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Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird" is about as quintessentially American as a classic book can get. The 1960 novel, which is still commonly read in schools today, follows young Alabaman girl Scout Finch as she endures the trials and tribulations of her pre-teen years -- and witnesses the grim realities of the Jim Crow-era South. Some aspects of "To Kill A Mockingbird" haven't aged perfectly, but the book remains beloved for good reason. It's funny, sharp, and emotional, full of wisdom and harsh truth, and builds a world that's vividly alive.

That world made the leap from the page to the big screen in 1962, when director Robert Mulligan and playwright Horton Foote adapted "To Kill A Mockingbird" as a film. The movie version is indelible in its own right. It's anchored by a precise performance from Gregory Peck, who plays compassionate defense attorney Atticus Finch. In the 60 years since...

Joe Richards Mar 24, 2017

Need to find a bit of movie happiness? Here are 25 films that might just do the trick...

Let's face it, we could all probably do with a little bit of cheering up right about now. Times are scary and times are tough, so it's perfectly natural to look for some kind of reassurance that everything will indeed be all right in the end.

Film is perhaps one of the most powerful and effective tools in doing this. It can be a transportative experience, an escape from reality, and, most importantly, it can act as a reminder of all that is good in the world.

With that in mind, here’s a list of 25 movies that are almost-guaranteed to make you smile and restore your faith in humanity...

City Lights

In truth, any of Charlie Chaplin’s films are perfect for those times when you just need to smile.

In 1997, Movieline magazine hosted a 35th anniversary screening of To Kill a Mockingbird, with an amazing array of talent there to discuss the film: actors Gregory Peck, Robert Duvall, Brock Peters, Phillip Alford and Mary Badham (the latter two of whom played the children, Jem and Scout), screenwriter Horton Foote, producer Alan J. Pakula and director Robert Mulligan. One person missing from that reunion was the reclusive author of the novel, Harper Lee, who died Friday at the age of 89. Lee came back into the news last year with the publication of an earlier version of Mockingbird, Go

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'Father of the Bride': Steve Martin and Kimberly Williams. Top Five Father's Day Movies? From giant Gregory Peck to tyrant John Gielgud What would be the Top Five Father's Day movies ever made? Well, there have been countless films about fathers and/or featuring fathers of various sizes, shapes, and inclinations. In terms of quality, these range from the amusing – e.g., the 1950 version of Cheaper by the Dozen; the Oscar-nominated The Grandfather – to the nauseating – e.g., the 1950 version of Father of the Bride; its atrocious sequel, Father's Little Dividend. Although I'm unable to come up with the absolute Top Five Father's Day Movies – or rather, just plain Father Movies – ever made, below are the first five (actually six, including a remake) "quality" patriarch-centered films that come to mind. Now, the fathers portrayed in these films aren't all heroic, loving, and/or saintly paternal figures. Several are...

30. No Country for Old Men (2007)

Scene: Coin Flip

Video: http://youtu.be/0iAezyDzj0M

There was a brief period of time from 2006-2009 when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made some more daring, but wholly deserved choices for Best Picture. It began in 2006, when Martin Scorsese finally won for The Departed which, while not his best and not nearly as dark as, say, Taxi Driver or Raging Bull, still leaned that direction. Three years later, they handed the Oscar to The Hurt Locker over the blockbuster Avatar, rewarding quality over audience love. But in between the two it was given to No Country for Old Men, an incredibly dark neo-Western based on the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name. It’s still one of the Coen Brothers’ best films, an incredible cat-and-mouse journey through West Texas in the 1980′s. The film stars Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones,...

To Kill a Mockingbird actress Rosemary Murphy died on Saturday in New York City. She was 89.

Rosemary Murphy Dies

Murphy had recently been diagnosed with esophageal cancer and passed away in her Upper East Side apartment, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

In the 1962 film adaptation of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning To Kill a Mockingbird, Murphy played neighbor Maudie Atkinson, better known as Miss Maudie. Her character lives across the street from lawyer Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) and his two young children – Scout (Mary Badham) and Jem (Phillip Alford) in the fictional Maycomb, Alabama.

Prior to appearing in To Kill a Mockingbird, Murphy appeared in a number of TV series, including Robert Montgomery Presents, Thriller, Naked City, Wide Country and The Doctors and the Nurses. Following her turn in the Oscar-nominated picture, Murphy continued her TV work.

Murphy earned her first Emmy for playing Sara Delano Roosevelt in 1976 ABC miniseries Eleanor and Franklin.

It starts with notes on a piano, played in the upper register, sounding like a child’s piano. We focus in on an old cigar box as a child’s voice, a girl, hums tunelessly as small hands open the box, revealing what looks like junk but is a child’s hidden treasures. The hands explore what is there, picking out a dark crayon and rubbing across a piece of paper. Letters emerge giving us the title of the film as the main theme returns, first with flute and harp and then a full orchestra. It’s a waltz, elegiac and slightly sad, evoking times past.

So begins To Kill A Mockingbird, Robert Mulligan’s 1962 film based on Harper Lee’s 1960 novel. Set in rural Alabama during the 1930s and the depths of the Depression, the story is told from the viewpoint of young Scout Finch, includes her brother Jem,...

Andrei Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev Andrei Tarkovsky, Audrey Hepburn, Clara Bow Movies: Packard Campus May 2012 Schedule Friday, April 27 (7:30 p.m.) Solaris (Magna, 1972) An alien intelligence infiltrates a space mission. Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. With Natalya Bondarchuk and Donatas Banionis. Sci-fi psychological drama. Black & White and color, 167 min. In Russian and German with English subtitles. Saturday, April 28 (7:30 p.m.) To Kill A Mockingbird (Universal, 1962) A Southern lawyer defends a black man wrongly accused of rape, and tries to explain the proceedings to his children. Directed by Robert Mulligan. With Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, Phillip Alford, Brock Peters and Robert Duvall. Drama. Black & white, 129 min. Selected for the National Film Registry in 1995. Thursday, May 3 (7:30 p.m.) The Little Giant (Warner Bros., 1933) A Chicago beer magnate about to lose his business with the repeal of Prohibition, moves to California and tries to join society's upper crust, but his gangster origins prove tough to shake.

Chicago – Do kids still read Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” in school? Or do they just watch the movie now? When I was growing up it may have been the most canonical book of a growing child’s formative years. If I had to look back on the books that most influenced the way I look at fiction, it would certainly be on the list. And the timeless film would be right there with it, forever impacting the way I look at the art of movies.

Rating: 5.0/5.0

Universal is doing something incredible this year. They’re going back through their archives and releasing special editions of some of their most beloved films in a collection called “Universal 100th Anniversary Collector’s Series.” Future titles will include “Jaws,” “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “Parenthood,” and “E.T.- The Extra-Terrestrial.” among many others. It’s going to be...

Fifty years ago, 10-year-old Mary Badham tried out for a role in a little movie filming near her hometown of Birmingham, Ala.: "To Kill a Mockingbird." The beloved adaptation of Harper Lee's seminal novel earned Badham an Oscar nomination, making her, at the time, the youngest actress to ever receive one. (In 1973, Tatum O'Neil became the youngest for "Paper Moon.") Not a bad for a young girl who had never even seen a movie before making "Mockingbird."

For the release of the 50th Anniversary Blu-ray, Badham talked to Moviefone about her rather fuzzy memories of making a classic all those years ago, her memories of co-star Gregory Peck, why she quit acting, and what it was like to return to the profession (if only for one film) nearly 40 years later.

You'd never acted before you made "To Kill a Mockingbird." What's the story of how you got a...

Fifty years ago, 10-year-old Mary Badham tried out for a role in a little movie filming near her hometown of Birmingham, Ala.: "To Kill a Mockingbird." The beloved adaptation of Harper Lee's seminal novel earned Badham an Oscar nomination, making her, at the time, the youngest actress to ever receive one. (In 1973, Tatum O'Neal became the youngest for "Paper Moon.") Not a bad for a young girl who had never even seen a movie before making "Mockingbird." For the release of the 50th Anniversary Blu-ray, Badham talked to Moviefone about her rather fuzzy memories of making a classic all those years ago, her memories of co-star Gregory Peck, why she quit acting, and what it was like to return to the profession (if only for one film) nearly 40 years later. Photos: You'd never acted before you made "To Kill a Mockingbird." What's the story of how you got...