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John O’Hurley, known for Seinfeld and his television hosting gigs, is involved in a very different project as he helps explore the circumstances surrounding former President Richard Nixon’s resignation.

Writer-director George Bugatti’s documentary feature Watergate’s Secrets and Betrayals is set for release on Aug. 8, which marks the 50th anniversary of Nixon stepping down from office in 1974. Aiming to shed light on the Watergate investigation, the movie includes archival footage, new interviews and dramatized scenes. Central to the film is the research done by Geoff Shepard, who was the deputy counsel for the Watergate defense team and has more recently analyzed the records of the case’s special prosecutor.

O’Hurley appears in the film and serves as the project’s narrator. “Until now, the story of Watergate stood unchallenged, and yet a groundbreaking revelation is beginning to reshape the paradigm,” he says in the trailer that is exclusive to The Hollywood Reporter.

John Dean doesn’t recall the exact date more than 50 years ago when he first met Martha Mitchell, but he remembers his impressions.

“The Attorney General [John Mitchell] used to have lunches every Wednesday for the senior staff, which I was a part of. He’d have them in his large conference room at the Department of Justice. And often Martha would attend those,” recalls Dean, the former White House Counsel under President Nixon, and a key figure in the Watergate coverup. “She was always a bright light in any room she walked into. She was vivacious, she was smart.”

There was a time, even before she became a kind of Watergate whistleblower, when seemingly all of America knew Martha Mitchell. The Arkansas charmer with the bulletproof beehive hairdo captivated the public with her remarkably outspoken manner. But that very quality, refusing to hold her tongue, would bring severe consequences,...

In Starz’s new Gaslit, premiering Sunday, central Watergate figure John Dean is played by Dan Stevens. In White House Plumbers, an upcoming HBO limited series, Dean is portrayed by Domhnall Gleeson. And in The Last Witness: Watergate, an upcoming four-part CNN original series, Dean himself will “confront his own involvement in the biggest presidential scandal of the 20th century,” in the words of the network.

As we approach the 50th anniversary of the June 17, 1972, break-in at the Watergate complex, the “third-rate burglary” that brought down a presidency, Hollywood is still mining the scandal for storylines, drawing on new perspectives and points of view even as many of the central figures have long passed, the notorious aspects of Watergate have faded in memory, and D.C. has been gripped by so many other moments of abuse of power that are arguably of far more consequence. (Note: January 6).

“Watergate is one of...

★★★☆☆ Inside the Nixon White House, three of the former-us president's most senior aides were enthusiastic amateur filmmakers. Between them, they managed to amass over 500 reels of Super 8 footage detailing everything from state visits to staff garden parties. Having been seized by the FBI during the investigations into the Watergate scandal, those videos are now freely available and provide the primary source for Penny Lane's award-winning montage documentary, Our Nixon (2013). Playing this week at the Institute of Contemporary Art, the film presents an intimate portrait of the life of the "Tricky Dicky" administration.

When Richard Nixon was elected in 1969, he brought with him into the West Wing a trio of young, energised and devoted advisors from his Presidential campaign; H.R. Halderman, John Ehrlichman, and Dwight Chapin. These three filled the respective roles of White House Chief of Staff, Chief Domestic Advisor, and Special Assistant whilst also supplying a...

In Our Nixon, director Penny Lane explores the Nixon administration by juxtaposing secret White House discussions from the infamous Nixon tapes with incredibly intimate Super 8 footage taken by avid amateur cineastes H.R. “Bob” Haldeman, John Ehrlichmann and Dwight Chapin. The fact that these men also happened to be the chief of staff, special advisor and assistant to our much maligned 37th President is one thing; that they were also three of Nixon’s closest aides and the key conspirators jailed during the aftermath of the Watergate scandal is another entirely. Despite what Ben Stein might say, Our Nixon has little to no polemical […]...

In Our Nixon, director Penny Lane explores the Nixon administration by juxtaposing secret White House discussions from the infamous Nixon tapes with incredibly intimate Super 8 footage taken by avid amateur cineastes H.R. “Bob” Haldeman, John Ehrlichmann and Dwight Chapin. The fact that these men also happened to be the chief of staff, special advisor and assistant to our much maligned 37th President is one thing; that they were also three of Nixon’s closest aides and the key conspirators jailed during the aftermath of the Watergate scandal is another entirely. Despite what Ben Stein might say, Our Nixon has little to no polemical […]...

The documentary "Our Nixon" by Penny Lane serves as a bit of a complication to the popular narrative of Richard Nixon as our most scandalized and scheming of Presidents. While it doesn't seek to alter this narrative, it does attempt to add another layer to the story, a perspective offered by those closest to Nixon, and those who fell the hardest. The results are an illuminating and often hilarious portrayal of the man and his myth and those who surrounded him. The film is comprised entirely of archival footage from television news reports, interviews and the Super 8 home movies of Nixon's closest advisors, H.R. "Bob" Haldeman, John Erlichman and Dwight Chapin. This young and energetic group of staffers were known for constantly shooting footage everywhere they went, from China to the Vatican, and these tapes were seized by the FBI during the Watergate investigation and kept in a vault for 40 years.