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• Director
• George Sherman
• Writers
• Betty Burbridge(original screen play)
• Dorrell McGowan(original screen play)
• Stuart E. McGowan(original screen play)
• Stars
• Gene Autry
• Smiley Burnette
• Mary Carlisle

While James Stewart was filibustering from his senator's pulpit in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Gene Autry battled congressional bureaucracy in Rovin' Tumbleweeds, which barely could call itself a Western. Gene runs for a congressional seat in order to pass a flood control bill that would save a group of dispossessed ranchers and farmers, the victims of a disastrous storm. But once elected, the hero's best efforts are thwarted by greedy meat packing plant owner Holloway (Douglas Dumbrille), who lobbies against him. With another storm brewing and Autry's only political ally, Senator Nolan (William Farnum), killed in a car accident, all hope seems gone. But when Gene rallies his troops in a climactic battle, even Holloway catches the community spirit and the valley is saved. Taking time out from fighting both political corruption and the elements, Gene, Smiley Burnette, and the Pals of the Golden West perform "Paradise in the Moonlight," "Ole Peaceful River," Rovin' Tumbleweeds," and other favorite selections. Rovin' Tumbleweeds has been restored to its original length by Gene Autry Entertainment.

• Director
• Ray Taylor
• Writer
• Arthur Sherman(original screenplay)
• Stars
• Eddie Dean
• White Cloud
• Roscoe Ates

At least 10 percent of the 58-minute Eddie Dean western Shadow Valley is comprised of stock shots from earlier Dean oaters. This time, the star plays as U.S. marshal who comes to the rescue of the standard damsel in distress (Jennifer Holt, sister of Tim and daughter of Jack). The double-dyed villain (George Cheseboro) is a crooked lawyer (and former train robber) who wants to lay claim to the heroine's ranch. What the lawyer knows, but the girl doesn't, is that the land is rich with gold. Roscoe Ates goes through his usual wheezy stuttering routines as Eddie Dean's sidekick Soapy.

• Stars
• Red Buttons
• Allan Walker
• Joe Silver

When this show was on CBS it ran in a variety format. When it went to NBC it became a sitcom. Red Buttons was very popular. Red won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

• Director
• Michael Miller
• Writers
• Joseph Fraley
• Edward Di Lorenzo(uncredited)
• Stars
• Chuck Norris
• Ron Silver
• Steven Keats

The sheriff of a small Texas town is pitted against a genetically engineered super-villain.

• Directors
• Frank McDonald
• Walter Lantz(animation sequences)
• Writer
• Olive Cooper(original screenplay)
• Stars
• Gene Autry
• Champion Jr.
• Lynne Roberts

In his first film after four-years of military duty, Gene Autry returns to a familiar setting: a modern western musical-comedy with accent on music and comedy. Crooning Jimmie Hodges' lilting "Someday You'll Want Me to Want You", cattle rancher Gene Autry is discovered by Hollywood talent scouts Sue Warner (Lynne Roberts) and Nelson "Nellie" Bly (Sterling Holloway), who convince him to give up ranching in favor of movie stardom. But unbeknownst to Gene only his voice is needed -- to flesh out cartoon character Ding Dong Donkey -- and the results prove highly embarrassing. Ashamed of her own part in the deception, Sue quits her job and obtains a position as Gene's ranch cook. Back at Paragon Pictures, a surreptitiously produced screen-test brings Autry's unquestionable talents to the attention of studio boss G.W. Rhodes (Pierre Watkin), who assigns former cartoon producer Jefferson Lang (Richard Lane) to lure the cattle rancher back to Hollywood. Desperate to get out of the animated movie business, Lang forms an alliance with Gene's sworn enemy, Big Gulliver (Ralph Sanford), but the resulting near-disaster is prevented in the nick of time by Sue and the ranch hands. Nearly wiped out, Gene signs a contract with Paragon and becomes a huge success as Hollywood's newest singing cowboy. Backed by the Cass County Boys, Autry performs Dick Thomas & Ray Freedman's title tune; "Oklahoma Hills" by Leon Guthrie; "Riding Double" by John Rox; and "Yours" by Gonzalo Roig and Jack Sherr. In accordance with a then new Republic Pictures policy, the latter is sung in both English and Spanish. A restored version of Sioux City Sue was released in 2001 by Gene Autry Entertainment.

• Directors
• William A. Seiter
• Walter Lang(uncredited)
• Writers
• Robert Ellis(screen play)
• Helen Logan(screen play)
• Fidel LaBarba(story)
• Stars
• Shirley Temple
• Randolph Scott
• Margaret Lockwood

The sole survivor of an Indian attack, orphan girl Susannah Sheldon (Shirley Temple) becomes the mascot of the Canadian Mountie outpost headed by Superintendent Standing (Moroni Olsen). Mountie Angus "Monty" Montague (Randolph Scott) and his sweetheart (and Standing's daughter), Vicky (Margaret Lockwood), appoint themselves as Susannah's unofficial parents, doing their best to help the girl overcome her terrible ordeal. Eventually, it is "little miss fix-it"Susannah who brings peace between the Mounties and the Blackfeet, but not before Monty is nearly burned at the stake by the renegade Indian responsible for fomenting all the trouble. This is the film in which Shirley Temple not only teaches Randolph Scott how to tap dance, but also shares a peace pipe with a Blackfoot youngster (and gets good and nauseated in the process). Based on a novel by Muriel Denison, Susannah of the Mounties was originally released in sepiatone.

• Director
• Jeffrey Shore
• Writers
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow(poem "The Song of Hiawatha")
• Earl W. Wallace
• Stars
• Graham Greene
• Litefoot
• Irene Bedard

This screen adaptation of the epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow tells the tale of Hiawatha (Litefoot), a Native American brave, and his great love for the beautiful Minehaha (Irene Bedard).

• Director
• William Beaudine
• Writers
• Albert DeMond(screenplay)
• Earle Snell(screenplay)
• Tim Ryan(additional dialogue)
• Stars
• Marjorie Weaver
• Peter Cookson
• Tim Ryan

Judging by such films as Shadows of Suspicion, it's too bad that leading man Peter Cookson eventually elected to leave the movies in favor of the Broadway stage. Cookson is cast as Jimmy, an enterprising private detective who hits upon a most unusual method of solving a jewel robbery. With the help of his partner Northrup (Tim Ryan), Jimmy frames himself as the primary suspect, so that he can operate undetected to expose the genuine thief. Needless to say, the plan backfires by mid-film. But with pretty Marjorie Weaver as the unwitting courier of the stolen jewels, it's a safe bet that the truth will out before the film's 68 minutes have expended themselves.

An in-depth examination of Sanssouci Palace, which once housed Prussian King Frederick the Great.

• Director
• John English
• Writers
• Herbert A. Woodbury(story)
• Gerald Geraghty(screenplay)
• Stars
• Gene Autry
• Champion
• Gloria Henry

Gene Autry enjoyed considerable success with his recording of Stan Jones' haunting "Riders in the Sky". He then parlayed this success into a film, which proved to be one of Autry's best postwar efforts. The basic plot concerns Autry's efforts to clear rancher Ralph Lawson (Steve Darrell) of a trumped-up murder charge. The trumper-upper, Rock McCleary, is played by Robert Livingston, a former cowboy star who turned to character roles late in his career. The heroine is played by Gloria Henry, ten years removed from her TV fame as Alice Mitchell in Dennis the Menace. The title song is imaginatively staged by director John English, with a ghostly Tom London riding hard and fast as a montage of moody images play across the screen. So effective was this vignette that Columbia included it in the coming-attractions trailer for Riders in the Sky.

• Director
• Jack Starrett
• Writers
• Mark Hanna
• Don Williams
• Stars
• Jim Brown
• Stella Stevens
• Rip Torn

A typical gangland killing has an unusual outcome when the victim's son comes looking for justice in this violent blaxploitation action drama. Slaughter (Jim Brown) is a former Green Beret who is a decorated war hero, but while he's devoted his life to fighting for right, his father followed another path as a gangster. However, while Slaughter's dad was a career criminal, his mother played no part in his actions, and when they're both killed in a car explosion, Slaughter is determined to get revenge. Slaughter is convinced a rival crime boss ordered the bombing, and plans a daring raid where he kills the suspect. Slaughter is captured by police, and angry detective A.W. Price (Cameron Mitchell) tells Slaughter he had the right idea but the wrong man. Slaughter is persuaded to team up with undercover detectives Harry (Don Gordon) and Kim (Marlene Clark) as they travel to Puerto Rico in hopes of infiltrating the operations of hot-headed mobster Hoffo (Rip Torn). The cops have learned that Hoffo and his cronies are computerizing their operations and they're looking for hard evidence, but Slaughter is more interested in taking down Hoffo, and he'll do whatever it takes. The rivalry between Slaughter and Hoffo becomes all the more bitter when Slaughter becomes involved with Ann (Stella Stevens), the gangster's beautiful girlfriend. Featuring a dynamic theme song by Billy Preston, Slaughter was a major box-office hit in 1972 and one of the most popular films of Jim Brown's screen career; it spawned a sequel, Slaughter's Big Rip-Off, which appeared in 1973.

• Director
• King Vidor
• Writers
• Crane Wilbur(story)
• Anthony Veiller(screenplay)
• Paul Dudley(screenplay)
• Stars
• Yul Brynner
• Gina Lollobrigida
• George Sanders

Romance, treachery, intrigue and spiritual awakenings abound in the Biblical film adaptation of Solomon and Sheba. Trouble begins between two brothers when poet Solomon (Yul Brynner) is chosen to be next in line to the throne by King David of Israel. His warrior brother Adonijah (George Sanders) is livid when Solomon becomes king. While Israel prospers under Solomon, Sheba (Gina Lollobrigida) conspires with the Egyptians to topple Israel. She is ambitious and seductive and finally gets Solomon to fall in love with her. When a pagan dance ritual turns into an orgy, the people turn against Solomon when the Temple of Jehovah is struck by lightning. After the righteous Solomon has fallen from the grace of God, Sheba renounces her pagan Gods and converts to Judaism. A cast of thousands depict the raging battle between the Israelites and the Egyptians. Directed by King Vidor at the cost of five million dollars, production was delayed when the original choice for the role of Solomon (Tyrone Power) died during the making of the film. Many scenes had to be redone with his replacement, Yul Brynner.

• Director
• Lewis Milestone
• Writers
• S.L.A. Marshall(book)
• James R. Webb(screenplay)
• Stars
• Gregory Peck
• Harry Guardino
• Rip Torn

Pork Chop Hill was based on the eyewitness essays of ex-soldier S. L. A. Marshall. The film is set during the Korean "police action." While diplomats argue pointlessly over the shape of the negotiation tables at Panmunjon, United Nations troops bleed and die. Lieutenant Gregory Peck leads a 135-man unit on the attack of the Chinese-held Pork Chop Hill. When reinforcements finally arrive, only 25 of Peck's men survive (and they aren't the usual survivors we've come to expect from earlier, cliché-ridden war films). Among the American troops are such dependable performers as Harry Guardino, Woody Strode, Rip Torn, Barry Atwater, George Peppard, Robert Blake and Martin Landau. Former cowboy-star Bob Steele also shows up briefly as an American general. According to director Lewis Milestone, Pork Chop Hill was cut by nearly twenty minutes because the wife of star Gregory Peck felt that her husband made his first entrance too late into the picture. True or not, the film does show signs of post-production tampering, with flashes of several excised scenes showing up under the main title credits.

• Director
• Arthur Hiller
• Writer
• Neil Simon(play)
• Stars
• Walter Matthau
• Maureen Stapleton
• Barbara Harris

It is not uncommon for actors to double and triple in roles while appearing in the "omnibus" plays of Neil Simon. Plaza Suite was the first film version of a Simon play to carry over the multiple-role device to the screen. Walter Matthau appears in all three one-act playlets comprising Plaza Suite, with a different leading lady in each. First we see Matthau as the husband of Maureen Stapleton, nostalgically returning to the same hotel suite where they'd spent their honeymoon 24 years earlier. Times have changed, however, and the twosome spend more timing sniping at one another than pitching woo. The second vignette casts Matthau as an effusive movie producer (lavish toupee and all) who hopes to seduce his old sweetheart Barbara Harris. The third and best sequence finds Matthau and Lee Grant playing the parents of a bride who steadfastly refuses to leave her locked room to attend her own wedding.

• Director
• Mort Blumenstock
• Writer
• Tom Howard(story)
• Stars
• Tom Howard
• Joe Lyons
• Edward Gargan(uncredited)
• In this comedy short the annoying squawk-voiced comedian Tom Howard plays a man on a carnival midway who gets suckered into substituting for the African Dodger.

• Directors
• Leslie Fenton
• King Vidor
• John Huston(uncredited)
• Writers
• Laurence Stallings(screenplay)
• Lou Breslow(screenplay)
• Arch Oboler(original story)
• Stars
• Paulette Goddard
• Burgess Meredith
• James Stewart

Also known as A Miracle Can Happen, On Our Merry Way is a multipart comedy linked by inquiring reporter Burgess Meredith. It is Meredith's job to interview several people, asking them what effect children have had on their lives. First he checks with two itinerant musicians (James Stewart and Henry Fonda), who earn extra under-the-counter money by fixing a music contest so the mayor's son will win. Next he meets Hollywood extras Dorothy Lamour and Victor Moore, who are hired to work with a precocious child star. Finally, the old "Ransom of Red Chief" twist is given to the tale of hoboes Fred MacMurray and William Demarest, who find themselves at the mercy of a preteen prankster, whose wealthy uncle (Hugh Herbert) won't take the kid back unless the hoboes pay him. Meredith returns to the newspaper office with a black eye, which earns him the sympathy and affection of coworker Paulette Goddard. Though the direction is credited to Leslie Fenton, portions of On Our Merry Way were actually directed (sans credit) by George Stevens and King Vidor.

• Director
• Robert Moore
• Writer
• Neil Simon
• Stars
• Peter Falk
• Alec Guinness
• Peter Sellers

As penned by Neil Simon, this satire of movie mysteries is set in motion when several prominent detectives are invited to the mansion of the reclusive Lionel Twain (Truman Capote). In Ten Little Indians fashion, the gathered sleuths are locked into the forbidding mansion, and subject to various death-dealing devices. While struggling for their lives, the vainglorious gumshoes continue to try to one-up one another. Each character is broadly based on a famous literary detective: Sidney Wang (Peter Sellers) is an aphorism-spouting Charlie Chan clone: Dick and Dora Charleston (David Niven and Maggie Smith) are patterned on the protagonists of the Thin Man flicks; Milo Perrier (James Coco), a Hercule Poirot takeoff, stalks through the proceedings declaring "I'm a Belgie, not a Frenchie!"; Sam Diamond (Peter Falk) is Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe and Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade rolled in one; and Jessica Marbles (Elsa Lanchester) is a dottier variation of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. Best bit: a "conversation" between blind butler Jamessir Bensonmum (Alec Guinness) and deaf-mute maid Yetta (Nancy Walker). The fade-out gag of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson showing up late for Lionel Twain's party was edited from the theatrical version of Murder by Death, but was restored for TV. The film marked the big-screen directorial debut of Robert Moore, who'd previously directed several of Neil Simon's Broadway productions. Moore went on to direct another Simon spoof, The Cheap Detective (1978), before his untimely death.

• Director
• Mort Blumenstock
• Writer
• Max E. Hayes(dialogue director)
• Star
• Lulu McConnell

Comedy short in which Vaudeville comic Lulu McConnell appears as a loud-mouthed mother who is invited to meet her daughter's in-law-to-be, a society matron, who is taken aback as Lulu gets louder, chattier, and drunker as the afternoon progresses.

• Director
• Babe Stafford
• Writers
• Felix Adler(uncredited)
• Harry McCoy(uncredited)
• Jefferson Moffitt(uncredited)
• Stars
• Bing Crosby
• Florine McKinney
• Irving Bacon

Comedy short in which, after singing over the radio, Bing Crosby transmits a signal to elope to his sweetheart Helen; but her father is listening too. Undaunted, Bing tries, tries again.

• Director
• Norman Taurog
• Writer
• Edwin J. Burke(story)
• Stars
• George Jessel
• Margaret Breen
• Allen Connor

Comedy short in which George Jessel tries to talk a friend out of committing suicide.

• Director
• A. Edward Sutherland
• Writers
• Paul Gerard Smith(screenplay)
• Maurice Hanline(from a story by)
• Jesse Lasky Jr.(from a story by)
• Stars
• Alexis Smith
• Lloyd Nolan
• Craig Stevens

The virile Warner Bros. programmer Steel Against the Sky stars Lloyd Nolan and Craig Stevens as steelworkers Rocky and Chuck Evans. Already on the outs due to a few on-the-job mishaps, Chuck gets further in dutch with his family when he falls in love with Rocky's girl Helen (Alexis Smith). The plot is secondary to the film's bridge-building sequences, breathtakingly photographed by Edmund Grainger. Steel Against the Sky was essentially a showcase for two of Warners' newest contractee, Craig Stevens and Alexis Smith. Their professional relationship quickly deepened into something else, and within a few years the two young contractees were husband and wife, which they remained until Smith's death in 1989.

• Director
• Dario Argento
• Writers
• Dario Argento(screenplay)
• Daria Nicolodi(screenplay)
• Thomas De Quincey(book "Suspiria de Profundis")
• Stars
• Jessica Harper
• Stefania Casini
• Flavio Bucci

A candy-colored nightmare from Italian terror maestro Dario Argento, Suspiria weaves a menacing tale of witchcraft as a fairy tale gone horribly awry. From the moment she arrives in Freiberg, Germany, to attend the prestigious Tans Academy, American ballet-dancer Suzy Banyon (Jessica Harper) senses that something horribly evil lurks within the walls of the age-old institution. Ill at ease as the result of her fellow student's peculiar behavior and increasingly terrified following a series of gruesome and spectacular murders, Suzy slowly begins to unravel the dark history of the academy. Convinced that the occult roots of the school and the horrific tale of its founding mother may hold an unthinkable secret, she begins a hallucinatory journey into the black heart of one of the most powerful witches ever known to exist. As Suzy edges ever closer to a secret that may hold the answers to all of her nightmares, the coven's grip on her soul begins to tighten until there is seemingly no escape. Will Suzy solve the mystery of the cursed academy before the fearsome Black Queen consumes her, or will she finally reveal the secret that has forever haunted the lavish corridors of the academy and bring an end to the Black Queen's terrifying reign?

• Director
• Luigi Cozzi
• Writer
• Luigi Cozzi
• Stars
• Lou Ferrigno
• Milly Carlucci
• Sonia Viviani

Mighty Hercules (played by muscleman Lou Ferrigno) returns in this sequel. This papa Zeus sends Herc from Olympus to Earth to find seven stolen thunderbolts. Basically the film is Saturday afternoon kiddy matinee fodder, good for passing the time, but little else. The film is also known as Adventures of Hercules.

• Director
• Boris Sagal
• Writers
• Donald S. Sanford
• Joyce Perry
• Stars
• David McCallum
• Suzanne Neve
• Charles Gray

The Mosquito bomber was one of the more extraordinary developments of the Royal Air Force during World War II. A twin-engine plane made largely of wood, it flew faster than almost any fighter on the German side, carrying a maximum load of two bombs, and was employed on specialized missions that required pinpoint accuracy on a precise target -- obliterating a building or a small cluster of buildings rather than large tracts of enemy real estate. The men who flew them were among the elites of the Royal Air Force, some of the best of the best. Mosquito Squadron deals with such men and the kinds of missions they were assigned and the sacrifices they made. Quint Munroe (David McCallum) loses his oldest friend, Squadron Leader David Scott (David Buck), on a mission to destroy a group of German V-1 launchers -- he was like a brother to Scott, and must break the news to his wife Beth (Suzanne Neve), with whom Quint had once been involved. In the months that follow, he and Beth slowly rekindle their romance -- meanwhile, the German V-weapon program continues to advance, and they are getting ready to unveil the V-3. Quint is given the task of destroying the V-weapon plant at Charlon, a mission made possible by a new "bouncing bomb" called the "highball," invented by Dr. Barnes Wallis (of "Dambusters" fame). Just before the mission is to be undertaken, however, the Germans drop a film showing air prisoners, including a still-alive Scott, being moved to Charlon. Now the Mosquito crews will be killing their own colleagues and friends, and Quint must carry out his orders, which include hiding the fact that Scott is alive from Beth. The secret gets out to the squadron pilots, however, and a rebellion starts brewing in their ranks. Try as he might to find a way to save the lives of the prisoners, there seems to be no way for Munroe to avoid killing British pilots with British bombs.

• Director
• Casey Robinson
• Stars
• Joe Smith
• Charles Dale
• Millard Mitchell(uncredited)

The vaudeville comedians Smith and Dale star in a clever comedy short on Prohibition and all the illegal shenanigans that went on in America during Prohibition just so a man could get a drink. 

• Director
• Mort Blumenstock
• Writers
• Paul Gerard Smith(story)
• E.K. Nadel(adaptation)
• Stars
• Jack Benny
• Estelle Brody
• Tammany Young

Comedy short in which Jack Benny, his finances at a low ebb, watches a newsstand for a friend and picks up a young lady customer, equally broke.

• Director
• Mort Blumenstock
• Stars
• Eddie Cantor
• Charles C. Wilson(uncredited)

Comedy short in which Eddie Cantor tries to fix a speeding ticket.

• Director
• Ray Cozine
• Writer
• George Burns(story)
• Stars
• George Burns
• Gracie Allen
• William Browning(uncredited)

Comedy short in which George Burns, seeking a tie, is frustrated by department store staff.

• Director
• James Intveld
• Writer
• Thadd Turner
• Stars
• David Carradine
• Wes Studi
• Michael Parks

When disaster strikes and necessity dictates that the festering rivalry between the Franklin and Red Eagle families be set aside in the name of survival, the resulting tale of brotherhood gives testament to mankind's remarkable power for forgiveness in this family-oriented Western starring David Carradine and Wes Studi.

• Directors
• Woo-sang Park
• Y.K. Kim(reshoots)
• Writers
• Woo-sang Park(story)
• Y.K. Kim(story)
• Joseph Diamand(screenplay)
• Stars
• Y.K. Kim
• Vincent Hirsch
• Joseph Diamand

A hard-rocking band comprised of musicians who are also martial artists take on a dangerous ring of drug-dealing motorcycle ninjas in this obscure schlock film from director Y.K. Kim. Miami, Florida: 1987. Thanks to their hit song "Against the Ninja," Mark (Kim) and his band Dragon Sound are the hottest act in town. But when the old band who used to play the club comes at them with beer bottles and baseball bats, Dragon Sound stop rocking, and start fighting. When the fists start to fly, you'll laugh so hard you'll cry.

• Directors
• Mack V. Wright
• Joseph Kane(uncredited)
• Writers
• Dorrell McGowan(screenplay)
• Stuart E. McGowan(screenplay)
• Stars
• Gene Autry
• Smiley Burnette
• Kay Hughes

The Big Show is a modestly budgeted but elaborately turned out Gene Autry western. Autry plays "himself," a famous cowboy star, and his own stunt man. When Autry-the-star reneges on a agreement to make a personal appearance at Dallas' Texas Centennial (represented through newsreel shots), Autry-the-stunt man takes his boss' place. This causes confusion with the ladies, and with a gang of mobsters who were hoping to extort money from Autry-the-star. Ever protective of his own image, Gene Autry saw to it that both of his cinematic alter egos prove worthy of their salt in a climactic fist-fight with the villains. Also appearing in The Big Show is a radio aggregation called the Sons of the Pioneers, featuring future Gene Autry rival Roy Rogers.

• Directors
• Mervyn LeRoy
• Albert Lewin(fired)
• Writers
• Paul Osborn(screen play)
• Hans Rameau(screen play)
• Ève Curie(book "Madame Curie")
• Stars
• Greer Garson
• Walter Pidgeon
• Henry Travers

Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon team for the third time in this fact-based biography directed by Mervyn Leroy, based on Eve Curie's book about her mother. In early 1900s Paris, poor Polish student Marie (Greer Garson) gets a chance to study magnetism with kindly professor Jean Perot (Albert Basserman). Perot also arranges for the shy scientist Pierre Curie (Walter Pidgeon) to share the lab with Marie. As they work together, Pierre and Marie fall in love. Pierre eventually musters up the courage to ask her to marry him, and she accepts. After their honeymoon, Marie becomes obsessed with a piece of pitchblende that has been displaying some peculiar properties. After five years of work, Marie discovers radium. But as the years go on, Marie and Pierre struggle to raise money to continue their research, hoping to one day be able to isolate radium from the pitchblende.

• Director
• Richard Thorpe
• Writers
• Marion Parsonnet(screen play)
• Harry Ruskin(screen play)
• William R. Lipman(screen play)
• Stars
• Gladys George
• Franchot Tone
• Ted Healy

Love may be a headache, but without it, how would MGM programmers like this one ever have been made? Franchot Tone is cast as Winchellesque radio commentator Peter Lawrence, who becomes the unexpected savior of fading Broadway favorite Carlotta Lee (Gladys George). Suffering from a string of bad plays, Carlotta is vaunted back to public favor when she decides to adopt two orphans (Mickey Rooney and Virginia Weidler), a bit of "heart interest" exploited by the fast-talking Lawrence. Trouble is, Carlotta can't stand children and has only adopted the tykes for publicity purposes. This puts the kibosh on the blossoming romance between the actress and the commentator, and it takes a comic-opera kidnapping plot to set things right. Ted Healy, mentor of the Three Stooges, made one of his last screen appearances in Love is a Headache, which was released several months after Healy's death.

• Director
• Woody Allen
• Writer
• Woody Allen
• Stars
• Woody Allen
• Diane Keaton
• Georges Adet

Woody Allen's Love and Death is purportedly a satire of all things Russian, from Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky novels to Sergei Eisenstein films, but it plays more like a spin on Bob Hope's Monsieur Beaucaire. Allen plays Boris, a 19th century Russian who falls in love with his distant (and married) cousin Sonja (Diane Keaton). Pressed into service with the Russian army during the war against Napoleon, Boris accidentally becomes a hero, then goes on to win a duel against a cuckolded husband (Harold Gould). He returns to Sonja, hoping to settle down on the Steppes somewhere, but Sonja has become fired up with patriotic fervor, insisting that Boris join a plot to kill Napoleon. Intellectual in-jokes abound in Love and Death, and other gags are basic Allen one-liners; for instance, after being congratulated for his lovemaking skills, Boris replies nonchalantly, "I practice a lot when I'm alone." The pseudo-Russian ambience of Love and Death is comically enhanced by the Sergey Prokofiev compositions on the musical track.

• Director
• Martha Coolidge
• Writer
• Neil Simon(screenplay by)
• Stars
• Richard Dreyfuss
• Mercedes Ruehl
• Irene Worth

An adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning, semi-autobiographical stage play by popular dramatist Neil Simon, this comedy-drama focuses on the difficulties faced by two young brothers forced to live with a group of eccentric relatives. Arty (Mike Damus) and Jay (Brad Stoll) are young teenagers when their their widower father heads South to seek work, leaving the boys with their stern, intimidating grandmother (Irene Worth). Also part of the household is the more likable Aunt Bella (Mercedes Ruehl), an odd duck with a scattered personality and childlike enthusiasm that make her seem more like a fellow kid than an adult. Bella is kept under close watch by Grandma, who reacts strongly when she attempts to show her independence, leaving Arty and Jay as witnesses to a conflict that could tear the family apart. Lost in Yonkers offers much of Simon's trademark humor with a more bittersweet feel than in most of the playwright's other work, thanks in large part to the performance by Ruehl, who reprises her Tony Award-winning role as the troubled but cheerful Bella.

• Director
• Alfred L. Werker
• Writers
• Ormonde Dekay Jr.(additional dialogue)
• Maxime Furlaud(additional dialogue)
• Eugene Ling(screenplay)
• Stars
• Beatrice Pearson
• Mel Ferrer
• Susan Douglas Rubes

Until the House Un-American Activities Committee horned in, several postwar Hollywood films dealt with touchy "liberal" subject matter. Lost Boundaries stars Mel Ferrer as a light-skinned African-American, whose family is "passing" in an all-white New England community. When the truth comes out, the more bigoted neighbors demand the expulsion of Ferrer and his family. Considered pretty potent stuff in 1949, Lost Boundaries appears fairly conventional today, especially in its reluctance to cast a genuine black actor in the lead.

• Director
• Crane Wilbur
• Writers
• Crane Wilbur(screen story)
• Mary Roberts Rinehart(play)
• Avery Hopwood(play)
• Stars
• Vincent Price
• Agnes Moorehead
• Gavin Gordon

This fourth film version of the Mary Roberts Rinehart-Avery Hopwood stage chestnut The Bat is so old-fashioned in its execution that one might suspect it was intended as "camp" (though that phrase wasn't in common usage in 1959). Agnes Moorehead plays mystery novelist Cornelia Van Gorder, whose remote mansion is the scene for all sorts of diabolical goings-on. The "maguffin" is a million dollars' worth of securities, hidden away somewhere in the huge and foreboding estate. Vincent Price is seen committing a murder early on-but he's not the film's principal villain. Others in the cast include Gavin Gordon as an overly diligent detective, and former Our Gang star Darla Hood as a murder victim. The Bat was adapted for the screen by its director Crane Wilbur, himself a prolific "old dark house" scenarist and playright.

• Director
• Richard Brooks
• Writers
• Joseph Conrad(novel)
• Richard Brooks(written for the screen by)
• Stars
• Peter O'Toole
• James Mason
• Curd Jürgens

Joseph Conrad's cerebral, philosophical novel Lord Jim is streamlined and simplified by producer/director/writer Richard Brooks for the action-and-adventure crowd. Peter O'Toole plays the first officer of a tramp steamer, who, during a hurricane, cravenly abandons ship, leaving the passengers to drown. Disgraced, O'Toole seeks out ways to redeem himself--not only in the eyes of the British maritime commission, but in his own eyes. He signs on to deliver a shipment of dynamite to a tribe of natives somewhere in the uncharted Orient. He also joins the natives' fight against feudal warlord Eli Wallach, hoping perhaps to die in their service, thus purging himself from shame (and, in true Messianic fashion, becoming a martyr in the process). Despite the impressive star lineup of O'Toole, Wallach, Jack Hawkins, Curt Jurgens and Paul Lukas, most press coverage went to leggy leading lady Daliah Lavi--including the 1964 Saturday Evening Post article about the making of Lord Jim, written by Richard Brooks himself. Filmed in Cambodia and Hong Kong, Lord Jim isn't precisely the Conrad novel, but fans weaned on O'Toole's Lawrence of Arabia will be satisfied.

• Director
• Norman Lee
• Writers
• Edgar Wallace(novel "The Door With The Seven Locks")
• Norman Lee(screenplay)
• Gilbert Gunn(screenplay)
• Stars
• Leslie Banks
• Lilli Palmer
• Romilly Lunge

A blood-and-thunder horror yarn from the pen of Edgar Wallace, The Door With Seven Locks stars Leslie Banks as a mass murderer with a penchant for puzzles. He lures several heirs to a fortune to their deaths in his mazelike mansion, which is festooned with cryptic clues leading to the location of a valuable treasure. Banks goes too far when he abducts the lovely Lilli Palmer, whose handsome boyfriend invades the mystery house, rescues the girl, and puts an end to Banks' perfidy. Door with Seven Locks was released in the US as Chamber of Horrors.

• Director
• Victor Halperin
• Writers
• Garnett Weston(story by)
• William B. Seabrook(novel "The Magic Island")
• Stars
• Bela Lugosi
• Madge Bellamy
• Joseph Cawthorn

In this haunting low-budgeter, Bela Lugosi stars as Murder Legendre, a shadowy character who exercises supernatural powers over the natives in his Haitian domain. Coveting Madge Bellamy as his bride, wealthy Robert Frazier enters into an unholy agreement with Lugosi, whereby Madge will die, then be resurrected as a zombie.

• Director
• Wilhelm Thiele
• Writers
• George Oppenheimer(screen play)
• Will Scott(from a play by)
• Stars
• George Murphy
• Rita Johnson
• Virginia Field

London by Night was filmed entirely on the MGM back lot, which admittedly looked more like England than England. Adapted from Will Scott's play The Umbrella Man, this atmospheric thriller concerns the a series of murders committed in foggy Sundial Square by an elusive gentleman known variously as The Umbrella and Mr. Rabbit. Irish reporter Michael Dennis (George Murphy) joins forces with Scotland Yard inspector Jefferson (George Zucco) to trap the killer and determine his (or her) motives. Adding to the confusion is the fact that two of the "victims" are still alive -- and that those "two" are actually one! Among those bumped off by the villain are Eddie Quillan and Virginia Field, both cast against type as cockney pub-crawlers. If there was any doubt as to the identity of The Umbrella, the closing credits wipe them away by billing the actor in question under all his screen aliases.

• Director
• Koreyoshi Kurahara
• Writer
• Shintarô Ishihara
• Stars
• Yûjirô Ishihara
• Mie Kitahara
• Isamu Kosugi

A tale of two lost souls in Japan, a disgraced boxer and a singer in a mob joint who's on the run after rebuffing the advances of an underling thug, and how the two set about helping each other.

• Director
• Woody Allen
• Writer
• Woody Allen
• Stars
• Mia Farrow
• Dianne Wiest
• Michael Caine

A Woody Allen Manhattan mosaic, Hannah and Her Sisters concerns the lives, loves, and infidelities among a tightly-knit artistic clan. Hannah (Mia Farrow) regularly meets with her sisters Holly (Dianne Wiest) and Lee (Barbara Hershey) to discuss the week's events. It's what they don't always tell each other that forms the film's various subplots. Hannah is married to accountant and financial planner Elliot (Michael Caine), who carries a torch for Lee, who in turn lives with pompous Soho artist Frederick (Max Von Sydow). Meanwhile, Holly, a neurotic actress and eternal loser in love, dates TV producer Mickey (Allen), who used to be married to Hannah and spends most of the film convinced that he's about to die. Appearing in supporting parts are Lloyd Nolan and Maureen O'Sullivan (Farrow's real mom), as the eternally bickering husband-and-wife acting team who are the parents of Hannah and her sisters. The film begins and ends during the family's traditional Thanksgiving dinner, filmed in Farrow's actual New York apartment. Unbilled cameos are contributed by Sam Waterston as one of Wiest's brief amours and Tony Roberts as one of Allen's friends. Hannah and Her Sisters collected Oscars for Michael Caine, Dianne Wiest, and Woody Allen's screenplay.