News

“Lemme explain your viewers to you,” The News Consultant said with supreme self-confidence, and everyone on the news team leaned in.

He was GQ-chic, in from the Big City, and dominating the small conference room decorated with posters of ABC’s 1991 primetime lineup. The window between Roseanne Barr and Alf looked out onto bleak sky broken only by the antenna of the tiny TV station we were sitting in and, across the highway, the meatpacking plant where Spam is made.

This was Austin, Minnesota, and I was giddy to be making $12,200 a year as a real-life general assignment reporter and weekend sports anchor in the 152nd-largest television market in America. And I was champing at the bit to cover space-heater fires and 6-on-6 Iowa girls’ basketball tournaments and deer-hunting accidents with tips we were about to learn from The News Consultant.

“Check out what they’re doing in Miami,” he said,...

Most fans of "The Twilight Zone" know that there's typically nothing funny about the show's attempts to do comedy. As a storyteller, Rod Serling was part poet, part prophet, part pioneer, and though he had the ability to create a seemingly endless supply of profound moral tales and prescient horror stories, he wasn't exactly a humorist. Many of the seminal sci-fi series' comedic episodes go down like a lead balloon, and the season 1 outing "The Mighty Casey" is no exception.

The episode follows a failing underdog baseball team called the Hoboken Zephyrs, which gets a surprising new advantage in the form of a pitcher named Casey (Robert Sorrells), who happens to be a robot. With Casey on the mound, the Zephyrs are undefeatable, but in typical "Twilight Zone" fashion, anything that sounds too good to be true is. The wheel of fortune turns when Casey is given a heart that makes him start to feel.

Sydney, Feb 4 (Ians) The Australian state of New South Wales (Nsw) has warned that detections of the Murray Valley encephalitis (Mve) virus were on the rise, urging people to protect themselves from mosquito bites.

“Mve virus has been detected in mosquitoes across a wide area of western and southern Nsw. Sentinel chickens used for surveillance of viruses have also been infected with Mve virus in Macquarie Marshes and Menindee,” the state government said in a statement on Friday.

According to the state’s Ministry of Health, Mve is a rare disease caused by the Murray Valley encephalitis virus, which is spread to humans by infected mosquitoes.

Most people infected with the virus do not have any symptoms, while only a small proportion of those infected may get such symptoms as fever, headache, and nausea. In rare cases, the Mve virus can lead to a severe brain infection known as encephalitis.

Sydney, Feb 4 (Ians) The Australian state of New South Wales (Nsw) has warned that detections of the Murray Valley encephalitis (Mve) virus were on the rise, urging people to protect themselves from mosquito bites.

“Mve virus has been detected in mosquitoes across a wide area of western and southern Nsw. Sentinel chickens used for surveillance of viruses have also been infected with Mve virus in Macquarie Marshes and Menindee,” the state government said in a statement on Friday, Xinhua News Agency reported.

According to the state’s Ministry of Health, Mve is a rare disease caused by the Murray Valley encephalitis virus, which is spread to humans by infected mosquitoes.

Most people infected with the virus do not have any symptoms, while only a small proportion of those infected may get such symptoms as fever, headache, and nausea. In rare cases, the Mve virus can lead to a severe brain infection known as encephalitis.

One of the great romantic movies and one of Billy Wilder’s biggest hits. Fred MacMurray, who was genuinely startled by Jack Lemmon’s improvs with his nose spray, stepped into his role on two weeks’ notice after first choice Paul Douglas died suddenly. The Lemmon-Shirley MacLaine gin game was added because MacLaine was constantly playing cards on set.

The post The Apartment appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

From producers’ faux pas to an actor’s accident with a chainsaw, check out your knowledge of the movie world

Which James Bond film had its release postponed twice this year due to Covid-19?

Die Another Day

No Time to Die

Live and Let Die

Tomorrow Never Dies

Which actor was picked by Pablo Larraín to play Princess Diana in his upcoming film about the end of her married life?

Lily James

Millie Bobby Brown

Kristen Stewart

Vanessa Kirby

Which prominent couple signed a lucrative deal this year with Netflix to make TV drama, films and children’s shows?

Prince Albert and Princess Charlene of Monaco

Danny Dyer and Joanne Mas

Elton John and David Furnish

Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex

In August, Brian Blessed revealed that the Queen told him her favourite film is one of his. Was it?

Santa’s Blotto (Blessed played Santa)

Henry VIII...

We're watching All 17 of Montgomery Clift's films for his Centennial. Here's returning contributor David Upton with episode 4.

Just two years after his debut in The Search, Montgomery Clift returned to post-war Europe. The Big Lift, released in 1950, was just two years removed from the true story it centres on, the Berlin airlift of 1948. One of the first major crises of the Cold War, the airlift was needed thanks to the Soviet blockade of the part of the city under the control of Western allies. Berlin is a city in ruin, populated by a people torn apart and living amongst rubble. Into this, director George Seaton’s film casts a watchful Monty and the exuberant Paul Douglas as a pair of Air Force sergeants, Danny MacCullough and Hank Kowalski.

Future AMPAS president Seaton, best known for 1947’s whimsical Christmas fantasy Miracle on 34th Street, goes hard on the verité factor,...

Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none

“Ealing Goes Scottish”

By Raymond Benson

The famous British studio, Ealing, made many kinds of pictures and became a major force in the U.K.’s film industry, especially after producer Michael Balcon took it over. While the studio had already made a few comedies, for some reason in the late 1940s it started producing more of them. The natures of these comedies shifted and became more intelligent, dry, and focused on underdog characters who valiantly attempt to overcome a series of obstacles. Sometimes the protagonists are successful—and sometimes not. Along the way, though, a series of misadventures occur. They range from “amusing” to “riotously funny.” It all worked, and the Ealing Comedies became a sub-genre unto themselves, especially when they starred the likes of Alec Guinness, Alastair Sim, or Stanley Holloway.

The year 1949 is generally considered the beginning of the run,...

Film Movement, a self-described “film service” that traffics in esoteric theatrical and home video product has released two notable examples of post-war British comedy with Whisky Galore! and The Maggie – both are seafaring satires directed by Alexander Mackendrick featuring some of Ealing Studio’s most memorable players.

Whiskey Galore!/The Maggie

Blu ray

Film Movement

1949, 1954 / 1:33:1 / 82 min., 92 min.

Starring Joan Greenwood, Paul Douglas

Cinematography by Gerald Gibbs, Gordon Dines

Directed by Alexander Mackendrick

The men and women of Ealing emerged from the second World War with their cheerful cynicism intact and more than ready to take a bite out of the hand what fed them – from Passport to Pimlico to Kind Hearts and Coronets those artists happily took potshots at the class systems they had fought so hard to defend. Though these satires had teeth (Kind Hearts was especially lethal), romance was never far away – it’s no wonder...

CBS News President Susan Zirinsky has named Judy Tygard executive producer of 48 Hours. She had the job before being promoted to division chief early this year.

Tygard will oversee all aspects of the crime-and-justice broadcast, Zirinsky said in naming her trusted lieutenant to the gig.

Calling Tygard, who has been the show’s senior producer, “one of the best producers in all of television and an excellent leader,” Zirinsky said, “she lives and breathes 48 Hours.”

Added Tygard, “48 Hours is in my DNA.” She joined the program a producer in Season 2; it’s now in its 32nd season.

Tygard created 48 Hours: Live to Tell, a short-run series that features first-person accounts of people who have survived horrific events, documenting the challenges facing a victim of sex trafficking and the struggle of a survivor of the 2016 Brussels terror attack.

In addition to her work on 48 Hours, Tygard was co-executive producer of...

Grace Kelly would’ve celebrated her 89th birthday on November 12, 2018. The Oscar-winning actress made just a handful of movies before transforming from a Hollywood princess into a real life one following her marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956. In honor of her birthday, let’s take a look back in the photo gallery above of all 11 of her films, ranked worst to best.

Kelly got her start performing onstage and in television before being drafted by Hollywood to appear in Henry Hathaway‘s ripped-from-the-headlines nail-biter “Fourteen Hours” (1951) when she was just 22-years-old. The next year found her starring as the concerned wife to an imperiled town marshal (Gary Cooper) in the landmark western “High Noon” (1952).

She got her first Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress for John Ford‘s adventure yarn “Mogambo” (1953), playing one of two love interests (along with Ava Gardner) to big game hunter Clark Gable. The next year,...

Elia Kazan would have celebrated his 109th birthday on September 7, 2018. Years after his death in 2003, the two-time Oscar-winning director remains both an influential and controversial figure, respected and reviled in equal measure. In honor of his birthday, 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...

Updated: Following a couple of Julie London Westerns*, Turner Classic Movies will return to its July 2017 Star of the Month presentations. On July 27, Ronald Colman can be seen in five films from his later years: A Double Life, Random Harvest (1942), The Talk of the Town (1942), The Late George Apley (1947), and The Story of Mankind (1957). The first three titles are among the most important in Colman's long film career. George Cukor's A Double Life earned him his one and only Best Actor Oscar; Mervyn LeRoy's Random Harvest earned him his second Best Actor Oscar nomination; George Stevens' The Talk of the Town was shortlisted for seven Oscars, including Best Picture. All three feature Ronald Colman at his very best. The early 21st century motto of international trendsetters, from Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro and Turkey's Recep Erdogan to Russia's Vladimir Putin and the United States' Donald Trump, seems to be, The world is reality TV and reality TV...

The already-incredible line-up for the 2016 New York Film Festival just got even more promising. Ang Lee‘s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk will hold its world premiere at the festival on October 14th, the NY Times confirmed today. The adaptation of Ben Fountain‘s Iraq War novel, with a script by Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire), follows a teenage soldier who survives a battle in Iraq and then is brought home for a victory lap before returning.

Lee has shot the film at 120 frames per second in 4K and native 3D, giving it unprecedented clarity for a feature film, which also means the screening will be held in a relatively small 300-seat theater at AMC Lincoln Square, one of the few with the technology to present it that way. While it’s expected that this Lincoln Square theater will play the film when it arrives in theaters, it may be...

In the midst of March Madness and with the Kentucky Derby around the corner, the first pitch of baseball season is almost here.

A quote from Field Of Dreams best describes America’s national pastime, “The one constant throughout the years has been baseball.”

To mark the start of the 2016 season, here’s our list of the Best Baseball movies.

The Bad News Bears

Considered by some to be the best baseball movie ever, the film celebrates its 40th anniversary this month (April 7, 1976). In an article from the NY Daily News, one line reads, “It is a movie that someone like the late Philip Seymour Hoffman called his favorite, and one which resonates on many levels today, with all different generations.”

Who are we to argue with greatness?

After skewering all-American subjects such as politics (The Candidate) and beauty pageants (Smile), director Michael Ritchie naturally set his sights on the...

Debbie Reynolds ca. early 1950s. Debbie Reynolds movies: Oscar nominee for 'The Unsinkable Molly Brown,' sweetness and light in phony 'The Singing Nun' Debbie Reynolds is Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” star today, Aug. 23, '15. An MGM contract player from 1950 to 1959, Reynolds' movies can be seen just about every week on TCM. The only premiere on Debbie Reynolds Day is Jerry Paris' lively marital comedy How Sweet It Is (1968), costarring James Garner. This evening, TCM is showing Divorce American Style, The Catered Affair, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and The Singing Nun. 'Divorce American Style,' 'The Catered Affair' Directed by the recently deceased Bud Yorkin, Divorce American Style (1967) is notable for its cast – Reynolds, Dick Van Dyke, Jean Simmons, Jason Robards, Van Johnson, Lee Grant – and for the fact that it earned Norman Lear (screenplay) and Robert Kaufman (story) a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award nomination.

Like so many great American films of the era, A Letter to Three Wives has a touch of trash at its core. Writer/director Joseph L. Mankiewicz crafts well-rounded characters, thoughtful explorations of class via small-town postwar America, and snappy dialogue to spare. But this is still a story that really kicks off when three women receive a letter from another claiming to have run off with one of their husbands, timed to a daylong excursion where she knows they can’t do a damned thing about it. Not that there’s anything wrong with that at all.

The bulk of the movie takes place in flashback, as each woman reflects on the more tumultuous moments in their relationships, and why each husband would be motivated to abandon ship for the highly-desirable Addie Ross. Addie seems to have gotten around often enough to have gotten around to those same husbands in some capacity.

Is this heaven? Nope, it’s Opening Week.

Recently Mlb rounded up a group of players to recite, word for word, James Earl Jones’ famous “people will come, Ray” speech from Field Of Dreams.

Wamg declares America’s national pastime, Baseball, to be the official sport of movie fans everywhere. As Brad Pitt said in Moneyball, “How can you not be romantic about Baseball?”

It all started Sunday night with the Cardinals at the Cubs with St. Louis winning 3 to 0.

To celebrate the first pitch of Opening Week, here’s our list of the best Baseball movies.

The Rookie

One of the best baseball biopics to come along over the years, The Rookie, starring Dennis Quaid, tells the true story of Jim Morris, a man who finally gets a shot at his lifelong dream-pitching in the big leagues. A high school science teacher/baseball coach, Morris’ players make a bet with him:if they win district,...

William Holden movies: ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’ William Holden is Turner Classic Movies’ "Summer Under the Stars" featured actor today, August 21, 2013. Throughout the day, TCM has been showing several William Holden movies made at Columbia, though his work at Paramount (e.g., I Wanted Wings, Dear Ruth, Streets of Laredo, Dear Wife) remains mostly off-limits. Right now, TCM is presenting David Lean’s 1957 Best Picture Academy Award winner and all-around blockbuster The Bridge on the River Kwai, the Anglo-American production that turned Lean into filmdom’s brainier Cecil B. DeMille. Until then a director of mostly small-scale dramas, Lean (quite literally) widened the scope of his movies with the widescreen-formatted Southeast Asian-set World War II drama, which clocks in at 161 minutes. Even though William Holden was The Bridge on the River Kwai‘s big box-office draw, the film actually belongs to Alec Guinness’ Pow British commander and to...

Panic in the Streets

Written by Richard Murphy and Daniel Fuchs

Directed by Elia Kazan

U.S.A., 1950

-

Some directors make their careers by telling the sort of stories and using the cinematic techniques which best suit them. This lack of diversity is by no means sufficient grounds for criticism. In fact, it is often quite the contrary insofar as such directors are often (but not always) heralded as important voices for specific genres and styles. Harmony Korine explores the oft avoided subcultures of the United States, John Carpenter’s greater strengths lie in sharing thriller and horror tales and Elia Kazan’s most famous and respected projects were those which directly concentrated on critical social issues affecting the United States during this time, issues which far too many preferred to either shove under the rug or virulently disagreed to reach compromise on. Gentleman’s Agreement, Pinky and On the Waterfront come to mind.

Panic in the Streets

Written by Richard Murphy and Daniel Fuchs

Directed by Elia Kazan

U.S.A., 1950

-

Some directors make their careers by telling the sort of stories and using the cinematic techniques which best suit them. This lack of diversity is by no means sufficient grounds for criticism. In fact, it is often quite the contrary insofar as such directors are often (but not always) heralded as important voices for specific genres and styles. Harmony Korine explores the oft avoided subcultures of the United States, John Carpenter’s greater strengths lie in sharing thriller and horror tales and Elia Kazan’s most famous and respected projects were those which directly concentrated on critical social issues affecting the United States during this time, issues which far too many preferred to either shove under the rug or virulently disagreed to reach compromise on. Gentleman’s Agreement, Pinky and On the Waterfront come to mind.

“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good and it could be again.” – Field Of Dreams.

No truer words were ever spoken about America’s Pastime. Baseball began this past Spring with 30 teams vying for the chance to become World Champions and now it’s been decided. The San Francisco Giants and Detroit Tigers will play ball in the 2012 World Series. Before the final hurrah of nine innings, stats, bases and 3 strikes you’re out, Wamg has compiled a list of the Best Baseball Movies. Did we leave any in the dugout or are there some that should be sent to the showers?...

Marilyn Monroe Movies Turner Classic Movies, Saturday, August 5 6:00 Am The Asphalt Jungle (1950) A gang of small time crooks plots an elaborate jewel heist. Dir: John Huston. Cast: Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen, Sam Jaffe, Marilyn Monroe. Black and White-112 minutes. 8:00 Am Clash By Night (1952) An embittered woman seeks escape in marriage, only to fall for her husband’s best friend. Dir: Fritz Lang. Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas, Robert Ryan, Keith Andes, Marilyn Monroe. Black and White-105 minutes. 10:00 Am Niagara (1952) Honeymooners get mixed up with an obsessive husband and his cheating wife. Dir: Henry Hathaway. Cast: Marilyn [...]...

"I feel like I'm swimming upstream," meteorologist Paul Douglas told host Chris Hayes today, as he explained he shares two concurrent sets of beliefs that often find themselves in conflict nationally: the belief that the global climate is changing and warming up, and the belief in small government conservatism. Douglas came on Up today to describe how he reconciles what science has taught him with how it is often politicized, and how he expects the private sector, and not the government, will help solve the problem.

CNN missed a golden opportunity by deciding not to sponsor the final Super Tuesday debate with the Gop Presidential candidates. It reportedly made that decision after being informed that both Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum had decided to withdraw from the debate, and Ron Paul was feeling iffy. After an unprecedented 20-plus debates already this election season, Santorum and Romney (who are friends offstage) had privately decided that the debate would serve only the purposes of Newt Gingrich.

That seems reasonable enough. But hold on a minute. What if CNN had announced it would hold the debate as scheduled, no matter what? If Romney and Santorum didn't want to come, so be it. You know Ron Paul would have been back in like a flash, because the debates have been invaluable to his underfunded campaign.

That would have left CNN with a Gop Presidential debate with two people on the...

Dorothy McGuire, Gregory Peck, Gentleman's Agreement Elia Kazan is best remembered today for two things: his association with Marlon Brando during the first half of the 1950s, and the fact that he claimed to be unrepentant about naming names — and ruining careers and lives — during the Red-baiting hysteria of the post-World War II years. Kazan's 19 feature films as a director are wildly uneven. For every great A Streetcar Named Desire there is a dreadful America, America, in addition to everything in between. Yet, probably as a result of his Broadway training, Kazan was undeniably an outstanding actors' director. Tough-guy Brando remains the best-remembered Kazan star for his performances in A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront (less so for his Emiliano Zapata in Viva Zapata!). Even so, the director elicited superb performances from a wide range of players, from child actress Peggy Ann Garner, who won a Juvenile Oscar...

Kirk Douglas on TCM: A Letter To Three Wives, Mourning Becomes Electra Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 8:00 Pm The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers (1946). Years after a murder drove them apart heiress tries to win back her lost love. Dir: Lewis Milestone. Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott, Kirk Douglas, Judith Anderson. Bw-116 mins. 10:00 Pm Out Of The Past (1947). A private eye becomes the dupe of a homicidal moll. Dir: Jacques Tourneur. Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming. Bw-97 mins. 11:45 Pm I Walk Alone (1948). An ex-convict discovers the world of crime has changed drastically since he went up the river. Dir: Byron Haskin. Cast: Burt Lancaster, Lizabeth Scott, Kirk Douglas, Wendell Corey. Bw-97 mins. 1:30 Am A Letter To Three Wives (1949). A small-town seductress notifies her three best friends that she has run off with one of their husbands. Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz.

Kirk Douglas is Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month of September. Though hardly a great film actor — or even a good one — Douglas has had one of the longest and most prestigious film careers anywhere in the world. That's probably because enough audience members loved how Douglas ferociously attacked his characters — instead of merely bringing them to life. [Kirk Douglas Movie Schedule.] The 94-year-old actor (who'll be turning 95 next December 9) starred or was featured in numerous major classics — and a number of minor ones — from the mid-'40s to the mid'-60s, nabbing three Best Actor Oscar nominations along the way. He has continued working since then, but for the most part his projects have been low-quality fare. The list of Kirk Douglas' movie classics, however, is quite long. It includes Jacques Tourneur's film noir Out of the Past (1947); Mark Robson's boxing melodrama Champion (1949), for which Douglas received his first...

Ann Sothern, Linda Darnell, Jeanne Crain, A Letter to Three Wives Linda Darnell, the gorgeous leading lady of numerous 20th Century Fox productions of the '40s, is Turner Classic Movies' "Summer Under the Stars" player this Saturday, August 27. TCM, which has leased titles from the Fox library, is showing 14 Linda Darnell movies, including no less than 9 TCM premieres. [Linda Darnell Movie Schedule.] Right now, TCM is showing writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz's A Letter to Three Wives (1949), winner of Academy Awards for Best Direction and Best Screenplay. This curious comedy-drama about a husband who leaves his wife for another woman — but whose husband? Linda Darnell's, Jeanne Crain's, or Ann Sothern's? — also earned Mankiewicz the very first Directors Guild of America Award and a Writers Guild Award (which Mankiewicz shared with Vera Caspary) for the Best Written American Comedy. The husbands in question are Kirk Douglas, Paul Douglas, and Jeffrey Lynn.

Linda Darnell Linda Darnell on TCM: A Letter To Three Wives, No Way Out Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am Zero Hour! (1957) When a flight crew falls ill only man who can land the plane is afraid of flying. Dir: Hall Bartlett. Cast: Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell, Sterling Hayden. Bw-81 mins, Letterbox Format. 7:30 Am Sweet And Low Down (1944) Dir: Archie Mayo. Cast: Benny Goodman, Linda Darnell, Jack Oakie. Bw-76 mins. 9:00 Am Rise And Shine (1941) The college president head cheerleader and a gambling gangster try to keep a flunking football star in the game. Dir: Allan Dwan. Cast: Jack Oakie, George Murphy, Linda Darnell. Bw-88 mins. 10:45 Am Brigham Young (1940) Two young Mormons struggle to survive their people's journey to a new home in the West. Dir: Henry Hathaway. Cast: Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Dean Jagger. Bw-113 mins. 12:45 Pm Two Flags West (1950) A bitter...

Montgomery Clift, I Confess Montgomery Clift on TCM: A Place In The Sun, The Heiress, Raintree County Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am Raintree County (1957) In this sumptuous Civil War story, a willful southern belle goes mad out of fear that she may be part black. Dir: Edward Dmytryk. Cast: Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Eva Marie Saint. C-173 mins, Letterbox Format. 9:00 Am Lonelyhearts (1958) A sensitive young reporter assigned to write an advice column gets caught up in his readers' lives. Dir: Vincent J. Donehue. Cast: Montgomery Clift, Robert Ryan, Myrna Loy. Bw-103 mins. 11:00 Am The Big Lift (1950) Two Air Force sergeants find love while flying the Berlin Airlift. Dir: George Seaton. Cast: Montgomery Clift, Paul Douglas, Cornell Borchers. Bw-118 mins. 1:00 Pm Red River (1948) A young cowhand rebels against his rancher stepfather during a perilous cattle drive. Dir: Howard Hawks. Cast: John Wayne, Montgomery Clift,...

Montgomery Clift could have become a much bigger star had he turned down fewer roles in major classics (Sunset Blvd., reportedly Shane, East of Eden) and accepted fewer roles in major duds (The Big Lift, Lonelyhearts, The Defector). Clift has been a relatively frequent presence on Turner Classic Movies, but those unfamiliar with his work will be able to check him out — and compare him to fellow "'50s rebels" Marlon Brando and James Dean — on Saturday, August 20, as TCM will be presenting 11 Montgomery Clift movies as part of its "Summer Under the Stars" series. The one TCM premiere is the spy thriller The Defector (1966), which also happens to be Clift's last movie. [Montgomery Clift Movie Schedule.] My favorite Montgomery Clift performance is his quietly ambitious George Eastman in George Stevens' A Place in the Sun (1951). Though Marlon Brando's Stanley Kowalski from A Streetcar Named Desire (also 1951) is much better remembered today,...

Jean Hagen, Debbie Reynolds, Singin' in the Rain Debbie Reynolds on TCM: The Unsinkable Molly Brown, The Singing Nun Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am The Affairs Of Dobie Gillis (1953) A lovesick teenager searches for romance at college. Dir: Don Weis. Cast: Debbie Reynolds, Bobby Van, Barbara Ruick. Bw-73 mins. 7:15 Am I Love Melvin (1953) A photographer's assistant promises to turn a chorus girl into a cover girl. Dir: Don Weis. Cast: Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Una Merkel. C-77 mins. 8:45 Am The Tender Trap (1955) A swinging bachelor finds love when he meets a girl immune to his line. Dir: Charles Walters. Cast: Frank Sinatra, Debbie Reynolds, David Wayne. C-111 mins, Letterbox Format. 10:45 Am Bundle Of Joy (1956) A shop girl is mistaken for the mother of a foundling. Dir: Norman Taurog. Cast: Eddie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, Adolphe Menjou. C-98 mins. 12:30 Pm Tammy And The Bachelor...

Pert, pretty, multi-talented, actress-singer-dancer-Hollywood collector Debbie Reynolds is Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Day on Friday, August 18, as TCM continues its "Summer Under the Stars" series. TCM is presenting 13 Debbie Reynolds movies. [Debbie Reynolds Movie Schedule.] Fans of Gene Kelly's Singin' in the Rain (1952) will be able to watch the romantic comedy-musical for the 118th time. I'm not one of them; in fact, I much prefer Kelly and Stanley Donen's On the Town (1949), and I'd say that George Sidney's Show Boat (1951) and Donen's Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) are my favorite musicals of the 1950s. But fan or no, there's much to enjoy in Singin' in the Rain, including Reynolds and Donald O'Connor's performances, several great songs from the 1920s, and Jean Hagen's high-pitched mix of Norma Talmadge, (the British) Mabel Poulton, and Corinne Griffith. The iconic "Singin' in the Rain" number is one of my least favorite...

Over my time authoring Top 10 Tuesdays (or Thursdays if your editor is slow!) for Owf, I’ve submitted a couple of articles chronicling the best full-length films available to watch online (Part I and Part II). My attention focused on YouTube’s offerings in these previous lists, but today I turn to the Internet Archive. This site is dedicated to offering the general public as much content as possible – whether it’s live concerts, television shows or indeed feature films – for free viewing/listening or download. As I’ve previously mentioned, this content is in the Public Domain, which means the reproduction and offers of free viewings or downloads is entirely legal.

As a relentless fan and tireless advocate for classical Hollywood fare, The Internet Archive is one of my favourite sites out in the stratosphere of the interweb! Read on to find 10 classic films that you really have no excuse not to watch…...

One of the great romantic movies and one of Billy Wilder's biggest hits. Fred MacMurray, who was genuinely startled by Jack Lemmon's improvs with his nose spray, stepped into his role on two weeks' notice after first choice Paul Douglas died suddenly. The Lemmon-Shirley MacLaine gin game was added because MacLaine was constantly playing cards on set.

DVD Playhouse December 2010

By

Allen Gardner

America Lost And Found: The Bbs Story (Criterion) Perhaps the best DVD box set released this year, this ultimate cinefile stocking stuffer offered up by Criterion, the Rolls-Royce of home video labels, features seven seminal works from the late ‘60s-early ‘70s that were brought to life by cutting edge producers Bert Schneider, Steve Blauner and director/producer Bob Rafelson, the principals of Bbs Productions. In chronological order: Head (1968) star the Monkees, the manufactured (by Rafelson, et al), American answer to the Beatles who, like it or not, did make an impact on popular culture, particularly in this utterly surreal piece of cinematic anarchy (co-written by Jack Nicholson, who has a cameo), which was largely dismissed upon its initial release, but is now regarded as a counterculture classic. Easy Rider (1969) is arguably regarded as the seminal ‘60s picture, about two hippie drug dealers (director Dennis Hopper...

“The truth is that nothing is less sensational than pestilence,” says Camus. The format is that of an outbreak-thriller, yet Elia Kazan stages it as an exuberant stylistic experiment, an affectionate comedy, a chance to research the waterfront. Long takes and wide angles lay the groundwork, the nimble sketching of a humid New Orleans night: A game of poker played on the second floor of a blues bar, Jack Palance’s taut profile posed against a bald light bulb, a faraway view of a freight train barely missing the febrile clod stumbling around the tracks. The threat of a contaminated murder victim touching off an epidemic of pneumonic plague is acknowledged amid the naturalistic joshing of morgue workers, the ensuing manhunt occasions an uneasy alliance between science (Richard Widmark’s sanitary doctor) and law (Paul Douglas’ chief of police). (The media—Dan Riss’ avid newshound—sniff around the margins, waiting for a scoop.

British-born film star known for her roles in Great Expectations and Spartacus

Jean Simmons, who has died aged 80, had a bounteous moment, early in her career, when she seemed the likely casting for every exotic or magical female role. It passed, as she got out of her teens, but then for the best part of 15 years, in Britain and America, she was a valued actress whose generally proper, if not patrician, manner had an intriguing way of conflicting with her large, saucy eyes and a mouth that began to turn up at the corners as she imagined mischief – or more than her movies had in their scripts. Even in the age of Vivien Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor, she was an authentic beauty. And there were always hints that the lady might be very sexy. But nothing worked out smoothly, and it is somehow typical of Simmons that her most astonishing...

Grace Kelly, Stewart Granger in Green Fire Grace Kelly is once again the focal point of Turner Classic Movies‘ Thursday evening schedule. And as far as I’m concerned, next Thursday, Nov. 19, is going to be the most interesting of the Grace Kelly evenings this month. The reason for that is simple: TCM will be showing the one Kelly feature I’ve yet to see — the Colombian-set adventure drama Green Fire (1954), co-starring Stewart Granger and Paul Douglas — and two of Kelly’s pre-stardom television vehicles that I’ve also yet to see — "The Rockingham Tea Set" (1950) and "The Kill" (1952), both made for the Studio One anthology series and both directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, best known [...]...