A documentary about Harry Belafonte’s “Tonight Show” stint and another executive produced by NFL player Malcolm Jenkins will be among the movies that will debut on Peacock as part of NBCUniversal’s original film slate in September.
The original films “Anthony,” “The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts The Tonight Show” and “Black Boys” will premiere early next month. Further, the documentary “A Most Beautiful Thing” and Emilio Esteveez’s “The Public” will stream exclusively on the service in September.
“The Sit-In,” which premieres Sept. 10, looks at the events surrounding the week in which Belafonte guest hosted “The Tonight Show” in place of Johnny Carson for a full week in February 1968, the first time a Black man ever got the opportunity. Belafonte’s guests that week included Aretha Franklin, Sidney Poitier, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, and the documentary includes behind-the-scenes footage of how the politics of the day shaped the show.
“When I started this film, I thought that I was telling the story of Harry Belafonte’s historic achievement as the first African American to host a full week of late night television,” director Yoruba Richen said in a statement. “I soon discovered the film was not only about this week during a politically volatile time in U.S history but also a journey through Harry’s incredible career, political activism and enduring influence. I discovered how relevant it is to today when we are in a time of political crisis, much like 1968, the year Harry hosted the show.”
Belafonte appears in the film, as do Questlove, Whoopi Goldberg and more. MSNBC host Joy Reid executive produced the film that’s directed by Richen. Check out the trailer here.
“Anthony” is a narrative feature about an 18-year-old Black student named Anthony Walker who was in 2005 killed in a racially motivated attack in Liverpool. Toheeb Jimon stars as Walker, and Terry McDonough directed the film that’s written by Jimmy McGovern. It premieres Sept. 4, and you can watch the trailer here.
“Both Donna [Molloy] and I were privileged to have produced ‘Anthony.’ It follows a rich vein of factual drama we have been delivering for almost a decade now,” executive producer Colin McKeown said in a statement. “It means a lot to me personally as I am from the same village as the Walker family, and it is typical of Gee Walker, Anthony’s mother, to draw positive conclusions from tragic events.”
Finally is “Black Boys,” a film executive produced by two-time Super Bowl champ Jenkins and is written and directed by Sonia Lowman. The documentary aims to celebrate the full humanity of Black men and boys in America and uses conversations around education, criminal justice and sports to understand how Black youth experience racism and see the country.
The documentary features interviews with activist and rapper Vic Mensa, NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony, two-time Super Bowl champion Greg Scruggs, NFL Hall of Fame inductee Cris Carter, Super Bowl champion Chris Long, award-winning sports journalist Jemele Hill, poet/activist Malcolm London, and former U.S. Secretary of Education, Dr. John King Jr.
“Black Boys” premieres Sept. 10, and you can watch the trailer here.
“Our intention with this film and future films like it is to give visuals to the reality that the humanity of Black people lives on a wide spectrum,” Jenkins said in a statement. “This project is focused on the humanity of Black boys. No segment group is monolithic. What we are displaying in this film is how Black boys’ bodies have been commodified, our minds completely disregarded, and our feelings, creativity, and love painted over by society. Operating in a society that fears them, Black men and Black boys face a unique kind of trauma. We need white people, and everyone for that matter, to see that the identity of the Black boy is under attack as early as preschool to adulthood. We all have a responsibility to help map the future of our children, and how our children preserve the world around them. Next up is Black Girls!”
“A Most Beautiful Thing” will launch on Peacock on Sept. 4, and “The Public” will launch on the service on Sept. 15.
9 Essential Alfred Hitchcock Movies to Watch on Peacock, From 'Psycho' to 'Vertigo' (Photos)
Good evening. Master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock was born on Friday the 13th back in August 1899, and while the great filmmaker's movies and his TV shows have always been widely available for aspiring film students and classic movie lovers, Peacock has lumped many of his classics in one place. There are 14 of the director's films now available to stream through NBCUniversal's ad-supported service. The trick with Hitchcock is, even writing a top 10 list of the director's best movies would be leaving off some great ones. So below is a list of his essential titles that best define his style and penchant for thrills, and check out a teaser video for all the titles here.
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"Shadow of a Doubt" (1943) -
Peacock doesn't have any of Hitchcock's early films before he left Britain and his movies started getting Oscar buzz, but "Shadow of a Doubt" was one of his first fully American movies, with a cast including Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten that Hitchcock even described as his favorite film he made. A man and his niece, both named Charlie, meet and develop an instant bond until she realizes her uncle isn't what he seems. It's a film about being removed from the world you thought you knew and how everything looks grimmer from outside your protective bubble.
Universal Pictures
"Rope" (1948) -
"Rope" is an early example of an entire film shown in a single, unbroken take. The story involves two people who murder a man, hide his body in a trunk in the center of a room and then host a dinner party surrounding it to prove they've committed the perfect crime. Hitchcock felt the suspense would be lost if the camera cut away, so he wrote sections of the movie in chunks to correspond to the size of a reel of film and then would hide the edit as the camera passed behind a chair or person's back. "Rope" remains one of Hitchcock's most fascinating experiments, even if he once said that the experiment "didn't work."
Warner Bros.
"Rear Window" (1954) -
James Stewart plays a photographer confined to his apartment and wheelchair after suffering an injury when he spies something suspicious from his neighbor's window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder. It's a tense examination of voyeurism and how our suspicions can get the better of us. But it's also one of Hitchcock's most emotional films for the tiny details about how the lonely people Stewart watches go about their day, and it's a great example of how Hitchcock uses editing and simple clues to drive our imaginations wild.
Paramount Pictures
"The Trouble With Harry" (1955) -
As the tagline goes, the trouble with Harry is that he's dead, and no one can seem to figure out what to do with his body. "The Trouble With Harry" is Hitchcock's one straight comedy, a blend of screwball and deadpan, offbeat humor in which people are lustful, clueless or as suspicious as in any Hitchcock movie, but with a very different tone. The film also features Jerry Mathers before he was in "Leave it to Beaver" and Shirley MacLaine in her first film role.
Paramount Pictures
"The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1956) -
Hitchcock's greatest trope was of stories about innocent men wrongly accused and roped into something greater. And he told that story not once, but twice in "The Man Who Knew Too Much," which he remade from his 1934 film as a more seasoned director with bigger stars and a bigger budget in 1956. Peacock only has the remake, but it's as good of a place to start with Hitchcock as any, as it also features Doris Day's performance of the Oscar-winning song "Que Sera, Sera."
Paramount Pictures
"Vertigo" (1958) -
"Vertigo" back in 2012 snatched the title away from "Citizen Kane" as the best movie of all time in a famous critics poll, and it's in part because his surreal, psychological and thrilling head trip about two broken hearts combines all of the attributes that made Hitchcock's films special. His movies often featured icy, blonde women who men were obsessed with, and the story of James Stewart's obsession with Kim Novak in "Vertigo" most closely resembles Hitchcock's own desires and controlling qualities as a director.
Paramount Pictures
"Psycho" (1960) -
Hitchcock broke so many norms with "Psycho" that helped to change Hollywood movies forever. He proved you could get rid of the film's top-billed star Janet Leigh less than halfway into the movie, he defied censorship standards by showing characters using a toilet on screen, and he shocked audiences with a fiendish twist, even putting in place a rule that prevented late entrants into a screening. But above all, he proved that with sinister lighting, framing and an anxiety-inducing score by Bernard Hermann alone, you can still make a terrifying masterpiece.
Universal Pictures
"The Birds" (1963) - "The Birds" was an early precursor for horror films like "Jaws" for its special effects and its economical thrills, with Hitchcock replacing a traditional score with bird sound effects that were even more chilling. But the film has some complex themes about love, sexuality and violence even if it seems like just a movie about killer birds.
Universal Pictures
"Frenzy" (1972) -
Hitchcock had lost some of his mojo by the '70s when auteur directors were making hyper-violent, kinetic and artful statements of movies that did away with the Old Hollywood thriller staples. But "Frenzy" is Hitchcock returning to form with a murder mystery of another innocent man accused, and it's a late-career gem that's also easily his most violent film about a serial killer responsible for a series of "necktie murders."
Universal Pictures
All of these films don't even scratch the surface of Hitchcock's best. Peacock also currently has "Saboteur," "Marnie," "Family Plot," "Torn Curtain" and "Topaz" available for streaming, as well as his shows "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "Alfred Hitchcock Hour." And some of his other classics are available across other streaming services, including "North By Northwest" (HBO Max), "To Catch a Thief" (Amazon Prime) or "Strangers on a Train" (DirecTV).
MGM
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14 of the master of suspense’s movies and two of his series are available on the ad-supported streaming service
Good evening. Master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock was born on Friday the 13th back in August 1899, and while the great filmmaker's movies and his TV shows have always been widely available for aspiring film students and classic movie lovers, Peacock has lumped many of his classics in one place. There are 14 of the director's films now available to stream through NBCUniversal's ad-supported service. The trick with Hitchcock is, even writing a top 10 list of the director's best movies would be leaving off some great ones. So below is a list of his essential titles that best define his style and penchant for thrills, and check out a teaser video for all the titles here.
Getty Images
Universal Pictures
