Warner

After 10 years apart, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers reteam in their final film pairing, cleverly written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and smoothly directed by Charles Walters. The story, per many sources, mirrors real-life creative tensions the two shared. Astaire plays driven hoofer Josh Barkley. Rogers is his wife, Dinah, who longs to forsake the clackety-clap-tapping of Bouncin' the Blues for stage dramas. She departs, Josh vies to win her back, and the routines leading to a happy...

As soon as 1956's Rock Around the Clock sounded the opening notes of the first-ever rock 'n' roll movie, others were sure to follow. Did they ever: 1956 and 1957 boogie-woogied, doo-wopped and shimmy-shaked with, among others, Jailhouse Rock, Shake, Rattle and Rock and this star-packed Jamboree! The music is cued here by the era's microphone gods (including Dick Clark) and sung by performers who made the world spin at 45 RPM. See the fiery Jerry Lee Lewis, string-twanging Carl Perkins,...

Sutter Cane (Jurgen Prochnow, The Seventh Sign) is the best-selling author whose newest novel is literally driving readers insane. When he inexplicably vanishes, his publisher (Academy Award winner Charlton Heston*) sends special investigator John Trent (Sam Neill, Jurassic Park, Dead Calm) to track him down. Drawn to a town that exists only in Cane's books, Trent crosses the barrier between fact and fiction and enters a terrifying world from which there is no escape. Inspired by the tales of...

Have an ice day! It's a parched future, and water, the galaxy's only valuable commodity, is controlled by the evil Templars. Their only foes: a handful of daring Ice Pirates. Spoofy-goofy comedy, otherworldly special effects, spectacular space creatures, bedraggled 'bots and bicep-rippling swashbuckling highlight this cult fave. Robert Urich (Vegas), Mary Crosby (Dallas), Anjelica Huston (The Addams Family) and Ron Perlman (Hellboy) romp through a storyline involving a determined princess, the...

Richard Widmark turns callow young men into fighting machines in this engaging boot- camp drama costarring Karl Malden and directed by Richard Brooks. As war rages in Korea, a new crop of U.S. Army recruits reports for basic training, where drill sergeants Ryan (Widmark) and Holt (Malden) have 16 weeks to make them combat-ready. While Holt lends a sympathetic ear and is well-regarded by the troops, Ryan relies solely on tough tactics to whip them into shape. As his brutal methods are...

Her Majesty, Love is a film frolic of firsts and lasts. It sadly marks the last movie for Broadway's vivacious Marilyn Miller (star of the earlier Sally and Sunny, adaptations of her stage musicals available from Warner Archive), who would return to the boards but not the screen. In this reworking of a German comedy, she plays a cabaret barmaid who becomes engaged to the playboy scion (Ben Lyon) of an industrial family. Fellow Ziegfeld luminary W.C. Fields, in his first sound feature, plays...

Vittles, songs and dance are amply ladled out when Judy Garland headlines The Harvey Girls, a joyous musical slice of Americana celebrating the restaurants that brought extra helpings of civilization to Old West rail passengers. Highlights include Garland holding saloon patrons at jittery gunpoint to retrieve stolen beefsteaks, Ray Bolger's loose-limbed comic hoofing, Virginia O'Brien's sure-shot comic timing, Angela Lansbury's stylish wickedness as a saloon singer and the "On the Atchison,...

CHARMING HONG KONG ROMANTIC FARCE IN THE TRADITION OF VICTOR/VICTORIA Pop music super fan Lam Chi Wing disguises herself as a man so she can meet her idol, Rose, at an audition for male singers being staged by Rose's producer/boyfriend, Sam. The couple's relationship is on the rocks, however, and Sam signs the talentless Chi-Wing just to spite Rose. Things get even more complicated when a perplexed Sam develops feelings for the conflicted Chi-Wing, who tries her best to keep Sam and Rose...

In a reckless quest to avenge his father's death, sword-maker On loses his right arm and becomes a disgraced outcast in the martial world. On's only hope for retribution lies in his ability to create a new style of fighting that will both compensate for his disability and overcome the savage force of the fearsome opponent who slaughtered his father. Director Tsui Hark's reinvention of the Shaw Brothers classic One-Armed Swordsman (1967) is filled with kinetic, gravity-defying combat of a sort...

Rock Hudson becomes hooked on crime and Claudia Cardinale in this breezy comedy caper. When Esmeralda Marini (Cardinale) pays a surprise visit to NYC police captain Mike Harmon (Hudson), the uptight cop agrees to help her as a favor to her father, an old friend he hasn't seen in years. She explains that she wants to break into an Austrian villa and return gems stolen by a friend, but Mike has no idea it's all a con to rob the house herself. As the thrill of adventure loosens him up and he...

The batters couldn't hit water if they fell out of a boat. The fielders must be using frying pans instead of baseball mitts. It looks like the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates haven't got a prayer until the prayers of a young orphan girl get the Pirates some celestial support! Comedy and charm form the winning lineup of Angels in the Outfield, starring Paul Douglas as the team's short-fused manager. "Dogs have fleas, managers have sportswriters," he grouses to a columnist (Janet Leigh) covering the...

The Marines have landed! Cpl. Eddie Birdlace and three buddies are on the loose among San Francisco's bars, tattoo parlors and blue-movie houses. They've also organized a "dogfight," a wager with simple rules. Each guy puts in $50. And the one who finds the most unattractive date wins. Birdlace finds Rose. River Phoenix gave one of his most endearing performances as Eddie in Dogfight, a terrific and touching Vietnam-era saga set to a memory-evoking '60s-tunes soundtrack and directed by Nancy...