Nathan Lane

“This is Rififi. It's a jewel heist my husband loves any movie about a heist. Rififi—it sounds like it could be a great movie or the name of our next-door neighbor's poodle. Rififi, here, here, Rafi! Oh, don't, Rafi, don't!”

“This is one I love. I always—this is another one, if I see it, I have to watch it to the end. And it's directed by the great Ernst Lubitsch.... Heaven Can Wait, is that the other Heaven Can Wait? Oh, it's so confusing.”

“You should all see Night of the Hunter. And sadly, the reviews were very mixed and he never made another film again. He felt so defeated by the reviews—that's why you shouldn't read reviews. But Charles Laughton, one of our greatest actors, and based on this, could have been one of our greatest directors. I'm just sort of going with the classics, but I love this movie.”

“Sweet Smell of Success has some of the greatest dialogue ever. Burt Lancaster is fantastic as this sort of horrible Walter Winchell columnist. 'I love this dirty town.'”

“The Kid. Well, there should be one Chaplin.”

“Bitter Rice. A neo-realism with a heaping dose of pulp, and we're not talking orange juice.”

“Oh look, this—I don't think I've ever seen this all the way through. This is written and directed by the woman who wrote The Birdcage, the genius known as Elaine May. One of the first of three women directors in the Director's Guild. It was Ida Lupino, Elaine May, and some other woman who I'm sure was wonderful. But Elaine—and now we realize how brilliant she was. This is Peter Falk and John Cassavetes as small-time hoods.”

“Here Comes Mr. Jordan. Yeah, that's that. Here Comes Mr. Jordan was the movie that—Heaven Can Wait, is that the other Heaven Can Wait? Oh, it's so confusing.”

“Odd Man Out, directed by Carol Reed. I'm gonna give this a shot, I don't think I've ever seen this. James Mason, one of my favorite actors.”

“Valley of the Dolls. I was in a TV remake of Valley of the Dolls that starred Jean Simmons in the Susan Hayward role, and I played the stage manager at the Academy Awards. Look, my career could change if I was this tall. I could be a leading man.”

“The In-Laws. Yeah, it still holds up. It's still one of the funniest movies ever made.”

“I went through a period where I thought if I was going to do a musical, I would like to do a musical of Being There because it would be an interesting challenge. I asked Sondheim if he would be interested in doing it and he said, 'But the central character is a cipher, he doesn't sing.' I said, 'I know, but it forces other people to sing at him.' That's an interesting dynamic, don't you think? Watch Being There. Peter Sellers, perhaps his greatest Performance.”

“Seized by customs upon entry into the United States, subject of a heated court battle, banned in cities around the world. I'm sold. Vilgot Sjöman's I Am Curious—Yellow is one of the most—why do you need the dash? It's one of the most controversial films of all time. This landmark document of Swedish society during the sexual revolution has been declared both obscene and revolutionary. In the bag.”