John Payne, the epitome of tall-dark-and-handsome, and with a build that made most of Hollywood’s golden-age leading men look anemic, nabbed his piece of screen immortality when he played the lawyer and pal of Edmund Gwenn’s Kris Kringle (while simultaneously romancing a defiantly unromantic Maureen O’Hara) in the Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street (1947).  Even [...]

[Read more →]

May 18 marks what would have been the 100th birthday of writer-director Richard Brooks, who died at age 79 in 1992.  Brooks may never have been a household name but he directed quite a few famous movies, from Blackboard Jungle (1955) to In Cold Blood (1967) to Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), plus two Tennessee [...]

[Read more →]

I haven’t seen all thirteen feature films directed by the great French filmmaker Robert Bresson (1901-1999), but I have seen most of his major works, including The Diary of a Young Priest (1951), Pickpocket (1959), and Au Hasard, Balthazar (1966).  My overwhelming favorite is his extraordinary, low-key thriller A Man Escaped, based on the true story [...]

[Read more →]

While I’m still in a Gary Cooper state of mind, ever since I hosted last weekend’s all-Cooper film festival alongside his daughter, Maria Cooper Janis, I was thinking about some other Cooper pleasures from his filmography.  Having already played The Virginian (1929) and The Plainsman (1936), Cooper quite effortlessly became The Westerner.  This Texas-set film’s plot—homesteaders [...]

[Read more →]

Hosting the Black Bear Film Festival’s four-film tribute to Gary Cooper this past weekend was an extraordinary experience in many ways, but first among them was the honor of sharing this celebration with Cooper’s daughter, Maria Cooper Janis, who was onstage with me before and after three of the screenings.  Not only is she a kind and [...]

[Read more →]