How to Cast Movies from Phone to Big Screen + 3 Rom-Com ‘Heist’ Classics

In an earlier post I shared an app to help you organize your movie collection. This post focuses on how to cast movies from your smartphone to the big screen of your smart TV. There are several apps out there that will do this, but we use Web Video Caster, available in Android and iOS versions from Google and Apple playstores.

Download the basic version for free, or buy the premium version for a one-time fee of about $5 to block advertisements and access additional functionality. Follow the link in the previous paragraph for a brief video that covers the highlights.

You will need to download the app to both your smartphone and to a television running a compatible receiving device, such as Apple TV, Roku or Fire TV Stick. Then you simply find the URL of the video you want to watch–stored in your movie database if you use CLZ— and use the app to cast it onto the big screen.

Check out the “Full Film” links at the end of each of this week’s “Classic Movie Buzz” picks and start casting away. These three American “heist” movies are from the mid-1960s. In each, romantic antics and situational challenges manage to “steal” the show from the targeted loot.

How to Steal a Million

RELEASE DATE: 1966 DIRECTOR: William Wyler STUDIO: 20th Century Fox HEADLINERS: Audrey Hepburn, Peter O’Toole, Eli Wallach, Hugh Griffith, Charles Boyer RUN TIME: 2 hour, 3 minutes FILMED IN: Color IMDb RANK: 7.5

SYNOPSIS: A woman must steal a statue from a Paris museum to help conceal her father’s art forgeries and enlists the help of a burglar whom she interrupts mid-theft in her own home.

NOTES: Filmed entirely in Paris. Hepburn’s stunning, avant-garde wardrobe was designed by Givenchy. The New York Times called the plot “preposterous” but added, “It is still a delightful lot of flummery while it is going on, especially the major, central business of burglarizing the museum.” A fun and funny romp.

LINKS: Trailer | Full film

Gambit

RELEASE DATE: 1966 DIRECTOR: Ronald Neame STUDIO: Universal HEADLINERS: Shirley MacLaine, Michael Caine, Herbert Lom, Roger C. Carmel RUN TIME: 1 hour, 49 minutes FILMED IN: Color IMDb RANK: 7.0

SYNOPSIS: A career burglar set on stealing a piece of priceless art from the world’s wealthiest man enlists the help of an exotic showgirl. He concocts the perfect scheme. However, when the team tries to execute the plan, perfection and reality don’t quite match up. A twisty tale of a heist gone wrong.

NOTES: The oriental sets, along with MacLaine’s costumes, jewelry and hairstyles are fantastic on their own. The thwarted romance make it even more fun. The Village Voice called the film “another Crime Can Be Fun movie for the whole family.” A 2012 remake stars Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz.

LINKS: Trailer | Full film

Who’s Minding the Mint?

RELEASE DATE: 1967 DIRECTOR: Howard Morris STUDIO: Columbia HEADLINERS: Jim Hutton, Dorothy Provine, Milton Berle, Joey Bishop, Walter Brennan, Bob Denver, Victor Buono, Jack Gifford RUN TIME: 1 hour, 37 minutes FILMED IN: Color IMDb RANK: 7.0

SYNOPSIS: A bumbling U. S. Treasury Department employee accidentally destroys a small fortune and decides to break into the U. S. Mint to replace it. But before long, everyone he seeks help from wants a slice of the action–and the money.

NOTES: More than $1 million of real United States currency was used in the movie and carefully watched by armed guards. Most of the currency shown being printed was larger by half than actual U. S. currency and had obvious printing errors, so there was no chance the money could be passed as genuine. Dell published a 12-cent comic book version of this movie as a tie-in. See if you can pick out “Happy Days” TV star Erin Moran in her uncredited appearance as a little girl on a bicycle.

LINKS: Trailer | Full film