jakeem

Uh, what's the old saying about counting chickens? http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/oscars-american-snipers-hopes-a-765461?utm_source=twitter

TCM On Demand for January 22, 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 ). Expires January 28, 2015. 2. A Place in the Sun (1951) -- Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters, Anne Revere, Keefe Brasselle, Fred Clark, Raymond Burr, Herbert Heyes, Shepperd Strudwick, Frieda Inescort, Kathryn Givney, Walter Sande, Ted de Corsia, John Ridgely, Lois Chartrand. Uncredited: Kathleen Freeman, Kasey Rogers, Ian Wolfe. George Stevens' drama -- derived from Theodore Dreiser's 1925 novel "An American Tragedy" -- was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Clift) and Best Actress (Winters). It won six Oscars: Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay (Michael Wilson, Harry Brown), Best Black-and-White Cinematography (William C. Mellor), Best Black-and-White Costume Design (Edith Head), Best Film Editing (William Hornbeck) and Best Original Score (Franz Waxman). In 1998, the American Film Institure ranked the film No. 92 on its list of the 100 greatest movies of all time. When AFI updated the list in 2007, the film did not make the Top 100. By the way, George Stevens, Jr., the son of the director, was a founder of AFI and its driving force from 1967 to 1980. This was the first of three films that paired Clift and Taylor, who became great friends. They also co-starred in "Raintree County" (1957) and "Suddenly, Last Summer" (1959), both of which yielded Best Actress nominations for Taylor. It was after a visit to Taylor's residence that Clift sustained serious facial injuries as the result of an automobile accident on May 12, 1956. Taylor and George Stevens, Sr. worked together again on the screen project that earned the director his second Academy Award -- "Giant" (1956), based on the novel by Edna Ferber. His last film, the 1970 drama "The Only Game in Town," also featured Taylor. Stevens directed Winters to her first of two Oscars for Best Supporting Actress in "The Diary of Anne Frank" (1959). Memorable quote: "I love you. I've loved you since the first moment I saw you. I guess maybe I’ve even loved you before I saw you." -- George Eastman (Clift) to socialite Angela Vickers (Taylor). Expires January 28, 2015.

Susan Cabot was in "The Duel at Silver Creek" (1952) with Lee Marvin. Lee Marvin was in "Pocket Money" (1972) with Paul Newman. Next: Gino Conforti

Robert Keith was in "Guys and Dolls" (1955) with Jean Simmons. Jean Simmons was in "Until They Sail" (1957) with Paul Newman. Next: Brian Keith.

Stanley Holloway was in "Target: Harry" (1969) with Charlotte Rampling. Charlotte Rampling was in "The Verdict" (1982) with Paul Newman. Next: Sterling Holloway.

TCM On Demand for January 21, 2015 The following features are now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 1. The Great Gatsby (1974) -- Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Sam Waterston, Bruce Dern, Karen Black, Scott Wilson, Lois Chiles, Howard Da Silva, Roberts Blossom, Edward Herrmann, Elliott Sullivan, Arthur Hughes, Kathryn Leigh Scott, Beth Porter, Paul Tamarin, John Devlin, Patsy Kensit, Marjorie Wildes, Blain Fairman, Bob Sherman, Norman Chancer, Regina Baff, Janet Arters, Louise Arters, Sammy Smith. Uncredited: Brooke Adams, Tom Ewell, Vincent Schiavelli. Francis Ford Coppola adapted this screen version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Great American Novel about the Roaring Twenties. Redford stars as the title character, a mysterious man of wealth who throws lavish summer parties in Long Island, N.Y. Farrow is Daisy Buchanan, Gatsby's lost love who is now married to millionaire Tom Buchanan (Dern). Directed by British filmmaker Jack Clayton ("Room at the Top"), this film won Academy Awards for Best Costume Design (Theoni V. Aldridge) and Best Adaptation Score (Nelson Riddle). Coppola's screenplay was not nominated, but he went on to win three 1974 Oscars -- Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay (with Mario Puzo) -- for "The Godfather Part II." This film is one of four screen versions based on Fitzgerald's 1925 novel. The first was a 1926 silent film starring Warner Baxter, Lois Wilson, Neil Hamilton, Georgia Hale and William Powell. It has been lost. A 1949 edition, headlined by Alan Ladd, Betty Field, Macdonald Carey, Ruth Hussey, Barry Sullivan, Shelley Winters and Da Silva, is seldom seen because of legal entanglements. It originally was to be directed by John Farrow, Mia's father. A 2013 adaptation by Australian director Baz Luhrmann ("Moulin Rouge!" "Romeo + Juliet") starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton and Isla Fisher. Catherine Martin, Luhrmann's wife and co-producer, received Academy Awards for Best Costume Design and Best Production Design (shared with Beverley Dunn). The role of Daisy in the 1974 version originally was to be played by Ali MacGraw, who was married to Paramount production chief Robert Evans. But when MacGraw became involved with Steve McQueen during the filming of Sam Peckinpah's 1972 caper film "The Getaway," the role went to Farrow. She also became the first person to appear on the cover of People magazine. Waterston, who plays the film's narrator Nick Carraway, went on to receive an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor for his portrayal of New York Times writer Sydney Schanberg in "The Killing Fields" (1984). He also starred in the long-running "Law and Order" television series and the recent HBO drama "The Newsroom." Professional golfer Jordan Baker, Daisy's friend and Carraway's romantic interest, is played by Chiles, who appeared in her second consecutive film with Redford. She had a minor role in "The Way We Were" (1973). Chiles later co-starred -- as Dr. Holly Goodhead -- with Roger Moore in "Moonraker," the 1979 out-of-this-world James Bond film. Wilson, who played veterinarian Hershel Greene in "The Walking Dead" television series, co-stars as George Wilson -- the husband of Tom's mistress Myrtle (Black) and the man who becomes the unfortunate catalyst for Gatsby's undoing. Kensit, who appears as Daisy's daughter Pamela Buchanan, was 6 years old when the film was released. She grew up to co-star as Mel Gibson's doomed South African love interest in "Lethal Weapon 2" (1989). In 1995, she portrayed her screen mother in the FOX television miniseries "Love and Betrayal: The Mia Farrow Story," based on Farrow's rocky relationship with Woody Allen. Herrmann, who plays a perpetual partygoer named Klipspringer, died on New Year's Eve, 2014 at the age of 71. The distinguished actor probably was best known for his recurring role as family partriarch Richard Gilmore on the television series "Gilmore Girls," and for his portrayals of Franklin Delano Roosevelt on screen and on TV. Memorable quote: "I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him" -- Carraway's final words in the film. Interestingly, the drama does not conclude with Fitzgerald's famous ending: "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." Expires January 27, 2015. 2. Out of Africa (1985) -- Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Michael Kitchen, Malick Bowens, Joseph Thiaka, Stephen Kinyanjui, Michael Gough, Suzanna Hamilton, Rachel Kempson, Graham Crowden, Leslie Phillips, Shane Rimmer, Mike Bugara, Job Seda, Mohammed Umar, Donal McCann, Kenneth Mason, Tristram Jellinek, Stephen B. Grimes, Annabel Maule, Benny Young, Iman. Sydney Pollack's film version of autobiographical material by the Danish author Isak Dinesen (and other sources) won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay (Kurt Luedtke). It also won for John Barry's original score and for Best Cinematography (David Watkin), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Stephen B. Grimes and Josie MacAvin) and Best Sound (Chris Jenkins, Gary Alexander, Larry Stensvold and Peter Handford). In 2005, the American Film Institute selected the Top 25 film scores of all time. Barry's romantic composition for this movie was ranked No. 15. Streep, who received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, portrays Karen Blixen (1885-1962), who wrote about her experiences in early 20th-century colonial Kenya under the pen name of Dinesen. The film details her unhappy marriage to a roguish Swedish baron (portrayed by Brandauer, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor). And it focuses on her involvement with a dashing British aviator and hunter Denys Finch-Hatton (played by the All-American Redford). This was one of many film collaborations between Pollack and Redford, who met as young actors during the filming of "War Hunt," a 1962 drama about the Korean conflict. After Pollack turned to directing in the mid-1960s, he and Redford teamed up for other projects, including "Jeremiah Johnson" (1972), "The Way We Were" (1973), "Three Days of the Condor" (1975), "The Electric Horseman" (1979) and "Havana" (1990). Memorable quote: "I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills." -- This was the opening sentence of Dinesen's 1937 book "Out of Africa," and it is one of the first lines of the movie, spoken by Streep as Blixen in a voiceover. Expires January 27, 2015. 3. The Way We Were (1973) -- Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford, Bradford Dillman, Lois Chiles, James Woods, Patrick O'Neal, Sally Kirkland, Susan Blakely, Viveca Lindfors. Directed by Sydney Pollack, this very popular romantic drama is about opposites (Streisand, Redford) who fall in love and marry despite their differences. She's a liberal Jewish activist; he's a golden boy and an apolitical WASP. Their relationship begins at a college just before World War II. The film reaches its climax during the politically tumultuous McCarthy era of the early 1950s. Marvin Hamlisch won two Academy Awards for this movie: Best Original Dramatic Score and Best Original Song (for the title tune, shared with lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman). Hamlisch picked up a third award on Oscar Night 1974, winning in the Best Original Song Score and/or Adaptation category for his use of Scott Joplin rags in "The Sting." Streisand's version of the title song became a No. 1 pop hit and a standard. Redford and Kirkland also appeared together in "The Sting," which won the 1973 Best Picture Oscar and produced the onetime Sundance Kid's only Best Actor nomination. A year later, Redford co-starred with Chiles in the much-hyped remake of "The Great Gatsby," based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel. Expires January 27, 2015.

Anita Ekberg was in "4 for Texas" (1963) with Richard Jaeckel. Richard Jaeckel was in "Sometimes a Great Notion" (1971) with Paul Newman. Next: Dame May Whitty.

Barbara Britton was in "The Fleet's In" (1942) with William Holden. William Holden was in "When Time Ran Out,,," (1980) with Paul Newman. Next: Dame Flora Robson.

Marisa Pavan was in "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit" (1956) with Fredric March. Fredric March was in "Hombre" (1967) with Paul Newman. Next: Dame Edith Evans.

Hugh Bonneville was in "The Monuments Men" (2014) with Bob Balaban. Bob Balaban was in "Absence of Malice" (1981) with Paul Newman. Next: Jeremy Renner.

I'm not sure what the King family believes anymore. They're apparently too busy squabbling over MLK's legacy.

Redford takes a back seat to no one. Would any of those other guys have been believable as Gatsby, Roy Hobbs, Bob Woodward, the egotistical skier David Chappellet of "Downhill Racer," the Great Waldo Pepper or U.S. Senate candidate Bill McKay? Doubtful. And remember, it was Redford, not Newman, who received a Best Actor nomination for "The Sting." And I won't even get into the huge impact that Redford has had as a filmmaker.

TCM On Demand for January 20, 2015 The following features are now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 1. The Defiant Ones (1958) -- Tony Curtis, Sidney Poitier, Theodore Bikel, Charles McGraw, Lon Chaney, Jr., King Donovan, Claude Akins, Lawrence Dobkin, Whit Bissell, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Kevin Coughlin, Cara Williams. Uncredited: Ned Glass. Stanley Kramer's drama about escaped convicts -- one white (Curtis) and one black (Poitier) -- received nine Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. It also earned Best Actor nominations for its two stars, making Poitier the first black performer to be honored in that category. The Oscar went to David Niven of "Separate Tables," but Poitier would win the 1963 Best Actor award for his performance in "Lilies of the Field." The drama won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay (Nedrick Young and Harold Jacob Smith. Young, who had been blacklisted, was nominated under the pseudonym Nathan E. Douglas. His true credit was restored by the Academy after his death). The film also was honored for Best Black-and-White Cinematography (Sam Leavitt). Its other Oscar nominations were: Best Supporting Actor (Bikel); Best Supporting Actress (Williams) and Best Film Editing (Frederick Knudtson). Although he played Max Muller, a Southern sheriff in this film, Bikel actually was born in Austria and grew up in Palestine (now Israel). He moved to London in the 1940s and then to the United States in the 1950s. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1961. Bikel, who died on July 20, 2015 at the age of 91, also was an accomplished singer and recording artist. Interestingly, he lost the Best Supporting Actor Oscar to another renowned actor-musician, Burl Ives of "The Big Country." Despite being honored for her performance in a drama, Williams earned a reputation as a comedic actress on television. She starred with Harry Morgan in the CBS situation comedy "Pete and Gladys" (a spinoff of "December Bride") from 1960 to 1962. She then headlined another CBS sitcom -- "The Cara Williams Show" -- during the 1964-1965 season. Williams was married to actor John Drew Barrymore -- the father of Drew Barrymore -- from 1952 to 1959. They had a son, John Blyth Barrymore, who also became an actor. Expires January 26, 2015. 2. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) -- Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Sidney Poitier, Katharine Houghton, Cecil Kellaway, Beah Richards, Roy E. Glenn, Sr., Virginia Christine, Alexandra Hay, Isabel Sanford, Barbara Randolph, D'Urville Martin. Stanley Kramer's comedy/drama about an interracial relationship received 10 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. It also was Tracy's last film -- he died at the age of 67 on June 10, 1967, 17 days after completing it. He received a Best Actor nomination posthumously, but the Oscar went to Rod Steiger of "In the Heat of the Night" (the year's Best Picture winner). Hepburn, Tracy's longtime partner onscreen and off, won a Best Actress Oscar for the film -- her first since the 1932-33 award she won at the age of 26 for "Morning Glory." Despite his status as the No. 1 box-office star for 1967, Poitier did not receive an Academy Award nomination. He also starred in two other hit films that year -- "In the Heat of the Night" and "To Sir, With Love." Houghton, whose screen debut was in the role of Tracy and Hepburn's daughter, actually was Hepburn's niece. Both actresses were named for Hepburn's mother, the opinionated New England suffragette Katharine Martha Houghton Hepburn (1878-1951). In 1999, AFI released its survey of history's 50 greatest screen legends -- the top 25 actresses and top 25 actors of all time. Tracy was the No. 7 male, followed by Poitier at No. 22. Hepburn was the was the No. 1 female. Memorable scene: Tracy's eight-minute long speech -- in which his character endorses his daughter's marriage plans -- was the last scene that the ailing actor ever filmed. Hepburn's teary-eyed reaction shots are unforgettable. Memorable quote: "Dad...Dad, you're my father. I'm your son. I love you. I always have. And I always will. But you think of yourself as a colored man. I think of myself as a man" -- John Prentiss (Poitier) during an exchange of words with his concerned father (Glenn). Kramer, who was nominated for Best Director for this project, was a socially conscious filmmaker applauded for such movies as "The Defiant Ones" (1958), "On the Beach" (1959), "Inherit the Wind" (1960), "Judgment at Nuremberg" (1961) and "Ship of Fools" (1965). He also found the time to direct and produce the 1963 star-studded laugh riot with the lengthy title -- "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." In 1975, Kramer directed a television version of the Tracy-Hepburn-Poitier film, starring Eleanor Parker (who died on December 9, 2013), Richard Dysart ("L.A. Law"), Leslie Charleson ("General Hospital") and Bill Overton. The 2005 comedy "Guess Who" flipped the premise of the original movie. In the new version, Ashton Kutcher's character romances a black woman played by Zoe Saldana, whose parents were played by Bernie Mac and Judith Scott. Richards, who received a Best Supporting Actress nomination as Poitier's sympathetic mother, also appeared with the actor in "In the Heat of the Night," in which she played a medicine woman named Mama Caleba. This was one of the final feature film roles for veteran actor Kellaway, who earned a Best Supporting Actor nod as Monsignor Ryan. Sanford, who played the Drayton family's disapproving maid Tillie Binks, attained television immortality as Louise "Weezie" Jefferson during the long run of her CBS comedy series "The Jeffersons." In 1981, she became the first African-American woman to win a Primetime Emmy Award as the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. Expires January 26, 2015. 3. One Potato, Two Potato (1964) -- Barbara Barrie, Bernie Hamilton, Richard Mulligan, Harry Bellaver, Marti Mericka, Robert Earl Jones, Vinnette Carroll, Sam Weston, Faith Burwell, Jack Stamberger, Michael Shane, Paul S. Orgill. For her performance in this film, directed by Larry Peerce ("Goodbye, Columbus," "The Other Side of the Mountain"), Barrie tied Anne Bancroft of "The Pumpkin Eater" for Best Actress at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival. She stars as a divorced white woman in Ohio who risks losing her young daughter after she marries a black man (Hamilton). Sure enough, her ex-husband (Mulligan) goes to court to win custody of the girl. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay (Orville H. Hampton and Raphael Hayes). Expires January 26, 2015.

But in both movies, the CIA operatives played by Redford outfoxed unscrupulous members of the U.S. government's espionage hierarchy. Connery's Bond never pulled that off!

Apparently, you've never seen "Three Days of the Condor" or "Spy Game."

And wouldn't you know that Dr. King was killed by an American sniper who also was a "cowardly egg-sucking criminal"! That is, of course, unless you believe in conspiracy theories about the murder.

What would she think about the current storyline of "Two and a Half Men," in which the characters played by Ashton Kutcher and Jon Cryer get married to adopt a child?

Gee, what a surprise that Americans would prefer a film about violence over a study of peaceful protest against unjust laws! I suppose H. Rap Brown was right when he said that violence "is as American as cherry pie."

TCM On Demand for January 19, 2015 The following features are now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 1. Fiddler on the Roof (1971) -- Topol, Norma Crane, Leonard Frey, Molly Picon, Paul Mann, Rosalind Harris, Michele Marsh, Neva Small, Paul Michael Glaser, Raymond Lovelock, Elaine Edwards, Candy Bonstein, Shimen Ruskin, Zvee Scooler, Louis Zorich. Norman Jewison ("In the Heat of the Night," "Moonstruck") directed and co-produced this screen version of the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical based on the tales of Yiddish author Sholem Aleichem (1859-1916). Composer John Williams, who has earned a whopping 49 Academy Award nominations during his prolific career, received his first of five Oscars for his Best Song Score Adaptation. Oscars also went to Oswald Morris for his cinematography and to Gordon McCallum and David Hildyard for Best Sound. The British-born Morris died on March 17, 2014 at the age of 98. The film also was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Topol), Best Supporting Actor (Frey) and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Robert F. Boyle, Michael Stringer and Peter Lamont). Set in early 20th-century Russia -- on the eve of repressive anti-Jewish pogroms -- the film stars the Israeli actor Topol as Tevye the milkman, the role originated on Broadway by Zero Mostel in 1964. The movie's screenplay was adapted by Joseph Stein; the music was composed by Jerry Bock with lyrics by Sheldon Harnick. Among the familiar musical numbers featured in the film: "Tradition," "Matchmaker," "To Life," "Sunrise, Sunset," "Do You Love Me?" and "If I Were a Rich Man." Expires January 25, 2015. 2. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) -- Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, Philip Alford, Brock Peters, Robert Duvall, William Windom, Frank Overton, Rosemary Murphy, Ruth White, Collin Wilcox, Paul Fix, John Megna, Estelle Evans, James Anderson, Alice Ghostley, Crahan Denton, Richard Hale. Uncredited actors: Kim Stanley (narrator), Bill Walker. Peck won his only Academy Award for his performance as Atticus Finch, a gentlemanly lawyer who takes on a controversial case in his Alabama hometown. The widower father of two children -- Jem (Alford) and Scout (Badham) -- defends Tom Robinson (Peters), a black man falsely accused of assaulting a white woman (Wilcox). Produced by Alan J. Pakula and directed by Robert Mulligan, the film was based on the 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee. In addition to Peck's Best Actor win, the drama also received Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay (Horton Foote) and Best Black-and-White Art Direction-Set Decoration (Alexander Golitzen, Henry Bumstead and Oliver Emert). The film received nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Badham), Best Black-and-White Cinematography (Russell Harlan) and Best Original Score (Elmer Bernstein). In 1998, the American Film Institute ranked the film No. 34 on its list of the 100 greatest movies of all time. When AFI updated the list in 2007, the film climbed to No. 25. On June 4, 2003, CBS televised a special about AFI's survey of the top heroes and villains in movie history. Atticus Finch was the No. 1 hero, followed by Indiana Jones ("Raiders of the Lost Ark"), James Bond ("Dr. No"), Rick Blaine ("Casablanca") and Marshal Will Kane ("High Noon"). The No. 1 villain was Dr. Hannibal Lecter of "The Silence of the Lambs." Eight days after the AFI special aired, Peck died of bronchopneumonia at the age of 87. At a public memorial service in Los Angeles on June 16, 2003, Peck was eulogized by actor Peters, who had become a friend after the filming of this movie. "In art there is compassion, in compassion there is humanity, with humanity there is generosity and love," Peters said. "Gregory Peck gave us these attributes in full measure. To this day, the children of 'Mockingbird'...call him Atticus." In 2005, Bernstein's score placed 17th on the American Film Institute's ranking of the top 25 film scores of all time. It was one of two Bernstein compositions on the list. The other: His score for "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), which ranked No. 7. The novel was Lee's only published work until 2015. It was announced in February that "Go Set a Watchman," a work of fiction written by the author in the 1950s but presumed lost, will be released in July. The book, set in the '50s, reportedly focuses on the adult Scout Finch and her relationship with her father 20 years after the events in the first novel. This movie marked the screen debut of Duvall (as Boo Radley), who is still going strong in movies 53 years later. On January 15, 2015, 10 days after his 84th birthday, he received his seventh Academy Award nomination. He was honored in the Best Supporting Actor category for his performance as the title character in "The Judge." Duvall won the 1983 Best Actor Oscar for his work in the drama "Tender Mercies." Memorable quote: "Miss Jean Louise. Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passing" -- The Reverend Sykes (Walker), speaking to Scout, who sat next to him in the courthouse balcony -- the "blacks only" section -- during Robinson's trial. As attorney Finch prepares to leave the courtroom after his stirring but unsuccessful defense, all of the people in the section rise to their feet. Finch, lost in thought, is oblivious to their tribute. Memorable dialogue: Jem: How old were you when you got your first gun, Atticus? Atticus Finch: Thirteen or 14. I remember when my daddy gave me that gun. He told me that I should never point it at anything in the house. And that he'd rather I'd shoot at tin cans in the backyard. But he said that sooner or later he supposed the temptation to go after birds would be too much. And that I could shoot all the blue jays I wanted, if I could hit 'em. But to remember it was a sin to kill a mockingbird. Jem: Why? Atticus Finch: Well, I reckon because mockingbirds don't do anything but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat people's gardens, don't nest in the corncribs. They don't do one thing but just sing their hearts out for us. Observations: The character of Dill (played by Megna) was based on Lee's best friend since childhood, author Truman Capote...Actress Catherine Keener earned an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Lee in the 2005 biopic "Capote." The film provided a Best Actor Oscar for the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, who played the author as he conducted research on his 1965 nonfiction best seller "In Cold Blood"...Sandra Bullock appeared as Lee in another film about Capote, the 2006 drama "Infamous," in which British actor Toby Jones portrayed the author. In memoriam: Murphy, the Emmy Award-winning actress who appears as Miss Maudie Atkinson, died of cancer on July 5, 2014. She was 89. Her Emmy win was for her portrayal of FDR's mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt, in the 1976 made-for-television movie "Eleanor and Franklin." Would you believe? In a 1969 episode of the sitcom "Get Smart," CONTROL agents Maxwell Smart (Don Adams) and 99 (Barbara Feldon) went to Mexico in search of the famed figurine known as the Tequila Mockingbird. Expires January 25, 2015.

He had me in his corner the first time I ever saw him in Ron Howard's "Night Shift" (1982), in which he and Henry Winkler played "love brokers" working out of a morgue. I also admired his dramatic performance in "Clean and Sober" (1988), which was a nice lead-in to his portrayal of the Caped Crimefighter in "Batman" (1989).

That was Julius W. Harris' first movie role. But he always will be remembered as the menacing Tee Hee in "Live and Let Die" (1974), the first film in the James Bond series to star Roger Moore as 007.

TCM On Demand for January 18, 2015 The following features are now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 1. Contraband (1940) -- Conrad Veidt, Valerie Hobson, Hay Petrie, Joss Ambler, Raymond Lovell, Esmond Knight, Charles Victor, Phoebe Kershaw, Harold Warrender, John Longden, Eric Maturin, Paddy Browne, Henry Wolston, Julian Vedey, Sydney Moncton, Hamilton Keen, Leo Genn, Stuart Latham, Peter Bull. Uncredited: Milo O'Shea. Torin Thatcher. Originally titled "Blackout" in the United Kingdon, this World War II drama was an early film collaboration by the acclaimed team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. In this instance, Powell directed while Pressburger came up with the story and screenplay. The film reteams Veidt and Hobson, who starred previously starred in "The Spy in Black" (1939), the first Powell-Pressburger production. A young Deborah Kerr filmed scenes as a cigarette girl, but they did not make it into the finished film. Expires January 24, 2015. 2. 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 January 24, 2015. 3. Maximum Overdrive (1986) -- Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington, Yeardley Smith, John Short, Ellen McElduff, J.C. Quinn, Christopher Murney, Holter Graham, Frankie Faison, Pat Miller, Jack Canon, Barry Bell, John Brasington, J. Don Ferguson, Leon Rippy, Giancarlo Esposito, Marla Maples. Stephen King made his debut as a director with this apocalyptic horror tale about machines creating havoc after the Earth passes through a comet's tail. The author also wrote the screenplay, adapted from his short story "Trucks," and appears briefly as a man at an ATM. A year after this film was released, Smith, who plays Connie, began serving as the voice of Lisa Simpson in animated shorts on "The Tracey Ullman Show" on FOX. Almost 30 years -- and one Primetime Emmy -- later, she is still performing as Lisa on "The Simpsons." The film's soundtrack was provided by the rock group AC/DC, King's favorite band. Expires January 24, 2015.

Well, that is the hot movie of the moment.

It's probably because the Brits are known for having the best-trained actors in the world. Or have you not noticed that the actors who play Dr. King and his wife are British, too?

TCM On Demand for January 17, 2015 The following features are now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 1. Neil Simon's 'Chapter Two' (1977) -- James Caan, Marsha Mason, Joseph Bologna, Valerie Harper, Alan Fudge, Judy Farrell, Debra Mooney, Isabel Cooley, Imogene Bliss, Barry Michlin, Ray Young, Greg Zadikov, Dr. Paul Singh, Sumant Sumant, Cheryl Bianchi. Mason, who was married to playwright Simon from 1973 to 1983, received her third of four Oscar nominations as Best Actress for this film. The story was based on Simon's stage play about his real-life romance with Mason after the death of his first wife. Expires January 23, 2015. 2. Jack the Giant Killer (1962) -- Kerwin Mathews, Judi Meredith, Torin Thatcher, Walter Burke, Don Beddoe, Barry Kelley, Dayton Lummis, Anna Lee, Roger Mobley, Robert Gist, Tudor Owen, Ken Mayer. Mathews and Thatcher played adversaries in the 1958 fantasy "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad." They battled again in this film by Nathan Juran, the director of the earlier film. Mathews plays the title character, a farm boy who must battle a powerful wizard (Thatcher) in order to protect a beautiful princess (Meredith). The actress, who retired from acting in the early 1970s, died on April 30, 2014 at the age of 77. Expires January 23, 2015.