James Cagney never said, “You dirty rat,” but he did "rat out" his favorite movie: “Many people assume that one of those knock-down, drag-'em-outs would be my choice. A discerning critic...can’t understand why I would choose Yankee Doodle Dandy over White Heat and The Public Enemy . The answer is simple, and it derives from George M. Cohan’s comment about himself: Once a song-and-dance man, always a song-and-dance man. In that brief statement, you have my life story; those

Why is The Asphalt Jungle the mack daddy of all caper films? It’s co-written and directed by John Huston, who made the criminally good classics Key Largo and The Maltese Falcon. It’s based on a book by W.R. Burnett, who established his street cred with Little Caesar and High Sierra. It’s packed with underrated actors delivering peak performances: Sterling Hayden, Jean Hagen, Sam Jaffe, Louis Calhern, and a newbie named Marilyn Monroe, swiping every scene as a shady lawyer’s

Hollywood is a company town, which means celebrity spawn often join the movie business. Think Henry, Peter and Jane Fonda. Judy Garland...

Are you old enough to remember dialing “411” for directory assistance? In the pre-Google era, that was the only way to get out-of-town phone numbers. As a classic film historian and host, I’m often asked how I know so much about so many pictures. A lot of that info was gathered as a kid who watched way too much television (thanks, Mom and Dad!) I also spent every dime of my hard-earned babysitting money on movie books. Today, my go-to sources are online sites and reviewing ad