Lemmon received his only TV prize from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for his work in a Showtime production of “Inherit the Wind.” At 74, he became the oldest person to ever win a lead TV acting Golden Globe, breaking the record set in 1987 by Loretta Young (“Christmas Eve”) by a margin of 324 days. Now, after holding this distinction for almost a quarter century, Lemmon may soon be displaced by newly installed “The Crown” cast member Jonathan Pryce, who turned 75 in June and is seeking this year’s Best TV Drama Actor award.

Pryce is set to appear on the final two seasons of “The Crown” as Prince Philip, who was married to Queen Elizabeth II for 73 years. The British royal family patriarch was previously played for two seasons each by Matt Smith and Tobias Menzies, the latter of whom was nominated for...

Over a decade after beginning her screen acting career, Jodie Comer made history at the 2019 Primetime Emmys by becoming the all-time youngest recipient of the Best Drama Actress prize as one of the stars of “Killing Eve.” After being left out of the previous year’s lineup, she was rewarded for her work on the spy thriller’s second season, which further explored the obsessive relationship between her character – an international assassin – and the MI6 agent (Sandra Oh) recruited to apprehend her.

At 26, Comer was nearly two years younger than previous record holder Lindsay Wagner (“The Bionic Woman”) was at the time of her victory 42 years earlier. Although 24-year-old Zendaya (“Euphoria”) took the title from her just one year later, she still holds the distinction of being one of the 10 youngest nominees and winners honored here in the seven-decade history of the Emmy awards.

The television academy has recognized the...

Over a decade after beginning her screen acting career, Jodie Comer made history at the 2019 Primetime Emmys by becoming the all-time youngest recipient of the Best Drama Actress prize as one of the stars of “Killing Eve.” After being left out of the previous year’s lineup, she was rewarded for her work on the spy thriller’s second season, which further explored the obsessive relationship between her character – an international assassin – and the MI6 agent (Sandra Oh) recruited to apprehend her.

At 26, Comer was nearly two years younger than previous record holder Lindsay Wagner (“The Bionic Woman”) was at the time of her victory 42 years earlier. Although 24-year-old Zendaya (“Euphoria”) took the title from her just one year later, she still holds the distinction of being one of the 10 youngest nominees and winners honored here in the seven-decade history of the Emmy awards.

The television academy has recognized the...

When Laura Linney accepted the 2013 Best TV Movie/Limited Series Actress Emmy for portraying Cathy Jamison on “The Big C: Hereafter,” she joined an elite group of women who have amassed four victories for as many different primetime programs. Cloris Leachman became the first to achieve the feat in 1984, followed by Alfre Woodard in 2003 and Betty White in 2010. Four years after concluding her run as Jamison, which she began when “The Big C” was classified as a comedy series, Linney took on her second regular role as Wendy Byrde on Netflix’s “Ozark.”

Linney’s performance as Byrde brought her three bids for the Best Drama Actress award between 2019 and 2022. During the show’s two-part fourth and final season, her money-laundering character develops into an even more ruthless and calculating high-end criminal whose mental state sometimes wavers when she is reminded of her brother’s murder or her father’s abusive nature.

When Laura Linney accepted the 2013 Best TV Movie/Limited Series Actress Emmy for portraying Cathy Jamison on “The Big C: Hereafter,” she joined an elite group of women who have amassed four victories for as many different primetime programs. Cloris Leachman became the first to achieve the feat in 1984, followed by Alfre Woodard in 2003 and Betty White in 2010. Four years after concluding her run as Jamison, which she began when “The Big C” was classified as a comedy series, Linney took on her second regular role as Wendy Byrde on Netflix’s “Ozark.”

Linney’s performance as Byrde brought her three bids for the Best Drama Actress award between 2019 and 2022. During the show’s two-part fourth and final season, her money-laundering character develops into an even more ruthless and calculating high-end criminal whose mental state sometimes wavers when she is reminded of her brother’s murder or her father’s abusive nature.

In 2017, freshman series “The Handmaid’s Tale” stormed the Primetime Emmys by taking eight prizes, including Best Drama Series. Castmates Alexis Bledel, Ann Dowd, and Elisabeth Moss all bagged trophies, marking the first instance of a series conquering all three female drama acting categories in a single year. Moss was the first Best Drama Actress champion to win for her show’s inaugural season since Claire Danes (“Homeland”) did so five years earlier.

Moss was honored for her work in the first season finale of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” in which her character, a slave in a dystopian imagining of America, begins to stand up against her oppressors in the wake of receiving life-changing news. At 35, she became one of the youngest victors in the history of her category. Indeed, five of the last six winners constitute half of the 10 most youthful ones here, with Moss currently filling the final slot after first entering at seventh place.

Prior to the firm establishment of the Best Drama Actress Emmy category in 1966, leading women on continuing series typically competed directly against each other regardless of genre. These mixed contests happened to produce equal amounts of comedic and dramatic winners during the 1950s and 1960s, with Eve Arden (“Our Miss Brooks”) and Loretta Young (“The Loretta Young Show”) being the respective first ones to represent the formats. Young, who triumphed in 1955, 1957, and 1959, remains one of only six women to rack up three or more wins in this category.

Each episode of Young’s eponymous show, like those of 1950s programs “Hallmark Hall of Fame” and “Alcoa Theatre,” was a stand-alone special featuring a unique storyline and set of characters. For all eight seasons, Young consistently acted as the wraparound host and would often star in the main fictional portions of the episodes. Her last Emmy victory at age 46 gave her...

Click here to read the full article.

On July 2, 1946, director-star Orson Welles unveiled noir film The Stranger in Los Angeles. The film went on to earn a nomination in the writing category at the 19th Academy Awards. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review, titled “‘The Stranger’ Will Know High Boxoffice Returns,” is below:

In The Stranger, International Pictures delivers the sixth and final feature for release through Rko-Radio. It is an entertainment of the same high quality that has distinguished previous product by the Leo Spitz-William Goetz organization which will schedule future releases through United World Pictures. Produced by S. P. Eagle and directed by Orson Welles, who with Edward C. Robinson and Loretta Young comprise the trio of stars, boxoffice expectancies are exceptionally strong for this tense and suspenseful melodrama. It starts out on the note of a chase, thoughtfully develops every possible punch, builds legitimate interest in the...

I had the pleasure of joining Kevin Jacobsen on his great podcast series "And the Runner Up Is..." for a fourth time. Kevin opted to assign me 1947 when I asked for this decade. So listen in to hear us talk about the following lineup which has two great performances, one coaster nomination, a bullet dodged, and one of my mother's favourites from her childhood.

Joan Crawford, Possessed Susan Hayward, Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman Dorothy McGuire, Gentleman's Agreement Rosalind Russell, Mourning Becomes Electra ★ Loretta Young, The Farmer's Daughter

Which of those performances do you love?...

Set in San Francisco’s Chinatown, William Wellman’s 1932 melodrama is as hard-boiled as a pre-code film could get and paved the way for more explicitly bloody action in Hammer’s own Terror of the Tongs. Robinson is Wong Low Get, a man with a particularly sharp axe to grind and a ravishing Loretta Young (almost unrecognizable in her Mandarin make-up) as his ill-fated love interest.

The post The Hatchet Man appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

Let’s shout our approval of this foursome of vintage noirs, all of which have been scarce since Eddie Muller was old enough to rob candy stores. Three Paramounts and one Universal give us four notable directors and a gallery of attractive stars, including a swoon-worthy array of actresses: Marta Toren, Loretta Young, Susan Hayward, Gail Russell, Frances Farmer and Marina Berti. The selection includes one of the key ‘just prior to the official style’ titles, a thriller with supernatural overtones, a ‘woman in jeopardy’ story and a gangster tale reportedly inspired by Lucky Luciano.

Kino Noir Times Four

Blu-ray

Among the Living, Night Has a Thousand Eyes, The Accused, Deported

Kl Studio Classics

1941-1950 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / Street Date November 16, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / Separate Purchases / 24.95 each

Starring: Albert Dekker, Susan Hayward; Edward G. Robinson, Gail Russell; Loretta Young, Robert Cummings, Wendell Corey; Jeff Chandler, Marta Toren.

Directed by Stuart Heisler,...

“Murder Or Self Defense?”

By Raymond Benson

This compelling 1949 melodrama—it can’t quite be called film noir due to a lack of many of the traits associated with that cinematic movement—would have a field day in the era of #MeToo. It was made during 1948 (released in January ’49) while the Production Code was still in effect. While it was taboo to say that the protagonist, Dr. Wilma Tuttle (Loretta Young), is “sexually assaulted” by one of her students at the college where she teaches psychology (it’s obvious that this is what occurs in front of our eyes on the screen), it’s perfectly fine for the investigating homicide detective, Lt. Dorgan (Wendell Corey), to make harassing sexual innuendos and sexist remarks about the woman he suspects of murder, not only to her face but to all the other men in the room while she’s present. But it...

Emmy winner Anthony Hemingway has signed on to direct a present-day “reimagining” of The Preacher’s Wife, featuring original cast member Courtney B. Vance, for Bassett Vance Productions.

Penny Marshall’s 1996 film, starring Denzel Washington, Whitney Houston and Vance, was itself a remake of The Bishop’s Wife, the 1947 film based on Robert Nathan’s book of the same name that starred Cary Grant, Loretta Young and David Niven. It centers on Dudley (Washington), an angel who comes to earth to help preacher Henry Biggs (Vance) and his wife Julia (Houston) save the church and their family. The film endures as a perennial favorite around the holidays; its soundtrack remains the bestselling gospel album of all time.

Hemingway’s version of The Preacher’s Wife will “creatively evolve the story in a new direction,” per Bvp’s producing partner Dwayne Johnson-Cochran, while boosting “the musicality” of the storytelling.

Like everyone else, we love Lucy and celebrate the anniversary of Lucille Ball‘s landmark laffer “I Love Lucy,” which debuted on CBS exactly 70 years ago today on Oct. 15, 1951. The show won the Emmy for Best Situation Comedy twice and Ball claimed two trophies as well.

Ball went on to win two more Emmys for the last two seasons of her second series, “The Lucy Show”. In 1967, she edged out “Bewitched” stars Elizabeth Montgomery and Agnes Moorehead and “That Girl’s” Marlo Thomas. By the way, Montgomery never won an Emmy, despite nine nods, including five for her work as that witch with a twitch. The following year, in what was to be her final Emmy race, Ball prevailed yet again. Her competition: Montgomery and Thomas, as well as Barbara Feldon (“Get Smart”) and Paula Prentiss (“He and She”).

Watch that moment from the 1967 Emmycast when Ball wins. As her...

Though there have been deaf characters in movies for decades they were rarely played by hearing impaired actors. Hollywood was looking for big names for their movies and overlooked performers who were deaf. Case in point: Did you know that Loretta Young played deaf characters in both 1939’s “The Story of Alexander Graham Bell” and 1944’s “And Now Tomorrow”? And hearing actors Jane Wyman and Patty Duke won Oscars playing deaf characters. It wasn’t until 1986’s “Children of a Lesser God” that a deaf actress, Marlee Matlin, won an Oscar for playing a deaf character.

Change has been slow since then, but this past year has been encouraging. Paul Raci received an Oscar nomination this year as a Vietnam Vet who became hearing impaired in the conflict runs a shelter for recovering hearing impaired substance abuse addicts in “Sound of Metal.” Teenage deaf performer Millicent Simmonds returned this year...

In 2017, freshman series “The Handmaid’s Tale” stormed the Primetime Emmys by taking eight prizes, including Best Drama Series. Castmates Alexis Bledel, Ann Dowd, and Elisabeth Moss all bagged trophies, marking the first instance of a series conquering all three female drama acting categories in a single year. Moss was the first Best Drama Actress champion to win for her show’s inaugural season since Claire Danes (“Homeland”) did so five years earlier.

Moss was honored for her work in the first season finale of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” in which her character, a slave in a dystopian imagining of America, begins to stand up against her oppressors in the wake of receiving life-changing news. At 35, she became one of the youngest victors in the history of her category. Indeed, the last five consecutive winners constitute half of the 10 most youthful ones here, with Moss currently filling the final slot after first entering at seventh place.

Prior to joining the ranks of other prolific TV moguls, David E. Kelley got his start by writing for NBC’s “L.A. Law” and then co-creating “Doogie Howser, M.D.” for ABC. While both shows were still running, Kelley’s first solo creation, “Picket Fences,” was picked up by CBS and premiered in the fall of 1992. Despite never being a ratings success, the series ran for four seasons and won the Emmy for Best Drama Series twice. It also nabbed at least two acting awards per year, amounting to a total of 10.

Three of the acting trophies went to leading lady Kathy Baker, who played small town doctor and mother of three Jill Brock. Her third victory came for the final season episode “Bottled,” in which her character’s mid-life crisis comes to a head during her youngest son’s 13th birthday party. This further solidified the 46-year-old actress’ position...

Variety's Awards Circuit is home to the official predictions for the upcoming Emmys ceremonies from film awards editor Clayton Davis. Following history, buzz, news, reviews and sources, the Emmy predictions are updated regularly with the current year's list of contenders in all categories. Variety's Awards Circuit Prediction schedule consists of four phases, running all year long: Draft, Pre-Season, Regular Season and Post Season. The eligibility calendar and dates of awards will determine how long each phase lasts and is subject to change.

To see all the latest predictions, of all the categories, in one place, visit The Emmys Collective

Visit each individual category, according to the awards show from The Emmys Hub

Link to film awards hub The Oscars Hub

Draft>>>Pre-season>>>Regular Season>>>Post Season

2021 Emmys Predictions:

Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama Series

Updated: Aug 19, 2021

Awards Prediction Commentary: BAFTA TV Award snub aside, critical darling Corrin has dominated...

“Ted Lasso,” “The Mandalorian,” “Hacks,” “The Flight Attendant,” “The Crown” and “The Queen’s Gambit” are among the top nominees for the 73rd annual Primetime Awards, which are set for Sept.19 on CBS with Cedric the Entertainer, who stars on the network’s sitcom “The Neighborhood,” set to host. But this is now, but what about the Emmys 60 years ago.

Dick Powell hosted the 13th Emmy Awards which took place at the famed Moulin Rouge Nightclub in Los Angeles on May 16, 1961. There were just three broadcast networks as well as local channels and National Education Television, now known as PBS.

History was made when The Flintstones” became the first animated series to be nominated in a main category: program achievement in the field of humor. It would be nearly 50 years before another animated series, “The Family Guy,” contended for a top award.

Veterans such as Jack Benny and Red Skelton were among the winners,...

“The Crown” is on track to become the first show since “Cagney & Lacey” in 1985 to win its first Best Drama Series Emmy for its fourth season, but that is not the only Emmy history it could share with the procedural. If Emma Corrin takes Best Drama Actress as widely expected, “The Crown” will join “Cagney & Lacey” as the only shows to win the category for multiple actresses.

“Cagney & Lacey” dominated drama actress in the ’80s and holds the category record with six wins. Tyne Daly won four of them from 1983-85 and in 1988, while her screen partner Sharon Gless bested her in 1986 and ’87. “The Crown” notched its first victory here in 2018 when Claire Foy won for her second and final season on “The Crown” as Queen Elizabeth II.

The Best Drama Actress category as we know it was standardized in 1966, but prior to that, the Emmys awarded lead performances regardless of genre,...

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“The Original Money Pit”

By Raymond Benson

Remember the 1986 comedy The Money Pit, starring Tom Hanks and Shelley Long? The official credits of that film do not mention the excellent writing team of Frank Panama and Melvin Frank, who adapted Eric Hodgins’ 1946 biographical comic novel Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House into the popular 1948 “disaster comedy” starring Cary Grant and Myrna Loy. The Money Pit is, in reality, an under-the-table remake of Blandings. It’s a pity that the original was not acknowledged, for, frankly, Blandings is much more realistic (and clever).

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House was indeed a popular film and yet during its initial run was deemed to have lost money—just like the hapless Mr. Blandings does while attempting to move out of New York City to Connecticut. The movie is funny enough, for sure, but perhaps in...

If there’s any silver lining to the last year, it was how it compelled creators to think even further outside the box. For director/writer Jeff Baena, the idea for the Showtime anthology “Cinema Toast” came as the result of being unable to direct a feature film in Italy — and transferring his weekly poker game to the online sphere after Covid hit.

In chatting with his friends, Baena joked about doing something similar to Woody Allen’s debut feature — 1966’s “What’s Up, Tiger Lily” — by taking existing features and altering them. “Everyone thought it was funny…and later on that night [the project] started spinning in my head about how that’s actually not a bad idea,” Baena told IndieWire. Baena saw the opportunity to not necessarily dub over something, but use the features as a springboard to create a totally new story and genre than what was originally filmed.

Showtime has ordered the anthology series “Cinema Toast” from creator Jeff Baena and executive producers the Duplass brothers.

The series is described as a post-modernist reinvention of older movies that turns pre-existing imagery from the public domain on its head to tell brand new unique stories. It will feature the voices of actors like Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Fred Armisen, John Early, Christina Ricci, Megan Mullally, Chloe Fineman and Chris Meloni. Directors include Baena, Jay Duplass, Mel Eslyn, Alex Ross Perry, Marta Cunningham, Aubrey Plaza, Numa Perrier, Jordan Firstman, Kris Rey and David Lowery. Showtime has ordered 10 episodes, which will premiere all at once on Showtime on-demand streaming and partner platforms on April 20.

Episodes will cover a range of genres, including horror, comedy, and drama. Plaza’s psychological thriller “Quiet Illness” pieces together footage of Loretta Young to create a portrait of an emotionally tortured modern woman, while Cunningham’s...

Showtime has ordered a new anthology series, Cinema Toast, created by Jeff Baena (The Little Hours) and produced by the Duplass Brothers (Room 104), set to stream later this month. The series is described as a post-modernist reinvention of older movies that turns pre-existing imagery from the public domain on its head to tell new unique stories. All 10 episodes of Cinema Toast will premiere on Showtime’s on-demand streaming and partner platforms on Tuesday, April 20.

Directors of the series include Baena, Jay Duplass, Mel Eslyn, Alex Ross Perry, Marta Cunningham, Aubrey Plaza, Numa Perrier, Jordan Firstman, Kris Rey and David Lowery. The episodes are voiced by actors including Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Fred Armisen, John Early, Christina Ricci, Megan Mullally, Chloe Fineman and Chris Meloni.

“When the pandemic first hit and all paths to traditional production seemed unlikely at best, I racked my brain to find a way to still create,...

6 random things that happened on this day, March 7th, in showbiz history

Loretta Young, the first actress to chase an Oscar with an Emmy.

1946 The 18th Academy Awards are held honoring the films of 1945 with The Lost Weekend taking Best Picture. We'll discuss this Oscar night later today given that it's the 75th anniversary. 

1955 The 7th annual Primetime Emmys are held. Loretta Young becomes the first Best Actress Oscar winner to then win a Best Actress Emmy prize for a continuing series. Only one other actress ever did this with Shirley Booth following her the next decade (Sally Field would make this a three person list except she actually won an Emmy before her Oscars and subsequent Best Actress Drama series Emmy). In those days TV and Movies were very separate showbiz forms and once you started doing television on the regular, the movie offers dried up. It's different nowadays...

11 random things that happened on this day, November 16th, in showbiz history...

1934 The White Parade about a nursing school starring Loretta Young opens in theaters. Later it's nominated for Best Picture.

1945 Happy 75th Anniversary to both the Best Picture nominee The Lost Weekend and the animated short "The Friendly Ghost" which introduced Casper to the world. The whole short is available on YouTube and it's much darker than you might remember it if you ever saw it as a kid. Poor Casper really needs a hug and or friends...

Psycho, The Sound of Music and celebrity birthday suits after the jump...

Like everyone else, we love Lucy and celebrate the anniversary of Lucille Ball‘s landmark laffer “I Love Lucy,” which debuted on CBS exactly 69 years ago today on Oct. 15, 1951. The show won the Emmy for Best Situation Comedy twice and Ball claimed two trophies as well.

Ball went on to win two more Emmys for the last two seasons of her second series, “The Lucy Show”. In 1967, she edged out “Bewitched” stars Elizabeth Montgomery and Agnes Moorehead and “That Girl’s” Marlo Thomas. By the way, Montgomery never won an Emmy, despite nine nods, including five for her work as that witch with a twitch. The following year, in what was to be her final Emmy race, Ball prevailed yet again. Her competition: Montgomery and Thomas, as well as Barbara Feldon (“Get Smart”) and Paula Prentiss (“He and She”).

Watch that moment from the 1967 Emmycast when Ball wins. As her...

7 random things that happened on this day, September 25th, in showbiz history...

1936 Another reminder that inappropriate racial casting has been with us always and not just for the common and commonly excoriated practices of yellowface or blackface. Ramona opened on this day in movie theaters, a romantic drama starring Loretta Young as a girl who doesn't know she's bi-racial and Don Ameche as the Native American hired hand that she falls for. 

1953 The Actress, a movie about future Oscar winner Ruth Gordon (Rosemary's Baby) Written By Ruth Gordon (with Jean Simmons playing her) opens in movie theaters. Spencer Tracy will win the Golden Globe for his performance as her father.

Audrey Hepburn, Last of the Mohicans, Chevy Chase vs Cary Grant and more after the jump...

Boasting a 15-year career as a set decorator, Matthew Flood Ferguson found his first major TV design job in Netflix miniseries Hollywood, on which he took a deep dive into the minutiae of Hollywood’s Golden Age.

Created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, the starry drama is set in Post-World War II Tinseltown, following a group of actors and filmmakers who will do whatever it takes to realize their dreams. Spotlighting biases toward race, gender and sexuality that exist to this day, it considers what might have happened, had inequality in entertainment been addressed decades ago.

First working with Murphy on the 2006 film Running with Scissors, Ferguson subsequently joined the prolific creator on a number of projects, including The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, getting one of his first opportunities in production design on the upcoming Ratched. “Judy Becker, the production designer, had to leave to do another project,...

While long-running TV favorites have dominated the Emmys, series that ran for one season or less have also won over the academy. They often faced strong competition in their time slots or were ahead of their time. These shows are generally just faded memories but many are available on YouTube. Do you remember any of these Emmy winners?

“The Barbara Stanwyck Show”

Barbara Stanwyck, who was nicknamed Missy by her friends and co-workers, was a formidable presence during the Golden Age of Hollywood earning four Oscar nominations for 1937’s “Stella Dallas,” 1941’s “Ball of Fire,” 1944’s “Double Indemnity” and 1948’s “Sorry, Wrong Number.” In 1960, she starred in her first TV series: an anthology show for NBC. Directors included Arthur Hiller, Richard Whorf and Stuart Rosenberg. And guest stars ran the gamut from Anna May Wong to Lee Marvin.

Though the anthology series format worked like gangbusters for another classic Hollywood legend,...

Please welcome first time contributor Baby Clyde, weighing in on 1947, the year we're celebrating this week...

Rosalind & Loretta, friends and Best Actress rivalsSuch a forgone conclusion was the result of the final award at the 20th Academy Awards, that the audience at the back of the Shrine Auditorium had already started filing out as Frederic March rose to announce the Best Actress winner. They soon stopped in their tracks as a huge gasp swept around the room. No one was more surprised than the previous year’s Best Actor champ who is said to have started reading the name of the expected winner, Rosalind Russell for Mourning Becomes Electra, before stopping and declaring that the awards was, in fact, going to rank outsider Loretta Young for the comedic trifle The Farmers Daughter. The next day noted gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, sitting directly behind her, reported that Russell had already started...

Warning: Do not read this story until you have seen the final episode of “Hollywood.”

For its first six episodes, Ryan Murphy’s “Hollywood” mixed reality and fiction in its portrait of the movie business in the years after World War II. But there’s a good reason why the final episode is titled “A Hollywood Ending” – because it uses the Oscars of March 1948 to paint a picture of Hollywood growing more tolerant, more open to minorities and gays and more embracing of the kind of films that in reality were nearly impossible to make at the time or for decades later.

Like the ending of Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” the episode veers into a kind of wish-fulfillment fiction that is the whole point of its existence.

So we’re not really fact-checking when we look at the show’s depiction of the 20th Academy Awards ceremony.

Here’s a quick trivia question for you. Who won the first Best Actress Emmy?

If you were thinking Loretta Young, Lucille Ball or even Imogene Coca, you’d be far off the mark.

It was none other than Gertrude Berg. The actress/writer/producer/creator was named best actress for her beloved sitcom “The Goldbergs” at the 1951 Emmy Awards. In fact, she had played the role of the warm matriarch of the Jewish immigrant family for nearly two decades when she picked up the statuette. The year before, the series was nominated for best kinescope show but lost to “Texaco Star Theater” hosted by Uncle Miltie.

Of course, these days Berg is nearly a forgotten figure. And audiences only know of the popular ABC series “The Goldbergs” about a Jewish family in the 1980s. Aviva Kempner, the director of the well-received 2009 documentary “Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg” told me for a L.