After director Fritz Lang vaulted to prominence with such masterpieces of German cinema as Metropolis and M, he brought his art to Hollywood films, including Fury, Ministry of Fear, The Woman in the Window and more trenchant tales of innocents caught in a web of seeming guilt. His last U.S. movie is this intriguing film noir about a novelist (Dana Andrews) out to expose the injustices of capital punishment. Working with his fiancee's (Joan Fontaine) father, a newspaper publisher (Sidney...

Selena St. George stares at the note and news clipping: Her estranged mother Dolores has been accused of murder. Grudgingly, Selena returns to her tiny Maine hometown to offer help. Not that she believes Dolores is innocent. In truth, she harbors suspicions going back 20 years. Kathy Bates, who won a Best Actress Oscar for Misery,* scores in another chilling Stephen King story (directed by Taylor Hackford) as tough-talking Dolores Claiborne. Jennifer Jason Leigh is wrenching as embittered...

After antiwar activists Annie and Arthur Pope (Christine Lahti and Judd Hirsch) blew up a napalm lab in 1971, they became lifelong fugitives. They and their children have stayed just one step ahead of the law, running from state to state, job to job, identity to identity. But now elder son Danny (River Phoenix) wants to stop running from a past not his. And to do so, he might never see his on-the-lam family again. Directed by Sidney Lumet from Naomi Foner's Golden Globe Award-winning...

Heaven's harps and wings are nice, but what showman extraordinaire Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. wants most now that he's no longer on Earth is to put on another extravaganza. It would have the brightest stars and creative talents. The most in glamour, gams and optimism. In short, it would be like Ziegfeld Follies. With a who's who of credited and uncredited Hollywood talents, this all-star revue is heaven to fans of musicals. Fred Astaire dazzles once, twice four numbers in all. Red Skelton reprises...

Joe Wilson, a wrongly jailed man thought to have died in a blaze started by a bloodthirsty lynch mob, is somehow alive. And dead to all he ever stood for and perhaps ever will. Because Joe aims to ensure his would-be executioners meet the fate Joe miraculously escaped. Spencer Tracy is Joe, Sylvia Sidney is his bride-to-be, and Fury lives up to its volatile name with its searing indictment of mob justice and lynching. In his first American film, director Fritz Lang (Metropolis, The Big Heat)...

Warner Bros. was always a progressive studio when it came to dealing with social issues that their competitors shied away from. With the Nazi threat building momentum in Europe, the studio courageouly defied external pressures and made the first Hollywood film to expose the issue of domestic espionage. Based on true events, Edward G. Robinson stars as a government agent who uncovers a ring of Nazi spies operating in the U.S., with a fine supporting cast including Francis Lederer, George...

Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, Britain's premier masters of the macabre, bring the Horror of Dracula to vivid, full-color death in this retelling of Bram Stoker's spellbinding vampire tale. Dracula (Lee), a centuries-old Transylvanian nobleman damned to an eternal half-life, regularly finds new victims. He also finds Dr. Van Helsing (Cushing), a scientist who becomes the Count's implacable foe in a deadly game of bat-and-mouse. The dread is here -- as are the power and pathos of this genre...

Selina D'Arcey is blind, yet she sees the world anew through the eyes of kindly Gordon Ralfe (Academy Award winner* Sidney Poitier). An awkward Cinderella raised by a bigoted, abusive mother, Selina is white. She does not know that the man helping her learn to dial a pay phone or find the restroom is black. Elizabeth Hartman's luminous screen debut as Selina earned her a Golden Globe Award as Most Promising Newcomer. On the veteran side as Selina's blowsy, bitter mother, Shelley Winters won...

This 1936 Best Picture Oscar winner is every bit extravagant as its subject: theatrical empresario Florence Ziegfeld, Jr. Said Newsweek, "it carries on his tradition of superlatives: the most expensive actors, the best dancers, the most beautiful girls " William Powell gives one of his most acclaimed performances as the legendary Ziegfeld. Joining him are other stars from the MGM constellation: Myrna Loy (Powell's partner in The Thin Man series), Luise Rainer (the portrayal that won her the...

"I would like to say a few words about weddings," a weary man says from the middle of a muddle of rice and scattered bottles. What follows is a warm, witty look at what it means to be Father of the Bride. Spencer Tracy is the father and Elizabeth Taylor the bride in this lively Vincente Minnelli-directed classic. Taylor is glowingly showcased - and reflected in three mirrors when first seen in a wedding gown. Tracy's performance captures every loving father's exasperations and joys as the day...

Based on the best-selling novel by Sinclair Lewis, this "handsome, intelligent film" (Los Angeles Times) garnered seven Academy Award nominations, winning one*, and is "one of the authentic masterpieces of the 1930s" (Filmex Guide). Sam Dodsworth (Walter Huston) is a small-town rags-to-riches millionaire who finds that his money cannot bring him happiness. His unsatisfied wife, Fran (Ruth Chatterton), seeking glamour and sophistication, persuades him to take her on a grand tour of Europe,...

"American Flyers," Rex Reed wrote, "is a fine mixture of romance, humor and tears with action sequences among the most exciting ever captured on film. It's guaranteed to increase the viewer's adrenalin." Two-time Academy Award winner* Kevin Costner and David Grant star as brothers struggling to win a world-class cycling competition and regain the respect and affection they once shared. The painful events surrounding their father's death have caused a rift. To bridge the gap, both enter the...

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times " Charles Dickens' tale of love and tumult during the French Revolution comes to the screen in a sumptuous film version by the producer famed for nurturing sprawling literary works: David O. Selznick (David Copperfield, Anna Karenina, Gone with the Wind). Ronald Colman (The Prisoner of Zenda) stars as Sydney Carton -- sardonic, dissolute, a wastrel and destined to redeem himself in an act of courageous sacrifice. "It's a far, far better...

Romantic drama combines with humor, star power combines with lavish spectacle, and the walls come tumbling down! This Academy Award -winning extravanganza's street-splitting, brick-cascading, fire-raging re-creation of the cataclysmic earthquake remains "one of the greatest action sequences in the history of the cinema, rivalling the chariot race in both Ben-Hurs" (Adrian Turner, Time Out Film Guide). Clark Gable plays rakish Barbary Coast kingpin Blackie Norton. Jeanette MacDonald portrays a...

Once you visit the Isle of the Dead, there's no hope of returning to the land of the living. A small island off the coast of Greece holds a secret so dreadful that once you step onto its soil you must remain there forever. General Pherides (master of horror Boris Karloff) is one such a visitor. Going to the island to honor the grave of his late wife, Pherides discovers that it's held in the grip of a terrifying plague -- a sickness that enters the victim's mind and drives them insane! Pherides...

After Raquel Welch conquered the screen in One Million Years B.C., Hammer Studios followed up with When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, written and directed by Val Guest (The Quatermass Xperiment) and based on a story by J.G. Ballard (Crash). Victoria Vetri stars as Sanna, rescued from ritual sacrifice by Tara (Robin Hawdon), a member of a rival tribe. Her survival coincides with the mysterious formation of a new "fire" in the sky: the moon! Sanna's old tribe blames her for this affront to the sun;...

Go ahead. Slug, drug, kidnap and leave John Shaft buck naked in a sweltering hellhole. It's still no deal. If you want to recruit this tough-minded Manhattan detective for an overseas assignment, you'd better use a language he understands. One that offers a fat up-front fee. And a drop-dead-gorgeous accomplice. Richard Roundtree returns as the indomitable Shaft, who poses as a slave, unmasks the leaders of an Africa-to-Europe slavery cartel and, for good measure, mixes his business with...

Stand and pledge loyalty -- or prepare to lie cold beneath your shields. Chivalrous knight Wilfred of Ivanhoe is determined to restore Richard the Lion-Hearted to England's throne. Gallantry and costumed pageantry combine in this crowd-pleasing nominee for 3 Academy Awards , including Best Picture. Robert Taylor plays the title role, and Elizabeth Taylor and Joan Fontaine also star in a rousing adaption of Sir Walter Scott's novel. The film's jousting tournament is a galloping display of...

No matter what rolled in on the tides of time, California surfing buddies Matt, Jack and Leory knew they'd stick together. And that they'd be ready when a rare 20-foot swell hit the coast at last. Big Wednesday celebrates surfing as much as the most dedicated kid who ever waxed a board. It's also a fascinating 1962-1974 chronicle of friendships and lifestyles in transition. John Milius (Apocalypse Now, Red Dawn) directs and coscripts with a passion for the ultimate ride and a truthful feel for...

Felix Farmer's (Richard Mulligan) latest movie flops -- and lots of Hollywood types spring into action. Agents are called. Lawyers are retained. Statements are issued. It's what master comedy director Blake Edwards calls "Standard Operating Bull," the subject of his gleefully satiric S.O.B. Julie Andrews is a wholesome superstar about to alter her image radically. Aiding and abetting the madness are William Holden, Robert Preston, Robert Vaughn, Shelley Winters, Loretta Swit and more. Dialogue...

Torn between religious pacifism and patriotism, Alvin York of Tennessee went on to become World War I's most acclaimed hero. As the simple backwoods farm boy who captured 132 German soldiers during the Battle of Argonne, Gary Cooper (handpicked by York) also won acclaim -- and his first Best Actor Academy Award . Released in 1941 when the United States was on the brink of another war, this stirring adventure inspired thousands of enlisting men. Nominated for a total of 11 Oscars including Best...

Did European aristocrat Claus von Bulow (Jeremy Irons) try to murder his wife, Sunny (Glenn Close), at their luxurious Newport mansion in 1980? Tabloids of the day had their opinions. "You have one thing in your favor," defense attorney Alan Dershowitz (Ron Silver) told von Bulow. "Everybody hates you." Written for the screen by Nicholas Kazan (Fallen, At Close Range), directed by Barbet Schroeder (Single White Female) and based on Dershowitz's book, Reversal of Fortune is the acclaimed...

London's become a small town for a handful of jaded psychedelic-era hipsters. But Johnny Alucard has a groovy new way for his pals to get their kicks. A certain ritual will be the living end, he insists. And if you still wonder where Johnny's coming from, try spelling his last name backwards. Dracula is raised into the modern era in this Hammer Studios shocker that's "quite well done" (John Stanley, Creature Features). Christopher Lee dons the cape for the sixth time and seeks out fresh...

After a round of partying he can't remember, World War II veteran Dave Hirsh is placed on a bus headed for the last place he'd choose: Parkman, Indiana, the hometown Hirsh hasn't seen in well over decade. Frank Sinatra plays Hirsh, whose arrival in Parkman brings small-town hypocrisy to the unforgiving light of day in this character-driven tale directed by Vincente Minnelli and based on a novel by James Jones (whose From Here to Eternity led to Sinatra's 1953 Oscar *). In his first screen...