Reading about the undercover wartime adventures of 1930s British leading man Leslie Howard, as they have been depicted in a new book by the Spanish writer José Rey-Xímena, I was enthralled to learn that a mere actor - O despised breed! - might have been responsible for keeping Francoist Spain out of the second world war. And ...

The heist movie has been a Hollywood staple for more than a century, from The Great Train Robbery in 1903 to the Ocean's Eleven remake. The genre probably attracts film people because its three stages (preparation, execution, disillusion) parodically re-enact the business of producing a movie. The Asphalt Jungle is the greatest, most influential heist movie, and has a ...