[{"__typename":"Article","title":{"short":"Star of the Month: Marilyn Monroe","full":"Star of the Month: Marilyn Monroe","__typename":"Title"},"summary":{"short":null,"full":null,"__typename":"Summary"},"type":"article","featuredVideo":{"videoUrl":null,"name":null,"__typename":"VideoTC"},"editorialPromoLabel":null,"editorialContentLabel":null,"externalUrl":null,"destination":"Internal","featuredImage":{"alt":"sotm marilyn 1200x800","imageUrl":"https://static.tcm.com/2026-05/sotm%20marilyn%201200x800.png","cuts":[{"url":"https://static.tcm.com/2026-05/sotm%20marilyn%201200x800.png","size":"16:9","__typename":"ImageCut"}],"__typename":"ImageTC"},"body":"

Mondays in June | 14 movies

\n\n

The word “icon” gets thrown around a lot these days. But few people have embodied that term like Marilyn Monroe. Her duality made her alluring. She was the glamorous movie star and the girl next door. She was a seductress and an innocent. Below the surface, Monroe was a complex woman—intellectually curious, ambitious and tormented by her own insecurities. The bona fide blonde bombshell rose to superstardom during her lifetime. And in the years since her untimely death, Marilyn Monroe continues to be a household name. She’s been mythologized in countless biographies, documentaries and biopics. Often imitated but never rivaled, Monroe continues to be a source of fascination for us all.

\n\n

Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1st, 1926, in Los Angeles, California. Her mother Gladys, who worked as a film cutter in Hollywood, named her daughter after movie star Norma Talmadge. Monroe had a troubled childhood. She married young, and when that relationship ended, she decided to make a fresh start. In her autobiography “My Story,” co-written with Ben Hecht, she reflected on this transitional period: “This is the end of my story of Norma Jeane. Jim and I were divorced. And I moved into a room in Hollywood to live by myself. I was nineteen, and I wanted to find out who I was.”

\n\n

In Hollywood, she took acting, dancing and singing lessons and spent hours in front of the mirror reading from scripts. Auditions became a way of life for the budding actress. She eventually signed with 20th Century-Fox and, at the behest of studio executive Ben Lyon, changed her name to Marilyn Monroe. She made her film debut in the delinquent teen drama Dangerous Years (1947). Several uncredited performances in Fox productions followed, with some of her scenes ending up on the cutting room floor.

\n\n

Monroe briefly stepped away from Fox and signed a contract with Columbia Pictures, which resulted in just one film: Ladies of the Chorus (1948). It was her first of many roles playing a showgirl who finds love outside of her tax bracket. A chance audition with Groucho and Harpo Marx for the comedy Love Happy (1949) changed this. The Marx Bros. were impressed by the young actress’s sex appeal. Groucho described Monroe as “Mae West, Theda Bara, and Bo Peep all rolled into one.”

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"ladies$ \n\t

\n\n

For Fox, she continued with various small roles, including playing a chorus girl in the Western A Ticket to Tomahawk (1950) and the roller derby movie The Fireball (1950). Over at MGM, she played Dick Powell’s love interest in the boxing movie Right Cross (1950). Director John Huston invited Monroe to audition for the part of Angela Phinlay, the mistress to the corrupt lawyer and fixer played by Louis Calhern in the film noir The Asphalt Jungle (1950). Monroe was eager for the opportunity. In her autobiography, she wrote, “I knew this part wouldn’t be cut out of the picture because it was vital to the plot.”

\n\n

Her performance in The Asphalt Jungle caught the eye of Fox executive Darryl F. Zanuck, who came to the realization that Fox could have a star on their hands. She was cast in All About Eve (1950), the backstage drama directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. In the film, she plays Ms. Claudia Casswell, an aspiring actress and arm candy to George Sanders’ Addison DeWitt. Her role was a fitting counterpart to Anne Baxter’s ingenue Eve Harrington. Both are opportunists who use their charms to manipulate for the same end goal. Monroe felt intimidated by star Bette Davis and had trouble delivering her lines. Her insecurities as an actress were on full display, and she would soon develop a reputation for being difficult to work with. She became known for her chronic tardiness, forgetting lines and for her co-dependent relationships with acting coaches Natasha Lytess and Paula Strasberg.

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"Asphalt$ \n\t

\n\n

Monroe signed a new contract with Fox. Her next assignments included supporting roles in romantic comedies like As Young As You Feel (1951), Love Nest (1951), Let’s Make It Legal (1951) and We’re Not Married! (1952). When she became a major star, these films were later repackaged and rereleased to capitalize on public interest.

\n\n

Monroe demonstrated her dramatic range in her next two pictures. On loan out, Monroe was cast as Peggy in the Fritz Lang drama Clash by Night (1952). She plays a cannery worker who is in a toxic relationship with the protagonist’s brother. Monroe received fourth billing after stars Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas and Robert Ryan. In later years, Stanwyck recalled, “[Monroe] wasn’t disciplined, and she was often late, but she didn't do it viciously, and there was a sort of magic about her which we all recognized at once. Her phobias, or whatever they were, came later; she seemed just a carefree kid, and she owned the world.”

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"Clash$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

Arguably, Monroe’s best dramatic performance came in Don’t Bother to Knock (1952). In this psychological thriller starring Richard Widmark and Anne Bancroft, Monroe plays Nell Forbes, a mentally unstable babysitter. She’s described in the picture as “silk on one side and sandpaper on the other,” evocative of her character’s unpredictable mood swings.

\n\n

Monroe was on the precipice of major stardom when she landed the starring role in director Henry Hathaway’s film noir Niagara (1953). The executives at Fox realized they had a hot commodity on their hands and the role of Rose Loomis—the film’s sultry femme fatale—was elevated from supporting player to leading lady. Niagara marked Monroe’s first film in color. Once she renegotiated her contract with Fox, she insisted that all of her pictures moving forward be in color. This was a strategic business move, ensuring that she would only be cast in major productions.

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"Niagara$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

Billed as “the world’s most fabulous gold-digging blonde,” Monroe’s co-starring role in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) cemented her status as a superstar. Directed by Howard Hawks and adapted from Anita Loos’ novel and stage adaptation, Jane Russell and Monroe star as a pair of showgirls on a cruise heading to Paris. Russell and Monroe play opposites to great effect—blonde and brunette, naive and cynical— and have wonderful onscreen chemistry. The movie is best known for Monroe’s musical sequence “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” where Monroe dons a pink dress with matching opera gloves—a hat tip to Rita Hayworth’s famous “Put the Blame on Mame” outfit from Gilda (1946). It’s a landmark performance and has been imitated by many, including Madonna, Nicole Kidman and Ryan Gosling.

\n\n

The next move for Monroe was a starring role in Fox’s How to Marry a Millionaire (1953). Monroe, Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall play three eligible bachelorettes who set out to marry wealthy men but find true love instead. It became the fourth-highest grossing film of 1953. Despite her success, Monroe still suffered from what we refer to now as “imposter syndrome.” About working with Monroe, Bacall wrote, “Marilyn was frightened, insecure—trusted only her coach and was always late… And yet I couldn’t dislike Marilyn. She had no meanness in her…. There was something sad about her—wanting to reach out—afraid to trust—uncomfortable.”

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"How$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

Her role in the Fox Western River of No Return (1954) was a low point in Monroe’s career. She butted heads with Otto Preminger, a notoriously difficult director who did not appreciate how Monroe’s acting coach kept interfering with production. Filmed on location in the Rocky Mountains, the production took a physical toll on Monroe, who injured her ankle and almost drowned.

\n\n

When we think of Marilyn Monroe, there are three iconic looks that come to mind: the Bob Mackie-designed “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” dress in 1962, the “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” pink dress and the white flowy dress in The Seven Year Itch (1955), both designed by William Travilla. The image of Monroe playfully pushing down her skirt as the wind from a subway grate blows it up has become evocative of her unique brand of innocence and sexuality. In Billy Wilder’s movie, we only see a glimpse of her legs. However, the full-length publicity photos shot in front of a thousand spectators are what most remember.

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"Seven$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

Monroe took a year off from Hollywood, studied at the Actors’ Studio and formed Marilyn Monroe Productions with producer Milton H. Greene. With this new entity, she hoped to have more bargaining power in selecting her directors and leading men and in influencing cinematography, costuming and makeup. She negotiated a new seven-year contract with Fox, and her production company produced two movies. The first was Bus Stop (1956). Directed by Joshua Logan, the film stars Monroe as a saloon singer who falls in love with a hot-headed cowboy, played by Don Murray. Monroe had the most creative control in her career with this picture, transforming her appearance and diction to best suit her vision for the role. Her next production was The Prince and the Showgirl (1957), a romantic comedy directed by and starring Laurence Olivier. This was Monroe’s only film made outside the United States.

\n\n

By this time, Monroe was married to writer Arthur Miller, who had become more involved in his wife’s work. It took some convincing from Miller and producer Harold Mirisch to get Monroe to agree to star in Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot (1959). Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon play two musicians on the run from the mob who cross-dress and join Monroe’s all-female band as a disguise. About Monroe, Curtis said, “She knew she was limited and goddamned well knew what was right for Marilyn. She wasn’t about to do anything else.”

\n\n

Monroe laid everything bare in what would be her last completed film. Based on an Arthur Miller story and directed by John Huston, The Misfits (1962) stars Monroe as a divorcee who falls for a free-spirited cowboy, played by Clark Gable. The film became known for being the swan song for both Monroe and Gable and for its stellar cast of players, including Montgomery Clift, Thelma Ritter and Eli Wallach. On her review of the film, critic Pauline Kael wrote, “Monroe has never worked her vulnerability so fulsomely before…” Unfortunately, after The Misfits had wrapped, everything seemed to go downhill from there. It was clear that she was battling her own demons. Her next project, Something’s Got to Give (1962) was never completed. Marilyn Monroe passed away that same year on August 4th, 1962, at the age of 36. Her career and life continue to fascinate audiences today, and her face has become embedded in popular culture, exemplified in Andy Warhol’s “Marilyn Diptych,” making her one of the most recognizable talents of her generation.

\n\n

Monday, June 1

\n\n\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n

8:00 PM	Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
9:45 PM	How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)
11:30 PM	Monkey Business (1952)
1:30 AM	Ladies of the Chorus (1949)

\n\n

Monday, June 8

\n\n\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n

8:00 PM	Clash by Night (1952)
10:00 PM	Don't Bother to Knock (1952)
11:30 PM	The Asphalt Jungle (1950
1:30 AM	Right Cross (1950)

\n\n

Monday, June 15

\n\n\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n

8:00 PM	Bus Stop (1956)
10:00 PM	The Seven Year Itch (1955)
12:00 AM	Niagara (1953)

\n\n

Monday, June 22

\n\n\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n

8:00 PM	Some Like It Hot (1959)
10:15 PM	The Misfits (1961)
12:30 AM	The Prince and the Showgirl (1957)

\n\n

\n","pageAlias":{"pagePath":"/articles/now-playing-newsletter/60072/star-of-the-month-marilyn-monroe","__typename":"PageAlias"}},{"__typename":"Article","title":{"short":"TCM Spotlight: Disaster Movies","full":"TCM Spotlight: Disaster Movies","__typename":"Title"},"summary":{"short":null,"full":null,"__typename":"Summary"},"type":"article","featuredVideo":{"videoUrl":null,"name":null,"__typename":"VideoTC"},"editorialPromoLabel":null,"editorialContentLabel":null,"externalUrl":null,"destination":"Internal","featuredImage":{"alt":"Airport 1970 2700x1800","imageUrl":"https://static.tcm.com/2026-05/Airport%201970%202700x1800.png","cuts":[{"url":"https://static.tcm.com/2026-05/Airport%201970%202700x1800.png","size":"16:9","__typename":"ImageCut"}],"__typename":"ImageTC"},"body":"

Wednesdays in June | 24 movies

\n\n

Disasters of all sorts—natural, man-made, Biblical, science fiction—have been fodder for the movies since the silent era. Every generation or so sees a cycle of disaster movies, often prompted by the unexpected success of one film that captures the fervent imaginations of audiences and filmmakers alike, and often reflecting social anxieties specific to that era. Wednesdays in June, TCM pays tribute to the genre with notable titles from three of those cycles: the mid-1930s, the late 1950s to early 1960s, and the genre’s golden age of the 1970s.

\n\n

King Kong (1933) may not be typically thought of as a “disaster movie,” but its climactic scenes of Kong rampaging through Manhattan, capturing Fay Wray and sending scores of innocent New Yorkers to their deaths is actually one of the most memorable such spectacles in any disaster film. Producer-directors Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, working with special effects pioneer Willis O’Brien, created a giant ape character out of an eighteen-inch puppet made of cloth, rubber and metal (with a larger mechanical head and arm used for some shots). Thanks to a combination of stop-motion animation, back projection, miniatures and matte paintings, Kong appears to be 40 feet high and commands an astonishing range of emotion that terrified audiences, drew their sympathy and turned King Kong into one of the great landmarks of filmmaking.

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"King$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

Two years later, Cooper, Schoedsack and O’Brien reunited for The Last Days of Pompeii (1935), the Roman-era story of a humble yet embittered blacksmith (Preston Foster) who becomes a gladiator and amasses great wealth. The story scales melodramatic heights before Mt. Vesuvius erupts, forcing Foster to make a moral choice. Something of a nod to the disaster films of the silent era, which were often set in the ancient world, The Last Days of Pompeii features another impressive O’Brien spectacle in the volcano sequence, with collapsing buildings and flowing lava having the last word over fleeing Romans.

\n\n

Meanwhile, MGM was producing its own disaster movie, San Francisco (1936), with the even starrier cast of Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald and Spencer Tracy. Here, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake provides the spectacle in a film that garnered six Oscar nominations. While the film overall was directed by W.S. “Woody” Van Dyke, the thrilling earthquake sequence, innovative in its use of rolling sets, was written, directed and edited by John Hoffman, who later ran the montage department at MGM with fellow montage artist Slavko Vorkapich.

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"San$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

“Disaster movie” is a term that has been applied to films retroactively. Not until the 1970s did the phrase start popping up in reviews and the trade press. Variety’s review of San Francisco, for instance, called it a “meller,” or melodrama, and the other ‘30s films were simply referred to as action-adventure or the like. The same was true in the 1950s. The Japanese-made Godzilla (1954), released in the U.S. in 1956, is as iconic as King Kong. The giant, prehistoric lizard Godzilla is awakened by atom-bomb testing in the ocean and proceeds to destroy ships and ultimately terrorize Tokyo as military men and scientists try to intervene.

\n\n

Endlessly remade and spun off, the original Godzilla was made as a cautionary tale about the modern world and its unsettled future. Similar themes drove other disaster movies of the era. On the Beach, based on a novel by Nevil Shute, imagines a world that has been destroyed by nuclear war, with only Australia remaining habitable for the few Americans and Australians that survived. For decades the film stood as the definitive dramatic portrayal of the aftermath of a nuclear war. The World, the Flesh, and the Devil applied this idea to a New York City that is completely deserted except for three survivors: a Black man (Harry Belafonte), a white woman (Inger Stevens) and a white man (Mel Ferrer). Racism and sexual competition drive the conflicts that ensue. While the film was a box-office disappointment, it stands as an interesting variation on the doomsday movies of the period, as does the sci-fi Crack in the World (1965), which imagines a nuclear missile fired into the earth by scientists, only for the entire planet to become at risk of breaking in two.

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"World,$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

Other titles from this period anticipated the many ship and plane disaster spectacles to come over a decade later. A Night to Remember (1958) is one of the finest screen versions of the Titanic disaster, while The Last Voyage (1960) finds a family trying to stay alive on a slowly sinking passenger ship—a concept that clearly paved the way for The Poseidon Adventure (1972). Producers Andrew and Virginia Stone, always sticklers for realism, filmed The Last Voyage on a real ocean liner, the retired S.S. Ile de France, rather than using miniatures and back projection. The film was very well received (“pure excitement,” declared Variety) and deserves more recognition.

\n\n

Also underrated was The Crowded Sky (1960), starring Dana Andrews and Rhonda Fleming, which dramatizes a midair collision. Another aviation tale, Zero Hour! (1957), would prove even more influential. Based on a script that Arthur Hailey originally wrote for a 1956 Canadian TV movie, it imagines a scenario in which the pilot and co-pilot of a commercial flight come down with food poisoning, leaving a former fighter pilot on board to take over. The story was adapted to the big screen with Andrews, Sterling Hayden and Linda Darnell, and was later remade several times. It was also a precursor to Airport (1970), based on Hailey’s bestselling novel.

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"Zero$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

Considered in retrospect to be the first great disaster film of the 1970s, at the time of release, Airport was received more as a soapy melodrama with its intersecting story threads and all-star cast—albeit a massively successful one. (Despite many poor reviews, it was the second-highest-grossing picture of the year.) The film is really an “almost-disaster” story, with most of the running time laying out the multiple plotlines and backstories, in the airplane and on the ground, until a depressed passenger (Van Heflin) sets off a bomb in the plane’s lavatory. Pilots Dean Martin and Barry Nelson must now land the torn-open plane safely despite a raging snowstorm at the Chicago airport managed by Burt Lancaster. Airport’s financial success certainly prompted the production of more disaster films, but they would employ grander scales with higher body counts.

\n\n

The next year’s The Omega Man (1971), a suspenseful box-office hit based on Richard Matheson’s dystopian novel “I Am Legend,” stars Charlton Heston as the (possibly) last human on earth after germ warfare has wiped out most of humanity. Meanwhile, The Andromeda Strain (1971), a box-office disappointment based on a Michael Crichton novel, concerns the discovery of microscopic alien organisms that turn human blood into powder and mutate to threaten all life on Earth.

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"Omega$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

In 1972, Heston appeared again as an airplane captain in Skyjacked, which capitalized on both the success of Airport and a recent spate of real airplane hijackings, but it was The Poseidon Adventure that did more than any film to establish the narrative model for the modern disaster picture. Producer Irwin Allen assembled an all-star cast to play characters fighting to find daylight when their luxury ocean liner is overturned by a tsunami caused by an undersea earthquake. The disaster comprises most of the running time, and top-drawer special effects generate spectacle on a grand scale. The advertising tagline declared “Hell, Upside Down” in such big print that some mistook it as the title of the movie. Distributed by 20th Century-Fox, the $5 million Poseidon Adventure grossed over $160 million and drew eight Academy Award nominations, winning a special Oscar for its visual effects. That success opened the floodgates to more such epics, including Allen’s next production, The Towering Inferno (1974)—an undertaking so massive that it took two studios working together (Fox and Warner Bros.) to make it.

\n\n

The Towering Inferno is perhaps the pinnacle of the genre. In San Francisco, the world’s tallest skyscraper catches fire due to electrical short circuits as partygoers revel on the 135th floor. The term “all-star cast” has never been more apt: William Holden, Jennifer Jones and Fred Astaire are technically in the supporting cast, which is toplined by Steve McQueen as the fire chief, Paul Newman as the building’s architect and Faye Dunaway as Newman’s fiancée. Written by Poseidon’s Stirling Silliphant and directed by Skyjacked’s John Guillermin, the production boasted 57 sets, including five floors of the building constructed at full scale on the Fox lot. A “miniature” of the entire building was itself 70 feet tall. Most of the sets were destroyed during filming of the climax as one million gallons of water rushed through them.

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"towering$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

Dozens of firefighters oversaw the filming, and each cast member was assigned a firefighter to protect them if needed. Stunt coordinator Paul Stader later recalled, “In most films, if something goes wrong a stuntman would get hurt. In The Towering Inferno, if something had gone wrong a stuntman could have been killed.” The final film clocked in at a mesmerizing 165 minutes. Produced for $14 million, it grossed over $200 million and won three Oscars. Irwin Allen was christened “the master of disaster” and told The New York Times, “People are observers of the macabre. It is a trait of all of us, to one degree or another.”

\n\n

In theaters at the same time was the huge Universal production Earthquake (1974), with Charlton Heston and Ava Gardner leading a large cast who must survive a 9.9 magnitude earthquake that all but destroys Los Angeles. To make the film even more of an event, Universal’s sound department developed a system christened “Sensurround” to be installed in select theaters: low-frequency sound vibrations were emitted from special speakers around the theater to create an ominous, low rumble that audiences could feel. Ho-hum reviews didn’t stop the film from grossing about $170 million on a $7 million budget and drawing five Oscar nominations, of which it took home two, for sound and visual effects.

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"Earthquake$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

Yet, Earthquake would be the last massively successful disaster movie of the era. The Hindenburg (1975), despite meticulous craftsmanship, made only a slight profit and marked the beginning of the genre’s downturn. In telling the tale of the fated German airship’s 1937 crash in New Jersey, it deviated from the new disaster formula too much by forgoing a truly star-laden cast and saving the actual disaster for the very end of the film. “If it’s possible to violate the disaster genre, The Hindenburg has done it,” wrote critic Pauline Kael.

\n\n

The end of the decade brought such flops as Gray Lady Down (1978), Meteor (1979) and Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979). They are notable for how they show the genre to be running out of ideas and becoming increasingly formulaic and campy—though they are beloved by some for just that reason. Even Irwin Allen couldn’t save things: his eco-horror The Swarm, inspired by the African bee scare of the time, was a spectacular failure and the first of these films to enter the realm of camp. As The New York Times declared, “It could be argued that The Swarm is the surprise comedy hit of the season.” Two years later, an intentional comedy put the final nail in the coffin: Airplane! (1980), a scene-by-scene broad comedy remake of Zero Hour!, still stands as one of the funniest movies ever made.

\n","pageAlias":{"pagePath":"/articles/now-playing-newsletter/60073/tcm-spotlight-disaster-movies","__typename":"PageAlias"}},{"__typename":"Article","title":{"short":"TCM June Round-Up","full":"TCM June Round-Up","__typename":"Title"},"summary":{"short":null,"full":null,"__typename":"Summary"},"type":"article","featuredVideo":{"videoUrl":null,"name":null,"__typename":"VideoTC"},"editorialPromoLabel":null,"editorialContentLabel":null,"externalUrl":null,"destination":"Internal","featuredImage":{"alt":"Poltergeist 3000x2000","imageUrl":"https://static.tcm.com/2026-05/Poltergeist%203000x2000.png","cuts":[{"url":"https://static.tcm.com/2026-05/Poltergeist%203000x2000.png","size":"16:9","__typename":"ImageCut"}],"__typename":"ImageTC"},"body":"

Variety is the spice of life, and in these lazy summer days, TCM has plenty of variety. From the sci-fi stories by one of America’s greatest directors to the eclectic career of an Oscar-winning filmmaker to films celebrating Juneteenth and LGBTQ+ Pride to the 100th birthday of the “2000-Year-Old Man,” there’s an embarrassment of riches throughout June.

\n\n

\nSpielberg Sci-Fi: June 9 at 8pm ET

\n\n

Ahead of Steven Spielberg’s return to science fiction with his new movie Disclosure Day (2026) in theaters June 12, we’re running a trio of his sci-fi films. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) was Spielberg’s first feature to deal with extraterrestrials, but also an essential picture to show that after Jaws (1975), he wasn’t a flash-in-the-pan adapter of a beach read; he was a serious auteur who could continue to show audiences things they had never seen before. In the film, Richard Dreyfuss stars as Roy Neary, an electric utility lineman who has a close encounter with an alien ship, which drives him, along with others who have had similar encounters, on a monomaniacal quest to find the extraterrestrial vessel. While there’s plenty of Spielberg magic here, especially in using music to communicate with the aliens, it’s also a movie where a man is driven to extremes by his obsessions, arguably losing his sanity along the way.

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"Close$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

Spielberg also embraced darker tones in the early 2000s. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) began as a Stanley Kubrick production when he bought the rights to Brian Aldiss’ short story “Supertoys Last All Summer Long,” but then passed them over to Spielberg in the mid-90s. Spielberg’s story of a robot child (Haley Joel Osment) in a Pinocchio-like quest to become a real boy and reconnect with his mother contains some of the director’s saddest and most poignant imagery, fearlessly exploring ideas of what it means to be human. His follow-up, Minority Report (2002), is far more of an action blockbuster, but retains the acerbic, icy view of humanity from Philip K. Dick, who penned the original novella. Tom Cruise stars as a cop in the division of “pre-crime,” where suspects are investigated and convicted before a crime even occurs. He then must prove his innocence when he’s accused of a future homicide. While there’s plenty of Tom Cruise running, the film is ahead of the curve with its focus on a surveillance state so advanced that it can seal one’s fate by determining one’s destiny. It’s also, as of this writing, the only Spielberg movie where a guy has to chase after his own eyeballs.

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"A.I.$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

The night ends with one of the most acclaimed horror films of all time, ranked by The New York Times as one of the Best 1000 Movies Ever Made, Poltergeist (1982). Tobe Hopper directed this terrifying tale of a suburban family who must survive in the haunted house they recently moved into. Spielberg co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Grais and Mark Victor and co-produced the picture with Frank Marshall, making it his first producing job with another director leading the project. The film became a major box-office success and earned three Oscar nominations for Best Original Score, Sound Effects Editing and Visual Effects. It also spawned two sequels and a 2015 remake.

\n\n

\nDirected By George Roy Hill: June 16, 23 and 30 at 8pm ET

\n\n

George Roy Hill quietly became one of the highlights of New Hollywood, showcasing new stars in genre treats, dancing on the grave of the Production Code with a youthful bravado. Throughout June, TCM will showcase not only Hill’s biggest movies but explore his career over three Tuesdays, shining a spotlight on a director who is overdue for revisiting. On June 16, viewers can see his earlier works from the 1960s, starting with his debut feature Period of Adjustment (1962) starring Jane Fonda and Jim Hutton.

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"Period$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

Hill’s career exploded at the end of the decade with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). Working from a script by the great William Goldman, Paul Newman and Robert Redford star as the eponymous outlaws, respectively. Similar to how Bonnie and Clyde (1967) reinvented gangster tropes a couple of years earlier, Hill was unafraid to make a Western unlike anything Hollywood had made before. There’s a thoroughly modern sensibility running through the whole piece, yet it never plays as anachronistic. Instead, Hill wisely sees his leads as almost counterculture figures, seeking their next rush and yet constantly in over their heads.

\n\n

The chemistry between Newman and Redford made for one of the best pairings in Hollywood history, and Hill wisely reteamed them for his Oscar-winning feature, The Sting (1973). A towering tale of con artist savvy, Hill and his heroes have fun with the narrative twists that keep everyone on their toes as grifters Johnny Hooker (Redford) and Henry Gondorff (Newman) attempt to outwit crime boss Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw). The film would not only win Best Picture but also earn Hill an Oscar for Best Director.

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"The$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

Between these two features, Hill would attempt an adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s acclaimed, anti-war, sci-fi novel Slaughterhouse-Five (1972) about a man who becomes “unstuck” in time. The picture, which will make its TCM debut on June 30th at 10:15pm ET, highlights a recurring theme in Hill’s work about men in states of arrested development as the world rapidly changes around them, while also showcasing the filmmaker’s elasticity in moving through various genres.

\n\n

For example, Hill would make one of the great sports comedies with Slap Shot (1977), the story of a minor league hockey team led by an aging coach (Newman in his third and final feature with Hill), who can’t win games but starts drawing a crowd because of their violent brawls on the ice. Underneath the silliness, especially from the scene-stealing Hanson Brothers, you have a sharp satire about how people find violence inherently entertaining, and how that creates a prison for how men are able to express themselves.

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"Slap$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

\nJuneteenth: June 19 at 8pm ET

\n\n

In the middle of the month, TCM celebrates Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in America. But at 9:45pm, there’s a fascinating feature from across the pond—The Song of Freedom (1936). This British production, which is the first fully surviving feature from Hammer Film Productions, forefronts Black characters in a way that Hollywood rarely did at the time. It also comes from a country that abolished slavery in 1838, creating a unique depiction of racial relationships and Black history, which comes alive through Paul Robeson’s lead performance as Johnny Zinga. Johnny, with his melodic voice, goes from being a dockworker to an international opera star, but he learns that the medallion he’s possessed since he was a baby means he’s the leader of an African tribe. It’s a challenging movie that provides distinct insights into British ideas regarding race and colonialism in the 1930s.

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"Song$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

The evening will also play host to the French romance Zou Zou (1934) starring Josephine Baker, Daniel Petrie’s acclaimed adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun (1961) starring Sidney Poitier, Zoltán Korda’s Cry, the Beloved Country (1951), the James Baldwin documentary I Heard It Through the Grapevine (1982) and the sci-fi drama The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959) starring Harry Belafonte.

\n\n

\nHappy 100^th Birthday, Mel Brooks: June 28 at 2:30pm ET

\n\n

With his friend Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks became the “2000-Year-Old Man,” in a series of hilarious radio sketches, but on June 28th, he will become the 100-Year-Old Man. TCM will celebrate the birthday of an artist who has brought the world so much laughter by showcasing five of his movies, starting at 2:30pm ET with The Twelve Chairs (1970), featuring Brooks alongside Ron Moody and Frank Langella as the three men in 1920s Soviet Russia looking for lost jewels hidden inside a dining chair that was lost during the revolution. Having fallen into obscurity, the film is one that Brooks ranks as one of the pictures he’s most proud of alongside 1967’s The Producers (which will air afterwards at 4:15pm) and Life Stinks (1991).

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"Producers_1968$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

We also couldn’t properly honor Brooks without running some of his landmark spoofs. If you can only make time for one, you may want to revisit Spaceballs (1987), Brooks’ hilarious spin on Star Wars and other blockbuster sci-fi features. The film will finally receive a sequel, and no, it’s not “The Search for More Money,” as Yogurt (Brooks dressed up like Yoda) said in the movie. The follow-up, Spaceballs: The New One, is currently slated to arrive in theaters on April 23, 2027. May the Schwartz Be with You.

\n\n

\nLGBTQ+ Independent Voices (Pride): June 29 at 8pm ET

\n\n

TCM will also celebrate the independent filmmakers who have contributed to LGBTQ+ cinema. The charming British comedy Beautiful Thing (1996) and its warm and winning story of first love will make its TCM debut. A Channel 4 drama that proved so popular it earned a theatrical release, Beautiful Thing follows teenagers Jamie (Glen Berry) and Ste (Scott Neal) as they start to live together when Jamie’s mom, Sandra (Linda Henry), allows Ste to stay over as a way of avoiding his abusive household. As they spend time together, Jamie and Ste start to fall for each other, and yet this is just one aspect of Hettie Macdonald’s winning picture, which highlights how people in a working-class community emotionally support each other. Based on the play by Jonathan Harvey (who also penned the screenplay), it’s the rare film of its era to unabashedly celebrate gay love rather than feeling the need to add a tragic twist.

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"Beautiful$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

The night will also feature other indie LGBTQ+ films well worth your time, including the TCM debut of the queer Canadian romantic drama Winter Kept Us Warm (1965), alongside Donna Deitch’s tender lesbian romance Desert Hearts (1985), Stephan Elliott’s delightful road trip comedy The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), Gus Van Sant’s debut feature Mala Noche (1986) and Jean Cocteau’s French fantasy Orpheus (1950).

\n\n

For a full listing of films, check the TCM website schedule.

\n","pageAlias":{"pagePath":"/articles/now-playing-newsletter/60077/tcm-june-round-up","__typename":"PageAlias"}},{"__typename":"Article","title":{"short":"Summer of Darkness","full":"Summer of Darkness","__typename":"Title"},"summary":{"short":null,"full":null,"__typename":"Summary"},"type":"article","featuredVideo":{"videoUrl":null,"name":null,"__typename":"VideoTC"},"editorialPromoLabel":null,"editorialContentLabel":null,"externalUrl":null,"destination":"Internal","featuredImage":{"alt":"Summer of Darkness","imageUrl":"https://static.tcm.com/2026-05/SummerDarkness-Article-1200x800.png","cuts":[{"url":"https://static.tcm.com/2026-05/SummerDarkness-Article-1200x800.png","size":"16:9","__typename":"ImageCut"}],"__typename":"ImageTC"},"body":"

Fridays, June 5, 12, and 26 | 9 Movies

\n\n

The days may be longer, but this summer the nights will be darker as TCM host Eddie Muller takes over Fridays with the return of his two-month Summer of Darkness film noir festival. Friday nights in June and July (with the exception of June 19’s tribute to Juneteenth) will be devoted to Muller’s favorite genre, with the Czar of Noir hosting the prime-time offerings, as he did in the festival’s 2015 debut, followed by late-night salutes to neo-noirs like The Long Good Friday (1980), The Yakuza (1974) and Harper (1966).

\n\n

The 2026 version will feature Muller’s favorite trips to the dark side, drawn primarily from “Endless Night: 25 Noir Films that Will Stand the Test of Time,” a list created years ago for his website, eddiemuller.com. Twenty-three films from that list are featured, leaving out two that aren’t available to TCM at present. But the two chosen in their place still rank among Muller’s favorites and, as he suggests, would probably be on his list if he re-did it today. The films are programmed in roughly chronological order, giving viewers a look at the way the genre has developed over the years. This month, the entries are all taken from the 1940s, the decade most often identified as the birth of film noir and during which Hollywood reached a peak in the production of dark thrillers.

\n\n

In the promo for the 2017 debut of Muller’s weekly “Noir Alley” on TCM, he described film noir as “unheralded virtue against unmitigated vice. It’s whiskey neat and hearts of ice…. It’s the end of your rope and the wall at your back.” In his 2021 book “Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir,” he calls these pictures “distress flares launched onto America’s movie screens by artists working the night shift at the Dream Factory.” Film noir offers a pessimistic vision of life. It was most prominent after World War II, when the rush of victory was replaced for some with the realization that the problems leading to the Great Depression remained. In the world of noir, corruption runs rampant, and you never know whom you can trust. It’s ruled by the most ruthless and sometimes downright psychopathic characters. Paranoia runs rampant, and crime infects every level of American society.

\n\n

Film noir gets its name from French critics who classed crime novels with a similar outlook as “roman noir.” There’s a lot of disagreement about what constitutes the first noir film, with some placing it as early as D.W. Griffith’s 1912 The Musketeers of Pig Alley. Others have pointed to Fritz Lang’s 1931 M or examples of French poetic realism like Julien Duvivier’s Pepe le Moko (1937). Another popular contender is Boris Ingster’s stylish B movie The Stranger on the Third Floor (1940). Some even put the birth of noir as late as 1944, when Otto Preminger’s Laura and Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity hit the screen. At least most critics agree that one of the chief inspirations for the look of noir is Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane (1941), with its use of dark shadows, odd camera angles and point-of-view shots.

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"Double$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

For Eddie Muller, as good an authority as you can find, the first noir is John Huston’s debut feature, The Maltese Falcon (1941), which opens this year’s Summer of Darkness. It fits all the qualifications, with its morally questionable hero (Humphrey Bogart’s Sam Spade, who’s not above sleeping with his partner’s wife or the occasional beautiful client), action set mostly at night in the big city and an array of colorful, amoral characters. It’s also notable as the first faithful screen adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s 1929 novel, whose terse writing and cynical worldview set the tone for the many roman noir to follow.

\n\n

The Maltese Falcon also features one of the form’s key tropes, the femme fatale. Mary Astor’s Brigid O’Shaughnessy is a woman with a lie for every occasion, and she leads Spade into the battle to possess the priceless, gem-encrusted statuette of the title, “the stuff that dreams are made of.” More would follow, with two of the best airing the same night as Huston’s film. As Phyllis Dietrichson in Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity, Barbara Stanwyck’s cheap wig, ankle bracelet and carefully placed towel lure insurance agent Fred MacMurray into a murder-for-profit scheme. This was the film that ended the Production Code’s embargo on James M. Cain adaptations. Wilder and co-writer Raymond Chandler managed to capture the writer’s sleazy, fatalistic tone while also getting past the censors’ objections to the 1936 novel’s rampant sex and violence, paving the way for other notable Cain adaptations like Mildred Pierce (1945) and The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946).

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"maltese$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

Edgar G. Ulmer’s Detour (1945) contains possibly the most vicious femme fatale in the genre’s history. Vera (Ann Savage) is a wildcat hitchhiking through the Southwest when she lands on the perfect sucker, down-at-heels pianist Al Roberts (Tom Neal), who’s trying to avoid capture after being involved in an accidental death that looks like murder. When she learns the dead man is heir to a fortune from a family that hasn’t seen him in ages, she blackmails Al into posing as him so they can split the inheritance, all the while spewing an almost endless stream of vitriol. The film is a marvel of creativity on a meagre budget (some have estimated it as low as $25,000). Ulmer, a promising director relegated to B movies like this after stealing a studio executive’s unhappy wife, created a terrific air of fatality and claustrophobia with few resources. That and Savage’s gutsy performance as someone Muller has called “the meanest woman in the movies” have made Detour a cult classic often hailed as the best B movie ever made.

\n\n

Femme fatales and the innocents (or almost innocents) they dupe abound in the Summer of Darkness. Joan Bennett takes part-time painter Edward G. Robinson to the cleaners in Fritz Lang’s Scarlett Street (1945), and Ava Gardner does much the same for boxer Burt Lancaster in Robert Siodmak’s The Killers (1946). The film marked Lancaster’s screen debut and made him and Gardner stars. You also get Helen Walker as the unscrupulous psychiatrist helping phony mind-reader Tyrone Power fleece Chicago’s upper crust in Edmund Goulding’s Nightmare Alley (1947).

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"Nightmare$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

One of the screen’s greatest femme fatales is Kathie Moffatt in Jacques Tourneur’s Out of the Past (1947). Jane Greer was just 22 when she played this intriguing, complex character, whose surface innocence hides a character so devious that even her masks have masks. The man she lures to the dark side is Robert Mitchum as a private eye hired by Moffatt’s gangster boyfriend (Kirk Douglas) to hunt her down and get back the $40,000 she stole after shooting him. Mitchum tracks her to Tijuana, where her wide-eyed act gets him to fall in love.

\n\n

Film noir heroes tend to be one of two types. Some are crooked to begin with, like Tyrone Power in Nightmare Alley and escaped convict Dennis O’Keefe in Anthony Mann’s Raw Deal (1948). Others are innocents, or at least non-criminals, led astray. To the catalog of dupes and dopes drawn into crime by greed, sex or just bad luck — like MacMurray in Double Indemnity, Neal in Detour, Robinson in Scarlet Street and Lancaster in The Killers — add one of the most innocent: Dane Clark in Frank Borzage’s Moonrise (1948). In an uncharacteristically rural noir, he plays Danny Hawkins, a small-town Southern boy who takes a stand against bully Lloyd Bridges and kills him in self-defense. His attempts to avoid detection make him look guilty, so he takes it on the lam. In his only film noir, Borzage focuses on mood and on two young lovers, Clark and Gail Russell, not all that different from the romantic couples in such classics as 7th Heaven (1927), with Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, and The Mortal Storm (1940), with James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan.

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"Moonrise\"$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

The look of noir, whether set in the city or, on rare occasions like Moonrise, in the country, made it a great showcase for directors and cinematographers. John Huston launched his directing career with The Maltese Falcon, while Anthony Mann used noirs like T-Men (1947) and Raw Deal to move from B movies to A features. Those films also provided a showcase for cinematographer John Alton. He joins a list of great cameramen — including John Seitz (Double Indemnity), Woody Bredell (The Killers) and Nicholas Musuraca (Out of the Past) — who helped turn the 1940s into a decade of darkness.

\n\n

So, tighten your trench coat against the cold night air, put on your favorite hat and make sure you’ve got some protection in your pocket, as Eddie Muller takes you on a walk through the dark side of life.

\n","pageAlias":{"pagePath":"/articles/now-playing-newsletter/60074/summer-of-darkness","__typename":"PageAlias"}},{"__typename":"Article","title":{"short":"Two for One: June 2026","full":"Two for One: June 2026","__typename":"Title"},"summary":{"short":null,"full":null,"__typename":"Summary"},"type":"article","featuredVideo":{"videoUrl":null,"name":null,"__typename":"VideoTC"},"editorialPromoLabel":null,"editorialContentLabel":null,"externalUrl":null,"destination":"Internal","featuredImage":{"alt":"Two For One: Sullivans Travels","imageUrl":"https://static.tcm.com/2026-05/TwoForOne-Article-Sullivans%20Travels-1400x1600.png","cuts":[{"url":"https://static.tcm.com/2026-05/TwoForOne-Article-Sullivans%20Travels-1400x1600.png","size":"16:9","__typename":"ImageCut"}],"__typename":"ImageTC"},"body":"

Saturdays in June | 8 movies

\n\n

This June’s Two for One series on TCM features award-winning actors who have also stepped into the directing chair. They will visit as guest hosts every Saturday night to discuss a pair of films they admire with TCM host Ben Mankiewicz. The first feature will kick off at 8pm with a second feature at 10pm. Join us for intriguing summer conversations about origin stories, both personal and fictional.

\n\n

John Turturro is known for playing fierce, unforgettable characters who light the screen on fire. He got his early start in Spike Lee movies, appearing in Do the Right Thing in 1989. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the Coen Brothers’ films like Barton Fink (1991) and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), each one an intricate exploration into neo-noir themes and characters. He will discuss Out of the Past (1947) and The Set-Up (1949), two film noir classics that inspired him as an actor and director.

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"Out$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

Out of the Past from RKO Radio Studios is considered one of the best examples of film noir. It was adapted from a novel called “Build My Gallows High” written by Daniel Mainwaring, who also wrote the screenplay. Robert Mitchum plays Jeff Markham, a former detective turned gas station owner who moves to a small town to escape the crime of the big city. But his past comes back to haunt him when gangster Whit Sterling, played by then-rising star Kirk Douglas, hires him for a job. Jeff then runs into the femme fatale, portrayed by Jane Greer, who had previously entangled him in intrigue and whose love may bring him down. Director Jacques Tourner and cinematographer Nicholas Musurasca play with light and shadow to create an atmosphere of mystery and danger, framing their hardboiled detective and tragic heroine alike in inescapable spaces and scenarios. It is a film that would influence the Coen brothers’ movies Miller’s Crossing (1990) and Barton Fink, namely in the twisting plot and hapless characters who must escape the webs they are trapped in. Both films were written with Turturro in mind, and he won a Best Actor Award for his role in Barton Fink at the Cannes Film Festival in 1991.

\n\n

The Set-Up is another influential noir that stood apart because it delved into the world of boxing. Robert Ryan stars as Bill “Stoker” Thompson, an intrepid boxer past his prime who wants to prove himself one last time, even when gangsters and his own manager are rooting for his demise. Stacked against a much younger and fitter opponent, with a large bet riding on his fall, Stoker must decide whether to surrender or go down fighting. Turturro himself starred in a boxing movie called The Cut (2024) in the role of a trainer who puts the boxer through a dangerously rigorous regimen, where the hero must fight to fight. Once again, Turturro is as fierce as ever on the screen.

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"The$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

The characterizations in these movies can be seen in some of the films Turturro himself has directed, especially in Fading Gigolo (2013) and The Jesus Rolls (2019). The Jesus Rolls is a spin-off of one of Turturro’s most memorable characters in a movie, that of Jesus in the Coen brothers ‘The Big Lebowski (1998). Ironically, Jesus only gets a few moments of screen time, yet as an audience favorite, he rightly deserves his own film, and we are lucky Turturro abides.

\n\n

Actress and director Maggie Gyllenhaal hosts a night of two foreign language films on the 13th: Nights of Cabiria (1957) and Babette’s Feast (1987). Both won Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. Both deal with sensuality—of the body with the former and of the spirit with the latter.

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"Babettes$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

Daughter of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and artist Naomi Achs, Maggie Gyllenhaal got her start in Hollywood as an actress. She chose roles that challenged female stereotypes and appeared endlessly magnetic on the screen. She earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for the 2009 movie Crazy Heart. She moved behind the camera and into the director’s chair with her 2021 directorial debut, The Lost Daughter, a film about a woman remembering the challenges of early motherhood. The film garnered Academy Award nominations for Best Actress for Olivia Colman, Best Supporting Actress for Jessie Buckley and Best Screenplay for Gyllenhaal. Her latest film, The Bride! (2026), is a modern take on James Whale’s 1935 sequel The Bride of Frankenstein, based on Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” with a decidedly feminist edge. With such compelling female protagonists, it’s no wonder that Gyllenhaal chose two films whose heroines push the boundaries of what society expects of them.

\n\n

In Danish director Gabriel Axel’s Babette’s Feast, adapted from the novel by Karen Blixen, a mysterious French woman named Babette (Stéphane Audran) makes entree into a village devoted to God. Once led by a pastor, who has since passed away, the pastor’s two daughters continue his religious mission in the most austere of ways, rejecting proposals of marriage in their sacrifice. Babette has worked for the two sisters without pay, adding some flavor to their bland meals; when she wins a lottery, she decides to cook them a special French feast in honor of their father’s heavenly hundredth birthday. The meal awakens their senses and shows how earthly pleasure can also be spiritual.

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"Nights$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

The second film is Italian director Federico Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria, considered by many as one of his greatest films. Actress Giulietta Masina, who was also Fellini’s wife, plays Cabiria, a woman of the night whose evening adventures into the city bring her into contact with not only different types of men but also different lifestyles she could lead. One moment she is dancing with a famous actor, another she is part of a magic show. The subtextual question of the story being: can men make women happy? This seems to be a question in many of Gyllenhaal’s movies as well, whether she is the leading actress or the director.

\n\n

Colman Domingo stars in the latest Michael Jackson biopic Michael (2026) as the singer’s father, Joseph Jackson. Having worked in the industry both on screen and onstage for decades, Domingo’s star is only rising. His roles have included Ali Muhammad in the popular TV series Euphoria and Mister in the 2023 remake of The Color Purple. He was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Rustin (2023) and Sing Sing (2023). On the 20th, he discusses two films that have influenced him, Alfred Hitchcock’s legendary murder mystery Rear Window (1954) and Peter Bogdanovich’s Depression-era black-and-white film Paper Moon (1973).

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"Paper$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

In Paper Moon, Ryan O’Neal is Moses Pray, a conman who has scammed people all his life. He meets a little girl named Addie, played by O’Neal’s own daughter Tatum O’Neal in her first film role, newly orphaned upon her mother’s death. Neighbors suspect Moses is her father, but he denies it. When the two embark on a road trip to get Addie to her aunt’s house across the country, they collaborate to form a formidable con-artist team, making the audience wonder if she isn’t his real daughter after all. Tatum O’Neal won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, making her the youngest actor to ever receive it at the time.

\n\n

No one is a stranger to Hitchcock’s Rear Window, where everyone, even neighbors in a New York skyscraper, is a stranger. James Stewart is the temporarily incapacitated photojournalist Jeff Jeffries, who takes his investigative skills too far, snooping on his neighbors through the rear window of his apartment. Grace Kelly is his fashionista girlfriend, unable to resist getting entangled in the intrigue unfolding in Jeff’s mind about murder in their midst. What seems like the imagination of two bored individuals gone wild becomes more sinister, where ill intentions may indeed be afoot. Rear Window came to be known as one of Hitchcock’s best films, highlighting the voyeuristic tendencies of human nature through suspense, and exemplifying Hitchcock’s ability to craft a tight story through innovative camera moves. He was able to pull incredible performances from his actors, something that must inspire Domingo now that he is also directing. He directed episodes of Fear the Walking Dead and The Four Seasons and has a biopic of Nat King Cole on the horizon, which he will also star in as the legendary singer.

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"rear$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

B.J. Novak became known for his starring role as Ryan Howard in The Office, the NBC TV series he also co-wrote, produced and directed. He has been nominated for and won numerous WGA, SAG and Emmy awards. He is also an acclaimed author with his fiction collection “One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories” and children’s book “The Book With No Pictures.” Vengeance (2022) was his writing and directing feature film debut. If Novak has an artistic trademark, it is his skill with satire, and he has chosen two films which exemplify how it’s done: Sullivan’s Travels (1941) and Contempt (1963).

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"Sullivan’s$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

Sullivan’s Travels is a parody of the film industry by director Preston Sturges. The title itself is a riff on the famous Jonathan Swift novel Gulliver’s Travels. Joel McCrea stars as John Sullivan, a young director who has had success with his comedy movies but yearns to move on to more serious, dramatic material. He embarks on a journey where he pretends to be homeless so he can experience firsthand the trials and tribulations of the common man, though never too far from his entourage, who his studio has tasked with shadowing him. He meets a struggling actress played by Veronica Lake and takes her along on his ill-fated journey to find himself. The comedy of the film holds true today in the context of modern Hollywood.

\n\n

Contempt is a classic satire by revolutionary French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard. Michel Piccoli is Paul Javal, a playwright who is given the chance to do a screenplay adaptation of Homer’s “The Odyssey,” which will be directed by Fritz Lang (starring as himself). When Paul sees that the film’s American producer, Jeremy Prokosch, played by Jack Palance, is intrigued by his wife Camille, a luminous Brigitte Bardot, he allows her to become entangled in an intrigue of romantic and artistic seduction. It is a dramatic, comedic satire, effective in its criticism of people using each other as pawns for their own desires.

\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\t $\"contempt$ \n\t

\n\n\n

\n\n

Both films are meta-textual, drawing comedy and catharsis from the unflinching satire of the film and theater world. Both films’ social commentary dovetails with Novak’s work, especially with Vengeance and The Office, where he skewers office culture with equal parts drama and comedy, and the jokes hit perhaps a little too hard.

\n\n

Two for One in June offers a particularly special behind-the-scenes look at classic films and the way they have influenced modern actors and directors. It will be a summer to remember.

\n","pageAlias":{"pagePath":"/articles/now-playing-newsletter/60075/two-for-one-june-2026","__typename":"PageAlias"}}]

Now Playing Newsletter (5)