One of the most chilling last lines in movie history sounds more like someone inviting a friend into their study for a glass of sherry: “Alex, will you come in, please? I wish to talk to you.” Yet every time I see the scene, it gives me goose bumps. It’s terrifying in a way that Norman Bates crashing Janet Leigh’s shower isn’t. It’s more menacing than a flock of crows silently assembling on a jungle gym behind Tippi Hedren as she smokes a cigarette, blissfully unaware of impe

“Billy Wilder has a mind full of razor blades.” That’s William Holden’s assessment of writer-director Billy Wilder -- and few pictures illustrate Holden’s point better than Ace in the Hole (1951). Way ahead of its time and eerily prescient about ours, Wilder’s film casts Kirk Douglas as a ruthless reporter who milks a story about a man caught in a mine cave-in to advance his career. The film was inspired by a real-life 1925 incident in which spelunker Floyd Collins became tra

The shoulder pads, as if she’d mugged a linebacker. The thick eyebrows, which resembled two comatose caterpillars. The damning charges, in a memoir and a movie, accusing her of being an abusive mother, obsessed with wire hangers. Joan Crawford may have died 50 years ago, but her legend lives on in the minds of classic film fans. In the 1920s, she emerged from a Dickensian childhood to become a Charleston-dancing flapper. In the 1930s, she was one of MGM’s top female stars, sh

Brain vs. brawn. Good guys vs. outlaws. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance may focus on a fatal duel, but it’s definitely not a typical shoot-‘em-up Western. Leonard Maltin summarizes the tale in this review from his Classic Movie Guide: “Tenderfoot lawyer Stewart helps civilize the West, but needs help from he-man Wayne to do so. Panned and patronized upon original release, but now regarded as an American classic.” Stewart is James Stewart, Wayne is (of course) John Wayne. The

When I was a child, my mother’s Aunt Irene would sometimes visit us. Irene was deaf, but she communicated by reading lips and speaking in what sounded like French to my young ears. Mom, who had grown up around Irene, could understand her perfectly. I felt as if I needed those headsets that U.N. delegates wear so translators can interpret the proceedings in the listener’s native tongue. My interactions with Irene surely contributed to my fascination with Helen Keller, whose ea

As a writer, I’ve always marveled at people who adapt books for the screen. On the upside, the scriptwriter gets the benefits of an established story, characters and dialogue. But there are plenty of downsides: How can you turn a beloved novel into a film that fans of the original will accept, along with the moviegoers who simply want to be entertained? How do you capture the magic of the printed page on celluloid? Which parts do you cut and which do you keep? It had to have