Classic Film & TV Cafe Posted by Rick29 on June 27, 2022

This month, we're focusing on quotes from Billy Wilder films. We will list a quote from a movie co-written by Wilder and ask you to name it. Try to answer these questions on your own without resorting to Google searches. As always, please answer no more than three questions per...   read more

Classic Film & TV Cafe Posted by Rick29 on June 20, 2022

Things have not gone well for brash reporter Carl Kolchak since he destroyed a vampire in Las Vegas in The Night Stalker (1972). Most people don't believe his story and those who know it's true have quashed it. After relocating to Seattle, Kolchak (Darren McGavin) convinces his former editor Tony...   read more

Classic Film & TV Cafe Posted by Rick29 on June 13, 2022

1. Jaws (1975) - It's an obvious choice for the No. 1 spot, but it's also the only choice, isn't it? Time has improved this impeccably-made blockbuster that functions as two films. Its first half focuses on the political and financial implications of closing the Amity Island beaches on the...   read more

Classic Film & TV Cafe Posted by Rick29 on June 6, 2022

The 1966 spy spoof Our Man Flint was still playing in theaters when 20th Century-Fox gave the greenlight for a sequel once again starring James Coburn as super secret agent Derek Flint.Actually, the title character is nowhere to be seen in the opening scenes of In Like Flint (1967). Instead,...   read more

Classic Film & TV Cafe Posted by Rick29 on May 30, 2022

It's back for this month only after a long hiatus! The rules: You will be given a pair or trio of films, TV series, or performers and will be required to to find the common connection. It could be anything--two stars who acted in the same movie, two movies that...   read more

Classic Film & TV Cafe Posted by Rick29 on May 23, 2022

At long last, the career of Delmer Daves, one of Hollywood's most under-appreciated filmmakers, has received an in-depth, scholarly treatment courtesy of Douglas Horlock's The Films of Delmer Daves: Visions of Progress in Mid-Twentieth Century America (University of Mississippi Press, 248 pages). Ho   read more

Classic Film & TV Cafe Posted by Rick29 on May 15, 2022

As is our tradition at the Café, we are celebrating National Classic Movie Day on May 16th by hosting a blogathon. This year's Four Favorite Noirs Blogathon focuses on one of the most popular genres among classic movie fans. The goal is to pay tribute to many of the greatest...   read more

Classic Film & TV Cafe Posted by Rick29 on May 15, 2022

To celebrate National Classic Movie Day on May 16th, we're participating in our own Four Favorite Noirs Blogathon. For our quartet of noirs, we chose a bona fide classic (Out of the Past), an acclaimed cult film (Gun Crazy), and two lesser-known gems (Black Angel and Phantom Lady). Be sure...   read more

Classic Film & TV Cafe Posted by Rick29 on May 9, 2022

Barry Newman as Petrocelli.There are few instances of an actor reprising a character from a theatrical film in a television series. Richard Widmark and Richard Roundtree first played Madigan and Shaft in theatrical films and then revived the characters for TV. However, in both cases, the shows were   read more

Classic Film & TV Cafe Posted by Rick29 on May 1, 2022

The inaugural Columbus Moving Picture Show will take place May 24 - 30, 2022, at the Renaissance Columbus Downtown Hotel in Columbus, Ohio. The festival will feature 16mm showings of classic films from the silent days to the 1960s, some of them with live musical accompaniment. There will also be...   read more

Classic Film & TV Cafe Posted by Rick29 on April 25, 2022

This month, we're focusing on quotes from Bette Davis films. We will list a quote from a famous Bette Davis movie and ask you to name it. Try to answer these questions on your own without resorting to Google searches. As always, please answer no more than three questions per...   read more

Classic Film & TV Cafe Posted by Rick29 on April 18, 2022

Nina Foch as Julia Ross. After reviewing Gun Crazy, the Cafe's staff decided to seek out more of director Joseph H. Lewis' work. That led us to My Name Is Julia Ross, a 1945 "B" picture with an intriguing premise that sadly fell short of our expectations. It gets off...   read more

Classic Film & TV Cafe Posted by Rick29 on April 11, 2022

1. Born Barbara Jean Morehead in 1931, she was using her stepfather's last name, Huffman, as a young actress in Hollywood. In her autobiography, she writes that her future agent, Wilt Melnick, didn't like her last name. He told her: "The name Barbara Huffman sounds like a doctor. Change it...   read more

Classic Film & TV Cafe Posted by Rick29 on April 4, 2022

Rosemary singing the title song. For years, I assumed that Red Garters was Rosemary Clooney's follow-up to White Christmas. In reality, both films were released in 1954 and Red Garters hit theaters several months before Paramount's huge holiday hit. As Clooney once noted, Red Garters is the only mo   read more

Classic Film & TV Cafe Posted by Rick29 on March 28, 2022

This month, we're focusing on quotes from Western films. We will list a quote from a famous Western and ask you to name it. Try to answer these questions on your own without resorting to Google searches. As always, please answer no more than three questions per day so others...   read more

Classic Film & TV Cafe Posted by Rick29 on March 21, 2022

Vincent Price as Robur.Jules Verne was a hot property in the late 1950s and 1960s, with movie theaters filled with big-budget adaptations of Around the World in 80 Days (1956), Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), and Mysterious Island (1961). So, it was inevitable that American International   read more

Classic Film & TV Cafe Posted by Rick29 on March 14, 2022

George Segal as Quiller.When two of its agents are murdered in Berlin, the British intelligence agency MI-6 employs an American spy to locate the headquarters of a 1960s Nazi organization. Known only as Quiller (George Segal), the American follows his own rules--much to the dismay of his British han   read more

Classic Film & TV Cafe Posted by Rick29 on March 7, 2022

To celebrate National Classic Movie Day on May 16th, we are hosting the Four Favorite Noirs Blogathon. Per its title, each participating blogger is invited to write about four of her or his favorite film noirs from cinema's classic era. These films don't have to be your all-time favorite noirs--just   read more

Classic Film & TV Cafe Posted by Rick29 on February 28, 2022

Richard Burton as Faulkner.When an African dictator's actions threaten to lower British copper prices, influential banker Sir Miles Matheson seeks to discredit the man. Matheson (Stewart Granger) knows that the dictator kidnapped the country's popular president and then spread rumors of his death. S   read more

Classic Film & TV Cafe Posted by Rick29 on February 21, 2022

This month, we're focusing on quotes from Alfred Hitchcock films. We will list a quote from one of his movies and ask you to name it. Try to answer these questions on your own without resorting to Google searches. As always, please answer no more than three questions per day...   read more