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In a world with serial killers bonded to alien symbiotes, mad scientists that have robotic appendages, and some villains are literally born in Hell, it's an impressive feat one of the Marvel universe's most feared foes is Wilson Fisk, aka the Kingpin of Crime. Debuting in Amazing Spider-Man #50 and inspired by classic Hollywood actor Sydney Greenstreet, Fisk shifted his focus to the Devil of Hell's Kitchen, trying a number of tactics to bring down Daredevil and demonstrating just how far he's willing to go to take down the Man Without Fear and a host of other heroes who thought crossing him was a good idea.

Wielding an impressive intellect, incredible physical strength, and a drive that has seen heroes' lives crumble in front of them, it stands to reason that when bringing the character to life, the star playing them had to be suitable for the role. Over the years,...

Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, is one of comics' deadliest "normal" super-villains. He's got no superpowers, but he does have a vast criminal empire that enables him to make life extremely difficult for superheroes like Daredevil and Spider-Man. While Fisk has a double life as a "legitimate" businessman, the Kingpin does not wear a costume. Even so, he still has a recognizable look: bald, with a white-and-purple business suit concealing his sumo wrestler physique.

What inspired Kingpin's design? Was it Lex Luthor, the other most famous bald villain in comic books? The going industry myth, backed up by John Romita Jr. (the son of Kingpin's co-creator and a comic artist himself), is that Romita Sr. used actor Sydney Greenstreet as a model for Fisk. A British thespian, Greenstreet is most remembered nowadays for appearing in three 1940s pictures with Humphrey Bogart: "The Maltese Falcon," "Casablanca," and "Passage to Marseille." Greenstreet's...

Old Hollywood is associated with glamour and romance, and many of the great classics of the era are still worth watching in the 21st century. Also referred to as the Golden Age of Hollywood, Old Hollywood was classified by the studio system, which signed big-name movie stars and directors to multi-movie contracts. There's some debate over when exactly it ended, but New Hollywood emerged at some point during the 1960s.

Since the apogee of Old Hollywood took place from the 1930s to 1950s, it's only natural that some of the era's greatest movies don't hold up so well today. Modern audiences have different tastes, but there are still plenty of classics which are just as enjoyable. Movies like Casablanca, Bringing Up Baby and North By Northwest have stood the test of time, and they are still being watched by people all over the world.

Casablanca (1942) Bogart And Bergman Are Irresistible...

At the end of Peter Godfrey’s “Christmas in Connecticut” — the greatest Christmas movie of all time (don’t fight me on this) — beloved character actor Sydney Greenstreet, having just emerged from a comedy kerfuffle of epic proportions, can think of nothing more to do than throw his mighty head in the air and declare “What a Christmas! Ho ho, what a Christmas!”

I could also think of little else to say, at first, about Tyler Taormina’s peculiar and lovely “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point.” What a Christmas indeed. The film is an eclectic hodgepodge of realism and dreamlike, dare I say Lynchian mannerisms. It’s set in the 2000s but it belts wall-to-wall mid-20th century pop hits, like a family-friendly cousin to Kenneth Anger’s “Scorpio Rising.” When Peggy March’s “Wind-Up Doll” drowns out the family playtime, you can half imagine the leathery biker tinkering in the garage.

Casablanca was one of nine movies to feature the duo of Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet. Widely regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time, the legendary 1942 film never would have become the cinematic icon that it is today without Casablanca's star-studded cast. Featuring a handful of Hollywood's most talented actors at the time, Casablanca delivered Academy Award-winning performances from Humphrey Bogart and Claude Reins, as well as some of the most memorable roles in the careers of Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid.

For some, like Bergman and Bogart, Casablanca was their first and last collaboration. But for two of its supporting cast members, Casablanca was just the second in a string of movies to utilize both their talents. The film, when viewed on its own, doesn't hint at the recurring partnership between Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre in Hollywood, as the actors never shared a scene. But...

Monsieur Spade is a sequel to The Maltese Falcon, with Clive Owen playing an older version of Humphrey Bogart's iconic character. The series follows Detective Spade in 1963 France, investigating murders and facing old adversaries in a relaxing retirement turned chaotic. Viewers can enjoy Monsieur Spade on Netflix, while the classic Maltese Falcon film is available to rent or purchase on VOD platforms.

AMC's Monsieur Spade has left some viewers wondering if the series is actually a sequel to Humphrey Bogart's 1941 Maltese Falcon movie or something unrelated. Created by Scott Frank (Logan) and Tom Fontana (Oz), Monsieur Spade stars Clive Owen (A Murder at the End of the World) as the fictional private detective Sam Spade. Set in 1963, the series follows the legendary Detective Spade to the South of France, where he's enjoying his retirement from investigating murder cases. While his time in San Francisco was marked by brutal violence,...

Passage to Marseille reunited iconic Casablanca cast members in a World War II drama directed by Michael Curtiz. Humphrey Bogart's performance in Passage to Marseille alongside Greenstreet and Lorre continued his legendary presence from Casablanca. The film showcases the three's unique acting styles, making it a fresh take on the Casablanca era with memorable characters.

One amazing 1944 movie allowed most of the iconic cast of the romantic classic Casablanca to reunite while also letting Humphrey Bogart work with the film's director again. Casablanca is remembered as one of film's most beloved entries from the 1940s. The performance of its star-studded cast as well as its premise allows Casablanca to be the most quotable movie ever, as several mediums over the years have referenced and made variations of its well-known lines.

Casablanca's iconic cast included Bogart, who was already a large star at the time, alongside now well-known actors including Ingrid Bergman,...

The Conspirators serves as a spiritual successor to Casablanca, sharing similar themes and setting in WWII-era Europe. Paul Henreid's role in The Conspirators fixed his complaint of not being a leading star in Casablanca. The Conspirators couldn't match Casablanca's success due to a relative lack of chemistry between its leads, writing mistakes, and the fact that Casablanca was just too good to be beat.

The iconic World War II film Casablanca never received a proper sequel, but another movie already filled that void, 80 years ago. Casablanca is often cited as one of the greatest films of all time, for good reason. Casablanca is filled with iconic quotes, and it features one of the best love stories ever put to film. Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart had a truly incredible on-screen chemistry together that made them one of the most iconic couples in the history of film. That relationship dynamic,...

You know you’re getting old when your favorite movie stars are starting to play characters afflicted with dementia. Arriving shortly on the heels of Knox Goes Away, featuring Michael Keaton as a hitman suffering from the condition, is Adam Cooper’s neo-noir thriller starring Russell Crowe as an ex-cop whose mental condition has deteriorated so dramatically that he’s forced to leave notes plastered throughout his apartment, Memento-style. Despite the plot element’s familiarity, it’s still the most intriguing element of Sleeping Dogs, a sluggishly rendered mystery that audiences will have long stopped caring about before it reaches its conclusion.

Crowe plays Roy Freeman, a former homicide detective whose sad state of being is immediately signified not only by those notes offering the simplest of reminders but also the stack of Hungry-Man frozen dinners in his freezer. He’s wearing a large bandage on his head, the remnant...

Jack Warner had been shouldering in on credit from one of his studio’s top producers. At least that’s what Hal Wallis may have told you after the 1944 Academy Awards when Jack Warner accepted the Casablanca Oscar that some felt should have been palmed by Wallis, the Warner Bros. film’s producer. But who should accept the best picture award? Today it’s the producers, but during Hollywood’s Golden Age it was sometimes the producer, sometimes the studio chief.

Wallis had been with the company for many years, first joining the studio in 1923, their first year of incorporation. Soon, Wallis was managing essential Warner films such as Little Caesar (1931), The Petrified Forest (1936), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1937), Dark Victory (1939), Sergeant York (1941), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), and, of course, Casablanca (1942). Despite being released in late 1942, Casablanca didn’t go into wide release until early 1943 and wasn’t...

Over the course of two decades, Alexander Payne has directed seven Oscar-nominated performances by as many actors, including first-time contenders Thomas Haden Church (“Sideways”), Virginia Madsen (“Sideways”), and June Squibb (“Nebraska”). In 2024, his general total could reach 10 if the film academy decides to recognize the work of “The Holdovers” cast mates Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and Dominic Sessa. While the former two are by no means new to screen acting, the opposite is true of Sessa, whose potential Best Supporting Actor bid would make him the 21st man to receive one for a film debut. Scroll through our photo gallery to learn more about the actors who presently belong to this exclusive group.

This particular list has existed since 1939 when 25-year-old John Garfield landed in the third annual supporting lineup on the merit of his film debut in “Four Daughters.” In the years since, three of his 19 fellow club...

In 1942, the romantic drama film Casablanca was released. Surprisingly, it would later go down in history as being one of the greatest films ever made. While the American Film Institute ranks it as the second greatest, between Citizen Kane and The Godfather, when it comes specifically to war films, Casablanca tops the list. It's also often regarded as having the best screenplay ever written.

While some of its main themes were romantic ones, the location, time period, and general overarching theme of the film, also placed it squarely within the purview of being categorized as a war movie. Not one battle scene and not one conflict situation. Casablanca managed to perfectly capture a moment in time when the world was constantly on the edge, and everywhere you went could be a war zone. On that front, Casablanca is arguably undisputed as the greatest film of its type.

As we look...

Back in 1992 Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson — who had met the University of Texas in Dallas and were roomies — decided to make a movie. But after spending $10,000 and shooting 13 minutes of the crime caper comedy “Bottle Rocket,” they ran out of money. Eventually, the short and the full script made its way to Oscar-winning writer/director/producer James L. Brooks. It just so happened that Columbia had a deal with Brooks to finance a low-budget film selected by the filmmaker. And in 1996, the feature-length version of “Bottle Rocket” was released with Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson and James Caan. Though the film didn’t set the box office on fire, critics realized Anderson was a new and exciting cinematic voice.

Anderson has made 11 feature films — his latest “Asteroid City” came out earlier this year — and has been nominated seven times for an Oscar including three for screenplay, two for animated features,...

Casablanca's legacy is significant, as it influenced the noir and political movie genres, paving the way for other renowned films. Algiers, The Conspirators, and It Happened One Night are movies similar to Casablanca that offer compelling characters and stories. Allied, set during the same time period as Casablanca, provides a love story influenced by war and is a great alternative for fans of the classic film.

People who love Casablanca have a myriad of other movie options that use the same cinematic elements, tones, and storylines. Set in the French-controlled eponymous city in the year 1941, the award-winning film Casablanca follows the expat nightclub owner Rick Blaine (Humphrey Boggart) who must decide between keeping his former lover Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) and helping her resistance-leader husband Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreig) escape so he can fight against the German Nazis. Between Casablanca's emotional ending and stellar actors, the movie is iconic.

This article contains spoilers for "Ahsoka" episode 4, "Fallen Jedi."

The fourth installment of "Star Wars: Ahsoka," titled "Fallen Jedi", pulls no punches when it comes to having the situation go from bad to worse. As the forces of evil led by the descendent of the Witches of Dathomir, Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto), and fallen Jedi Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson) work to extract the information from the map to find Grand Admiral Thrawn (the still unseen Lars Mikkelsen), Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) and Sabine (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) work to repair their ship. After it got shot down last episode, they need to get it back in the air or retrieve the map personally. While Huyang (David Tennant) attempts repairs, Ahsoka and Sabine take to the forest. They're stopped by Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno) and Marrok (Paul Darnell), who engage them in an intense fight in the woods. Though Huyang warned Ahsoka and Sabine to stay together,...

Casablanca, released in 1942, is considered one of the greatest films in history and boosted the careers of its cast members. Humphrey Bogart, who played Rick Blaine, saw his popularity grow after Casablanca and starred in several successful films. Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Conrad Veidt, Dooley Wilson, and S.Z. Sakall all had successful careers after Casablanca.

Casablanca is widely considered one of the greatest films in history, and its impact was such that it boosted the careers of most of its cast. Based on the play Everybody Comes to Rick’s, by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison, Casablanca was directed by Michael Curtiz and released in 1942. Casablanca takes viewers back to 1941 and to the city of Casablanca, which at the time, was controlled by the French, to meet American expatriate and nightclub owner Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) and Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman), Rick’s former lover...

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Although the Hollywood masterpiece, Casablanca, had the potential for a sequel, it seemed that studios were hesitant to go through with the plans after noticing that the Rick Blaine twist. Overall, the film received massive praise, securing eight Oscar nominations and winning three for Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Picture. Its screenplay was skillfully written by Julius J. & Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch, who loosely based it on Murray Burneet and Joan Alison unproduced play "Everybody Comes to Rick's".

Boasting a star-studded cast, including Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Reins, Paul Henreid, and popular character actors such as Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre, Casablanca captured hearts worldwide. Following its tremendous success, the studio quickly got to work on a sequel for the masterpiece, an uncommon occurrence for films at that time. The sequel was planned to bring back Bogart and Renault, but the project never came to fruition.

Here’s looking at Warner Bros. which is celebrating its 100th anniversary. Earlier this year, Turner Classic Movies, which is a member of the Warner Bros. Discovery family, celebrated the centennial with a monthlong tribute to the studio that gave the world such landmark films as 1927’s “The Jazz Singer,” the first feature with synchronized recorded singing and some dialogue; the ultimate gangster flick 1931’s “Public Enemy,: the glorious 1938 swashbuckler “The Adventures of Robin Hood”; and the beloved 1942 “Casablanca.

And during its Golden Age, its roster of stars included such legends as Rin-Tin-Tin, John Barrymore, Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, Kay Francis, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Paul Muni, John Garfield and Sydney Greenstreet.

Max is currently streaming the four-part documentary series “100 Years of Warner Bros.” (the first two episodes premiered at Cannes). And also arriving this week is the lavish coffee table book “Warner Bros.

This post contains spoilers for "John Wick: Chapter 4."

The label "direct-to-video" used to be a death knell for filmmakers and movie fans alike. In the early days of home video, the term typically referred to features that weren't good enough to get theatrical distribution, causing studios to subsequently dump them onto the shelves of Blockbusters and Hollywood Videos, where — via gaudy box art, ridiculous taglines and/or highlighting the name of a slumming movie star or a legit celebrity (who would likely only have a cameo role) — they would try to entice naïve renters to check it out.

It can be exceedingly difficult for a subgenre to change a poor reputation, but everything started to change once theatrical distribution was no longer the only game in Hollywood as video, cable, and streaming services became more ubiquitous. One of the people who has been dragging the name of direct-to-video B-movies out...

Burbank, Calif., February 15, 2023 – As part of the year-long centennial celebration for the 100th anniversary of Warner Bros. Studio, three classic and beloved films from the Warner Bros. library – The Maltese Falcon, Cool Hand Luke, and Rebel Without a Cause – will be available for purchase on 4K Ultra HD Disc and Digital this April.

On April 4, The Maltese Falcon and Cool Hand Luke will be available to purchase on Ultra HD Blu-ray™ Disc from online and in-store at major retailers and available for purchase Digitally from Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, Google Play, Vudu and more.

On April 4, Rebel Without a Cause will be available to purchase on Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc from online and in-store at major retailers. On April 18 it will be available for purchase Digitally from Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, Google Play, Vudu and more.

The Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc will include each feature film in 4K with Hdr...

Awards voters love a transformation: Gary Oldman in “Darkest Hour,” Jessica Chastain in “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” and Christian Bale in “Vice” are just some of the recent winners who disappeared into their roles. And the recent Makeup and Hairstylists Guild (Muahs) nominations seem to be an indicator of the trend continuing this year.

Among this year’s Muahs nominees are “The Batman,” which, despite being released in March 2022, has shown up on numerous guild honors lists including American Society of Cinematographers (ASC), Motion Picture of Sound Editors (Mpse).

The transformation in the film belongs to Colin Farrell, who plays Oswald Cobblepot, the scarred and pudgy midlevel Gotham City gangster with the (unwelcome) nickname of “the Penguin.”

Prosthetic makeup artist Michael Marino designed the look. Director Matt Reeves cites John Cazale, Sydney Greenstreet and Bob Hoskins as inspirations for the role. “I saw him as being almost like a throwback Warner Bros. gangster,...

Warner Brothers released “Casablanca” in New York on Nov. 26, 1942, which just happened to be Thanksgiving. But the romantic World War II drama starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid was anything but a turkey. To say the New York Times review was effusive is something of an understatement: “Warners here have a picture which makes the spine tingle and the heart take a leap….And they have so combined sentiment, humor and pathos with taut melodrama and bristling intrigue that the result is a highly entertaining and even inspiring film.”

And critical praise and audiences’ adoration continued when it opened in Los Angeles and nationwide in January 1943. It went on to win three Oscars for Best Picture, director for Michael Curtiz and adapted screenplay for Julius J. and Philip Epstein and Howard Koch. Let’s take a look back on the occasion of the 80th anniversary.

As time has gone by,...

Burbank, Calif., September 13, 2022 – Celebrating the 80th anniversary of its 1942 release, the legendary Warner Bros. film Casablanca will be released on Ultra HD Blu-ray Combo Pack and Digital on November 8, it was announced today by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. Starring Academy Award winners Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, critic Leonard Maltin calls Casablanca “the best Hollywood movie of all time.”

The winner of three Academy Awards® including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, Casablanca was directed by Michael Curtiz from a screenplay by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch. The screenplay is based on “Everybody Comes to Rick’s”, an unproduced stage play by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison. The film was produced by Hal B. Wallis.

The cast also features Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Dooley Wilson.

Casablanca was voted the screen’s greatest love story and the #3 film of...

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“You’LL Take It And Like It”

By Raymond Benson

The late Peter Bogdanovich called it “the first great detective movie.” That statement is possibly arguable, but there is no question that the 1941 version of The Maltese Falcon was the beginning of something new. Film historians will forever debate what the first film noir might have been, but Falcon is one of the contenders. The film presented a cynical, hard boiled detective in Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart), utilized German expressionism in its cinematography and design, and a pessimistic tone. Falcon also truly launched Bogart into the A-list. Prior to this, Bogart usually played villains in crime pictures, third billed or ever further down the line.

The Maltese Falcon is of course based on Dashiell Hammett’s 1930 novel, originally serialized in 1929. Warner Brothers immediately bought the film rights, and an initial adaptation was made...

Matt Reeves never meant for Colin Farrell to look unrecognizable in “The Batman.”

In the finished film, Farrell’s appearance is utterly obliterated in the role of Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot, the scarred and dumpy mid-level Gotham City gangster with the (unwelcome) nickname of “the Penguin.” But when the 55-year-old director — who co-wrote “The Batman” with Peter Craig — first approached Farrell for the role, he was focused on Farrell’s ability to bring grit and sensitivity in the same performance.

“He could have that mix of being incredibly, incredibly scary and volatile, and then all of a sudden, you’d see this vulnerable side that really made you feel for that guy,” Reeves tells Variety. “So I really wanted him to play the character.”

When they met, however, Reeves noticed that Farrell had recently gained weight for a different movie, which fit into his conception of the longstanding Batman villain as...

For almost 100 years, the motion picture academy has honored the best in film, but many times the winners aren’t always the best remembered, or the films that go on to become classics. At the 14th ceremony, “How Green Was My Valley” famously won Best Picture over “Citizen Kane,” now considered by most filmmakers, historians and cinephiles as the greatest movie ever made – and even those who disagree acknowledge its profound influence on the industry. Additionally, there were quite a few now-classic films and performances that either didn’t win, or were snubbed altogether. Let’s flashback 80 years ago to the 1942 Oscars ceremony.

SEE15 biggest Oscar Best Picture upsets, ranked

Hosted by Bob Hope, the ceremony took place on February 26, less than three months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and a month after beloved actress Carole Lombard was killed in a plane crash – while returning home after selling war bonds.

A cozy bit of holiday fluff directed by Peter Godfrey and starring the usually uncompromising Barbara Stanwyck as Elizabeth Lane, a Manhattan food critic who masquerades as a Connecticut farm wife complete with fictitious family. The charade ends in ruins but happy-go-lucky Dennis Morgan is there to soften the blow. Sydney Greenstreet plays her unsuspecting publisher.

The post Christmas in Connecticut appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

A dark, steely performance from Humphrey Bogart is at the cynical heart of John Huston’s adaptation of the classic detective novel

John Huston’s adaptation of the Dashiell Hammett novel, as well as having the greatest MacGuffin of all time, is a ringing disproof of Raymond Chandler’s belief that detective stories depend on men coming through doors with guns. People arrive with guns a good deal in The Maltese Falcon, but mostly without them; Humphrey Bogart’s Sam Spade makes a point of telling us he prefers to be unarmed, and he has a very cool line in disarming other people. And what a superb performance from Bogart: darker, steelier and more ambiguous than his Rick in Casablanca, with all the world-weary cynicism, but none of the romantic sacrifice – just a strangely opaque manipulative streak, a need to use the women that cross his path. It’s a tough wised-up routine,...

Fathom Events had grand designs for 2020, but those plans ended early when a global pandemic spread far and wide last March. Things have been touch and go ever since, with theaters closing, reopening, and reclining across the nation for the past 9 months. Now, Fathom Events is ready to get back to providing classic entertainment as they have officially announced their TCM Big Screen Classics Series for 2021. This epic event will be bringing a dozen cinematic masterworks to theaters nationwide starting this January. And they are kicking it all off with the 1941 masterpiece The Maltese Falcon, which is celebrating its 80th anniversary.

Next year, film aficionados can enjoy a yearlong journey spanning nine decades of cinema history, through a dozen of some of the movie industry's greatest titles, as Fathom Events and Turner Classic Movies present the seventh annual TCM Big Screen Classics series. Featuring acclaimed films released from 1941 to 1996, and encompassing legendary dramas,...

Casablanca Welcome to this week's Stay-At-Home Seven. If you're looking for more inspiration, you can read last week's here or hop aboard our Streaming Spotlight on trains.

Casablanca, BBC Four, 8pm, Thursday, September 17 and on BBC iPlayer

Infinitely quotable and featuring Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart at the top of their game, there's little wonder Michael Curtiz's film about impossible choices and a reunion between old lovers regularly makes it into lists of favourites. The secondary players are all from the top drawer, too, with Claude Rains, Paul Henreid, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre all puting in memorable performances. It's the heart of the matter that really makes the film tick, however, and scenes between Bergman and Bogart as economical as well as emotionally rich. Plus, of course, there's the song, As Time Goes By, which gains resonance the more you think about it. Read our full review.

The.

As Disney quietly disappears huge swathes of film history into its vaults, I'm going to spend 2020 celebrating Twentieth Century Fox and the Fox Film Corporation's films, what one might call their output if only someone were putting it out.And now they've quietly disappeared William Fox's name from the company: guilty by association with Rupert Murdoch, even though he never associated with him.***Dangerous Crossing was directed by Joseph M. Newman in 1953, not long before the one title he's semi-remembered for, This Island Earth. It seems to have been greenlit as a B-picture to take advantage of the sets built for Fox's Titanic, as it's an ocean voyage mystery.Newlywed Jeanne Crain boards ship with her husband, who promptly vanishes, and nobody will admit to ever having seen him. Of course the plot kernel was used before, by writers Launder and Gilliat for director Hitchcock in The Lady Vanishes.

Over the years, there have been a variety of talented actors to portray the Joker in both live action and animation. And while there are those who’ve appreciated the performances brought to the table by the likes of Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger and Cameron Monaghan, many diehard fans actually favor Mark Hamill, who, believe it or not, has been attached to the character for about a quarter century now.

Having debuted in the early 1990’s on the hallowed Batman: The Animated Series, Hamill went on to voice the Clown Prince of Crime in various other projects, including Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, the awesome line of Arkham video games, and the animated adaptation of Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s classic graphic novel, Batman: The Killing Joke.

Originally, Tim Curry had been cast as the Ace of Knaves for the Bruce Timm helmed show, though an unfortunate case...

I don’t know if you’re anything like me, but I can often spend hours upon hours trawling through iTunes looking for new movies to buy… Usually I’ll randomly come across a title I haven’t seen in years and use the “Cast & Crew” links to make my way down the rabbit hole to the more obscure side of Apple’s digital movie service.

Now whilst many will decry that iTunes is a terrible VOD service due to Apple’s desire to lock its audience to their platforms, if you have an Apple TV or iPad be aware – there are some truly obscure films hidden away in the depths of the vast collection of movies. Some of which have been made available in the UK for the first time since VHS and a Lot that have been added to the service in their original uncut form!

So, with...

Ricardo Cortez in 'Mandalay,' making love to Kay Francis – not long before he sells her into the 'white slave trade,' in which Francis reaches the top of her profession as a lavishly garbed Rangoon nightclub hostess known as 'Spot White.' Cortez was featured opposite a whole array of female stars during both the silent and the talkie eras. Earlier on, plots usually revolved around his heroic characters; later on, plots usually revolved around the characters of his victimized-but-heroic leading ladies, with Cortez cast as a heel of varying degrees of egotism. Besides 'Mandalay,' Ricardo Cortez and Kay Francis were featured together in 'Transgression,' 'The House on 56th Street,' and 'Wonder Bar.' (See previous post: “'Latin Lover' Ricardo Cortez: Q&A with Biographer Dan Van Neste.”) I am reminded of a humorous review of the melodramatic film Mandalay (1934), penned by Andre Sennwald in the...

On the day a U.S. appeals court lifted an injunction that blocked a Mississippi “religious freedom” law – i.e., giving Christian extremists the right to discriminate against gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender people, etc. – not to mention the publication of a Republican-backed health care bill targeting the poor, the sick, the elderly, and those with “pre-existing conditions” – which would include HIV-infected people, a large chunk of whom are gay and bisexual men, so the wealthy in the U.S. can get a massive tax cut, Turner Classic Movies' 2017 Gay Pride or Lgbt Month celebration continues (into tomorrow morning, Thursday & Friday, June 22–23) with the presentation of movies by or featuring an eclectic – though seemingly all male – group: Montgomery Clift, Anthony Perkins, Tab Hunter, Dirk Bogarde, John Schlesinger, Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal, Arthur Laurents, and Jerome Robbins. After all, one assumes that, rumors or no, the presence of Mercedes McCambridge in one...

By Lee Pfeiffer

Olive Films has released the now obscure 1941 British film noir "Pimpernel Smith" starring Leslie Howard, who also directed. The movie (known as "Mister V" in  the United States) was released in 1941 at a time when England was hanging on by a thin thread as Hitler dominated most of Europe. As with all of the countries involved in WWII, the British film industry relied heavily on top stars appearing in inspiring movies that would boost public morale. This was especially true in England which saw its major ally, France, capitulate to Hitler in a matter of weeks, leaving the island nation standing alone against the Nazi menace. . At the time "Pimpernel Smith" was released in July 1941 (American would not enter the war until the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December of that year),  the Brits were enjoying a spate of good news. After the disastrous experience of the British expedition force in Dunkirk,...

Canadian-born actress Alexis Smith (born 1921) would have turned 96 years old today, June 8. Turner Classic Movies is celebrating her birthday by presenting nine of her movies, mostly during her time as a Warner Bros. contract player. In addition to Michael Curtiz's box office hit Night and Day, a highly fictionalized Cole Porter biopic starring Cary Grant as a heterosexual version of the famed gay composer. Night and Day is being shown as part of TCM's Gay Pride Month celebration. Alexis Smith died on June 9, 1993, the day after she turned 72. After her film career petered out in the 1950s, she went on to receive acclaim on the Broadway stage, making sporadic film appearances all the way to the year of her death. Smith's last film appearance was in a minor supporting role in Martin Scorsese's overly genteel period drama The Age of Innocence (1993), starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Winona Ryder.

Vin Scully, the voice of the Dodgers, is calling it a career this weekend after 67 years in the booth. If you will indulge me, I’d like to tell you about one of my favorite moments from Scully behind the microphone, and about one night at Dodger Stadium that will make me miss him even more.

But first, a little background. I was never a big baseball guy growing up, even though I played a couple of seasons on a local Little League team. (Our squad was called the Firemen.) During those days, when I wasn’t playing the game, either in Little League or somewhere on my grandma’s farm with my cousins, the presence of a baseball broadcast usually meant that something I’d rather have been watching on TV was unavailable to see because someone else wanted to watch the damn game. (I tried to sit down,...

The pedigree of John Huston's "The Maltese Falcon" doesn't need to be explained. It's one of the greatest film noir pictures ever made, one of Humphrey Bogart's best movies too, and there are really not enough superlatives to laud the Oscar-nominated movie. If you've seen the movie, chances are it's been on home video, or if you're lucky, you managed to capture a repertory screening at some point. But there's good news today as the movie is celebrating it's 75th anniversary this year, and a big screen return is in the works. Read More: 16 Literary Detectives Who Sleuthed Onto The Big Screen Fathom Events and Turner Classic Movies are bringing "The Maltese Falcon" to over 650 screens on February 21st and 24th. On those dates you'll be transported to San Francisco to chase the stuff that dreams are made of, and watch Bogart effortlessly square off against Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet.

George Lucas had a lot to answer for in 1983. Would audiences ever see Han Solo again? Was there any chance for Leia and the Rebellion to come back from such a crushing defeat? And was Darth Vader really Luke Skywalker’s father? As the third chapter in the original Star Wars trilogy, Return of the Jedi would answer all of these questions, but not without controversy — even at the time.

Among Lucas’s three original films, Jedi is the turning point for the series’ creator and his subsequent kid-ification of a saga that had, up until that point, been accessible to both children and adults alike. Part of Jedi‘s scattered tone is artificially inflated by the “series of down endings” in The Empire Strikes Back. On the other hand, there’s something about the cuddly nature of the Ewoks and the broad hamminess of Jabba’s Palace that doesn...

Discover the stuff that dreams are made of. Hold your breath, make a wish, count to three. Take a day off with Ferris Bueller. Survive a winter in the Overlook Hotel. Movie lovers will be able to do all of this and more in 2016 as Fathom Events partners with Turner Classic Movies (TCM) for the biggest-ever “TCM Big Screen Classics” series.

The not-to-miss lineup begins in January and continues monthly throughout the year as Fathom Events and TCM bring some of the greatest titles ever back into movie theaters, each for just four showings. These classics will each be accompanied by specially produced commentary from TCM hosts Robert Osborne or Ben Mankiewicz.

The series will include “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “Planet of the Apes” and “The King and I” from Twentieth Century Fox; “The Maltese Falcon,” “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” and “The Shining” from Warner Bros.; “The Ten Commandments,...

Michael Curtiz's wartime tale of Devil's Island convict Humphrey Bogart fighting to get back and defend France has a still-controversial scene of violence. The convoluted storyline nests enough flashbacks-within-flashbacks to confuse any viewer, and packs the screen with every actor on the Warner lot who can handle a foreign accent. With Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, George Tobias, and Michèle Morgan. Passage to Marseille Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1944 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 109 min. / Street Date November 10, 2015 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Humphrey Bogart, Claude Rains, Michèle Morgan, Philip Dorn, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, George Tobias, Helmut Dantine, John Loder, Victor Francen, Vladimir Sokoloff, Eduardo Ciannelli. Cinematography James Wong Howe Art Direction Carl Julius Weyl Film Editor Owen Marks Original Music Max Steiner Written by Casey Robinson, Jock Moffitt from a novel by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall Produced by Jack L. Warner Directed by Michael Curtiz...

Ingrid Bergman ca. early 1940s. Ingrid Bergman movies on TCM: From the artificial 'Gaslight' to the magisterial 'Autumn Sonata' Two days ago, Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” series highlighted the film career of Greta Garbo. Today, Aug. 28, '15, TCM is focusing on another Swedish actress, three-time Academy Award winner Ingrid Bergman, who would have turned 100 years old tomorrow. TCM has likely aired most of Bergman's Hollywood films, and at least some of her early Swedish work. As a result, today's only premiere is Fielder Cook's little-seen and little-remembered From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1973), about two bored kids (Sally Prager, Johnny Doran) who run away from home and end up at New York City's Metropolitan Museum. Obviously, this is no A Night at the Museum – and that's a major plus. Bergman plays an elderly art lover who takes an interest in them; her...

Joan Crawford Movie Star Joan Crawford movies on TCM: Underrated actress, top star in several of her greatest roles If there was ever a professional who was utterly, completely, wholeheartedly dedicated to her work, Joan Crawford was it. Ambitious, driven, talented, smart, obsessive, calculating, she had whatever it took – and more – to reach the top and stay there. Nearly four decades after her death, Crawford, the star to end all stars, remains one of the iconic performers of the 20th century. Deservedly so, once you choose to bypass the Mommie Dearest inanity and focus on her film work. From the get-go, she was a capable actress; look for the hard-to-find silents The Understanding Heart (1927) and The Taxi Dancer (1927), and check her out in the more easily accessible The Unknown (1927) and Our Dancing Daughters (1928). By the early '30s, Joan Crawford had become a first-rate film actress, far more naturalistic than...

Adolphe Menjou movies today (This article is currently being revised.) Despite countless stories to the contrary, numerous silent film performers managed to survive the coming of sound. Adolphe Menjou, however, is a special case in that he not only remained a leading man in the early sound era, but smoothly made the transition to top supporting player in mid-decade, a position he would continue to hold for the quarter of a century. Menjou is Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Day today, Aug. 3, as part of TCM's "Summer Under the Stars" 2015 series. Right now, TCM is showing William A. Wellman's A Star Is Born, the "original" version of the story about a small-town girl (Janet Gaynor) who becomes a Hollywood star, while her husband (Fredric March) boozes his way into oblivion. In typical Hollywood originality (not that things are any different elsewhere), this 1937 version of the story – produced by...

Olivia de Havilland picture U.S. labor history-making 'Gone with the Wind' star and two-time Best Actress winner Olivia de Havilland turns 99 (This Olivia de Havilland article is currently being revised and expanded.) Two-time Best Actress Academy Award winner Olivia de Havilland, the only surviving major Gone with the Wind cast member and oldest surviving Oscar winner, is turning 99 years old today, July 1.[1] Also known for her widely publicized feud with sister Joan Fontaine and for her eight movies with Errol Flynn, de Havilland should be remembered as well for having made Hollywood labor history. This particular history has nothing to do with de Havilland's films, her two Oscars, Gone with the Wind, Joan Fontaine, or Errol Flynn. Instead, history was made as a result of a legal fight: after winning a lawsuit against Warner Bros. in the mid-'40s, Olivia de Havilland put an end to treacherous...

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the release of "Crash" (on May 6, 2005), an all-star movie whose controversy came not from its provocative treatment of racial issues but from its Best Picture Oscar victory a few months later, against what many critics felt was a much more deserving movie, "Brokeback Mountain."

The "Crash" vs. "Brokeback" battle is one of those lingering disputes that makes the Academy Awards so fascinating, year after year. Moviegoers and critics who revisit older movies are constantly judging the Academy's judgment. Even decades of hindsight may not always be enough to tell whether the Oscar voters of a particular year got it right or wrong. Whether it's "Birdman" vs. "Boyhood," "The King's Speech" vs. "The Social Network," "Saving Private Ryan" vs. "Shakespeare in Love" or even "An American in Paris" vs. "A Streetcar Named Desire," we're still confirming the Academy's taste or dismissing it as hopelessly off-base years later.

Teresa Wright: Later years (See preceding post: "Teresa Wright: From Marlon Brando to Matt Damon.") Teresa Wright and Robert Anderson were divorced in 1978. They would remain friends in the ensuing years.[1] Wright spent most of the last decade of her life in Connecticut, making only sporadic public appearances. In 1998, she could be seen with her grandson, film producer Jonah Smith, at New York's Yankee Stadium, where she threw the ceremonial first pitch.[2] Wright also became involved in the Greater New York chapter of the Als Association. (The Pride of the Yankees subject, Lou Gehrig, died of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in 1941.) The week she turned 82 in October 2000, Wright attended the 20th anniversary celebration of Somewhere in Time, where she posed for pictures with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. In March 2003, she was a guest at the 75th Academy Awards, in the segment showcasing Oscar-winning actors of the past. Two years later,...

 

In August, the Austin Film Society series "Stanwyck in Her Prime" showcased some of the titles that made Barbara Stanwyck one of the greatest actresses of her generation. It featured such classic Stanwyck staples as Preston Sturges' The Lady Eve (1941) and Ball of Fire (1941), both essential highlights in Stanwyck's stellar career. As a result of the series popularity, and since it's the holidays, I thought I'd spotlight the few but worthwhile Christmas movies Stanwyck starred in.

Not many think of Stanwyck as an actress who would be caught dead in a Christmas movie. Her brand of playing women both tough and tragic made her one of the most formidable screen heroines of all time. And yet, if you are a fan of Stanwyck's, its not surprising to see her in these films since they provided the actress grade-a roles with directors and co-stars also at the top of their game.

Murder mysteries are so commonplace on TV that each week offers seemingly dozens of them on police procedural series and detective shows. But in the movies, whodunits are surprisingly rare, and really good ones rarer still. There's really only a handful of movies that excel in offering the viewer the pleasure of solving the crime along with a charismatic sleuth, often with an all-star cast of suspects hamming it up as they try not to appear guilty.

One of the best was "Murder on the Orient Express," released 40 years ago this week, on November 24, 1974. Like many films adapted from Agatha Christie novels, this one featured an eccentric but meticulous investigator (in this case, Albert Finney as Belgian epicure Hercule Poirot), a glamorous and claustrophobic setting (here, the famous luxury train from Istanbul to Paris), and a tricky murder plot with an outrageous solution. The film won an Oscar for passenger...