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In honor of Gregory Peck's 101st birthday, which was on Wednesday, this week on «Film Friday» I bring you one of my favorite of his pictures. This also happens to be the first science-fiction film I have ever written about on this blog. Directed by Stanley Kramer, On the Beach (1959) begins in 1964, as the USS Sawfish arrives in Australia after an atomic war devastates the Northern Hemisphere. Royal Australian Navy Lieutenant Peter Holmes (Anthony Perkins) is assigned to liaison with Sawfish Captain Dwight Towers (Gregory Peck) for a reconnaissance mission to track the deadly radiation circling the globe and prevent complete human annihilation. For assistance, they turn to hopeless nuclear scientist Julian Osborne (Fred Astaire). As the Sawfish is readied for the mission, Peter spends time with his wife Mary (Donna Anderson) and their baby daughter, while Dwight begins a romantic affair with his friend, the alcoholic Moira Davidson (Ava Gardner). Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Anth...

Since Janet Leigh's birthday was on Monday, t his week on "Film Friday" I am bringing you her most iconic film, for which she received her only Academy Award nomination. Theatrical release poster Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Psycho (1960) tells the story of a Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), a real estate secretary from Phoenix, Ari zona who is tired of having to sneak away during lunch breaks to meet her boyfriend, Sam Loomis (John Gavin), the owner of a hardware store in California. One afternoon, her boss, George Lowery (Vaughn Taylor), asks her to take $40,000 in cash to the bank for deposit . I nstead of going to the bank, h owever, Marion decides to steal the money and leave for California to start a new life with Sam. Trading her car for one with California plates to elude the police, Marion takes a wrong turn during a rainstorm and ends up at a desolate motel, where the young proprietor, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), invites her to dinner after she ch...