One day after the 2026 Academy Awards and right smack in the middle of Oscar Month is the one that won its own 4 trophies 25 years ago. A Beautiful Mind is a touching love story about a real-life paranoid schizophrenic: Nobel-Prize winner John Nash (and his put-upon wife Alicia). Ron Howard & his team play fast and very loose with the facts, including how Nash's condition manifested AND casting Jennifer Connelly as Nash's Hispanic wife. Still, though, Russell Crowe is dynamite as our main man and the supporting performances by Ed Harris, Paul Bettany & Christopher Plummer are terrific. And Howard does well to make a movie about math, but doesn't overload us with it. So laugh at yourself and also about the need for fluid exchange while trying to tune out the voices in your head as this 725th edition of Have You Ever Seen jabbers about A Beautiful Mind.

Note: the second movie in the episode on March 23rd will actually be Cimarron, not Dodsworth (which I'll cover on March 27th instead).

Don't worry about the Red Scare or those sneaky Communists. Just calmly share your opinion about this movie (and others) with an email ([email protected]) or a tweet (@moviefiend51) or a Sky (ryan-ellis).

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The 98th Academy Awards are finally less than a week away, so I've got an in-depth analysis of the major nominees. It's more wide open than it's been in a very long time, with seemingly only PTA (Best Director), Jessie Buckley (Best Actress) and a few of the technical awards feeling like they're locks. And maybe THEY aren't either! It wasn't an incredible year at the movies, yet these are mostly good candidates. Although much like last year, the Academy seemed to nominate just 6 or 8 movies in nearly every category! In any case, the race between One Battle After Another and Sinners (with its record-breaking number of nominations) will be settled on the 15th, so find out where I stand before we get there this 724th edition of Have you Ever Seen.

Well, Actually: oops, it's pronounced "Yo-kim" Trier and "Vog-nuhr" Moura...and Moura plays THREE roles in The Secret Agent, not just two. Also, this was recorded before the WGA awards (Sinners and One Battle After Another both won) and, yes, the SAG wins for Michael B. Jordan and Amy Madigan DO feel like potential up-enders in the Oscar races.

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Here Comes Mr. Jordan is Movie #2 in this 11th Annual Oscar Month. It's the rare film that won awards for the screenplay AND the story. Alexander Hall does a pretty good job directing his cast through a creative, body-jumping fantasy about the afterlife, angels and soul reincarnation. This is the first time Robert Montgomery has been featured on Have You Ever Seen...and him playing a goofy palooka was not his usual assignment. He's effective though. Claude Rains gets to play ethereal...which is appropriate for a "seen it all" angel. Evelyn Keyes is Montgomery's love interest and James Gleason is his put-upon boxing manager, whose protege keeps turning up in new bodies. The concept is clever...and it's even a little touching. It's just not very funny. Anyway, launch into this 723rd podcast as I run my mouth about Here Comes. Mr. Jordan.

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Betting on everything is common these days, yet somehow Around The World In Eighty Days isn't on everyone's lips in 2026. And...it shouldn't be. You really feel that 3 hours. Michael Anderson's adventure comedy has posh David Niven circumnavigating the globe with his man-of-action valet, Cantinflas, and they have to do it in the title deadline...while being pursued by a man from Scotland Yard, who thinks he robbed a bank to fund this trip. Producer Mike Todd seemed to will this film into being finished...and then turned it into an award-winning blockbuster, helped immensely by a staggering amount of star cameos. Well, "famous" at the time. And there's young Shirley MacLaine too! So plop this 722nd edition of Have You Ever Seen right onto your device as I analyze Around The World In Eighty Days.

Well, Actually: I said it all sorts of ways in this episode, but the editor, Gene Ruggiero's name should be pronounced "rouge-ee-air-oh".

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The final podcast on Have You Ever Seen in Black History Month talks for the 4th time about a movie with a primarily black cast. Otto Preminger often directed Issues Movies and here he's dealing with the Gershwin opera that's all about murder, rape, drug addiction, fishing and poverty…with some racism thrown in there too. Porgy And Bess is set-bound and melodramatic though. Bad print aside, the story and the execution often feel phony. The actors DO sell the passion better than the script or maybe even the original opera does. Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Brock Peters, Diahann Carroll and Sammy Davis Jr. actually do a terrific job with this not-always-effective material. So tune in for this 721st episode as I tackle yet another musical here in 2026: Porgy And Bess.

Well, Actually: George Gershwin DID write the song "Summertime" for the 1935 opera, but DuBose Heyward came up with the lyrics. Also, for those interested in my quest to see absolutely, positively everything AFI-related, there are developments on that front (other nominated films on various lists) that will be discussed in future shows.

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As February winds down, I spend a lot of time in this 'un talking about 2 versions of Camille where a courtesan's life is ending because of tuberculosis. The main thrust of this 720th episode is George Cukor's take with Greta Garbo and Robert Taylor, then I zipped through a review of the 1921 Camille with Alla Nazimova and Rudolph Valentino. They're both weeper love stories where the men won't take "no" for an answer from the "lady of the Camellias". One of these is better than the other, but..which one?! So grip the love of your life hard by the shoulders and continue to be handsomely poor as my latest dose of Have You Ever Seen has plenty to say about Garbo et al in Camille(s).

Well, Actually: Luise Rainer won Best Actress for The Great Ziegfeld the year before, while the Oscar win in 1937 was for The Good Earth. Also, Garbo was 5th (not 4th) on the ladies' side of the Top 100 Stars list. Also also, Garbo's co-star in Ninotchka was Melvyn Douglas, not William Powell.

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Black History Month has inspired me to cover 3 (of what will be 4) race-related movies in February, but Pinky is the most overt about that charged topic. Ethel Waters has a key role as Jeanne Crain's granny in Elia Kazan's complicated movie...while Crain plays a mixed-race woman who passes for white, dealing with mean-spirited racism in the south while her boyfriend just wants her to go back up north and be white. Pinky turns into a courtroom movie after the dying Ethel Barrymore's racist rich neighbour decides to leave her house to her nurse (Crain)...and the will ends up being contested. I also spent some time talking earnestly about the evolution of race and racism...and about my own history with it. So don't let me guilt you into doing something you don't want to do. Except I'll collapse and probably DIE if you don't put your ears to the 719th ep on Have You Ever Seen. (now THAT's guilt!)

Well, Actually: the line about "sometimes when you win, you actually lose" is of course not from When Harry Met Sally...it's from White Men Can't Jump. Also, Kazan was nominated 5 times for Best Director, not 6.

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Presidents' Day? Bah! Let's talk about a movie a certain POTUS would NEVER watch. Stormy Weather is a somewhat biographical musical about the life of dancing legend Bill Robinson...with Lena Horne, Dooley Wilson, Fats Waller & Cab Calloway sharing the screen with Bojangles. Black people dominate director Andrew Stone's canvas, even though race isn't really the point here. Stormy Weather is just about talented people (including The Nicholas Brothers) singing, dancing and being talented. Fun times, good movie. So download the 718th episode of Have You Ever Seen to get the lowdown from this white Canadian.

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There's no better way to celebrate both Valentine's Day AND also my birthday than by talking about Hell Or High Water! David Mackenzie's layered Robin Hood-esque modern western was my #1 movie of 2016, partly because entire cast is fantastic. Jeff Bridges was nominated for his supporting work, but Ben Foster is even better. And Taylor Sheridan's Texas-set story they're all in is complex because we're rooting for guys who rob banks…and yet everyone other than the retiring Texas Ranger throw their chips in with the thieves Foster and Chris Pine. I also spent a lot of time in this rehashing the infamous 2016 Oscars, but for GOOD reasons. So what DON'T you want, little brother, as I foot my hat to present the 717th edition of Have You Ever Seen.

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I'd like to know what's buzzin', cousins, as I bring you the 716th podcast on Have You Ever Seen. Preston Sturges was making a lot of hay in the early '40s, releasing The Lady Eve AND Sullivan's Travels the year before The Palm Beach Story came out. Palm Beach isn't as classic or as funny as THOSE two are, but it's an effectively zany, fast-talkin' rom-com. Claudette Colbert and Joel McCrea make for a compelling married NYC couple. She tries to divorce him (you'll never guess where), so she can marry a rich man like Rudy Vallee...and then help her ex out by getting him some money out of the deal. If you think THAT'S whacky, wait until the out-of-deep-left-field ending! But The Palm Beach Story IS a fun time and I've got all kinds of stories to tell about it.

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After yesterday's episode about the unchosen 450 actors & actresses who were in fact nominated for the AFI's Top 100 Stars list, now it's time to begin a quest. I will review the films of MANY of the 180-ish folks who this podcast has never discussed. And since Eddie Cantor, Ann Sothern, George Murphy & the Nicholas Brothers are in Kid Millions and the Three Stooges are in Soup To Nuts, I'm knocking 5 names off the "must-cover" list in 1 double episode! This 715th show on Have You Ever Seen digs into the musical-comedy adventure about Cantor inheriting a lot of money (Kid), then it's time for a zany goof about romance & chowderhead firefighters (Nuts). So strap in to hear about these two B&W romps from the '30s as my quest to talk about the previously-unreviewed AFI acting nominees takes flight.

Well, Actually: at around the 16-minute mark, the line should have been "these are white actors playing Muslim Africans", not "Muslim Americans".

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