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Roy Rogers, Singing Cowboy of 1940s and 1950s Hollywood. Known for his affable characterizations and, both on and off screen, “traditional values” stance, the King of the Cowboys – step aside, John Wayne & Gene Autry – toplined the “subversive” 1938 musical Western Under Western Stars. Sound bites: Remembering Roy Rogers & 'subversive' singing cowboy movie 'Under Western Stars' It is a typically hot day in Palm Springs on May 5, 2001, as I sit outside the Palm Springs Museum at the invitation of Roy Rogers' oldest daughter, Cheryl, while a star in his remembrance is placed on the sidewalk in front of the building. I am seated next to Ruth Terry, a lady with whom I am totally unfamiliar, but who, it transpires, was a leading lady to both Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. As we talk, it is obvious that she is also a very sensible and charming lady. I express my vote for Roy Rogers over Gene Autry, and...

Hedy Lamarr: 'Invention' and inventor on Turner Classic Movies (photo: Hedy Lamarr publicity shot ca. early '40s) Two Hedy Lamarr movies released during her heyday in the early '40s — Victor Fleming's Tortilla Flat (1942), co-starring Spencer Tracy and John Garfield, and King Vidor's H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941), co-starring Robert Young and Ruth Hussey — will be broadcast on Turner Classic Movies on Wednesday, November 12, 2014, at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Pt, respectively. Best known as a glamorous Hollywood star (Ziegfeld Girl, White Cargo, Samson and Delilah), the Viennese-born Lamarr (née Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler), who would have turned 100 on November 9, was also an inventor: she co-developed and patented with composer George Antheil the concept of frequency hopping, currently known as spread-spectrum communications (or "spread-spectrum broadcasting"), which ultimately led to the evolution of wireless technology. (More on the George Antheil and Hedy Lamarr invention further below.) Somewhat ironically,...

A quick re-watch for anyone with a hazy memory of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty reveals that the 1959 film has a lot of problems – just one of which being the complete apparent lack of motivation for its catalytic villain, Maleficent. She sort of just shows up at the princess’ christening and casts the infamous “sleep like death” spell. She’s barely even in the Disney movie, really. For screenwriter Linda Woolverton, this leaves a nearly blank canvas with which to re-imagine the character’s story. For director Robert Stromberg, this is an opportunity to create an entire magical world as the setting for said tale. Yes – Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent is also technically based on the classic fairy tales, but the story told in Maleficent seems exclusively tailored to the Disney character. Opening the film with a re-imagining of Maleficent’s past, her story is told like a connect-the-dots puzzle where each dot represents one of her physical...

[Spoilers ahead for a movie that was released 12 years ago.]

I have the distinct memory of being 12 years old in a packed theater watching Ben Affleck die in Pearl Harbor and thinking I would never cry that hard again in my life. And then, of course, Josh Hartnett died. And things got a lot worse. I mean, deep, guttural, weeping sobs. I am not over, and will never be over, the heartbreaking Affleck-Beckinsale-Hartnett love triangle in Pearl Harbor.

At that vulnerable-but-naive point in my life, I could not imagine anything sadder than Ben Affleck dying, and I could not imagine anything cuter than a slightly mussed Josh Hartnett in...

Where the Truth Weakly Lies; West Memphis Less Effective in Non-Docu Treatment

Atom Egoyan has carved a career out of films focused on misunderstood and alienated outsiders, whose personal truths are often murky. The case of the infamous West Memphis Three (exhaustively explored in a number of documentaries, including last year’s festival selection “West of Memphis“) would naturally be a draw for Egoyan thematically. However, instead of expounding on where the truth lies (if you will), this somewhat fictionalized narrative remains dead in the turgid water.

Based in part on Mara Leveritt’s case study ‘Devil’s Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three’, the film follows private investigator Ron Lax (Colin Firth) and his attempt to uncover the questionable hidden pieces in the local Memphis Arkansas Police’s case against Damien Echols (James Hamrick), Jessie Misskelley Jr. (Kristopher Higgins) and Jason Baldwin (Seth Meriwether), the three...

The almighty success of Tom Hooper's film could have boosted the ballet psychodrama's takings via extensive exposure of its trailer

The marvel

Exactly two years ago, Slumdog Millionaire pulled off the rare feat of going up on both its second and third weekends, setting it on a journey that would take in the best picture Bafta and Oscar wins and a cumulative gross of £31.66m. The King's Speech didn't quite manage to repeat that trick, rising 32% on its second weekend but edging back 4% on its third.

On every other comparison, however, The King's Speech emerges the winner. Slumdog Millionaire never managed a weekend above £3m: its best frame was £2.86m. The King's Speech, on the other hand, has never experienced a weekend below £3m: its worst frame was £3.30m. After 17 days, Slumdog Millionaire had grossed £10.24m. After the same period, The King's Speech stands at £18.31m – 79% ahead of the earlier film.

For those of you living under a rock, Zombieland opened last weekend and went quickly to number one (and we, of course, reviewed it here.) One of the clever moves of the film is that it takes your traditional Hero -- muscular, confident, aggressive -- and your standard Sidekick -- smart but cowardly, neurotic -- and flips them, so that we see the film through the eyes of the sidekick, played with hilarious gusto by Jesse Eisenberg.

Although the characters in the film aren't aware of this switch, and continue on in their respective paths, we in the audience are clued in to the fact that this won't be your traditional action/horror film.