Leslie Nielsen and Raquel Welch in The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult.

The Academy Awards have often been prominently featured in major movies from A Star is Born to The Bodyguard. Empire magazine takes a look back at films in which the coveted award plays a significant plot point. Most bizarre, however, the writers failed to name one of the most famous films to feature the Oscar....maybe because the title of the movie didn't give enough of a clue as to what it's about. It's called The Oscar (1966)!

We love the 1970 John Wayne flick Chisum in which the Duke goes mano-a-mano with baddie Forrest Tucker. It's an intelligent, engrossing Western, ably directed by Andrew V. McLaglen. Among the film's biggest fans was President Nixon, who praised the movie after screening it at the White House. Click here to view original trailer.

Documents pertaining to Charlie Chaplin show that the legendary screen star was the subject of a probe by the FBI and British Intelligence. The basis for the investigation was the fanatical, anti-Communist crusade orchestrated by the infamous Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s that extended for years even after McCarthy had been discredited.  FBI director J. Edgar Hoover had become convinced that Chapliin's left-wing sympathies may have been an indication he was a communist. The FBI fond that no one has ever been able to verify Chaplin's claim that he was born in London in 1889. Not even MI5 could find a record of his birth, and Chaplin apparently enjoyed keeping his early life a mystery. However, a recently uncovered family letter throws even more intrigue into the mix, with indications Chaplin may have been born of a Gypsy mother! For more click here

Here's a real gem from 1965: Burt Lancaster in John Frankenheimer's The Train. Lancaster is a French Resistance fighter assigned to stopping German officer Paul Scofield from looting the nation's art treasures in the final days of WWII. Click here to order special edition DVD from Amazon

In a continuing series of articles about working with Stanley Kubrick, Mike Kaplan, who was in charge of publicizing A Clockwork Orange, uses this segment to recall how Kubrick landed a much-valued commitment from Newsweek for a cover story. Kubrick, who was notorious for adopting a "my way or the highway" attitude in terms of his quest for perfectionism, threw a monkey wrench into the process by insisting that he shoot the cover photograph of himself. This lead to a showdown with Newsweek brass, who insisted that this unprecedented demand could not be met. Click here to read the story and gain some fascinating insights into Kubrick's uncompromising nature.

Trolling through Joe Dante's Trailers From Hell site, we came across this: the original trailer for the marvelous 1964 sci-fi flick First Men in the Moon starring Edward Judd and Lionel Jeffries as Victorian era astronauts, with effects by Ray Harryhausen. John Landis provides the suitably enthusiastic commentary on the trailer. Click here to view

Click here to order special edition DVD from Amazon for less than $5!

Bob Deis of the terrific retro web site Menspulpmags.com has returned the favor for our recent coverage of his site. He lauds Cinema Retro at length but the reason we are linking back to his site isn't to encourage more mutual back-slapping. If you page down on this article, he pays tribute to the late Frank McCarthy, who is one of the truly great American artists. McCarthy created some unforgettable movie posters before turning to Western art in the style of Frederick Remington. We'll not see his kind again. Click here to read