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A Hollywood truism: some of the happiest sets yield some of the worst pictures, and vice versa. Billy Wilder’s “Sabrina” from 1954 is proof positive of the latter scenario. The plot in a nutshell: beautiful Sabrina Fairchild (Audrey Hepburn) returns from Paris after learning how to be a “sophisticated” lady, settling on the estate where her father works as chauffeur for the wealthy Larabee family. She immediately attracts the younger Larabee son, David (William Holden), a playboy already promised to a rich heiress. When David cancels his arranged marriage, his responsible older brother Linus (Humphrey Bogart) must woo Sabrina to force David’s hand. On screen, it appears even the notoriously gruff Bogie can’t help melting in front of the gamine Hepburn. In truth, Bogart wasn’t a fan of the newcomer. For starters, Bogie believed his wife, Lauren Bacall, should have won her part (I disagree, and so did Wilder). When asked how he liked working alongside the young Hepburn, Bogie replied, “It’s fine, if you don’t mind... 20 takes.” Ouch. In Hepburn’s biography, "Her Real Story," it’s written that Bogart would literally snarl during her close-ups.

Theda Bara, Hollywood’s first female sex symbol, was born on July 29th, 1885. This year also marks the 100th anniversary of her film debut. My, how time flies!    New York was still the center of the movie business when Bara — going by her given name of Theodosia Goodman — impressed her bosses at Fox Studios in “The Stain” (1914). Taking note of her curvy figure and big dark eyes, Fox’s publicity department supplied this 29-year-old Jewish woman from Cincinnati with a new name and an entirely fictional bio. She would promptly be introduced to movie fans as the Egyptian-born daughter of a French actress and an Italian sculptor. Fox even provided her with a nickname, “The Serpent of the Nile.” Her admirers gave her a more enduring alias after her first blockbuster, “A Fool There Was” (1915), where she played a character called “The Vampire.” From then on, Bara was simply “The Vamp.” The term has long sinced entered the American vernacular. 

The best movies are a breed apart – exceedingly rare, and born of compelling human stories well told. A superb drama has the power to change how we see the world, while a first-rate comedy can provide sublime entertainment that nourishes both brain and spirit. Today, too many exceptional films are hiding in plain sight, obscured by big commercial titles that may divert us in the moment, but offer little lasting impact, insight or enjoyment.

I first saw what I still consider the quintessential haunted house movie, Robert Wise’s “The Haunting” from 1963, when I was about 11.

On Bette Davis’s birthday, we revisit her last great film: 1962’s “Whatever Happened To Baby Jane,” our pick for best cult horror entry of all time.  The plot, quickly: Baby Jane Hudson (Davis) was a highly successful child performer in vaudeville, but her sister, Blanche (Joan Crawford), overtook her in adulthood, becoming a huge movie star before a freak accident ended her career. Years later, Jane takes care of her wheelchair-bound sister. But as Jane's sanity drifts away, her long-simmering jealousy towards her sister erupts into unhinged, sadistic behavior. As deliciously twisted as “Jane” is, the back story is just as juicy. How? This production finally brought together two stars of the ‘30s and ‘40s who openly, freely, and thoroughly detested each other.

“Tax Day” falls on the 15th of April (or the next-closest Monday) every year. Without fail, we procrastinating Americans scramble to beg, borrow, or steal enough money to keep the tariff thugs at bay – all of this resulting in thousands of Americans becoming Rand Paul admirers for a day or two. So yes, today is the last day to file your taxes and pay your bill (or get your refund, should you be so lucky). If you’re learning about this from a movie website, we’ll assume you’re either blissfully adolescent and blind to the joy of tax-time (just you wait), or you’re reading this from your floating tax haven off the coast of Aruba (we’re not praying you get eaten by a shark, we swear). We’ll skip the jokes about Montana Separatists and Libertarian fantasies, and instead get right to four of the best movies whose plots or characters revolve around the only thing more inevitable than death or Spider-Man reboots: taxes.

Like the old saying goes, art imitates life. Before the women’s movement changed the landscape forever in the mid-late sixties, most Hollywood films limited women to playing “traditional” roles of housewife and mother.

For every kid who grew up in the '80s, Penny Marshall’s “Big” (starring an Oscar-nominated Tom Hanks) was the ultimate guide on how to become a happy adult. Get a job at a toy company (no problem), find an apartment in Midtown Manhattan big enough to hold a giant trampoline (slam dunk), and fill it with arcade video games and toys as far as the eye can see (a joyful bit of hard work). For anyone unlucky enough to miss it, “Big” is a magical story about a little boy named Josh who, via an automated fortune teller at a carnival (wouldn’t you know it?), wakes up in an adult’s full-grown body (Hanks). Amongst other life-lessons, Big-Josh comes to learn that being a grown-up isn’t all fun and games ... a lesson I’ve yet to learn (is it happy hour yet?).

“The Terminator” (1984) tells the story of a time-traveling android, or “Cybernetic Organism,” from a bleak future where self-aware robots wreak havoc against a limited human resistance.   Ah-nold Schwarznegger, the former Governator and Nanny Lover, turns monotone into an art in “Terminator,” dispatching stunt men and dislodging eyeballs with aplomb. It took James Cameron, a director whose weakness usually lies in the script department, to exploit Arnold’s limitations as an actor and spin it into gold. In fact, Arnold spoke only 58 words throughout the entire film. With more judicious editing, it could have been 48.   Anyway, it doesn’t take Shakespearean monologues to get the point across to Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton, the former long-suffering Mrs. Cameron) that her life is in danger, and suddenly she’s taking a crash-course in dodging murderous robots alongside her savior, Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn).