RKO Radio's first film in the three-color Technicolor process was the standard-issue swashbuckler The Spanish Main. Paul Henried is his usual stoic self as Laurent Van Horn, a Dutch sea captain shipwrecked on the coast of Cartagena, a Spanish-held island. Sentenced to be hanged, Van Horn and his crew escape from jail and take up piracy as revenge against Spain. Soon afterward, they capture a ship carrying Francisca (Maureen O'Hara), the fiance of Cartagena's corrupt governor Don Alvarado (Walter Slezak). Van Horn vengefully forces Francisca to marry him instead, which causes dissension at the Pirate colony of Tortuga. Naturally, Van Horn and Francisca eventually fall in love with each other, but the bad guys must be vanquished before a happy ending can be realized. Binnie Barnes steals the show as feisty female buccaneer Anne Bonney (who in real life looked less like Barnes and more like Walter Slezak!) The script is a cynical melange of pirate-movie cliches and the performances are generally routine, but The Spanish Main pleased the crowd in 1945, posting a profit of nearly $1.5 million and encouraging future Technicolor adventure films from RKO.

In this lively adventure aimed at youthful audiences, a wiseacre fireman soon finds himself in trouble with his fire captain after the smarty pants begins dating the captain's sister. Mayhem ensues, culminating in a fist fight. In the end, the young fireman saves the captain from certain death in a great fire and the two reconcile their differences.

This western offers one of Hollywood's more historically accurate accounts of the Battle of Little Big Horn. The story centers on a major in the cavalry who believes the Indians have the same rights as other Americans. Despite his efforts to stop Custer from embarking on his ill-fated mission, the general carries on. Later the major is court-marshaled for being a traitor and ends up sentenced to die. Fortunately, Sitting Bull sends a petition to the President and pleads for the good major's pardon.

Snake River Desperadoes affords Charles Starrett another opportunity to don the mask of the do-gooding Durango Kid. In this one, Steve Reynolds (Starrett) runs up against criminal mastermind Jim Haverly (Monte Blue), who for financial reasons hopes to foment a war between the Apaches and the settlers. Haverly's white henchmen disguise themselves as Indians and commit all sorts of brutalities -- at least until Reynolds, aka Durango, enters the scene. Don Kay Reynolds, who as "Little Brown Jug" previously played Little Beaver in the Red Ryder series, is well cast as an Apache youth who forms a strong friendship with white counterpart Tommy Ivo. One of the baddies is played by Duke York, whom Three Stooges fans will remember for his many portrayals of werewolves, vampires and "Frankensteins" in the Stooges' 2-reelers.

The unlikely duo of Steve McQueen and Jackie Gleason star in this military comedy-drama. Gleason is Master Sergeant Max Slaughter, a corpulent man perfectly content with his solitary life in the Army, where his room and board are paid for and free sodas are his for the taking. His comrade, the more ambitious Sergeant Eustis Clay (McQueen), looks forward to leaving the service and making a big success of himself in business. Nevertheless, Eustis worships the ground that the kindly Max walks on and introduces him to a pretty teenager, Bobby Jo Pepperdine (Tuesday Weld). This sets off the ire of Bobby Jo's would-be suitor Sergeant Fred Lenahan (Lew Gallo), a tough military policeman who's already got a bone to pick with Eustis, leading to a tragic turn of events for Eustis and Max. The script for Soldier in the Rain (1963) was co-written by Blake Edwards.

This John Nesbitt Passing Parade documentary short includes a look at how the weather bureau tries to warn farmers and businessmen about approaching large storms. Although some precautions can be taken to lessen their impact, storms have to run their course, and there is really not much we can do about them.

A 1950's drama about an insidious Cold War plot, The Whip Hand pits a sleepy Minnesota town in the center of a Communist conspiracy. Matt Corbin, a magazine writer, is just looking for a peacefull spell of respite before realizing that the town he is s taying in has been taken over by a group of former Nazis, who are now members of the Communist party, and are cultivating disease to unleash onto the unsuspecting American public. With the help of a local acquaintance (Carla Balenda), Corbin looks to save the United State from a widespread epidemic before it's too late.

Written by Dudley Nichols and directed by French expatriate director Jean Renoir, This Land is Mine is one of those "inspirational" wartime dramas that just don't hold up too well when seen today. The scene is an unnamed European country, recently overrun by the Nazis (this takes place during a "silent" opening sequence that's the best thing in the film). Charles Laughton plays Albert Lory, a mama's-boy schoolmaster who is the object of his students' ridicule. A craven coward, Lory is held responsible when resistance fighter Paul Martin (Kent Smith), the brother of beauteous teacher Louise Martin (Maureen O'Hara), is executed by the Nazis, though in fact it was Lory's panic-stricken mother (Una O'Connor) who betrayed Paul by informing on him to his friend and collaborator George Lambert (George Sanders).

Reminiscent of Destry Rides Again, this feature is about peaceable young lawyer Tom Brewster (Will Rogers Jr.), who sets up shop in a rowdy western town. Though perfectly able to wield a six-gun, Brewster refuses to use brawn when brain will do. He is galvanized into action when his old pal Wallace Ford is murdered by the villains. Brewster cleans up the town and wins the heroine (Nancy Olsen) in the bargain. One of two Will Rogers Jr. vehicles produced at Warner Bros. (the other was the life story of Rogers' famous father), The Boy From Oklahoma served as the basis for Warners' later TV series, Sugarfoot. Watch for a supporting appearance by a young and callow Merv Griffin!

The definitive Humphrey Bogart/Lauren Bacall vehicle, The Big Sleep casts Bogart as Raymond Chandler's cynical private eye Philip Marlowe. Summoned to the home of the fabulously wealthy General Sternwood (Charles Waldron), Marlowe is hired to deal with a blackmailer shaking down the General's sensuous, thumb-sucking daughter Carmen (Martha Vickers). This earns Marlowe the displeasure of Carmen's sloe-eyed, seemingly straight-laced older sister Vivian (Bacall), who is fiercely protective of her somewhat addled sibling. As he pursues the case at hand, Marlowe gets mixed up in the murder of Arthur Geiger (Theodore von Eltz), a dealer in pornography. He also runs afoul of gambling-house proprietor Eddie Mars (John Ridgely), who seems to have some sort of hold over the enigmatic Vivian. Any further attempts to outline the plot would be futile: the storyline becomes so complicated and convoluted that even screenwriters William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, and Jules Furthmann were forced to consult Raymond Chandler for advice (he was as confused by the plot as the screenwriters). When originally prepared for release in 1945, The Big Sleep featured a long exposition scene featuring police detective Bernie Ohls (Regis Toomey) explaining the more obscure plot details. This expository scene was ultimately sacrificed, along with several others, in favor of building up Bacall's part; for instance, a climactic sequence was reshot to emphasize sexual electricity between Bogart and Bacall, obliging Warners to replace a supporting player who'd gone on to another project. The end result was one of the most famously baffling film noirs but also one of the most successful in sheer star power.

"The Big Cube" of the title is slang for a sugar cube dipped in LSD, which is omnipresent throughout the movie. Adriana Roman (Lana Turner) is a famous actress who is retiring from the stage to marry wealthy Charles Winthrop (Dan O'Herlihy), a situation that displeases Winthrop's daughter Lisa. While hanging out at a nightclub called "Le Trip,"Lisa is shown the bizarre effects that LSD-laced sugar cubes can have when added to a drink. She also meets Johnny Allen, a drug dealer who, once he learns that Lisa comes from money, is anxious to marry her. While Adriana and Winthrop are away, Lisa and Johnny hold a wild drug and sex party at her home. When her father walks in on it, he forbids Lisa's marriage. Soon thereafter, Winthrop drowns at sea, but Adriana follows his orders that Lisa will be disinherited if she marries Johnny. The two plot their revenge by lacing Adriana's sleeping pills with LSD, to the point that she goes mad and is committed to an asylum. Lisa and Johnny marry, but when Johnny takes Lisa's best friend to bed, Lisa regrets her actions. She tells Frederick Lansdale, a playwright friend of her stepmother's, what she has done. He has the notion of writing a play based on Adriana's experiences, and convincing Adriana to play the lead role. Amazingly, going through this experience cures Adriana – just as Lansdale hoped it would.

A troubled young girl vents her frustrations upon her poor butler in this sentimental drama. The teen is angry because her parents ignore her. Fortunately a kindly teacher is there to help her learn more productive ways of coping.

This movie is an early horror film classic and certainly one that a well-rounded horror movie aficionado should not miss. An invalid concert pianist dies, leaving a will that does not include his personal secretary Hilary Cummins (Peter Lorre) as a beneficiary. Furious, the left-out yes-man cuts off a hand from the corpse and plots revenge. Unfortunately for Hilary, the hand inherits a life of its own and relentlessly stalks the wild-eyed Lorre as he flees in vain. Special effects keep the audience jumping as they dread the next appearance of this gruesome walking hand. The film is directed by Robert Florey, who also directed Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932).

White Christmas, Paramount's belated follow-up to the 1942 hit Holiday Inn, was the studio's first VistaVision production. A veritable warehouse full of oldie-but-goodie Irving Berlin tunes are woven into the film's simplistic plotline, along with a handful of new songs, of which "What Can You Do With a General?" is the least memorable. Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye (replacing an ailing Donald O'Connor) play nightclub entertainers Bob Wallace and Phil Davis, while Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen are cast as singing-sister act Betty and Judy. The foursome travel to Vermont to visit Bob and Phil's WII commanding officer, General Waverly (Dean Jagger, who looks and sounds like Dwight D. Eisenhower!), who now runs a rustic old inn. Discovering that the general is in dire financial straits, the four entertainers secretly make plans to bail the old guy out with a big musical show, enlisting the aid of Bob and Phil's army buddies. Corny in the extreme, White Christmas evidently struck a responsive note with film fans; it was the high-grossing picture of 1954, and a decade later proved to be a ratings bonanza when it was given its network-TV premiere. Of the four stars, Crosby comes off best, especially when singing the title song at the beginning and end of the film; Kaye is a bit overshadowed this time out, though he's quite funny camping it up in a "drag" version of Irving Berlin's "Sisters." Still a big favorite on the home-video circuit, White Christmas may not be the best Bing Crosby musical on the market, but it's certainly one of the most heartwarming.

Edmund Goulding directed this remake of his own 1929 The Trespasser, which starred Gloria Swanson. Here Bette Davis assumes the lead role of Mary Donnell, a young innocent married to a bootlegger. When her husband is killed, she decides to pursue a better life and gets a job as a secretary to attorney Lloyd Rogers (Ian Hunter). Lloyd falls in love with Mary but stoically keeps his feelings hidden from her. One of Lloyd's clients is the millionaire Merrick (Donald Crisp), whose playboy son Jack (Henry Fonda) falls in love with Mary. The two elope and take off on their honeymoon, but Merrick, who feels that Mary is not good enough for Jack, asks that the marriage be annulled. Jack reluctantly agrees and Mary goes back to her old job with Lloyd. But Mary finds that she is pregnant and has a baby boy. She swears Lloyd to secrecy concerning her child and Lloyd agrees. Meanwhile, Jack marries a woman of his own class, Flip (Anita Louise), but she is fatally injured in an automobile accident. Lloyd also falls ill and dies at Mary's feet --but not before confessing his love for Mary. When his will is read, it reveals that he has left Mary and her child a vast fortune. Lloyd's wife (Katherine Alexander) believes the baby boy is Lloyd's illegitimate child, and she tries to overturn the terms of the will. Jack hears about Mary's child, and she confesses that the child is actually his. Merrick then tries to have the baby taken away from Mary, contending that she is unfit to raise the baby. Unable to withstand Merrick's legal hammering, Mary offers the child to Jack and Flip. Mary, distraught after abandoning her baby, leaves on a European trip. While she is gone, Flip dies and Jack leaves for Europe to try to find her.

Apparently as a reward for his excellent performance in the 1954 western Drum Beat, Charles Bronson was given a leading role in this Warner Bros. programmer. The action takes place during the Korean War: a melting-pot unit of American soldiers, together with three British troopers, find themselves trapped behind enemy lines. Making their way to a hilltop that is under United Nations control, these squabbling stragglers discover that the defending soldiers have been wiped out by the Enemy. Ordered to hold the hill under reinforcements arrive, the soldiers, under the command of Lt. Flagler (Richard Conte) and Sgt. Gaspari (Charles Bronson), endeavor to do their duty without getting picked off themselves. As tension mounts, the Americans and the Brits get on each other's nerves, but it's "all for one, one for all" when it really counts. Future TV producer Aaron Spelling shows up in a bit part.

Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney were teamed for the only time in their careers in Smart Money. Robinson has the larger part as a small-town barber who fancies himself a big-time gambler. He travels to the Big City in the company of his younger brother Cagney, who wants to make sure that Robinson isn't fleeced by the high-rollers. Unfortunately Robinson has a weakness for beautiful blondes, most of whom take him for all his money or betray him in some other manner. The cops aren't keen on Robinson's gambling activities, but they can pin nothing on him until he accidentally kills Cagney in a fight. The incident results in a jail term for manslaughter, and a more sober-sided outlook on life for the formerly flamboyant Robinson. Watch closely in the first reel of Smart Money for an unbilled appearance by Boris Karloff as a dope pusher.

Joe E. Brown had a fondness for playing milquetoast characters forced into situations calling for acute athletic prowess, mainly because he was an excellent athlete himself. In Sit Tight, our hero, a would-be wrestler named JoJo, is forced to enter the ring and face down a musclebound masked opponent (Frank S. Hagney). Making matters worse, the masked marauder is convinced that his wife has been fooling around with JoJo. To pad out the storyline, JoJo is knocked out early in the proceedings, whereupon he dreams he's a sultan surrounded by harem girls. Contractually, Winnie Lightner was afforded top billing, and there's a sappy attempt at a romantic subplot involving Paul Gregory and Claudia Dell, but Sit Tight is Joe E. Brown's picture all the way.

In this melodrama, a loyal research psychologist escapes from Budapest after the nature of his work is discovered. He resettles in Scotland and soon resumes his work. His benefactors provide him a female assistant, and at first the stubborn scientist is not pleased. Eventually the two fall in love. Not long after the research is finished, they marry and for a time the two are happy. But then a terrible fire erupts and the assistant/wife dies trying to protect the researcher's valuable notes. The distraught doctor dedicates the rest of his work to her memory and then heads to China to work as a medical missionary.

This odd combination of roughneck comedy and serious domestic drama was adapted by Louise Randall Pierson from her own autobiographical novel. Rosalind Russell is cast as young Louise Randall, the headstrong daughter of a New England merchant. Inheriting her father's business, Louise intends to persevere in a "man's world," and to that ends takes business courses at Yale. Here she meets and marries banker's son Rodney Crane (Donald Woods), with whom she has four children. When wishy-washy Rodney runs off with another woman, Louise marries a second time to irresponsible but likable gambler Harold Pierson (Jack Carson) -- and gets pregnant again. Though Louise and Harold are as different as night and day, theirs is a lasting union, which remains solid despite whatever misfortunes come their way. The story ends at the outbreak of WW II, with Louise and Rodney bidding a tearful but hopeful goodbye to their three grown sons as the boys prepare to enter military service.

Rocky Mountain was planned as a big budget western, but Warner Bros. pared down both its budget and its length to "programmer" dimensions. Errol Flynn plays a Confederate officer trying to recruit troops in California. Unfortunately the only folks interested in the Southern cause are bandits and drifters, so Flynn has to watch his back. The fiancee (Patrice Wymore) of a Union Army officer (Scott Forbes) is rescued from an Indian attack by Flynn's men, but they are reluctant to release her lest she tip off their whereabouts. A Yankee patrol headed by the girl's fiance is captured by Flynn, but he eventually allows the Yanks and the girl safe passage in order to save them from an Indian massacre. Rocky Mountain was no great advance in cinematic art, but it did serve to introduce Errol Flynn to Patrice Wymore, who became his third (and last) wife.

Fred Stone stars as the mayor of a small town, threatened by "progressive" politicians who plan to radically change the administration after the next election. Stone is vaguely aware that his opponents are crooks, and that they hope to loot the city treasury. To avoid this contingency, Stone bends the law a bit himself, "fixing" the ballots. On the brink of going to jail for vote fraud, Stone exposes the true crooks. Quick Money should not be confused with a like-vintage 20th Century Fox "B" comedy, Quick Millions

Marlene Dietrich became an immediate international star on the strength of her performance as the temptress Lola Frohlich in Josef von Sternberg's classic tale of love and obsession. Professor Immanuel Rath (Emil Jannings) is a strict and humorless schoolmaster who is shocked when he discovers the boys in his class have been spending their time at a sleazy cabaret called The Blue Angel, where an entertainer named Lola (Dietrich) keeps the men in thrall and sells suggestive postcards of herself. Rath goes to the club in hopes of catching his students and giving them a severe dressing-down, but he instead finds himself entranced by the carefree atmosphere of the club, and is struck by Lola's earthy, sensual beauty. Rath finds himself strongly attracted to Lola, and she later entertains him in her dressing room. When word of Rath's infatuation with Lola spreads to his students, he is taunted mercilessly, and eventually Rath is dismissed from the school. While Lola agrees to marry Rath, she shows little affection for him and delights in humiliating him, making him her servant and forcing him to play a clown in her stage show. The Blue Angel was shot in both German and English language versions; the German is preferable, as most of the cast were obviously more expert in that tongue. Dietrich introduced her theme song, "Falling In Love Again", in this picture.

Laid up with a broken leg, photojournalist L.B. Jeffries (James Stewart) is confined to his tiny, sweltering courtyard apartment. To pass the time between visits from his nurse (Thelma Ritter) and his fashion model girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly), the binocular-wielding Jeffries stares through the rear window of his apartment at the goings-on in the other apartments around his courtyard. As he watches his neighbors, he assigns them such roles and character names as "Miss Torso" (Georgine Darcy), a professional dancer with a healthy social life or "Miss Lonelyhearts" (Judith Evelyn), a middle-aged woman who entertains nonexistent gentlemen callers. Of particular interest is seemingly mild-mannered travelling salesman Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr), who is saddled with a nagging, invalid wife. One afternoon, Thorwald pulls down his window shade, and his wife's incessant bray comes to a sudden halt. Out of boredom, Jeffries casually concocts a scenario in which Thorwald has murdered his wife and disposed of the body in gruesome fashion. Trouble is, Jeffries' musings just might happen to be the truth. One of Alfred Hitchcock's very best efforts, Rear Window is a crackling suspense film that also ranks with Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (1960) as one of the movies' most trenchant dissections of voyeurism. As in most Hitchcock films, the protagonist is a seemingly ordinary man who gets himself in trouble for his secret desires.

Coincidentally, Warner Bros. contractee Jane Wyman made her starring debut in the same year as her husband-to-be Ronald Reagan. In Public Wedding, Wyman plays Flip Lane, one of five young and healthy carnival workers. Broke and jobless, the five "carnies" concoct a publicity stunt to get work: a phony wedding, staged in the mouth of a stuffed whale. Flip is chosen to be the bride, while Tony Burke (William Hopper) is selected as the groom. The fun begins when Flip and Tony, between whom no love is lost, discover that they're really married after all. Without the benefit of foresight, critics in 1937 had no way of knowing that pert little Jane Wyman would one day win an Academy Award, so they lavished their praise on "dumb-blonde" supporting player Marie Wilson (then the wife of Nick Grinde, the film's director).

Warner Bros.' followup to its 3D hit House of Wax, Phantom of the Rue Morgue bears only the slightest resemblance to its alleged inspiration, the Edgar Allan Poe mystery yarn Murders in the Rue Morgue. Karl Malden delivers one of the hammiest performances on record as mad scientist Dr. Marais, who uses a trained gorilla to exact revenge on those who've wronged him. At the top of Marais' hit list are the many beautiful women who've spurned his advances, including such French pastries as Yvonne (Allyn McLerie), Arlette (Veola Vonn) and Camille (Dolores Dorn). Each of these unfortunate ladies have been given bracelets decorated with bells, designed to attract the homicidal ape's attention. Psychology professor Paul Dupin (Steve Forrest) conducts a private investigation of the killings, only to be arrested for the murders himself by the supremely confident (and rather dense) Inspector Bonnard (Claude Dauphin). This leaves Dupin's sweetheart Jeanette (Patricia Medina) virtually defenseless when she is targetted for extermination by Doc Marais. Outside of such incidental pleasures as seeing Merv Griffin play a French medical student, Phantom of the Rue Morgue offers a vast array of unsubtle 3D "shock" effects, which come off as hilarious when the film is shown "flat" (as it always is these days).

Pete Kelly's Blues is arguably the most stylish of director/star Jack Webb's theatrical features. Beginning with a brilliantly evocative pre-credits prologue, wherein we see how WWI vet Pete Kelly (Webb) came into possession of his precious trumpet, the film traces Kelly to his 1927 gig at a Kansas City speakeasy. Most of the film concerns Kelly's efforts to keep his "Big Seven" aggregation together, his off-and-on romance with socialite Ivy Conrad (Janet Leigh), and his frequent confrontations with mob boss Fran McCarg (Edmond O'Brien). The Richard L. Breen screenplay is full of the deliciously hyperbolic allusions, similes, and metaphors that characterized Webb's radio version of Pete Kelly's Blues, while the musical score is graced by the jazz artistry of such greats as Ella Fitzgerald and Teddy Buckner. Peggy Lee, cast as a mob mistress who is rendered an imbecile after falling down a flight of stars, deservedly earned an Academy Award nomination for her performance. Likewise superb is Andy Devine, cast against type as a corrupt, brutal Kansas City detective, and Lee Marvin as Kelly's best pal. Disney art director Harper Goff, who'd been performing miracles on Webb's TV series Dragnet, brilliantly sustains the smoky zeitgeist of the Prohibition era. Pete Kelly's Blues was later spun off into a TV series starring William Reynolds as Kelly.