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After an immensely successful decade in the 1960s, Walt Disney Productions hit a rut in the 1970s. The quality and popularity of its films, as a whole, took a nose dive. Two of its better efforts during this period are now largely forgotten despite the presence of James Garner. Signed to a two-movie read more

I have always been intrigued by the concept of time travel. The end of the year seems like an appropriate time to list my picks for best time travel films and then learn what Cafe readers have to say about the subject. Starting from the top: Mary Steenburgen and Malcolm McDowell. 1. Time After read more

Rock Hudson makes a call! A 3.7 rating (out of 10) on the IMDb and a 7% (out of 100%) audience score on Rotten Tomatoes might lead one to believe that a movie may be a turkey. Yet, there's always that "may" and, besides, I'm a Rock Hudson fan and have a bit of a soft spot for disaster movies. read more

(Note: This post originally appeared in 2011. Seven years later, we still think these are the five best, but we've changed the order. Also, we conducted a recent Twitter poll with over 200 participants and 42% of them picked It's a Wonderful Life as No. 1.) With the holiday season upon us, it read more

Robert Lansing as Murphy. With an enemy agent hot on his trail, spy Peter Murphy (Robert Lansing) ducks into a late-night Berlin bar. As he ponders his next move, he hears a loud drunkard and turns around to see a man who could be his twin. Murphy goes up to the building's roof and watches the man read more

Red Buttons and Robert Lansing. Happy holidays to everyone! If you're new to this game, here are the rules:  You will be given a pair or trio of films or performers and will be required to to find the common connection. It could be anything--two stars who acted in the same movie, two movies th read more

Kirk Douglas as Ned Land. It's a whale of a tale...I swear by my tattoo. Well, truth be told, I'm not a tattoo kind of guy, but Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is still an impressive achievement 64 years after its original release. However, a recent viewing reminded me that it's mor read more

I know it's quazy, but what if you're in the mood to watch a movie with a title that starts with "Q"? We pondered this question and came up with five quick picks: Andrew Keir as Quatermass. 1. Quatermass and the Pit (aka Five Million Years to Earth) - Construction workers uncover the ancient sk read more

Here are the rules: We will provide an "alternate title" for a classic TV series and ask you to name the actual show. Most of these are pretty easy. Keep in mind that they're older series (e.g. classic television). Please answer no more than three questions per day so others can play. Good luck read more

Having been a Philo Vance aficionado since my teenage years, I can attest that no actor has captured the uppity, intellectual sleuth. Willard Huntington Wright, writing under the pseudonym S.S. Van Dine, penned twelve Vance novels between 1926 and 1939. The first four are excellent mysteries that mi read more

Richard Todd as Rob Roy. Richard Todd made three British-filmed historical adventures for Walt Disney in the 1950s: The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (!952); The Sword and the Rose (1953); and Rob Roy: The Highland Rogue (1953). James Robertson Justice co-starred in all three and Glyn read more

The members of Monty Python. Everyone has their favorite Monthy Python skits, so compiling a "five best" is an impossible task. That said, I think we've come up with five pretty funny, laugh-out-loud classics. Our only rule was that we limited our picks to skits that appeared on the TV series  read more

Fred MacMurray playing another Dad. Fred MacMurray made seven films for Walt Disney Productions, starting with The Shaggy Dog (1959) and ending with Charley and the Angel (1973). There were big hits (The Absent-Minded Professor) and big flops (The Happiest Millionaire). One of Fred’s least su read more

Stirling Silliphant and his wife Tiana Alexandre. For years, I knew producer-writer Stirling Silliphant as the guy that wrote In the Heat of the Night (a favorite) and The Poseidon Adventure (a guilty pleasure). I had also read where he and James Coburn were good friends with Bruce Lee. That was pr read more

Blogger, the software currently used for the Cafe, is experiencing some technical difficulties. As a result, you may be unable to leave comments under your Blogger account name--or you may be unable to leave comments at all. One workaround may be be to post your comments anonymously. That seems to read more

Richard Anderson and Nancy Walker. With Thanksgiving this month, we give thanks for having the smartest classic movie and TV buffs play this game every month. We're constantly surprised by the additional answers to the connections  identified by the Cafe's staff. For those of you playing this read more

Sean Connery as Edward Pierce. In addition to writing bestselling novels like Jurassic Park and The Andromeda Strain, Michael Crichton also found time to moonlight as a film director. One of his most successful efforts was The Great Train Robbery (1978), based on his own popular novel--which w read more

Judy Garland in Meet Me in St. Louis. Fairs on film have evoked a nostalgic atmosphere of Americana, as typified by the three film versions of State Fair.  Will Rogers starred in the original 1933 film about a family’s adventures at the Iowa State Fair, but the 1945 version, boasting Rod read more

Aubrey Hepburn has breakfast. It's been a couple of months since we last explored what Amazon Prime had to offer in the way of classic movies. Its current line-up includes a nice mix of popular fare, a rare Stanley Kubrick movie, a quartet of first-rate Westerns, and some cult classics. If you gra read more

Claude Rains as the Phantom. Just eleven years after Lon Chaney thrilled audiences in The Phantom of the Opera (1925), Universal was planning a remake. However, it wasn’t until 1941 that the production got the green light for a Technicolor extravaganza. Studio executives wanted Deanna Durbin read more