In his autobiography, Pat O'Brien described his character in The Personality Kid as a "Cassius Clay" type (this of course, was before Clay metamorphosed into Muhammad Ali). Indeed, arrogant prizefighter Ritzy (Pat O'Brien) is quite a piece of work, wearing a derby hat in the ring and dancing an Irish jig whenever he scores a knockout. Once he's risen to the top of his profession, Ritzy becomes even more insufferable, forsaking his faithful manager-wife Joan (Glenda Farrell) in favor of society artist Patricia (Claire Dodd). Ultimately he discovers that he'd be nowhere without Joan, who's been arranging "bum a month" boxing matches to guide him towards the championship. Only when he's hit the skids, however, does Ritzy return to Joan -- just in time to learn of another surprise in store for him, courtesy of "Mr. Stork."

A murder is witnessed by the victim's little daughter (Gigi Perreau), who immediately goes into a state of shock. All the girl has seen is the shadow of her mother's killer, but the audience knows that the murderer is Ann Sothern. At first Sothern is secure that the girl will never be able to identify her, but as the child shows signs of recovering, Sothern panics. Though the murder was unintentional and the killer is quite fond of the little girl, she nonetheless begins scheming to put the potential witness out of the way. Quite tense at times, especially in the last scene, Shadow on the Wall represents one of the few unsympathetic performances by the otherwise likable Ann Sothern.

One of the most well respected of the cinema verite documentaries of the 1960's, this non-fiction film follows a group of real-life Bible salesmen for the Mid-American Bible Company as they ply their wares. The central figure in the film is Irish-American Paul Brennan, a 56-year-old of great wit who traipses door to door in an effort to sell the good book to Catholic housewives who really can't afford to buy but don't want to appear rude to a Church-sanctioned representative. The documentary, a collaboration by the Maysles brothers, also follows Brennan as he shares war stories with fellow Bible peddlers and attends management and sales meetings. The Maysles' next film was their classic documentary of the Rolling Stones fateful 1969 tour, Gimme Shelter (1970).

This sentimental story finds Father Dan (Don Beddoe) as a kindly priest in a lawless town. He reforms a colorful cast of crooks, convincing them their thieving ways will keep them from enjoying the fruits of heavenly paradise.

Sabotage Agent stars Robert Donat as a Rumanian-born British spy, dispatched to Czechoslovakia during World War II. Posing as an ineffectual milquetoast, Donat is hired as a chemist in a Nazi-controlled poison gas factory. Working in concert with the Underground, our hero spends his off-hours dismantling the Nazi operation. Then he has to figure a way to get out of Czechoslovakia as adroitly as he got in. Adventures of Tartu was filmed at MGM's British studios (it was Metro's first British production in two years), with an American director but with a full cadre of English acting talent: Donat, Valerie Hobson, Glynis Johns, etc. The Teutonic villain is played by Walter Rilla, whose son Wolf Rilla later became a prominent British director.

Featuring footage from two real forest fires seamlessly edited into the story's nail-biting climax, this thrilling crime drama chronicles the redemption of three young punks who are captured by a local sheriff while robbing an Oregon gas station. Unfortunately, during the arrest, the propitious lawman neglects to check the female crook for weapons and she whips out a gun. The three delinquents then take him hostage. They then head for the forest to spend the night. The female tries unsuccessfully to seduce the cop. The next morning one of the guys wants to kill him, but instead dies himself. Meanwhile a search and rescue team looks for the missing sheriff. They crooks are captured and the young boy claims that the cop raped the young girl. A heated argument ensues. The fire begins when the young boy throws a lit cigarette upon the ground. As a result of his thoughtlessness, a town is endangered and must somehow be evacuated before a terrible disaster ensues.

African-American students who have accepted Rhodes scholarships may feel like wincing at Rhodes, an unabashed celebration of British imperialism. Walter Huston portrays Cecil Rhodes, the 19th century explorer who dreamed of "taming" the rugged African terrain. Establishing the colony of Rhodesia, the film's "hero" opens up the rest of the continent for the benefit of Mother England and its industrial elite. Increasing friction between Rhodes and Dutch prime minister Kruger (Oscar Homolka) results in the Boer War, treated herein as a noble British victory. (Three years later, Kruger would be the hero of the Nazi-sanctioned Ohm Kruger, which was twice as tastelessly chauvinistic as Rhodes.) Undeniably stirring and impressive, Rhodes nonetheless treats the subjugation of Africa as something pure and wonderful.

This creepy, atmospheric horror film from England's Amicus Productions dispenses with much of the tongue-in-cheek presentation of their popular '70s horror anthologies (such as Asylum and Dr. Terror's House of Horrors) in favor of a more adult-oriented approach. The story begins in the 18th century, as a young stable hand tries to prevent nobleman Fengriffen (Herbert Lom) from raping a young servant girl -- who happens to be the stable hand's wife -- and for this transgression has his hand lopped off. Flash forward to the present, where Fengriffen's ancestor (Ian Ogilvy) and his wife (Stephanie Beacham), now living on the ancestral estate, are haunted by the servant's vengeful spirit, as well as the severed hand itself, which roams the gloomy corridors of the mansion.

This dreary story of the latent desires of the sexually repressed and psychologically tormented is taken from the 1944 novel by Carson McCullers. Major Penderton (Marlon Brando) is a hard-driving Army officer married to Leonora (Elizabeth Taylor). The impotent Penderton hides his latent homosexuality under his strict military discipline, while Leonora is having an affair with Lt. Colonel Langdon (Brian Keith), who is married to the troubled Allison (Julie Harris), who slices off her own nipples after a disappointing pregnancy. Private Williams (Robert Forster) is a young recruit who likes to ride naked on horseback. The Major is driven to insane jealousy when he discovers Williams would rather be with Leonora than with him. The idea is good, but the story plays like a sort of discarded (Tennessee Williams) play.

A novelist-turned-private detective (Hiroshi Abe) tries to get back on the good graces of his ex-wife (Yoko Maki) and their 12-year-old son (Taiyo Yoshizawa), even though his gambling addiction keeps undermining his attempts to pay child support. Later, the three of them are forced to confront their issues when they take shelter at his mother's home during a typhoon. Written and directed by Hirokazu Koreeda (Still Walking, After Life).

An admirably tough B-picture enlivened by an energetic James Cagney performance, Picture Snatcher stars Cagney as Danny Kean, a former gangster who has decided to go straight after a stretch in the big house. Danny has fallen for Patricia (Patricia Ellis), the daughter of the cop who put him away (Robert Emmett O'Connor). Dad isn't convinced that Danny has left his life of crime behind him, and he isn't too impressed with his new career taking pictures for a sleazy tabloid newspaper. Between getting a lurid photo of a fireman in front of a burning building (where his wife and her lover met their fate) and a daring shot of a woman being executed (based an actual incident when a New York Daily News photographer got a photo of Ruth Snyder in the electric chair), Danny's work is selling papers but hardly making Officer O'Connor think his daughter is in good hands (especially since he was in charge of press security for the execution). Short, sweet and sassy, Picture Snatcher is the sort of gutsy fare Warner Bros. did best in the 1930's; Ralph Bellamy turns in a great supporting performance as Danny's boozy editor.

The Match King was inspired by the checkered career of entrepreneur Ivar Krueger. Warren William plays a Krueger-like businessman who takes over a bankrupt Swedish match factory, then lies his way into getting corporate backing for the operation. With little regard for ethics, William purchases all existing match patents, ultimately monopolizing the industry. Ruining lives and breaking laws all over Europe, William is himself emotionally devastated when betrayed by a glamorous actress (Lily Damita). Shortly afterward, William's business empire crumbles during the worldwide Depression, and the onetime Match King commits suicide.

Orson Welles' followup to Citizen Kane (1941) was utterly different from Kane in style and texture, but just as brilliant in its own way. Writer/director Welles does not appear on camera, but his voiceover narration superbly sets the stage for the movie's action, which fades in valentine fashion on Amberson Mansion, the most ostentatious dwelling in all of turn-of-century Indianapolis. Its mistress is the haughtily beautiful Isabel Amberson (Dolores Costello). When Isabel's beau, erstwhile inventor Eugene Morgan (Joseph Cotten), inadvertently humiliates her in public, she breaks off the relationship and marries colorless Wilbur Minafer (Donald Dillaway). The neighbors are certain that, since Isabel can't possibly love Wilbur, she will spoil her children rotten. As it turns out, she has one child, George Minafer (Tim Holt), and that one is enough as far as the rest of Indianapolis is concerned. There are those who live for the day that the arrogant, insufferable George will get his comeuppance. When George returns home from college, his mother and grandfather (Richard Bennett) hold a gala reception in his honor. Among the guests is the older-and-wiser Eugene, now a prosperous automobile manufacturer, and his pretty daughter Lucy (Anne Baxter). George takes to Lucy immediately, but can't warm up to Eugene, especially after learning from his uncle Jack Amberson (Ray Collins) and his maiden aunt Fanny (Agnes Moorehead) that Eugene and Isabel had once been sweethearts. After the death of Wilbur Minafer, the widowed Eugene feels emboldened enough to propose to Isabel again. This time she is willing, but the obstreperous George refuses to allow his mother to see Eugene. His imperious bullheadedness will lead to tragedy for all concerned--and, at long last, a chastened George Minafer will indeed receive his comeuppance. The film's real villain is not George but that old intangible bugaboo called "Progress." As the automobile age comes to fruition, the elegant, cloistered lifestyle of the Ambersons fades from view, finally disappearing altogether. This is superbly foreshadowed in the "winter outing" sequence (filmed in an L.A. icehouse) in which George's two-horse sleigh is abandoned in favor of Eugene's clunky horseless carriage. Welles evokes performances that his actors seldom (if ever) matched in later years; even the very limited Tim Holt is wholly believable-and even a bit pitiable-as the blinkered George Amberson Minafer. The current version, however, is but a pale shadow of Welles' original concept. Out of time and overbudget, the movie previewed badly and was eventually sliced down to an abrupt 88 minutes (by, among others, editor Robert Wise, who would go on to direct such films as West Side Story and The Sound of Music). Even though the film therefore must be regarded as a marred masterpiece, the remaining two-thirds of Welles' original concept is still a thrilling cinematic experience, especially whenever Agnes Moorehead is on the screen.

George Arliss is a world-renowned pianist, engaged to a young woman (Bette Davis) much younger than himself. An explosion renders Arliss completely deaf, but he soon becomes an expert lip-reader. To practice this skill, he looks out his window through binoculars, reading the lips of those who pass through the public park below. He learns that many people have problems far worse than his own, so he secretly arranges to solve the financial and emotional crises of those whose words he has read. Arliss' talent backfires on him when he spots his fiancee in the park with another man; she reveals that she does not love Arliss, but is staying with him out of loyalty. Though broken-hearted, Arliss expansively allows his fiancee to marry the man she truly loves, and even arranges for their future security. The Man Who Played God was based on a stage play also starring George Arliss, which he'd previously filmed in 1922. It was remade in 1955 as Sincerely Yours, starring the inimitable Liberace!

Carrie is based on Sister Carrie, a novel by Theodore Dreiser. Dreiser's clumsy, unwieldy prose is streamlined into a neat and precise screenplay by Ruth and Augustus Goetz. Jennifer Jones stars as Carrie, who leaves her go-nowhere small town for the wicked metropolis of Chicago. Here she becomes the mistress of brash traveling salesman Charles Drouet (Eddie Albert), then throws him over in favor of erudite restaurant manager George Hurstwood (Laurence Olivier). Obsessed by Carrie, George steals money from his boss to support her in the manner to which he thinks she is accustomed. Left broke and disgraced by the ensuing scandal, Carrie deserts George to become an actress. Years later, the conscience-stricken Carrie tries to regenerate George, who has fallen into bum-hood. If Laurence Olivier seems a surprising casting choice in Carrie, try to imagine what the film would have been like had Cary Grant, Paramount's first choice, accepted the role.

In 1949, Paramount put together a film version of the radio series My Friend Irma. It was assumed that the main attraction would be scatter-brained Irma, delightfully played by Marie Wilson. Instead, the picture was stolen by a couple of young upstarts named Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Accordingly, My Friend Irma Goes West concentrates almost exclusively on Martin and Lewis, with poor Marie Wilson virtually consigned to a supporting role in her own picture. The story begins when Irma and her friends head westward on the incorrect assumption that Steve Laird (Dean Martin) has landed a movie contract. During the train trip to California, Steve's goonish pal Seymour (Jerry Lewis) is entrusted with a pet monkey, owned by movie star Yvonne Yvonne (Corinne Calvet). There's a contretemps with gangsters and a kidnapping before a happy ending can be realized. Some critics found Jerry Lewis' moronic mugging to be tasteless; others were too busy laughing to be upset. Having proven their mettle with the two My Friend Irma flicks, Martin and Lewis were awarded with their own vehicle, At War With the Army.

Like their previous docudrama Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life, Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack's Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness can be seen in retrospect as a dry run for the same production team's King Kong. With the actual Siamese jungle as their backdrop, Cooper and Schoedsack fashioned a narrative concerning a simple native family's struggle to survive in a daunting environment. The family's confrontations with rampaging animals very closely resemble the close calls endured by Fay Wray, Bruce Cabot and Robert Armstrong when meeting up with Kong and his prehistoric compadres. The film's climax is an elephant stampede which levels an entire village. Only the closest scrutiny reveals the artificial means by which the producers achieved this climax: they built a miniature village, then unleashed a herd of baby elephants!

One of George Arliss' "smaller" vehicles, The King's Vacation casts the eminent British stage star (always billed as "Mr. George Arliss") as an abdicating monarch. Seeking the simple life, he comes to America in search of the wife (Marjorie Gateson) he'd been forced to divorce years earlier in order keep his crown. Upon locating her, Arliss discovers that his ex-wife has remarried into wealth, and is now better off than he's ever been. His disillusionment complete, Arliss returns to his queen (Florence Arliss), who has likewise renounced her throne for an austere existence. Only George Arliss could get away with telling us that "poor is better" in a picture made in the middle of the Depression!

This fast-paced Warner Bros. comedy stars James Cagney and Pat O'Brien as brothers who fight over the same girl. Mrs. O'Hara (Mary Gordon) is the loving mother of three sons: fireman Mike (Frank McHugh), policeman Pat (O'Brien), and the boxing promoter Danny (Cagney). Mike wants to marry Lucille Jackson (Olivia deHaviland), the daughter of his boss, Captain Jackson (John Farrell MacDonald). However, Lucille falls for Danny, causing a fued between the two brothers at the Fireman's Ball. Danny believes he can make a fortune when he meets up with boxer Carbarn Hammerschlag (Allen Jenkins), who starts fighting whenever he hears a bell. On the night of his big fight against champion boxer Joe Delancey (Harvey Parry), Carbarn gets a toothache and Mike gives him some gin. He ends up getting drunk in the locker room and Danny has to fight Delancey in his place. With the help of his brothers, Danny wins the fight and the girl.

An intrepid amputee must pass a test to prove his devotion to his sweetie in this romantic drama. The hero lost his leg during the crash of a navy dirigible. Later he gets a job with a lumber company. He soon falls for the boss's daughter. Unfortunately, the general manager is also interested in her and so requires that the young man pass the notorious "blue vase test" in hopes of stumping the lovesick lad. The test involves retrieving a sketchily described vase and bringing it to headquarters on the railway. The plucky lad succeeds, marries his gal, and becomes the new general manager to boot.

Adapted by Rod Serling from the best-selling novel by Fletcher Knebel and Charles Waldo Bailey II, Seven Days in May was allegedly inspired by the far-right ramblings of one General Edwin Walker. Burt Lancaster plays General James M. Scott, who, convinced that liberal President Jordan Lyman (Fredric March) is soft on America's enemies, plots a military takeover of the United States. Every effort made by President Lyman to find concrete evidence of General Scott's scheme is scuttled by political protocol, human error and accidental death. Ultimately, Lyman must rely upon the man who first uncovered the plot: Colonel "Jiggs" Casey (Kirk Douglas). John Frankenheimer's terse direction and Ellsworth Fredericks' stark black and white photography enhance the "docudrama" feel of Seven Days in May.

Footloose Heiress is a vehicle of sorts for Ann Sheridan, no longer a starlet but not quite a star in 1937. Sheridan is cast as wealthy Kay Allyn, the spoiled daughter of eccentric advertising executive John C. Allyn (Hugh O'Connell). Befriending hobo Butch Baeder (Craig Reynolds), Allyn gives him a job, hoping that this down-to-earth chap will be able to tame the headstrong Kay. Not only does Butch succeed in bridling the heroine, but he also turns out to be a millionaire himself, making him ideal husband material. A few broad swipes at radio advertising aside, Footloose Heiress is as predictable as sunrise and sunset.

Basil Rathbone unexpectedly plays the romantic lead in The Flirting Widow. Dorothy Mackaill stars as a wealthy young lady whose father has forbidden her younger sister (Leila Hyams) to marry before Dorothy does. To help sis out, Dorothy "invents" a husband, whom she claims is a British colonel stationed in Arabia. Dorothy discovers that the man she's designated as her imaginary hubby actually exists, in the form of the nonplused Mr. Rathbone. The dilemma: Dorothy has claimed that Rathbone is deceased, a report that is greatly exaggerated. Based on the story Green Stockings by A.E.W. Mason, Flirting Widow was the remake of a silent feature titled Slightly Used (27).

A navy jet piloted by Captain Dale Heath (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) and carrying an enlisted man (Troy Donahue) has already taken off when Heath realizes that both his radio and his navigation equipment have malfunctioned. They might be on the right course, but he can't tell if they're at the right altitude -- 500 feet too high or too low would put him in the path of a plane headed in the opposite direction -- and he can't get through to ground control to get a fix. Heath is quietly terrified at the prospect of what may happen, not just for the obvious reason but also because he's experienced this situation once before and saved himself at the cost of the other plane and its crew. Meanwhile, flying in the opposite direction on the same course is a DC-7 commercial airliner flown by Dick Barnett (Dana Andrews), a veteran pilot, and carrying a full load of passengers, each with their own worries. Much of the first 85 minutes of this thriller is devoted to the passengers and crew of the airliner struggling with their personal problems, told in extensive flashbacks. Both Barnett and Heath have their personal trials, the latter including an unhappy marriage to a faithless wife (Rhonda Fleming); Barnett's troubles are more complicated, and concern long-time problems with his co-pilot, Mike Rule (John Kerr), whose own personal conflicts involve his artist father, his own conflicting love of flying and art, and his relationship with head stewardess Anne Francis (who never looked better than she does in this movie). The extensive flashbacks will push the patience of modern audiences almost to the breaking point, but they do pay off -- and except for the archaic late 1950s slang (which, ironically, was intended to make the movie seem up-to-date) that litters the dialogue, and a silly subplot involving a Broadway method actor on his way to Hollywood, the material is worth watching, despite the soap-opera-ish elements, as the suspense gets ratcheted up gradually. The movie piles on hints and clues (some of them false) about the impending danger that turn the last 20 minutes or so into a neat cinematic thrill-ride for its time.

Also released as Valley of the Swords, this lugubrious US/Spanish co-production features the usual mid-1960s "tax shelter" international cast. Broderick Crawford plays a despotic 10th century Spanish king who, in cahoots with the invading Moors, has banished handsome Castilian nobleman Spartaco Santoni. With the surreptitious aid of Crawford's daughter Teresa Velasquez, Santoni assembles an army to march against the Moors. In keeping with the 13th century epic poem from which this film was derived ("El Poema de Fernan Gonzales") Santoni's path is smoothed by the celestial intervention of patron saints Milan and Santiago. Among the big names picking up a few tax-free dollars in The Castilian are Cesar Romero, Linda Darnell, Alida Valli and Fernando Rey.

Robert Francis is at the center of the story as Willis Keith, a newly-minted ensign assigned to the destroyer/minesweeper U.S.S. Caine during World War II. Soon after his arrival, the ship gets a new captain, Lt. Comdr. Philip Francis Queeg Humphrey Bogart, a tough, no-nonsense veteran officer who tries to turns the crew into proper sailors and the Caine into a tight ship, engendering resentment from some of the men and several of his officers. A veteran of difficult years of service for too long, Queeg has insecurities about himself, his command, and his career that begin to manifest themselves as spells of temper over small details that cause him to make mistakes. Lt.Keefer (Fred MacMurray), the glib-tongued communications officer, begins making suggestions to the ship's sincere but overburdened first officer, Lt. Steve Maryk (Van Johnson), that Queeg may have mental problems. Maryk initially rejects these suggestions, and tries to support the captain, but conditions deteriorate to the point where Maryk is forced to relieve Queeg of command, and is charged -- along with Keith, who supported him -- with mutiny. Enter Lt. Barney Greenwald (Jose Ferrer), a lawyer in civilian life, who reluctantly agrees to help them, mostly out of sympathy for the impossible predicament in which Maryk has found himself trapped.