Click here to read the Hollywood Reporter's 1968 review of the feature film based on Neil Simon's Broadway smash, "The Odd Couple" starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, reunited after their previous hit, "The Fortune Cookie" in 1965.
Here's a rare CBS publicity photo of young Steve McQueen in his TV series "Wanted: Dead or Alive". The show ran from 1958 to 1961 and cast McQueen as bounty hunter Josh Randall. As with most of the Western shows of the era, the program was well-produced and written and featured an abundance of soon-to-be famous guest stars. McQueen, however, had his sights firmly on the big screen and didn't want to get pigeon-holed as a TV star. During production of the series, he had already landed a star-making role in John Sturges' 1960 classic "The Magnificent Seven". In 1963 he would team with Sturges again for "The Great Escape" which afforded McQueen his most prominent role to date. Stardom was assured and McQueen would never have to return to the medium of television again.
With the latest incarnation of "Shaft" about to hit theaters starring Samuel L. Jackson and the original star of the franchise, Richard Roundtree, the Hollywood Reporter's Bill Higgins looks back on how the 1971 release of the original film revolutionized the film industry and brought in the first major era for African-American action heroes. The film also established Gordon Parks as a bankable director. His first film, "The Learning Tree", released in 1969, won critical acclaim but it was "Shaft" that really broke the glass ceiling for black movie directors, though it would take many years before the opportunity was extended to other talented filmmakers. Click here to read.