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For three seasons between 1964 and 1967, Sherwood Schwartz's "Gilligan's Island" delighted undemanding television viewers with the exploits of seven castaways stranded on an uncharted island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. It was a sitcom the whole family could enjoy (though some parents might've had qualms about sanctioning such tropical buffoonery), though it didn't really find its place in the popular culture until it went to syndication. When "Gilligan's Island" could air five times a week, it became a couch potato favorite; suddenly, people were generating wild theories about the series' underlying themes and, by sheer repetition, memorizing the plots of whole episodes.

After stumbling out of the gate with its pilot (which was missing several key cast members), the show quickly found its formulaic groove thanks in large part to the dorky chemistry of its ensemble. But while they were a perfect fit, Schwartz and his writers realized early on...

Helen Gallagher, the spunky Broadway triple threat who received two Tony Awards and starred as the matriarch Maeve Ryan for all 13-plus years of the ABC soap opera Ryan’s Hope, has died. She was 98.

Gallagher died Sunday at a hospital in Manhattan, Edith Meeks, executive and artistic director at New York’s Herbert Berghof Studio, told The Washington Post. Gallagher taught a class in “Singing for the Musical Theater” there for years.

The radiant singer, dancer and actress received her first Tony in 1952 for her portrayal of showgirl Gladys Bumps in a revival of the Rodgers & Hart musical Pal Joey, then landed another in 1971 for her turn as flapper Lucille Early, another wise-cracking character, in a revival of Busby Berkeley’s No, No, Nanette.

“When Miss Gallagher sings the blues of a lovelorn wife with piece of chiffon and a chorus of properly epicene tailor’s dummies, she makes the...

You never could tell who was going to drop by "Gilligan's Island" during its three-season run in the mid-1960s. Actually, that's not entirely true. Frank Sinatra? He was way too big a name to mess with a silly network sitcom. Lyndon B. Johnson? The Texas lion of a politician did not have the temperament for that type of tomfoolery. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg? Lou Gehrig? The great Iron Horse of the New York Yankees was notoriously camera shy and dead.

For the most part, the famous people who turned up on that uncharted patch of land in the Pacific were then mid-level comedy celebrities like Phil Silvers, Don Rickles, and Larry Storch. Kurt Russell was easily the biggest movie star to ever set foot on the island, but he was just a precocious teenager at that point in his career. Numerous, soon-to-be-well-known character actors did have a penchant for stopping by the show,...

Eddie Murphy plans to remake It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World with a star-studded cast of comedians, including Martin Lawrence. The original film, a beloved '60s comedy, was nominated for six Oscars and featured iconic actors like Spencer Tracy. Murphy's mixed ensemble approach could lead to a successful remake, with Lawrence as a seasoned comedic talent in the cast.

Eddie Murphy talks about plans to remake It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. The original film is a 1963 screwball comedy about a group of motorists in California who go on a quest for a hidden fortune after they witness a deadly car crash wherein the driver's last words hint at the location of some mysterious loot. It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World was directed by Stanley Kramer and featured a leading cast including Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Ethel Merman, Mickey Rooney, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Dick Shawn,...

“You’ll see it! You’ll see it under this big W. You can’t miss it! A big, big, W!” And that’s just what Eddie Murphy is hoping to get with his planned remake of 1963 ensemble comedy classic It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. He has even started lining up the cast, dropping Martin Lawrence into the fold in the early stages.

Speaking with Entertainment Tonight, Murphy said, “I got this other idea for something with Martin. I’ve been developing it for years. Did you ever see a movie It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World? Well, I got a script, it will be delivered any minute now written by Jez Butterworth [Dial of Destiny, Ford v Ferrari] and I’m trying to do a remake of that movie.” He added, “It’s one of my favorite movies of all time and if I do it, if the script turns out right,...

Al Ruddy, who co-created the famed CBS sitcom Hogan’s Heroes, then captured Academy Awards for producing the best picture winners The Godfather and Million Dollar Baby, has died. He was 94.

Ruddy, also credited as one of the creators of the long-running CBS police drama Walker, Texas Ranger, died Saturday following a brief illness at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center, a publicist announced.

On the heels of The Godfather (1972), Ruddy produced another box-office hit with the original The Longest Yard (1974), the prison-set football movie that starred Burt Reynolds. The pair then reteamed for the action road films The Cannonball Run (1981) and its 1984 sequel, both directed by stuntman-turned-helmer Hal Needham.

The personable Ruddy also produced such films as Bad Girls (1994), the first Western with all female leads (Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, Andie MacDowell and Drew Barrymore); the baseball comedy The Scout (1994), starring Albert Brooks and Brendan Fraser; and Matilda (1978), a comedy...

Gloria Stroock, who played Rock Hudson’s secretary on McMillan & Wife and appeared in films including Fun With Dick and Jane, The Competition and The Day of the Locust, has died. She was 99.

Stroock died May 5 of natural causes in Tucson, Arizona, her daughter, Kate Stern, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Stroock was married to Emmy-winning writer-producer Leonard B. Stern (Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion, The Phil Silvers Show, The Honeymooners, Get Smart and much more) from 1956 until his death in 2011 at age 87.

Her late younger sister was Geraldine Brooks, a Tony nominee and Warner Bros. contract player (Cry Wolf, Embraceable You).

Stroock recurred as Maggie, the secretary of Hudson’s San Francisco police commissioner Stewart McMillan, on the final three seasons (1974-77) of McMillan & Wife, the NBC series created by her husband.

She portrayed the wife of Richard Dysart’s art director in John Schlesinger’s The Day of the Locust...

Stephen Sondheim has almost never been more popular than in the two years since his passing in November 2021. In that time, celebrated revivals of “Company,” “Into the Woods,” and “Sweeney Todd” have come to Broadway, and successful remounting of “Assassins” and “Merrily We Roll Along” have played Off-Broadway, which is a testament to the enduring appeal of his works.

This fall will once again spotlight Sondheim. The tremendously successful Off-Broadway run of “Merrily” starring Jonathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez, and Daniel Radcliffe opens on Broadway on October 10, which will mark the first remounting since its original, unsuccessful run in 1981. In addition, his final musical “Here We Are,” which is based on two Luis Buñuel films—“The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” and “The Exterminating Angel”—will have its highly-anticipated world premiere Off-Broadway, opening on October 22.

In honor of another “season of Sondheim,” take a look back at every single Tony...

Los Angeles, Jan 16 (Ians) Gina Lollobrigida, the 1950s Italian bombshell who starred in films including ‘Fanfan la Tulipe’, ‘Beat the Devil’, ‘Trapeze’ and ‘Buona Sera, Mrs Campbell’, has died. She was 95.

A generation of Indians will remember Lollobrigida from her sensational appearance at the 1978 International Film Festival of India (Iffi), where her flirty exchanges with Kabir Bedi were grist for the gossip magazine mill as well as politically incorrect comparisons between her physical attributes and those of Zeenat Aman.

Kabir Bedi, in his autobiography ‘Stories I Must Tell’, recalls a famous face-off Praveen Babi had with Lollobrigida at a party the Italian actress hosted in his honour for playing Sandokan in the famous Italian television series. The temperamental Indian actress was upset with Lollobrigida because she was apparently getting too comfortable with Bedi.

Lollobrigida also provided fodder for film magazines when it was rumoured that she was being cast by...

Gina Lollobrigida, the 1950s Italian bombshell who starred in films including ‘Fanfan la Tulipe’, ‘Beat the Devil’, ‘Trapeze’ and ‘Buona Sera, Mrs Campbell’, has died. She was 95. A generation of Indians will remember Lollobrigida from her sensational appearance at the 1978 International Film Festival of India (Iffi), where her flirty exchanges with Kabir Bedi were grist for the gossip magazine mill as well as politically incorrect comparisons between her physical attributes and those of Zeenat Aman.

Kabir Bedi, in his autobiography ‘Stories I Must Tell’, recalls a famous face-off Praveen Babi had with Lollobrigida at a party the Italian actress hosted in his honour for playing Sandokan in the famous Italian television series. The temperamental Indian actress was upset with Lollobrigida because she was apparently getting too comfortable with Bedi.

Lollobrigida also provided fodder for film magazines when it was rumoured that she was being cast by Krishna Shah in his Indo-American movie,...

Gina Lollobrigida, the 1950s Italian bombshell who starred in films including “Fanfan la Tulipe,” “Beat the Devil,” “Trapeze” and “Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell,” has died. She was 95.

According to Italian news agency Lapresse, Lollobrigida died in a clinic in Rome. No cause of death has been cited. In September she had had surgery to repair a thigh bone broken in a fall, but she recovered and competed for a Senate seat in Italy’s elections held last year in September, though she did not win.

After resisting Howard Hughes’ offer to make movies in Hollywood in 1950, Lollobrigida starred with Gerard Philipe in the 1952 French swashbuckler “Fanfan la Tulipe,” a fest winner and popular favorite.

Her first American movie, shot in Italy, was John Huston’s 1953 film noir spoof “Beat the Devil,” in which she starred with Humphrey Bogart and Jennifer Jones. The same year she starred with Vittorio De Sica in Luigi Comencini’s “Bread,...

Of the many TV-to-movie adaptations, the diciest propositions have always been the films based on series that were tailored to the personality of their stars. Dan Aykroyd made "Dragnet" work (until its lame action finale) because he was doing a dead-on, deadpan parody of Jack Webb's Sergeant Joe Friday, whereas the great Jim Varney struggled as Jed Clampett in 1993's "The Beverly Hillbillies" because, when it came to playing TV rednecks, he was too defined by his Ernest P. Worrell persona to approximate Buddy Ebsen's interpretation and/or add his own flourishes.

It gets dicier when you're adapting a show named after the actual star. Even if creator James L. Brooks went nutzoid and decided to revive "The Mary Tyler Moore" show starring Sydney Sweeney, there would be an audience of exactly zero for it. Fans of the show would be aghast at the notion of anyone trying...

You might feel like you’ve already seen Mr. Saturday Night the musical even if you’ve never seen Mr. Saturday Night the movie, and whether you find that comforting – Billy Crystal certainly is one of the most likable presences in all of show business – or disappointing might depend entirely on your taste for well-delivered Borsht Belt comedy.

That’s not damning with faint praise: Mr. Saturday Night, the Broadway musical opening tonight at the Nederlander Theatre based on the 1992 comedy, is, at its best, a charming showcase for the undeniable talents of both Crystal and the showbiz icons he adores. There are shout-outs galore here to the likes of Milton Berle, Harry Ritz, Jack Carter, Phil Silvers, Myron Cohen, Moms Mabley, Shecky Green and more, and a lovely visual tribute (Scott Pask designed the attractive sets) to comedy and TV pioneers from Betty White and Phyllis Diller to Richard Pryor and George Carlin.

As big as it is broad, Stanley Kramer’s take-no-prisoners approach to comedy is embodied by an epic cast that includes just about every working comedian in Hollywood circa 1963. The majority of these much-loved artists are reduced to walk-ons but Jonathan Winters and Phil Silvers will not be denied—they rise above the chaos to connect with the audience in some genuinely funny segments. The film premiered as the first attraction of the then-brand new Cinerama Dome—though the hallowed theater was built especially for the three-camera process, Mad, Mad, World ended up as an Ultra Panavision 70 production.

The post It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

Jo-Carroll Dennison, the oldest living Miss America at the time of her death and who held the title in the darkest days of World War II, passed at her home in Idyllwild, Calif. Oct. 18. Her death was confirmed by her son, who did not provide a cause.

Dennison won the competition in 1942, giving an energetic performance of the song “Deep in the Heart of Texas” while dressed in a cowgirl outfit. Her talent segment won her the newspaper title of “The Texas Tornado,” and she swept the talent and swimsuit contests on her way to winning the competition.

She spent the next year entertaining the troops, although balking at times at the requirement that she appear in a swimsuit, eventually cutting short her tour.

She went on to Hollywood, appearing in the war propaganda film Winged Victory (1944) and The Jolson Story (1946), the latter about the entertainer Al Jolson. She later...

Jo-Carroll Dennison, who parlayed her victory in the 1942 Miss America contest into an acting career that saw her appear in films including Winged Victory and The Jolson Story, has died. She was 97.

Dennison died Oct. 18 at her home in Idyllwild, California, her son, Peter Stoneham, told The New York Times.

A contract player at 20th Century Fox, Dennison also had uncredited roles in The Song of Bernadette (1943), Something for the Boys (1944) — where she first met her future husband, actor Phil Silvers — and State Fair (1945) and appeared on television in Lux Video Theater, in a Dick Tracy series and ...

Jo-Carroll Dennison, who parlayed her victory in the 1942 Miss America contest into an acting career that saw her appear in films including Winged Victory and The Jolson Story, has died. She was 97.

Dennison died Oct. 18 at her home in Idyllwild, California, her son, Peter Stoneham, told The New York Times.

A contract player at 20th Century Fox, Dennison also had uncredited roles in The Song of Bernadette (1943), Something for the Boys (1944) — where she first met her future husband, actor Phil Silvers — and State Fair (1945) and appeared on television in Lux Video Theater, in a Dick Tracy series and ...

Opera singer turned actor who made his mark in stage and screen versions of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Leon Greene, who has died of cancer aged 89, was a Sadler’s Wells opera singer who took his bass baritone voice to the West End stage to play the self-important Roman soldier Miles Gloriosus in the original London production of Stephen Sondheim’s musical comedy A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

Following its hugely popular two-year run at the Shaftesbury theatre (1963-65), Greene reprised his role in the 1966 film version, directed by Richard Lester, alongside an international cast led by two stars of the initial Broadway show, Zero Mostel and Jack Gilford, plus Phil Silvers, Buster Keaton and Michael Crawford.

Robert “Bob” Ullman, a longtime Broadway and Off Broadway press agent whose career spanned Ethel Merman, A Chorus Line, Curse of the Starving Class and many others, died of cardiac arrest on July 31 in Bayshore, Long Island, New York. He was 97.

His death was announced by longtime friend (and former Broadway press agent) Rev. Joshua Ellis.

Among the many Broadway productions on which Ullman worked were Ethel Merman and Mary Martin: Together on Broadway, A Chorus Line (from workshop to Public Theater to Broadway), Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in The Visit, Lauren Bacall in Cactus Flower, The Dining Room, Driving Miss Daisy, Sunday in the Park with George, and over 150 additional Broadway and off-Broadway plays and musicals.

Actors and theater greats with whom Ullman worked include Tallulah Bankhead, Luise Rainer, James Dean, Dame Edith Evans, Geraldine Page, Phil Silvers, Bert Lahr, Rosemary Harris, James Earl Jones, Sam Waterston, Colleen Dewhurst,...

I don’t know if Garland fans still go around chanting ‘Judy Judy Judy’ at her every appearance, but they do have a timeless song ‘n’ dance number to celebrate here. Her last MGM movie is only a so-so vehicle but Gene Kelly and the studio’s top music & dance talent work hard to put it over the top. Garland’s lack of stability is still an issue. For much of the movie she looks visibly overweight, yet in the showstopper ‘Get Happy’ she suddenly slims down to the best — maybe not the healthiest — look of her career.

Summer Stock

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1950 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 109 min. / Street Date April 30, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Eddie Bracken, Gloria DeHaven, Marjorie Main, Phil Silvers, Ray Collins, Nita Bieber, Carleton Carpenter, Hans Conried, Jeanne Coyne, Carol Haney, Almira Sessions.

Cinematography: Robert H. Planck

Film Editor: Albert Akst...

Kaye Ballard, a comic actress and singer who was a regular presence on TV for decades and starred in the late-’60s NBC comedy The Mothers-in-Law, has died. Palm Springs-area paper The Desert Sun reported that the star also known for The Girl Most Likely and a half-dozen Broadway musicals died Monday at her home in Rancho Mirage.

Ballard had appeared on a couple of TV programs when she was cast as Marge opposite Jane Powell and Cliff Robertson in the 1958 big-screen musical comedy remake of The Girl Most Likely. She would appear in a handful of movies in the ensuing decades, but TV was her go-to medium.

In 1967 she starred with Eve Arden in The Mothers-in-Law, playing half of an unconventional couple, the Buells, who was best friends with their very-straight suburban neighbors the Hubbards (Arden and Herbert Rudley). The series struggled to lure viewers in its 8:30 Sunday...

Veteran TV host and comedy writer Denis Norden has died aged 96, his family has said.

Best known as the frontman for long-running ITV blooper show It’ll Be Alright On The Night, Norden died on Wednesday morning following a spell in a London hospital. He hosted the hit ITV series from 1977 until his retirement aged 84 in 2006.

After an early career working in cinemas, Norden began scriptwriting during the Second World War. He wrote his first script for the BBC at the age of 19 and from 1948 to 1959, he co-wrote the successful BBC Radio comedy programme Take It From Here with comic Frank Muir with whom he was a regular collaborator.

Norden also wrote a number of film scrips in the 1960s and 70s, including Paramount comedy The Bliss Of Mrs Blossom, starring Shirley MacLaine and Richard Attenborough, United Artists rom-com Buona Sera, Mrs Campbell (which scored a WGA nomination) with Gina Lollobrigida,...

Neil Simon with Cy Coleman in 1982 Photo: AP

Neil Simon has died at the age of 91, following complications from pneumonia.

Much of the playwright's comedy work, including The Odd Couple, Barefoot In The Park, The Sunshine Boys and Biloxi Blues were also adapted into hits for the big and small screens.

He also wrote original screenplays including The Heartbreak Kid and The Out Of Towners.

The New York-born writer wrote for comedy stars including Phil Silvers and Sid Caesar before forging a career on Broadway, which began with Come Blow Your Horn in 1961.

Last night, stars paid tribute to him on Twitter. Danny DeVito, who starred in a stage revival of The Sunshine Boys with Richard Griffiths, wrote: "Neil Simon the true Sunshine Boy. Happy I got to have fun with him. Peace."

Actor Vincent D'Onofrio described him as "a genius".

And Mrs Doubtfire writer Randi Mayhem Singer wrote: "If you write comedy,...

Neil Simon, one of the rare late-20th century playwrights who was a brand name for plays such as “The Odd Couple” and “Barefoot in the Park,” died Sunday. He was 91.

A statement from his reps said, “Neil Simon, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright, died last night at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. The cause was complications from pneumonia.”

“His wife, Elaine Joyce Simon, was at his bedside along with Mr. Simon’s daughters, Ellen Simon and Nancy Simon.”

In addition to his four Oscar nominations and 17 Tony nominations, Simon’s works brought an unsurpassed 50 Tony nominations for their actors. His competitive Tony wins came for “The Odd Couple” (best playwright) and for best play for “Lost in Yonkers” and “Biloxi Blues.”

Beginning in the 1960s, Simon could guarantee good Broadway advance sales, a rare feat for a writer. He had more than 30 plays mounted on Broadway, including...

It's not going to be a lazy afternoon when the great Golden Age musical comedy star, Kaye Ballard, sits down with Rob in her Palm Springs home to look back on her incredible career that includes the original productions of The Golden Apple, Carnival, Molly, Plus Top Banana with Phil Silvers, The Mothers-in-law with Eve Arden, Cinderella with Julie Andrews, and countless appearances on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, and The Muppet Show.

You know, I don’t exactly go after him as much as I should, but, yeah, there’s a segment of Hell out there somewhere waiting for Chris Meladandri. For those who aren’t 100% familiar with him, he’s somewhat of an allusive figure, there’s actually not a lot of material out there on him, but I think I’m not gonna disappoint too many people by saying in animation terms at least, he’s probably the biggest hack out there. Well, I should say that he’s most known for animation, but honestly, he doesn’t have much of an animation background; he’s spent his whole career producing in fact, and his career didn’t start in animation. He’s not illustrious as a producer; the pre-Disney movies he made, range from the forgotten to the forgettable, until he had relatively minor hit with ‘Cool Runnings’. He...

Stars: Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Ethel Merman, Jimmy Durante, Buddy Hackett, Mickey Rooney, Dick Shawn, Phil Silvers, Terry-Thomas, Jonathan Winters | Written by William Rose, Tania Rose | Directed by Stanley Kramer

If you are a fan of comedy films, you’ll already know that It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is one of the greatest ones ever brought to the silver screen. Including most of the biggest names in comedy, it quite simply is a film that could never happen again. Now the Criterion Collection release has come to the UK and it is well worth buying.

When Smiler Grogan (Jimmy Durante) has a high-speed crash, a group of drivers who come to his aid find him close to death. Before he literally kicks the bucket, he shares with them the location of a $350,000 treasure, leading to a frantic race to be first to the prize. One thing they...

Here's a brief look – to be expanded – at Turner Classic Movies' June 2017 European Vacation Movie Series this evening, June 23. Tonight's destination of choice is Italy. Starring Suzanne Pleshette and Troy Donahue as the opposite of Ugly Americans who find romance and heartbreak in the Italian capital, Delmer Daves' Rome Adventure (1962) was one of the key romantic movies of the 1960s. Angie Dickinson and Rossano Brazzi co-star. In all, Rome Adventure is the sort of movie that should please fans of Daves' Technicolor melodramas like A Summer Place, Parrish, and Susan Slade. Fans of his poetic Westerns – e.g., 3:10 to Yuma, The Hanging Tree – may (or may not) be disappointed with this particular Daves effort. As an aside, Rome Adventure was, for whatever reason, a sizable hit in … Brazil. Who knows, maybe that's why Rome Adventure co-star Brazzi would find himself playing a Brazilian – a macho, traditionalist coffee plantation owner,...

Turner Classic Movies continues with its Gay Hollywood presentations tonight and tomorrow morning, June 8–9. Seven movies will be shown about, featuring, directed, or produced by the following: Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart, Farley Granger, John Dall, Edmund Goulding, W. Somerset Maughan, Clifton Webb, Montgomery Clift, Raymond Burr, Charles Walters, DeWitt Bodeen, and Harriet Parsons. (One assumes that it's a mere coincidence that gay rumor subjects Cary Grant and Tyrone Power are also featured.) Night and Day (1946), which could also be considered part of TCM's homage to birthday girl Alexis Smith, who would have turned 96 today, is a Cole Porter biopic starring Cary Grant as a posh, heterosexualized version of Porter. As the warning goes, any similaries to real-life people and/or events found in Night and Day are a mere coincidence. The same goes for Words and Music (1948), a highly fictionalized version of the Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart musical partnership.

How did a film like Cover Girl slip away? When it was shown at the TCM Classic Film Festival in 2012, it was considered something of a discovery, with Robert Osborne frequently singling it out in pre-festival interviews and publicity as a must-see, which makes me feel a little better about having not heard of it at all before seeing it a few months prior at the New Beverly. But the film was immensely popular in its day. Its success instantly pulled Gene Kelly out of limbo at MGM, where he’d been assigned to a series of B-movies and rarely allowed to dance his own choreography, when he was even allowed to dance at all.

Columbia Pictures was not interested in placing such limitations on him. The film’s producer, composer Arthur Schwartz, must have known how lucky they were, because they gave Kelly immense control over its production, especially his dance numbers.

Middleton, Idaho – On the day of the 88th Academy Awards, Hollywood lost a venerable character actor and Oscar winner, George Kennedy. Kennedy won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar at the 40th Academy Awards for his role in “Cool Hand Luke.” He passed away at a care facility in Idaho, age 91.

George Kennedy in 2010

Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

George Harris Kennedy was born in New York City in 1925. He parlayed a military career that began during World War II into a technical advisor role for “The Phil Silvers Show” in the late 1950s. Encourage by Silvers to begin acting, he made his debut in the film “Little Shepard of Kingdom Come” (1961). The beefy, solid character actor made numerous TV and film appearances, including “Charade” (1963), “Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte” (1964) and “The Dirty Dozen” (1967).

It was in 1967 that he won the role of “Dragline” opposite Paul Newman in “Cool Hand Luke.

Ann-Margret movies: From sex kitten to two-time Oscar nominee. Ann-Margret: 'Carnal Knowledge' and 'Tommy' proved that 'sex symbol' was a remarkable actress Ann-Margret, the '60s star who went from sex kitten to respected actress and two-time Oscar nominee, is Turner Classic Movies' star today, Aug. 13, '15. As part of its “Summer Under the Stars” series, TCM is showing this evening the movies that earned Ann-Margret her Academy Award nods: Mike Nichols' Carnal Knowledge (1971) and Ken Russell's Tommy (1975). Written by Jules Feiffer, and starring Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel, the downbeat – some have found it misogynistic; others have praised it for presenting American men as chauvinistic pigs – Carnal Knowledge is one of the precursors of “adult Hollywood moviemaking,” a rare species that, propelled by the success of disparate arthouse fare such as Vilgot Sjöman's I Am Curious (Yellow) and Costa-Gavras' Z, briefly flourished from...

Rex Ingram in 'The Thief of Bagdad' 1940 with tiny Sabu. Actor Rex Ingram movies on TCM: Early black film performer in 'Cabin in the Sky,' 'Anna Lucasta' It's somewhat unusual for two well-known film celebrities, whether past or present, to share the same name.* One such rarity is – or rather, are – the two movie people known as Rex Ingram;† one an Irish-born white director, the other an Illinois-born black actor. Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” continues today, Aug. 11, '15, with a day dedicated to the latter. Right now, TCM is showing Cabin in the Sky (1943), an all-black musical adaptation of the Faust tale that is notable as the first full-fledged feature film directed by another Illinois-born movie person, Vincente Minnelli. Also worth mentioning, the movie marked Lena Horne's first important appearance in a mainstream motion picture.§ A financial disappointment on the...

By Lee Pfeiffer

On June 16, the Warner Archive will release the 1975 screen version of Neil Simon's comedy classic "The Sunshine Boys" as a Blu-ray special edition. The film stars Walter Matthau and George Burns as Lewis and Clark, a legendary vaudeville comedy team who have not been on speaking terms since they broke up their act eleven years ago. For their work in the film, Matthau was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar, George Burns won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar and Richard Benjamin, who co-stars as Matthau's harried nephew and agent who tries the Herculean task of reuniting the team for a television special about comedy greats, won a Golden Globe award. Cinema Retro had the opportunity to speak with Richard Benjamin about his memories of working on the film.  

Cinema Retro: "The Sunshine Boys" must have had a very personal meaning to you, given the fact that your uncle,...

By Lee Pfeiffer

If there is such thing as a family-oriented sex farce, the 1969 hit "Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell" fits the description. The delightful concoction stars Gina Lollobrigida as Carla Campbell, a vivacious woman of relative wealth who lives in a modest Italian village. She is known for her rather upscale lifestyle that includes a live-in maid, Rosa (Naomi Stevens) and the fact that she can afford to send her 18 year-old daughter  to a fancy American university in Switzerland. Life is very pleasing for Carla, who is known for using her money for charitable purposes. She has told everyone that she came by her wealth when her husband, an American officer named Captain Campbell died in action during WWII. She tells a moving tale about how she married him when he took shelter at her house when she was only 16 years old. They fell in love, married and had only...

The Simpsons has pastiched hundreds of movies in its time. From Hitchcock to Kubrick to Disney, we select our top 30 favourites...

The Simpsons has a long history of peppering its stories with pop culture references, and some of the show’s finest gags stem from the world of cinema. These have ranged from the briefest of quotes, to full on shot-for-shot parodies and extended episode-long homages.

Most striking in trying to put this list together was the sheer volume of movie references there are to choose from. In pretty much any given episode of The Simpsons, there are at least a couple, with nods to James Bond, 2001: A Space Odyssey and the work of Alfred Hitchcock proving three of the most regular candidates. The tributes to numerous great horror movies in the show’s Treehouse Of Horror episodes could have been used to fill this list all on their own.

Some of the greatest (or at least heavily favored) American television shows got the big screen treatment when they were selected to have their small screen following turn into a cinematic experience. Unfortunately, for every beloved nostalgic television show that translated successfully in movie theaters (The Brady Bunch Movie, Star Trek, Batman, etc.) there are boob tube stinkers that overtake the good crop. Sure, there are middle-of-the-road movie adaptations of television programs that have a mixed bag reception (1997’s Leave It To Beaver, 1987’s Dragnet, 2012’s Dark Shadows, etc.). Nevertheless, it is always the unflattering fare that receive the bulk of the attention (do you register, 1999’s The Wild, Wild West ?).

In Boob on the Tube: Top Ten Worst Movie Adaptations of TV Shows we will take a look at the top ten televised offenders that dared to venture into cinema’s stratosphere only to end up floating down shamefully...

Cast

Captain T. G. Culpeper Spencer Tracy J. Russell Finch Milton Berle Melville Crump Sid Caesar Benjy Benjamin Buddy Hackett Mrs. Marcus Ethel Merman Ding Bell Mickey Rooney Sylvester Marcus Dick Shawn Otto Meyer Phil Silvers J. Algernon Hawthorne Terry-Thomas Lennie Pike Jonathan Winters Monica Crump Edie Adams Emeline Finch Dorothy Provine Cabdriver Eddie “Rochester” Anderson Tyler Fitzgerald Jim Backus Man driving in the desert Jack Benny Union official Joe E. Brown Biplane pilot Ben Blue Police sergeant Alan Carney Detective Chick Chandler Mrs. Halliburton Barrie Chase Mayor Lloyd Corrigan Police chief William Demarest Sheriff of Crocket County Andy Devine Ginger Culpeper (voice) Selma Diamond Cabdriver Peter Falk Detective Normal Fell Colonel Wilberforce Paul Ford Deputy sheriff Stan Freberg Billie Sue Culpeper (voice) Louise Glenn Cabdriver Leo Gorcey Fire chief Sterling Holloway Mr. Dinckler Edward Everett Horton Irwin Marvin Kaplan Jimmy the Cook Buster Keaton Nervous motorist Don Knotts Airport...

Updates with Runaway Bride and Jack Klugman fixes.

Exclusive: “ ‘Eff You!’ ” I answered. Garry Marshall already knew when he asked me, but he wanted to see whether I knew what I was talking about. We were discussing Neil Simon, who I said had written the all-time funniest line ever. “Which line?” Marshall asked. “F.U.,” I answered.

“I can’t take it anymore, Felix, I’m cracking up. Everything you do irritates me. And when you’re not here, the things I know you’re gonna do when you come in irritate me. You leave me little notes on my pillow. Told you 158 times I can’t stand little notes on my pillow. “We’re all out of cornflakes. F.U.” Took me three hours to figure out F.U. was Felix Ungar!”

Marshall concurs and reminds me that the line is from the Broadway script of The Odd Couple...

Robert "Bob" Francis Hastings, Sr., best known for portraying "yes man" Lt. Elroy Carpenter on the popular 1960s sitcom McHale's Navy, has died. He was 89 and had battled pancreatic cancer for 15 years. The Brooklyn-born Hastings had a long entertainment career, which began in radio at the age of 11 on such shows as The Daily Mirror Radio Gang and Adventures in King Arthurland, according to California's Burbank Leader newspaper. Enlisting as a B-29 navigator during World War II, Hastings once again found work in radio upon his return, serving as the voice of Archie Andrews, the main character on the airwaves...

Article by Sam Moffitt

It’s tough to say goodbye to Sid Caesar. I’ve been pondering what I can possibly say about a comedy legend who has been around as long as I can remember and contributed so much to comedy, mostly on television but also many times in motion pictures.

Firstly Sid Caesar was in on the ground floor of television, his earliest programs done live in 1949 before the video switch board had even been invented. In those earliest shows the director was on the stage telling the floor managers which cameras and mikes to hook or unhook to the coax and audio cables! Consider that just for a moment!

Caesar’s wonderful book Caesar’s Hours: My Life in Comedy, with Love and Laughter, co written with Eddie Friedfeld tells all about Sid Caesar’s years in show business and the legendary live variety shows; Your Show of Shows...

American TV's great comedian of the 1950s

Early on in their careers, Woody Allen, Carl Reiner, Larry Gelbart, Neil Simon and Mel Brooks all produced gags for the American comedian Sid Caesar, who has died aged 91. "Writing for Caesar was the highest thing you could aspire to," said Allen, adding: "at least as a TV comedy writer. The presidency was above that." Simon later based the play Laughter on the 23rd Floor on his experiences of working for Caesar's popular variety programme Your Show of Shows (1950-54), and Reiner's time with Caesar inspired him to create The Dick Van Dyke Show.

At the height of his fame in the 1950s, Caesar was making more than $1m a year and Your Show of Shows was drawing audiences of up to 25 million. Broadway theatre owners complained that as a result of his popularity, they always had empty seats on Saturday nights – the...

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Hollywood Goes "Mad"

By Raymond Benson

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, the 1963 classic epic comedy directed by Stanley Kramer, is one of those Hollywood train wrecks that you can’t help but like. It’s a one-of-a-kind all-star extravaganza featuring some of the biggest names of mostly 1950s and early 1960s comedy (and a good number of them were known primarily as television actor/comics rather than big screen performers). The United Artists release was one of a current trend of movie star ensemble film in which the producers attempt to throw in as many big names as possible (e.g. Exodus, Judgment at Nuremberg, The Longest Day). As Kramer himself states in a reunion extra that appears on Criterion’s new Blu-ray/DVD combo set, “It would be impossible to make today,” due to the salaries stars demand now.

Doris Day movies: TCM’s ‘Summer Under the Stars 2013′ lineup continues (photo: Doris Day in ‘Calamity Jane’ publicity shot) Doris Day, who turned 89 last April 3, is Turner Classic Movies’ 2013 “Summer Under the Stars” star on Friday, August 2. (Doris Day, by the way, still looks great. Check out "Doris Day Today.") Doris Day movies, of course, are frequently shown on TCM. Why? Well, TCM is owned by the megaconglomerate Time Warner, which also happens to own (among myriad other things) the Warner Bros. film library, which includes not only the Doris Day movies made at Warners from 1948 to 1955, but also Day’s MGM films as well (and the overwhelming majority of MGM releases up to 1986). My point: Don’t expect any Doris Day movie rarity on Friday — in fact, I don’t think such a thing exists. Doris Day is ‘Calamity Jane’ If you haven’t watched David Butler’s musical...

Eleanor Parker: Palm Springs resident turns 91 today Eleanor Parker turns 91 today. The three-time Oscar nominee (Caged, 1950; Detective Story, 1951; Interrupted Melody, 1955) and Palm Springs resident is Turner Classic Movies’ Star of the Month of June 2013. Earlier this month, TCM showed a few dozen Eleanor Parker movies, from her days at Warner Bros. in the ’40s to her later career as a top Hollywood supporting player. (Photo: Publicity shot of Eleanor Parker in An American Dream.) Missing from TCM’s movie series, however, was not only Eleanor Parker’s biggest box-office it — The Sound of Music, in which she steals the show from both Julie Andrews and the Alps — but also what according to several sources is her very first movie role: a bit part in Raoul Walsh’s They Died with Their Boots On, a 1941 Western starring Errol Flynn as a dashingly handsome and all-around-good-guy-ish General George Armstrong Custer. Olivia de Havilland...

As news spread Tuesday that Ray Harryhausen had died at age 92 there was an especially emotional reaction from sci-fi, horror and fantasy filmmakers — a community with a deep and formative affection for the old-school effects wizard and the work he did on films such as The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and Clash of the Titans (1981). EW reached out to some signature names in those circles on Tuesday to frame the legacy of Harryhausen and by phone and email they responded with praise for a departed master.

J.J. Abrams, director, producer and screenwriter (Star Trek Into Darkness, Lost): “He was,...

The 2013 TCM Classic Film Festival continues to expand, with newly added appearances by legendary stars at screenings of some of their most memorable films, including Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Mickey Rooney, Jonathan Winters, Marvin Kaplan, Barrie Chase, Polly Bergen,Coleen Gray, Theodore Bikel and Norman Lloyd, as well as producer Stanley Rubin, Clara Bow biographer David Stenn, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) film collections manager Katie Trainor and director Nicholas Ray’s widow, Susan Ray. In addition, TCM’s Essentials Jr. host and Saturday Night Live star Bill Hader will present screenings of Shane (1953) and The Ladykillers(1955).

And The Film Forum’s Bruce Goldstein will present a special screening of Frank Capra’s The Donovan Affair (1929), complete with live voice actors and sound effects to replace the film’s long-lost soundtrack.Mel Brooks is slated to talk about his comedy The Twelve Chairs (1970). Carl Reiner, Mickey Rooney, Jonathan Winters, Marvin Kaplan...

Pat Renella, a suave character actor who played the mobster shot and killed by Steve McQueen in the waning moments of the 1968 classic crime thriller Bullitt, has died. He was 83. Renella, who worked in Hollywood for more than three decades, died Nov. 9 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after suffering for months with a chronic illness, his niece, Judy Portone, told The Hollywood Reporter on Friday. Renella also starred as one of con man Phil Silvers’ cohorts on The New Phil Silvers Show in the early 1960s, guest-starred in five episodes of Mannix in

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Innocence of Muslims / 'Desert Warrior' director Alan Roberts best-known for '70s soft-core porn The polemical anti-Islam "film" (actually, a cheap, grade Z amateur video), now has not only a producer, but also a director. The "Israeli entrepreneur Sam Bacile" has been exposed as the Egyptian Coptic Christian Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, who allegedly misled all (or most) involved in the production. And Gawker has reported that Alan Roberts aka Robert Brownell, the director of a handful of softcore porn movies in the '70s and early '80s, helmed "Desert Warrior," a cheesy Arabian adventure that was to become -- following some sloppy overdubbing -- Innocence of Muslims. Besides the now infamous Islamophobic YouTube sensation, which has been blamed for riots in several Muslim countries from Tunisia to Pakistan, Alan Roberts' movie credits include several now long forgotten titles. (Please scroll down for more details.) Alan Roberts also produced several little-known movies,...

Welcome, dear friends and other suckers, to a new regular feature here at the Criminal Complex. Yes, the Scam Artist Hall Of Fame, as demanded by none of you, will highlight those great men and women, fictional and non, who through their erudite shrewdness and intelligence part money from its fools. Our inaugural inductee is none other than that captain of the cardsharps, the service’s own shuckster, Sergeant Bilko.

This may seem an odd choice for such an honored position, the main character (as portrayed by Phil Silvers) from a sit-com that your grandparents used to watch when they were your age. And that’s fair enough until you consider that, compared to other such squeaky-clean TV comedy fare of the time as Leave It to Beaver and The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, to have a protagonist who spent all of his time fleecing the men in his command...