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What couldn’t Quincy Jones do?

He wrote, composed and arranged music for your favorite artists and even produced films and TV shows that launched some of your favorite actors. He not only changed careers — he changed lives.

Here we break down some of the biggest acts and projects Jones worked on, from Michael Jackson’s seminal Thriller album to “We Are the World” to winning 28 Grammys, an Emmy and a Tony.

Michael Jackson

Before he met Jones while working on The Wiz, Jackson had been known for the Jackson 5 and released four solo albums that had mild success. Then they made Off the Wall and the King of Pop fully arrived. Released in 1979 around the time Jackson turned 21, the album helped him transition from young singer to critically acclaimed, matured artist. The album’s disco, funk and R&b sound resonated on the charts, helped Jackson win his first...

Quincy Jones is dead at 91. There has simply never been an American artist better in touch with the pulse of popular culture than this producer, arranger, and composer whose work spanned nearly 70 years, every genre imaginable, and crossed all media as well. Jones is best known for his work producing Frank Sinatra and Michael Jackson, or his lifelong friendship with Ray Charles, but his film scores, bouncing with energy and groove, helped inspire a rethink of what was possible with movie music. (Associated Press first reported his death.)

Multiracial but the very definition of a 20th-century Black artist, Jones was born on the South Side of Chicago on March 14, 1933. His paternal grandmother was an ex-slave; his paternal grandfather, from Wales. His maternal grandmother was born a slave on a Kentucky plantation, as well — through the institutionalized rape of slavery, she was a distant relation of Tennessee Williams and the poet Sidney Lanier,...

It’s always fascinating when a movie with a top star, and directed by another star, goes as far under the radar as Steve Buscemi‘s “The Listener,” starring Tessa Thompson, has.

But in the case of this particularly gentle movie — available on VOD now for $6.99 — maybe that’s part of its DNA. Like the mental health helpline operator Thompson plays, this is a movie that’s there if you need it: Quiet, thoughtful, and totally shunning the kind of splashiness that most movies are thought to require these days to stand out.

“The Listener” premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2022, where it was the closing night film of the Venice Days sidebar. On April 13, it was the closing night film of the Sarasota Film Festival, out of competition — in this over 18-month festival journey, it’s also made stops at the festivals in Vienna, Thessaloniki, Stockholm, The Hague,...

By Lee Pfeiffer

Ed Asner, the seven-time Emmy winner who specialized in playing gruff-but-likable characters, has died at age 91. Asner, a Missouri native, served in the military in the 1950s before pursuing acting as a career. He broke into the profession in the late 1950s and appeared in scores of major television programs, generally cast in dramatic roles. He made his big screen debut in an uncredited role in the 1962 Elvis Presley movie "Kid Galahad" starring Elvis Presley. He went on to play a detective in "The Slender Thread" (1966), a nemesis of John Wayne in Howard Hawks' "El Dorado" (1966) and Robert Vaughn's shady C.I.A. boss in "The Venetian Affair" (1966). Asner's distinctive style led him to work almost non-stop between the feature film and television mediums. In 1970, his career skyrocketed when he was cast as Lou Grant, the grumpy boss of Mary Tyler Moore in her iconic TV sitcom.

It’s that time of year again. While some directors annually share their favorite films of the year, Steven Soderbergh lists everything he consumed, media-wise. For 2020––a year in which he not only Let Them All Talk Review: Steven Soderbergh’s Most Emotionally Resonant Film in Years”>released a new film, but No Sudden Move and Confirms The Knick Return”>shot another––he still got plenty of watching in.

His list includes months-early screenings of Mank (x4!), I’m Your Woman, Bill & Ted Face the Music, Cherry, and The Woman in the Window, as well no shortage of classics and recent favorites, including Time, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, The Assistant, two films in the Small Axe anthology, and more. After beginning production on No Sudden Move on September 28, he also screened the first cut on November 14.

Check out the list below via his official site.

01/01 Les Miserables (’19)

01/02 Cassandra at the Wedding,...

We started a little biweekly 'streaming reader's choice film club' last month with Voyage of the Damned, and this time you've selected the Olivia de Havilland thriller Lady in a Cage (1964) for group discussion. So watch it over the weekend on Hulu, and we'll write it up and discuss on Monday night.

Which is not to say that we'll never discuss the other films (we will have pieces on Ali Fears Eats the Soul and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne as other members of Team Experience sometimes volunteer to write things up)  For the record the votes yesterday and this morning went like so:

Lady in the Cage (24%) Cactus Flower (23%) Ali Fear Eats the Soul / Fight Club (15% each) Splash / Natural Born Killers (9% each) The Slender Thread (3%) Take Me Out to the Ball Game (2%)...

Remember those DVD collections organized by star, that combined favorite actors’ big movies with good titles you might not have seen? Shout Select has gone that route in honor of the great Anne Bancroft, collecting eight titles in one box. They span the years 1952 to 1989 … and are sourced from multiple studios and disc boutiques. Eight, count ’em 8 — no dog-eared transfers, and one is even a fully-appointed Criterion disc. We’re told that Mel Brooks applied some of the clout that made this happen.

The Anne Bancroft Collection

Blu-ray

Shout Select

1952 – 1987 / B&w + Color / Street Date December 10, 2019 / 79.97

Starring: Anne Bancroft, Marilyn Monroe, Richard Widmark; Patty Duke; Peter Finch; Dustin Hoffman, Katherine Ross; Dom De Luise; Mel Brooks; Jane Fonda, Meg Tilly; Anthony Hopkins.

Directed by Roy Baker; Arthur Penn; Jack Clayton; Mike Nichols; Anne Bancroft; Alan Johnson; Norman Jewison; David Hugh Jones.

This Shout Select compilation disc was reportedly curated by Anne Bancroft’s husband,...

Anne Bancroft would’ve celebrated her 87th birthday on September 17. Born in 1931, the actress had a celebrated career on both the stage and screen, becoming one of the few people to win the trifecta of performance awards. In honor of her birthday, let’s take a look back at 12 of her greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Bancroft made her Broadway debut in William Gibson‘s “Two for the Seesaw,” directed by Arthur Penn. The role brought her a Tony as Best Featured Actress in a play (1958). The very next year, she re-teamed with Gibson and Penn for “The Miracle Worker,” for which she won a second Tony (Best Actress in a Play in 1959).

Following the stage success, Bancroft, Penn and Gibson adapted “The Miracle Worker” to the big screen in 1962. Recreating the role of Annie Sullivan, a teacher struggling to help the deaf and blind Helen Keller (Patty Duke) learn to communicate,...

Film editor Thomas Stanford, who won an Academy Award for his work on West Side Story, died Saturday, his family reported. He was 93.

Stanford collaborated with director Sydney Pollack on three films — The Slender Thread (1965), Jeremiah Johnson (1972) and The Yakuza (1974) — and with helmer Mark Rydell on two: The Fox (1967) and The Reivers (1969).

Born in Germany and educated in Switzerland and England, Stanford received his first editor credit on Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Suddenly, Last Summer (1959).

He later worked on movies including In the Cool of the Day (1963), Emil and...

Ever wonder why “In the Heat of the Night” beat “The Graduate” and “Bonnie and Clyde” for Best Picture Oscar in 1968? Well, as Bobby Kennedy told director Norman Jewison when he presented the movie with the New York Film Critics Award, “Norman, timing is everything.”

It’s hard to believe that the movie came out 50 years ago. Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger lit up the screen in the racially-charged murder mystery that not only captured the Civil Rights zeitgeist but also delivered a damn good drama. On April 6, the TCM Classic Film Festival celebrates that anniversary with a gala opening night screening at the Chinese Theatre IMAX on Hollywood Boulevard, attended by Jewison, Poitier, producer Walter Mirisch, Lee Grant, and composer Quincy Jones.

Considered an underdog that year, “Heat” took home five Oscars, including Best Actor for Steiger, Stirling Siliphant’s Best Adapted Screenplay, Hal Ashby’s Editing, and Sound Mixing.

Throughout this week, we’ve been celebrating the 90th birthday of Sidney Poitier (February 20), recalling past work (especially lesser known films) and other clickables, on this blog and on social media (see pieces on “Porgy & Bess,” “The Slender Thread,” some Did… Continue Reading →...

Ok, that’s it: I’m putting out an official Apb for A Dog Named Sue.

If you’re new to Nashville, you might not know that Deacon once had the cutest dog in the world, but he gave it away to a perfectly good ex whose biggest flaw was that she wasn’t Rayna. That dog’s name? Sue — a nod to Mr. Johnny Cash.

And while I’m sure Deke saved himself a lot of besmirched carpets, way-too-early morning walks and chewed furniture, he also denied himself — and all of us! — the special cuddly comfort a pup provides during rough times.

On this episode of Nashville, "The Slender Thread That Binds Us Here," Deacon is emotionally volatile after his sister's death, Layla's big night is crashed by Markus Keen and Juliette starts using drugs.

Deacon can't catch a break. For the first two seasons, he moped over Rayna. During season three, he moped because he had cancer, and now, he's moping because his sister, Beverly, died. In addition to being the resident sad sack, Deacon has decided to shut out Scarlett, giving her the cold shoulder at Beverly's funeral.

Blu-ray Release Date: Nov. 11, 2014

Price: Blu-ray $29.95

Studio: Twilight Time

Burt Lancaster is the Birdman of Alcatraz.

The 1962 prison drama Birdman of Alcatraz stars Burt Lancaster (Twilight’s Last Gleaming) and was directed by John Frankenheimer (Seconds, The Train).

The classic film is a largely fictionalized version of the life of Robert Stroud, a surly federal prison inmate convicted of murder who is held in permanent isolation. Stroud adopts an orphaned baby sparrow as a pet…and then another…and then many, many others. He ultimately redeems himself by becoming a renowned bird expert who others refer to as the “Birdman of Alcatraz.”

Interestingly, despite the film’s title, much of the action is set at Leavenworth where Stroud was jailed with his birds.

Adapted by Guy Trosper from the 1955 book by Thomas Gaddis, the film also stars Telly Savalas (The Slender Thread) and Thelma Ritter (Boeing Boeing). Both were nominated...

Quincy Jones, the one-of-a-kind music legend with a record 79 Grammy nominations (and 27 wins), is due to be honored this month by Turner Classic Movies in an all-night tribute to the composer and producer. On Monday, June 30, 81-year-old Jones and TCM personality Robert Osborne will host an evening of films that showcase Jones's scores. Starting with Sidney Lumet's 1965 "The Pawnbroker"--Jones's very first job as a film composer--the evening will also feature the Sidney Poitier/Anne-Bancroft starrer "The Slender Thread," best picture winner "In the Heat of the Night," the original "Italian Job" and "$ (Dollars)." From 8 p.m. Eastern to 4:15 a.m. the next morning, fans of Quincy Jones will be treated to an entire evening of the composer's music. Over the course of his career, Jones composed 33 major motion picture scores, as well as the theme music for TV shows like "The Bill Cosby Show" and "Ironside."  During the 1960s,...

Moviefone's New Release Pick of the Week "Moonrise Kingdom" What's It About? Two star-crossed tweens (Kara Hayward, Jared Gilman) run away together, while their New England town bands together to try and find them. See It Because: Wes Anderson's ode to young love plays to his sense of impossible whimsy. Featuring some old friends -- Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman -- and new faces, "Moonrise Kingdom" is everything you could ever want out of an Anderson flick, while also managing to do the impossible: tell a realistic story of what it's like to be a kid in love. Watch an Exclusive Look at How a Scene Comes Together in "Moonrise Kingdom" - (Also Available on Amazon Instant Video | Netflix) Moviefone's Blu-ray Pick of the Week "Avatar 3D" Limited Edition What's It About? James Cameron's ecological parable about an alien planet gets the 3D Blu-ray treatment. See It Because: Isn't...

Chicago – Bring up the name Ed Asner, and immediately his legendary TV character Lou Grant comes to mind. Asner created the only TV character to successfully transition from a sitcom – “Mary Tyler Moore” – to the cutting-edge TV drama “Lou Grant.” But Asner has also been steadily working since those days, including his latest film “Let Go.”

“Let Go” is a crazy quilt ensemble comedy, following the exploits of a parole officer (David Denman). One of his clients include Artie, portrayed by Ed Asner. The iconic TV and film actor gives a subtle late career performance as a small time robber who can’t understand why things change. There is a beautiful scene with Asner and actress Peggy McKay at the conclusion of the film, as Artie makes one last attempt at redemption. Ed Asner is no lion in winter, he is still roaring.

Released on DVD: Ed Asner as Artie...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Oct. 16, 2012

Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray $29.95

Studio: Olive Films

Anne Bancroft and Steven Hill star in The Slender Thread.

The 1965 film drama The Slender Thread marks the filmmaking debut of director Sydney Pollack (The Firm).

The movie deals with a young woman named Inga Dyson (Anne Bancroft, The Graduate), who takes an overdose of prescription pills and calls a crisis clinic for help. College volunteer Alan Newell (Sidney Poitier, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?) fields the call and tries to keep the suicidal woman on the line while asking the police to trace down the caller.

Boasting a supporting cast that includes Telly Savalas (TV’s Kojak), Ed Asner (JFK) and Dabney Coleman (TV’s Boardwealk Empire), The Slender Thread was written by Stirling Silliphant (The Towering Inferno) and based upon an actual incident reported in Time Magazine. Additionally, the film features a rousing score by Quincy Jones...

They keep saying that the DVD format is on its last legs and yet they still keep coming out with very interesting and worthwhile releases and especially older catalog studio titles (most of which are new to DVD) and for which there is still obviously a significant demand for. Thank God! The latest case in point are two fascinating releases coming out on both standard and Blu-ray DVD in October from Olive Films which has been regularly releasing many older Paramount and other studio titles for the first time on DVD. The first one is Syndey Pollack's 1965 film The Slender Thread with Sidney Poitier, Anne Bancroft and Telly Savalas which Tambay reviewed and discussed on S...

Sidney Poitier, Sydney Tamiia Poitier Oscar-winning Actor Sidney Poitier and actress Sydney Tamiia Poitier attend the 2011 Governors Awards in the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland in Hollywood, on Saturday, November 12. [Photo: Matt Petit / ©A.M.P.A.S.] James Earl Jones (The Great White Hope, the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars movies) was a long-distance Honorary Oscar honoree, as he's co-starring with Vanessa Redgrave in Driving Miss Daisy on the London stage. Veteran makeup artist Dick Smith (Forever Young, Sweet Home, Dad), however, was present at the ceremony to receive his Honorary Oscar. TV celebrity Oprah Winfrey, a 1985 Best Supporting Actress nominee for Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple, was the recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Sidney Poitier was the first black actor to win an Academy Award for a leading role — in Lilies of the Field (1963). Other Poitier movie credits include Stanley Kramer's The Defiant Ones, with Tony Curtis; Paris Blues,...

Hollywood script doctor favoured by Sydney Pollack

Like certain potentates who travel with a personal physician, the director Sydney Pollack almost always had his own script doctor close at hand to revitalise a sick screenplay. David Rayfiel, who has died of congestive heart failure aged 87, was called in on the majority of Pollack's features, usually for a few weeks, in order to fix specific problems, rewrite here and there, and add and subtract lines. Though well remunerated for his work, Rayfiel was usually given no screen credit.

However, the spotlight was sometimes turned on him, such as when Robert Redford called Rayfiel "the unsung hero of almost every picture Sydney Pollack and I have made together". When Out of Africa (1985) won the Oscar for best picture, Pollack thanked Rayfiel for "keeping us honest" and Kurt Luedtke, upon accepting the Academy award for his screenplay of the same film, also acknowledged Rayfiel.

Director Sydney Pollack 1934-2008.

Director Sydney Pollack passed two years ago today. I had the good fortune to meet and interview Sydney Pollack twice, both of which are included here: first in 1999 for his well-made but ill-fated romantic drama "Random Hearts," and again in 2006 for what would be his final film, "Sketches of Frank Gehry," a masterful documentary look at the eponymous architect's life, work and process. It was also in many respects a personal investigation for Pollack himself, which he spoke quite candidly about during our conversation.

This has been a tough year for those of us who were weaned on the films of the so-called "Easy Riders and Raging Bulls" who made the iconic films of the late 1960s and 1970s, with the loss of such figures as Pollack, Roy Scheider, and others of the era. Pollack was certainly among the lions of that pack, but was perhaps...

Acclaimed director, producer, and actor Sydney Pollack has died of cancer. He was 73.

Filmmaker Sydney Pollack has died at the age of 73. The Oscar-winning director passed away in Los Angeles on Monday after a battle with cancer, his spokeswoman confirmed. Pollack began his career as an actor but turned his attentions to directing with 1965's The Slender Thread. He later directed stars such as Barbara Streisand and Robert Redford in The Way We Were, Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie, Tom Cruise in The Firm and Harrison Ford in Sabrina. His most successful film Out Of Africa, starring Redford (more)...

Sydney Pollack, who won an Academy Award as best director for "Out of Africa," died Monday of cancer at his home in Pacific Palisades. He was 73.

Pollack also was nominated for a best director Oscar for "Tootsie" and "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" Pollack won an Emmy for his direction of "The Game" in 1965, starring Cliff Robertson. In addition to his Oscar for "Out of Africa," which also won best picture, that film also earned Pollack the best director honor from the New York Critics Film Circle.

Among the 100 best American love stories ranked by American Film Institute in June 2002, Pollack is the only director credited with two films near the top of list: "The Way We Were," at No. 6, and "Out of Africa," which is ranked No. 13.

In 2000, Pollack was honored with the John Huston Award from the DGA as a "defender of artists' rights."

His filmography included...

Actress Anne Bancroft, who won an Oscar for The Miracle Worker and a place in pop culture history as the seductive Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate, died Monday of cancer; she was 73. The wife of comedian Mel Brooks, Bancroft died in New York at Mt. Sinai Hospital. One of the most popular actresses of the '60s, Bancroft's career started off dubiously in the '50s with a number of B movies for 20th Century Fox such as Gorilla at Large and Demetrius and the Gladiators. The studio also renamed the young actress, who was born Anna Maria Louise Italiano and originally went by Anne Marno; given a list of names, she chose the dignified Bancroft. However, fulfilling roles for the versatile TV and movie actress didn't follow, and Bancroft left both big and small screens for Broadway in the late 50s, winning two Tonys, for Two for the Seesaw and The Miracle Worker. When Hollywood came calling to adapt both films, Bancroft lost the role in the former to Shirley MacLaine. However, when studio heads wanted a more glamorous actress for the role of Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker, director Arthur Penn put his foot down and refused to budge. Then faced with a minimal budget, Penn created a gripping black-and-white film which won Oscars in 1962 for both Bancroft and co-star Patty Duke (as Helen Keller). That role was followed by another Oscar-nominated performance in The Pumpkin Eater and the acclaimed The Slender Thread and 7 Women. In 1967, however, Bancroft did a total 180 from her saintly persona as Annie Sullivan and donned leopard-skin lingerie for her role as the wily Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate, which nabbed her another Oscar nomination and permanent enshrinement in film history. By then, she had seduced not just Dustin Hoffman but the filmgoing public as well, and for the rest of her career she was pretty much able to call her own shots. She worked almost non-stop through the '70s and '80s in both comedic and dramatic films, including The Turning Point (another Oscar nomination), The Elephant Man, To Be or Not To Be (directed by her husband), Agnes of God (her last Oscar nomination), 84 Charing Cross Road, and Torch Song Trilogy. In the '90s Bancroft took a number of character roles, most notably as a mysterious old con woman in Malice, a menacing senator in G.I. Jane, a comedic matriarch in Home For the Holidays, an elegant trainer of a young assassin in Point of No Return, and an updated Mrs. Havisham in Great Expectations; she most recently appeared in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, for which she received an Emmy nomination. Bancroft is survived by her husband, whom she married in 1964, and their son, Max. --Prepared by IMDb staff...

Actress Anne Bancroft, who won an Oscar for The Miracle Worker and a place in pop culture history as the seductive Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate, died Monday of cancer; she was 73. The wife of comedian Mel Brooks, Bancroft died in New York at Mt. Sinai Hospital. One of the most popular actresses of the '60s, Bancroft's career started off dubiously in the '50s with a number of B movies for 20th Century Fox such as Gorilla at Large and Demetrius and the Gladiators. The studio also renamed the young actress, who was born Anna Maria Louise Italiano and originally went by Anne Marno; given a list of names, she chose the dignified Bancroft. However, fulfilling roles for the versatile TV and movie actress didn't follow, and Bancroft left both big and small screens for Broadway in the late 50s, winning two Tonys, for Two for the Seesaw and The Miracle Worker. When Hollywood came calling to adapt both films, Bancroft lost the role in the former to Shirley MacLaine. However, when studio heads wanted a more glamorous actress for the role of Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker, director Arthur Penn put his foot down and refused to budge. Then faced with a minimal budget, Penn created a gripping black-and-white film which won Oscars in 1962 for both Bancroft and co-star Patty Duke (as Helen Keller). That role was followed by another Oscar-nominated performance in The Pumpkin Eater and the acclaimed The Slender Thread and 7 Women. In 1967, however, Bancroft did a total 180 from her saintly persona as Annie Sullivan and donned leopard-skin lingerie for her role as the wily Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate, which nabbed her another Oscar nomination and permanent enshrinement in film history. By then, she had seduced not just Dustin Hoffman but the filmgoing public as well, and for the rest of her career she was pretty much able to call her own shots. She worked almost non-stop through the '70s and '80s in both comedic and dramatic films, including The Turning Point (another Oscar nomination), The Elephant Man, To Be or Not To Be (directed by her husband), Agnes of God (her last Oscar nomination), 84 Charing Cross Road, and Torch Song Trilogy. In the '90s Bancroft took a number of character roles, most notably as a mysterious old con woman in Malice, a menacing senator in G.I. Jane, a comedic matriarch in Home For the Holidays, an elegant trainer of a young assassin in Point of No Return, and an updated Mrs. Havisham in Great Expectations; she most recently appeared in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, for which she received an Emmy nomination. Bancroft is survived by her husband, whom she married in 1964, and their son, Max. --Prepared by IMDb staff...