Eartha Kitt: An Anti-War Patriot Eartha Kitt: An Anti-War Patriot
Forty years ago, America’s cultural icons expressed the frustration of the American people with the failure of then-President Lyndon Johnson to end this country’s undec…
Dec 26, 2008 / John Nichols
Double Indemnity Double Indemnity
Before he was the perfect TV dad, Fred MacMurray was Billy Wilder's favorite movie heavy.
Dec 23, 2008 / Books & the Arts / James Agee
It Happened One Night It Happened One Night
What happened was Clark Gable doffed his shirt to reveal his bare chest, prompting the second great crash of the Depression: in undershirt sales.
Dec 23, 2008 / Books & the Arts / William Troy
For Whom the Bell Tolls For Whom the Bell Tolls
Some feared a film of Hemingway's novel about the Spanish Civil War would take too strong a stance against fascism. They didn't know Hollywood.
Dec 23, 2008 / Books & the Arts / James Agee
The Thin Blue Line The Thin Blue Line
Using innovative, slow-motion re-enactments, Errol Morris cast new light on the murder of a Dallas policeman. As a result, the man wrongly convicted of the crime went free.
Dec 23, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Fredric Paul Smoler
Fantasia Fantasia
When Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck gave way to Bach and Beethoven, the results were as far out as Pluto.
Dec 23, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Franz Hoellering
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
Steven Spielberg's imaginary childhood friend brought to life, voiced by an aging actress with a two-pack-a-day cigarette habit.
Dec 23, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Robert Hatch
Point and Place: William Eggleston’s Vibrant Spaces Point and Place: William Eggleston’s Vibrant Spaces
Democratic Camera: William Eggleston's grand and gorgeous retrospective at the Whitney Museum.
Dec 22, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
On the Waterfront On the Waterfront
Elia Kazan and Budd Schulberg used this gritty tale of corruption on the New York waterfront to help put a positive spin on ratting out their colleagues.
Dec 22, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Bernard Nossiter
Citizen Kane Citizen Kane
Frequently listed as the greatest film ever made, Orson Welles's masterpiece is also a thinly veiled biopic of William Randolph Hearst.
Dec 22, 2008 / Books & the Arts / Anthony Bower