jakeem

Nora-Jane Noone was in "The Magdalene Sisters" (2002) with Geraldine McEwan. Geraldine McEwan was in "Vanity Fare" (2004) with Reese Witherspoon. Reese Witherspoon was in "Twilight" (1998) with Paul Newman. Next: Beyoncé

"Boyhood," director Richard Linklater's groundbreaking film with a 12-year gestation period, won three major awards -- including Best Film -- at the annual ceremony of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in London. http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/08/europe/baftas-2015/

Kodi Smit-McPhee was in "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" (2014) with Jason Clarke. Jason Clarke was in "Twilight" (1998) with Paul Newman. Next: Sianoa Smit-McPhee.

Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu, whose film "Birdman" is a top Academy Awards contender, has won the 67th Directors Guild of America Award for excellence in filmmaking. The DGA Award is frequently a harbinger of who wins the Oscar for Best Director. Iñárritu, whose credits include "Amores perros" (2000), "21 Grams" (2003), "Babel" (2006) and "Biutiful" (2010), is the second consecutive Mexican filmmaker to win the DGA Award. Last year's recipient was his good friend Alfonso Cuarón, who won for "Gravity." Cuarón also received the Best Director Oscar for the 2013 film. http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2015/02/08/dga-winners/23062715/

TCM On Demand for February 8, 2015 The following features are now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 1. The Great Dictator (1940) -- Sir Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Jack Oakie, Reginald Gardiner, Henry Daniell, Billy Gilbert, Grace Hayle, Carter De Haven, Maurice Moscovich, Emma Dunn, Bernard Gorcey, Paul Weigel. Chaplin took advantage of his Little Tramp's resemblance to Adolf Hitler in this World War II satire he wrote, produced and directed. He plays a dual role -- a Jewish barber subsisting in the fictional European country of Tomania, as well as Tomania's fascist dictator Adenoid Hynkel (obviously based on Hitler. By the way, Tomania's symbol is a double cross instead of the Nazi swastika). The barber, who is frequently harassed by Tomanian stormtroopers, eventually becomes mistaken for country's all-powerful leader. Goddard, who was married to Chaplin at the time, co-stars as the barber's neighbor. The film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor (Chaplin), Best Writing, Original Screenplay (Chaplin again), Best Supporting Actor (Oakie, as a fascist based on Italy's Benito Mussolini) and Best Original Score (Meredith Willson, who later co-created the stage and screen musical versions of "The Music Man"). Memorable scene: Hynkel performs an impromptu ballet with an oversized globe inflated with helium. The scene is masterfully done, thanks to Chaplin's impeccable timing (and editing). Expires February 14, 2015. 2. Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) -- Robert Montgomery, Claude Rains, Evelyn Keyes, Rita Johnson, Edward Everett Horton, James Gleason, John Emery, Donald MacBride, Don Costell. Uncredited: Lloyd Bridges. Directed by Alexander Hall ("My Sister Eileen"), this comedy/fantasy stars Montgomery as Joe Pendleton, a saxophone-playing prizefighter who dies prematurely because of mistaken heavenly intervention. Actually, Pendleton is not supposed to die until 50 years later, on May 11, 1991 (in real life, Montgomery died 10 years before that). Because his body was cremated, Pendleton's urbane heavenly escort, Mr. Jordan (Rains), tries to find a replacement body. Of course, Pendleton wants a fit specimen that will enable him to get back into boxing and contend for the heavyweight title. But the best choice available is an older millionaire named Farnsworth, who has just been murdered by his unfaithful wife (Johnson) and personal secretary (Emery). Keyes co-stars as Bette Logan, who has a bone to pick with Farnsworth, but eventually falls for him. The film won Academy Awards for Best Writing, Original Story (Harry Segall, whose stage play "Heaven Can Wait" was the source for the film) and Best Writing, Screenplay (Sidney Buchman and Seton I. Miller, who adapted the Segall play). The movie received five other Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Montgomery), Best Supporting Actor (Gleason, as Pendleton's trainer Max Corkle) and Best Black-and-White Cinematography (Joseph Walker). Hall directed a sequel of sorts titled "Down to Earth" (1947), which starred Rita Hayworth, Ronald Culver (replacing Rains as Mr. Jordan), Gleason, Horton and Larry Parks (in between Jolson movies). It was a musical comedy about Broadway and starred Hayworth as Terpsichore, one of the nine Muses of Greek mythology. In the 1970s, actor-director Warren Beatty decided to remake "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" with two-time heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali as Joe Pendleton. Ali had starred as himself in the 1977 autobiopic "The Greatest," but was unavailable for Beatty's film. As a result, Beatty, a star high school football player in Virginia, decided to play Pendleton himself and changed the character into a quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams. Beatty also tried to coax Cary Grant out of retirement for the role of Mr. Jordan, but wound up casting James Mason when Grant declined. The remake was a financial and critical success that earned 1978 Oscar nominations in nine categories. Interestingly, Beatty and Jack Warden were nominated for their respective roles as Pendleton and Corkle, just as Montgomery and Gleason had been for the original film. Another remake came along in 2001 with Chris Rock starring as a comedian who gets a second chance at life in "Down to Earth." Expires February 14, 2015.

Hilary Swank was in "The Core" (2003) with Stanley Tucci. Stanley Tucci was in "Road to Perdition" (2002) with Paul Newman. Next: Marion Cotillard.

TCM On Demand for February 7, 2015 The following features are now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 1. The Man in the Iron Mask (1939) -- Louis Hayward, Joan Bennett, Warren William, Joseph Schildkraut, Alan Hale, Sr., Walter Kingsford, Miles Mander, Bert Roach, Marion Martin, Montagu Love, Doris Kenyon, Albert Dekker, Nigel De Brulier, William Royle, Boyd Irwin, Howard Brooks, Reginald Barlow, Lane Chandler, Wyndham Standing, Dorothy Vaughan, Sheila Darcy, Robert Milasch, D'Arcy Corrigan, Harry Woods, Peter Cushing, Emmett King, The Robert Mitchell Boy Choir. Uncredited: Dwight Frye. Directed by James Whale ("Frankenstein," "The Bride of Frankenstein"), this swashbuckling film is set in 17th century France and based on the legendary tale by Alexandre Dumas the Elder ("The Three Musketeers"). Hayward plays the dual roles of King Louis XIV and Philippe of Gascony, his little-known twin brother. Philippe is a protégé of D'Artagnan (William) and the other famed Musketeers -- Athos (Roach), Porthos (Hale) and Aramis (Mander). The film is full of palace intrigue revolving around the machinations of Fouquet (Schildkraut), Louis' devious advisor, to secure the king's power. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Music, Original Score (Lud Gluskin, Lucien Moraweck ). Alan Hale, Jr. played Porthos in the 1952 reworking of this film titled "Lady in the Iron Mask." He also appeared as Porthos in the 1979 film "The 5th Musketeer," also based on the Dumas tale. Expires February 13, 2015. 2. Rebel Without a Cause (1955) -- James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus, Ann Doran, Corey Allen, William Hopper, Rochelle Hudson, Dennis Hopper, Edward Platt, Steffi Sydney, Marietta Canty, Virginia Brissac, Beverly Long, Ian Wolfe, Frank Mazzola, Robert Foulk, Jack Simmons, Tom Bernard, Nick Adams, Jack Grinnage, Clifford Morris. Uncredited: Jimmy Baird, Paul Birch. Dean became an icon for the ages because of his role in Nicholas Ray's drama about teen-age angst. The film was released less than a month after the 24-year-old actor's tragic death in an automobile accident on September 30, 1955. The picture was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actress (Wood, her first of three overall nominations during her career), Best Supporting Actor (Mineo) and Best Writing, Motion Picture Story (Ray). Dean received a posthumous Best Actor nomination, but it was for his first feature-length film, "East of Eden." He would receive a second Best Actor nomination after his death for his performance in the 1956 epic "Giant." Dean's Oscar-nominated co-stars also died tragically. On February 12, 1976, Mineo was brutally stabbed to death in an alley behind his West Hollywood apartment. He was 37. A suspect, pizza deliveryman Lionel Ray Williams, wasn't arrested and charged with the crime until three years later. In March 1979, Williams was convicted and sentenced to 50-plus years in prison for second-degree murder ans 10 robberies. He was paroled in 1990. Wood's accidental drowning death during Thanksgiving Weekend of 1981 cast a pall over the making of her sci-fi film "Brainstorm." It was still in production when she died at the age of 43. Thanks to some creative editing by director Douglas Trumbull and his crew, the movie was salvaged -- although it wasn't a box-office hit. Stewart Stern, who wrote the screenplay for "Rebel" based on Ray's story, died on February 2, 2015 at the age of 92. During his career, he earned Academy Award nominations for his contributions to the movies "Teresa" (1951) and "Rachel, Rachel" (1968). Expires February 13, 2015. 3. The Reivers (1969) -- Steve McQueen, Rupert Crosse, Mitch Vogel, Will Geer, Sharon Farrell, Ruth White, Michael Constantine, Clifton James, Juano Hernandez, Lonny Chapman, Diane Shalet, Pat Randall, Diane Ladd, Ellen Geer, Dub Taylor, Allyn Ann McLerie, Shug Fisher, Logan Ramsey, Gloria Calomee, Vinnette Carroll, John McLiam, Billy Green Bush. Narrator: Burgess Meredith. Mark Rydell ("On Golden Pond," "The Rose") directed this charming film that provided a change-of-pace role for movie superstar McQueen. Based on William Faulkner's 1962 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, the light-hearted tale stars McQueen as the roguish Boon Hogganbeck, who creates an unforgettable experience for a young boy (Vogel) on a road trip from Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi to Memphis. Crosse, who co-stars as their unexpected companion Ned McCaslin, received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance. Composer John Williams earned the third of his 49 Oscar nominations for his original score. Expires February 13, 2015. 4. Wuthering Heights (1939) -- Sir Laurence Olivier, Merle Oberon, David Niven, Dame Flora Robson, Donald Crisp, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Hugh Williams, Leo G. Carroll, Miles Mander, Cecil Kellaway, Cecil Humphreys, Sarita Wooton, Rex Downing, Douglas Scott. Producer Samuel Goldwyn's film version of Emily Brontë's 19th-century classic tale received eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director (William Wyler) and Best Actor (Olivier, who became a worldwide star as a result of the film's success). In 1998, the American Film Institute ranked the film No. 73 on its list of the 100 greatest movies of all time. When AFI updated the list in 2007, the film did not reappear. Set in Yorkshire in the northern England of the early 1800s, the film is about the star-crossed romance between the brooding Heathcliff (Olivier) and Catherine Earnshaw (Oberon) Niven co-stars as Edgar Linton, who becomes a serious suitor for Cathy's hand. The film's screenplay was adapted from Brontë's 1847 novel by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. John Huston also made contributions to the script. This release from Samuel Goldwyn Productions-United Artists was one of 10 films nominated for the Academy Award as the Best Picture of 1939. The other nominees for that memorable year were: "Gone With the Wind" (Selznick International Pictures-MGM), "Dark Victory" (Warner Bros.), "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" (MGM), "Love Affair" (RKO Radio), "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (Columbia), "Ninotchka" (MGM), "Of Mice and Men" (Hal Roach Studios-United Artists), "Stagecoach" (United Artists) and "The Wizard of Oz" (MGM). The Oscar went to "Gone With the Wind." The film's only Oscar win was for Best Black-and-White Cinematography (Gregg Toland). It also received nominations for Best Supporting Actress (Fitzgerald), Best Adapted Screenplay (Hecht and MacArthur), Best Art Direction (James Basevi) and Best Original Score (Alfred Newman). Memorable quote: "No matter what I ever do or say, Heathcliff, this is me -- now -- standing on this hill with you. This is me, forever." -- Cathy. Expires February 13, 2015.

Besides Eastwood, the Directors Guild nominees are Alejandro González Iñárritu, "Birdman"; Richard Linklater, "Boyhood"; Wes Anderson, "The Grand Budapest Hotel"; and Morton Tyldum, "The Imitation Game." They are all Oscar nominees this year with the exception of Eastwood. Bennett Miller of "Foxcatcher" was nominated instead.

Believe it or not, the BAFTAs have been a good indicator of trends in recent years. Both award shows will be held on Sunday.

TCM On Demand for February 6, 2015 The following feature is now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 1. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) -- Errol Flynn, Dame Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains, Patric Knowles, Eugene Pallette, Alan Hale, Sr., Melville Cooper, Ian Hunter, Una O'Connor, Herbert Mundin, Montagu Love, Leonard Willey, Kenneth Hunter. Uncredited: Carole Landis, Sam Jaffe, Leonard Mudie. Directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley, this Technicolor action-adventure film based on legendary British tales stars Flynn in his best-remembered role. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won three Oscars: Best Art Direction (Carl Jules Weyl), Best Film Editing (Ralph Dawson) and Best Music, Original Score (Erich Wolfgang Korngold). In 2005, Korngold's score placed 11th on the American Film Institute's ranking of the top 25 film scores of all time. This was one of eight films that co-starred Flynn and De Havilland. The others: "Captain Blood" (1935), "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1936), "Four's a Crowd" (1938), "Dodge City" (1939), "The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex" (1939), "Santa Fe Trail" (1940) and "They Died with Their Boots On" (1941). Seven of the films were either directed or co-directed by Curtiz. Memorable scene No. 1: Displaying great athleticism and ingenuity, Robin escapes from the clutches of Prince John's soldiers at Sir Guy of Gisbourne's castle. Memorable scene No. 2: Although it's a ruse to smoke him out, Robin (in disguise) can't resist displaying his prowess with a bow and arrow in a royal archery tournament. Future mane attraction: De Havilland's horse in the film was a golden palomino stallion named Golden Cloud. The steed eventually was purchased for $2,500 by Western star Roy Rogers and renamed Trigger. Expires February 12, 2015.

This is my all-time favorite movie poster, and I suppose it's something of a classic because it's been almost 30 years since the film's release on July 3, 1985. Time really flies when you're having fun!

TCM On Demand for February 6, 2015 The following feature is now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 2. Bonnie and Clyde (1967) -- Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman, Estelle Parsons, Michael J. Pollard, Denver Pyle, Dub Taylor, Gene Wilder, Evans Evans. Producer and leading man Beatty's landmark film about the infamous bank robbers of the 1930s received 10 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director (Arthur Penn). It also earned Oscar nominations for all five actors who played members of the Barrow Gang -- Beatty, Dunaway, Hackman, Pollard and Parsons. The film won awards for Best Supporting Actress (Parsons, as Clyde's excitable sister-in-law Blanche) and Best Cinematography (Burnett Guffey). The movie's original screenplay was written by Esquire magazine luminaries David Newman and Robert Benton, who were nominated for Oscars for the film. They later were credited (with Newman's wife Leslie and Mario Puzo) for the screenplay of "Superman" (1978). Benton, who was an Esquire art director before turning to moviemaking, went on to win three Academy Awards. He received Oscars for directing Best Picture winner "Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979) and adapting its screenplay from the 1977 novel by Avery Corman. He also won the 1984 Best Original Screenplay Oscar for "Places in the Heart," which he also directed. Robert Towne, who later won a 1974 Oscar for his "Chinatown" original screenplay, is listed as a consultant. He did final revisions to Newman and Benton's screenplay but did not receive a screenwriting credit. Although the film drew widespread attention -- and criticism -- because of its emphasis on violence, the critic Pauline Kael raved about it in The New Yorker as "the most excitingly American American movie since 'The Manchurian Candidate'." "The audience is alive to it," she continued in her 9,000-word piece. "Our experience as we watch it has some connection with the way we reacted to movies in childhood: with how we came to love them and to feel they were ours -- not an art that we learned over the years to appreciate but simply and immediately ours." Cover Credit: ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG In a December 8, 1967 cover story, Time magazine recognized the movie's significance: "In both conception and execution, 'Bonnie and Clyde' is a watershed picture, the kind that signals a new style, a new trend. An early example of this was 'Birth of a Nation', which still stands alone; it gave American cinema an epic sense of the nation's history. Orson Welles' 'Citizen Kane' was another watershed film, with its stunning use of deep-focus photography and its merciless character analysis of that special U.S. phenomenon, the self-made mogul. John Ford's 'Stagecoach' brought the western up from the dwarfed adolescence of cowboy-and-Injun adventures to the maturity and stature of a legend. Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen's 'Singin' in the Rain' proved again the ingenuity of U.S. moviemakers to bring fresh style to the format of musical comedy, which, like jazz, remains an authentically American art form." And Roger Ebert, in his first months as film critic of The Chicago Sun-Times, gave the picture four stars and called it "a milestone in the history of American movies, a work of truth and brilliance." He continued: "It is also pitilessly cruel, filled with sympathy, nauseating, funny, heartbreaking, and astonishingly beautiful. If it does not seem that those words should be strung together, perhaps that is because movies do not very often reflect the full range of human life." In 1998, the American Film Institute ranked the film No. 27 on its list of the 100 greatest movies of all time. When AFI updated the list in 2007, the film dropped to No. 42. Memorable quote: "This here's Miss Bonnie Parker, and I'm Clyde Barrow. We rob banks." -- Clyde's forthright introduction to an impoverished family was ranked No. 41 on AFI's 2005 list of the Top 100 movie quotes of all time. Meeting cute: In the movie's opening scene, Bonnie lolls naked in her bedroom in her West Dallas home when she notices Clyde checking out her mother's car outside. She dresses hurriedly and accuses him of trying to steal the auto. He eventually gains her confidence, offers to buy her a soft drink, and accompanies her downtown. While she waits outside, he sticks up a grocery store and returns with a handful of stolen money. "Hey, what's your name anyhow?" she asks as they prepare to flee in a stolen car. "Clyde Barrow," he replies. "Hi, I'm Bonnie Parker," she says. "I'm pleased to meet you." A sound mix tale: Beatty once told a story about how he wanted the gunfire in this film to sound like the explosive shots in George Stevens' classic 1953 Western "Shane." He even received pointers from Stevens, who explained that the noise was created by firing a shotgun into a garbage can. At an important screening in London in 1967, however, Beatty noticed a problem with the sound mix, so he hurried up to the projection booth for some answers. "And there's a man who's shocked to see the actor [in the movie] in his booth," Beatty recalled in 2007. "And he said, 'Gee, I really have to tell you something about this picture, kid...They really did it to you on this mix. It's really awful. But I've saved you.' " The projectionist then showed Beatty a chart with reminders about when to turn down the film's sound for gunshots and music cues. "He said, 'You know, I haven't seen a picture this badly mixed since 'Shane'." The movie's influence on music: Although Charles Strouse composed the film's music score, what movie lovers remember most is "Foggy Mountain Breakdown," the bluegrass instrumental by country artists Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. The song, originally released in 1949, gained notoriety and a wider audience because of the film...British singer Georgie Fame had a 1968 hit on both sides of the Atlantic with "The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde." It went to No. 1 in the United Kingdom and rose as high as No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States...Six years before they married in 2008, Jay Z and Beyoncé did a recording and music video titled "03 Bonnie & Clyde," in which they took on the roles of bank robbers on the run from authorities. More Beatty: This was the first film produced by the actor, who once admitted he was afraid to direct it himself. He went on to become an accomplished quadruple threat with 14 Academy Award nominations as a producer, director, actor and screenwriter. He won the 1981 Best Director Oscar for "Reds." his epic film biography of the early 20th-century journalist John Reed. What's in a name?: When Canadian actor Mike Fox set out to become a member of the Screen Actors Guild, he discovered there already was a Michael Fox registered with the union. Since he didn't want to use his middle name Andrew or middle initial -- the thought of being Michael A. Fox horrified him -- he came up with a solution. Since he admired Pollard, who plays C.W. Moss in "Bonnie and Clyde," he borrowed the veteran actor's middle initial and became Michael J. Fox. Expires February 12, 2015.

TCM On Demand for February 6, 2015 The following feature is now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 3. Frank Capra's 'You Can't Take It With You' (1938) -- James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, Edward Arnold, Misha Auer, Ann Miller, Spring Byington, Samuel S. Hinds, H.B. Warner, Donald Meeks, Halliwell Hobbes, Dub Taylor, Mary Forbes, Lillian Yarbo, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Clarence Wilson, Josef Swickard, Ann Doran, Christian Rub, Bodil Rosing, Charles Lane, Harry Davenport. Uncredited: Ward Bond, Byron Foulger, Ian Wolfe, Eugene Anderson, Jr., Stanley Andrews, Irving Bacon, Pert Kelton, Pierre Watkin. Capra won his third Academy Award for Best Director in five years with this Best Picture-winning screwball comedy. His other awards were for "It Happened One Night" (1934) and "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" (1936). Expires February 12, 2015.

I forgot to mention that "Twice Upon a Time" also is on Watch TCM until February 8, 2015.

Actress-singer Mary Healy, who co-starred with her husband Peter Lind Hayes in the 1953 musical fantasy "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T," has died at the age of 96. Turner Classic Movies aired the movie in the early morning hours of February 1, 2015, two days before her death. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/05/arts/television/mary-healy-actress-and-singer-dies-at-96.html Here's a scene from the film featuring Healy and Tommy Rettig, who later starred in the television series "Lassie." The movie was produced by Stanley Kramer and written by Ted Geisel (alias Dr. Seuss).

Here's a USA Today piece that says "American Sniper" could be building enough momentum to win Oscars: http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2015/02/03/american-sniper-box-office-success-oscar-chances/22775167/

Nice! You learn something new every day!

Jon Chu was in "Supercop 2" (1993) with Jackie Chan. Jackie Chan was in "Cannonball Run II" (1984) with Shirley MacLaine. Shirley MacLaine was in "What a Way to Go!" (1964) with Paul Newman. Next: Carmen Ejogo.

If your cable provider features TCM On Demand, the animated film may be available through February 7, 2015. But you can't record it that way.

TCM On Demand for February 5, 2015 The following features are now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 1. The Awful Truth (1937) -- Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Ralph Bellamy, Alexander D'Arcy, Cecil Cunningham, Molly Lamont, Esther Dale, Joyce Compton, Robert Allen, Robert Warwick, Mary Forbes. Leo McCarey won the first of his two Best Director Oscars -- the other was for "Going My Way" (1944) -- via this screwball comedy about a divorcing couple (Dunne and Grant) that somehow can't refrain from meddling in each other's new romances. Based on a 1922 play by Arthur Richman, the film also received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Actress (Dunne), Best Supporting Actor (Bellamy) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Viña Delmar). Dunne and Grant would reunite for two other films -- "My Favorite Wife" (1940) and "Penny Serenade" (1941). Mr. Smith, the wire-haired terrier in the film, was the same dog that appeared as Asta in "The Thin Man" (1934) and "After the Thin Man" (1936). Expires February 11, 2015. 2. Grand Illusion (1937) -- Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim, Maurice Dalio, Julien Carette, Georges Péclet, Werner Florian, Jean Dasté, Sylvain Itkine, Gaston Modot. France's Jean Renoir directed and co-wrote (with Charles Spaak) this World War I drama, which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture of 1938. It has been called one of the greatest movies of all time. The film stars Gabin and Fresnay as French pilots who are shot down and confined to a German prisoner-of-war camp. They are later moved to a supposedly inescapable fortress, but we all know that you can't keep determined POWs down! Austrian-born film director and actor Von Stroheim ("Greed") co-stars as a gentlemanly German officer who believes in the old ways of conducting war. In a 1999 review of the film, the late Roger Ebert credited the movie -- titled "La Grande Illusion" in French -- for influencing both the tunnel-digging sequences in "The Great Escape" (1963) and the patriotic singing of "La Marseillaise" in "Casablanca" (1943). "It's not a movie about a prison escape, nor is it jingoistic in its politics; it's a meditation on the collapse of the old order of European civilization, " Ebert wrote. "Perhaps that was always a sentimental upper-class illusion, the notion that gentlemen on both sides of the lines subscribed to the same code of behavior. Whatever it was, it died in the trenches of World War I." Ebert, who included the film on his list of "Great Movies," also details the miraculous survival of Renoir's film during World War II, despite the odds: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-grand-illusion-1937 Dalio, who starred with Modot in Renoir's other great film of the pre-World War II decade -- "Rules of the Game" (1939) -- plays a French POW who happens to be a member of a wealthy Jewish family. Parlo (1906-1971), a German actress who occasionally appeared in French and American movies (see: "L'Atalante"), became an inspiration for Madonna in 1992. The pop singer created a character she called "Mistress Dita" and used it in her racy album "Erotica" (and the title song's music video), as well as her controversial and explicit photo-book "Sex." Expires February 11, 2015. 3. The Last of the Mohicans (1936) -- Randolph Scott, Binnie Barnes, Henry Wilcoxon, Bruce Cabot, Heather Angel, Phillip Reed, Robert Barrat, Hugh Buckler, Willard Robertson, William Stack, Lumsden Hare, Frank McGlynn, Sr., Will Stanton, William V. Mong, Art Dupuis, Ian MacLaren, Reginald Barlow, Olaf Hytten, Lionel Belmore, Claude King. Scott stars as James Fenimore Cooper's Hawkeye in this adaptation of the second installment of the 19th-century author's five-part "Leatherstocking Tales." Set in 1757 during the French and Indian War, the drama focuses on Hawkeye's attempt to reunite sisters Alice and Cora Munro (Barnes, Angel) with their father (Buckler), the British commander of Fort William Henry. To make that happen, the heroic frontiersman -- and adopted Mohican-- must fend off the advances of Huron tribe members allied with the French. The film was directed by George B. Seitz, who helmed 13 of the films in the "Andy Hardy" series that starred Mickey Rooney. The picture received an Academy Award nomination for Best Assistant Director (Clem Beauchamp), a category that was awarded from 1933 to 1937. Beauchamp shared the 1935 award with Paul Wing for "The Lives of a Bengal Lancer." Michael Mann's 1992 remake of the Hawkeye adventure starred Daniel Day-Lewis as the hero and actresses Madeleine Stowe and Jodhi May as the Munro sisters. The updated screen version of the tale received the Academy Award for Best Sound (Chris Jenkins, Doug Hemphill, Mark Smith and Simon Kaye). Expires February 11, 2015. 4. The Pride of the Yankees (1942) -- Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright, Walter Brennan, Babe Ruth, Dan Duryea, Elsa Janssen, Ludwig Stössel, Virginia Gilmore, Bill Dickey, Ernie Adams, Pierre Watkin, Harry Harvey, Bob Meusel, Mark Koenig, Bill Stern. Uncredited actors: Dane Clark, Frank Faylen, James Westerfield. Directed by Sam Wood and produced by Samuel Goldwyn, this film biography is about the great career and tragic end of New York Yankees great Lou Gehrig (1903-1941). The drama earned 11 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Cooper) and Best Actress (Wright). The movie's only Oscar win was for Best Film Editing (Daniel Mandell). Wright, who co-stars as Gehrig's steadfast wife Eleanor, also was nominated for Best Supporting Actress and won for her performance in the 1942 Best Picture winner "Mrs. Miniver." Wood received a nomination for Best Director, but it was for another film, "Kings Row." Cooper as Lou Gehrig The biopic's screenplay was co-written by Jo Swerling, Sr. and Herman J. Mankiewicz (Ben's grandfather), based on an original story by sportswriting great Paul Gallico. Mankiewicz, who shared a 1941 screenwriting Oscar with Orson Welles for "Citizen Kane," later wrote the screenplay for "The Pride of St. Louis" (1952), which starred Dan Dailey as Hall of Fame pitcher Dizzy Dean. Gehrig, who was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame in 1939, joined the Yankees in 1923 and played 17 seasons with the ballclub. He was a member of six World Series championship teams, had a .340 career batting average, slugged 493 home runs and drove in 1,995 runs. From 1925 to 1939, he appeared in a record 2,130 consecutive games. The mark was surpassed during the 1995 Major League Baseball season by Cal Ripken, Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles. Gehrig's career tragically was short circuited when he contracted amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a terminal disease marked by the gradual degeneration of the nerve cells in the central nervous system. It has since become known as "Lou Gehrig's Disease." "The Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth": The film re-creates Gehrig's unforgettable farewell address at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939. The most famous line from the speech was ranked No. 38 on the American Film Institute's 2005 list of the 100 greatest movie quotes of all time. Frequent collaborators: Cooper and Brennan appeared together in five other films: "The Cowboy and the Lady" (1938), "The Westerner" (1940), "Meet John Doe" (1941), "Sergeant York" (1941) and "Task Force" (1949). They wore the pinstripes, too: Several of Gehrig's Yankees teammates appear as themselves, including Ruth, who preceded "The Iron Horse" in the team's batting order for many seasons. The Oscars and sports: This was one of the rare sports stories to be nominated for Best Picture. Among the others: "Rocky" (which won the top Academy Award for 1976) and "Chariots of Fire" (the 1981 Best Picture winner). The most recent baseball movie to receive a Best Picture nomination was "Moneyball" (2011), which starred Brad Pitt. Expires February 11, 2015.

George Nader was in "The Desert Fox" (1951) with James Mason. James Mason was in "The Verdict" (1982) with Paul Newman. Next: Laura Dern.

Final voting for the Academy Awards begins Friday, February 6, 2015 and ends Tuesday, February 17, 2015. The awards telecast is the Sunday after the deadline. Between now and then, we'll hear from the Directors Guild of America, the Writers Guild of America, the BAFTAs, the American Cinematography Awards and the Motion Picture Sound Editors, etc.

Here's a USA Today Q and A piece about the new (old) book, with links to other stories about it: http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2015/02/03/harper-lee-to-go-set-a-watchman-questions/22819271/

It's a shame that many Oscar voters aren't as conscientious as Mother Delores -- the former actress Delores Hart -- who makes it a point to see screeners and mail in her ballots for nominated films.

TCM On Demand for February 4, 2015 The following features are now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 1. Foreign Correspondent (1940) -- Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders, Albert Basserman, Robert Benchley, Eduardo Ciannelli, Edmund Gwenn, Harry Davenport. Sir Alfred Hitchcock's first American film was "Rebecca," which won the 1940 Academy Award for Best Picture. But the British-born filmmaker also had a second Best Picture contender with this spectacular thriller that anticipated the outbreak of World War II. McCrea stars as Johnny Jones, a hard-nosed newspaper reporter for the fictional New York Globe. When the publication's editor (Davenport) decides he needs a top-notch correspondent to cover the gathering storm in Europe, he gives the job to Jones and rechristens him "Huntley Haverstock." Upon his arrival in London, Jones/Haverstock immediately becomes involved in international political intrigue that puts his life in danger. Memorable scene No. 1: Gwenn, who won an Oscar for playing Santa Claus in "Miracle on 34th Street" (1947), appears as Haverstock's "genial" bodyguard who tries to dispose of the foreign correspondent by pushing him from the bell tower of Westminster Cathedral. Gwenn was a Hitchcock favorite who appeared in four of the director's films between 1931 and 1955. Memorable scene No. 2: An airplane carrying Haverstock and other principal characters is shot down over the Atlantic Ocean by a German destroyer. Hitchcock filmed the shooting and the resulting crash into the ocean from the point of view of the passengers. In a 1972 interview on ABC's "The Dick Cavett Show," Hitchcock explained how the plane crash sequence was shot: Hitch's traditional cameo: It occurs approximately 12 minutes into the film as Haverstock walks out of a hotel and encounters the Dutch diplomat Van Meer (Basserman). The role of Haverstock originally was offered to actor Gary Cooper, who declined it. The actor later expressed regrets about not accepting the part. Unfortunately, McCrea, despite his solid work in this movie, never worked with Hitchcock again. Besides the Best Picture nomination, the film earned five other nods for the 13th Academy Awards held on February 27, 1941: Best Supporting Actor (Basserman, for a double role), Best Writing, Original Screenplay (Charles Bennett and Joan Harrison), Best Black-and-White Cinematography (Rudolph Maté), Best Black-and-White Art Direction (Alexander Golitzen) and Best Special Effects (Paul Eagler, photographic; Thomas T. Moulton, sound). Harrison later became a producer of Hitchcock's long-running anthology series on television during the 1950s and 1960s. Expires February 10, 2015. 2. The Thin Man (1934) -- William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan, Nat Pendleton, Minna Gombell, Porter Hall, Henry Wadsworth, William Henry, Harold Huber, Cesar Romero, Natalie Moorhead, Edward Brophy, Edward Ellis, Cyril Thornton. Having previously played the New York-based sleuth Philo Vance four times on film, Powell took on the role of Dashiell Hammett's master detective Nick Charles and gained great popularity. He co-starred with Loy (as Nora Charles) in this comedy-mystery-drama based on Hammett's 1934 novel and earned his first of three Academy Award nominations for Best Actor. The film also received Oscar nominatons for Best Picture, Best Director (W.S. Van Dyke II) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett). Although the title refers to a missing man -- inventor Clyde Wynant (played by Ellis) -- it eventually became associated with Nick Charles in the public mind. The success of this series led to five sequels -- "After the Thin Man" (1936), "Another Thin Man" (1939), "Shadow of the Thin Man" (1941), "The Thin Man Goes Home" (1945) and "Song of the Thin Man" (1947). The first four films in the series were directed by Van Dyke, who tragically died by suicide on February 5, 1943. The movie's scene stealer is Skippy, the wire fox terrier that appears as the Charles' dog Asta. The canine also appeared in "After the Thin Man" and other films, including two starring Cary Grant -- "The Awful Truth" (1937) and "Bringing Up Baby" (1938). A television version of the movie series starred Peter Lawford as Nick and Phyllis Kirk as Nora, and aired on NBC from 1957 to 1959. In "Murder By Death," Neil Simon's 1976 spoof of murder mysteries, David Niven and Dame Maggie Smith played the married couple Dick and Dora Charleston. Memorable dialogue: Detective Guild (played by Pendleton): You got a pistol permit? Nick: No. Detective Guild: Ever heard of the Sullivan Act? Nora (apparently confusing the Sullivan Act with the Mann Act): Oh, that's all right. We're married. Memorable quote: "The murderer is right in this room, sitting at this table. You may serve the fish." -- Nick, presiding over a dinner party in which he has gathered all major suspects in a murder. Expires February 10, 2015.