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On Dec. 25, 1950, Columbia unveiled the George Cukor-directed adaptation of Born Yesterday at its Los Angeles premiere. The film went on to nab five nominations at the 23rd Academy Awards, including for best picture, and won best actress for Judy Holliday’s turn as Billie Dawn. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review is below:

Born Yesterday comes to the screen as the bright, infectious and delightful entertainment that it was when the play first took Broadway by storm several years ago. And for this feat of transforming what has become a stock and road show wheelhorse into 104 minutes of rollicking celluloid fun, the impresarios of Gower Street can begin drinking champagne from the dainty slipper of Judy Holliday. She’s only wonderful and without her triumphant performance of Billie Dawn, the honey-haired chorus girl who topples the power of a money-mad tycoon, Born Yesterday would be dead tomorrow.

In its...

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From "The Searchers" to "Rio Bravo," John Wayne is synonymous with some of the best Westerns of all time. He's also partly responsible for shaping old Hollywood's romanticized image of the Wild West -- a place where rugged manly men upheld justice in lawless lands. Wayne set out to redefine Western heroes on the screen, and his legacy suggests that he accomplished his goal. However, "The Duke" was also passionate about movies that promoted his patriotic ideals, and that's why he was angry at not winning the Best Actor Oscar at the 22nd Academy Awards.

The ceremony in question saw Wayne and Broderick Crawford receive nominations for Allan Dwan's "Sands of Iwo Jima" and Robert Rossen's "All the King's Men," respectively. Wayne's movie is a World War II drama about the battle between American and Japanese soldiers on the eponymous island.

The early years of Saturday Night Live weren’t exactly the most sober. In retrospect, Lorne Michaels probably should have credited a giant baggy of cocaine as one of the “Not Ready for Prime Time Players.” But even though the cast was far from clear-headed, an early host’s drinking problem was so severe that it nearly derailed the entire show.

During its second season in March of 1977, SNL featured host Broderick Crawford, the legendary actor best known for his Oscar-winning performance in All the King’s Men.

Unfortunately, Crawford was a severe alcoholic, whose drinking became so bad that he was “arrested several times for DUI.” Oddly enough, this happened while he was working on the TV cop show Highway Patrol.

In a recent interview with The A.V. Club, Dan Aykroyd was asked about the one and only time that Crawford hosted SNL. Aykroyd recounted that Michaels begged Crawford to...

As the US prepares to vote for a new president, a look back at the difficulties Hollywood election films have faced

The US presidential election takes up an enormous amount of space in the news cycle; even a reset and abbreviated race, like the one between the late-breaking candidate Kamala Harris and the eternal rerun Donald Trump, starts to feel downright eternal in the final sprint. It’s an event that dominates the media for the better part of every fourth year in the calendar (and a not-inconsiderable part of the other three), not without good reason: these races have been enormously consequential, as are many of the down-ballot races squeezed out of as much attention. Yet this urgency is not something often well-captured in movies about US elections, which frequently fall somewhere between flop-sweaty dramatic earnestness or toothless comedic mildness.

Maybe contemporary films can’t compete with the breathlessness...

Culver City, Calif. – Celebrate 100 years of Columbia Pictures and complete your Columbia Classics collection as Sony Pictures Home Entertainment proudly debuts six more iconic films from its library on 4K Ultra HD disc for the first time ever, exclusively within the Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection Volume 5, available October 1. This must-own set includes a variety of powerful and moving award-winning favorites: All The King’S Men, On The Waterfront, A Man For All Seasons, Tootsie, The Age Of Innocence and Little Women (2019). Each film is presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision High Dynamic Range, and five of the films include immersive Dolby Atmos mixes.

The six films in the Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection Volume 5 are only available on 4K Ultra HD disc within this special limited edition collector’s set. Included with the collection is a gorgeous hardbound 80-page book, featuring in-depth sections about the making of...

The 2024 Oscar race is on, and one film has the potential to accomplish a feat that hasn’t happened in 64 years. “Oppenheimer” leads the nominations with 13, and it’s on track to win several of those categories. If Christopher Nolan‘s epic claims Best Picture, Best Actor (Cillian Murphy) and Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr.), it will be the first time since 1960 that the same film (“Ben-Hur”) has won those three exact categories. And it would be only the fourth time it’s ever happened.

See Cillian Murphy interview: ‘Oppenheimer’

Since the Best Supporting Actor category was introduced in 1937, only three films have walked away with Best Picture as well as both male acting categories. In 1945, the inspirational musical comedy “Going My Way” not only became the highest-grossing film of 1944, but also won seven of its ten Oscar nominations, making it the big winner of the night. Beside the top prize,...

Just 30 minutes after final voting for the Screen Actors Guild Awards wrapped up, I made a last-minute switch in my best actress prediction — from Lily Gladstone in “Killers of the Flower Moon” to Emma Stone in “Poor Things.” Let this be a lesson: Second-guessing yourself is seldom a good idea.

Lily Gladstone made history as the first Native American and Indigenous person to clinch an individual SAG Award for her portrayal of Mollie Burkhart, an Osage woman, in Martin Scorsese’s gripping crime saga. With a lead actress (drama) Golden Globe and a SAG Award now under her belt, Gladstone’s award-season momentum continues to be formidable. Historically, only seven performers have failed to win the Oscar after winning the unique combination of Globe and SAG:

1995: Lauren Bacall (“The Mirror Has Two Faces”) lost to Juliette Binoche 2001: Russell Crowe (“A Beautiful Mind”) lost to Denzel Washington (“Training Day...

Marisa Pavan, the Italian actress and twin sister of Pier Angeli who received an Oscar nomination for her performance as the daughter of Anna Magnani’s seamstress in the 1955 drama The Rose Tattoo, has died. She was 91.

Pavan died Wednesday in her sleep at her home in Gassin, France, near Saint-Tropez, Margaux Soumoy, who wrote Pavan’s 2021 biography, Drop the Baby; Put a Veil on the Broad!, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Pavan also portrayed the French queen Catherine de’ Medici in Diane (1956), starring Lana Turner; an Italian girl who had an affair years ago with a corporate exec (Gregory Peck) in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956); and the love interest of a former cop (Tony Curtis) investigating the murder of a priest in the film noir The Midnight Story (1957).

In Paramount’s The Rose Tattoo (1955), an adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play that won four Tony Awards, including best play,...

Tony Bennett's first record, "Because of You" was released in 1952 and it instantly codified the entertainer as one of the music world's great crooners. In 1962, his 15th record, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" was certified platinum by the RIAA, but that was after he had already established himself with Count Basie and his Orchestra and as a great fan of songwriter Harold Arlen. All told, he released 61 records in his decades-long career, not including his eight albums of collaborations and duets. He sang with Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Ray Charles, Carrie Underwood, Stevie Wonder, Natalie Cole, Mariah Carey, Bono, Sting, Paul McCartney, Diana Krall, and many others. Most recently, he released two collaborations with Lady Gaga in 2018 and 2021. Bennett passed away on July 21, 2023 at the age of 96. He will be deeply missed.

Naturally, a talent of Bennett's stature couldn't be ignored by Hollywood, and he would appear...

Based on Emile Zola’s 1980 novel La Bête Humaine, Fritz Lang’s Human Desire is an entirely different beast than Jean Renoir’s 1938 adaptation. The Renoir film’s pointed humanism and everybody-has-their-reasons ethos is swapped out here for a considerably steelier point of view. Indeed, the film is less interested in its characters’ interiority than it is in viewing their lives through a fatalistic lens.

What’s most compelling about Lang’s film is how elegantly it toys with noir tropes and subverts our expectations, particularly with regard to Vicki (Gloria Grahame), who’s initially presented as your prototypical femme fatale. Vicki is trying to convince her new lover, Jeff (Glenn Ford), to murder her slovenly, abusive husband, Carl (Broderick Crawford). It’s a setup familiar from countless noirs, most notably Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity and Tay Garnett’s The Postman Always Rings Twice, so the audience is already...

Actors John Wayne and Kirk Douglas had their fair share of disagreements over the course of their careers. However, that didn’t stop them from working together a few times. They represented entirely different political ideologies, which caused many of their fans to believe that they must have hated one another. Douglas once spoke about the respect that he had for Wayne, which was reciprocated by the Western movie star.

John Wayne and Kirk Douglas were in 3 movies together L-r: John Wayne and Kirk Douglas | FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty Images

Wayne and Douglas starred in three movies over their long-running careers. The first was Otto Preminger’s In Harm’s Way, which hit theaters in 1965. The story takes place during World War II, following the lives of several naval officers in Hawaii after Pearl Harbor. One of them gets another opportunity to prove himself when he gets promoted to Rear Admiral.

Movie star John Wayne took his career very seriously. He starred in a wide assortment of Western and war movies, but they weren’t all winners. Wayne wasn’t afraid to admit when a movie role wasn’t the right one for him. However, he always took it personally when a bad one came across his desk. It once went so far that he threatened to fire his agent when he read a script that he found offensive. Nevertheless, it went on to win big at the Academy Awards.

John Wayne wanted to play strong movie roles John Wayne | Rdb/ullstein bild via Getty Images

Wayne made his first box-office disaster with 1930’s The Big Trail, which was directed by Raoul Walsh. He didn’t get the opportunity to explode into stardom until 1939’s Stagecoach, which was his first leading collaboration with his mentor, John Ford. The movie star had...

For nearly 100 years, pundits have predicted the outcome of Oscar voting. Sometimes it’s an educated guess, but it’s a guess nevertheless, since a minimal number of PricewaterhouseCoopers execs know the actual tallies and they never talk. So pundits often look to Oscar history to back up their theories, like tribal natives trying to predict their future by watching smoke from a volcano.

Too often, people talk about voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences as if they work as a unit: “They will never vote for this” or “they always love such-and-such.” One of the fun aspects of predictions is that Academy history is like Scripture: You can always find something to back up your claims.

This year, voters nominated 10 very different films for best picture. Each has inspired predictions about why it couldn’t win because “they” won’t go for it. But actually,...

In 1949, John Wayne was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Allan Dwan's war film "Sands of Iwo Jima." Despite several thoughtful antiwar films that preceded it -- specifically "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "The Best Years of Our Lives" -- "Iwo Jima" came at a time when patriotic, downright jingoistic movies about World War II were coming into vogue. In particular, 1949 saw the release of films like "Battleground" and "Twelve O'Clock High," both films about the nobility of war and the heroism of soldiers. Both those films were nominated for Best Picture, although they lost to the political corruption drama "All the King's Men." Wayne himself lost Best Actor to Broderick Crawford, the star of "King's Men." 

In 1969, Wayne looked back on "Iwo Jima" in an interview with Roger Ebert, and posited that he lost his Oscar for political reasons. A...

Movie star John Wayne and legendary filmmaker John Ford made one of the most iconic actor-director duos ever. However, the director was infamously harsh on the actor, frequently coming down hard on him in front of entire movie sets. Ford didn’t open up about his positive feelings toward Wayne’s performances until after he won an Oscar.

John Wayne and John Ford first collaborated on ‘Stagecoach’ John Wayne | Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

Before Wayne and Ford officially teamed up, the actor earned his first leading role from Raoul Walsh in 1930’s The Big Trail. It failed to catch on at the box office, which delayed the movie star’s climb to fame. Nevertheless, Wayne shined in the Ford-directed ensemble called Stagecoach, which hit theaters in 1939.

The duo worked on another 13 movies over the course of their careers, creating some of the best films ever made.

True Grit actor John Wayne finally earned his first Oscar, which the cast and crew of Rio Bravo wanted to celebrate. He was often criticized for his signature acting style, which came across more as playing himself than disappearing into another character. Nevertheless, he undeniably drew from a loyal fan base. Wayne had a nice surprise, along with support from his colleagues on his next set.

John Wayne won his only Oscar for ‘True Grit’ John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn | Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images

Wayne first officially considered himself an actor with his stunning performance as Thomas Dunson in Red River. However, he thought his performance in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon represented some of his best work. Nevertheless, Wayne didn’t earn an Oscar nomination for either of those films.

The movie star scored his first Oscar nomination for playing Sgt. John M. Stryker in Sands of Iwo Jima,...

Movie star John Wayne starred in over 165 films over the course of his career. Unfortunately, they didn’t all necessarily make him proud. He had plenty of bad roles, some of which resulted from his performance and others because of casting. Nevertheless, there was one Wayne movie that was so traumatic that he “visually shuddered” when anybody would mention the title.

John Wayne admitted that he played some bad movie roles John Wayne | ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images

Wayne had his first chance to make it in the movie business with Raoul Walsh’s The Big Trail in 1930. Unfortunately, audiences underappreciated it at the time, and it flopped at the box office. However, that didn’t mark the end. He was thrust into B-movie Westerns for many years, many of which he wasn’t too happy to be a part of. Nevertheless, he was lucky to have consistent work as an actor.

When Robert De Niro came out swinging, rhetorically, at Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2016, it was the most stirring and surprising performance he'd given in years. "He's so blatantly stupid," he said in a campaign ad. "He's a punk. He's a dog. He's a pig. A con. A bulls**t artist. A mutt who doesn't know what he's talking about." Then he lowered the boom: "I'd like to punch him in the face."

Though the actor had long been on the record as a Democrat, he'd never been this emphatic about a political position in his public life. In fact, he'd never been emphatic about much of anything. Anyone who'd watched the actor squirm his way through an interview knew full well that the man wasn't much of a talker. When he did speak, he tended to be soft-spoken. He seemed almost embarrassed to be holding forth on any subject,...

Celebrated cartoonist and screenwriter Daniel Clowes discusses his favorite formative films with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Baxter (1989)

Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1966) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

Ghost World (2001) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Art School Confidential (2006)

Help! (1965) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary, Charlie Largent’s review

The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! (1966) – John Landis’s trailer commentary,

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938) – Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

Gone With The Wind (1939)

Mudhoney (1965) – John Badham’s trailer commentary

Finders Keepers, Lovers Weepers! (1968)

Common Law Cabin (1967)

Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls (1970) – Michael Lehmann’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

The Seven Minutes (1971)

Black Snake (1973)

An American Werewolf In London (1981) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray reviews

Lady In A Cage (1964) – Darren Bousman’s trailer commentary, Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

The Wild One (1953)

Hush…...

If it’s Tuesday, this must be Election Day in a year when democracy itself is on the ballot. It’s a moment that Jefferson Smith – the naive but idealistic young senator played by Jimmy Stewart – could have appreciated in the Oscar-winning 1939 classic “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” from director Frank Capra. It tops the list of 25 movies that this Gold Derby editor singles out as exemplary staples of the political genre over the past 80-plus years. Most originated on the big screen, but a few were made-for-tv.

Why bring this to you today? Think of it as a distraction tactic at a time when so many of us are overloaded with anxiety over an especially consequential election that will determine control of Congress. The list features biopics, satires, historical dramas and journalism hybrid thrillers as well as fictitious allegories.

SEE15 Best American Political Films

Watch any of these tonight...

In the midseason finale of "Better Call Saul" season six, just before Lalo Salamanca paints their living room with doomed lawyer Howard Hamlin's blood, Kim (Rhea Seehorn) and Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) watch a movie. This isn't unusual for them. Throughout the series' seven-year run, the pair have proven themselves cinephiles, often referencing classic movies in passing and sometimes settling down for a quiet movie night.

On this night, the pair are watching "Born Yesterday," a 1950 comedic drama about the exploits of a possessive crook named Harry (Broderick Crawford), his unrefined girlfriend, Billie (Judy Holliday), and a journalist, Paul (William...

The post What All the Old Movie References in Better Call Saul Say About the Characters appeared first on /Film.

As menacing as “The Great” Edward G. Robinson could be, he starred in more than a few comedies disguised as gangster pictures. Lloyd Bacon’s 1942 film is one of them—a Runyonesque satire brimming with holiday cheer; as the racketeer who wants to go straight, Robinson gets to dress up as Santa Claus. With a fairly remarkable supporting cast including Jane Wyman, Anthony Quinn, Broderick Crawford, and Jackie Gleason (!).

The post Larceny, Inc. appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

“Matt Dillon comes across like a young Brando or James Dean.” —Houston Post

Coolness Personified As Matt Dillon Stars In Mvd Rewind Collection’S ‘Liar’S Moon’ Making Its Long-awaited Debut On Blu-ray Through Mvd Entertainment Group. –The 1982 Teen Drama On Blu-ray Coming February 2022.

Here’s a trailer for the restoration:

Matt Dillon (The Outsiders) stars in this tender tale of love’s first promise… and its enduring strength. Dillon plays Jack Duncan, an athletic, hardworking boy from the small town of Noble, Texas. Jack is happy just enjoying himself with the local boys, until he meets Ginny Peterson (Cindy Fisher), the town’s wealthiest young lady. Despite their obviously different backgrounds, Jack and Ginny fall desperately in love. Even though their parents have forbidden them to meet, Jack and Ginny sneak out, and finally elope, hoping to find happiness far from their hometown. But theirs is a love that falls...

Best Supporting Actress has always been the Oscar acting category that’s kindest to having multiple nominees from the same film. There have been 35 instances of one film scoring more than one bid in the category, compared to 20 in Best Supporting Actor, 12 in Best Actor and just five in Best Actress. The category is also the only one of the four that has ever featured two pairs of double bids in the same year — and that could just happen again this year.

A long 72 years ago, in the 1949-50 race, the Oscars nominated four women from two films: Ethel Barrymore and Ethel Waters from “Pinky,” and Celeste Holm and Elsa Lanchester from “Come to the Stable.” The fifth nominee was “All the King’s Men” star Mercedes McCambridge, who won the supporting actress award and whom you could argue benefited from the double vote-split (“All the King’s Men” also won Best...

Kate Winslet’s tough but tender small-town police detective Mare Sheehan of HBO’s acclaimed crime thriller “Mare of Easttown” is the latest in a long line of female TV detectives including S. Epatha Merkerson (“Law & Order”); Helen Mirren (“Prime Suspect”); Kyra Sedgwick (“The Closer); Mariska Hargitay (“Law & Order: Svu”) and Regina King (“Watchmen”).

Unfortunately, it took an inordinate amount of time for actresses to get a fair shake in police procedurals. Early TV crime dramas were inundated with the likes of taciturn toughies Lee Marvin (“M Squad”), Robert Taylor (“The Detectives”), Jack Webb (“Dragnet”) and Broderick Crawford (“Highway Patrol”). Way too much testosterone.

But slowly the dynamics began to change especially with the rise of the Women’s Movement. Here’s a look at five trailblazing female cop shows who paved the way.

Beverly Garland (“Decoy”)

After macho actor after macho actor as police detectives and cops,...

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,...

Witness six noir heroes, doing what noir heroes do: one crooked gambler, one psycho, another psycho with access to a gun, a dope railroaded into a prison sentence, and an even bigger dope who doesn’t realize he’s poisoning himself. That’s only five, but the sixth is a cop, and not a particularly compromised one, the way we like ’em in noir. This third Columbia Noir Collection can boast big stars and some name directors, beautiful HD transfers and some fascinating short subjects as extras.

Columbia Noir #3

Region B Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1947-57 / B&w / 1:37 Academy, 1:85 widescreen / Street Date May 17, 2021 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £49.99

Starring: Dick Powell, Lee J Cobb, Nina Foch, William Holden, Edmond O’Brien, Dorothy Malone, Glenn Ford, Broderick Crawford, Marie Windsor, and Vince Edwards.

Directed by Robert Rossen, Rudolph Mat&eacute, Henry Levin, Gordon Douglas, Edward Dmytryk, Irving Lerner

Powerhouse Indicator’s...

Hello, everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to do an installment of my Phantom Thread series, but I’m finally back on the beat and this newest entry is quite an oddball in the realm of Phantom of the Opera-related adaptations. Directed by Gene Levitt and starring the likes of Peter Lawford, Jack Cassidy, Broderick Crawford, and Jackie Coogan (who most genre fans know from his role as Uncle Fester in the Addams Family TV series), this made-for-tv movie first aired on CBS in February 1974 and features a mysterious masked entity who is stalking the backlot of Worldwide Films as the studio prepares to sell the property off to the highest bidder.

And while there’s a lot of unevenness to The Phantom of Hollywood that makes its plotting feel choppy at times, as someone who adores the history of Old Hollywood, I...

Martha Stewart, best known for co-starring alongside Joan Crawford and Humphrey Bogart in “Daisy Kenyon” and “In a Lonely Place,” respectively, died on Feb. 17, her daughter Colleen Shelly confirmed on Twitter. She was 98.

“The original Martha Stewart left us yesterday,” Shelly wrote. “She had a new part to play in a movie with all her heavenly friends. She went off peacefully surrounded by her family and cat.”

Known for her roles in classic 1940s and ’50s Hollywood movies, Stewart made her film debut in the 1945 musical comedy “Doll Face.” The following year she starred opposite Richard Crane in “Johnny Comes Flying Home” and June Haver in 1947’s “I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now.” Her additional credits include comedy “Are You With It?” opposite Donald O’Connor, 1952’s musical “Aaron Slick From Punkin Crick” and noir crime-drama “Convicted” with Glenn Ford and Broderick Crawford. Her final credit was 1964’s beach-themed musical comedy “Surf Party.

The UK disc purveyors Powerhouse Indicator are back with a second installment of Region B Film Noir goodies from the darker end of the Columbia Torch Lady’s film vault. This time around we have a couple of Femme Fatale thrillers (does she or doesn’t she?), a trio of organized crime mellers, and a hit man saga so minimalist, it’s almost avant-garde. The icing on the noir cake is the curated selection of extras, plus the absurd counter-programming of Three Stooges short subjects. Why did nobody think to cast Moe, Larry and Shemp as cold-blooded Noir hit men?

Columbia Noir #2

Region B Blu-ray

Framed, 711 Ocean Drive, The Mob, Affair in Trinidad, Tight Spot, Murder by Contract

Powerhouse Indicator

1947-1958 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen & 1:37 Academy / Street Date February 15, 2021 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £49.99

Starring: Glenn Ford, Janis Carter, Edmond O’Brien, Joanne Dru, Broderick Crawford, Richard Kiley, Rita Hayworth,...

The 2020 Best Supporting Actor lineup, which included performances that ranged from 43 to 56 minutes long, proved that high screen times are fairly common in the category. Six actors have won the award with over one hour of screen time, while an additional 18 nominees have passed that mark. Here is a look at the 10 performances that rank as the longest of them all (and here are the 10 longest winners):

10. Jeff Bridges (“Thunderbolt and Lightfoot”)

1 hour, 6 minutes, 23 seconds (57.74% of the film)

After Mickey Rooney and Sal Mineo, Bridges became the third man to receive two acting Oscar nominations by age 25, and there has not been another in the 45 years since. His second bid for playing the titular Lightfoot also earned him a spot on this list and was the 11th nominated supporting male performance to have over one hour of screen time. Bridges finally scored his first win at age 60, as a lead in “Crazy Heart,...

When the supporting acting Oscar categories were introduced in 1937, two films (“Dodsworth” and “Romeo and Juliet”) each received one lead and one supporting nomination. A third, “My Man Godfrey,” immediately made Oscar history by scoring a nomination in each of the four categories. In all three cases, the supporting nominees had less screen time than the corresponding leads, as was and continues to be expected.

The opposite did not occur until 1950, when John Ireland was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for a longer performance in “All the King’s Men” than the one given by his co-star, Best Actor-winner Broderick Crawford. Since then, 10 more supporting male nominees have boasted higher screen time totals than their lead-nominated co-stars. Here is a look at each instance, in order from lowest screen time difference to highest.

1997: William H. Macy (“Fargo”) – 27 minutes, 7 seconds

0 minutes, 38 seconds over Frances McDormand

“Fargo” begins as a story about...

Two years after John Ireland (“All the King’s Men”) became the first supporting Oscar nominee to deliver a longer performance than a lead nominee from the same film (Broderick Crawford) in 1949, Kim Hunter (“A Streetcar Named Desire”) did the same versus Marlon Brando. Since then, nine more Best Supporting Actress nominees have had higher screen time totals than a co-star nominated in a lead rce. Here is a look at each instance, in order from lowest screen time difference to highest.

1961: Mary Ure (“Sons and Lovers”) – 21 minutes, 4 seconds

0 minutes, 50 seconds over Trevor Howard

Although she is absent from nearly all of the first half of “Sons and Lovers,” Ure still manages to appear in over 20% of the film. Up to that point, less than half of all Best Supporting Actress-nominated performances had reached that mark. Howard’s performance, on the other hand, did not reach that percentage, but he received a lead nomination regardless.

Our exclusive odds predict that Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman will both earn Oscar nominations for their roles in the Sony Pictures Classics release “The Father.” He is a strong Best Actor contender for his heartbreaking portrayal of a man dealing with dementia. And she is coming on strong in the Best Supporting Actress race for her work as the daughter struggling to come to terms with him.

Should both of these past Oscar champs prevail again this year, they’d be just the eighth pair of co-stars nominated in these categories to do so. In the 84 years since the supporting awards were introduced at the 9th Oscars, a lucky seven films can boast victories in both these races.

The last such duo from the same film to both win were Daniel Day-Lewis and Brenda Fricker for “My Left Foot” in 1990. That marked the first of Day-Lewis’s three Best Actor trophies.

The star from Sid & Nancy, Terminator 2, Candyman, Gattaca, Leaving Las Vegas and the new chiller The Dark And The Wicked takes us on a journey through some of his favorite foreign films.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Candyman (1992)

Frankenstein (1931)

Sid and Nancy (1986)

The Dark And The Wicked (2020)

The Wall of Mexico (2019)

La Dolce Vita (1961)

Il Bidone (1955)

Day For Night (1973)

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1967)

8 ½ (1963)

Le Cercle Rouge (1970)

Daredevils of the Red Circle (1939)

Rififi (1955)

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Z (1969)

The Sleeping Car Murders (1965)

The Battle of Algiers (1966)

Burn! (1969)

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

The Italian Job (1969)

The Italian Job (2003)

The Magician (1958)

Wild Strawberries (1957)

Fanny and Alexander (1982)

Persona (1966)

The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

The Last House On The Left (1972)

The Virgin Spring (1960)

Paperhouse (1988)

The Strangers (2008)

The Monster (2016)

Andrei Rublev (1966)

Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)

Nostalghia (1983)

Son of Frankenstein (1939)

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Zorba The Greek (1964)

Pollyanna (1960)

Other Notable Items

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By John M. Whalen

There’s an old axiom often quoted by writers that once you find a winning formula for putting stories together, stick with it. That certainly must have been the case back in the 1940s when the films collected together by Kino Lorber for its “Western Classics I” three disc box set were made. “When the Daltons Rode” (1940), “The Virginian” (1946), and “Whispering Smith” (1948) are all different movies, made by different writers and directors, with different settings, characters and plots, but when all is said and done they all basically tell the same story. Two guys who are pals have their friendship strained when they both fall in love with the same woman. It’s obviously a formula that worked.

In “When the Dalton’s Rode,” Tod Jackson (Randolph Scott) is a lawyer who comes west to set up his practice in Oklahoma,...

Al Adamson: The Masterpiece Collection

Blu ray

Severin Films

1965 – 1989 / 2841 min.

Starring Russ Tamblyn, Regina Carrol, Lon Chaney

Cinematography by Gary Graver, Vilmos Zsigmond, László Kovács

Directed by Al Adamson, David Gregory

The titles grab you by the collar like a desperate carny barker – Psycho A Go-Go, Blood of Ghastly Horror, Satan’s Sadists – then something for the raincoat crowd – Girls For Rent, Nurses For Sale, The Naughty Stewardesses. The rant turns political, incendiary: Black Heat, Mean Mother, Black Samurai. His last gasp – Cinderella 2000, Nurse Sherri, The Happy Hobo. The Happy Hobo?

Al Adamson: The Masterpiece Collection is an alarming new release from Severin Films presenting 32 of the director’s misbegotten “masterpieces” in beautifully restored transfers with enough added attractions to choke a horse. It’s the story of one man’s twenty year run in exploitation cinema that may be too exhausting for the casual viewer to contemplate. But...

Although only one of these 1950s B&w thrillers falls within a mile of a hard definition of film noir, all give us glamorous actresses in interesting roles. Claudette Colbert takes her turn at playing a nun, Merle Oberon tries a femme fatale role on for size and Hedy Lamarr does very well for herself as a man-hungry movie star. Kino gives all three excellent transfers, and one comes with an appropriately gossipy audio commentary.

Film Noir the Dark Side of Cinema II

Thunder on the Hill, The Price of Fear, The Female Animal

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1951-58 / B&w / 1:37 Academy, 1:85 widescreen / 84,79,82 min. / Street Date May 12, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 49.95

Starring: Claudette Colbert, Ann Blyth, Robert Douglas, Anne Crawford, Connie Gilchrist, Gladys Cooper, Michael Pate, Phillip Friend; Merle Oberon, Lex Barker, Charles Drake, Gia Scala, Warren Stevens, Phillip Pine, Konstantin Shayne, Stafford Repp; Hedy Lamarr, Jane Powell,...

John Mahon, an actor, director and writer who played a police chief in 1997’s L.A. Confidential and, as a language lab director in one of the creepiest moments of The Exorcist revealed that recorded demon gibberish was in fact backwards English, died of natural causes at his Los Angeles home on May 3. He was 82.

The death was announced by his son Joseph Mahon.

Having appeared in a short-lived 1971 Off Broadway production of playwright/actor Jason Miller’s Nobody Hears A Broken Drum, Mahon landed a small but pivotal role in his friend Miller’s breakthrough film The Exorcist. In the movie, Miller’s Father Karas, who has tape-recorded the possessed girl speaking what sounds like random nonsense syllables, is stunned when Mahon’s lab director recognized the sounds as backwards English.

Later, in the late 1970s, Mahon directed actor Broderick Crawford That Championship Season. He also directed a production...

John Patrick Mahon, a director, writer and actor known for his roles in “L.A. Confidential” and “Zodiac,” died of natural causes in his home in Los Angeles, Calif., on May 3. He was 82.

Mahon played the police chief in 1997’s “L.A. Confidential” starring Kevin Spacey and Russell Crowe, and had a small part as the river captain in “Zodiac” with Robert Downey Jr. and Jake Gyllenhaal. His other notable big screen performances include “The Exorcist” and “Armageddon.”

Mohan also appeared on Broadway alongside Al Pacino in “Richard III.” In 1971, he was nominated for best actor of the year by the New York Drama Critics for his role as Father Hanley in “Nobody Hears a Broken Drum.”

In addition, the actor also made several television appearances in shows including “The X-Files,” “Frasier” and “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.” He was the sole voice for companies like Stanley Tools, Ping Golf and Pennzoil for many years.

“A Gallant Gesture”

By Raymond Benson

The novel Beau Geste by Percival Christopher Wren was published in 1924 and has been adapted to film no less than four times and parodied a few instances as well. It’s a classic story of the French Foreign Legionnaires set in the years between the turn of the 20th Century and the First World War, and for nearly a hundred years it has been deemed one of the great adventure tales.

The 1939 adaptation, directed by William A. Wellman, was the second filmed version and is generally considered the best and certainly most well-known variation (the first was a silent picture made in 1926 and starring Ronald Colman). With an outstanding cast that includes Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, Susan Hayward, J. Carrol Naish, Broderick Crawford, Albert Dekker, and even a young Donald O’Connor, Beau Geste is indeed a rousing “Arabian” action flick,...

It’s a classic from the Golden Year of 1939, directed in fine style by Wild Bill Wellman and well cast with Paramount stars Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, and Robert Preston, and with Brian Donlevy as one of the movies’ most hissable villains. The popular story has been remade and spoofed innumerable times, yet this remains the indelible best version. A commentary with William Wellman Jr. and Frank Thompson points out many things we didn’t notice before, including where some excised scenes belong, and what originally happened in them.

Beau Geste

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1939 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 112 min. / Street Date April 7, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, Susan Hayward, J. Carrol Naish, Albert Dekker, Broderick Crawford, Charles Barton, James Stephenson, Heather Thatcher, George P. Huntley, Donald O’Connor, Billy Cook, Martin Spellman, Ann Gillis, David Holt, Henry Brandon, Nestor Paiva, Francis McDonald.

The taglines for the 1966 overstuffed turkey “The Oscar give viewers a preview of the machinations of this camp delight- “The Dreams and the Schemers… the Hustlers and the Hopefuls…All Fight for the Highest Award!”

And you thought there was a lot of campaigning now for the Academy Award!

Kino Lorber has unleashed “The Oscar” just in time for the Academy Awards Sunday on Blu-ray with a brand new 4K restoration and two audio commentaries- one with film historians Howard S. Berger, Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson and a much more funny and caustic one with comic/actor Patton Oswalt, Oscar-nominated screenwriter Josh Olson (“A History of Violence”) and producer/writer/director Erik Nelson.

“The Oscar” was penned by Harlan Ellison, yes Harlan Ellison of “A Boy and His Dog,” “The Outer Limits” and “The Twilight Zone” fame and the team of Russell Rouse and Clarence Greene, who penned the 1949 classic noir “D.O.A.,...

This unassuming noir classic can boast a strong creative pedigree and an unusual ending… which I’ll not spoil. Dan Duryea is the confused pianist helping June Vincent clear her husband of a murder charge, by infiltrating the nightclub of suspicious Peter Lorre. The outline sticks close to Cornell Woolrich’s story source, and Roy William Neill contributes a classy job of direction.

Black Angel

Blu-ray

Arrow Academy

1946 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 81 min. / Street Date January 28, 2020 / 39.95

Starring: Dan Duryea, June Vincent, Peter Lorre, Broderick Crawford, Constance Dowling, Wallace Ford, Hobart Cavanaugh, Ben Bard, Freddie Steele, John Phillips.

Cinematography: Raoul Ivano

Film Editor: Saul A. Goodkind

Special effects: David S. Horsley

Original Music: Frank Skinner

Written by Roy Chanslor from a novel by Cornell Woolrich

Produced by Roy William Neill, Tom McKnight

Directed by Roy William Neill

The many movies made from Cornell Woolrich’s novels and stories can be a...

President Selina Meyer leaves a legacy of political fallout as Veep ends an era of satiric genius.

This Veep review contains spoilers.

Veep Season 7 Episode 7

Veep season 7, episode 7, "Veep," finishes out the term of President Selina Meyer with a frightening message. Everyone who even thinks about getting into politics is horrible but it is only the truly heinous who claim the top prize. Washington has never been played so openly dirty and with such eternal immediacy. The political cycle moves very fast and a lot of satirical work gets washed over by reality, but Veep has always been able to veer far enough into the netherworld to remain shocking and effective. This season life caught up with art and the imitations blurred into allegorical genius of comically nightmarish proportions.

HBO has a history of making anti-heroes into beloved figures going back at least to Tony Soprano on The Sopranos. Everyone...

One film in contention at this year’s Oscars earned nominations for both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress: “Vice.” How likely is it that leading man Christian Bale and supporting player Amy Adams will both win Academy Awards on Feb. 24? In the 82 years since the supporting awards were introduced at the 9th Oscars, a six lucky seven films could boast victories in both these races.

While this is the second most common of the four winningcombinations behind actress/supporting actress, it is also the one that has not happened in the longest time. The last such duo from the same film to both win were Brenda Fricker and Daniel Day-Lewis for “My Left Foor” in 1990. This was the first of Day-Lewis’s three Best Actor trophies – he could’ve repeated this pairing last year with Lesley Manville for Paul Thomas Anderson’s sublime “Phantom Thread” but, sadly, neither of them won.

Exclusive: Annaleigh Ashford, who won the Tony in 2015 for You Can’t Take It With You and appeared in American Crime Story: Versace, has scored the lead role in Smart Blonde, a timely movie about about Oscar-winning actress Judy Holliday.

Gene Kirkwood, a producer on the original Rocky who more recenlty produced HBO’s four-

part Dr. Dre-Jimmy Iovine docu The Defiant Ones, is producing.

The film will focus on Holliday, a nightclub singer who in her early acting career in the 1940s fought back against the overt sexual advances of studio mogul Darryl F. Zanuck during her time as a day player at Fox. She later went on to star on Broadway in Born Yesterday, then won the Best Actress Oscar for George Cukor’s big-screen adaptation starring alongside William Holden and Broderick Crawford.

Holliday paid the price for being outspoken, eventually blacklisted in Hollywood as a communist. She...

The Film Noir Foundation has helped revive yet another difficult-to-see noir gem — the murder cover-up tale begins with a shooting in a mansion and races across San Francisco to a finale given classic lines by director Felix Feist. And the casting: Saggy Lee J. Cobb as a romantic leading man? Sunny Jane Wyatt as a duplicitous killer? Bring it on!

The Man Who Cheated Himself

Blu-ray + DVD

Flicker Alley

1950 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 81 min. / Street Date September 25, 2018 / 39.95

Starring: Lee J. Cobb, Jane Wyatt, John Dall, Lisa Howard, Harlan Warde, Tito Vuolo, Charles Arnt, Marjorie Bennett.

Cinematography: Russell Harlan

Film Editor: David Weisbart

Production Design: Van Nest Polglase

Original Music: Louis Forbes

Written by Philip MacDonald, Seton I. Miller from his story.

Produced by Jack M. Warner

Directed by Felix E. Feist

In the late ’40s film noir was the default vehicle for ambitious filmmaking — after producing two early Anthony Mann noirs,...

Even Burt Reynolds in his black Trans Am, all gonna meet down at the Cadillac Ranch. No movie star has ever not given a fuck more deeply, more passionately, than the late, great Burt Reynolds. He could give off that Idgaf shrug with every muscle in his body, including the ones in his mustache. He was the Homer of American bad-ass stoicism, with Smokey and the Bandit as his Iliad and Sharky’s Machine as his Odyssey. Both of his eyebrows were finely tuned Stradivarius violins, calibrated to the point...

“It’s under the Big ‘W’!” A smart cop show goes all ‘Dragnet’ on a trio of criminal cases in the good old City of the Angels. To figure out who gunned down a top detective, rough tough FBI agent Broderick Crawford must get to the bottom of three separate dramas, each involving a beautiful woman. The producers know how to get attention for their show — the climactic shootout takes place under the Hollywood Sign.

Down 3 Dark Streets

Blu-ray

ClassicFlix

1954 / B&W / 1:75 widescreen / 86 min. / Street Date April 24, 2018 / 29.99

Starring: Broderick Crawford, Ruth Roman, Martha Hyer, Marisa Pavan, Max Showalter, Kenneth Tobey, Gene Reynolds, William Johnstone, Harlan Warde, Jay Adler, Claude Akins, Suzanne Alexander, Joe Bassett, Michael Fox, John Indrisano, Milton Parsons, Stafford Repp, William Schallert, Charles Tannen.

Cinematography: Joseph Biroc

Film Editor: Grant Whytock

Production Design: Edward (Ted) Haworth

Original Music: Paul Sawtell

Written by Bernard C. Schoenfeld, ‘The Gordons...