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He was born Archibald Alec Leach in South West England on January 18, 1904. As a teen, he became attracted to show biz at an early age, becoming friends with a troupe of acrobats and doing odd jobs while hanging out backstage at theaters. At 16, he would travel by ship to the United States, where he would eventually change his name to Cary Grant after signing his first movie contract in 1931. He became one of the most admired and beloved leading men that Hollywood would ever produce.

Grant’s suave looks and elegant voice served him well when he started acting in films, but his artistry and nuance on screen matured considerably over the years. He would work with the master Alfred Hitchcock several times, including “North by Northwest,” “Notorious” and “To Catch a Thief.” Grant was also quite deft with comedy roles, including “His Girl Friday,” “The Awful Truth,” “Arsenic and Old Lace...

It’s Halloween, and you know what that means: It’s the perfect time to watch horror movies. Vampires, serial killers, haunted houses, the month that precedes Halloween is the prime time to watch scary movies, but not every scary movie is a Halloween movie… and not every Halloween movie is scary.

So it is with great relish that we present the 31 best Halloween movies ever, exclusively featuring films that actually take place on Halloween, or at least during the Halloween season. The point is, if Halloween doesn’t play a major part in the movie it’s not fair to call it a “Halloween movie,” and as long as Halloween shows up in some important way, it doesn’t matter where the film is frightening, funny, or even just for little kids.

We’re narrowing the field down to theatrically released features and shorts and feature-length TV movies. Halloween specials deserve their own list,...

"Wkrp in Cincinnati" may not be easy to find on streaming these days, but it's still a highlight in sitcom history. The show about a failing radio station run by a groovy and eccentric team was a hit in the '70s, garnering 10 Emmy nominations and the coveted Humanitas Prize before signing off after four seasons. Unfortunately, the show's heavy emphasis on popular music has made it a rare quantity today: according to MTV, the show didn't make it to DVD until 2007 in part because it was tricky to secure the rights to all of the songs featured in its original run. It's currently only available digitally if you buy it on Apple TV, and versions of the show available today are still reportedly missing some songs, with stock music added in their place.

Still, the ultra-'70s show is worth seeking out for comedy fans and music fans alike,...

“The Price of Nonna’s Inheritance” is an Italian movie written and directed by Giovanni Bognetti starring Christian De Sica, Angela Finocchiaro, Dharma Mangia Woods and Claudio Colica.

“The Price of Nonna’s Inheritance” is not a film that taps into impressive cinematography or ground-breaking innovation. It thrives on the strength of a simple yet captivating idea – a clever comedy that resonates with the audience through intelligent dialogues and an unusual twist on traditional family dramas. An Italian movie carved meticulously by Giovanni Bognetti, it features an ensemble cast of performers who bring life to the characters with innate charm and wit.

At its core, “The Price of Nonna’s Inheritance” is reminiscent of the humorous blend of traditional values and macabre elements, similar to the 1944 classic “Arsenic and Old Lace”. Yet, it strikes its own distinctive notes.

The premise of the film is quite intriguing. An elderly matriarch’s boyfriend, Nuncio, is...

Frank Capra was a three-time Oscar winner who dominated the box office throughout the 1930s with his populist fables, nicknamed “Capra-corn.” Yet how many of these titles remain classics? Let’s take a look back at 12 of Capra’s greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1897 in Siciliy, Italy, Capra came to the United States with his family in 1903. His work often reflected an idealized vision of the American dream, perhaps spurned by his own experiences as an immigrant. Depression-era audiences lapped up his sweetly sentimental screwball comedies, which often centered on the plight of the common man.

He earned his first Oscar nomination for directing “Lady for a Day” (1933), and his loss was infamously embarrassing: when presented Will Rogers opened the envelope, he said, “Come up and get it, Frank!” Capra bounded to the stage, only to learned that Frank Lloyd (“Cavalcade”) has won instead.

No matter, because...

These last few years the Criterion Channel have made October viewing much easier to prioritize, and in the spirit of their ’70s and ’80s horror series we’ve graduated to––you guessed it––”’90s Horror.” A couple of obvious classics stand with cult favorites and more unknown entities (When a Stranger Calls Back and Def By Temptation are new to me). Three more series continue the trend: “Technothrillers” does what it says on the tin, courtesy the likes of eXistenZ and Demonlover; “Art-House Horror” is precisely the kind of place to host Cure, Suspiria, Onibaba; and “Pre-Code Horror” is a black-and-white dream. Phantom of the Paradise, Unfriended, and John Brahm’s The Lodger are added elsewhere.

James Gray is the latest with an “Adventures in Moviegoing” series populated by deep cuts and straight classics. Stonewalling and restorations of Trouble Every Day and The Devil, Probably make streaming debuts, while Flesh for Frankenstein,...

Cary Grant has more films included on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs list than any other actor, with eight of his movies making it onto the list. Grant's comedy films were made in a short timeline of just 15 years, from 1933 to 1948, solidifying him as one of the greatest comedy movie stars in a remarkably short period. While there are many other revered comedic actors, Grant's comedic wins are even more impressive considering he was a certified movie star from Hollywood's Golden Age.

With more movies than any other actor included on the AFI’s 100 Years...100 Laughs list, compiling the greatest comedy films ever made, a surprising star from Hollywood’s Golden Age holds the title of finest comedic actor of all time. Since the poll took place in 2000, a lot of great comedies from the 21st century are missing. If the poll was conducted today, it would surely include hit movies like Borat,...

Screwball comedy is a subgenre of romantic comedy that saw its classic period run from the mid-1930s until the mid-1940s. Directors such as Frank Capra, Preston Sturges, and Howard Hawks, along with stars such as Cary Grant, Carole Lombard, William Powell, and Katharine Hepburn, all helped shape the foundation of the genre.

Screwball comedies are distinguishable from stereotypical romantic comedies because screwballs typically spoof notions of love rather than emphasize romantic ideals. Common elements found in screwball comedies are rapid-fire overlapping dialogue, zany slapstick antics, mistaken identities, and a battle of the sexes narrative. Many of cinema's classic screwball comedies rank among Hollywood's funniest films.

Related: 10 Rom-Coms Critics Loved But Audiences Hated

The Awful Truth (1937)

Leo McCarey's The Awful Truth is a screwball comedy starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne as a wealthy couple who decide to divorce but end up trying to sabotage each other's subsequent romantic conquests.

Barbara Bryne, the British actress who portrayed mothers in the original Broadway productions of Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park With George and Into the Woods, has died. She was 94.

Bryne’s death Tuesday was announced by the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. The first of her more than 60 plays there was Arsenic and Old Lace in 1970, and she performed in 20-plus productions from 1998-2013, including a memorable turn in 1999 as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest.

“Barbara was a cherished member of the Guthrie family,” theater reps said in a statement, “and we’re grateful she shared her artistry with us for so many seasons. Her legacy will live on at the Guthrie and in our hearts forever.”

The delightful Bryne was nominated for a Drama Desk Award in 1982 for her off-off-Broadway performance as Kath in a revival of the Joe Orton-written Entertaining Mr. Sloane. Three years later,...

Thrillers from the Vault – 8 Classic Films

Blu-ray

Mill Creek Entertainment

1941, 1942, 1943, 1951 / B&w / 1.33: 1 / Blu ray

Starring Boris Karloff, Anne Revere, Peter Lorre, Bela Lugosi

Written by Robert Andrews, Edwin Blum, Randall Faye, Arch Oboler

Directed by Edward Dmytryk, Lew Landers, Arch Oboler

This is part two of a review for Mill Creek Entertainment’s Thrillers from the Vault, 8 Classics Films. Part one can be found here.

The Devil Commands is a hell of a title, and it’s a pretty good movie too. Released in 1941, Edward Dmytryk’s spookfest stars Boris Karloff as Julian Blair, a scientist whose experiments are a family affair—his wife Helen is one of his subjects.

Blair achieves his goal—a machine that records thought processes—but on a night he should be celebrating, his wife is killed in a car crash. Something breaks inside Blair and when he discovers that Helen may continue to live on through his invention,...

Cary Grant was James Bond before James Bond. Sixty years since the release of Dr. No and Sean Connery’s era-defining performance as 007, it sounds crazy that Grant almost beat him to the role, but as late as 1962 it made perfect sense—including to the men who produced the James Bond movies. As the Hollywood leading man who perfected the Hollywood ideal of debonair sophistication and unflappable suaveness, Grant was a class act that couldn’t be beaten, and for the better part of 30 years all of Hollywood agreed.

This included one of the two godfathers of the James Bond franchise and Eon Productions, Albert “Cubby” Broccoli. Along with his partner Harry Saltzman, Broccoli saw the long-term viability of the James Bond character as a genre unto himself. Broccoli also wasn’t a delusional producer who just wanted to cast one of the biggest stars of his heyday as 007—he...

Arsenic and Old Lace

Blu-ray

Criterion

1941 / 1.33: 1 / 118 Min.

Starring Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane

Written by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein

Directed by Frank Capra

Almost supernaturally handsome, Mortimer Brewster is quite the catch; a celebrated man about town and theater critic who saves his most acerbic reviews for matrimony, Mortimer’s latest bestseller is a typically curdled diatribe called Mind over Marriage. He’s a tough egg to crack but leave it to his childhood sweetheart, a pretty strawberry blonde named Elaine Harper, to cure Mortimer’s gamophobia—and what better time for a nervous bachelor to get hitched than Halloween?

Their honeymoon is just around the corner but first the newlyweds have family business in Brooklyn, home to Elaine and Mortimer’s childhood haunts. They don’t realize just how haunted; the cozy Brewster homestead has been transformed into a makeshift cemetery where bodies are stored away in...

Many of us have people in our lives who just aren’t as into horror as we are. Come October, it is tempting to simply hide away, shunning them for a month as we indulge in our favorite genre, as we no doubt will do at least some of the time. But then, they may be open to getting into the Halloween spirit at least a little bit.

For that, there are a number of terrific movies that take place on and around the holiday that are not out of the question for the squeamish. Some fit comfortably into the horror genre and some are far from it, but all beautifully capture the essence of the season.

So, here are a few of our favorite family Halloween movies to get you and the scaredy cat in your life into the Halloween mood for spooky season…

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

Right...

I say this without a shred of hyperbole: "Cheers" walked so every other sitcom after it could run. From the Greendale study room of "Community" to Ross and Rachel's never-ending "will they, won't they" relationship on "Friends," NBC's critical and commercial darling about a bar in Boston created the blueprint.

The quintessential ensemble comedy where everybody knows your name, "Cheers" is rich with biting dialogue and big personalities, which kept audiences gripped for 11 years. Sam and Diane's stormy, yet passionate, love affair remains one of TV's all-time great romances, "Norm!" continues on as a greeting for bar regulars, and the sequel series "Frasier" — arguably the most successful spin-off in television history — is set to find new life in the world of streaming. "Cheers" is a timeless show whose influence is still felt 30 years after Sam turned off the lights and locked the door for the last time.

Over its decade-plus run,...

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By Hank Reineke

There’s a telling moment at the dénouement of Thomas Hamilton’s and Ron MacCloskey’s affectionate documentary Boris Karloff: The Man behind the Monster. Sara Karloff, the now eighty-two year old daughter of the beloved actor, opines that her father’s lasting cinematic legacy is due, in part, to the tenaciousness of his devoted fan base. It’s a demographic that we soon discover consists of a number of amazingly creative people: folks whose loyalty to and enthusiasm for Karloff’s work has not wavered over the decades. Sara’s contention is inarguably true. As this ninety-nine minute Voltage Films/Abramorama documentary (presented by Shout! Studios) unspools – crisply narrated by Paul Ryan and featuring commentary by preeminent Karloff scholar and “Biographical Consultant” Stephen Jacobs - we discover the actor’s admirer’s bridge several generations of fans and filmmakers.

October’s here and it’s time to get spooked. After last year’s superb “’70s Horror” lineup, the Criterion Channel commemorates October with a couple series: “Universal Horror,” which does what it says on the tin (with special notice to the Spanish-language Dracula), and “Home Invasion,” which runs the gamut from Romero to Oshima with Polanski and Haneke in the mix. Lest we disregard the programming of Cindy Sherman’s one feature, Office Killer, and Jennifer’s Body, whose lifespan has gone from gimmick to forgotten to Criterion Channel. And if you want to stretch ideas of genre just a hair, their “True Crime” selection gets at darker shades of human nature.

It’s not all chills and thrills, mind. October also boasts a Kirk Douglas repertoire, movies by Doris Wishman and Wayne Wang, plus Manoel de Oliveira’s rarely screened Porto of My Childhood. And Edgar Wright gets the “Adventures in Moviegoing” treatment,...

(L-r) Boris Karloff with fellow horror star Vincent Price, in a publicity photo. Boris Karloff: The Man Behind The Monster is a documentary about the career and life of Karloff. Courtesy of Abramarama and Shout Studios

Boris Karloff: The Man Behind The Monster is a gloriously enjoyable retrospective of the legendary actor, who is forever tied to the horror genre and the monster role of Frankenstein’s monster, which first brought him fame. The film, directed by Thomas Hamilton, is thoroughly enjoyable but, despite its subtitle, it is less a personal biography than a review of this career, with an emphasis on how his work influenced future filmmakers and the horror genre. Karloff fans and serious film history buffs will find little that was not already known about the man but it is a wonderful introduction and retrospective on Boris Karloff.

If ever there was an iconic Hollywood figure who deserves a biopic,...

The legendary punk god joins us to talk about movies he finds unforgettable. Special appearance by his cat, Moon Unit.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Tapeheads (1988)

Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979) – Eli Roth’s trailer commentary

A Face In The Crowd (1957) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Meet John Doe (1941)

Bob Roberts (1992)

Bachelor Party (1984)

Dangerously Close (1986)

Videodrome (1983) – Mick Garris’s trailer commentary

F/X (1986)

Hot Rods To Hell (1967)

Riot On Sunset Strip (1967)

While The City Sleeps (1956) – Glenn Erickson’s trailer commentary

Leaving Las Vegas (1995)

It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

Spider-Man (2002)

The Killing (1956) – Michael Lehmann’s trailer commentary

Serpent’s Egg (1977)

The Thin Man (1934)

Meet Nero Wolfe (1936)

The Hidden Eye (1945)

Eyes In The Night (1942)

Sudden Impact (1983) – Alan Spencer’s trailer commentary

Red Dawn (1984)

Warlock (1989)

The Dead Zone (1983) – Mick Garris’s trailer commentary

Secret Honor (1984)

The Player (1992) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary,...

There’s a good chance that “Mank,” David Fincher’s stylish black-and-white chronicle of veteran Hollywood screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz’ struggle to write the screenplay for Orson Welles’ 1941 masterpiece “Citizen Kane,” will dominate the Oscar nominations on March 15. Our Oscar experts are predicting the Netflix release could garner has many has 13 nominations including picture, director, screenplay for Fincher’s latest father Jack Fincher, actor for Gary Oldman and supporting actress for Amanda Seyfried.

Exactly 70 years ago Mank’s brother, writer/director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, dominated the Academy Awards. His “All About Eve,” a sophisticated and sharp drama starring Bette Davis as aging theater actress Margo Channing who mistakenly befriends and mentors an ambitious young actress Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter), earned 14 Oscar nominations. “All About Eve” actually broke all records for Oscar nominations besting 1939’s “Gone with the Wind” lucky 13 bids.

The younger Mank’s masterpiece went on to win six...

1. “A Star is Born” (1954)

Why Should I Watch? If the Lady Gaga-starring remake from 2018 did anything, it was to show us the power of the “Star is Born” narrative – and if you’re going to watch any of them why not watch the best? Judy Garland stars in her what-should-have-been Oscar-winning role as Esther Blodgett, a woman whose rise to fame comes at the expense of her husband, Norman Main (played by James Mason). Outside of this being a career best for both Garland and Mason, the movie has an added power if you know anything about Garland’s history. The scene wherein Esther details her feelings about Norman’s alcoholism is a gut punch every time, especially as it’s easy to hear it as Garland talking about herself. Laugh, sing, and cry with “A Star is Born” on March 2.

2. “North By Northwest” (1959)

Why Should I Watch? One...

A new documentary about “Frankenstein” actor Boris Karloff is in the works.

Voltage Films is currently in production on the feature documentary “Boris Karloff: The Man Behind The Monster.” Co-produced and co-written by Ron MacCloskey and Thomas Hamilton with Hamilton directing and Tracy Jenkins producing, the film offers a fascinating portrait of Karloff, examining his illustrious 60-year career in the entertainment industry and his enduring legacy as one of the icons of 20th century popular culture.

The film follows on from the acclaimed 2010 biography “Boris Karloff: More Than A Monster,” written by Karloff’s official biographer Stephen Jacobs, who serves as the film’s historical consultant.

MacCloskey dedicated 23 years to the project, travelling the world to conduct extensive research. Since 2018, the team has filmed 50 interviews in Toronto, New York, Los Angeles and London. Contributors include Peter Bogdanovich, Guillermo del Toro, Christopher Plummer, John Landis, Roger Corman and Kevin Brownlow.

The...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Ak vs Ak (Vikramaditya Motwane)

Over the 21st century, Bollywood cinema has entered into a completely different era of filmmaking and storytelling than was being made in the decades prior. Actors and directors who started their careers in the ‘80s and ‘90s have experienced such a drastic shift from their beginnings to what they are doing now that their older works seem almost archaic and unrecognizable. This has led, expectedly, to many of Bollywood’s artists making self-reflexive work that also reflects on the industry in general––Fan, Sanju, The Dirty Picture, Luck By Chance, and Shamitabh are just a few examples. Vikramaditya Motwane’s Ak vs Ak is...

The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history.It was often said that women wanted to be with Cary Grant and men wanted to be Cary Grant, but perhaps no one was more consumed by the perception of Cary Grant—the handsome, unremittingly suave and stylish movie star—than Grant himself. “Even I want to be Cary Grant,” the actor once mused. Indeed, Grant’s public and on-screen persona was a carefully crafted, meticulously honed, and ultimately triumphant development, as much to suit the needs of his ascending celebrity as it was to shroud an unhappy childhood, a series of romantic passions and disappointments, and a latent dark side fostered by uncertainty and doubt. It was, however, and in any and all cases, resoundingly successful. Grant was the epitome of the movie star, a Hollywood icon and one of its most entertaining,...

United States-Mexico border politics are such a minefield at present, you have to marvel at the chutzpah — or simple obliviousness — it takes to make something like “Coyote Lake,” which superficially deploys those issues for the purposes of irrelevant, implausible melodrama. After directing several shorts (and years of work as a production assistant on shows such as “The Mindy Project” and “American Crime Story”), Sara Seligman makes her feature debut with a sluggish mix of thriller and drama that lacks the suspense required in one department and the depth needed on the other. Too flat-footedly earnest even to provide inadvertent bad-movie fun, it opens on five theatrical screens (two in Texas) simultaneous with On Demand launch this Friday. Enthusiasm will be scant.

We first meet teenaged Ester (“Riverdale’s” Camila Mendes) and her much-older mother Teresa (Adriana Barraza) as they’re sharing a seemingly innocuous dinner in their isolated farmhouse with an overnight room-renter.

Frank Capra would’ve celebrated his 122nd birthday on May 18, 2019. The three-time Oscar winner dominated the box office throughout the 1930s with his populist fables, nicknamed “Capra-corn.” Yet how many of these titles remain classics? In honor of his birthday, take a look back at 12 of Capra’s greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1897 in Siciliy, Italy, Capra came to the United States with his family in 1903. His work often reflected an idealized vision of the American dream, perhaps spurned by his own experiences as an immigrant. Depression-era audiences lapped up his sweetly sentimental screwball comedies, which often centered on the plight of the common man.

SEEOscar Best Director Gallery: Every Winner In Academy Award History

He earned his first Oscar nomination for directing “Lady for a Day” (1933), and his loss was infamously embarrassing: when presented Will Rogers opened the envelope, he said, “Come up and get it,...

He was born Archibald Alec Leach in South West England on January 18, 1904. As a teen, he became attracted to show biz at an early age, becoming friends with a troupe of acrobats and doing odd jobs while hanging out backstage at theaters. At 16, he would travel by ship to the United States, where he would eventually change his name to Cary Grant after signing his first movie contract in 1931. He became one of the most admired and beloved leading men that Hollywood would ever produce.

SEEAlfred Hitchcock movies: 25 greatest films ranked from worst to best

Grant’s suave looks and elegant voice served him well when he started acting in films, but his artistry and nuance on screen matured considerably over the years. He would work with the master Alfred Hitchcock several times, including “North by Northwest,” “Notorious” and “To Catch a Thief.” Grant was also quite deft with comedy roles,...

After polling critics from around the world for the greatest American films of all-time, BBC has now forged ahead in the attempt to get a consensus on the best comedies of all-time. After polling 253 film critics, including 118 women and 135 men, from 52 countries and six continents a simple, the list of the 100 greatest is now here.

Featuring canonical classics such as Some Like It Hot, Dr. Strangelove, Annie Hall, Duck Soup, Playtime, and more in the top 10, there’s some interesting observations looking at the rest of the list. Toni Erdmann is the most recent inclusion, while the highest Wes Anderson pick is The Royal Tenenbaums. There’s also a healthy dose of Chaplin and Lubitsch with four films each, and the recently departed Jerry Lewis has a pair of inclusions.

Check out the list below (and my ballot) and see more on their official site.

100. (tie) The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese,...

This is my seventh TCM Classic Film Festival. At a certain point, some things become routine – one learns to expect the exhaustion at the dawn of day three (of four), the constant negotiation between personal viewing whims and rare presentations, the way plots and aesthetic choices start to run together, and the suspicion that explaining the draw of such an event to those not immediately inclined to attend it may come across a touch insane. Film festivals are innately demanding experiences, but between the pleasure of its programming, the consolidation of the venues, and the brevity of most of its films’ running times, few make it so easy to watch four, five, six movies in a day. You tell your coworkers on Monday what you did all weekend, and it starts to not make a lot of sense. But somehow, in the midst of it all, the point of it couldn’t be clearer.

Whether you wanted to or not, you probably learned a lot of people’s seven favorite films yesterday. #fav7films was the hashtag du jour, presumably because a standard top 10 would have been more likely to go over Twitter’s 140-character limit, and among the many civvies chiming in were a number of actors and filmmakers. Here, for your perusing pleasure, is a sampling of their favorites.

Read More: Emmy Nominees React To Snubs And Surprises On Twitter

#fav7films

(I can’t resist)

24 hr Party People

The Man Who Would Be King

Diner

Sound of Music

Office Space

Kung Fu Hustle

La Dolce Vita

— Adam McKay (@GhostPanther) August 16, 2016

#fav7films Jesus’s son. Shortcuts. Royal tenenbaums. Best in show. City of God. Personal Velocity. The big Lebowski.

— Amy Schumer (@amyschumer) August 16, 2016

#fav7films

Singin’ in the Rain

Squid and the Whale

Broadcast News

Hannah and Her Sisters

Bob & Carol...

Today in 1986, Arsenic and Old Lace opened at the 46th Street Theatre now the Richard Rogers Theatre where it ran for 221 performances. Arsenic and Old Lace is a play by American playwright Joseph Kesselring, written in 1939. It has become best known through the film adaptation starring Cary Grant and directed by Frank Capra. The play is a farcical black comedy revolving around Mortimer Brewster, a drama critic who must deal with his crazy, homicidal family and local police in Brooklyn, NY, as he debates whether to go through with his recent promise to marry the woman he loves.

Behind Green Lights

Written by Charles G. Booth

Directed by Otto Brower

U.S.A., 1946

*This film is in the public domain and can be viewed legally and for free online. However, the version currently circulating has a small continuity glitch early in the film at about the 1-minute mark. The movie will suddenly play about 5 seconds of a scene that chronologically comes a couple of minutes later. It is the only technical issue with the print however. The rest of the movie plays out perfectly fine.

On what began as an ordinary night at the police station, Lt. Sam Carson (William Gargan) is notified of a vehicle parked on the sidewalk just in front of the building. Within the vehicle is the body of the late Walter Bard (Bernard Nedell), a private detective recently engaged in some rather politically relevant cases. Among the suspects possibly involved in man’s...

Let’s end the year with a celebration of the funniest comedy scripts ever written. The Writer’s Guild of America has chosen the 101 best laugh-getting screenplays. Keep in mind that this is all about the writing, not the cast or the director.

1.Annie Hall (1977)

2. Some Like it Hot (1959)

3. Groundhog Day (1993)

4. Airplane! (1980)

5. Tootsie (1982)

6. Young Frankenstein (1974)

7. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

8. Blazing Saddles (1974)

9. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

10. National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978)

11. This is Spinal Tap (1984)

12. The Producers (1967)

13. The Big Lebowski (1998)

14. Ghostbusters (1984)

15. When Harry Met Sally (1989)

16. Bridesmaids (2011)

17. Duck Soup (1933)

18. There’s Something About Mary (1998)

19. The Jerk (1979)

20. A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

21. His Girl Friday (1940)

22. The Princess Bride (1987)

23. Raising Arizona (1987)

24. Bringing Up Baby (1938)

25. Caddyshack (1980)

26. Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979)

27. The Graduate (1967)

28. The Apartment (1960)

29. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)

30. The Hangover (2009)

31. The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005)

32. The Lady Eve...

Perhaps the most subjective genre in cinema, the same comedy can cause one viewer to have tears of laughter and another to not crack a smile. So, while knowing there can be no definitive list of the finest in the genre, the Writers Guild of America attempted to narrow down the 101 funniest screenplays. Noting the distinction from the best in the genre, these 101 films should simply produce the most laughs.

Topping the list is Woody Allen‘s Best Picture-winning Annie Hall, a choice difficult to argue with. Rounding out the top five were Some Like it Hot, Groundhog Day, Airplane! and Tootsie, while films from the Coens, Stanley Kubrick, Wes Anderson, and Edgar Wright were also mentioned. There are also some genuine head-scratching inclusions, including The Hangover at 30, and, as much as I enjoy the film, Bridesmaids nearly making the top 15, but overall, if one is looking to brighten their mood,...

A performative exploration of Australia’s own Orry-Kelly, perhaps most infamously known as Cary Grant’s lover, Women He’s Undressed is a playful look at the man behind the costumes worn by Marilyn Monroe, Betty Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Rosalind Russell, and Errol Flynn, amongst other legends of Hollywood’s Golden Age. The film’s story is told via an electrifying mix of first-person interviews, performances of Orry-Kelly’s letters, and archival materials, including clips from his films Some Like It Hot, The Maltese Falcon, Les Girls, and Arsenic and Old Lace.

The film’s charms exist in the performative elements contextualized amongst the film’s interviewees. Director Gillian Armstrong (known for her narrative films Little Women and Oscar and Lucinda) paints a picture partially routed in national pride, about a small town boy from rural New South Wales who makes good in Hollywood. The fragmented nature of the narrative...

Raymond Massey ca. 1940. Raymond Massey movies: From Lincoln to Boris Karloff Though hardly remembered today, the Toronto-born Raymond Massey was a top supporting player – and sometime lead – in both British and American movies from the early '30s all the way to the early '60s. During that period, Massey was featured in nearly 50 films. Turner Classic Movies generally selects the same old MGM / Rko / Warner Bros. stars for its annual “Summer Under the Stars” series. For that reason, it's great to see someone like Raymond Massey – who was with Warners in the '40s – be the focus of a whole day: Sat., Aug. 8, '15. (See TCM's Raymond Massey movie schedule further below.) Admittedly, despite his prestige – his stage credits included the title role in the short-lived 1931 Broadway production of Hamlet – the quality of Massey's performances varied wildly. Sometimes he could be quite effective; most of the time, however, he was an unabashed scenery chewer,...

Today in 1986, Arsenic and Old Lace opened at the 46th Street Theatre now the Richard Rogers Theatre where it ran for 221 performances. Arsenic and Old Lace is a play by American playwright Joseph Kesselring, written in 1939. It has become best known through the film adaptation starring Cary Grant and directed by Frank Capra. The play is a farcical black comedy revolving around Mortimer Brewster, a drama critic who must deal with his crazy, homicidal family and local police in Brooklyn, NY, as he debates whether to go through with his recent promise to marry the woman he loves.

Valentine.s Day is just around the corner, and to celebrate this most sacred of romantic holidays we have a supercut that has been created to feature an array of kisses from over 100 movies. You can watch the clip to get in the mood for Valentines below. Can you feel the love? Movieclips. montage is a rather delightful homage to some of the most romantic moments in cinematic history. My personal favorites include little tip of the hats to Gone With The Wind, American Beauty and Arsenic And Old Lace. I mean, who doesn.t love seeing Cary Grant having a kiss? However, they all actually pale in comparison to Cinema Paradiso.s mesmeric kissing montage - which is poignant enough to make even the most heart-broken soul believe in love again. Check it out here. Warning, you.ll almost certainly start to weep while watching it though. Movieclips didn...

Sisters Debbie Allen and Phylicia Rashad are both in producer Otis Sallid's sights to star in a revival of playwright Joseph O. Kesselring's "Arsenic and Old Lace," as the Brewster sisters who are at the center of the narrative. Aiming for a 2015-2016 Broadway bow, Sallid tells Playbill: "For the last four years, I've been trying to get this production up and running. It's always hard to get Phylicia and Debbie on board for the same thing. I thought it would be a brilliant, brilliant idea to get Debbie Allen and Phylicia Rashad in a Broadway production of 'Arsenic and Old Lace.' They, at this point, have agreed to do it." So, the...

Episode 46 of 52: In which Katharine Hepburn makes a comedy about suicide with Nick Nolte because she's a living legend and she can do whatever she wants.

The truth about a career that spans seven decades, is that for the majority of that career, you'll be what’s traditionally thought of as “old.” Hollywood does not like “old.” The magnificent part of watching Katharine Hepburn age has been watching her flip old age (and Hollywood) the bird. True, her head wobbles, her hair is gray, and her voice is reedy. Still, she leaps after hot air balloons, bicycles, hauls wood, and even wins Academy Awards at an age far past what would traditionally be considered “her prime.” For the past few years, Kate has looked old, sounded old, and even talked about being old, but the stubbornly energetic woman has never felt old. Which is why Grace Quigley is more than a little scary.

Throughout the summer, an admin on the r/movies subreddit has been leading Reddit users in a poll of the best movies from every year for the last 100 years called 100 Years of Yearly Cinema. The poll concluded three days ago, and the list of every movie from 1914 to 2013 has been published today.

Users were asked to nominate films from a given year and up-vote their favorite nominees. The full list includes the outright winner along with the first two runners-up from each year. The list is mostly a predictable assortment of IMDb favorites and certified classics, but a few surprise gems have also risen to the top of the crust, including the early experimental documentary Man With a Movie Camera in 1929, Abel Gance’s J’Accuse! in 1919, the Fred Astaire film Top Hat over Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps in 1935, and Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing over John Ford’s...

Bill Hader has come a long way since his stint on Saturday Night Live, creating many popular characters and impersonations such as Stefon, Vincent Price and CNN’s Jack Cafferty. He is one of the highlights in such films as Adventureland, Knocked Up, Superbad and Pineapple Express, and so it is easy to see why author Mike Sacks interviewed him for his new book Poking A Dead Frog. In it, Hader talks about his career and he also lists 200 essential movies every comedy writer should see. Xo Jane recently published the list for those of us who haven’t had a chance to read the book yet. There are a ton of great recommendations and plenty I haven’t yet seen, but sadly my favourite comedy of all time isn’t mentioned. That would be Some Like It Hot. Still, it really is a great list with a mix of old and new.

On this return episode of The Golden Briefcase, hosts Tim and Jeremy spend some time catching up and chatting over some summer release changes as well as other current film news. They then talk through some of their picks for the last few weeks and some highlights from the summer movie season up until now. The guys also delve into their own Top Five Favorite Films of 2014 thus far, ranging from Grand Budapest Hotel to Captain America to Cheap Thrills to Edge of Tomorrow, and share some expectations of what's still to come in the year and reflect on some gems that others may have forgotten in the summer movie fray. Download #196 or Listen Now: [audio href="http://traffic.libsyn.com/firstshowing/EP196.mp3" title="And We're Back At It Again!"]The Golden Briefcase #196/audio] Subscribe via: RSS or iTunes Previous Episode: The King of Monsters! (Guest: Evan Saathoff) Picks From Last Few Weeks: Jeremy: About Time / Arsenic and Old Lace / All You Need is Kill...

It is not too shabby in what the Northeast (New England) part of the United States has produced in terms of past and present actors/actresses making their show business dreams come true. Film careers can be a lot like ice cubes–they start out solid and cool but if you sit around in stagnation your efforts and hard work can melt away before one’s very eyes. Certainly no one can accuse this talented crop of thespians of being one-hit wonders on the big screen. After all, one does not become a recipient of an Academy Award by just sheer luck and charitable fortune.

As a native Bostonian and life long New Englander, I felt compelled to spotlight those Massachusetts-born and bred actors from the same region that had ultimate success on the big screen in winning the Oscar for their acting achievement and contribution to the motion picture industry.

Today in 1986, Arsenic and Old Lace opened at the 46th Street Theatre now the Richard Rogers Theatre where it ran for 221 performances. Arsenic and Old Lace is a play by American playwright Joseph Kesselring, written in 1939. It has become best known through the film adaptation starring Cary Grant and directed by Frank Capra. The play is a farcical black comedy revolving around Mortimer Brewster, a drama critic who must deal with his crazy, homicidal family and local police in Brooklyn, NY, as he debates whether to go through with his recent promise to marry the woman he loves.

Actress and pioneer of the civil rights movement Ruby Dee died on Wednesday at her home in New Rochelle, N.Y. She was 91.

Ruby Dee Dies

Dee began her lengthy career on the stage, working steadily on Broadway during the 40s. She appeared in 12 shows during the decade, including South Pacific (1943), Walk Hard (1944), Arsenic and Old Lace (1946) and John Loves Mary (1946).

The Jackie Robinson Story in 1950 was Dee’s breakout film, in which she played Rae Robinson. She went on to play Ruth Younger in the A Raisin in the Sun movie, and appear in a number of other films, including Edge of the City, Gone Are the Days , The Incident and Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing. She received an Oscar nomination for her work in 2007’s American Gangster alongside Denzel Washington.

Dee was also a constant presence on the small screen, making appearances on a number of TV series.

Austin Film Society continues their "Rebel Rebel" film series this weekend with a rare 35mm screening of Getting Straight at the Marchesa. This 1970 film from Richard Rush stars Elliott Gould as a Vietnam vet who attempts to go back to college amid the countercultural revolution. Also starring Candice Bergen and shot by legendary cinemtographer Laszlo Kovacs (Easy Rider, Paper Moon), it's playing tonight and again on Sunday afternoon. Doc Nights is booked for Wednesday evening and will be spotlighting the story of a young ballerina who was diagnosed with polio at 27. Read more about Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq in our preview post here. On Thursday evening, you can view Stanley Kubrick's Paths Of Glory as part of this month's Essential Cinema series about World War I. 

The Paramount Summer Classic Film Series has a wide variety of flicks to choose from this week. Saturday and Sunday at the Paramount,...

By Doug Gerbino

In an episode of the Jack Benny radio show from 1948, Jack and Mary Livingstone are being driven to the Warner Bros. studios in his "trusty" Maxwell by his manservant, Rochester. They are stopped at the gate by the studio guard, voiced by the wonderful Mel Blanc. When the guard demands identification in order to be admitted, Jack tells him that he is Jack Benny. The guard still demands ID. Benny pleads with him to recognize him: "…after all, I made a film here a few years ago, The Horn Blows at Midnight…I am sure you remember that!" "Remember it??? I directed it!!!" replies Blanc as the guard. Such amusing set-ups became some of Jack Benny's most famous self-deprecating jokes. The Horn Blows at Midnight has become legendary because of Benny's making fun of it but as we can now see with its release on DVD, the...

It was only a matter of time until someone optioned M. William Phelps' The Devil's Rooming House for the big (or little) screen. The story of America's most prolific female serial killer is far too fascinating to pass up, after all.

Deadline is reporting that Peter Facinelli's A7SLE Films has optioned The Devil's Rooming House for the screen. An adaptation of M. William Phelps' novel, it tells the story of Amy Archer-Gilligan, a nursing home administrator responsible for a series of poisonings between 1907 and 1917. According to the article, bulk arsenic buyer “Sister Amy” was eventually found guilty of murder, with her story serving as the basis for Joseph Kesselring’s 1939 play Arsenic and Old Lace.

A7SLE’s Rob DeFranco negotiated the deal with Matthew Valentinas for Phelps.

While it's too early to talk about casting, it'll be interesting watching this project take shape. More to come.

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[Here's Deborah with a personal story that any movie-loving reader with a kid (or that hopes to have one might enjoy). How will you introduce them to the movies? And who will they love onscreen? - N]

 

Tom Hanks was my son's first favorite actor.

 

I started my son on classic movies when he was just eight years old. Arthur has Asperger's, and was intensely sensitive to any content that was even vaguely upsetting. At the age of nine, he could have worked for Screenit.com or the MPAA. My solution was to introduce him to movies from a time of more delicate sensibilities. Starting with Miracle on 34th Street, we moved to Arsenic and Old Lace, which opened into a long-term screwball comedy kick. Musicals, too, became a major part of our lives, up to and including Arthur's passion for Gene Kelly and his entry into dance school.

 

But at the movie theater, it was strictly kid stuff: Pixar, Harry Potter, Batman. Christmas of 2002, I asked my then-twelve-year old if he wanted to see a grown-up movie. He loved Catch Me If You Can. About a year later,...

As we inch closer towards the release date of August: Osage County, the movie adaptation of Tracy Letts‘ Pulitzer winner starring Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Juliette Lewis, and everyone else I’ve ever loved, it’s time to give props to a dying art: movie versions of great plays. I personally loved Rabbit Hole (2010), but was ultimately underwhelmed by Pulitzer-based films Doubt (2009) and the unbelievably awkward Carnage (2011). To preserve the legacy of kickass play adaptations, here are ten legendary examples of stage triumphs that translated wonderfully on celluloid.

10. Amadeus

This Academy Award-winning epic (161 minutes) has a dynamic Mozart in Tom Hulce, but it’s impossible to think about Amadeus without first recalling the gripping and one-of-a-kind work of F. Murray Abraham as his adversary Salieri. (Wow, those two words sounds too much alike.) Jealousy is arguably the most recurring theme in great theater, but the command and despair of Abraham...