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Robert Horton, as Flint on WagonTrain, and Ward Bond. A - Amnesia. Robert Horton left Wagon Train at the peak of his popularity to pursue movie stardom--but eventually returned to television as an amnesiac trying to discover his identity in A Man Called Shenandoah. B - The Barkley f read more

Unless you're an aficionado of "B" movies, you've probably never heard of Hugo Haas. His films aren't considered underrated classics nor have they attracted cult followings among movie buffs. However, there are a handful of us who remember Haas with affection. Saddled with micro-budgets an read more

Peter Ustinov. David Suchet. The case of the preferred Poirot is an easy one to solve. I suspect that most Agatha Christie purists favor David Suchet over Peter Ustinov as the Belgian (not French!) detective. Personally, I adore them equally. Ustinov may place a little more emphasis read more

Spoiler alert: This review reveals a key plot twist. Made between the lighthearted The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935) and the dark Sabotage (1936), Secret Agent reflects elements of both. The combination is not always a successful one, but that doesn't keep Secret Agent from securing its place as an read more

Fred MacMurray as the title character. The most baffling thing about The Happiest Millionaire is its intended audience. It's hard to imagine many youngsters sitting through a 172-minute musical (though there were multiple versions, including a "shorter" 116-minute edition). The leading charact read more

Is Poldark among the Cafe's Top 10? I've always enjoyed year-end countdowns, even though they are somewhat arbitrary by nature. When determining the year's most popular songs based on sales, those tunes released at the beginning of the year have an obvious advantage. The same applies to blog p read more

As Will Shakespeare might have said: "We come not to criticize bad movies, but to appreciate them for providing a contrast to good movies." Lest we not forget, the line between intentional and unintentional humor can be a fine one. With these insights in mind, we introduce Bad Movie Theatre, a read more

I know what you're thinking--you'd sure like an intellectually challenging classic movie quiz to end the year. You're in luck! Below we have described the plots of 25 classic films; all you have to do is identify the movie. Actually, many of these are pretty easy--but there may be a few challenging read more

Ray Milland as the grieving father. Daughter of the Mind (1969).  Ray Milland stars as a guilt-ridden scientist responsible for his young daughter Mary's death in a car accident 13 weeks earlier. After visiting her memorial in a cemetery, he hears Mary's voice while driving home and sees an ap read more

McQueen & motorcycle. 1.  The Great Escape (1963). Steve McQueen probably would have become a superstar anyway, but his charismatic performance as "The Cooler King"--along with a terrific, fence-jumping motorcycle chase--hastened his fame. Although this classic POW action fi read more

Ladd in perhaps his most famous role. Although Alan Ladd made several Westerns prior to Shane, I initially thought he’d be ill-suited for the role of a reformed gunslinger. Short in stature and with an urban demeanor, Ladd had his biggest success playing contemporary tough guys (e.g., This Gu read more

Ivanhoe (1952) Robert Taylor as Ivanhoe. MGM mounted this colorful adaptation of Sir Walter Scott's tale of a noble Saxon knight trying to restore the throne of England to King Richard, who has been kidnapped by his brother Prince John. This popular, trendsetting film earned a Best Picture nomin read more

Between the demise of the original Star Trek TV series in 1969 and 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Gene Roddenberry attempted to launch several new TV series. The one that came the closest to production was Questor; its pilot was broadcast by NBC as the 1974 made-for-television film The Q read more

While typically not a fan of coffee table books, I recently quite enjoyed  Jaws: Memories from Martha's Vineyard, an updated edition of Matt Taylor's exhaustive collection of fascinating photographs and anecdotes surrounding the making of the 1975 blockbuster. What makes Taylor's book uniq read more

Tribes Jan-Michael Vincent and Darren McGavin. This incisive 1970 film about a tough Marine drill sergeant and a hippy recruit remains one of the best-remembered telecasts on the ABC Movie of the Week. Darrin McGavin, in his finest pre-Christmas Story performance, stars as Gunnery Sergeant Drake, read more

Lemmon and Mills = great chemistry. Avanti! (1972) Director: Billy Wilder    Cast: Jack Lemmon, Juliet Mills, and Clive Revill. One of Wilder’s last films stars Lemmon as an uptight American businessman who journeys to a small Italian town to retrieve the body of his father, wh read more

It's back! The Cafe's annual list of recommended gift ideas for the classic film and TV fan returns for this fourth edition. And remember, if you are the only classic film and TV fan in your family, you can drop hints--or even buy yourself a present. 1. The Forsyte Saga (1967). James Galswo read more

Johnny Guitar (1954) Director: Nicholas Ray Cast: Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge, and Scott Brady. This one-of-a-kind Western is dominated by two strong-willed, pistol-packing women: Crawford as a cynical saloon owner and McCambridge as a sexually-repressed cattle owner. T read more

Khigh Dhiegh as Judge Dee. Before The Name of the Rose and Cadfael, Judge Dee--a seventh-century Chinese detective--investigated  homicide within the sacred walls of a monastery in the appropriately-titled Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders. Author Nicolas Meyer (Time After Tim read more

Alan Alda in Isn't It Shocking? Three deaths in one week isn't unusual...even in a quaint New England town like Mount Angel where the population is 1325 and the police department consists of four people. But when all three victims die of the same cause at the same age--and they graduated from the read more