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Olivia de Havilland’s death not only marks the passing of a great actress, but also the last vestige of Hollywood’s Golden Age, when the old studio system held sway. In those far-off days, motion pictures, viewed in theaters still owned by those studios, were widely considered the pre-eminent form of mass entertainment.

This Independence Day, America confronts a host of serious challenges, and appears diminished on the world stage. There’s a vacuum of leadership for all the world to see.

Over the course of a distinguished film career as writer, director and actor, 1948’s “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” marked a memorable juncture for John Huston.

When producer Ross Hunter decided to make “Pillow Talk” early in 1959, many industry insiders doubted his judgment. After all, the golden era of romantic comedy was long past. William Powell had already retired, and Cary Grant had only a few films left, most of which were not romantic comedies.

Over the past eight decades, numerous screen dramas have explored the treatment of mental or emotional disturbances, with a strong psychiatrist character front and center. 

I’ve always had a soft spot for Rosalind Russell. Watch her in most anything, and you sense she’s different from all the glamorous female stars of the day. She was a beautiful lady who did not trade on her looks but instead her brain, talent and spirit.

Every couple of years, right around Independence Day, I revisit this beloved 1942 musical biopic, and it’s always the same joyful, rousing experience.

In the years after the smashing success of Mike Nichols’s “The Graduate” (1967), Anne Bancroft came to believe that her portrayal of Mrs. Robinson, the bored middle-aged wife and mother who seduces newly minted college grad Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman), overshadowed the rest of her career.