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From the brisk strains of Bernard Herrmann’s Antonin Dvorak-inspired opening theme to its concluding gag of a honeymoon train speeding into a tunnel, North by Northwest is the apotheosis of Alfred Hitchcock’s exploration of the wronged man on the run and functioned in 1959 as a summary of the Master of Suspense’s career to date.

Cary Grant, wearing his gray suit like natural skin, embodies smug New York ad executive Roger O. Thornhill, an aging, gin-swilling playboy whose swiftly established m.o. in romance and work is “expedient exaggeration.” Poetic justice strikes as he’s incredibly abducted from the Plaza Hotel bar by the henchmen of an urbane master spy, Phillip Vandamm, who’ve mistaken him for an undercover agent. Framed for a killing at the United Nations, Thornhill runs a cross-country gauntlet of lawmen and baddies, with time for a sleeping-car tryst with an ambiguously remote blonde,...

Alfred Hitchcock: The Iconic Film Collection will collect six of the Master of Suspense’s classics on 4K Ultra HD + Digital: Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, Vertigo, North By Northwest, Psycho, and The Birds.

Releasing on November 26 via Universal, the six-disc set is limited to 5,150. It’s housed in premium book-style packaging featuring artwork by Tristan Eaton along with photos, bios, and trivia.

In 1954’s Rear Window, “A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.”

It’s written by John Michael Hayes (To Catch a Thief), based on Cornell Woolrich’s 1942 short story “It Had to Be Murder.” James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter, and Raymond Burr star.

Rear Window special features:

Audio commentary by Hitchcock’s Rear Window: The Well-Made Film author John Fawell Rear Window Ethics – 2000 documentary Conversation with Screenwriter John Michael...

Warner Bros. is bringing two cinematic classics to a new physical media transfer this Thanksgiving season. Blu-ray.com has announced the 4K Ultra-High Definition Blu-ray releases of Alfred Hitchcock‘s spy thriller North by Northwest and Mel Brooks‘ irreverent western satire Blazing Saddles. Both releases will be hitting retailers on November 19.

North by Northwest stars Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie Royce Landis, and Leo G. Carroll. The description reads, “Cary Grant stars as an innocent man mistaken for a spy in one of director Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest thrillers. While leaving New York’s Plaza Hotel, advertising executive Roger Thornhill (Grant) has the misfortune of standing just as the name “George Kaplan” is paged–starting a lethal case of mistaken identity and a nonstop game of cat and mouse as he is pursued across North America by espionage agents trying to kill him–and by police who suspect him of murder.

Killer Collectibles highlights five of the most exciting new horror products announced each and every week, from toys and apparel to artwork, records, and much more.

Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!

Toony Terrors Figures from Neca

Neca’s latest wave of Toony Terrors, dubbed “Silver Screen,” features black-and-white versions of Nosferatu, Vincent Price, Vampira, and They Live’s Alien in Suit.

Nosferatu comes with a rat. Vincent Price includes a cat, skull, and interchangeable hand. Vampira has a skull. Alien in Suit features a piece of propaganda.

Modeled in the style of classic Saturday morning cartoons, each 6” scale figure comes on blister card packaging with a cutout backdrop. The set of four is available for $64.99.

Killer Klowns from Outer Space Neon Sign from Spirit Halloween

Spirit Halloween has added several neon signs to its arsenal this spooky season, including Killer Klowns from Outer Space‘s cotton candy gun.

Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest arrives on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray for its 65th birthday: more on the release here.

Something that’s occasionally forgotten when talking about the work of Alfred Hitchcock is just how big and mainstream his films were. Because he’s now such a revered movie director, he tends to get boxed in towards art house classics sections, when actually, so many of his films are very, very broad churches.

Which leads me to North By Northwest. It took me a while to get to the film for the first time, but this is in its own way a big, broad, blockbuster film. Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason star, in a film that’s got some ambitious set pieces in it. And, well, it’s just a hell of a rollercoaster, that really holds up. Not bad for a movie that’s celebrating its 65th birthday.

Less than four weeks before Eva Marie Saint (“On the Waterfront”) bested Claire Trevor (“The High and the Mighty”) in the 1955 Best Supporting Actress Oscar race, the pair were jointly defeated by Judith Anderson (“Macbeth”) in the Emmy category of Best Single Performance by an Actress. This made them the first of 63 women to compete for the top film and TV performance honors in a single year. Scroll through our photo gallery to find out who has followed in their footsteps.

Seventeen members of this group prevailed at the Oscars but lost at the Emmys while another 18 did the opposite. The only actress who has ever won both awards in a 12-month span is Holly Hunter (1993-1994 – Emmy: “The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom”; Oscar: “The Piano”). An even dozen women – from Lee Grant (1971; 1976-1977) to Olivia Colman (2019; 2020-2022) – each achieved such dual nominations on more than one occasion.

Less than four weeks before Eva Marie Saint (“On the Waterfront”) bested Claire Trevor (“The High and the Mighty”) in the 1955 Best Supporting Actress Oscar race, the pair were jointly defeated by Judith Anderson (“Macbeth”) in the Emmy category of Best Single Performance by an Actress. This made them the first of 63 women to compete for the top film and TV performance honors in a single year. Scroll through our photo gallery to find out who has followed in their footsteps.

Seventeen members of this group prevailed at the Oscars but lost at the Emmys while another 18 did the opposite. The only actress who has ever won both awards in a 12-month span is Holly Hunter (1993-1994 – Emmy: “The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom”; Oscar: “The Piano”). An even dozen women – from Lee Grant (1971; 1976-1977) to Olivia Colman (2019; 2020-2022) – each achieved such dual nominations on more than one occasion.

Culver City, Calif. – Celebrate 100 years of Columbia Pictures and complete your Columbia Classics collection as Sony Pictures Home Entertainment proudly debuts six more iconic films from its library on 4K Ultra HD disc for the first time ever, exclusively within the Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection Volume 5, available October 1. This must-own set includes a variety of powerful and moving award-winning favorites: All The King’S Men, On The Waterfront, A Man For All Seasons, Tootsie, The Age Of Innocence and Little Women (2019). Each film is presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision High Dynamic Range, and five of the films include immersive Dolby Atmos mixes.

The six films in the Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection Volume 5 are only available on 4K Ultra HD disc within this special limited edition collector’s set. Included with the collection is a gorgeous hardbound 80-page book, featuring in-depth sections about the making of...

If Joseph Kosinski’s last film “Top Gun: Maverick” is any metric, his next film “F1,” starring Brad Pitt and Damson Idris as teammates in the world of Formula 1 racing, is set up to be another propulsive, edge-of-your set experience about man’s bond with machine and the limits it can take you to.

Kosinski filmed actual scenes at last year’s British Grand Prix, as well as other races throughout the season, incorporating footage of actors actually behind the wheel of F1 vehicles along with real-life drivers like Lewis Hamilton.

In addition to Pitt and Idris, “F1” also boasts a cast that includes Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem, Tobias Menzies, Sarah Niles, Kim Bodnia, and Samson Kayo.

According to the official synopsis of the film, “F1” follows former Formula 1 driver Sonny Hayes (Pitt), who is lured back to the sport to partner rookie teammate Joshua Pearce (Idris) at the fictional Apxgp team.

by Cláudio Alves

On The Waterfront (1954) Elia Kazan

Happy belated birthday, USA! Happy belated birthday, Caesar Salad!! And happy belated birthday, Eva Marie Saint!!!

This past Fourth of July, the Edie to Brando's Terry Malloy celebrated her one-hundredth turn 'round the sun. As a centenary, Saint is the oldest living and earliest surviving Academy Award winner, keeping our connection to Old Hollywood alive at a time when even the 1970s renegades seem to be leaving us. Reflecting on her long career, one can trace the parallel, often juxtaposed, evolution of the American film industry. And yet, Eva Marie Saint rose to stardom on a wave of innovation, revolutionary acting styles and approaches, her presence like a promise of new things to come…...

Over the 96 years of Academy Awards history, over 900 men and women have been honored with acting nominations. On July 4, 2024, the oldest surviving acting winner (or nominee) has turned 100 years old. Our research shows that Eva Marie Saint joins a very short list of centenarians who received Oscar acting nominations, with four winning the award.

A star of stage, radio, TV and film, Saint won the Best Supporting Actress statue in 1955 for her debut movie performance in “On the Waterfront;” she is also the earliest surviving acting winner, and one of the last stars of the Golden Era. She later starred alongside Cary Grant in one of Alfred Hitchcock‘s most acclaimed films, “North by Northwest” (1959), and became known to a younger generation as Clark Kent’s adoptive mother in “Superman Returns” (2006). Although she’s never received another Oscar nomination, she’s earned five Emmy nominations, winning Best Miniseries Supporting Actress...

“The longer you live, I think really the smarter you get…and hopefully, as an actress, that makes you a better actress, because you can understand things better.” Words of wisdom from the fascinating and elegant Eva Marie Saint, as told to TCM’s late host Robert Osborne in an interview that first aired in 2014. This special, Eva Marie Saint: Live From the TCM Classic Film Festival, is being replayed on July 4 (10/9c), marking her 100th birthday. It’s also the first of four Thursdays celebrating her as Star of the Month, a tribute that includes 1954’s On the Waterfront (8/7c). Her first feature film role, as the sensitive Edie Doyle, won Saint an Oscar as supporting actress opposite her Actors Studio colleague Marlon Brando. “I felt that he could see right through me,” she marvels, recalling that Brando’s unpredictable line readings for each take “kept you on your toes.

Just as most young actors who headed to New York post World War II, Eva Marie Saint was a staple on live television. In fact, her first TV appearance was in 1947 in a production of “A Christmas Carol” starring John Carradine as Scrooge. Saint, who celebrates her 100th birthday on July 4, told me in a 2013 L.A. Times interview that she didn’t appear on screen in her first TV gig that same year on NBC’s “The Borden Show.” She was hired to simply supply applause off-camera and called her parents to tell them the good news. “After the show, they called me and mom said, ‘Honey, we just love the show, and Dad thinks he heard you applauding.”’

Doing live TV got the lithe blonde actress a lot of exposure. One time it was way too much exposure. Between 1950-52, Saint appeared as the daughter of a high-powered San...

The oldest surviving Oscar winner is turning 100 this year! Classy, smart and with a warmth that belies her cool blonde beauty, Eva Marie Saint made a name for herself on stage, radio, television and film, earning numerous accolades over a nearly eight-decade career, and appearing alongside some of Hollywood’s most acclaimed stars.

Saint was born on July 4, 1924, in New Jersey, and raised in New York, before becoming an NBC page. After steady work on radio and TV, Saint won an Outer Critics Circle Award for her role in the 1953 play “The Trip to Bountiful.”

The following year, Saint made her movie debut opposite Marlon Brando in Elia Kazan‘s “On the Waterfront,” which garnered her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and launched an impressive film career. Over the next two decades, she co-starred alongside Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Cary Grant, Paul Newman, Warren Beatty, Angela Lansbury and...

Born on 4 July, one of the last true stars of Hollywood’s golden age celebrates her centenary next week. We look back at the landmark roles of a 75-year career

Eva Marie Saint’s character and her playwright husband (Carl Reiner) play two of the islanders sent into a tizzy when a Soviet submarine runs aground on the New England coastline where they are on holiday. This cold war farce was a hit back in the days when you could play a Russian invasion for comedy. Now it just makes the similarly themed 1941 seem a laugh riot by comparison.

Within a career that lasted over 50 years, French singer-songwriter, actress, author, fashion icon, and astrologist Françoise Hardy — who passed away Tuesday, June 11 after a long battle with cancer — produced 32 studio albums, performed in over 10 films and television specials, wrote six books, and influenced countless artists ranging from Carla Bruni to Charli Xcx. Her screen career includes roles in films like Jean-Luc Godard’s “Masculin Féminin” and John Frankenheimer’s “Grand Prix.”

She was a renegade. A heartbreaker. Born at the height of World War II in Paris, her upbringing coincided with a great sociopolitical re-evaluation in France that fed her own anxieties and obsessions. Seeking artistic refuge outside of her home country, she found inspiration in American music that, by her teen years, was starting to reach her shores.

“This passion for singing became real madness when I discovered an English station called Radio Luxembourg,” Hardy said in a 2012 interview with Télérama.

Françoise Hardy, a popular French singer and actor who had numerous Top 10 albums and singles in Europe and appeared in films including Grand Prix, has died June 11 at 80. Her son, Thomas DuTronc, revealed the news on social media but did not provide details, writing only, “Maman est partie” (mom is gone).

Hardy was diagnosed with cancer 20 years ago and had been in declining health.

She broke out with the 1962 hit “Tous les garçons et les filles,” which topped the singles charts in her homeland and several other countries. She followed that with a second French No. 1, “C’est à l’amour auquel je pense,” later that year.

Known for her melancholic style, Hardy epitomized the “yé-yé” wave. She amassed nearly a dozen Top 10 singles in France through the 1960s, and scored nine Top 10 albums there, the most recent in 2018. She remains among the best-selling French recording artists.

Hardy also had success in Belgium,...

Before the 2024 Oscars ceremony took place, three of the four eventual acting winners had already filmed TV performances that now put them in contention for the upcoming Emmys. If Emma Stone, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and Robert Downey Jr. all end up achieving TV academy recognition this year, they will set a record as the first set of three concurrent acting Oscar recipients to appear on the same year’s Emmy ballot.

Randolph, who scored an Oscar in March for her supporting turn in “The Holdovers,” is seeking her first career Emmy notice for reprising her comedic guest role of Detective Donna Williams during the third season of Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building.” According to Gold Derby’s odds, she comfortably ranks as her show’s strongest guest acting candidate, even outpacing first season nominee Jane Lynch.

Having just won her second Best Actress Oscar for “Poor Things” against...

Watch just about any media from the mid-20th century and you'll quickly notice something: people smoked a lot more onscreen back then -- like, a lot more. Those born in the current century would no doubt be shocked to learn that even beloved cartoon icons like Donald Duck would light up a pipe or puff away on a stogie when the occasion merited (and that's to say nothing of commercials like the jaw-dropping marketing campaign where Fred Flinstone gets his buddy Barney and his wife Wilma hooked on Winston cigarettes).

Smoking was a useful visual shorthand for a variety of things. When Cruella De Vil spewed a wreath of putrid yellow smoke from her infamous cigarette holder in Disney's animated "101 Dalmatians," you just knew she was trouble, even before dog-napping entered the equation. Alternatively, when Cary Grant carefully lit Eva Marie Saint's cigarette in perhaps the ultimate Alfred Hitchcock picture,...

James Gunn has found Kal-El’s adoptive Earth parents for his upcoming Dcu film, Superman. Neva Howell takes over from Daine Lane as Martha Kent and Pruitt Taylor Vince has landed the role of Jonathan Kent. The role of Superman’s mother was also portrayed by Phyllis Thaxter in the 1978 film and Eva Marie Saint in the 2006 film. The Georgia-born actress joined the production of Gunn’s film, currently progressing in her hometown.

Fever Dreams actress Neva Howell and The Mentalist actor Pruitt Taylor Vince are cast as Martha and Jonathan Kent in James Gunn’s Superman

Gunn renamed his film from Superman: Legacy to Superman while making the announcement of the film’s start of production on February 29. The film will be the first to come out of the first chapter of the DC Universe, Gods and Monsters.

3 Neva Howell Movies To Watch Before Her Role As Martha Kent...

Georgia-born actress Neva Howell will portray Martha Kent, Clark Kent’s adoptive Earth mother, in Warner Bros/DC Studios’ Superman, from filmmaker and studio co-boss James Gunn.

The news comes in the wake of Pruitt Taylor Vince landing the role of Pa Kent, who is Martha’s husband.

Howell joins a list of those who’ve played Ma Kent on the big screen that includes Phyllis Thaxter in Richard Donner’s 1978 Superman, Eva Marie Saint in Bryan Singer’s 2006 Superman Returns, and Diane Lane in Zack Snyder’s 2013 Man of Steel.

Howell joins the Georgia shoot of Superman which features Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, David Corenswet in the title role, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, Sara Sampaio as Eve Teschmacher, Wendell Pierce as Daily Planet editor Perry White, Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern, Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific, María Gabriela de Faría as The Engineer,...

Yesterday, The Wrap had the scoop on who would play Jonathan Kent in James Gunn’s upcoming Superman movie, and now they’ve got the inside story on Martha Kent as well. The outlet reports that Neva Howell has been cast as Martha Kent in Superman, joining Pruitt Taylor-Vince as Jonathan Kent. Together, the pair are the human adoptive parents of Clark Kent.

As with Taylor-Vince as Jonathan Kent, Neva Howell will be the latest in a long line of actors who have played Martha Kent in movies and television, including Phyllis Thaxter in the original Superman movie, Annette O’Toole in Smallville, Eva Marie Saint in Superman Returns, and Diane Lane in Man of Steel. Howell’s credits include Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Long Haul, Logan Lucky, October Sky, and more.

Related Superman: Pruitt Taylor-Vince to play Jonathan Kent in James Gunn movie

Superman stars David Corenswet (Pearl...

Honors were even atop the U.K. and Ireland box office as Universal’s “Kung Fu Panda 4” and Warner Bros.’ “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” battled for top spot during the Easter holiday weekend.

While “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” won the three-day weekend, “Kung Fu Panda 4” had the higher gross including previews. According to numbers provided by Comscore, “Kung Fu Panda 4” collected £5 million ($6.3) million, while “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” took in £4.1 million ($5.2 million).

In third place, in its second weekend, Sony’s “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” collected £2.1 million for a total of £8.2 million. In its fifth weekend, in fourth place, Warner Bros.’ “Dune: Part II” grossed £1.6 million to take its total to £34 million.

Debuting at fifth place was Indian filmmaker Blessy’s acclaimed desert saga “Aadujeevitham” (“The Goat Life”), distributed by Dg Tech, with £480,977.

There were two more debuts in the top 10. Studiocanal...

At the inaugural Academy Awards in 1929, native Pennsylvanian Janet Gaynor made history as the first American-born performer to win an Oscar by taking the Best Actress prize for her body of work in “7th Heaven,” “Street Angel,” and “Sunrise.” Over the subsequent 95 years, 215 more thespians originating from the United States won the academy’s favor, meaning the country has now produced 68.1% of all individual acting Oscar recipients. Considering the last decade alone, the rate of such winners is even higher, at 70.3%.

At this point, 96.8% of American-born acting Oscar victors have hailed from one of 34 actual states. Of those constituting the remainder, three originated from the federal District of Columbia, while four were born in the territory of Puerto Rico. New York (home to 49 winners) is the most common birth state among the entire group, followed by California (34), Illinois (13), Massachusetts (11), and Pennsylvania (11).

Bearing in mind our specific birthplace focus, the 16 states...

The Oscars ceremony that took place in 2009 remains an all-time favorite for many who watched it, including your humble correspondent, largely because of the thrilling way in which the four acting Oscars were presented: Five past winners introduced the five current nominees for each award. This resulted in massive standing ovations from the audience at the Dolby (even awards show veterans like Brad Pitt and Meryl Streep looked absolutely giddy in cutaway shots); introductory remarks from past winners that left current nominees visibly moved (Anne Hathaway was in tears); and group hugs of the new winners that were akin to welcoming them into an elite fraternity or sorority (see: Kate Winslet).

Over the 15 years since that night, which was the brainchild of producers Laurence Mark and Bill Condon, Oscar lovers have been begging the Academy to bring back this Field of Dreams-like format. The Hollywood Reporter has learned and...

In 1965, Martin Scorsese was 22 and surrounded by legends when he won the Jesse L. Laskey Intercollegiate Award at the Milestone Awards dinner hosted by the then-called Screen Producers Guild on March 8, 1965. Now, almost 60 years later, the filmmaker received the David O. Selznick Achievement Award at the 2024 PGA Awards in what he called a “full-circle” moment.

Guillermo del Toro introduced the Killers of the Flower Moon director and producer at Sunday’s award show, calling him an “indispensable titan.” When Scorsese, now 81, took the stage, he started to tell the story of the 1965 awards show and how he kissed German actress Elke Sommer on stage.

“On the stage, Alfred Hitchcock, James Stewart, Jack Benny, Samuel Goldwyn, Jack Warner and Norman Lear, Lew Wasserman, Julie Stein, Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, Janel Leigh, Dick Van Dyke, Elke Sommer and David O. Selznick,” said Scorsese. “They were the people on the dais at...

Martin Scorsese accepted the Producers Guild’s David O. Selznick Achievement Award at the PGA Awards tonight and took the Hollywood & Highland Ovation Ballroom down memory lane — to about 60 years ago, when he accepted a PGA nod for his student film, It’s Not Just You, Murray! at the ripe age of 22.

Painting the scene, the Killers of the Flower Moon filmmaker said: “On the stage, Alfred Hitchcock, James Stewart, Jack Benny, Samuel Goldwyn, Jack Warner and Norman Lear, Lew Wasserman, Julie SteinCary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, Janel Leigh, Dick Van Dyke, Elke Sommer and David O. Selznick. They were the people on the dais at the 13th edition of this event on March 8, 1965. That dinner was called the Milestone Awards Dinner and presented at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

“At the very end of the dais was me,” Scorsese continued. “I was all the way on the end. I was receiving the Jesse L.

Just 30 minutes after final voting for the Screen Actors Guild Awards wrapped up, I made a last-minute switch in my best actress prediction — from Lily Gladstone in “Killers of the Flower Moon” to Emma Stone in “Poor Things.” Let this be a lesson: Second-guessing yourself is seldom a good idea.

Lily Gladstone made history as the first Native American and Indigenous person to clinch an individual SAG Award for her portrayal of Mollie Burkhart, an Osage woman, in Martin Scorsese’s gripping crime saga. With a lead actress (drama) Golden Globe and a SAG Award now under her belt, Gladstone’s award-season momentum continues to be formidable. Historically, only seven performers have failed to win the Oscar after winning the unique combination of Globe and SAG:

1995: Lauren Bacall (“The Mirror Has Two Faces”) lost to Juliette Binoche 2001: Russell Crowe (“A Beautiful Mind”) lost to Denzel Washington (“Training Day...

Don Murray, who received an Oscar nomination for his performance opposite Marilyn Monroe in the 1956 film adaptation of William Inge’s play “Bus Stop,” has died. He was 94.

His son Christopher confirmed his death to the New York Times.

In the 2017 reboot of “Twin Peaks,” he played Bushnell Mullins, the chief executive of Lucky 7 Insurance.

Murray also starred in the fourth entry in the “Planet of the Apes” franchise, “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes”; played Brooke Shield’s father in “Endless Love”; and recurred on prime-time soap “Knots Landing” as Sid Fairgate.

Reviewing “Bus Stop,” directed by Joshua Logan, the New York Times said: “With a wondrous new actor named Don Murray playing the stupid, stubborn poke and with the clutter of broncos, blondes and busters beautifully tangled, Mr. Logan has a booming comedy going before he gets to the romance. A great deal is owed to Mr.

Don Murray, the venturesome actor who earned an Oscar nomination for playing a rodeo cowboy smitten by Marilyn Monroe in Bus Stop, then spurned Hollywood’s attempts to mold him, has died. He was 94.

Murray’s son Christopher announced his dad’s death to The New York Times without providing details.

The actor was also known for the interesting parts he went after in such serious films as A Hatful of Rain (1957), The Hoodlum Priest (1961) and Advise & Consent (1962).

Fresh off a starring role in a 1955 Broadway revival of Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth, Murray was sought by director Joshua Logan to portray Bo Decker, the naive Montana man who falls for the chanteuse Chérie (Monroe), in Bus Stop (1956). It was his first movie, and he was 26 at the time.

“No one could have been less equipped for the job,” he once said. “I was a New...

Turner Classic Movies has a lot going on as it celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.

On Friday, execs from the beloved cable channel unveiled a new podcast, 2024 programming initiatives, a new branded studio tour of the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank and details about the 15th annual TCM Classic Film Festival in April.

On Jan. 16, TCM and sister streamer Max will debut Talking Pictures: A Movie Memories Podcast. TCM host Ben Mankiewicz will join filmmakers and actors as they discuss “their earliest film memories, favorite movies, creative influences and guilty pleasures,” with guests including Mel Brooks, Nancy Meyers and Patty Jenkins.

The TCM podcast The Plot Thickens is returning this year for a fifth season, with the subject yet to be disclosed.

In April, TCM will introduce a new franchise, Two for One, with prominent filmmakers co-hosting a double feature of their choice on Saturday nights. Guests will include Jenkins,...

Rod Serling was famous for a lot of things. He was one of the most acclaimed television writers of the mid-20th century, the creator of the genre-defining anthology series "The Twilight Zone," he co-wrote the screenplay to the original "Planet of the Apes," and he even helped give Steven Spielberg his big break. But even though he's famous for a lot of things, he was a prolific writer and even some of his best and most fascinating projects have been largely forgotten by the public over time. Like, for example, an adaptation of one of the most popular Christmas stories ever told, transformed into one of the most politically charged Christmas movies ever filmed.

Serling was no stranger to Christmas stories. After all, he wrote the classic yuletide episode "Night of the Meek," a hopeful story about an alcoholic department store Santa who stumbles across a magical sack that...

Norby Walters, the onetime music agent who ran the annual “Night of 100 Stars” Oscar party for years and hosted an iconic low-stakes poker party for actors, died December 12. He was 91. His son, Walters Media Group founder and former Bold Films CEO Gary Michael Walters, confirmed the news but did not provide details.

Born Norbert Meyer, in 1952 Walters started booking jazz luminaries such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz into his father’s bar.

Walters and his brother, Walter took over a place from their father and dubbed it Norby & Walter’s Bel Air, but its sign had no ampersand — which led to the name Walters would use during his career. He later took over a failing nightclub located next to the world-famous Copacabana, dubbed it Norby Walters’s Supper Club, and attracted a who’s who of boldfaced New York City names.

“What was I going to do?...

Norby Walters, a music agent who worked with Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Marvin Gaye, Kool & the Gang and Public Enemy before gaining renown in Hollywood for his annual “Night of 100 Stars” Oscar party and weekly poker game, has died. He was 91.

Walters died Dec. 10 of natural causes at an assisted living facility in Burbank, his son, producer Gary Michael Walters (Whiplash), told The Hollywood Reporter.

Walters hosted his first Oscar night gala in 1990 and the last in 2017, most often inside the Beverly Hilton’s Crystal Ballroom. Among those who attended were Shirley Jones, Robert Forster, Charles Bronson, Patricia Neal, Richard Dreyfuss, Eva Marie Saint, Martin Landau, Louis Gossett Jr., J.K. Simmons, Cliff Robertson, Red Buttons, Jon Voight and Allison Janney.

Walters for years also presided over a weekly poker game at his West Hollywood high-rise condo. The low-stakes $2 game was, his son said, “designed to be a place where actors could kibbutz,...

Nancy Meyers has written a love letter to Cary Grant by recommending his screwball comedies and classics like North by Northwest and The Philadelphia Story as part of the December 2023 Turner Classic Movies lineup in her own TCM Picks video.

“He’s a brilliant prototype for a leading man in a romantic comedy certainly. And I would be lying if I said I didn’t think of him sometimes as I’m writing. You can picture him doing it and it makes you better,” Meyers, whose rom-com canon includes box office performers like Something’s Gotta Give, The Holiday and What Women Want, tells The Hollywood Reporter.

Her TCM movie picks follow Meyers insisting she has viewed most Cary Grant movies dozens of times, not least to study the iconic star’s slapstick humor and verbal sparring with leading ladies to see beneath his debonair looks and onscreen charisma, to the...

[Editor’s note: This article was first published in August 2022 and has been updated multiple times since.]

Movies might seem like magic, but Hollywood’s favorite actors, directors, producers, stunt performers, props masters, costumers, script coordinators, and cinematographers are still only human. Since before that child extra prematurely covered his ears for Eva Marie Saint shooting Cary Grant in Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest,” audiences have delighted in finding the little moments that make their favorite films imperfect.

Like freckles on a human face, mistakes can make movies infinitely more special to the audiences that love them. Consider the clumsy stormtrooper of “A New Hope,” whose hilariously audible collision with an Imperial spaceship doorframe turned the extra’s true identity into an ongoing mystery for the Star Wars ages. Or, for “The Lord of the Rings” fans among us, there’s the anachronistic automobile appearing in “Fellowship of the Ring” right alongside Sam and Frodo. As for the Wizarding World, how about that bike seat on Harry’s broomstick?...

Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds has become such an acknowledged classic and even cultural touchstone that it is easy to forget how revolutionary it was upon its 1963 release. For the Master of Suspense himself, it was a departure in many ways from his previous work while still a testament to his craft and devotion to “pure cinema.” It all but single-handedly created, or at least redefined, an enduring horror subgenre—the animal attack film. Finally, in creating this subgenre, The Birds explores themes of humankind’s place in the world and the unpredictable power of nature. It is also a particularly meaningful film for me as it was my first Hitchcock film and was introduced to me by my grandmother, who was a great fan of classic cinema in general and Alfred Hitchcock in particular. I saw the film during a memorable stay at her home when I was around...

Years after his death in 2003, two-time Oscar-winning director Elia Kazan remains both an influential and controversial figure, respected and reviled in equal measure. Let’s take a look back at 15 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Kazan started his career as a stage actor, soon transitioning into directing. He mounted several landmark productions, including the original run of “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Throughout his career he received three Tony awards for Best Director of a Play: “All My Sons” in 1947, “Death of a Salesman” in 1949, and “J.B.” in 1959.

He transitioned into filmmaking with “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” (1945). Two years later, he won his first Oscar for Best Director for “Gentleman’s Agreement” (1947), which also took home Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress (Celeste Holm). A taboo-shattering drama about antisemitism, the film established Kazan as a director drawn towards contemporary, hot-button topics.

Kazan scored his second Best Director...

Alan Arkin etched many indelible performances over his long career in movies. From heroin-snorting grandfathers (“Little Miss Sunshine”) to ornery movie producers (“Argo”) to harried dentists (“The In-Laws”), Arkin, who died on June 29 at the age of 89, played an extraordinary range of roles with great gusto.

But it’s fair to say that none of it would have been possible were it not for 1966’s “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming,” a Cold War comedy that marked Arkin’s first major screen role. It’s the film that earned him the first of four Oscar nominations (he’d win for 2006’s “Little Miss Sunshine”) and a part that launched his career as a shape-shifting character actor.

And it was Norman Jewison, riding high on the success of “The Cincinnati Kid,” who took a bet that Arkin, a gifted Broadway actor but movie novice, could make the transition from stage to screen.

In a 2021 interview with The New York Times, Jodie Foster, one of our most guarded movie stars, confessed, "I am a solitary, internal person in an extroverted, external job. I don't think I will ever not feel lonely. It's a theme in my life. It's not such a bad thing. I don't need to be known by everyone."

Movie stardom can be a curse in this regard. Each performance, splashed across a big screen and examined time and again in the home-viewing format of your choosing, draws us near to them. We want to know them, befriend them, tear up the town with them... we want them. And since we are typically not an empathetic species (particularly in the United States), too many of us do not understand why these seemingly blessed individuals recoil from the public eye or feel ambivalent about their success.

This tension has been the central theme of Foster's career,...

Danette Herman was one of the key staff members of the Academy Awards ceremonies from the 1970s into the 2010s, beginning as a production assistant and rising through the ranks to become the show’s executive in charge of talent and coordinating producer. One of the few women to serve in key positions at the Oscars, she was with the show during the years of its highest ratings and largest cultural impact.

As the Academy prepares for the 95th Oscars ceremony, Herman asked TheWrap if she could share some memories of past shows, from an encounter with Katharine Hepburn in 1974 to a pair of anniversary shows in which she assembled historic groups of past winners. —Steve Pond

Congratulations to the Academy on 95 years of the Academy Awards. Almost 40 of those years are my history, also.

It began in April 1968 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. The 40th Academy Awards were hosted by Bob Hope,...

The 70th Academy Award ceremony on March 23, 1998, is the most-watched Oscar ceremony to date — most likely due to a “Titanic” film nominated for several awards. However, Gil Gates, who produced 14 Oscar ceremonies between 1990 and 2008, also wanted a special segment to recognize Oscar’s platinum anniversary, and arranged for 70 past acting winners to sit together on the stage, with Norman Rose announcing the films for which each performer won. It was a spectacular gathering of actors and actresses from Classic Hollywood, New Hollywood and the contemporary period.

Let’s flashback to the first Oscars family album featured in the ceremony 25 years ago.

SEEOscar flashback 25 years to 1998: Winners are Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Robin Williams and ‘Titanic’ ratings for ABC

Among those present was the first performer to win back-to-back acting Oscars, Best Actress champ Luise Rainer. At the age of 88, she was the oldest one on the stage; when she...

The mean-spirited children’s books of Roald Dahl have, rather oddly, become indelible classics. That’s probably because Dahl — a former British espionage agent, and writer of even grimmer short stories for adults — was under no illusion that childhood was a wonderful time.

Books like “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Matilda” and “The Witches” confirm what most children already suspected: that adults have a general disdain for kids, and that if kids were going to survive, they’d have to save themselves. At their best, adaptations of Dahl’s work capture that cynical spirit. At their worst, they fall prey to Dahl’s basest instincts, an unfortunate tendency towards bigoted portrayals and unhealthy themes.

When exploring every Roald Dahl movie, however, you can’t stop at the kids’ films. Dahl was also a screenwriter who adapted the works of other authors to the big screen, and not every filmmaker was...

"Vertigo" is the kind of movie that lends itself to any interpretation you want to throw at it. Its multi-layered narrative has all kinds of things to say about love, madness, and obsession — particularly of the male variety. But what makes the film especially noteworthy in comparison to Hitch's other work, is how he so boldly confronts what one reviewer called his own "thematic and personal sexual fixations."

Hitchcock is known for obsessing over every aspect of his films. But he saved his most pedantic fixation for his actresses, who he seemed to revel in controlling. In the case of "The Birds" star Tippi Hedren, the director made the poor woman's life miserable. And his onscreen treatment of women wasn't much better. The heroines of Hitchcock movies are often little more than representations of the director's own myopic view of females. They're at once conniving and helpless — caught in the...

Cary Grant was James Bond before James Bond. Sixty years since the release of Dr. No and Sean Connery’s era-defining performance as 007, it sounds crazy that Grant almost beat him to the role, but as late as 1962 it made perfect sense—including to the men who produced the James Bond movies. As the Hollywood leading man who perfected the Hollywood ideal of debonair sophistication and unflappable suaveness, Grant was a class act that couldn’t be beaten, and for the better part of 30 years all of Hollywood agreed.

This included one of the two godfathers of the James Bond franchise and Eon Productions, Albert “Cubby” Broccoli. Along with his partner Harry Saltzman, Broccoli saw the long-term viability of the James Bond character as a genre unto himself. Broccoli also wasn’t a delusional producer who just wanted to cast one of the biggest stars of his heyday as 007—he...

Henry Silva, a character actor known for playing bad guys and gangsters in movies like “The Manchurian Candidate” and “Ocean’s 11,” has died.

Silva died Wednesday of natural causes at the Motion Picture Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, his son Scott Silva confirmed to Variety. He was 95.

The stage and screen actor, whose career spanned 50 years and 140 TV and film credits, was also an honorary member of The Rat Pack. He starred alongside Frank Sinatra in both “Ocean’s 11” (1960) and “The Manchurian Candidate,” (1962) in which he played one of the 11 casino robbers in the classic caper film. Also in 1962, they both appeared in “Sergeants 3” and would go on to collaborate on the TV movie “Contract on Cherry Street” (1977) and “Cannonball Run II” (1984) with Dean Martin.

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Henry Silva, an actor with a striking look who often played villains and had credits in hundreds of films including “Ocean’s Eleven” and “The Manchurian Candidate,” died of natural causes Wednesday at the Motion Picture Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, Calif., his son Scott confirmed. He was 95.

One of Silva’s most memorable roles came in John Frankenheimer’s classic thriller “The Manchurian Candidate” (1962), in which he played Chunjin, the Korean houseboy for Laurence Harvey’s Raymond Shaw — and an agent for the Communists — who engages in a thrilling, well-choreographed martial arts battle with Frank Sinatra’s Major Bennett Marco in Shaw’s New York apartment.

Silva appeared in a number of other movies with Sinatra, including the original, Rat Pack-populated “Ocean’s Eleven” (1960) with Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr., where he was one of the 11 thieves, and 1962 Western “Sergeants 3.”

His death was...

There is an old adage about filmmaking that says 90 of the director's job is casting. The reasoning behind this comes from the fact that during a fictional, narrative feature, the audience will spend the vast majority of the time looking at the faces on screen. The characters are our entry point to the cinematic world laid out in front of us. If the people you put in front of the camera are compelling, unique, and, more than anything, truthful, you will be able to take the audience wherever you wish. While I think the percentage is certainly a little hyperbolic, I do not think you can undersell the importance of casting.

What directors look for in casting varies wildly from person to person. Some just want a collection of the most attractive people they can find to dazzle the audience. Some want to surround one or two movie stars with a collection of warm,...

For as much as the films of Alfred Hitchcock are consumed by the psychologies of their protagonists, the "Master of Suspense" was not particularly interested in delving deep into them when it came to working with his actors. To be fair, he was working in a time where the internalization of character was not nearly as important as it is today. Film acting in classic Hollywood was presentational, practical, and technical. The actor was required to showcase emotional truth, not necessarily feel it themselves. Of course, moments where the two collided did occur, but it was not standard practice.

Alfred Hitchcock did not have much respect for an actor's process, even going so far as to say they should be "treated like cattle." This was said in his sarcastic, sinister way, but there's probably some underlying truth to that sentiment. He was someone who used every artistic discipline that goes...

Apple TV +’s “Schmigadoon” is the musical equivalent to a warm, happy smile. The six-part limited series that premiered on the streaming service last July is a smart, clever and fun parody of the classic musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. It was a golden era of the Broadway musical dominated by such influential, eminent composers as Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Alan Jay Lerner Lerner & Frederick Loewe, Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II, Leonard Bernstein & Stephen Sondheim, Meredith Willson, and Richard Adler & Jerry Ross.

Cecily Strong and Keegan-Michael Key star as two doctors who have grown tired in their relationship and decide to get on a camping retreat. Before you can say “Brigadoon” they get lost in the woods only to cross a bridge into a Hallmark Card of a town where every day is a musical. But checking out of Schmigadoon is no easy task. They can’t leave...