Classic Movies

For more than 80 years, the gangster flick has been a staple at Warner Bros. So it should come as no surprise that the studio plans to release two gangster collections as part of their 90th anniversary celebration.

The first set, The Ultimate Gangster Collection: Classic, will contain several great Warner productions from the classic era, some of which make their debuts on Blu-ray. Included are Little Caesar (1931) starring Edward G. Robinson in his defining role; William A. Wellman's The Public Enemy (1931) featuring James Cagney as ruthless Chicago mobster Tom Powers; and The Petrified Forest (1936) with Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, and Humphrey Bogart. The classic collection will also contain another Cagney classic, White Heat (1949), directed by Raoul Walsh, as well as the feature-length documentary Public Enemies: The Golden Age of the Gangster Film.

The second box set, The Ultimate Gangster Collection: Contemporary, has several gangster films from more recent decades. Naturally, Martin Scorsese is well represented with three films covering different eras, including his breakout film Mean Streets (1973); Goodfellas (1990), arguably his best movie; and the Oscar-winning crime saga, The Departed (2006), which finally earned him the Academy Award for Best Director. Also in the set are Michael Mann's moody crime thriller Heat (1995) and Brian De Palma's Depression Era classic The Untouchables (1987).

Both collections will be released tomorrow, May 21st.

Blu-ray covers for 'The Public Enemy' (1931) and 'Goodfellas' (1990)/Warner Bros.

This weekend, Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's literary classic The Great Gatsby over-performed at the box office with a $52 million take, though the comic book sequel Iron Man 3 still came in first place in its second week of release.

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio as mysterious Jazz Age millionaire Jay Gatsby, Carey Mulligan as self-absorbed flapper Daisy Buchanan, and Tobey Maguire as Gatsby's optimistic neighbor Nick Carraway, Luhrmann's Gatsby featured lavish costumes, extraordinary sets, and an anachronistic hip-hop soundtrack from Jay-Z that helped lure a younger audience.

The film received a mixed reception from critics, however, while becoming the fourth adaptation of Fitzgerald's book to hit the big screen. The first was a silent version from Paramount Pictures in 1926 starring Warner Baxter as Gatsby, Lois Wilson as Daisy, and Neil Hamilton as Nick Carraway. William Powell had a supporting role as doomed mechanic George Wilson.

In 1949, Paramount made the first sound version with Alan Ladd as Gatsby and Betty Field as Daisy, though certainly the most famous adaptation came in 1974 with Robert Redford playing Gatsby, Mia Farrow as Daisy, and Sam Waterston as Carraway. Directed by Jack Clayton from a script by Francis Ford Coppola, that film was walloped by negative reviews despite praise for its adherence to the source material.

While Lurhamann's version undoubtedly speaks to the current times while remaining true to its source, filmmakers are sure to find inspiration in Fitzgerald's novel years from now and make a fifth film for a newer generation.

The cast of Baz Luhrmann's 'The Great Gatsby' (2013)/Warner Bros.

Here is a list of classic movie stars and directors who were born in the month of May. A few are still with us, but all should be remembered for how their lives and work touched us deeply.

• Glenn Ford - May 1
• Bing Crosby - May 3
• Audrey Hepburn - May 4
• Tyrone Power - May 5
• Orson Welles - May 6
• Gary Cooper - May 7
• Don Rickles - May 8
• Albert Finney - May 9
• Fred Astaire - May 10
• Katharine Hepburn - May 12
• James Mason - May 15
• Joseph Cotten - May 15
• Henry Fonda - May 16
• Frank Capra - May 18
• James Stewart - May 20
• Laurence Olivier - May 22
• Peter Cushing - May 26
• Vincent Price - May 27
• Bob Hope - May 29
• Howard Hawks - May 30
• Clint Eastwood - May 31

Promo still of Katharine Hepburn/Unknown

Every month, I try to dig up enough films that are being released on Blu-ray to make it worth writing an article. Most months, I'm hard-pressed to find much of anything, which often leads to writing about obscure films released by an indie distributor.

But that's not the case this month. In May, major studios are set to release a number of great classics on the popular Blu-ray format. In fact, there were enough films that I had to put them on two separate lists. You can read Part I here and Part II here.

Of the all the major studios, Warner Bros. has the most to offer with the release of four classic gangster flicks from the 1930s and '40s as part of their 90th anniversary celebration, including Little Caesar (1931), The Public Enemy (1931), The Petrified Forest (1936), and White Heat (1949).

Also among those making the transfer this month are the classic World War II action thriller The Great Escape (1963), Alfred Hitchcock's experimental thriller Rope (1948), Sidney Lumet's great courtroom drama The Verdict (1982), and Cleopatra (1963), one of the most notorious box office flops of all time.

Of course, all the films being released next month will make great additions to anyone's movie collection.

Blu-ray covers for 'Cleopatra' (1963)/20th Century Fox and 'Little Caesar' (1931)/Warner Bros.

On Saturday, actress Jane Fonda was honored at the TCM Classic Film Festival when she received her hand and footprints outside the iconic TCL Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. The ceremony was conducted by TCM host Robert Osborne, and featured several celebrities that included brother Peter Fonda, actor Jim Carrey, TV actress Eva Longoria, and Fonda's Nine to Five (1980) co-star Lily Tomlin.

Fonda was nominated six times for Best Actress in her career and won the first of two Oscars with her performance in Alan J. Pakula's Klute (1971), where she played a mysterious prostitute caught up in a missing person case investigated by Donald Sutherland. Later in the decade, she won Academy Award number two opposite Jon Voight in the heart wrenching Vietnam War drama Coming Home (1979), directed by Hal Ashby.

Also in her career, Fonda earned nominations for her roles in Sydney Pollack's Depression era melodrama They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), Fred Zinnemann's underappreciated biopic Julia (1977), James Bridges' excellent paranoid thriller The China Syndrome (1979), and Sidney Lumet's forgotten psychological thriller The Morning After (1986). Fonda received a seventh overall nomination as Best Supporting Actress for On Golden Pond (1981), the only film she made with her father, Henry Fonda.

Fonda's prints, which included an imprint of a peace sign, were placed next to father's set which he received in 1942. Following the ceremony, Fonda led an introduction to a screening of On Golden Pond inside the theater.

Jane Fonda as Bree Daniels in 'Klute' (1971)/Warner Bros. and with Jon Voight in 'Coming Home' (1978)/MGM Home Entertainment

A new digital restoration of the classic 1968 musical Funny Girl will open the 2013 TCM Classic Film Festival with a world premiere at the festival's Opening Night Gala tonight.

Directed by William Wyler, Funny Girl starred Barbra Streisand in a reprisal of her Broadway role as famed comedienne, Fanny Brice, and focused on her stormy relationship with gambler Nick Arnstein (Omar Sharif). The role marked Streisand's film debut and earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress, an honor she shared with fellow Oscar recipient Katharine Hepburn.

The four-day festival starts this evening in the heart of Hollywood and will run through the weekend until Sunday night.

Many classics from a range of eras will be screened including Wyler's biblical epic Ben-Hur (1959), the all-star World War II thriller The Great Escape (1963), George Cukor's My Fair Lady (1964), Stanley Kubrick's excellent heist film The Killing (1956), The Night of the Hunter (1955) starring Robert Mitchum, Captains Courageous (1936) with Spencer Tracy, and Frank Capra's great screwball comedy It Happened One Night (1934).

Barbra Streisand in 'Funny Girl' (1968)/Sony Pictures

Next month, actress Kim Novak will be the guest of honor at the 66th Annual Cannes Film Festival, where she will help honor the restoration of Alfred Hitchcock's classic romantic thriller, Vertigo (1958).

Having been chosen by the festival organization this past Monday, the 80-year-old retired actress will also attend the festival's closing ceremonies, where she will receive a prize yet to be named.

One of Hitchcock's famed icy blondes, Novak delivered her career's best performance in the dual role of Judy Barton/Madeleine Elster, who becomes the object of obsessive desire of retired San Francisco detective Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart) after he's hired to follow the wife of an acquaintance (Tom Helmore).

Just last year, the British Film Institute's Sight & Sound named Vertigo the greatest film of all time, ending the 50-year reign of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane (1941)  atop their annual 50 Greatest Films of All Time poll. It's only fitting that the Cannes Film Festival will honor the movie as part of their on-going Cannes Classics series.

Kim Novak and James Stewart in 'Vertigo' (1958)/Universal Pictures

Just yesterday on April 4, 2013, the film world lost a titan when famed critic, Roger Ebert, succumbed to a long battle with cancer. He was 70 years old.

From 1967 until his death, Ebert wrote thousands of film reviews for his hometown newspaper, the Chicago Sun-Times, where in 1975 he became the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.

In 1978, Ebert partnered with Chicago Tribune critic, Gene Siskel, to host the PBS series Sneak Previews. A few years later, the two went commercial with the series At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, which was soon transformed into the more commonly known Siskel & Ebert At the Movies. Both became world famous for their trademark thumbs up-thumbs down approval and often contentious reviews.

When Siskel died of brain cancer in 1999, Ebert became the sole face of the franchise. He eventually brought in a new partner, Richard Roeper, but three years after Siskel's passing he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Ebert had several surgeries that drastically altered his appearance, including the partial removal of his jawbone which prevented from ever speaking again.

Always one to try and persevere, Ebert stayed in the public spotlight, speaking with the aid of a computer a la Stephen Hawking while continuing to write reviews for the Sun-Times.

Ebert's death yesterday left an incalculable void in film criticism and Hollywood as a whole. But instead of lamenting his loss, let's take a look back at some his favorite classic movies and what he had to say about them.

Promo shot for 'Siskel & Ebert At the Movies'/Disney ABC Domestic Television

In stark contrast to the critically derided Liz & Dick, which aired on Lifetime earlier in this year, the BBC will make their own behind-the-scenes dram depicting the volatile relationship between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

This time, the focus will be limited to the turmoil that occurred backstage of the highly anticipated, but critically disastrous Broadway production of Noel Coward's Private Lives, which ran for 63 performances in 1983. A year later, Burton died from a brain hemorrhage, making the play the last time they worked together.

Though Burton and Taylor were well cast, Private Lives was a creative low point for the couple, who by that point were long past their second divorce. Most critics savaged the revival as nothing more than an attempt to cash in on their celebrity by rousing curiosity in seeing them reunited.

Produced by BBC Drama Productions, Burton & Taylor will star Helena Bonham Carter as Taylor while Dominic West (The Wire, 300) will play Burton. Though no date has been set for when it will air, fans who were deeply disappointed by the Lindsay Lohan fiasco breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing that Carter and West will assume the roles.

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor share a moment in Noel Coward's 'Private Lives' (1983)/Coward Estate

A new feature here at Classic Movies. At the beginning of every month, I will post a list of stars and directors celebrating birthdays.

Though few are still with us, it's still a good way to remember those whose lives and work touched us most.

• Alec Guinness - Apr. 2
• Marlon Brando - Apr. 3
• Doris Day - Apr. 3
• Anthony Perkins - Apr. 4
• Gregory Peck - Apr. 5
• Bette Davis - Apr. 5
• Spencer Tracy - Apr. 5
• James Garner - Apr. 7
• Omar Sharif - Apr. 10
• Max von Sydow - Apr. 10
• Rod Steiger - Apr. 14
• Charlie Chaplin - Apr. 16
• William Holden - Apr. 17
• Jayne Mansfield - Apr. 19
• Anthony Quinn - Apr. 21
• Shirley Temple Black - Apr. 23
• Shirley MacLaine - Apr. 24
• Fred Zinnemann - Apr. 29
• Eve Arden - Apr. 30

Unknown Promo Shot of Doris Day