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Denise Alexander, who performed in thousands of radio episodes and on The Twilight Zone as a youngster before starring in two long stints as Dr. Lesley Webber on General Hospital, has died. She was 85.

Alexander died March 5 of natural causes at the home of a nephew in Boulder, Colorado, her stepson, Anthony Colla, told The Hollywood Reporter.

The daughter of a talent agent, Alexander had spent more than six years playing Susan Hunter Martin on NBC’s Days of Our Lives — she began in 1966 while in college — when G.H. producers at ABC heard that her contract had lapsed and began an “offer you can’t refuse situation,” she recalled in a 2010 interview for the website I Love Soaps.

She moved to Port Charles as Dr. Lesley Williams in March 1973, and over the next 11 years, her tough yet compassionate character would twice marry Dr. Rick Webber (Michael Gregory and then...

Cults are scary enough in real life. As a general rule, they infatuate your loved ones, drain their bank accounts, abuse them and make them think they like it, and in absolute worst cases -- think Jonestown and Heaven's Gate -- it all ends in mass death. Making that scarier for horror movies can be tough, but it usually involves actual supernatural powers. Horror movies involving cults offer them the one thing reality can't: legitimacy. In a fictional story, the dangerous demon or deity worshipped by the cultists can be real, and provably so.

Like actual cult involvement, a significant chunk of horror movies about cults end badly for their main characters. Real-world cult deprogramming takes a long time, and isn't cinematic, so in the movies, there's usually either a simpler solution, like killing the leader, or no solution at all. Satan is frequently involved, either explicitly or implicitly, in...

About a year ago we looked at The Blair Witch Project through the lens of a quarter century’s worth of passing time. While the popularity and success of that movie is undeniable, regardless of how you feel about it, the legacy is somewhat more complicated. It has 4 video games with varying degrees of quality, some cool toys courtesy of McFarlane, more lore than the average 21st century kids cartoon show, a hell of a mocumentary, and a couple sequels. While 2016’s Blair Witch does a good job of mixing in the found footage aspect while paying homage to its predecessor, Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows, which released the year following the first one, is mostly maligned both behind the scenes and with its final product. While it made a decent amount of money and IMDb claims that it has a cult following now, just how does the movie hold up 25 years later?...

In 2024, the first Planet of the Apes movie in more than a half-decade was released as the start of a new era of the franchise at Disney. What is shaping up to be a new trilogy centered around a new story officially reignited the fan base with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Even though fans love to cling to the brilliance of the 2010s "Caesar Trilogy," which effectively explored the origins of a planet ruled by apes instead of humans, the most recent film presents an even more exciting direction for the franchise going forward.

With what feels like an inventive bridge between the past and future, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes looks to portray the world in a different era that gets a lot closer to the 1968 original than any contemporary entry. It certainly makes the upcoming sequels that much more tantalizing. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes...

Vivien Leigh was the two-time Oscar winner who made only a handful of films before her untimely death in 1967 at the age of 53. Yet several of those titles remain classics. Let’s take a look back at 10 of her greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in British India, Leigh appeared in a number of roles on both the stage and screen in England, including a production of “Hamlet” opposite her husband, Laurence Olivier.

She came to international attention after landing the coveted role of Scarlet O’Hara in David O. Selznick’s massive adaptation of Margaret Mitchell‘s bestseller “Gone with the Wind” (1939). Leigh was far from the first choice to embody the headstrong Southern belle who pines after a married man (Leslie Howard) while wedding another (Clark Gable) against the backdrop of the Civil War. Yet the relatively unknown thespian beat out the likes of Bette Davis, Claudette Colbert,...

Directed by horror master George A. Romero, the box office smash, Night of the Living Dead, arrives on 4K Uhd on 7th October. Shot on a shoestring budget the movie is a great story of independent cinema and became one of the most influential films of all time.

Following on 14th October comes I Walked with a Zombie and The Seventh Victim on 4K Uhd and Blu-ray™ . Terror lives in the shadows in a pair of mesmerizingly moody horror milestones conjured from the imagination of Val Lewton, the visionary producer-auteur who turned our fears of the unseen and the unknown into haunting excursions into existential dread.

To celebrate this release we have a chance for 2 lucky winers to win a copy of all 3 movies.

Criterion Collection Halloween Giveaway

Night of the Living Dead

New 4K Restoration

Shot outside Pittsburgh on a shoestring budget, by a band of filmmakers determined to make their mark,...

The 1970s saw an explosion of TV-movies, and a number of these small-screen features were based on novels. The two examples here, which are some of the most memorable of their day, sit on opposite ends of the adaptation spectrum. While Bad Ronald (1974) took liberties with its source material, Are You in the House Alone? (1978) stays somewhat true to the spirit of the novel. Both features also teeter on the edge of horror, a recurring genre in the “golden age” of made-for-television movies.

Jack Vance was not a horror-only author, so Bad Ronald (1973) is an anomaly in his overall body of work. ABC quickly acted on the success of the novel, with the network ultimately airing its adaptation a week before Halloween. However, Andrew Peter Marin’s screenplay is different from what Vance had penned. Anyone who has read the original novel would understand — maybe even appreciate — the changes in director Buzz Kulik’s version.

“The Piano Lesson” is a showcase for Samuel L. Jackson and Danielle Deadwyler. This upcoming Netflix flick is adapted from August Wilson’s 1987 Pulitzer Prize winner. The story is centered on the Charles family, who have to decide what to do with a great family heirloom — a piano. Jackson plays the patriarch, Doaker Charle, who acts as a storyteller in the play and recounts detailed stories about the piano’s history. And Deadwyler plays his niece Berniece, who is a strong advocate for keeping the piano.

Jackson has a long history with this piece. He originated the role of Boy Willie at the Yale Repertory Theater in 1987 and reaped a Tony bid for his performance as Doaker in the acclaimed 2022 Broadway revival directed by his wife, Latanya Richardson Jackson. John David Washington, who played Boy Willie in that production, reprises his role here, with his brother Malcolm Washington handling helming.

The Planet of the Apes franchise consists of four different continuities, including the original pentalogy, a 2001 remake, a reboot trilogy, and the 2024 film. The original timeline features a complex story where apes rule and humans are slaves, ending with a reveal that the planet is actually a post-apocalyptic Earth. The Caesar timeline begins with the escape of characters from Earth to the past, leading to an alternate history with Caesar leading an ape uprising for equality.

The complete Planet of the Apes timeline is actually made up of four separate continuities established over the course of the entire franchise. To date, the Planet of the Apes movie franchise spans over 55 years and includes the original pentalogy, a 2001 remake directed by Tim Burton, a reboot trilogy starring Andy Serkis as Caesar, and the 2024 film Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Pierre Boulle's 1963 novel La Plante des Singes served as...

I love me some damn dirty apes, and I’m not alone. Ever since the first Planet of the Apes movie in 1968, it’s been one of Hollywood’s most consistent (on a quality level) franchises. Think about it. Has there ever really been a lousy Planet of the Apes movie? Not really. Yet, it’s often unheralded when we talk about the great franchises. So, let’s look at the series as a whole, with this Planet of the Apes movies ranked list (from worst to best). And don’t worry – you’ll get to have your say tomorrow with a poll I’ll be publishing, so check back for that.

Planet of the Apes (2001)

Tim Burton’s remake of the original 1968 classic is a mixed bag. Mark Wahlberg was a little too green at this point in his career to make a captivating action hero, with him paling...

A pair of moody horror milestones from producer Val Lewton, I Walked with a Zombie and The Seventh Victim are being paired up for a new release from The Criterion Collection.

The double feature is getting a 4K Uhd + Blu-ray combo edition as well as a Blu-ray edition and a DVD edition, with the release date for all three versions set for October 8, 2024.

Terror lives in the shadows in a pair of mesmerizingly moody horror milestones conjured from the imagination of Val Lewton, the visionary producer-auteur who turned our fears of the unseen and the unknown into haunting excursions into existential dread.

As head of Rko’s B-horror-movie unit during the 1940s, Lewton, working with directors such as Jacques Tourneur and Mark Robson, brought a new sophistication to the genre by wringing chills not from conventional movie monsters but from brooding atmosphere, suggestion, and psychosexual unease.

Suffused with ritual, mysticism,...

David Niven and Kim Hunter of the set of A Matter Of Life And Death (1946). Photo: courtesy of Altitude

Director David Hinton's Made In England: The Films Of Powell And Pressburger draws on a rich array of archival material to craft a captivating celebration of one of cinema's great collaborative partnerships. Together, the English Michael Powell and Hungarian Emeric Pressburger were the creative forces behind some of British cinema's most memorable films: The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, A Matter Of Life And Death, The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp and The Tales Of Hoffmann.

Martin Scorsese narrates and hearing him express his love for these films makes it feel like Made In England is a meeting with destiny. He was the only choice, not only because of his personal and professional relationships with Powell and his longtime editor, and Powell's widow Thelma Schoonmaker, but because of his enthusiastic energy,...

When 20th Century Fox began production on the first "Planet of the Apes" film, they enlisted special effects makeup artist John Chambers to help transform actors like Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, and James Whitmore into anthropomorphic apes. Chambers was already famous for having perfected Spock's Vulcan ears on "Star Trek," but a society of intelligent apes who were capable of communicating was like something straight out of "The Twilight Zone." Rather than create ape masks, Chambers instead crafted individual prosthetic pieces to be applied in sections, allowing the actors to emote with their own facial muscles -- a technique that revolutionized the art of special effects makeup.

Now, over 50 years later, the intelligent apes have traded practical makeup prosthetics in favor of breathtaking and realistic digital artistry. When it comes to 2011's "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," /Film's Larry Fried declared, "There is simply no...

Director Wes Ball claims "we tried to exist in both places" when it comes to connecting Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes with the 1968 classic and Caesar trilogy: "the two pillars." Ball also says of his Kingdom's place in the franchise, We're trying to be somewhere in the middle between those two." The upcoming sci-fi action film almost didn't happen, with Ball initially being reluctant, but the story eventually found its own unique path.

Goddn you all to hell! Fans of the classic 1968 Planet of the Apes will undoubtedly remember actor Charlton Heston's Taylor crying out and cursing humanity for destroying the world when he and Nova (Linda Harrison) discover the shattered remains of the Statue of Liberty. And who can forget the brilliance of Andy Serkis heartfelt performances in the most recent Caesar-led Planet of the Apes trilogy? Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes' director Wes Ball clearly hasnt forgotten,...

In Tennessee Williams' play "A Streetcar Named Desire," Blanche DuBois desperately clings to certain beliefs. She is keenly intent on reinforcing the societal values and morals inherent in her aristocratic lineage, shunning realism for the magic of a nostalgic past that hides something darker, and repressing her guilt with the help of self-soothing mechanisms. When faced with the terrible nature of reality, which culminates in the character of her brother-in-law Stanley, Blanche is forced to reckon with the cycles of the violence that mark her existence, along with the precious fantasies woven to protect herself from true growth or healing. When she smashes a mirror, the delusions also shatter, with fantasy having no hold on her perception of reality anymore.

The mirror-smashing scene is seminal to understanding Blanche in Williams' play, and "On the Waterfront" director Elia Kazan's film adaptation of the story also dramatizes this to chilling effect,...

As a brief prologue, we must remind ourselves how Rotten Tomatoes works. When a critic submits a written review to the Rt aggregate, they are asked to deem that review either "fresh" or "rotten." The critic typically gets to make the distinction, meaning a 2.5-star review can be either positive or negative, based on who is submitting it. It's based on pass/fail grades. Rotten Tomatoes will then create a percentage of "positive" reviews. If 60% or more of the submitted reviews are positive, the film is deemed "fresh." If 59% or fewer are positive, it's "rotten."

If a film has, say, a 73% approval rating, it doesn't mean that every critic gave it a 73 out of 100. It only means that 73% of the submitted reviews are positive.

All that said, some films receive such low approval ratings that one might be able to draw some logical conclusions about the film being rated. A...

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...

By respectively receiving Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominations for “American Fiction,” Jeffrey Wright and Sterling K. Brown made history as the first two Black male cast mates to compete in separate categories for the same film. They are also the eighth pair of performers to earn academy recognition for playing brothers and constitute the 29th case of Oscar-nominated sibling characters overall. Check out our photo gallery of this and the previous 28 examples, which date as far back as 1948.

At this point, the only two people who have won Oscars for playing siblings in the same film are “A Streetcar Named Desire” cast mates Vivien Leigh (Best Actress) and Kim Hunter (Best Supporting Actress). Best Actor champ Lee Marvin can technically also be counted alongside them since he was honored for portraying twin brothers in “Cat Ballou.”

The other seven films on this list for which only one...

Among the various distinctions “Everything Everywhere All at Once” incurred by winning seven awards at the 95th Oscars was becoming the first film in a dozen years (and ninth overall) to conquer both supporting acting categories. This rare occurrence involved Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis preventing their respective “The Banshees of Inisherin” competitors from accomplishing the same goal, as the sets of featured nominees from “Belfast” and “The Power of the Dog” had both failed to do one year earlier. Now, two more pairs of cast mates – who happen to hail from the two highest-grossing live action movies of 2023 – are gunning for entry into this exclusive club.

The concurrent nominations of Ryan Gosling and America Ferrera (“Barbie”) and Robert Downey Jr. and Emily Blunt (“Oppenheimer”) bring the total number of films that have ever vied for both Best Supporting Actor and Actress to 110. Although this marks the third...

Before the 2023 Academy Awards, only “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Network” had won three Oscars for acting. The former won its hat trick in 1952 with Vivien Leigh taking home Best Actress, Karl Malden claiming Best Supporting Actor, and Kim Hunter winning Best Supporting Actress. Then, in 1976, “Network” won Best Actor for Peter Finch (posthumously), Best Actress for Faye Dunaway, and Best Supporting Actress for Beatrice Straight. Those two movies stood alone as the only pictures to win three acting Oscars until 2023 when “Everything Everywhere All at Once” produced wins for Michelle Yeoh (Best Actress), Jamie Lee Curtis (Best Supporting Actress), and Ke Huy Quan (Best Supporting Actor). These three films now have the joint-highest number of acting wins in Oscars history as no film has ever managed to reign victorious in all four acting categories.

Plenty of movies have had four nominations for acting, including “American Hustle” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once.

By now, "Planet of the Apes" fans have made peace with the fact that, despite representing one of the longest-running and widely influential franchises ever made, these simian stories aren't typically considered a frontrunner for the best or most successful franchises in cinema history. The spotlight inevitably goes to more traditional picks, and it's easy to figure out why. The "Apes" movies don't have a sexy "hook" compared to most others, opting for a much nerdier, more thoughtful, and eminently pessimistic approach to sci-fi. Those of us who'd consider ourselves initiated in this club, however, would say those are the fundamental reasons that make "Planet of the Apes" so great and so idiosyncratic, at the same time.

Then again, maybe the relatively insular nature of the series can be explained elsewhere. For obsessives like ourselves, much of the "Apes" appeal is that the unique property can't resist thoroughly downer endings,...

A chimpanzee named Proximus in the new Planet of the Apes movie has rediscovered electricity, which is seen as a magical power by the apes. Director Wes Ball describes Proximus as an adversary rather than a villain because he is a relatable character with understandable motivations. This new character adds depth to the storyline and is not just a typical one-dimensional antagonist.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes director Wes Ball teases the movie's new adversary, a chimpanzee who has rediscovered electricity. The original smash hit sci-fi classic released in 1968, with many sequels to follow, as well as a Tim Burton-directed reboot in 2001. The latest incarnation of the Apes franchise kicked off with 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and now over a decade later, will continue with the fourth movie, set years after the events of 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes.

With...

(Welcome to Did They Get It Right?, a series where we look at Oscars categories from yesteryear and examine whether the Academy's winners stand the test of time.)

With all the milestones that have occurred throughout the 95-year history of the Academy Awards, there are still plenty of accomplishments that have not transpired. No Black woman has ever been nominated for Best Director, and no Black person has ever won that category. No animated film has ever won Best Picture, and no documentary has ever been nominated. I do believe all of these things will eventually happen in the future. As the diversity of the industry steadily increases and Academy membership gradually expands, these sorts of things must happen as time moves on.

But there is one thing I remain skeptical about when it comes to Oscars milestones. It has nothing to do with representation, nor does it have to...

The episode of Best Horror Movie You Never Saw covering The Kindred was Written by Andrew Hatfield, Edited by Paul Bookstaber, Narrated by Kier Gomes, Produced by John Fallon and Tyler Nichols, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

We toe the line sometimes here at JoBlo Horror Originals with what movies we discuss. Some things can qualify for multiple shows like a Black Sheep or a Deconstructing on the same movie. Sometimes there are enough behind the scenes shenanigans to give it a proper Wtf or maybe its adapted from a story. Not today, though. Today is something that reflects the true nature of this show. I know some viewers get bummed when they see some movies, even some of their favorite movies, get covered multiple times, so today’s hopefully different. I’m hoping that today will be a best horror movie that you never saw for most and...

Marvel is boldly going to revisit one of the most classic eras in the history of sci-fi history -- in comic book form. The publisher has announced a new limited series set within the timeline of the original "Planet of the Apes" films. Specifically, the series will serve as a prequel to the original 1968 classic starring Charlton Heston. That's right! It's prequel time. So get ready for "Beware the Planet of the Apes."

Marc Guggenheim is set to write the comic, with Álvaro López handling the artwork. The series will include familiar characters, such as Cornelius (played by Roddy McDowall in the films) and his wife Zira (played by Kim Hunter). Perhaps most importantly, the woman who we come to know as Nova (played by Linda Harrison) is also involved. A synopsis for the series reads as follows:

Into the Forbidden Zone! In a hostile world run by aggressive gorillas,...

The Planet of the Apes franchise has undergone significant changes in its timeline and storytelling approach in the contemporary reboot series. The modern Planet of the Apes movies introduce a viral outbreak as the catalyst for humanity's downfall, in contrast to the original films which focused on nuclear warfare. The ape culture in the reboot series is characterized by a democratic society, with apes of different species working together and retaining their simian nature, unlike the clothed and upright-walking humanoids in the original films.

The contemporary Planet of the Apes franchise reworks many aspects of the original movies' timeline. The first Planet of the Apes hit theaters in 1968, and in turn spawned a popular sci-fi franchise of movies, TV shows, comic books, and merchandising. The Planet of the Apes franchise has also been rebooted twice, first with Tim Burton's 2001 movie, and again in 2011's Rise of the Planet of the Apes,...

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...

The nearly 60-year long "Planet of the Apes" film series runs the gamut in terms of quality. You have a masterpiece like the original 1968 film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, an utter catastrophe in the 2001 remake by Tim Burton, and everything in between. That being said, there's one thing that basically every film succeeds in, and that is the look of the apes themselves. Whether it's through revolutionary makeup techniques or extremely impressive performance capture technology, the rendering of these characters is distinctive and believable. Even the aforementioned 2001 catastrophe sports truly mind-blowing prosthetic work by Rick Baker that was rudely dismissed by the Academy.

As someone who is always going to prefer tactility in filmmaking, I gravitate more towards the makeup work than the performance capture, and it all comes from my admiration for the designs by John Chambers, who won an honorary Oscar for his work on "Planet of...

One of the unique aspects of the horror films produced by Val Lewton at Rko in the 1940s is the seriousness with which they discuss matters of mental illness. Even today, mental health issues are often tiptoed around, but in the forties, they were practically taboo. As discussed in previous entries in this column, Cat People (1942) is largely about repression and The Body Snatcher (1945) deals with guilt, paranoia, and psychopathy. The Seventh Victim (1943), one of the lesser-seen entries in the Lewton cycle, is about loneliness, the depression that stems from it, and suicidal ideation. It externalizes the inner struggles between the light and darkness that use the mind as a battlefield and demand a choice between life and death. Because of the unflinching way The Seventh Victim approaches the subject of suicide, this should be a considered a content warning for the discussion to come later. But first, some background on the film itself.

Way back in 2011, long before he was cast in the TV adaptation of Good Omens, actor Michael Sheen (Aziraphale) told MTV that his favourite film was Powell and Pressburger’s 1945 masterpiece A Matter of Life and Death. That was still the case in 2019, as confirmed on social media. For someone currently appearing as an angel, it’s an incredibly appropriate favourite film – and the makers of Good Omens must have been listening, because there are several Easter eggs nodding to the film appearing in the fantasy-comedy’s second season.

An Unusual Origin

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger were British film-makers who started a production company called The Archers in 1939, just a few years after Pressburger came to Britain having fled the Nazis. As well as producing, they wrote and directed several very well-known and hugely influential films during the 1940s, including The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Black Narcissus,...

Although most of the stars returned to play their iconic characters in the original Planet of the Apes franchise, the casting for Cornelius went through a tumultuous journey as the character ended up being recast multiple times. The Planet of the Apes movie was loaded with legends of stage and screen, none more storied than British-American actor Roddy McDowall, who starred as Cornelius. However, the actor didn't return for the sequel Beneath the Planet of the Apes, with Cornelius now being played by David Watson. Bizarrely, as the franchise continued to expand, McDowall eventually returned to not only reprise his role of Cornelius but to portray other characters as well.

Given McDowall's apparent commitment to the film series (and even in the less successful Planet of the Apes TV show), it seems strange that he would not be involved in the original sequel to the wildly popular and influential 1968 classic.

A new episode of the Best Horror Movie You Never Saw video series was released over the weekend, and with this one we took a look back at a film that came from two masters of the genre: George A. Romero and Dario Argento. The film is the 1990 anthology Two Evil Eyes (watch or buy it Here), and you can find out all about it by watching the video embedded above!

Scripted by Romero, Argento, and Franco Ferrini, Two Evil Eyes consists of adaptations of two separate Edgar Allan Poe stories, The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar and The Black Cat. The film has the following synopsis: George A. Romero provides unabated horror in “The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar”. As he lays dying, Ernest Valdemar’s scheming young wife and her lover anxiously await his demise – and his vast fortune. But when Ernest dies unexpectedly while under hypnosis,...

With Michelle Yeoh’s historic win at Sunday’s Academy Awards for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” the genre-bending sci-fi film has achieved a feat that has only happened twice before in Oscars history and for the first time in 46 years.

Alongside supporting cast members Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis, Yeoh has made “Everything Everywhere” the third film in history to win three acting Oscars.

The first film to achieve that trifecta was “A Streetcar Named Desire” in 1951, with Vivien Leigh winning Best Actress for her performance as the tragic Blanche DuBois with Kim Hunter and Karl Malden winning supporting Oscars for playing Stella Kowalski and Blanche’s potential husband Mitch, respectively.

Also Read:

Michelle Yeoh Is the First Asian Woman to Win a Best Actress Oscar

Twenty-six years later, Paddy Chayefsky and Sidney Lumet’s satire of broadcast news, “Network,” became the second film to achieve three acting wins.

The SAG Awards often match the Oscars for acting pretty closely, so when “Everything Everywhere All at Once” achieved an unprecedented clean sweep of all its categories including three individual acting races, the immediate question became, can it do the same thing at the Oscars? Only two films in history have ever won three acting trophies.

See‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ or ‘Everything Everywhere’ would be 9th film to win both supporting acting Oscars

“A Streetcar Named Desire” was the first. Adapted from Tennessee Williams‘s play, the 1951 film won Best Actress (Vivien Leigh), Best Supporting Actor (Karl Malden), and Best Supporting Actress (Kim Hunter). The only award it lost was Best Actor for arguably the film’s most iconic performance by Marlon Brando. That award went instead to Humphrey Bogart for “The African Queen.”

Then 1976’s “Network” pulled off the same feat, winning three awards out of a remarkable five acting nominations.

For the second year in a row, multiple films have the potential to win Oscars for both Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress. Of course, the nominees from “The Banshees of Inisherin” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” are looking to fare better than those from “Belfast” and “The Power of the Dog,” who all went home empty-handed last year. At this point, only eight of the previous 106 films that were nominated for both Oscars have pulled off dual wins. Based on their impressive precursor runs, the current hopefuls are uniquely well-positioned to join the club, but they do face a great challenge in overcoming one another.

Like “The Power of the Dog,” each of these two new films has a three-way stake in the supporting races. Those representing “The Banshees of Inisherin” are actress Kerry Condon and actors Brendan Gleeson and Barry Keoghan, while those on the “Everything Everywhere All at Once...

What was the last film to have three of its stars all win Oscars? How long has it been since Steven Spielberg has won an Oscar? Who was the first posthumous nominee? These questions are answered, along with more fun facts, tidbits and trivia.

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” would be just the third film to earn three Oscars in the acting categories. Michelle Yeoh is the favorite to win best actress, as is Ke Huy Quan in the supporting actor race. And Jamie Lee Curtis or Stephanie Hsu ould pull out a win as supporting actress. The first time that happened was at the 1952 ceremony when Vivien Leigh, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter won for “A Streetcar Named Desire,” followed 25 years later with Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway and Beatrice Straight winning for “Network.”

Steven Spielberg has been nominated 22 times including three this year for “The Fabelmans”: best picture,...

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” has had a great couple of days. The Oscar frontrunner won the top prize at the Producers Guild of America Awards on Saturday, proving that it can conquer the preferential ballot. The next day, it pulled off a historic sweep at Screen Actors Guild Awards with a record four wins for ensemble, lead actress for Michelle Yeoh, supporting actor for Ke Huy Quan and supporting actress for Jamie Lee Curtis. The triple individual wins — also a first for a film in SAG Awards history — were unexpected as Curtis upset odds-on favorite Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”), but they just speak to the movie’s strength. They also tee it up for a never-before-seen above-the-line sweep at the Oscars: “Everything Everywhere” can be the first film to win Best Picture, Best Director, a screenplay award and three acting prizes.

The multiversal hit is the runaway...

“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” the most-nominated film at this year’s Oscars, won the most SAG Awards ever Sunday night with four trophies. Final Oscars voting begins on Thursday, March 2, and it’s no longer a question about whether the A24 sci-fi comedy will win best picture, but how many statuettes it will take home. Probably a lot.

Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win a SAG lead actress film award. Seeing her emotion take hold of her was heartwarming and long overdue for an actress that should have already been nominated for “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000) and “Crazy Rich Asians” (2018). However, her speech may not have been as boisterous or memorable as we would like, especially for someone competing with Cate Blanchett, after winning BAFTA, Critics Choice and Globes for “Tár.” However, her co-star James Hong may have brought it home for Yeoh with his rousing...

By respectively receiving Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominations for “American Fiction,” Jeffrey Wright and Sterling K. Brown made history as the first two Black male cast mates to compete in separate categories for the same film. They are also the eighth pair of performers to earn academy recognition for playing brothers and constitute the 29th case of Oscar-nominated sibling characters overall. Check out our photo gallery of this and the previous 28 examples, which date as far back as 1948.

At this point, the only two people who have won Oscars for playing siblings in the same film are “A Streetcar Named Desire” cast mates Vivien Leigh (Best Actress) and Kim Hunter (Best Supporting Actress). Best Actor champ Lee Marvin can technically also be counted alongside them since he was honored for portraying twin brothers in “Cat Ballou.”

The other seven films on this list for which only one...

While some slots in the 2023 acting Oscar lineups will remain hotly contested until the nominees’ names are read, Colin Farrell and Kerry Condon don’t seem to have anything to worry about. The respective Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress hopefuls delivered extremely well-received performances in “The Banshees of Inisherin” that are individually solid but also complement each other, with the sibling bond between their characters coming across as remarkably believable. Their probable Oscar notices will make them the 10th pair of performers to earn academy recognition for playing a brother and sister, and will constitute the 27th case of Oscar-nominated sibling characters overall. Scroll through our gallery of the previous examples, which date from 1948 to just last year.

At this point, the only two people who have won Oscars for playing siblings in the same film are “A Streetcar Named Desire” cast mates Vivien Leigh (Best Actress) and Kim Hunter...

Sometimes we hear negative stories about famous actors on set. Egos get in the way of common courtesy, political leanings can color conversations, and working conditions can bring out the worst in people. Here's an actually lovely one instead. Prosthetic makeup is a tricky thing, and I say this as someone who has worn them in productions and been a makeup artist who applied them. They are not comfortable and can be very hot, itchy, and claustrophobic. Effects makeup has come a long way since the late 1960s when "Planet of the Apes" was shooting, and even now, it's not easy to wear. Back then, it must have been awful. 

Add in the fact that, when shooting some of the scenes in the classic sci-fi film, the cast was out in the desert in 100-degree heat. The people playing the apes had major prosthetics on their faces, extra hair on their arms,...

"The Planet of the Apes" was not a style-over-substance type of science-fiction film, but the effectiveness of the story still lived and died on its special effects. If a title promises an otherworldly planet of inhabitants, it better deliver and showcase some damn, convincing apes. Fortunately, the film's make-up artists, chief among them the late John Chambers, delivered. Their efforts are the reason "Planet of the Apes" endures as a franchise to this day, and the make-up design process was eventually the subject of a 2019 documentary, "Making Apes: The Artists Who Changed Film."

While audiences knew what they were getting into, the film still presents the apes as a surprise. They don't show up until the end of the first act and there's a dramatic close-up of the first gorilla on horseback. Ensuring the public went into the movie without any visual spoilers meant there was extra tight security during the production.

Akin to "Psycho," the earth-shattering reveal in the closing moments of "Planet of the Apes" became so ingrained into the pop culture lexicon that most folks became aware of it before they even saw the film. There's a part of me that can't fully separate the actual ending from that episode of "The Simpsons" where Troy McClure (Phil Hartman) transforms the gut punch into a bombastic musical number. But I suppose that speaks to how influential this movie was, especially in the realm of science-fiction cinema.

Over five decades since its 1968 theatrical release, "Planet of the Apes," which sees American astronaut George Taylor (Charlton Heston) crash land on an Earth system dominated by talking primates, has led to over four sequels, two reboots, and two television series, with a new feature film on the way. In many respects, this could have easily fallen into B-movie schlock, but the sharp script...

J. Lee Thompson's 1972 sci-fi film "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes" was the fourth in the "Apes" series, although it would come to be the fulcrum point on which all future sequels would pivot. In Franklin J. Schaffner's 1968 original "Planet of the Apes," a team of astronauts would crash land on an unknown planet after accidentally traveling into the distant, distant future. There, they would find that human beings are now mute and unintelligent and that apes -- chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans -- have become the walking, talking masters of the planet. The film's famous twist ending established exactly how a planet of apes came to be, and it shall remain hidden here on the off chance a reader is unfamiliar with it.

Although the mystery of an ape planet was solved, future "Apes" sequels would lay things out more explicitly. "Beneath the Planet of the Apes,...

There is nothing quite like the shades of red in a Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger movie. The color absolutely radiates from the screen in their Technicolor masterpieces, fully immersing us in the passions of the characters. You have the rouge on Kim Hunter's heart-shaped lips in "A Matter of Life and Death," like a premonition of a love so pure and strong it can bring David Niven's dashing airman back from the afterlife. At the other end of the scale, you have the ominous red in the closing scenes of "Black Narcissus," enveloping us in a spurned nun's murderous jealousy.

Then, of course, you have the titular footwear in "The Red Shoes," the film often considered the writer-producer-director duo's greatest work. Along with Jean Renoir's "The River," Powell and Pressburger superfan, Martin Scorsese, considers it to be one of the two most beautiful movies ever shot in color,...

With half the decade spent in the midst of a century-defining world war and the other half spent recovering from its horrors, it's understandable that cinema in the 1940s would be a little bit on the dark side. While films explicitly about World War II dominated the early years of the 1940s, they quickly gave way to utterly unique film noir movies. Less a genre and more a series of stylistic elements, these pictures were defined by their seediness, cynicism, and focus on crime that reflected the trauma of filmmakers and audiences alike.

Still, 1940s cinema isn't all dark! The decade actually has a surprising amount of humor, with both satire and romantic comedies proving popular in Hollywood. You can almost feel films from this era negotiating between two powerful emotions: the anguish that the turbulent 1930s and 1940s brought along with them, and the joy that existed in spite of it.

Margaret Colin has hit the Hallmark jackpot with her first movie for the network, Three Wise Men and a Baby.

If you're a fan, you know she starred as Tom Selleck's girlfriend in Three Men and a Baby, so it's a super fun callback, and her Three Wise Men and a Baby role as the mother to three of Hallmark's top actors, is really fun, too.

Most people will be familiar with Margaret from her many other roles in TV and film. She started in soap operas at 19, starring opposite Oscar-winner Kim Hunter on Edge of Night, starred opposite Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman in the blockbuster Independence Day, and more recently had a role on Chicago Med as Carol Conte.

While we connected over Three Wise men and a Baby, I would have been remiss not to get her thoughts on her other work, and Margaret shared her memories freely.

The first movie to directly confront McCarthyism! Or so said the editorials touting this ‘Long-Awaited Screen Event’ in which ‘Bette Davis Hits the Screen in a Cyclone of Dramatic Fury!’ The storm of the title was based on a real activist in Oklahoma who lost her job for promoting equal rights. Bette’s polite librarian is victimized by small-minded civic types; a subplot depicts the traumatic reaction of one of her patrons, a child expected to despise her as a traitor to the country. Daniel Taradash’s movie is an excellent starting point to discuss the thorny dramatic subgenre of liberal social issue movies.

Storm Center

Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 155

1956 / B&w / 1:78 widescreen / 86 min. / Street Date September 30, 2022 / Available from / au 39.95

Starring:

Bette Davis, Brian Keith, Kim Hunter, Paul Kelly, Joe Mantell, Kevin Coughlin, Sallie Brophie, Howard Wierum, Curtis Cooksey, Michael Raffetto, Joseph Kearns, Edward Platt, Kathryn Grant, Howard Wendell, Malcolm Atterbury,...

Susan L. Schulman, a longtime Broadway publicist whose five-decade career included such theater milestones as Applause starring Lauren Bacall, Death of a Salesman with George C. Scott and Bob Fosse’s Dancin’, died Wednesday, October 18, at Mt. Sinai West Hospital in New York City following a brief illness.

Her death was announced by friends Leslie Krakowe, actor Kathleen Chalfant and Roy Bernstein. Her age was not immediately available.

A member of the theatrical union Atpam (Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers) since 1973, Schulman, a New York native, opened her own theatrical Times Square press office in 1978, with early clients including Jack Gilford, Manhattan Theatre Club, Joffrey Ballet, and Garrison Keillor.

Over the years she would take on clients from Broadway, Off Broadway, dance, film, TV and books. A small Broadway sampling: Requiem For A Heavyweight (with John Lithgow and George Segal), City Of Angels, Death And The Maiden with Glenn Close,...

Apologies to do this but we have scheduling changes (a lot going on chez Nathaniel) 

Smackdown "1951" -New Date: Monday, September 19th, 2022

1951 will be our "year of the month" for another few weeks. Email us your votes on the Smackdown (anytime before September 17th) with "1951" in the subject line. You should rate each performance you've seen on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (perfection) hearts. Feel free to include blurbs which we might quote but they aren't necessary.

Joan Blondell, The Blue Veil    - good luck finding! Mildred Dunnock, Death of a Salesman    - available on YouTube Lee Grant, Detective Story.   - rentable from multiple sources Kim Hunter, A Streetcar Named Desire - streaming on HBOMax / rentable elsewhere Thelma Ritter, The Mating Season - available on YouTube

Smackdown "2004" -New Date: Monday, October 24th, 2022

Email us your votes on the Smackdown (anytime before October 20th) with "2004" in the subject line of your email.