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

02/13/2026

SAVE THE DATE

TO ALL MY L.A. FRIENDS, COLLEAGUES AND CONNECTIONS

Pound the drums! Sound the trumpets! Our feature-length audio movie podcast sci-fi comedy, “Spacemen from Planet Judy,” will make its world premiere at the Golden State Film Festival on Saturday February 28th at 4:00 p.m. at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Here’s a link to purchase tickets: https://www.goldenstatefilmfestival.com
Prepare yourself for an outrageously funny afternoon!
The audio-only feature is led by Paula Abdul “(American Idol’), Phil Hendrie (“Rick and Morty”), and Hal Rudnick (“Reno 911”), with additional performances from John Montana (“How to Get Away with Murder”), Alan Murray (“The Rat Pack is Back”), Brian Delate (“The Truman Show”), John Mariano (“The Offer”), Greg Binkley (“Raising Hope”), Sam Kwazman (“Robot Chicken”), Royal Oakes (“The News Blitz with Royal Oakes”), Lisa Pescia (“Hacks”), Sandy Hackett (“The Portal”), Keeshan Giles (“The Second Age of Aquarius”), Jann Karam (“Seinfeld”), and Eric Waddell (“Beat the Geeks”). Mark DeCarlo “(The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron”) serves as narrator.
The story follows Mitch (Hendrie) and Lenny (Rudnick), two straight information-technology specialists who, thanks to a mix-up in their Halloween costumes, find themselves in drag as Marie Antoinette and her hand maiden. Just then, a fleet of enormous pink spaceships appear and accidentally abduct them, along with every gay male on Earth. Their destination: the Planet Judy, the gay haven world of the universe, ruled by the authoritarian Golden Ram Man (Mariano). Stranded, the pair attempt to escape, crossing the Great Judy Desert and encountering Queen Sensura (Abdul), ruler of the neighboring civilization Pleezentermee.
No film festival in Southern California has ever offered a red carpet premiere for an audio film experience. We’re making history. A Q &A will follow.

02/08/2026

BREAKING PODCAST NEWS – Sixty years ago – in the winter of 1965-66 - 007 fans around the world were celebrating the scope and wonder of the “biggest Bond of them all” – “Thunderball.” Thirty-five-year-old Sean Connery appeared to be at the top of his form, the women were more beautiful than ever – especially former Miss France, Claudine Auger, and Italian bombshell Luciana Paluzzi - and the epic caper – an atom bomb hijacking/blackmail scheme - was truly thrilling and chilling. Ivan Tors’ scuba team was bringing more divers into the action than ever seen before, and audiences were loving it.
This week on Saturday Night at the Movies, I’m joined once again by 007 Magazine writer, editor, publisher and 007 authority Graham Rye, as we discuss the glorious 60th anniversary legacy of “Thunderball.” There are details and revelations galore.
You can watch right now on our You Tube channel, using this link: https://youtu.be/kgdyQP_GXds
Or starting tomorrow night, you can catch the audio on your favorite podcast platform – here’s a link to Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7oG8rdYWHp5bEO3pJiVRe7
And you can also find the video on True TV Plus, our Fast Channel home, using this link: https://play.truetvplus.com/search?query=Saturday

02/07/2026

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES – As you probably know by now, I’m in love with the movies of the 1950s – the decade where Hollywood storytellers went bold, spectacular and colorful as they battled the onrush of television. So why would a 50s lover cotton to “The Florida Project,” a drab little 2017 film about an edgy single mom and her daughter fighting to survive in contemporary Orlando? Well, it’s terrific, and like the other films in writer/director Sean Baker’s (“Anora”) quiver, it keeps moving with plenty of surprises.
Written by Baker and Chris Bergoch, “The Florida Project,” takes place in a decaying roadside motel, a stone’s throw from Disney World. To say the least, this motel is far from the Ritz. Newcomer Bria Vinaite is Halley, the mom, a woman who smokes constantly, sports large tattoos on her chest, and isn’t above turning a trick to help pay the weekly hotel bill. Challenged to the hilt, life is a weekly battle to find food and keep a roof over their heads. The heart of the movie is provided by her spunky daughter Moonee, played beautifully by another newcomer, six-year-old Brooklynn Prince – who is just wonderful in a performance that features plenty of improvisation.
Much of the action involves Moonee and her friends engaging in summer playtime all over the property and the surrounding neighborhood – which includes abandoned motels, distressed properties, cow pastures, and the type of environment that would scare the &*%$ # out of most parents. It was telling that the fantasy world of Disneyland is so close and yet so far from these kids who are wondering where their next meal is coming from. A fascinating setting for Baker and Bergoch to set their story.
Anchoring the film is Willem Dafoe’s nuanced performance as the harried hotel manager who is constantly dealing with latch key kids run amok, while dealing with Moonee’s mom’s increasingly desperate efforts to stay housed.
Kudos to Baker for helming this unique slice of life – a light year from “To Kill a Mockingbird,” but also a film focused firmly on the kids and their perspective on the world.

02/01/2026

BREAKING PODCAST NEWS – Attention Robin Hood fans! There’s a gritty new series available on MGM+. It’s entitled “Robin Hood” and the show’s first season was so impressive, I reached out to the two creators – Jonathan English and John Glenn – to be guests on my show this week. Shot in Serbia, its cast includes that master of costume epics Sean Bean (“Lord of the Rings, “Game of Thrones”) as the Sheriff of Nottingham, and Connie Nielsen (“Gladiator”) as Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. The rest of the cast are terrific commonwealth actors, including Australian Jack Patten as the young and athletic title character, thrust into action when his family runs afoul of the treacherous Earl of Huntington (Steven Waddington).
There’s plenty of action, but an equal amount of palace intrigue. Setting wise, this is years before Richard the Lionhearted becomes king, joins the crusades and is waylaid by the Austrians on the way home from the Middle East. Queen Eleanor is in charge, and we get to meet her other young son, the politically ambitious Prince John (Graeme Thomas King). Robin also shares the small screen with a formidable Marian (Lauren McQueen), who happens to be Huntington’s daughter, and insatiable Priscilla (Lydia Peckham), the wayward Sheriff’s daughter.
You can watch my interview with show runners John and Jonathan right now on my You Tube Channel, using this link: https://youtu.be/Ufis12VXCZU
Or, starting tomorrow night, you can find the audio on your favorite podcast platform. Here’s a link to Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7oG8rdYWHp5bEO3pJiVRe7
Or, also starting tomorrow night, you can find our video on True TV Plus, the FAST channel, using this link: https://play.truetvplus.com/search?query=Sat

01/31/2026

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES – There are a select few actors who just shine when they appear on screen – their luminosity index is just off the charts. Back in the 50s, Grace Kelly set a high bar on that index (see “Rear Window” and “To Catch a Thief”); more recently, I thought Kate Hudson brought that quality to the delightful “Song Sung Blue.”
Thirty-eight years ago (Gulp!), fairly unknown actress Melanie Griffith brought pure luminosity to the role of Tess McGill in director Mike Nichol’s very entertaining 1988 romantic comedy “Working Girl.” Written beautifully by Kevin Wade, Tess is an ambitious, intelligent young woman who works in a high-level Manhattan investment firm and is tired of making coffee for her sex-obsessed co-workers. Enter her equally ambitious new boss Katherine Porter (Sigourney Weaver as a no-nonsense Ripley in the business world) who unfortunately breaks a leg on a skiing trip, leaving Tess in charge of her office.
It’s an opportunity that Tess jumps on – and she quickly engineers a merger deal that captivates rival advisor Jack Trainer, played by Harrison Ford, in his first romantic comedy. Tess is really smart – she does her research and she can back up all her predictions with hard facts. Griffith really inhabits Tess with zest and nerve, while also playing a romantic figure who falls in love with Jack, after her boyfriend Mick (Alec Baldwin in fine smarmy form), is caught cheating. Kudos to costume designer Ann Roth with Tess’s terrific wardrobe, and hairstylists Alan D’Angerio, J. Roy Helland and Francesco Paris for transforming Tess from a big-haired assistant to a perfectly coiffed super exec.
Joan Cusack adds fun to the equation in the role of Tess’s best friend, Cyn, and Philip Bosco adds depth as one of the CEOs that embraces Tess’s merger plan. But this is Griffith’s film and she delivers the goods (with an Oscar nomination for Best Actress - losing to Jodie Foster for “The Accused”).

01/25/2026

BREAKING PODCAST NEWS – This week we return to the insightful recollections of ace 007 screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz, in an interview that was conducted two years later in 1979, after the release of “Moonraker.” As you will hear, Tom was involved – although uncredited – in the writing of that film. Having introduced Roger Moore to the series with “Live and Let Die,” and continuing on “The Man with the Golden Gun,” Mankiewicz became a writing plum for producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, who didn’t hesitate to bring him in for story work and uncredited screenplay work. He was truly a writing gun for hire.
In his usual erudite manner, Tom explains his involvement in the later film, covers various rules and traditions in the writing of the James Bond character, and waxes on about what he feels will be the future of 007. Interestingly, he predicts that after Roger debuted as Bond, it wouid be impossible to return the series to its serious roots. He even talks about the Bond movie he always wanted to write.
You can listen to this interview right now on our You Tube channel, using this link: https://youtu.be/_LMcRdHXsLQ
Or starting tomorrow night, you can hear it on your favorite podcast platform. Here’s a link to Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7oG8rdYWHp5bEO3pJiVRe7
Or you can listen on our FAST channel, True TV Plus, using this link: https://play.truetvplus.com/search?query=Saturday%20Night%20at%20the%20M

01/24/2026

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES – If you had invited me to a movie in 2004 about two guys on a weeklong wine tasting tour up the California coast, I would have passed immediately. After all, I wasn’t into wine, and why would I want to see a movie about it? But I was doing myself a great disservice because writer/director Alexander Payne’s “Sideways” is not about wine at all, as I discovered watching the movie for the first time this week. What a truly wonderful film experience. Twenty-two years have passed since its original release, but it was a fresh movie blast for me.
The always dependable Paul Giamatti is Miles, a decidedly unhappy, divorced school teacher and would-be author, sweating out word from his book agent. He’s the wine expert, who can wax on about the virtues of Pinot Noir till the cows come home. Thomas Haden Church is his friend, Jack, a week away from getting married, but still determined to sow some oats before he takes the wedding plunge. So for Jack, the trip is like a floating bachelors party.
Director Payne really knows these characters – he and his co-writer Jim Taylor adapted Rex Pickett’s unpublished novel – and you really get to understand and appreciate their contrasting worlds. Joining the guys in their weeklong quest is the luminous Virginia Madsen, Oscar-nominated as Maya, a local waitress who knows Miles from his frequent trips to wine country, and who introduces Jack to her friend, single mom Stephanie (feisty Sandra Oh). Miles is obviously attracted to Maya, but is trapped in a post-divorce malaise, where he’s very uncomfortable moving the intimacy needle. But their mutual love of wine begins to break the ice.
Although I’d characterize this film as a dramedy, Payne really delivers some laugh-out- loud moments, including Jack’s soiree with another waitress whose husband suddenly appears.
If, like me, you missed “Sideways” the first time around, it’s well worth a visit!

01/18/2026

BREAKING PODCAST NEWS - After reading a Los Angeles Times essay about the state of wolves in America by wolf advocate Sarah O'Rourke, I decided that a show about wolves in film and television might not be a bad idea. According to O'Rourke, mankind has had a relationship with wolves that has lasted over 10,000 years, and in the beginning wolves and man had a synergy. Today some states are developing that synergy again, but in others wolves are being hunted down and destroyed.
This week on Saturday Night at the Movies, Sarah O'Rourke is my guest and we talk rather animatedly about how wolves have been depicted in popular culture, going back to the fairy tale literature of” Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf,” Prokofiev’s musical composition of ”Peter and the Wolf”, and then of course many depictions in film and television including “Dances with Wolves,” ”The Grey,” “ Game of Thrones”, “Harry Potter” et al. Thanks to modern media and the gorgeous images of these magnificent creatures, attitudes towards wolves are shifting.
You can watch this episode right now on our You Tube channel, using this link: https://youtu.be/hwNM8P6hynQ
Or starting tomorrow you can hear it on your fave podcast platform. Here’s a iink to Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7oG8rdYWHp5bEO3pJiVRe7
And tomorrow, you can also watch it on our FAST Channel, True TV Plus. Here’s a link for tomorrow night: https://play.truetvplus.com/search?query=Saturday%20Night

01/17/2026

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES – When I posted my review of “The Sand Pebbles” a few weeks ago, I made the mistake of referring to director Robert Wise as being “underrated.” That is not true. But what I meant to say was he’s underappreciated by the media who seldom list him as one of the top helmers of all time.
Mr. Wise brought terrific skills to his directing assignments, and he could elevate what could be perceived as a B movie standard adventure tale to A level status. One of those is a favorite of mine: 20th Century Fox’s 1953 World War II adventure “Destination Gobi.” I think part of my love for Fox films of the 50s is due to the fact that Saturday Night at the Movies, the first prime time movie series, featured all those 50s titles in its first season in ’62.
Written by Everett Freeman, working from a story by Edmund G. Love, and supposedly based om a cryptic U. S Navy requisition labled “Saddles for Gobi,” the film stars Richard Widmark as Chief Bosun’s Mate Sam McHale, a seasoned saltwater sailor who is assigned to wet nurse a Navy weather team in Inner Mongolia’s Gobi Desert. Summing up his assignment, McHale says, “Inner Mongolia is different from Outer Mongolia, only because it’s hotter, dryer, sandier and inner. Take it from me, brother, the. Gobi wasn’t meant for sailors, it was meant for lizards.”
What’s cool about this movie is the very tight cast assembled by Wise who gave each weatherman/sailor an individual voice that played to their strengths – including Widmark, in one of his first hero roles; Don Taylor (soon to be Lt. Dunbar in “Stalag 17”) as Jenkins whose old man was a cavalryman; Max Showalter (aka Casey Adams) as Walter Landers, the brainy one; Darryl Hickman as youthful “Coney” Cohen; future “Adam 12” stalwart Martin Milner as Elwood; Ross Bagdasarian (the “Alvin and the Chipmunks” composer/producer) as acerbic Sabatello and the always reliable Earl Holliman as Swenson. Even Mervyn Vye, a go-to 50s villain, comes off with dimension as Mongol chieftain Kengtu.
When the Japanese bomb their weather station and launch a cavalry patrol to find them, McHale’s team decides to head for the coast – 800 miles away – an entertaining odyssey with plenty of twists and turns. Kudos to composer Sol Kaplan for a multi-dimensional score and Charles G. Clarke’s photography – this was Wise’s first color film. Take it from me, if Robert Wise was the director, it’s almost a guarantee you’re in for a good time at the Movies.

01/11/2026

BREAKING PODCAST NEWS - One of the elements that I miss most from the early James Bond movies was the witty dialogue, first from veteran screenwriter and playwright Richard Maibaum, and then from emerging screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz. The latter came from Hollywood royalty – he was the son of two-time Oscar-winning director Joe Mankiewicz (“All About Eve”) and the nephew of “Citizen Kane” scribe Herman Mankiewicz. Ironically it was a failed musical - “Georgy Girl” - that brought Tom to the attention of the Broccolis, who were looking for an American writer to come on board “Diamonds are Forever” after Maibaum turned in his draft – particularly a Yank who could write for British characters.
This week on Saturday Night at the Movies, I return to my archives and feature Part One of my 1977 interview with Mr. Mankiewicz, who is a lot of fun, and talks animatedly about how his own 007 adventure began. As the world of Bond shifted from the darker drama of the early Sean Connery films to the much lighter era of Roger Moore, Tom Mankiewicz was the perfect choice for screenwriter.
You can listen right now on my You tube Channel, using this link: https://youtu.be/pHz1kgXPu98
Or, starting Monday, you can find it on your favorite podcast platform. Here’s a link to Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7oG8rdYWHp5bEO3pJiVRe7
Or, also on Monday, check it out on True TV Plus, using this link: https://play.truetvplus.com/search?query=Saturday

01/10/2026

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES. – As film historians, we seldom bring up the subject of television movies – that great small screen staple that arrived in the late 60s, flourished in the 70s and continues in the streaming world. Back in 1972, ABC’s “Movie of the Week” franchise debuted an original film that knocked my socks off – and probably everyone else’s socks off – “The Night Stalker.”
Written by legendary fantasy and sci-fi screenwriter and author Richard Matheson (“The Twilight Zone”) who adapted a story by Jeffrey Grant Rice, and directed with zest by John Llewellyn Moxey, it starred the wonderful character actor Darren McGavin as intrepid Las Vegas newspaper reporter Carl Kolchak – a classic down-on-his-luck character, praying for a return to big city reporting.
Now, to my knowledge, the idea of combining a murder mystery with the supernatural was pretty novel, and Matheson cooked up a doozy – a seemingly unstoppable vampire named Janos Skorzeny (Barry Atwater) running amok in Vegas.
For me, the success of “The Night Stalker” was in part due to its real world setting. This wasn’t set in a crumbling castle in Rumania – we’re in Vegas, baby! Glitzy, showgirl, casino center, poolside Vegas! And super producer Dan Curtis loaded the film with a character actor who’s who: Claude Akins, Ralph Meeker, Simon Oakland, Charles McGraw, Kent Smith, Elisha Cook, Jr., plus the lovely Carol Lynley as Carl’s girlfriend, Gail Foster. Matheson’s pulsating teleplay is benefited enormously by McGavin’s witty narration.
This is one film worth a fresh look. It did spawn a mediocre sequel and a short-lived series, but the original was the gold standard of TV movies.

01/03/2026

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES - It occurred to me the other day that every time I've seen a Richard Burton movie, he's always in uniform. He's Marcellus, a Roman tribune in “The Robe”; he's Tammy MacRoberts, a British Army officer in “The Desert Rats”; he's a British spy operative/commando in “Where Eagles Dare,” And he's downed British flight officer David Campbell in “The Longest Day.” So it was with great interest that I sat down to watch a very civilian Richard Burton in the 1959 drama “Look Back in Anger.” Produced by a pre-James Bond series Harry Saltzman, written by Nigel Kneale from John Osborne’s play and directed by Tony Richardson, this Woodfall production is an acting feast. Although I have seen Mr. Burton in the iconic “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” this was really the first time I saw the raw power of this amazing Welsh actor.
In what became a seminal entry in the British ‘kitchen sink’ style of gritty urban drama, Burton is Jimmy Porter, a married street vendor who sells candy for a living. He's married to the very sweet Alison {Mary Ure, his later co-star in “Where Eagles Dare “} and works with his good-hearted friend, Cliff Lewis (a pre-“Jason and the Argonauts” Gary Raymond). To put it mildly, Jimmy is a perpetually angry young man, much of the anger directed at his wife. But Jimmy is no mental midget – he’s a university graduate – and perhaps part of that anger comes from his sense of under-achievement. Complicating his domestic tranquility is the arrival of Alison’s actress girlfriend, Helena (gorgeous Claire Bloom), who turns into a constant verbal punching bag for Jimmy – a relationship with an unforeseen outcome. The dialogue crackles in this adaptation, and Burton is up to the task, further cementing his reputation as one of the most dynamic thespians ever featured in the movies.
To all my fellow classic film fans, I wish you a bountiful 2026. Stay safe and sane out there! Viva classic film!

Steven Jay Rubin's Saturday Night at the Movies

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