Warner

The Merry Widow with no singing? A silent version of an operetta may seem an unlikely venture, but this vivacious hit proved that the right ingredients make for an irresistible romantic souffle. Those ingredients include Erich von Stroheim's stylish direction (in his first film after Greed), ex-Ziegfeld bombshell Mae Murray in her best role, a star-making turn for John Gilbert and a mythical European kingdom straight out of fairyland. Murray plays showgirl Sally O'Hara, who's jilted by a...

When producer-screenwriter Casey Robinson set out to make a wartimer extolling the courage of our Russian allies battling Nazi invaders, he chose a noted director -- Jacques Tourneur (Cat People, Out of the Past) -- but a cast of unknowns. One of them didn't stay unknown long. Film-debuting Gregory Peck began his rapid rise to stardom playing a steely guerrilla leader preparing for a desperate mission he knows he and his band of fighters cannot survive. Acclaimed dancer Tamara Toumanova (soon...

Two years after his last European film of the 1920s, filmmaker Michael Curtiz showed his range with this ambitious Warner Bros. production magnificently restored here to its fullest possible running length. Like the earlier The Ten Commandments, the two-pronged tale visits Biblical and modern times as it draws a parallel between two fateful eras. Colossal floodwaters roil, great structures topple, Noah and his family survive the worldwide destruction -- and vast destruction of another age...

The horse-racing tale Thoroughbreds Don't Cry marks the first of eight screen pairings (plus two variety-act films) of Hollywood legends Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. Rooney plays a swell-headed top jockey pressured by his disreputable pop to throw a race so that the ol' man can cash in at the window. Garland is a singing cutie who knows her way around the paddock because she lives at a boarding house for jockeys run by her aunt (a delightful Sophie Tucker). Ronald Sinclair plays the...

Sisters Emily and Charlotte Bronte lived to write, weaving tales rich with characters, incident and passion from the poor Yorkshire vicarage they called home. Devotion tells the story -- with more than a dash of literary license -- of these daring women who created Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. Ida Lupino and Olivia deHavilland portray the sisters, yearning for literary success and the love of the same man (Paul Henreid). Arthur Kennedy is a standout as their troubled brother Branwell, a...

Matrimony means different things to different people. For temperamental artist Geoffrey Carroll, it means he's in his element. And out of his mind. In their only screen pairing, two of film's all-time greats star in a psychological thriller rife with pelting rain and pealing bells, blackmail and murder, calculated dread and an unnerving finale. Humphrey Bogart portrays Geoffrey, who's making a habit of poisoning one wife and marrying another when the former no longer inspires his canvases....

Every princess needs a Prince Charming. But lovely Princess Veronica didn't expect hers to be bellhop Jimmy Dobson. Hedy Lamarr is the princess, Robert Walker is the bellhop and June Allyson is a bedridden former dancer who secretly loves Jimmy in this frothy fairy tale set in prewar Manhattan's version of a palace: an elegant hotel complete with royal grounds (Central Park, of course). The fun begins when Jimmy mistakes Veronica for a new maid. She plays along, the two strike up a friendship...

In its Golden Age, Hollywood boasted many delightful actresses who could play beautiful, smart, funny working girls. But when it came to beautiful, smart, funny career women, Rosalind Russell was the ideal choice. In this polished romantic comedy, she portrays a judge wooed by Jeff Sherman (Walter Pidgeon), an urbane newspaperman. Sherman's real intent is to put the lady in a compromising position so that his boss (Edward Arnold) can blackmail her into a favorable ruling in his messy divorce...

Her name is Nora Hunter (Laraine Day), but call her Sylvia. Wartime shipbuilding magnate Nora poses as her secretary Sylvia to ward off newshounds and marriage-minded fortune hunters. Meanwhile, the secretary poses as Nora to attend all ship christenings and public functions. But when a handsome airman (Alan Marshal) catches the real Nora's interest, the charade begins to crack. Bride by Mistake boasts a notable romantic comedy pedigree. It's a remake of The Richest Girl in the World by Norman...

The tents are leaky. The troupers are weary. The carnival limps into town and sets up for another show. To the public, the carnival means exciting performers. To Nick Coster, those performers are "mugs and grifters and riffraff -- all under one tent." Nick should know. He puts the show together. Humphrey Bogart plays Nick, bringing crisp authority to a movie whose midway atmosphere is so alive you can almost taste the caramel corn. Sylvia Sidney, Eddie Albert and Joan Leslie join Bogart in...

The cops have no interest in any of the suspects in the line up. Laura Mansfield (Joyce MacKenzie) does. She's has a hunch one of them is the person she saw running away after her father was gunned down. The law turns the man free. Laura, a college student with no training as a detective, turns herself loose on the case. Feigning romantic interest, she becomes part of the suspect's world, putting herself on a twisted trail of hitmen, nightclubs, blackmail and false identities that leads to...

The Depression is a tough time to fall in love, but young Marje Harris (Ginger Rogers) and her gas-jockey beau Blacky Gorman (Joel McCrea) take their chance at heaven. The two plan a future together until a spoiled society girl (Marian Nixon) moves to town, flips over handsome Blacky and dazzles the hapless chump. Marje stands aside -- then stands up when the new Mr. and Mrs. Gorman need a friend. Rogers was two months away from her star making debut as Fred Astaire's dance partner in Flying...