Steven Jay Rubin's Saturday Night at the Movies, Los Angeles, CA (2026)

10/25/2026

BREAKING PODCAST NEWS – Happy Halloween! In keeping with the spirit of the holiday, I thought I’d bring back my 2022 interview with actress JoBeth Williams, the star of the original “Poltergeist,” one of my favorite horror films. Given how deadly serious that movie was, it’s fun to hear the intriguing behind-the-scenes stories from someone who was in the forefront of the action. I have history with this talented actress. Shortly after she finished that film, she was cast in director Alan Rudolph’s thriller “Endangered Species,” which marked my debut as a feature unit publicist. Four years later, we were in Tucson together making the period drama “Desert Bloom,” with JoBeth co-starring opposite Jon Voight and Ellen Barkin, and me once again on unit publicist duty. Then, when I went to work for Showtime in the late 90s, we filmed her directing debut, the short film “On Hope,” which was nominated for a short film Oscar that year.
This delightful audio-only interview will debut on my You Tube Channel today, using this link: https://youtu.be/ShGppm-cHHw
Or, starting tomorrow, you can find it on your favorite podcast platform. Here’s a link to Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7oG8rdYWHp5bEO3pJiVRe7
Or, also starting tomorrow, you can find it on our fast channel outlet, True TV Plus, using this link: https://play.truetvplus.com/search?query=Saturday%20Night%20at%20the%20Movies

10/24/2026

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES – I always associate the year 1960 with my favorite crime caper movie – the original “Ocean’s 11.” However, I recently discovered another crime caper movie from that same year that is virtually forgotten, a film I found quite compelling. It’s “7 Thieves,” a 20th Century Fox b/w title that recently ran on the syndicated Movies Network.
Directed by Fox stalwart Henry Hathaway, and scripted by Sydney Boehm, who adapted Max Catto’s (“Murphy’s War”) novel, “7 Thieves” has a colorful cast, led by Rod Steiger, who plays no-nonsense Paul Mason, an ex-convict recruited by disgraced medical doctor/turned criminal mastermind Theo Wilkins (Edward G. Robinson) to help steal millions from a Monte Carlo casino. They’re joined by st****er Melanie (Joan Collins, a stunning beauty), her boyfriend Pancho (Eli Wallach), mechanical expert Hugo (Berry Kroeger), youthful Louis (Michael Dante), and casino inside man Raymond (Alexander Scourby).
The caper is familiar, but Hathaway plums Boehm’s script for good suspense, and the movie keeps you guessing. Interestingly, Hathaway wanted to give the film a more light-hearted approach, but Steiger kept it deadly serious – so the film doesn’t have the reputation of “Ocean’s 11.”
Joan Collins is delightful as Melanie, adding a sexy element to every scene she’s in. Her st******se – very tame by today’s standards – is a lot of fun, showing off one of the screen’s true beauties. When you see a Rod Steiger performance, you know there’s going to be a moment that showcases his anger, but this is a very mellow Steiger performance, very controlled.
The Movies Network has been a delight for me, introducing more obscure films of the 50s and 60s that aren’t usually available on TCM. Definitely worth checking out.

10/18/2026

BREAKING PODCAST NEWS – Director Alfred Hitchcock was rightly dubbed the Master of Suspense. But what do we know about Hitchcock, the man? What influenced and motivated him, and is it true that he lived vicariously through his actors? This week on Saturday Night at the Movies, my guest is author and film historian Nat Segaloff who returns to the show to discuss his latest book, “The Secret Hitchcock.” Through this discussion, we learn that, not surprisingly, his favorite go-to leading men were Jimmy Stewart and Cary Grant. By discussing the eight films he directed, using their unique skills, we learn why Hitch chose them, and how they provided him with vicarious pleasures. We also talk about Hitchcock’s leading ladies – all those blondes, and Ingrid Bergman.
You can watch this episode right now on our You Tube Channel, using this link: https://youtu.be/yizv-crOvbM
Or, starting tomorrow, you can listen on your fave podcast platform. Here’s a link to Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7oG8rdYWHp5bEO3pJiVRe7
Or, also starting tomorrow, you can watch on our fast channel outlet, True TV Plus, using this link: https://play.truetvplus.com/series/details/471451

10/17/2026

Back in the 1950s, you didn’t want to anger any character played by Kirk Douglas. Talk about an actor who used every fiber in his body to emote! This week, I watched 1959’s “Last Train from Gun Hill,” a film I somehow missed back in the day. Talk about the perfect set up for Kirk’s talent: in the first five minutes, his Native-American wife is r***d and murdered by two drunk white men. Kirk’s character, Marshal Matt Morgan, vows to bring the two killers to justice, and, believe me, nothing is going to stop him.
This film has a lot of initial selling points. First, it’s directed by John Sturges, fresh off “Gunfight at the OK Corral,” and about to start prepping “The Magnificent Seven.” Sturges worked in many genres, and he directed my favorite all time movie, “The Great Escape,” but westerns were certainly his specialty.
Secondly, the casting. Sturges pits Morgan against his old friend and comrade, cattle baron Craig Belden (a solid Anthony Quinn) who turns out to be the father of Rick Belden (Earl Holliman), one of the murderers. What a setup! Holliman had previously played a deputy sheriff for Sturges in “Gunfight at the OK Corral”. Holliman’s fellow killer, Lee Smithers, is portrayed by actor Brian Hutton, who later directed two of the great late 60s/early 70s action films, “Where Eagles Dare” and “Kelly’s Heroes.” Rounding out the cast were a marvelous Carolyn Jones as Quinn’s girlfriend, Linda; and Brad Dexter as one of his henchmen, who Sturges would soon recruit as Harry Luck, one of “The Magnificent Seven.”
No one directs action like Sturges, and this film is no exception. He also re-teams here with composer Dimitri Tiomkin, so the movie has the similar intense vibe of “Gunfight at the OK Corral,” and Douglas is really terrific as he faces an entire town of enemies in his attempt to take Rick Belden on the “Last Train from Gun Hill.” Definitely worth checking out if you haven’t seen it, or a revisit.

10/11/2026

BREAKING PODCAST NEWS – There was a time when the only place you heard the word “digital” was in a man’s urologist’s office. Now, everything is digital! Particularly when it comes to epic war pictures – digital planes, digital ships, digital tanks, even huge digital portrayals of massed infantry. Back in the mid-1970s, producer Joseph Levine had the ultimate cinematic challenge – how to adapt Cornelius Ryan’s book “A Bridge Too Far” into a film.
This week on Saturday Night at the Movies, military technical advisor, film historian and veteran Rory Aywlard and I dive into a look at one of the most technically challenging war pictures of all time. Filmed, fifteen years after “The Longest Day,” also based on a fact-based Ryan’s book, Levine and his capable director Richard Attenborough, working from a terrific William Goldman adaptation, had their hands full recreating war-ravaged Holland in 1944. Tune in and we explore those challenges, the fabulous cast and the legacy of one terrific war picture, filmed successfully without a digital byte in sight.
You can watch this episode right now on our You Tube Channel, using this link: https://youtu.be/mpemY0iTEWc
Or, starting tomorrow, you can listen on your favorite podcast platform. Here’s a link to Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7oG8rdYWHp5bEO3pJiVRe7
Or, also starting tomorrow, you can watch it on our fast channel outlet, True TV Plus, using this link: https://play.truetvplus.com/search?query=Saturday

10/10/2026

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES – I have to say that 1973’s “The Wicker Man” was one of the most atmospheric films of the 1970s – a totally unsettling fish-out-of-water story, in which the fish is Edward Woodward’s conservative police officer, Sergeant Neil Howey.
Written beautifully by Anthony Shaffer who loosely adapted David Pinner’s novel “Ritual,” and featuring the inspired direction of Robin Hardy, this was a very troubled production, to say the least, initially green-lit by British Lion Film Corporation (nearing bankruptcy).
This fascinating journey film begins with a letter that is sent directly to Howey from an anonymous source on Summerisle, a tiny fictional island off the coast of Great Britain. In the letter, Howie is told that a pre-teen is missing, and that the islanders are worried. So, the very dutiful police sergeant flies over to Summerisle, and begins his investigation. He soon finds himself amongst seemingly modern human beings who are practicing pagan rituals to restore their devastated apple harvest. And they are overtly sexual, which is increasingly unsettling to the puritanic Howey.
Amongst the people he encounters is the innkeeper’s randy daughter, Willow (a terrific Britt Ekland) and the charismatic Lord of the Isle, portrayed by Christopher Lee, who considered this his finest performance. Gradually, we begin to realize that Howey’s efforts are being blocked by the entire island, while he’s confronted by a pagan world he can’t comprehend.
Many good movies are not appreciated by the companies that produce them – in this extreme case, the executive who inherited “The Wicker Man” hated the film. So it was unceremoniously cut to pieces, then dumped into the marketplace as the second feature behind “Don’t Look Now.” Not a great fate for a very cool film. Worth checking out. I did not see the Nicholas Cage remake.
Just watching Britt Ekland’s wall-banging, n**e erotic dance in the room next to Howey’s is worth the price of admission. Whew!!!

10/04/2026

BREAKING PODCAST NEWS – One quality I really admire in authors and film historians is their tenacity to find the answers to age-old questions. In Mark Edlitz’s case, he was determined to discover what really happened to Orson Welles’ third movie, “ the thriller “Journey Into Fear” (1943). This week on Saturday Night at the Movies, our guest is Edlitz who discusses the motivation behind his new book: “Maverick in the Machine: Orson Welles and the Battle Over Journey Into Fear.” Frankly, I didn’t know a thing behind this noirish film that takes place mostly on a boat off the coast of Turkey during World War II. Joseph Cotton, who is credited with the script, is a military arms expert, who finds himself targeted for assassination by N**i agents. The cast includes Dolores Del Rio and Welles’ stalwarts Everett Sloane and Agnes Moorehead. Welles’ himself acts as a Turkish police chief, but doesn’t direct, surrendering those chores to Norman Foster (The “Mister Moto” film series)
You can watch this episode right now on our You Tube channel, using this link: https://youtu.be/nqJHCyfLZ80
Or, starting tomorrow night, you can listen to the audio on your favorite podcast platform. Here’s a link to Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7oG8rdYWHp5bEO3pJiVRe7
Or, also starting tomorrow, you can find the video on True TV Plus, using this link:
https://play.truetvplus.com/search?query=%20Saturday%20Night%20at%20the%20Movies
Also, apologies for last week’s episode where director Peter Hunt talks about his masterwork “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.” There was a glitch and it wasn’t posted. It’s up now.

10/03/2026

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES – I’ve always appreciated Stewart Grainger, a very underrated action hero. Years ago, I remember enjoying his performance as safari leader Allan Quartermain in 1950’s “King Solomon’s Mines,” so when I saw it recently pop up as a viewable title on TCM Watch, I decided to rewatch. A really fun choice.
At a time when the studios were starting to take their films to actual locations, MGM pulled out all the stops and brought a huge crew to Africa to make the film, and the wildlife footage they captured alone was worth the price of admission.
Written by Helen Deutsch, who adapted H. Rider Haggard’s celebrated novel, and co-directed by Compton Bennett and Andrew Marton (a master of action sequences, he later coordinated the action in “The Longest Day” and “The Blue Max), the story involves Elizabeth Curtis (gorgeous Deborah Kerr) hiring Quartermain to help her find her missing husband in an unexplored region. Curtis had disappeared in search of the fabled King Solomon diamond mine.
It’s not surprising that MGM hired a female screenwriter because the Elizabeth Curtis character doesn’t exist in the original novel. By adding Elizabeth, Helen Deutsch crafted the film not only as an African adventure, but a romantic drama. Grainger and Kerr were apparently involved in a romantic relationship at the time – making their on-screen chemistry very real.
But as much fun as I was having watch Grainger and Kerr make goo goo eyes at each other, the core of the movie’s attraction is its depiction of Africa, its natives and, of course, the wildlife. A stampede sequence in the wake of a grassland fire, is truly jaw dropping, and every crocodile that jumps in the river always seems to be twelve feet long.
Kudos to Richard Carlson (“Creature from the Black Lagoon”) who lends able support as Elizabeth’s brother, John, and Siriaque, who plays the mysterious Umbopa, a seven-foot giant. Well worth a re-visit.

09/27/2026

BREAKING PODCAST NEWS – A truly unsung hero of the first six James Bond movies was editor Peter Hunt, who won his directing spurs on the marvelous “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” (1969). In writing my first Bond history book, Hunt was a valuable interview whose contribution to the style of the series is really off the charts. This week, we hear that affable voice again describing the production of his masterwork. We learn about the issues with snow, the casting, the discovery of the Piz Gloria mountaintop restaurant and the daily challenges Hunt faced in putting together arguably the best of Ian Fleming’s 007 novels.
You can watch that interview right now (audio only) on our You Tube channel, using this link: https://youtu.be/sD-f9o_OWGE
Or you can catch it on your favorite podcast platform starting tomorrow. Here’s a link to Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7oG8rdYWHp5bEO3pJiVRe7
Or, you can listen on our Fast Channel outlet, True TV Plus, using this link: https://play.truetvplus.com/search?query=Saturday

Steven Jay Rubin's Saturday Night at the Movies

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