Okay, so I’m a sucker for Bond movies – even the “B” ones. (Just not the ones graded “C” and “D.”) This 1971 one, for example, returns Sean Connery to the franchise, after an embarrassingly ineffective one-film substitution by George Lazenby. Diamonds doesn’t sparkle, by any means, but it does show off Jill St. John to good effect as one of the Bond girls – and Lana Wood, Natalie’s sister (pictured), as another one.

2012

Jul

THE STING By David Bianculli

Someday very soon, I’ll compile a list of the movies that ensnare me like a spider web whenever they’re televised, regardless of how many times I’ve seen them, and ask for yours. (But I want to get a whole column out of this, so hold your answers for the moment.) But suffice it to say that this 1973 movie is one of them. Robert Redford, who’s being honored tonight with a lineup of movies on TCM, is wonderful here. And Paul Newman, even though he’s in more of a suppo

2012

Jul

DAMAGES By David Bianculli

SEASON PREMIERE: It’s the last season for both this series and TNT’s The Closer, so enjoy these strong female leads while TV is giving them to you. And in the case of Damages, there’s not just one strong woman at the core, but two: Glenn Close as ruthless attorney Patty Hewes, and Rose Byrne as her protégé Ellen Parsons, who’s turned out to be just as tough, and just as hard to read. Tonight’s final-season opener introduces a typically complex new clie

2012

Jul

THE FRANCHISE: A SEASON WITH THE MIAMI MARLINS By David Bianculli

SEASON PREMIERE: Last year, The Franchise trained its cameras and microphones on the San Francisco Giants. This season, it’s the Miami Marlins, the team that’s both renamed and rebuilding – no Marlin was present at last night’s All-Star game. But Showtime promises even more behind-the-scenes access than with the Giants, starting with this expanded one-hour opener.

2012

Jul

THE NATURAL By David Bianculli

Another impressively effective Robert Redford performance and showcase, this 1984 movie is one of the two best baseball-as-fable movies ever made. (The other? Field of Dreams.) There’s a deep and wonderful cast here, but pay special attention to Glenn Close (pictured) as a woman who catches the eye of Redford’s late-blooming baseball rookie. If you flip from tonight’s Damages to this, you may get whiplash while absorbing the difference, and the range.

2012

Jul

SUBMITTED FROM MIKE WALLACE: ROD SERLING By Eric Gould

Rod Serling just might be the blue print for the Don Draper character; combat veteran, thin, smoking, intense, articulate -- a rapid-fire machine of literary acumen. Here's the full 20 minute interview he gave Mike Wallace in 1959, coutesy of PBS/American Masters...

2012

Jul

1978: ABC NEWS INTRODUCES ITS THREE-ANCHOR NEWSCAST By Christy Slewinski

On this day in 1978, ABC News reformatted its evening newscast ABC Evening News, and re-introduced the program as World News Tonight...

2012

Jul

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL ALL-STAR GAME By David Bianculli

The midway point of the pro baseball season arrives tonight, with a few elements that make it seem like a contest from long ago. For one thing, the National League is defending a winning streak. And for another, one of the pitchers on the roster tonight is a knuckleballer – but New York Mets pitcher R.A. Dickey won’t be starting for the NL, because of fears that catchers may have problms fielding his knuckleballs.

2012

Jul

ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE By David Bianculli

This isn’t a good James Bond movie, but it is a rarely televised one. Released in 1969, it’s the one and only film in which the role of 007 went to George Lazenby – and the only one in which Bond gets married, with his bride played by the always unforgettable Diana Rigg. In fact, Rigg has a connection to an earlier Bond girl, Honor Blackman, who played Pussy Galore in Goldfinger. In the early Sixties, Blackman starred opposite Patrick Macnee in The Avengers – before the s

2012

Jul

THE PETRIFIED FOREST By David Bianculli

Bette Davis stars in this 1936 drama, playing a waitress at a small-town diner who finds herself waiting on some unusually complicated and volatile customers. One, played by Leslie Howard, is suicidal. Another, played by Humphrey Bogart, is homicidal – and ends up taking the diner exployees and patrons hostage. A solid drama, with some very intense performances and, for Bogart, a chance to play the bad guy.

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