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• Director
• Stuart Rosenberg
• Writers
• Tracy Keenan Wynn(screenplay)
• Lorenzo Semple Jr.(screenplay)
• Walter Hill(screenplay)
• Stars
• Paul Newman
• Joanne Woodward
• Anthony Franciosa

Paul Newman returns as private detective Lew Harper is this tale of blackmail and murder based on a novel by Ross MacDonald. Iris Devereaux (Joanne Woodward), the wife of a wealthy oilman from Louisiana, hires Harper after she receives a threatening letter. A blackmailer is threatening to tell Iris' husband James (Richard Derr) about a recent extramarital affair; she claims this indiscretion never happened, though she has been unfaithful in the past, and years ago had a brief fling with Harper. Matters become more complicated when Iris' mother-in-law Olivia (Coral Browne) is found murdered. Eventually, Harper traces the blackmail letter to Kilborne (Murray Hamilton), another bayou oil baron, and along the way encounters Schuyler (Melanie Griffith), Iris' young but ripe daughter; Pat Reavis (Andy Robinson), Olivia's former chauffeur and a key suspect in her murder; and Detective Broussard (Tony Franciosa), a police investigator who, like Harper, was once involved with Iris. This was Coral Browne's first film after her marriage to actor Vincent Price in 1974.

• Director
• Willis Goldbeck
• Writers
• Max Brand(based on characters created by)
• Harry Ruskin(original screen play)
• Stars
• Van Johnson
• Lionel Barrymore
• Gloria DeHaven

The oft-used movie title Between Two Women was resurrected once more for this entry in MGM's "Dr. Kildare" series. Though Kildare is nowhere to be found, Lionel Barrymore is very much in evidence as Dr. Leonard Gillespie, crusty chief surgeon of Blair General Hospital. Gillespie's assistant is Dr. Red Adams (Van Johnson), who spends the early part of the film fending off the romantic advances of social worker Ruth Edley (Marilyn Maxwell)-a carryover subplot from the previous "Kildare" entry Three Men in White. Adams is also romantically involved with ailing socialite Cynthia Grace (Lucille Bremer), who suffers from a life-threatening blood clot. As the story draws to a close, Adams must choose between a lucrative practice in the Big City, or a lower-paying but more professionally rewarding post in a small town. Here's a hint to the outcome: in the next (and last) "Kildare" film, Dark Delusion, Gillespie's assistant is played by James Craig.

• Director
• Cliff Owen
• Writers
• Peter O'Donnell(screenplay)
• H. Rider Haggard(based on characters created by)
• Stars
• John Richardson
• Olga Schoberová
• Edward Judd

Killikrates (John Richardson) is the ruler of the city of Kuma, an idyllic civilization seemingly frozen in another time. In a religious ceremony, he waits for his Queen Ayesha (Olinka Berova) to return and be immortalized by a fiery ritual. The High Priest has other ideas and plants a look-alike from provincial France to take her place. The new girl has a boyfriend, a dedicated physician who must rescue his damsel in distress. The doctor battles against the evil machinations of the High Priest to save his true love and help the benevolent ruler keep his crown. Things get out of hand when the fire spreads out of control and Kuma is in danger of being completely engulfed in flames.

• Director
• James Algar
• Writers
• James Algar(screenplay)
• Winston Hibler(screenplay)
• Ted Sears(screenplay)
• Star
• Winston Hibler

The second of Walt Disney's feature-length "True Life Adventures", The Vanishing Prairie concentrates on that portion of the United States bounded by the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River. After a brief tableux of extinct animal species, the film shows us several "endangered" types: The Whooping Crane, the Buffalo, the Prong-horn Antelope, the Big-horn Sheep, the Prairie Dog, etc. While mankind is clearly to blame for much of the "vanishing" alluded to in the title, the film demonstrates how the various species themselves enact a process of natural selection. Incidentally, this was the first Disney film to be (briefly) banned in New York, thanks to a superbly photographed--and utterly harmless--scene of a buffalo giving birth to a calf

• Director
• Mel Brooks
• Writers
• Ilya Ilf(novel "Dvenadtsat stulyev")
• Yevgeni Petrov(novel "Dvenadtsat stulyev")
• Elizabeth Hill(novel translation "Diamonds to Sit On")
• Stars
• Mel Brooks
• Ron Moody
• Frank Langella

One of several film versions of the 1928 Russian novel The Twelve Chairs (one of the better-known adaptations was the 1945 Fred Allen vehicle It's in the Bag), Mel Brooks' movie is set in the years following the Bolshevik revolution. Onetime aristocrat Vorobyaninov (Ron Moody), now reduced to a humdrum clerical job, discovers that his family's fortune still exists. To keep their riches from falling into the hands of the revolutionaries, Vorobyaninov's family hid the loot in one of twelve chairs. Taking a crafty beggar (Frank Langella) into his confidence, Vorobyaninov returns to the ruins of his ancestral mansion to reclaim his fortune. Also chasing after the twelve chairs is an Orthodox priest (Dom DeLuise), who tells himself that he only wants the money to replenish his church. Alas, the chairs have been scattered to the four winds, sparking a film-length race to retrieve the furniture and claim the gold.

• Director
• Jan Troell
• Writers
• Bengt Forslund(screenplay)
• Jan Troell(screenplay)
• Vilhelm Moberg(based on a novel by)
• Stars
• Max von Sydow
• Liv Ullmann
• Eddie Axberg

Director/writer Jan Troell's expansive saga deals with the Larsen family, who during the 19th century famine in Sweden emigrate to the more fertile fields of Minnesota. With painstaking detail, the director follows the Larsens as they make the perilous (and, to some of their fellow immigrants, fatal) journey by foot, steamer, train, and paddle boat. The film, which originally ran 190 minutes but was pared down to 150 by its director for American consumption, earned Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Foreign Language Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Direction, and Best Actress (Liv Ullmann). The Emigrants was followed by a sequel, Nybyggarna ("The New Land"); both films have been edited together for TV release under the title The Emigrant Saga. The subsequent American TV series The New Land (1974) starred Bonnie Bedelia in the role created in The Emigrants by Liv Ullmann, and Scott Thomas in the patriarch role originated by Max von Sydow. In 1991, Sven Nykvist directed a "prequel" to The Emigrants titled The Ox.

• Director
• Sacha Guitry
• Writer
• Sacha Guitry
• Stars
• Sacha Guitry
• Adolphe Borchard
• Marcel Lucien

The Story of a Cheat (Le Roman d'un Tricheur) is widely regarded as one of French writer/director Sacha Guitry's best and most personal films. Guitry himself stars as a charismatic cardsharp who survives solely through the auspices of Lady Luck. The story is told almost completely in pantomime; the only voice heard is the narrator's (Guitry, but of course). Among the film's many highlights is the opening sequence, in which the young Guitry misbehaves and is banned from a family picnic--where his parents and siblings all die from eating toadstools. This segues into a side-splitting "black" gag in which an exhausted priest huffs and puffs as he tries to keep pace with the long line of coffins! It has sometimes been suggested that Sacha Guitry was telling his own life story in Story of a Cheat, equating the ins and outs of the film industry with the chicanery of the cardsharp.

• Director
• Ernst Lubitsch
• Writers
• Samson Raphaelson(screenplay)
• Miklós László(based on a play by)
• Ben Hecht(uncredited)
• Stars
• Margaret Sullavan
• James Stewart
• Frank Morgan

The Shop Around the Corner is adapted from the Hungarian play by Nikolaus (Miklos) Laszlo. Budapest gift-shop clerk Alfred Kralik (James Stewart) and newly hired shopgirl Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) hate each other almost at first sight. Kralik would prefer the company of the woman with whom he is corresponding by mail but has never met. Novak likewise carries a torch for her male pen pal, whom she also has never laid eyes on. It doesn't take a PhD degree to figure out that Kralik and Novak have been writing letters to each other. The film's many subplots are carried by Frank Morgan as the kindhearted shopkeeper and by Joseph Schildkraut as a backstabbing employee whose comeuppance is sure to result in spontaneous applause from the audience. Directed with comic delicacy by Ernst Lubitsch, this was later remade in 1949 as In the Good Old Summertime, and in 1998 as You've Got Mail. It was also musicalized as the 1963 Broadway production She Loves Me.

• Director
• Joseph Anthony
• Writer
• N. Richard Nash(screenplay)
• Stars
• Burt Lancaster
• Katharine Hepburn
• Wendell Corey

N. Richard Nash's play The Rainmaker has always attracted the most flamboyant of performers, and this 1956 film version is no exception. Burt Lancaster all but bursts from the screen with his arm-waving portrayal of a confidence artist who works the drought-ridden Southwest, promising to bring rain for a flat fee of a hundred bucks. During his latest campaign, Lancaster takes up residence in the home of farmer Cameron Prud'homme (repeating his Broadway role) and his three offspring: rambunctious Earl Holliman, suspicious Lloyd Bridges, and ugly-duckling Katharine Hepburn. In a scene which has since become a standard in high school acting classes, Lancaster works his carnival-huckster charm on Hepburn, convincing her that she's the most gorgeous creature on earth. Armed with new self-confidence, Hepburn stops her tomboyish behavior and becomes a delectable object of affection for local suitor Wendell Corey. After performing this "miracle," Lancaster's last-act ability to conjure up a cloudburst seems almost anticlimactic. The probing lens of the movie camera does little to hide the fact that virtually everyone in the film is too old for their roles, but The Rainmaker makes up its shortcomings with sheer unbridled energy.

History of the mob-Hollywood connection.

• Director
• Sacha Guitry
• Writers
• Sacha Guitry(screenplay)
• Christian-Jaque(screenplay)
• Stars
• Jacqueline Delubac
• Sacha Guitry
• Lyn Harding

Originally titled Les Perles de Couronne, this Sacha Guitry historical extravaganza stars both Guitry and his wife Jacqueline Delubac. The plotline hinges on four valuable pearls, which pass from hand to hand over a period of several centuries, from the time of Britain's Henry VIII to the present. All of this is offered in flashback form, as a group of modern-day treasure hunters try to locate three of the missing pearls by tracing them back to their previous owners. Guitry shows up as King Francis I, Barras and Napoleon III, in addition to his contemporary persona of Jean Martin; Debulac is seen as Mary Queen of Scots and Empress Josephine. There isn't a scintilla of historical accuracy in the film, nor did Guitry have the slightest intention of including any; his sole purpose was to entertain the audience and serve up a superbly ironic denoument. The supporting cast is a polyglot of French, English and Italian actors, each speaking in his or her own language. The screenplay for Pearls of the Crown was cowritten by Guitry and another immensely talented filmmaker, Christian-Jaque.

• Director
• George Stevens
• Writers
• Robert Russell(screen play)
• Frank Ross(screen play)
• Richard Flournoy(screen play)
• Stars
• Jean Arthur
• Joel McCrea
• Charles Coburn

To fully appreciate The More the Merrier, it is important to know that, during WW2, there was an acute housing shortage in Washington DC. This is why elderly Benjamin Dingle (Charles Coburn) is obliged to share a tiny DC apartment with pretty Connie Milligan (Jean Arthur) and handsome Joe Carter (Joel McCrea). After nearly two reels of misunderstandings, the trio becomes accustomed to their curious living arrangement. Joe takes a platonic liking to Connie, but she's engaged to stuffy bureaucrat Charles J. Pendergast (Richard Gaines). Sizing up the situation, foxy Benjamin contrives to bring Connie and Joe together, in spite of themselves. Things get dicey when Joe endeavors to complete a top-secret mission for the Air Force, which leads to all sorts of comic complications and misguided remonstrations. Throughout the film, director George Stevens and the four-man screenwriting staff deliberately tweak the noses of the Hays Office, getting by with any number of censorables breach of censorship because he's quoting Admiral "Damn the Torpedoes" Farragut. An Academy Award went to Charles Coburn, while nominations were bestowed upon Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, George Stevens, the screenwriters, and the film itself. The More the Merrier was remade in 1966 as Walk Don't Run, with Cary Grant, Jim Hutton and Samantha Eggar.

Story of the Valachi papers.

• Director
• John Ford
• Writers
• Eugene O'Neill(based on: four Sea Plays by)
• Dudley Nichols(adapted for the screen by)
• Stars
• John Wayne
• Thomas Mitchell
• Ian Hunter

John Ford welded four of Eugene O'Neill's one-act plays about the sea, Bound East for Cardiff, The Long Voyage Home, The Zone, and Moon of the Caribees, into this melancholy film about wayfaring seamen, changing the setting from the turn of the century to WWII. This was O'Neill's favorite of the films based on his work, and he watched it often enough to eventually wear out his print. After a night of revelry in the West Indies, the crew of the SS Glencairn return to the tramp steamer and set sail for Baltimore. They're a varied lot, from middle-aged Irishman Driscoll (Thomas Mitchell), to the young Swedish ex-farmer Ole Olsen (John Wayne), to the brooding Lord Jim-like Englishman Smitty (Ian Hunter). After the ship picks up a load of dynamite in Baltimore, the rough seas they encounter become especially nerve-racking to the crew, who are also concerned that Smitty might be a German spy.

The story of Jimmy Hoffa.

• Director
• Irving Pichel
• Writers
• László Vadnay(screenplay)
• James O'Hanlon(additional dialogue)
• Harry Crane(additional dialogue)
• Stars
• Jimmy Durante
• Terry Moore
• Tom Drake

Jimmy Durante plays the patriarch of a down-on-their-luck family of acrobats, who suddenly finds a great deal of money hidden in his house amid the depths of the Great Depression. The authorities suspect Durante of being a thief, but in fact the culprit is a benevolent little squirrel named Rupert. This clever critter has been pilfering money from the obnoxious, wealthy miser who lives in the adjoining house and who decided to stash most of his funds in the wall separating the two residences. The stop-motion animation is the handiwork of George Pal.

• Director
• Edward Ludwig
• Writers
• John Lee Mahin(screen play)
• William A. Wellman(original story)
• Robert Carson(original story)
• Stars
• Edward G. Robinson
• James Stewart
• Rose Stradner

Edward G. Robinson offers an excellent turn as a crime lord obsessed with the welfare of his son in this melodramatic crime story. The lad is born while the notorious Robinson serves 10 years. Unfortunately, the press hound the babies mother and constantly derider her until a kinder reporter takes pity and begins writing stories to support her. This angers his editor who fires him. One day Robinson's wife goes to visit him and he behaves like a brute. She is so shocked that she ends her marriage and hooks up with the reporter. Together, they move far away to start successful new lives. A decade later, Robinson gets out and begins searching for his boy. Unfortunately, he also gets talked into his gangster activities by an old cohort. The gang, however turns on him and forces him to reveal the location of a large cache of loot that he hid before entering the slammer. Tough old Robinson won't tell them, so they kidnap his son. Fortunately, Robinson and the lad escape. The gangster tries to get to know his boy, but the child wants nothing to do with him. Angered, Robinson swears vengeance upon his ex and her new spouse.

Story of the history of the Mob with emphasis on their history with the startup of Las Vegas.

• Directors
• Joel Coen
• Ethan Coen(uncredited)
• Writers
• Ethan Coen
• Joel Coen
• Stars
• Jeff Bridges
• John Goodman
• Julianne Moore

The plot of this Raymond Chandler-esque comedy crime caper from the Coen Brothers (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen) pivots around a case of mistaken identity complicated by extortion, double-crosses, deception, embezzlement, sex, pot, and gallons of White Russians (made with fresh cream, please). In 1991, unemployed '60s refugee Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) grooves into his laid-back Los Angeles lifestyle. One of the laziest men in LA, he enjoys hanging with his bowling buddies, pompous security-store owner Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) and mild-mannered ex-surfer Donny (Steve Buscemi). However, the Dude's life takes an alternate route the afternoon two goons break into his threadbare Venice, California, bungalow, rough him up, and urinate on his living room rug. Why? Because Jackie Treehorn (Ben Gazzara) is owed money by the wife of a certain Jeff Lebowski. However, the goons grabbed the wrong Jeff Lebowski. With the right info, they would have invaded the home of philanthropic Pasadena millionaire Jeffrey Lebowski (David Huddleston). The Dude looks up his wealthy namesake, manages to get a replacement for his rug, and meets the millionaire's sexy young wife Bunny (Tara Reid). Later, Jeffrey ("The Big") Lebowski calls in the Dude to deliver a $1 million ransom for the return of his kidnapped wife. Fine -- except that Walter intrudes and botches the ransom drop. As events unravel, the Dude gets caught up in the schemes of Lebowski's daughter, erotic artist Maude (Julianne Moore), encounters both cops and bad guys, and drifts through an elaborate bowling fantasy sequence titled Gutterballs. The soundtrack includes Bob Dylan, Yma Sumac, Moondog, Captain Beefheart, and the Sons of the Pioneers.

• Director
• Frank Borzage
• Writers
• Lloyd C. Douglas(novel)
• Howard Estabrook
• Rowland V. Lee
• Stars
• Howard Keel
• John Saxon
• Susan Kohner

The lush romanticism of director Frank Borzage (Seventh Heaven, Street Angel) is subsumed by the plodding reverence of producer Rowland V. Lee's screenplay (co-written with Howard Estabrook), based on the best-selling novel by Lloyd C. Douglas. Howard Keel stars as a stalwart Simon-Peter, the apostle of Christ called "the fisher of men" and the "Rock" upon whom the Christian Church was founded. The film, on the surface, deals with Simon-Peter's conversion from a self-sufficient fisherman to a believer in the inspirational teachings of Christianity. Simon-Peter also serves the needs of the real story: how Simon-Peter succeeds in joining together two lovers from the other side of the tracks. John Saxon is Voldi, an Arab prince who wants to follow in his father's footsteps as the chief of an Arab tribe and marry his beloved, Fara (Susan Kohner). But Fara, wants to see her father, Herod Antipas (Herbert Lom), dead for the misery he has inflicted upon her mother -- abandoning her for the lustful Herodias (Martha Hyer). When Voldi and Fara hear the teachings of Christ, they realize that their love must be put in abeyance to their Christian beliefs.

• Director
• Richard Lester
• Writers
• George MacDonald Fraser(screenplay)
• Alexandre Dumas(novel)
• Stars
• Michael York
• Raquel Welch
• Oliver Reed

This comic interpretation of Alexandre Dumas's classic adventure saga picks up where 1974's The Three Musketeers left off, as D'Artagnan (Michael York), Athos (Oliver Reed), Aramis (Richard Chamberlain), and Porthos (Frank Finlay) scuttle the plans of Lady de Winter (Faye Dunaway) to remove Queen Anne (Geraldine Chaplin) from the seat of power. De Winter is determined to get revenge against the Musketeers, and when she learns that D'Artagnan is infatuated with the lovely Constance (Raquel Welch), she first tries to foil their romance by seducing D'Artagnan herself, and then by persuading Rochefort (Christopher Lee) to kidnap Constance. She then engineers the assassination of the Duke of Buckingham (Simon Ward), a close friend of D'Artagnan; when word of the Duke's death and Constance's imprisonment reaches D'Artagnan and his comrades, the foursome ride off to rescue the fair lady and see that justice is done against de Winter. The Four Musketeers was filmed concurrently with The Three Musketeers; it was originally intended to be one film, but when director Richard Lester realized the movie would be over three and a half hours long, the decision was made to release it as two separate features instead. This led to lawsuits filed by several of the stars, claiming that they were hired under false pretenses and entitled to be paid for making two films rather than one. The actors won their case, but their settlement was significantly less than the salary they hoped to receive.

• Director
• George Sherman
• Writers
• Betty Burbridge(screen play)
• Gerald Geraghty(screen play)
• Dorrell McGowan(original story)
• Stars
• Gene Autry
• Smiley Burnette
• June Storey

South of the Border, a western directed by George Sherman, features two United States government agents (Gene Autry) and (Smiley Burnette) and their trip to Mexico, where they hope to stop German agents from forming a revolution. This propagandist musical feature was released approximately two years before World War II, and marked the beginning of a successful career for Autry. Also included in South of the Border are actors Michael Carr, Sheila Darcy, William Farnum, and Reed Howes.

• Director
• Michael Carreras
• Writer
• Michael Carreras(screenplay)
• Stars
• Martine Beswick
• Edina Ronay
• Michael Latimer

Filmed on the sets of One Million Years B.C., this adventure fantasy centers on a hunter who accidentally ends up lost and stranded in a mysterious world ruled by statuesque, raw-meat eating, big-haired and scantily-clad brunettes who enslave their blonde sisters and worship the horns of rhinoceroses. The brunettes capture the hunter place him in a cage with other males who must suffer the terrifying fate of making love to the sexually insatiable Amazon queen (played by Martine Beswick). Over the years, the film has developed a cult following.

• Director
• Mel Brooks
• Writers
• Mel Brooks(screenplay)
• Ron Clark(screenplay)
• Rudy De Luca(screenplay)
• Stars
• Mel Brooks
• Marty Feldman
• Dom DeLuise

Silent Movie is just that: a totally nonverbal comedy, save for one single line. Director Mel Brooks stars as a once-famous comedy director, who with his faithful assistants Dom DeLuise and Marty Feldman return to Hollywood with plans for a comeback. Brooks wants to return to the good old days by producing a silent movie (he explains this via subtitle). Producer Sid Caesar is agreeable, provided Brooks can line up top stars. In a series of vignettes better seen than described, Brooks persuades Burt Reynolds, Liza Minelli, Paul Newman, James Caan and Anne Bancroft (Brooks' real-life wife) to star in his project. The only holdout is mime Marcel Marceau, who after a few moments of walking against the wind shouts the film's solitary line: "No!" Meanwhile, the crooked executives of the Engulf and Devour conglomerate want to take over Caesar's studio and are worried that Brooks' film might be so huge a hit that Caesar won't be interested in selling. To prevent this, the conglomerate dispatches sexy Bernadette Peters to lure Brooks into drink and ruination. The film's climax is lifted from the 1943 Olsen and Johnson film Crazy House). Featured in brief comic cameos are Harry Ritz as the man with half a suit, Charlie Callas as the blind man, Dom DeLuise's wife, Carol Arthur, as the incredibly pregnant woman, Fritz Feld as the headwaiter (whose trademarked "Pop" is conveyed on a subtitle) and Henny Youngman as the diner with a fly in his soup. Co-writers Ron Clark, Rudy DeLuca and Barry Levinson also show up on screen as three of the Engulf & Devour minions.

• Directors
• Seok-hoon Nam
• See-Yuen Ng
• Writers
• See-Yuen Ng
• Lu Tung
• Stars
• John Liu
• Don Wong
• Jeong-lee Hwang

In this martial arts feature, an upright general has been sent out by the Emperor of China to discipline one of the Chinese overlords of Korea who has been stealing silver. The general sends his trusted agent Shen In-hua (Liu Chung-liang) to infiltrate the evil lord's household. Shen joins forces with a martial artist who is out to avenge his parent's death.

• Director
• Howard Bretherton
• Writers
• Harvey Gates(screenplay)
• Steve Fisher(From the Cosmopolian Magazine story "Shore Leave" by)
• Stars
• Fay Wray
• Grant Withers
• Craig Reynolds

A federal agent and a petty Naval officer are both investigating the theft of top-secret defense plans. Since neither one is aware that the other is working on the case, each considers the other to be the prime suspect. They end up getting romantic and catching the real spies.

• Director
• Ronald Neame
• Writers
• Charles Dickens(based on "A Christmas Carol" by)
• Leslie Bricusse(screenplay)
• Stars
• Albert Finney
• Alec Guinness
• Edith Evans

Scrooge was designed as a follow-up to 1968's Oliver!, the Oscar-winning musicalization of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist. The umpteenth musical version of Dickens' 1843 novelette A Christmas Carol, Scrooge features several sprightly Leslie Bricusse songs, including the bona fide hit "Thank You Very Much." Buried under mounds of latex, Albert Finney is Ebenezer Scrooge. The Three Ghosts who turn the miserly Scrooge's life around on Christmas Eve are portrayed by Edith Evans (Past), Kenneth More (Present) and Paddy Stone (Yet to Come). Sir Alec Guinness also appears as a fussy, slightly effeminate Marley's Ghost. Intriguingly, Finney performs his many songs live, without post-production dubbing.

Santa Claus (1959)

• Director
• René Cardona
• Writers
• Adolfo Torres Portillo(story)
• René Cardona(story)
• Stars
• José Elías Moreno
• Cesáreo Quezadas 'Pulgarcito'
• José Luis Aguirre 'Trotsky'

Yet another oddball Mexican fantasy brought to American audiences by cut-rate exploitation titan K. Gordon Murray, this seasonal tale concerns Santa Claus (Jose Elias Moreno), who we discover doesn't work out of the North Pole after all. Instead, Santa and his friend and associate Merlin the Magician have a base of operations in a castle orbiting the Earth on a small satellite, upon which they observe the activities of children both good and bad through an elaborate surveillance system. While kids all over the globe (most of whom apparently wear stereotypical native costumes at all times) are trying to be good, the Devil wants to increase youthful misbehavior. With this in mind, he sends his emissary Pitch (Cesareo Quezadas, aka Pulgarcito), a demon with a digestive problem, to Earth and Pitch starts his reign of terror by attempting to goad a little girl from a poor family into stealing the doll that she wants. Eventually, Santa and Merlin catch up with Pitch for a final battle of Good vs. Evil. Santa Claus also offers new insight into St. Nick's weight, eating habits, and mode of transportation; the film played the kiddie matinee circuit for years, and later was analyzed by Mike Nelson and his robot pals on Mystery Science Theater 3000.

• Director
• Burt P. Lynwood
• Writer
• Charles F. Royal(screenplay)
• Stars
• Norman Foster
• Evalyn Knapp
• Sidney Blackmer

An insurance investigator tracks down an arson ring involved in insurance fraud.

• Director
• Spencer Gordon Bennet
• Writer
• Betty Burbridge(dialogue)
• Stars
• Wallace Ford
• Finis Barton
• E. Alyn Warren

In this thriller, a humble cab driver is mistaken for the dead heir to an enormous fortune. Once the resemblance is noticed, his life becomes interesting.

• Director
• Brian De Palma
• Writers
• Michael Cristofer(screenplay)
• Tom Wolfe(novel)
• Stars
• Tom Hanks
• Bruce Willis
• Melanie Griffith

Brian De Palma's Hollywood sanitization of Tom Wolfe's scabrous satire stars Tom Hanks as Sherman McCoy, the "master of the universe," a shallow Wall Street investor who makes millions while enjoying the good life and the sexual favors of Maria Ruskin (Melanie Griffith), a Southern belle golddigger. Sherman and Maria are driving back to Maria's apartment from the airport when Maria takes a wrong turn on the expressway and the two find themselves in the South Bronx. She sees a black youth approaching Sherman's car and Maria, frightened, guns the engine, running over the teenager and killing him. The two drive away and decide not to report the accident to the police. Meanwhile, indigent alcoholic journalist Peter Fallow (Bruce Willis), anxious for a story to make good with his editor, comes upon the hit-and-run tale through local black community activist, Reverend Bacon (John Hancock). Bacon plans to use the hit-and-run case as a rallying point for the black community, while Fallow recognizes the press coverage inherent in prosecuting the callow Sherman. As Sherman is brought to his knees, the New York community fragments into different factions who use the case to suit their own cynical political purposes. Finally, Sherman is left without any allies to support him except for the sympathetic Judge White (Morgan Freeman) and the remorseful Fallow.

• Director
• Monte Hellman
• Writer
• Jack Nicholson
• Stars
• Jack Nicholson
• Cameron Mitchell
• Millie Perkins

Director Monte Hellman and writer-star Jack Nicholson filmed this western simultaneously with The Shooting (1967). Nicholson stars as Wes, cowpuncher pal to Vern (Cameron Mitchell) and Otis (Tom Filer), who have all been hired as hands for a cattle roundup. En route to their new jobs, the men come across the handiwork of a lynch mob. Later, they find hospitality at the home of Blind Dick (Harry Dean Stanton), who graciously provides them with food and shelter. The cowboys are unaware that Blind Dick and his men recently robbed a stagecoach and murdered the driver. A sheriff (Bradon Carroll) and his posse surround the cabin and hang the thieves. Though innocent, the terrified cowboys flee. Otis is killed, but Wes and Vern escape -- with the posse in pursuit. When they stop to rest at the ranch of Evan (George Mitchell), Wes considers taking Evan's daughter hostage. Trying to steal Evan's horse, Vern is killed by the rancher, who in turn is shot by Wes. Once a law-abiding citizen, Wes has been transformed by unjust vigilantism into a killer. Fascinated by frontier era journals that he discovered in an L.A. library, Nicholson used the documents as inspiration in writing the script.

• Director
• Reinhold Schünzel
• Writers
• Joseph Fields(screen play)
• Jerome Chodorov(screen play)
• Edith Ellis(play "White Collars")
• Stars
• Robert Young
• Lana Turner
• Lew Ayres

In director Reinh Schunzel's film Rich Man, Poor Girl, the upper crust collides with the more financially unfortunate members of society. When wealthy young executive Bill Harrison (Robert Young) falls in love with Joan Thayer (Ruth Hussey), his secretary, she doesn't believe he would be able to accept her boisterous relatives. Determined to marry Joan (Hussey), Bill (Young) moves in with her family in order to prove his love for her. Though Joan's sister Helen (Lana Turner) is thrilled with the idea, Joan still has a host of reservations. During his stay, Bill learns about the struggles of the lower middle class, and eventually decides to sell his property and use the money to help fund a hospital for the poor. Convinced his feelings are genuine and his mind open, Joan agrees to marry Bill. Rich Man, Poor Girl is a remake of the 1929 film The Idle Rich

Stars

• Rex Marshall
• Robert Emhardt
• Robert H. Harris

Live plays featuring people who were in dangerous and threatening situations.

• Director
• B. Reeves Eason
• Writers
• Stuart E. McGowan(screenplay)
• Dorrell McGowan(screenplay)
• Stars
• Gene Autry
• Smiley Burnette
• Frances Grant

Singing cowboy Gene Autry stars in this formula western as Gene Autry (so far, so good), who teams up with his buddy Frog Millhouse (Smiley Burnette) to investigate a series of accidents which have stopped construction of a dam being constructed by Sam Flint (George Baxter) and claimed the lives of much of the work crew. The progress of the damn is also thwarted when Bull Dural (George Cheseboro) and his gang attempt to steal the payroll; Gene and Frog suspect Bull may also be behind the deadly dirty tricks campaign before discovering he's just a pawn in a bigger game. Autry finds time to sing five tunes during the proceedings, inclusing the classic title song.

• Director
• Alan Johnson
• Writers
• Thomas Meehan(screenplay)
• Ronny Graham(screenplay)
• Edwin Justus Mayer(1942 screenplay)
• Stars
• Mel Brooks
• Anne Bancroft
• Ronny Graham

Mel Brooks and his real-life wife Anne Bancroft play Frederick and Anna Bronski, musical comedy stars in 1939 Poland. The highlight of the Bronskis' act is Frederick's imitation of Adolf Hitler, but he is forced to eliminate this turn for fear of offending the Nazis. Meanwhile, Anna enters into a harmless flirtation with Polish bomber pilot Andre Sobinski (Tim Matheson). The pilot's nightly signal to visit Anna in her dressing room is "To Be or Not to Be," spoken by Bronski during the Shakespearean portion of his act. When the Germans march into Warsaw, the Bronskis and the rest of their troupe are forced into hiding (notably the homosexual Lupinski, played by Lewis J. Stadlen, who is forced to endure the humiliation of wearing a pink star). Flying for the Polish resistance in England, Sobinski asks kindly Professor Seletzky (Jose Ferrer) to deliver his "To Be or Not to Be" message to Anna. When Seletzky doesn't seem to recognize the name of Anne Bronski, Warsaw's biggest star, Sobinski suspects that something is amiss. Sure enough, Seletzky is a Nazi spy, heading to Warsaw to help Col. "Concentration Camp" Ehrhardt (Oscar-nominated Charles Durning) destroy the underground movement. Parachuting into Poland, Sobinski enlists the aid of the Bronski troupe to foil the Nazis. What follows is an uproarious series of disguises and deceptions, capped by Bronski's impersonation of Der Fuhrer.

• Director
• Angela Sun
• Writer
• Angela Sun
• Stars
• Lewis Goldsmith
• Wallace J. Nichols
• Angela Sun

Angela Sun's journey of discovery to one of the most remote places on Earth, Midway Atoll, to uncover the truth behind the mystery of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Along the way she encounters scientists, industry, legislators and activists who shed light on what our society's vast consumption of disposable plastic is doing to our oceans, and what it may be doing to our health.

• Director
• Don Chaffey
• Writers
• Michael Carreras(screenplay)
• Mickell Novack(adapted from an original screenplay by)
• George Baker(adapted from an original screenplay by)
• Stars
• Raquel Welch
• John Richardson
• Percy Herbert

This film was advertised with the slogan "See Raquel Welch In Mankind's First Bikini!" While archeologists tell us humans did not live at the same time as dinosaurs, and our prehistoric ancestors probably didn't look much like Ms. Welch and her co-stars, One Million Years B.C. is a good bit more fun than more scientifically accurate portrait of the era might have been. Tumak (John Richardson) of the Rock People is exiled from his tribe after a fight with his father, and after days of endless wandering is in sad shape before he's taken in by the more peaceable Shell People. He attracts the attention of well-proportioned cave woman Loana (Raquel Welch), but once again finds himself a man without a country after his violent nature alienates the Shell People. Along with Raquel (whose character is remarkably well-groomed given the time period), this movie's greatest selling point are the special effects; legendary stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen created a dazzling collection of prehistoric creatures for this film that still look impressive, even in the more sophisticated era of computer generated imaging technology.

• Director
• Charles Vidor
• Writers
• Whitman Chambers(story "Cabaret")
• Albert DeMond(dialogue)
• Paul Schofield(screenplay)
• Stars
• Arline Judge
• Preston Foster
• Marion Burns

In this drama, a tough and bitter woman working in a beauty salon in Panama takes a young, naive woman under her wing. Later when her mentor becomes deadly ill, the young woman decides to sell herself so she can scrape up the money to save her friend. Fortunately, her first client turns out to be a really nice guy. Soon after, the ailing woman's husband, an admiral in the Chinese navy, is passing through the canal and comes to her aid.

• Director
• William Castle
• Writers
• Orville H. Hampton(screenplay)
• Lewis Meltzer(screenplay)
• Stars
• Arthur Franz
• Beverly Garland
• Helene Stanton

Hot on the heels of Warner Bros.' New York Confidential came Columbia's New Orleans Uncensored. Lensed in semi-documentary fashion by future horror maven William Castle, the film stars Arthur Franz as New Orleans dockworker Dan Corbett. Attempting to remain honest, Corbett runs afoul of crime kingpin Zero Saxon (Michael Ansara), who controls the dockworkers union and runs a smuggling operation on the side. When his best friend is killed by Saxon's goons, Corbett agrees to cooperate with the authorities in bringing the racketeer to justice. As a means of "balancing" the picture, several real-life New Orleans civic leaders and union heads--all with purportedly clean records--appear as themselves.

• Director
• Gordon Wiles
• Writers
• Daniel Fuchs(story "Low Company")
• Dalton Trumbo(unconfirmed)
• Stars
• Barry Sullivan
• Belita
• Joan Lorring

Having struck gold with the previous season's Dillinger, the King Brothers returned to Monogram as producers of The Gangster. Adapted by Daniel Fuchs from his own novel Low Company, the film stars Barry Sullivan as flint-faced racketeer Shubunka. Shown to be a product of the slums, Shubunka spends his adulthood in pursuit of power and riches, with no time for friendship or romance. Wounded in a gangland shootout, Shubunka ruminates on his past, present and (unlikely) future, wondering if it's all been worth it. Promoted as a "psychological" drama, The Gangster has plenty of gunplay and bloodshed to satiate action fans, and a surfeit of sex appeal in the form of gangster's moll Nancy (played by Monogram's resident skating star Belita). Prominent in the supporting cast is the ineluctable Sheldon Leonard as Shubunka's chief rival, delivering a subtler variation on his patented tough-guy screen persona. The Gangster was directed by Oscar-winning art director Gordon Wiles, later a mainstay of such TV series as Land of the Lost and Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.

• Director
• Louis King
• Writer
• Stuart Anthony(scenario)
• Stars
• Henry B. Walthall
• Leon Janney
• Lionel Belmore

Aging has-been silent star Henry B. Walthall plays an aging has-been silent star in this low-budget drama from Monogram Pictures. D.W. Griffith's erstwhile "Little Colonel" is Nathaniel Barry, a once admired actor now facing a magistrate (Edmund Breese) on a charge of drunken disorder. Barry's young son Junior (Leon Barry) steps in and convinces the judge that Nat has a job waiting for him. But the old actor's fondness for the bottle once again makes him unemployable and he is soon reduced to playing Abraham Lincoln in a traveling sideshow. Junior, meanwhile, lands the starring role in a film called "Father and Son" and convinces the studio owner (Lionel Belmore) to cast Nat in the other title role. The veteran star delivers a moving performance before dying in his son's arms right on the set. Perhaps because of Walthall's reputation, Police Court was reviewed by the staid New York Times (as Fame Street), an honor not awarded many Poverty Row productions.

• Director
• Tonino Valerii
• Writers
• Sergio Leone(idea)
• Fulvio Morsella(story)
• Ernesto Gastaldi(story)
• Stars
• Terence Hill
• Henry Fonda
• Jean Martin

Spaghetti-Western star Terence Hill achieved international fame with 1974's My Name Is Nobody. A soldier of fortune, Nobody (Hill) is hired to gun down veteran outlaw Jack Beauregard (Henry Fonda). Before long, however, Nobody and Beauregard are bosom companions. When Beauregard announces his retirement, Nobody insists that the old man go out in one last, glorious shooting spree and tries to arrange for this to happen. The film was cut down to 117 minutes for the American release.