Behind the Screen with The Movie Files

In this episode we look back at the collaboration of Alfred Hitchcock and Montgomery Clift in the classic suspense film “I Confess.” With a new book out called “The Longest Suicide in Hollywood, this episode looks as Clift before his decline began.

We're back with a look back at the 1957 classic black and white film “12 Angry Men”. Starring Henry Fonda and a collection of male actors like E.G. Marshall, Lee J. Cobb, Jack Warden and Ed Begley, the film was directed by Sidney Lumet.

With the book Goddess and the Girl Next Door winning the Silver Medal for best performing arts title in the 2020 eLit Book Awards, we are celebrating with a look back at Marilyn Monroe’s last big screen musical showcase, Let’s Make Love. The 1960 20th Century Fox film is not known as one of her most memorable screen moments, but certainly gives the star a few chances to shine.

Black Widow is a 1954 color film starring Van Heflin, Gene Tierney, George Raft and Ginger Rogers in a murder mystery set in the world of New York theater. The film from 20th Century Fox hoped to be the “All About Eve of suspense films” failed to ignite reviewers or moviegoers, but has some great moments.

Sean Connery is mostly known to audiences as James Bond, but his vast resume of work extends well beyond his handful of 007 features. He would at last earn an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in the 1987 film The Untouchables. We take a look back at the film and the talents that brought it to life.

With many folks stuck inside due to self-quarantine and COVID-19 we decided to release our April podcast a little early with a special nod to being trapped inside. In this episode we look at a host of well-known movie stars playing famous detectives who are trapped inside a mansion to solve a murder in the 1976 Neil Simon comedy Murder by Death.

When Marilyn Monroe died in 1962 she left her final film, Something’s Got to Give, in shambles. The film would resurface about a year later with a new name and a new star. Doris Day would revive the film under the name Move Over, Darling in 1963 with her own style and personality. We take a look back at the film with a new book Goddess and the Girl Next Door in bookstores that tells the whole story.

With the 2020 Academy Awards upon us we take a look back at the best pictures of all time. With more than 90 films to choose from there are a number of ways to rank the films and to look at what makes a best picture and how do we look at their impact on the business of filmmaking or the genre of film that fall under. Whether it’s The Godfather or Gone With The Wind, every film has a story to tell, but how well they tell it determines its place in history.

The 2019 South Korean black comedy Parasite is getting lots of attention. Directed by Bong Joon-Ho, who also helped write the screenplay with Han Jin-won, follows members of a poor family who scheme to become employees of a wealthier South Korean family. Parasite premiered at the Canne Film Festival in 2019 and became the first Korean film to win the Palm d’Or. It also has acclaim from BAFTA, the Golden Globes and the Oscars.

Happy New Year. We kick off 2020 with a look back at a 1975 crime drama called Mr. Ricco. The gritty 70s cop flick was in fashion for many leading men. This one stars the legendary Dean Martin in what would be in last starring role. While Dean would appear on screen again it would only be in smaller supporting roles.

Kicking off on Christmas Eve, Period of Adjustment is a 1962 romantic comedy starring Jane Fonda, Jim Hutton and Tony Franciosa. With all the actors relatively new on the scene, the little movie that could is a hidden holiday gem. With the holidays upon us we take a look back at the classic feature.

We head to the Alps to climb the Eiger and retrace some of the steps of the cast and crew of The Eiger Sanction. One of Clint Eastwood’s non-Dirty Harry action flicks of the 1970s. Based on a successful book the film and the filming itself proved to be a harrowing experience.

Based on the book by Mary Shelly, Universal’s 1931 horror Frankenstein set the bar high for horror films for decades and would help launch Universal into the stratosphere as the preeminent studio for monster movies. Directed by James Whale and starring Boris Karloff as The Monster, we revisit the classic film this month in honor of Halloween.

In this special episode we offer a highlight of a new book, Goddess and the Girl Next Door and a look back at the classic film Move Over, Darling. Doris Day and Marilyn Monroe as the subjects of the new book. The episode also includes an interview with the author courtesy of Talk Radio Europe.

Bridget Fonda and Bill Pullman star in the 1999 horror film Lake Placid. As horrors go this one can be more of a spoof and an adventure than a true horror. With a mix of romance, drama and some good old gore Lake Placid hoped to breath new life into the Jaws genre, but failed to live up to the promise. We take a look at the film.

After discussing Two- Minute Warning last month we were inspired to revisit its competition, Black Sunday. Released only months later both films have similar themes but are told in very different stories. The media interest in both meant marketing both pictures would prove to be a challenge.

The 1970s disaster movies were all the rage, but as the decade wore on the disasters became less successful as movie producers looked to cover every possible angle. For this outing, a drama promoted as a disaster had a sniper looking to kill people at a championship football game. An all star cast has viewers wondering who would live and who would die.

With a new book, The Bond That Got Away, out in print and the recent news of the official casting of Bond 25 released, it seemed a good time to revisit the biggest of the Bond’s with Goldfinger. The 1964 film would catapult Bond into a verifiable craze as fans flocked to the theater to find out what danger James Bond had gotten himself into this time. The gadgets, girls and villains helped make this a quintessential Bond picture.

Elvis visited Hawaii in 1961 for his first film there, Blue Hawaii. The success of the film and the resulting soundtrack would spawn two more Hawaii films for The King and would lead to a common musical formula that Elvis would follow for much of the next decade. In this episode we take a look back at the filming of Blue Hawaii, on location in Kauai where the film was made.