Collections/October 2021

Starring Kirk Douglas

A magnetically intense presence who practically exploded off the screen, Kirk Douglas was one of the last living giants of Hollywood’s golden age when he passed away last year at age 103. Embodying the cynical flip side of the postwar era, the vigorous, chin-dimpled actor rose to fame playing tightly wound, often defiantly unlikeable characters: a backstabbing boxer in the hard-hitting noir Champion , an unscrupulous reporter in Billy Wilder’s venomous media exposé Ace in the Hole , and a ruthless Hollywood producer in Vincente Minnelli’s Tinseltown melodrama The Bad and the Beautiful . Cementing his tough-guy image with the numerous westerns (including Lonely Are the Brave ) he made throughout the 1960s and ’70s, Douglas harnessed a bold and expressive performance style to become one of American cinema’s most indelible stars.

23 films — 1 on the Channel, 22 unavailable