James Stewart and Ginger Rogers were "an item" when Vivacious Lady was filmed, and their obvious real-life affection for one another pours over onto the screen. Stewart plays Peter Morgan, a young botany professor who while on a visit to New York impulsively marries free-spirited nightclub singer Francey (Rogers). A few obstacles lie in the path of connubial bliss, however, including Peter's bitchy ex-fiance Helen (Frances Mercer) and his stern college-dean father Peter Morgan Sr. (Charles Coburn). Hoping to break the news of his marriage gently to Helen and his father, Pete contrives to keep the union a secret, with the expected embarrassing results. Before the final fade-out, both Morgan Senior and Morgan Junior are on the outs with their respective wives, and it takes an uproariously tearful reunion on a passenger train to straighten things out. In his first outing as a producer, director George Stevens shows off his two-reel-comedy training with a number of hilarious comedy setpieces (the best is a slapsticky cat-fight between the two rivals for Pete's affections), though things tend to slow down towards the end. Stevens also finds room for several of his favorite character actors, including Grady Sutton, Franklin Pangborn and Willie Best, to do their time-honored specialties. Best of all is Beulah Bondi as James Stewart's mother (one of several such assignments), delivering a most unusual and touchingly funny performance. In short, Vivacious Lady was a guaranteed box-office smash even before the cameras began to turn.

With Muhammad Ali cast as himself, The Greatest covers Ali's life from his "Cassius Clay" days to the celebrated Ali/George Foreman bout. Along the way, the film focuses on Ali's conversion to Islam and his potentially career-breaking decision not to serve in the Army. Ernest Borgnine palys Ali's first trainer Angelo Dundee, while Roger E. Mosley shows up as Sonny Liston. The Greatest was the final directorial effort from the late Tom Gries. The same subject would later be covered in Michael Mann's Ali, starring Will Smith as the champ.

Falsely convicted Lionel Barrymore escapes from Devil's Island with fellow prisoner H.B. Walthall. A brilliant scientist, Walthall reveals to Barrymore that he has developed a process to shrink human beings. Upon Walthall's death, Barrymore makes his way back to the old scientist's lab, intending to use Walthall's formula to exact vengeance on those who have wronged him. He does so, clearing his name and securing the future happiness of his daughter Maureen O'Sullivan (who believes that Barrymore is dead) in the process. But Barrymore's crazed assistant Rafaela Ottiano isn't satisfied. "We'll make the whole world small!" she hisses, forcing Barrymore to kill her and destroy the formula. To save his daughter from scandal, Barrymore disappears into the night, the implication being that he plans to commit suicide at the first opportunity. The excellent miniature work in The Devil Doll (much of it accomplished with outsized sets, a la the Laurel and Hardy comedy Brats) successfully takes the viewers' minds off the rather silly plot. Director Tod Browning was always stronger with atmosphere than with plot and dialogue, and this film is no exception. Far less logical than the miniaturization process is Barrymore's decision to disguise himself as an old woman, since this transparent guise wouldn't convince a 2-year-old in real life. Based on the novel Burn, Witch, Burn by Abraham Merritt, The Devil Doll was scripted by several hands, including Erich Von Stroheim.

In this adaptation of the operetta by Rudolf Friml, secret agent Nina Maria Azara (Jeannette MacDonald) is working undercover for the King of Spain as a singer known as the "Mosca del Fuego" or "Firefly." Her mission is to uncover Napoleon's plot to invade Spain before it is too late. This film features a variety of songs including "Donkey Serenade," "Love Is Like a Firefly," " and "When a Maid Comes Knocking At Your Heart."

John Schlesinger directed this fact-based drama - adapted from Robert Lindsay's bestseller of the same title -- about two Californians, friends since boyhood, who are caught selling government secrets to the Soviet Union. Christopher Boyce (Timothy Hutton) is an all-American boy, studying for the priesthood in a seminary. But Boyce decides to drop out of school, and with the help of his father (Pat Hingle), a FBI agent, he gets a job working for the CIA in a message-routing center. While reading the messages, Boyce is shocked to learn that the CIA is involved in fixing Australian elections. Watching the Watergate hearings on television, he feels an ever-mounting sense of outrage at the arrogance of the U.S. government and decides to do something about it. Deciding to supply the CIA messages to the Russians, he enlists his childhood friend Daulton Lee (Sean Penn) to help him. Lee is to deliver the CIA secrets to a Russian operative (David Suchet) at the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City. But Lee is an unreliable drug dealer, and his sloppy spy trail leads the two old friends into more trouble than they bargained for.

In this drama, the devilish Chinese villain has concocted a deadly gas. He tries it out in a small English town and is delighted to discover that it is terribly effective. He then travels to the Thames with his daughter. There he has an explosive encounter with the hero who stops the evil plot.

Producer/director Bert I. Gordon began his career-long devotion to movies about giant-sized people and animals with this low-budget chiller, which has a surprisingly strong cast of onetime Hollywood leading men. Gloria Talbott plays Susan Winter, a young American woman who hires soldier-of-fortune Russ Bradford James Craig to lead an expedition into a remote valley in Mexico where her fiance, Bruce Barton, was lost in a plane crash two years earlier. Also along are greedy speculator Martin Melville (Lon Chaney Jr.) and pilot Lee Brand (Tom Drake). They get to the valley and discover that it is, as was rumored, rich in deposits of uranium, but also dangerously radioactive -- the immediate threats include giant insects and spiders and huge mutated lizards, but Susan is positive that they're being watched by an unseen observer. The title creature, 25 feet tall with a disfigured face, a single eye, and motivated by the most bestial of impulses, shows himself by trapping them inside of a cave, and quicker than you can say Polyphemus, the rescue mission becomes a fight for survival that has a particularly nasty, bitter ending.

Robert Donat stars as Dr. Andrew Manson in this adaptation of A.J. Cronin's best-selling novel. Manson devotes himself to treating the residents of a poverty-stricken Welsh mining community. Tuberculosis runs rampant in the village, and Manson is determined to help stem its tide and bring good health back to people who desperately need it. Through a series of unforeseen circumstances, Manson eventually leaves the community and begins working out of London, where he looks after wealthy hypochondriacs who don't really need his services but are willing to pay from them. While Manson gains money and prestige, he has turned his back on his friends, his wife (Rosalind Russell), and the people who need him most in the process. To give the film a more realistic "English" atmosphere, MGM shot The Citadel at their British studios, although they did import an American director (King Vidor) and leading lady (Russell) for the occasion.

Perry Mason (Warren William) actually marries his secretary, the redoubtable Della Street (Claire Dodd) in this, the fourth installment of Warner Bros.' popular series based on the novels by Erle Stanley Garner. The honeymoon, alas, is rudely interrupted when Perry is kidnapped by Eve Belter (Winifred Shaw), who demands that he help her fight a scandal sheet, Spicy Bits, which has threatened to expose an affair involving the lady herself and politician Peter Milnor (Kenneth Harlan). Visiting the newspaper office, the intrepid defense attorney learns that the publisher is none other than Mrs. Belter's millionaire husband (Joseph King), who wished to punish his wife for her infidelity. But when Belter is found murdered, Eve becomes the natural suspect and Mason agrees to defend her much to Della's irritation. Eve's innocence is of course a given -- what with being Mason's client and all -- but Perry must not only catch the real culprit, but also Della before she has their marriage annulled.

Now decidedly a product of Warner Bros.' grade-B unit, The Case of the Stuttering Bishop brought the Perry Mason series to a close. Donald Woods starred as Mason, with Ann Dvorak as his loyal secretary Della Street (who is constantly promised a raise that never seems to materialize) and Edward McWade in the title role. The latter asks Mason's help in a case of a young girl, Janice (Anne Nagel), who may or may not be the granddaughter of wealthy Ronald Brownley (Douglas Wood). The bishop suspects that she is a fake and it is Mason's job to find the real Janice, whose estranged mother Ida (Mira McKinney) believes her to be one Janice Seaton (Linda Perry). But before Brownley can verify this latest claim, he is murdered by what appears to be a woman wearing a light raincoat. A fingerprint in Brownley's car points to Ida as the murderess, but is she guilty? And who is the real Janice Brownley?

The legs in question in this the second of Warner Bros. Perry Mason whodunits belong to Margy Clune (Patricia Ellis), the first-prize winner in a Lucky Legs contest and the fiancée of Dr. Bob Doray (Lyle Talbot). But when Margy goes to collect her winnings, she finds that the contest's promoter, Frank Patton (Craig Reynolds), has skipped town with the money. When Margy goes after him, her boss, Bradbury (Porter Hall), convinces Perry Mason (Warren William) that she may be heading for trouble. And, sure enough, Patton is found very much murdered with Margy the prime suspect. But as Mason, his secretary Della Street (Genevieve Tobin), and intrepid private eye Spudsy Drake (Allen Jenkins) discover, there are other and more dangerous suspects around. The Case of the Lucky Legs was followed by The Case of the Curious Bride (1935) and The Case of the Velvet Claws (1936), also with Warren Williams as Mason, after which the role would be played in the remaining films by three different actors: Ricardo Cortez, Donald Woods, and William Lundigan.

From the time he was a high-school student in Lubbock, Texas until his tragic death at age 22 in 1959, Buddy Holly ignored the condemnation by townspeople and his conservative relatives and dedicated his life to the new music he became famous for performing: rock 'n roll. Gary Busey stars as Buddy Holly in this widely acclaimed big-screen biography and sings well enough on camera for the film's adapted musical score to win an Oscar. Among the classic songs by Buddy Holly and the Crickets which can be heard are: Oh Boy, That'll Be The Day, Peggy Sue, and Not Fade Away.

Quickie-flick entrepreneur Bert I. Gordon makes a bid for the kiddie trade in The Boy and the Pirates. Charles Herbert, the juvenile star of 13 Ghosts, plays a contemporary kid who finds a bottle on the beach. The bottle contains genie Joseph Turkel (a loyal member of Stanley Kubrick's "stock company"), who whisks Herbert back in time and on board the pirate ship captained by Bluebeard (Murvyn Vye, whose performance is as shamelessly over-the-top as anything concocted by Robert Newton). Reams of stock footage later, Herbert escapes Bluebeard's clutches, together with his new friend Susan Gordon (Bert I. Gordon's daughter). Veteran Hollywood scrivener Lillie Hayward brings some much-needed class and polish to the low-budget proceedings.

Noted theater director Sam Mendes, who was responsible for the acclaimed 1998 revival of Cabaret and Nicole Kidman's turn in The Blue Room, made his motion picture debut with this film about the dark side of an American family, and about the nature and price of beauty in a culture obsessed with outward appearances. Kevin Spacey plays Lester Burnham, a man in his mid-40s going through an intense midlife crisis; he's grown cynical and is convinced that he has no reason to go on. Lester's relationship with his wife Carolyn (Annette Bening) is not a warm one; while on the surface Carolyn strives to present the image that she's in full control of her life, inside she feels empty and desperate. Their teenage daughter Jane (Thora Birch) is constantly depressed, lacking in self-esteem, and convinced that she's unattractive. Her problems aren't helped by her best friend Angela (Mena Suvari), an aspiring model who is quite beautiful and believes that that alone makes her a worthwhile person. Jane isn't the only one who has noticed that Angela is attractive: Lester has fallen into uncontrollable lust for her, and she becomes part of his drastic plan to change his body and change his life. Meanwhile, next door, Colonel Fitts (Chris Cooper) has spent a lifetime in the Marine Corps and can understand and tolerate no other way of life, which makes life difficult for his son Ricky (Wes Bentley), an aspiring filmmaker and part-time drug dealer who is obsessed with beauty, wherever and whatever it may be. American Beauty was also the screen debut for screenwriter Alan Ball.

A veterinarian and his wife leave their small burg and move to the Big Apple after he inherits a million dollars. His social climbing wife insists on the move because she wants her daughter to make a formal debut. Unfortunately for the family, the fortune was earned by a brutal mob boss, the veterinarian's dead uncle. Once in the city, they find themselves assailed by gangsters wanting the money. This comedy chronicles their efforts to keep the criminals at bay.

Tim Holt and Richard Martin ride again in the RKO budget western Target. The story is nothing new: Tim (Holt) and Chito (Martin) take on a band of criminals who've been flummoxing local ranchers out of their land. The film's novelty value is the presence of a lady marshal, played by Linda Douglas. In typical 1950s fashion, of course, Douglas isn't quite as effective at keeping the peace as her two male co-stars. The supporting cast of Target is comprised of the usual western regulars, including Walter Reed, Lane Bradford and Riley Hill; also appearing in a sizeable role is John Hamilton, best-known as Perry White on TV's Superman.

Stage Fright toys with our notions of the dividing line between reality and artifice by being set in the London theatre world. On the lam from the police, Richard Todd takes refuge in the home of his former girlfriend, RADA student Jane Wyman. Todd has been spotted fleeing the scene of a murder, but he insists that he's innocent. Wyman believes his story, but knows that the police won't, so she decides to play detective herself. She also plays several other roles in a variety of disguises so as to escape the notice of genuine detective Michael Wilding. Top-billed Marlene Dietrich plays a Dietrich-like chanteuse whom Wyman pigeonholes as the real murderer.

Norman Jewison's blackly satirical look at the American justice system has gained in stature as one of the more incisive social commentaries of its time. Al Pacino plays Arthur Kirkland, an incorruptible attorney who attempts to initiate reforms in the Maryland justice system. Kirkland is haunted by the fates of two past clients, one of whom committed suicide in jail; the other is still alive but is locked up on a trumped-up traffic violation. The ability of power and money to distort the pursuit of justice becomes all too clear as Kirkland finds out how deeply the rot has spread. He is ultimately blackmailed into defending a repulsive judge (John Forsythe) accused of rape, and faces a crisis of conscience. Pacino's and Forsythe's performances are intense and powerful. Many critics found the film biting and almost painful in its razor-sharp indictment of the justice system, while others declared the script too outrageous.

After befriending talented dancer and pickpocket Libby (Vivien Leigh), street performer Charles (Charles Saggers) strikes up a partnership with the gifted young performer and invites Libby to join his act. With Libby's graceful moves steadily drawing an audience to Charles' dramatic act, the performers soon catch the eye of theater magnate Harley (Rex Harrison), who is so mesmerized by the performance that he invites Libby and her fellow performers to a post-play party. When Libby arrives at the party alone, her career rapidly ascends, as Charles and the rest of the performers remain behind to toil amongst the famished masses.

Scientists travel through Myanmar visiting elephants and their handlers, Oozies, who log forests sustainably. With unique access to logging camps and villages, the scientists find out how the Asian elephant can be saved from extinction.

A woman struggling to rebuild her life becomes the victim of uncharitable rumors in this sudsy drama. After the recent death of her husband, and with her sons away at school, Jessica Drummond (Barbara Stanwyck) is lonely and out of sorts -- and uninterested in the potential suitors her mother, Mrs. Kimball (Lucile Watson), chooses for her. Jessica joins her close friend Ginna Abbott (Eve Arden) on a skiing trip and meets Maj. Scott Landis (George Brent), a handsome man who is clearly attracted to her. Jessica makes it clear that she has no interest in a short-term fling, and upon returning home, she meets Frank Everett (Warner Anderson), a sweet but dull man whom she begins dating. Frank is willing to marry Jessica, but by chance she meets Scott again, and while she's not willing to be seduced by him, she finds him more exciting and alluring than Frank. As Jessica debates the merits of passion vs. security, she becomes the subject of mean-spirited gossipmongers who speculate that her relationship with Scott has become inappropriately intimate for a new widow. My Reputation was shot in 1944, but it wasn't released until 1946, as the studio believed that it would be better received after the end of WWII.

In this lighthearted drama, a lazy trumpeter has developed a sure-fire system for making big bucks in the stock market. His system is appropriated by two bank officers, but for them, it doesn't work and they end up in jail. Fortunately, the trumpet player saves the day.

Fed up with crowded big-city living, advertising executive Mr. Blandings (Cary Grant) decides to seek out a big, roomy house in the country. Armed with more enthusiasm than common sense, Blandings causes many a headache for his lawyer/business manager Melvyn Douglas, who tries to keep the costs within a reasonable amount. Alas, Blandings bulls ahead on his own, first purchasing an estate on the verge of collapse, then opting to build his dream house from scratch. An unpleasant legal squabble over the fact that Blandings purchased his new property without checking with the prior owners throws even more good money after bad. The construction of the new Blandings digs is slowed down to a walk by doors and windows that don't fit, plumbing that fails to function, doorknobs that break upon contact with human flesh, temperamental workmen, and various and sundry other homeowners' nightmares (if all this sounds like the much-later Tom Hanks/Shelley Long comedy The Money Pit, it only shows to go how little has changed in forty years--except, of course, for the costs of things). Attempting to keep a level head throughout the proceedings is Mrs. Blandings (Myrna Loy), though even she is guilty of pretensions and excess, especially in the classic "choice of colors" scene. The humor in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House springs so naturally from the central situation that it seems intrusive when the scriptwriters throw in an arbitrary French-farce scene wherein Blandings suspects that his wife and his lawyer are fooling around (a plot point that the original Eric Hodgins novel did just fine without). One of the best bits comes near the end, when Louise Beavers, the Blandings' cook, saves the day for everyone by ad libbing "If you ain't eating Wham, you ain't eating Ham." Why should we spoil your enjoyment by explaining that line? Now you'll have to see the picture.

Originally filmed at Republic in 1948, Montana Belle was purchased by producer Howard R. Hughes, who'd loaned the services of the film's star, Jane Russell. After laying on the shelf for three years, Montana Belle was finally released by Hughes' RKO Radio Pictures in October of 1952. Russell plays notorious western outlaw Belle Starr, who after being saved by the Dalton Gang from the hangman's noose, falls in love with Bob Dalton (Scott Brady). This doesn't stop Belle and Dalton from trying to stab one another in the back for the next 8 reels. It is gambler Tom Bradfield (George Brent) who finally offers Belle a new start in life--and, incidentally, a new romance. The film's high point of imbecility arrives when Jane Russell disguises herself as a man. In other words, Montana Belle is lots of fun so long as no one takes it too seriously (it is clear that the people who made the film didn't!)

Anne Shirley is the teenaged "lady" in this filmization of Elizabeth Jordan's novel My Daddy and I. Shirley plays the daughter of widowed Herbert Marshall, who suffers in silence as his daughter tries to "match" him with every eligible woman in sight. Misinterpreting a delicate situation, Shirley attempts to link up Marshall with a woman (Margot Grahame) he actively dislikes. The highlight of the film is a ramshackle staging of "Romeo and Juliet" at Anne's high school, with the unflappable young girl contending with an adenoidal Romeo (Frank Coghlan Jr.) whose tights keep slipping as he struggles through his Shakespearian dialogue. The protagonist of Make Way for Lady was one of several teen ingenues played by former child actress Dawn O'Day under her new screen name of Anne Shirley.

In this comedy drama, a Yale tennis star endeavors to be a good sport at every turn. He finds a girl and together they elope. One day, while he is off on a business trip, she resumes a old fling. When he finds out, the tennis player discovers he is a sore loser, but not nearly as sore as the woman's lover after he finishes beating him up. When he is finished with him, he then goes to his cheating wife and gives her a good spanking.

Local Boy Makes Good was based on the J.C. and Elliot Nugent stage farce The Poor Nut, which had starred Elliot Nugent on Broadway and Jack Mulhall in the 1928 film version. This time Joe E. Brown stars as John Miller, a meek-and-mild college botany student who worships beauty-contest winner Julia Winters (Dorothy Lee) from afar. He writes her love letter after love letter, bragging about his imaginary athletic accomplishments, but never has the nerve to mail any of the them. As a prank, John's college pals actually mail one of his billet-douxs, whereupon Julia shows up on campus, fully expecting our hero to compete in an upcoming track meet. Having never been on a sports field in his life, poor John sneaks into a track-team practice, hoping to pick up a few pointers. But it's star runner Wally Pierce (Eddie Nugent) who gets the point when John inadvertently spears him with a javelin. Fleeing for his life from the enraged Wally, John reveals that he's a natural-born sprinter, whereupon the coach (John Harrington) immediately signs him up for the team. Eventually, John realizes that his longtime sweetheart Marjorie Blake (Ruth Hall) is the girl for him, but there's still a race to be won -- and it is, when John accidentally downs a jolt of rubbing alcohol and ends up running around the track backwards! Local Boy Makes Good was directed by Mervyn LeRoy, who never ceased to be amazed by Joe E. Brown's real-life athletic prowess and the actor's willingness to risk serious personal injury for the sake of a good laugh.

Little Orvie (Johnny Sheffield) is a small boy whose stern father (Ernest Truex) and by-the-book mother (Dorothy Tree) refuse to buy a dog. Orvie befriends a stray mutt, which of course follows him home and just won't leave. Failing to keep the dog's presence a secret, Orvie is ordered to give up the canine. Orvie's dad finally weakens his resolve and reveals himself to be a sentimentalist. Based on a story by Booth Tarkington, Little Orvie provided an unusually "normal" assignment for young Johnny Sheffield, best remembered for his appearances as Boy in the Tarzan pictures and his later starring stint in Monogram's "Bomba the Jungle Boy" series.