October 23, 2025 • 9 mins
They say that everybody has two professions: whatever they do for a living, plus being a film critic. For sixty years, Leonard Maltin has happily combined both. Starting when he was 13, Maltin turned a childhood love of movies into a career as a film historian, writer, interviewer, teacher, and one of the country's most visible and beloved movie reviewers. For thirty years he was the film expert on TV's long-running Entertainment Tonight. He has written, edited, or contributed to scores of books and videos including the seminal histories The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang, The Great Movie Shorts, The Disney Films, The Art of the Cinematographer, and the highly collectible Walt Disney Treasures DVD series. Most visibly, from 1969 to 2015 he published the essential Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
How the heck did you guys even come together this?
I mean, this is like David Coverdale and Robert Plant
coming together.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
It's one of God's Jeffs.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
I guess it's gotta be because both of you are
incredible storytellers. And let me put in their sharers as well,
because you totally get the idea that we're not just
going to sit here and report like journalists. We're going
to bring it to you as real people so that
you can get into the movie experience and not just
blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Well, thank you. I think that's a compliment for which
I thank you, very, very sincerely. We we like sitting
around shooting the breeze yep and comparing notes, talking about
interesting people we've met and interesting experiences we've had with
movie people. And my friend Janine Basinger, great film teachers,
(00:50):
said twny years ago, the only thing better than watching
a movie is talking about you.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
You must remember that Leonard and a far lesser degree,
I have had the privilege over the decades of speaking
to the most interesting people in the entire world, Otherwise
nobody would make movies with them. And his ability as
a reporter has been to bring their personalities to entertainment
Tonight or the books that he's written, and mine in
this case is to talk to Leonard to have him
(01:18):
talk about entertainment tonight and the book he's written, so
it all comes together.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Yeah. But see, that's what I love about what it
is that you guys do. It is about that connection,
and it's about the continuation because when someone says, oh,
the movie's over, No, in reality, it just started. Because
even though the credits have run and everything like that,
Now it's time to talk about it. Now, it's time
to compare it to other films. Now it's time to
see what's up next.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Well, I try to do. I teach at us the
fairly large class, and I try to give them that
same experience.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
I mean, when you sit there and you say that
every movie is a miracle of those of us that
are really super close to movies understand what it takes
to get there. But what happens is there are so
many people that are still going to the movie theaters
nowadaying thank god they've rediscovered the theaters. The thing is
is that they just think it just magically happens.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Well, if it magically happened, they'd be going to this.
It's more often. That's part of the problem is that
they only want to go for the spectacular, the Marvel films,
or the Pixar films, or the high high end horror films.
In the old days and not so very old days,
(02:29):
people went to the movies every week. It was an
appointment on their calendar. It was secondarily what's playing? But
you go, you went to the movies?
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Well not. You've always come across as somebody who likes
to talk with people who are interesting, like you just
talked about, and that that's me. I was sitting here
trying to figure out is that part of when when
they bring them in for you know, a movie test,
and it's like, I want to see what they can
bring to my set before I put him in my film,
because I want to make sure they bring positive energy
and something of uniqueness.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Well, yeah, Mike Nichols is famous for when somebody asked
him what's the secret of making movies? He said, don't
work with a holes. Even more expansive than that, but
I'm quoting Cecil B. De Mill Noow, you know, a
movie star is something special, he said, if you want
the girl next door. All you have to do is
look over the fence. A movie star is something bigger
(03:27):
than that, something better. Was it Richard Burton? I don't
know who it was who said an actress is something
more than a woman, and an actor is something less
than a man. Why all these wonderful sayings. You really
can't put your finger on what it is, but you
do know, and I know Leonard can say this, what
a real movie star walks in the room, and Charlton
(03:47):
Heston is my first the room gets bigger to accommodate them.
There's something different about some people.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Oh my god, I've been at those premieres when that happens,
where everybody is in that theater. Really they don't know
that the actor is coming in, and then the moment
they do, you are so right, all of a sudden
that that very tight knitted room with all those people
crowded in there, now there's enough room for Kevin Hart
to come walking through. There's there's somebody to come in there,
and then all of a sudden, you know, you're about
ready to get another part of the movie experience.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
That's true, that's true. Tony Curtis was like that.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Tony Curtis, someone close to him said to me, he
stucks the air out of a room.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, yeah, please do not move. There's more with Leonard
Malton and Nat Siegeloff coming up next the name of
the book Every Movie is a Miracle. We're back with
Leonard Malton and Natt Siegeloff. Both of you guys have
have had the opportunity to share conversations with those who
have made it up onto that big screen. But in reality,
to me, it's like talking to a professional wrestler on TV.
(04:50):
They're like, oh yeah, but in real life they're like going, hey, man,
how you doing this? This is the way it really is.
I mean, this is what I went through.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Well, they're both times. There's some people who retain that
larger than life persona, and sometimes it's not a persona.
Sometimes it's a genuine personality and other times it's a pose,
but a convincing pose. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Michael Kaine is the most effortlessly witty and charming person
I've ever met. I used to tell people, if you
have to commit murder to work on a Michael Kaine film,
go ahead and do it. And you can see this
in the interviews that he's given, but even just over dinner,
he's the most charming human being who never repeats himself
except if it's an interview. I just some people are different.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Don't you think though, that we had a Beatles moment
when Marvel and DC started putting more of the movie
at the end of the trailers as well as in
the middle because now I love it when the lights
come on and there's still people sitting there. I am
so thrilled to see that.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Well, I am too. My wife and I never leave
until we've been threatened with civil and criminal prosecution. That's
when the movie's over. Movie's not over. So that happens.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Yeah, yeah, so true. Now, what is there a philosophy
in today's music? In music as well as movie making
in the way that it's like, we're going into a project,
but if we don't have a real, honest to god
philosophical view of who we're going to reach, we're not
going to win. Got We've got to be able to
tap into a vivid imagination.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Well that's the hope. That's what you hope happens on
every movie discussion before a film gets made. I think
sometimes that maybe is a missing ingredient.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Yeah, I think you're Listeninger demographics are probably the most
attractive to all the movie makers, and so you can
see an overlap. Get him off of the radio show
or when get him into the theater. But essentially, movies
are make you laugh, make you cry, kiss your twenty
bucks goodbye.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Yeah. Yeah, but I swear to god, we've moved into
this age though, where it doesn't matter what age group
you're part of, only because Fathom Evance is doing it.
Old movies, lost movies, forgotten movies. All of these movies
are coming back to the theater and every generation it's
doing it. They're going in there and they're buying the
popcorn to watch it.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Well, yeah, we pray that that's going to continue, definitely.
You know, it's a question of habit. Movie going used
to be a habit. It used to be something that
you did on a regular basis, once upon a time,
more than once a week. We look at old movie ads.
(07:29):
Go to newspapers dot com and look up any day
nineteen fifty four, nineteen sixty one, nineteen thirty two, and
you'll see from all the ads from the local movie
theaters how many films we're playing and how many of
them were double features, and how much product Hollywood was
(07:49):
feeding to all those theaters astonishing. Wow.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Yeah, I'm that dude that'll walk into a theater right
now that's been refurbished. And I will tell them when
I first came to Charlott but in nineteen eighty five,
there was five hundred seats in this theater. They go, really,
what does that look like? And I said, well, it
doesn't look like this theater that only has twenty five.
I'm gonna tell you that right now.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
People want to be with people, and if you can
experience something together, especially, it is an oh gosh moment
in a movie when it all comes together and the
whole audience looks around and says, I'm glad we're here together.
That's what we go to the movies for. We go
to the movies to be astonished, and that is coming
back with good filmmakers, and it's coming back with theaters
who who will let a movie sit until the find
(08:31):
its audience.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Wow, well, this is a brilliant moment in movie as
well as entertainment history. The two of you put in
this book together and it really is a classic to
put on on your coffee table or just put it
in your life period because you guys really do have
a conversation about movies. Thanks, thank well. Please come back
to this show anytime in the future. The door is
always going to be open for you.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
What is tomorrow mine?
Speaker 3 (08:55):
It'll be right over.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Are you guys?
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Be brilliant today?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Okay, thankks Eric or same to you.
How the heck did you guys even come together this?
I mean, this is like David Coverdale and Robert Plant
coming together.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
It's one of God's Jeffs.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
I guess it's gotta be because both of you are
incredible storytellers. And let me put in their sharers as well,
because you totally get the idea that we're not just
going to sit here and report like journalists. We're going
to bring it to you as real people so that
you can get into the movie experience and not just
blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Well, thank you. I think that's a compliment for which
I thank you, very, very sincerely. We we like sitting
around shooting the breeze yep and comparing notes, talking about
interesting people we've met and interesting experiences we've had with
movie people. And my friend Janine Basinger, great film teachers,
(00:50):
said twny years ago, the only thing better than watching
a movie is talking about you.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
You must remember that Leonard and a far lesser degree,
I have had the privilege over the decades of speaking
to the most interesting people in the entire world, Otherwise
nobody would make movies with them. And his ability as
a reporter has been to bring their personalities to entertainment
Tonight or the books that he's written, and mine in
this case is to talk to Leonard to have him
(01:18):
talk about entertainment tonight and the book he's written, so
it all comes together.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Yeah. But see, that's what I love about what it
is that you guys do. It is about that connection,
and it's about the continuation because when someone says, oh,
the movie's over, No, in reality, it just started. Because
even though the credits have run and everything like that,
Now it's time to talk about it. Now, it's time
to compare it to other films. Now it's time to
see what's up next.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Well, I try to do. I teach at us the
fairly large class, and I try to give them that
same experience.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
I mean, when you sit there and you say that
every movie is a miracle of those of us that
are really super close to movies understand what it takes
to get there. But what happens is there are so
many people that are still going to the movie theaters
nowadaying thank god they've rediscovered the theaters. The thing is
is that they just think it just magically happens.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Well, if it magically happened, they'd be going to this.
It's more often. That's part of the problem is that
they only want to go for the spectacular, the Marvel films,
or the Pixar films, or the high high end horror films.
In the old days and not so very old days,
(02:29):
people went to the movies every week. It was an
appointment on their calendar. It was secondarily what's playing? But
you go, you went to the movies?
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Well not. You've always come across as somebody who likes
to talk with people who are interesting, like you just
talked about, and that that's me. I was sitting here
trying to figure out is that part of when when
they bring them in for you know, a movie test,
and it's like, I want to see what they can
bring to my set before I put him in my film,
because I want to make sure they bring positive energy
and something of uniqueness.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Well, yeah, Mike Nichols is famous for when somebody asked
him what's the secret of making movies? He said, don't
work with a holes. Even more expansive than that, but
I'm quoting Cecil B. De Mill Noow, you know, a
movie star is something special, he said, if you want
the girl next door. All you have to do is
look over the fence. A movie star is something bigger
(03:27):
than that, something better. Was it Richard Burton? I don't
know who it was who said an actress is something
more than a woman, and an actor is something less
than a man. Why all these wonderful sayings. You really
can't put your finger on what it is, but you
do know, and I know Leonard can say this, what
a real movie star walks in the room, and Charlton
(03:47):
Heston is my first the room gets bigger to accommodate them.
There's something different about some people.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Oh my god, I've been at those premieres when that happens,
where everybody is in that theater. Really they don't know
that the actor is coming in, and then the moment
they do, you are so right, all of a sudden
that that very tight knitted room with all those people
crowded in there, now there's enough room for Kevin Hart
to come walking through. There's there's somebody to come in there,
and then all of a sudden, you know, you're about
ready to get another part of the movie experience.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
That's true, that's true. Tony Curtis was like that.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Tony Curtis, someone close to him said to me, he
stucks the air out of a room.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, yeah, please do not move. There's more with Leonard
Malton and Nat Siegeloff coming up next the name of
the book Every Movie is a Miracle. We're back with
Leonard Malton and Natt Siegeloff. Both of you guys have
have had the opportunity to share conversations with those who
have made it up onto that big screen. But in reality,
to me, it's like talking to a professional wrestler on TV.
(04:50):
They're like, oh yeah, but in real life they're like going, hey, man,
how you doing this? This is the way it really is.
I mean, this is what I went through.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Well, they're both times. There's some people who retain that
larger than life persona, and sometimes it's not a persona.
Sometimes it's a genuine personality and other times it's a pose,
but a convincing pose. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Michael Kaine is the most effortlessly witty and charming person
I've ever met. I used to tell people, if you
have to commit murder to work on a Michael Kaine film,
go ahead and do it. And you can see this
in the interviews that he's given, but even just over dinner,
he's the most charming human being who never repeats himself
except if it's an interview. I just some people are different.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Don't you think though, that we had a Beatles moment
when Marvel and DC started putting more of the movie
at the end of the trailers as well as in
the middle because now I love it when the lights
come on and there's still people sitting there. I am
so thrilled to see that.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Well, I am too. My wife and I never leave
until we've been threatened with civil and criminal prosecution. That's
when the movie's over. Movie's not over. So that happens.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Yeah, yeah, so true. Now, what is there a philosophy
in today's music? In music as well as movie making
in the way that it's like, we're going into a project,
but if we don't have a real, honest to god
philosophical view of who we're going to reach, we're not
going to win. Got We've got to be able to
tap into a vivid imagination.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Well that's the hope. That's what you hope happens on
every movie discussion before a film gets made. I think
sometimes that maybe is a missing ingredient.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Yeah, I think you're Listeninger demographics are probably the most
attractive to all the movie makers, and so you can
see an overlap. Get him off of the radio show
or when get him into the theater. But essentially, movies
are make you laugh, make you cry, kiss your twenty
bucks goodbye.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Yeah. Yeah, but I swear to god, we've moved into
this age though, where it doesn't matter what age group
you're part of, only because Fathom Evance is doing it.
Old movies, lost movies, forgotten movies. All of these movies
are coming back to the theater and every generation it's
doing it. They're going in there and they're buying the
popcorn to watch it.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Well, yeah, we pray that that's going to continue, definitely.
You know, it's a question of habit. Movie going used
to be a habit. It used to be something that
you did on a regular basis, once upon a time,
more than once a week. We look at old movie ads.
(07:29):
Go to newspapers dot com and look up any day
nineteen fifty four, nineteen sixty one, nineteen thirty two, and
you'll see from all the ads from the local movie
theaters how many films we're playing and how many of
them were double features, and how much product Hollywood was
(07:49):
feeding to all those theaters astonishing. Wow.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Yeah, I'm that dude that'll walk into a theater right
now that's been refurbished. And I will tell them when
I first came to Charlott but in nineteen eighty five,
there was five hundred seats in this theater. They go, really,
what does that look like? And I said, well, it
doesn't look like this theater that only has twenty five.
I'm gonna tell you that right now.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
People want to be with people, and if you can
experience something together, especially, it is an oh gosh moment
in a movie when it all comes together and the
whole audience looks around and says, I'm glad we're here together.
That's what we go to the movies for. We go
to the movies to be astonished, and that is coming
back with good filmmakers, and it's coming back with theaters
who who will let a movie sit until the find
(08:31):
its audience.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Wow, well, this is a brilliant moment in movie as
well as entertainment history. The two of you put in
this book together and it really is a classic to
put on on your coffee table or just put it
in your life period because you guys really do have
a conversation about movies. Thanks, thank well. Please come back
to this show anytime in the future. The door is
always going to be open for you.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
What is tomorrow mine?
Speaker 3 (08:55):
It'll be right over.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Are you guys?
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Be brilliant today?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Okay, thankks Eric or same to you.
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