A New York gangster and his girlfriend attempt to turn street beggar Apple Annie into a society lady when the peddler learns her daughter is marrying royalty.
From the moment she glimpses her idol at the stage door, Eve Harrington is determined to take the reins of power away from the great actress Margo Channing. Eve maneuvers her way into Margo's Broadway role, becomes a sensation and even causes turmoil in the lives of Margo's director boyfriend, her playwright and his wife. Only the cynical drama critic sees through Eve, admiring her audacity and perfect pattern of deceit.
William Shatner, Liz Taylor and many more stars blow lines, lose their pants and more in this hilarious collection of movie and TV bloopers.
A former vaudeville child star viciously torments her paraplegic sister in their decaying Hollywood mansion.
Short documentary about the making of "The Petrified Forest."
An aging, reclusive Southern belle plagued by a horrifying family secret descends into madness after the arrival of a lost relative.
In 1850s Louisiana, the willfulness of a tempestuous Southern belle threatens to destroy all who care for her.
As Hercule Poirot enjoys a luxurious cruise down the Nile, a newlywed heiress is found murdered on board and every elegant passenger becomes a prime suspect.
After an American family moves to an old country manor in rural England, one of the daughters is tormented by the spirit of the owner's long lost daughter, who mysteriously disappeared 30 years ago during a solar eclipse.
When Miss Jane Marple arrives at palatial Stonygates, one thing is certain. Before there's time to lather a warm scone with marmalade and place a tea cozy, murder most foul is bound to occur.
The working class twin sister of a callous wealthy woman impulsively murders her out of revenge and assumes the identity of the dead woman. But impersonating her dead twin is more complicated and risky than she anticipated.
After marrying her long lost love, a pianist finds the relationship threatened by a wealthy composer who is besotted with her.
In the underworld of Manhattan, a woman dares to stand up to one of the city's most powerful gangsters.
Juliet Forrest is convinced that the reported death of her father in a mountain car crash was no accident. Her father was a prominent cheese scientist working on a secret recipe. To prove it was murder, she enlists the services of private eye Rigby Reardon. He finds a slip of paper containing a list of people who are 'The Friends and Enemies of Carlotta'.
An acerbic critic wreaks havoc when a hip injury forces him to move in indefinitely with a Midwestern family.
An ambitious Mexican-American gets mixed up with the neurotic wife of his casino boss.
A woman suffers a nervous breakdown and an oppressive mother before being freed by the love of a man she meets on a cruise.
A history of horror movies.
Socialite Judith Traherne lives a lavish but emotionally empty life. Riding horses is one of her few joys, and her stable master is secretly in love with her. Told she has a brain tumor by her doctor, Frederick Steele, Judith becomes distraught. After she decides to have surgery to remove the tumor, Judith realizes she is in love with Dr. Steele, but more troubling medical news may sabotage her new relationship, and her second chance at life.
A family moves into a large old mansion in the countryside which seems to have a mysterious and sinister power over its new residents.
In the second screen version of The Maltese Falcon, a detective is caught between a lying seductress and a lady jewel thief.
A pair of witches descend upon a family and wreak havoc. Now it's up to the family's matriarch, a private detective, and a suspended police officer to stop them.
Rosa, the self-serving wife of a small-town doctor, gets a better offer when a wealthy big-city man insists she get a divorce and marry him instead. Soon she demonstrates she is capable of rather deplorable acts -- including murder.
A financially-strapped charter pilot hires himself to an oil tycoon to kidnap his madcap daughter and prevent her from marrying a vapid band leader.
Brash hoodlum Tom Connors enters Sing Sing cocksure of himself and disrespectful toward authority, but his tough but compassionate warden changes him.
Tony and Tia are other-worldly twins endowed with telekinesis. When their Uncle Bene drops them off in Los Angeles for an earthbound vacation, a display of their supernatural skill catches the eye of the nefarious Dr. Gannon and his partner in crime, Letha, who see rich possibilities in harnessing the children's gifts. They kidnap Tony, and Tia gives chase only to find Gannon is using her brother's powers against her.
Although Vivian Revere is seemingly the most successful of a trio of reunited schoolmates, she throws it away by descending into a life of debauchery and drugs.
A beautiful but vain woman who rejects the love of her older husband must face the loss of her youth and beauty.
Sharecropper's son Marvin tries to help his community overcome poverty and ignorance.
Sir Walter Raleigh overcomes court intrigue to win favor with the Queen in order to get financing for a proposed voyage to the New World.
A repressed poetess and an embittered war hero help each other cope with their problems.
When a woman’s twin sister is drowned, she assumes her identity in order to be close to the man she feels her sister took from her years before.
When a teacher reads an essay written by Morgan Evans, one of the boys, moved by his rough poetry she decides to hold classes in her house and believes that Morgan is smart enough to attend Oxford.
An Eddie Cantor look-alike organizes an all-star show to help the war effort.
An unhappy, self-centered woman runs off with her sister's husband, wreaking havoc and ruining the lives of those around her.
In 1900, a clan attempts to strike a deal with a Chicago industrialist to get him to build cotton mills in their Deep South town.
When lovely and virtuous governess Henriette Deluzy comes to educate the children of the debonair Duc de Praslin, a royal subject to King Louis-Philippe and the husband of the volatile and obsessive Duchesse de Praslin, she instantly incurs the wrath of her mistress, who is insanely jealous of anyone who comes near her estranged husband. Though she saves the duchess's little son from a near-death illness and warms herself to all the children, she is nevertheless dismissed by the vengeful duchess. Meanwhile, the attraction between the duke and Henriette continues to grow, eventually leading to tragedy.
After a newlywed's husband apparently dies in a plane crash, she discovers that her rival for his affections is pregnant with his child.
A young man finds himself attracted to a cold and unfeeling waitress who may ultimately destroy them both.
The lives of two cousins are complicated by the return of an ex-boyfriend and an illegitimate child.
Politicians go after a small-town librarian when she refuses to ban a book. She's quickly labeled a Communist.
Two soldiers on leave spend three nights at a club offering free of charge food, dancing, and entertainment for servicemen on their way overseas. Club founders Bette Davis and John Garfield give talks on the history of the place.
Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1938.
Out-takes (mostly from Warner Bros.), promotional shorts, movie premieres, public service pleas, wardrobe tests, documentary material, and archival footage make up this star-studded voyeuristic look at the Golden age of Hollywood during the 30s, 40, and 50.
In a Scottish sanitarium, a brilliant research psychiatrist works on a treatment for dementia praecox. He falls for his altruistic female lab assistant and they begin a passionate, tragic relationship.
A promotional short to hype the production of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935).
Orphaned horse-trainer's little daughter has reciprocated bond with horse, which needs her presence to win races.
This period drama frames the tumultuous affair between Queen Elizabeth I and the man who would be King of England.
Gabby, the waitress in an isolated Arizona diner, dreams of a bigger and better life. One day penniless intellectual Alan drifts into the joint and the two strike up a rapport. Soon enough, notorious killer Duke Mantee takes the diner's inhabitants hostage. Surrounded by miles of desert, the patrons and staff are forced to sit tight with Mantee and his gang overnight.
Nanny, a London family's live-in maid, brings morbid 10-year-old Joey back from the psychiatric ward he's been in for two years, since the death of his younger sister. Joey refuses to eat any food Nanny's prepared or take a bath with her in the room. He also demands to sleep in a room with a lock. Joey's parents -- workaholic Bill and neurotic Virgie -- are sure Joey is disturbed, but he may have good reason to be terrified of Nanny.
After a woman shoots a man to death, a damning letter she wrote raises suspicions.
On the eve of World War II, the German Kurt Müller, his American-born wife Sara, and their three children, having lived in Europe for years, visit Sara's wealthy mother near Washington, DC. Kurt secretly works for the anti-Nazi resistance. A visiting Romanian count, becoming aware of this, seeks to blackmail him.
Two aged sisters reflect on life and the past during a late summer day in Maine.
Val takes the assistance of a society reporter and a journalist to investigate the disappearance of her half-sister Arlene, a wealthy socialite who is involved in criminal activities.
Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1941.
While a few Hollywood celebrities such as James Stewart and Clark Gable saw combat during World War II, the majority used their talents to rally the American public through bond sales, morale-boosting USO tours, patriotic war dramas and escapist film fare. Comedian David Steinberg plays host for this star-studded, 90-minute documentary, which looks at the way Tinseltown helped the United States' war effort.
An unpolished racketeer, whose racket is finding heirs for unclaimed fortunes, affects ethics and tea-drinking manners to win back the sweetheart who now works for his seemingly upright competitor.
Don Bellows finds former stage star Joyce Heath a penniless drunk and takes her to his Connecticut home for rehabilitation. He asks his fiancée Gail to free him and offers to sponsor Joyce in a play.
A reporter turned tax agent infiltrates a crime ring to catch a racketeer, working with the mobster's bookkeeper. When she agrees to testify, an informant exposes them and she's kidnapped.
Fight promoter Nick Donati grooms a bellhop as a future champ, but has second thoughts when the 'kid' falls for his sister.
Butch Saunders has been transferred to Missing Persons because he was too brutal in other police work...
Although free spirit Helen Bauer does not believe in marriage, she consents to marry Don, but his infidelities cause her to also take on a lover.
A divorced couple's teen-age daughter stands trial for stabbing her mother's latest lover.
Mystery novelist Janet Frobisher, lives in an isolated house, having been separated for years from her criminal husband. She has fallen in love with her secretary's fiancé and when her estranged husband unexpectedly returns, Janet poisons him, but just as she's about to dispose of the body, one of her husband's criminal cohorts also shows up.
When the Manhattan investment firm of Sherwood Nash goes broke, he joins forces with his partner Snap and fashion designer Lynn Mason to provide discount shops with cheap copies of Paris couture dresses.
Two writers, friends since childhood, fight over their books and lives.
The career of Revolutionary War naval hero John Paul Jones, from his youth in Scotland through his service to Catherine the Great of Russia.
David gives his wife, Joyce, an unexpected—and unpleasant—surprise when he suddenly demands a divorce. When she then learns that David has taken up with a younger woman, Joyce decides to make the most of this separation by taking a solo trip to the Caribbean. However, just before diving into a vacation fling, she runs into Emily, an old chum whose own divorce has left her embittered. Joyce then debates giving married life one last chance.
A CIA agent is used as a pawn in an insane woman's plan to steal a Polaris submarine.
An aging American millionairess journeys to Rome each year with her chauffeur George to play the card game scopone with destitute Peppino and his wife Antonia.
Four strangers board a plane and become fast friends, but a catastrophic crash leaves only one survivor. He then sets off on a journey to discover who these people were, but ultimately discovers the devastating truth about himself.
A retrospective of the films of Britain's Hammer Studios, renowned for making stylish horror films in the 1950s, '60s and '70s. Included are clips from Hammer productions and interviews with actors, actresses, directors and producers who worked on these films.
An aspiring young artist breaks from his wealthy, possessive mother to live a bohemian existence in the artist's section of Rome and falls in love with a beautiful model who wants an uncommitted relationship.
Sylvia Syms looks through the BBC archives to tell the story of one of Hollywood's greatest ever feuds - the rivalry between legendary actresses Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Interviews from the 1960s and 70s reveal the mutual loathing that came to a head when, against all expectations, they starred together in the classic psychological thriller Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?. The programme looks in detail at the making of the film, examines the fallout when Bette and not Joan received an Oscar nomination for her performance, and shows how, despite the hatred, the pair had more in common than audiences appreciated.
Actress Margaret Elliot is well past her prime but refuses to retire from the acting business. Despite entreaties from both her daughter, Gretchen, and one-time professional colleague Jim Johannsen, Margaret remains convinced that she can regain her former glory. As she sets her sights on a coveted Hollywood role, Johannsen tries doggedly to get his unrequited love to see the folly of her ways.
Mrs Taggart always celebrates her anniversary with her grown sons. It’s a tradition practised since the death of her husband and she is determined for it to continue. None of her three sons have dared to cross their ruthless domineering mother but this anniversary they intend to try. With cruel and brutal twists, the family get-together becomes a social nightmare beyond endurance.
In World War I London, Myra is an American out-of-work chorus girl making ends meet by picking up men on Waterloo Bridge. During a Zeppelin air raid she meets Roy, a naive young American who enlisted in the Canadian army. After they fall for each other, Roy tricks Myra into visiting his family, who live in a country estate outside London, his mother having remarried to a retired British Major. Myra is reluctant to continue the relationship with Roy, he not aware of her past.
The newly-named emperor Maximilian and his wife Carlota arrive in Mexico to face popular sentiment favoring Benito Juárez and democracy.
The Progressive Party convention is deadlocked for governor, so both sides nominate the dark horse Zachary Hicks. Kay Russell suggests they hire Hal Blake as campaign manager; but first they have to get him out of jail for not paying alimony. Blake organizes the office and coaches Hicks to answer every question by pausing and then saying, "Well yes, but then again no." Blake will sell Hicks as dumb but honest. Russell refuses to marry Blake, while Joe keeps people away from Blake's office. Blake teaches Hicks a speech by Lincoln. At the debate when the conservative candidate Underwood recites the same speech, Blake exposes him as a plagiarist. Hicks is presented for photo opportunities and gives his yes-and-no answer to any question, including whether he expects to win.
A successful shoe manufacturer named John Reeves goes on vacation and meets the grown children of his recently deceased and much-respected competitor; they're on the verge of losing the family legacy through their careless behavior. Reeves takes it upon himself to save his rival's company by teaching the heirs a lesson in business.
Former bootlegger Dutch Barnes pressures neighborhood druggist Jimmy Morrell into making cut-rate knockoff toiletry, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical products.
A gangster's widow fights for love despite society's disapproval.
Bette Davis handles the title role in this highly offbeat crime comedy about two aging hippies who elect to rob a bank to restore Bunny O'Hare's financial affairs after she's been unjustly evicted and rendered homeless. When that heist ends up paying off, rather than take off for the border, Bunny opts for a life of crime with her new partner, Bill Green, played by fellow Oscar-winner Ernest Borgnine.
A farmer's widow takes on the land and her late husband's tempestuous son.
An infatuated debutante renews a Shakespearean actor's running feud with his leading lady.
A wealthy couple's marriage is falling apart due to the man's infidelity. The wife's male friend has long loved her and sees his big opportunity.
A magazine's staff, including bickering ex-lovers Linda and Carey, cover an Indiana wedding, which goes slightly wrong.
An Irish cabby in the Bronx watches his wife go overboard planning their daughter's wedding.
Three daughters of a small down pharmacist undergo trials and tribulations in their problematic marriages between 1904 and 1908.
A documentary about the life of Errol Flynn, with recollections from friends and family.
The arms race goes to the beauty parlor with Bette Davis in The Letter.
An Englishman in France unwittingly is placed into the identity, and steps into the vacated life, of a look-alike French nobleman.
While giving a private performance for a visiting monarch, concert pianist Montgomery Royle is deafened when a bomb is detonated in an attempt to assassinate the foreign ruler. With his career over as a result of his injury, Royle returns to New York City with his sister Florence, close friend Mildred Miller, and considerably younger fiancée Grace Blair. After abandoning thoughts of suicide, Montgomery discovers he can lip read, and he spends his days observing people in Central Park from his apartment window. As he learns of people's problems, he tries to help them anonymously and becomes absorbed in his game of "playing God".
A deliciously scandalous portrait of unsung Hollywood legend Scotty Bowers, whose bestselling memoir chronicled his decades spent as sexual procurer to the stars.
Marianne falls in love with con man Valentine who uses their relation to get her father's endorsement on a money-raising scheme. He runs off with the money and Marianne, later dumping her. Her sister Laura loves Dr. Lindley although she knows he loves Marianne. Marianne returns and marries a wealthy young man, and Lindley turns his love toward Laura.
Ace reporter Curt Devlin and fellow reporter Ellen Garfield love one another, but Curt believes women are "bum newspapermen". When a murder investigation ensues, the two compete every step of the way, determined to not be scooped by the other.
A teenager lands in a brutal reform school for refusing to squeal on his bootlegger boss.
An Air Force washout and his buddy room with a pretty young lady. Desperate for jobs during the Depression, they finally land employment with the mob.
A documentary about the making of the 1950 film "All About Eve."
A rural Maine farmer fights for custody of the boy who he's raised as his own.
A collection of bloopers and outtakes from an enormous selection of Hollywood classic productions spanning from the 1930s through the 1980s.
A sculptor hires young college girls to take care of his elderly mother and his supposedly insane sister, both of whom live in the old family mansion with him.
Miniature Dwyer is named after her mother, who was making miniature doll houses when Minnie was born. Minnie, too, has built doll houses for years, and when she learns that she is terminally ill, she and her husband Teddy begin planning their joint suicide. She makes sure that her dolls are placed with people who will appreciate and cherish them. The couple refuse to allow their grief-stricken daughter or the solicitous social worker or anyone else to forestall the death they are determined is right for them
Nan Reynolds encourages her copywriter husband Bill to open his own agency. Nearly out of business, he finally gets a client. Former girlfriend Patricia Berkeley writes a very successful commercial for the client and neats up their old romance. Wife and girlfriend struggle over Bill.
Filmed in Lisbon, Portugal, the film captures the pop icon’s rare and rapturous tour performance, hailed by sold out theatrical audiences worldwide. The unprecedented intimate streaming experience will take viewers on a journey as compelling and audacious as Madonna’s fearless persona, Madame X, a secret agent traveling around the world, changing identities, fighting for freedom and bringing light to dark places.
When his fiancée Valentine dumps him, prominent lawyer Geoffrey Sherwood goes on a bender and winds up married to a stranger, Miriam Brady. They decide to give their marriage a chance. Their landlady, a one-time Floradora girl, offers to help Miriam become refined. Successful again, Geoffrey is approached ("if only we were free") by Valentine. Miriam tells Valentine off in no uncertain terms. Geoffrey moves into his club where Valentine's husband tells him he is a fool to leave Miriam
A fake heiress marries a common reporter to thwart the advances of gold-digging playboys.
A man framed for murder escapes from prison in order to prove his innocence.
In 1926, celebrated evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson mysteriously disappeared. She turned up several weeks later and recounted the details of her kidnapping and escape to authorities. Not everyone believed her, however, and she was accused of having gone away to have an affair with a married man. A court hearing took place to reveal the truth.
Promotional short produced by General Electric for release through Warner Bros. to advertise GE's home appliances.
Explores the relationships shared by the residents of a seedy boarding house in London. Based on the play The Cellist, by Marion Hart.
Bart is a clerk for a publishing company; he has written a novel. His wife Peggy and he have five children. Bart's former girlfriend Mildred is manager of the company's Paris office. She manages to get the novel published and talks Bart into marrying her after he divorces Peggy. Initially successful, Bart must turn to writing trash to keep Mildred in money. When he sees how well his four sons and daughter Margaret have grown without his help, he asks Peggy to let them all come live with him and Mildred. Peggy agrees, but the arrival of his beloved children puts Mildred's future in jeopardy. Written by Ed Stephan
A poor, elderly white woman living in a tenement in a black ghetto is befriended by a neighborhood boy, and the two of them form a mutually beneficial relationship: he provides her companionship and protection, and she becomes the mother he never had.
A woman, who had left home 20 years previously under acrimonious circumstances, finds out that she is terminally ill. She returns home and tries to rebuild her relationship with her embittered mother before she dies.
Billie Dupree is a flight instructor at an old Texas airport. When a young girl in a wheelchair finds the airport by watching gliders fly, she decides she wants to learn how to fly. Dupree teaches her to fly with some special controls compensating for her handicap. Koup Trenton runs an aircraft repair service and is trying desperately to get an old airplane back in the air. The three, together, put the young girl and the old plane up in the air.
Robert Preston hosts this documentary that shows what people of the 1930s were watching as they were battling the Depression as well as eventually getting ready for another World War.
An elderly widow must find meaning and activity in her life when her son suggests she is no longer capable of handling her own affairs.
A respected but struggling interior decorator from a wealthy background moves in with some of her clients in order to meet their specific needs. In the process, she tends to become friends with the families and get drawn into their personal problems. In the pilot episode, she's hired by an oil tycoon to lavishly decorate a house on his property for his daughter and future son-in-law, secretly hoping that the obvious expense will cause the fiancé' to back out of the wedding.
On February 22, 1986, Bette Davis received an honorary César award – and presented one to the Cinémathèque française, which was then celebrating its 50th anniversary. Two days later, Costa-Gavras, president of the Cinémathèque, in turn welcomed the actress for a press conference at which she vividly recounted the heyday of old Hollywood.
Share the magical memories - and see clips from her Oscar winning performances - in this profile of the "First Lady of the American screen."
An overview of the iconic actresses' legendary careers, as well as the rivalry that colored "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?"
Short documentary about the making of the 1938 film "Jezebel."
In a short scene a mother explains to her children, Jenny and Billy, why they received war bonds as Christmas presents, even though the mother can afford to give them more expensive gifts. Davis then steps out of character and asks moviegoers to buy war bonds and stamps.
Uncensored. Laugh along with Hollywood's brightest stars in this hilarious compilation of bloopers from some of the biggest movies in history . You'll see stars such as Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Lucille Ball, Bob Hope, Ronald Reagan, Marlene Dietrich, Boris Karloff, Edward G. Robinson, Errol Flynn and more. They're not so perfect after all when these flubbed moments are caught on film!
Set in a sleepy Southern Louisiana town in 1959, a lawyer, searches for justice as he volunteers to help a black woman whose property is being threatened by the Holts, the first family of the town, after she refuses to sell her valuable land.
Glamorous and hugely popular Joan Crawford raised herself from brutal poverty to Academy Award-winning stardom by guts, determination and hard work. During her 50-year career, she made over 80 films. But her obsessive perfectionism led to the later caricature of coat-hanger-wielding harridan that even the adoration of fans could not counter. Still, she has endured as one of the most popular icons of the movies, an early role model to a million young women who aspired to her image of stylish magnetic power and unquestioned independence.
For over half a century, 60 Minutes' fearsome newsman Mike Wallace went head-to-head with the world's most influential figures. Relying exclusively on archival footage, the film interrogates the interrogator, tracking Wallace's storied career and troubled personal life while unpacking how broadcast journalism evolved to today’s precarious tipping point.
Elizabeth Winfield is a retired teacher, who desperately tries to keep her family together. While she's traveling through the country and meeting her relatives, back in her hometown, a group of shopping mall developers are planning to take over her family land in order to begin their ambitious project. Now she needs to find ways to stop this construction in time before the town's annual festivities.
A retired lady judge runs a private detective agency with a charming ex-con as her leg man and various parolees helping in the day-to-day operation.
The life and work of Samuel Goldwyn, a Polish-born glove salesman who became one of Hollywood's greatest independent producers, is remembered in this classy documentary created for the PBS American Masters series. Based on A. Scott Berg's acclaimed biography, the film includes new interviews with Goldwyn's surviving family members as well as vintage interviews with such luminaries as Bette Davis, John Huston, Laurence Olivier and others.
Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1936.
Biography of Bette Davis hosted by Jodie Foster.
Overview of director King Vidor's filmography.
With exclusive access to his extraordinary unseen and unheard personal archive including hundreds of hours of audio recorded over the course of his life, this is the definitive Marlon Brando cinema documentary. Charting his exceptional career as an actor and his extraordinary life away from the stage and screen with Brando himself as your guide, the film will fully explore the complexities of the man by telling the story uniquely from Marlon's perspective, entirely in his own voice. No talking heads, no interviewees, just Brando on Brando and life.
Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1937.
Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1939.
Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1944.
Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1949.
A multi-studio effort to show the newsreel audience the progress of the Hollywood war effort.
This 1940 presentation features highlights of earlier (1928 onward) Oscar ceremonies including Shirley Temple and Walt Disney, plus acceptance speeches for films released in 1939 with recipients and presenters including Vivien Leigh, Judy Garland, Hattie McDaniel, Fay Bainter, Mickey Rooney, Thomas Mitchell, Sinclair Lewis, and more, with host Bob Hope.
Judy Garland sings the title song, a tribute to Will Rogers.
Looks at the stereotype-breaking films of the period from 1929, when movies entered the sound era, until 1934 when the Hays Code virtually neutered film content. No longer portrayed as virgins or vamps, the liberated female of the pre-code films had dimensions. Good girls had lovers and babies and held down jobs, while the bad girls were cast in a sympathetic light. And they did it all without apology.
The history of the irreverent "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" and the content battles it fought with its television network.
This documentary revisits the making of Gone with the Wind via archival footage, screen tests, insightful interviews and rare film footage.
Viewers are provided a visit to Ken Maynard's private circus; Bette Davis poses for her portrait; Frank McHugh plays with his children; a visit to the West Side Tennis Club affords glimpses of many stars.
Bette Davis is the most disturbing film diva Hollywood has ever seen. Her life and her roles reflect the fractures in the American image of women. She was dominant, intelligent, sometimes heartless and yet above all she wanted to be loved. This did not work out in her private life. She was too strong for the men. But the public always loved her!
A successful engineer tires of his high-tension job and quits to start his own mail-order company, much to his mother's consternation.
This documentary focuses on 1939, considered to be Hollywood's greatest year, with film clips and insight into what made the year so special.
A documentary about and an interview with Hollywood actress Bette Davis about her life and career from the late 1920s to the 1980s on stage and mostly before the camera.
Before the G, PG and R ratings system there was the Production Code, and before that there was, well, nothing. This eye-opening documentary examines the rampant sexuality of early Hollywood through movie clips and reminiscences by stars of the era. Gloria Swanson, Mary Pickford, Marlene Dietrich and others relate tales of the artistic freedom that led to the draconian Production Code, which governed content from 1934 to 1968. Diane Lane narrates.
A profile of blacksmith George Garfield, among whose Hollywood clients were the horses of Joel McCrea and Guinn "Big Boy" Williams.
This short traces the history of sound in the movies, beginning with French scientist Leon Scott's experiments in 1857. Featured are snippets from early sound pictures.
A documentary looking at the life and career of film director Frank Capra. Hosted by Ron Howard.
A film scrapbook, images, phrases from our past, hiding their meanings behind veils. Let's lift those veils, one by one, to find how images, at one time seeming innocent, have revealed, after decades, to have homosexual overtones.
A documentary on the film director William Wyler (1902-1981), this feature was conceived by his daughter, Catherine, as a loving tribute. Utilizing a wealth of film clips, many in black and white, the movie features interviews with Bette Davis, Samantha Eggar, Greer Garson, Lillian Hellman, Audrey Hepburn, Charlton Heston, John Huston, Laurence Olivier, Gregory Peck, Ralph Richardson, Terence Stamp, Barbra Streisand, Billy Wilder, and the director himself, interviewed only a few days before he died in 1981.
In his early days as an actor, Marlon Brando (1924-2004) was a shy young man with theatrical ambitions, like many others; but his charisma and superb acting skills made him truly unique, so that the doors to the starry sky of Hollywood opened for him. However, his peculiar manners, political commitment and complicated love life always overshadowed his artistic success.
Compilation of film footage documenting Japanese film star Kinuyo Tanaka's goodwill tour of the U.S. in 1949.
Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1942.
Margo Channing's famous line, "Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night," characterizes well the actress who played her in All About Eve--the inimitable Bette Davis. In fact, Davis's son comments in Lifetime's Intimate Portrait: Bette Davis that watching Margo Channing is much like watching Bette Davis. Davis's film career spanned six decades, in which she starred in 112 films, receiving 10 Academy Award nominations and 2 Oscars. Yet her life was not always the charmed one of a starlet; from a broken home, herself three times divorced, once widowed, betrayed by her own daughter's scathing biography, Davis found solace in her work, which didn't always come easy for her. When she first approached Hollywood in 1930, the studios didn't know what to do with such an odd beauty. This portrait of the actress covers a lot of ground, and leaves you wanting more.
This documentary examines the many aspects of the gay fascination with Bette Davis, featuring film clips of Bette's most iconic moments, juxtaposed with camp burlesques of her by San Francisco actor Matthew Martin and others, including Charles Pierce and Arthur Blake; a profile of Martin highlighting his long identification with Davis; and interviews with fans, entertainers, and gay cultural historians.
A meditation on ambition and careerism utilizing altered footage from All About Eve, with a soupçon of reflection on the themes of memory, film within gay culture and video image processing.
As part of a publicity campaign for the film 42nd Street (1933), Warner Bros. Pictures, with the assistance of the General Electric Corporation, assembled a 7-car gold- and silver-plated train they called "The 42nd. Street Special". With numerous Warner Bros. contract stars as passengers, the train made a tour across the USA. It was scheduled to make stops in more than 100 cities, ending in Washington, D.C. for the March 1933 inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. This short film records the send-off for this trip from Los Angeles' Santa Fe Station. Using a microphone set up on the rear platform of the last car, several people addressed the crowd attending the event. Those making remarks include performers, studio executives, and the mayor of Los Angeles.
The most glittering, expensive, and exhausting videotaping session in television history took place Friday February 19, 1982 at New York's Radio City Music Hall. The event, for which ticket-buyers paid up to $1,000 a seat (tax-deductible as a contribution to the Actors' Fund) was billed as "The Night of 100 Stars" but, actually, around 230 stars took part. And most of the audience of 5,800 had no idea in advance that they were paying to see a TV taping, complete with long waits for set and costume changes, tape rewinding, and the like. Executive producer Alexander Cohen estimated that the 5,800 Radio City Music Hall seats sold out at prices ranging from $25 to $1,000. The show itself cost about $4 million to produce and was expected to yield around $2 million for the new addition to the Actors Fund retirement home in Englewood, N. J. ABC is reputed to have paid more than $5 million for the television rights.
Bette Davis talks with Joan Bakewell and members of the audience at the National Film Theatre, London.
A filmed production of the musical Miss Moffat based on The Corn is Green starring Bette Davis.
"Mickey's 50" is a 90-minute special that aired on The Wonderful World of Disney on November 19, 1978. The special was made to commemorate the 50th birthday of Mickey Mouse and highlights many moments in his career.
A compilation of "coming attractions" from bad '50s melodrama through the greatest disaster movies of the '70s. Features a chain of your divas including Bette Davis in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Jeanne Moreau in Mademoiselle, Elizabeth Taylor in Butterfield 8 and Boom, Kim Novak in The Legend of Lylah Clare, Susan Hayward in I'll Cry Tomorrow, and Judy Garland in I Could Go On Singing. One clips is a young Rock Hudson promoting Christmas Seals. Bride of Trailer Camp includes specimens of movie trailer artistry.
Rare footage reveals how stars were created and motion pictures sold, and how the the advent of sound and color changed movies.
Silent home movies, in both black and white and color, featuring footage of Dick Powell and Joan Blondell in Beverly Hills and Palm Springs. Scenes include backyard shots by a swimming pool, dancing near the pool, dogs and puppies, Joan’s son Norman playing outside, Joan and Norman posing in a car, scenic shots from a roadtrip, a backyard party, and Joan and her sister Gloria dancing. From the collection of the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Combining unprecedented access to Davis' vast personal archives with original interviews, this documentary reveals a startling portrait of one of Hollywood's most gifted and enigmatic stars.
A short documentary about the Bette Davis film, The Star from 1952.
An all-star tribute to Natalie Wood by some of her friends and co-workers.
We thought we'd seen, read, and heard everything there was to see about the Cannes Film Festival, from the glitz and gossip to the scandals and censorship. And yet, Emmanuel Barnault's "Morceaux de Cannes" (Pieces of Cannes), by this leading expert on Italian and French cinema, convinces us otherwise. The third largest event in the world (after the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup) reveals its secrets only sparingly, as this film attests. The result of passionate research in the INA archives, these 52 minutes, without interviews or voice-over narration, string together rare and sometimes previously unseen footage. Taken together, they tell a surprising, original, and heartwarming story of the Festival. On the beach, on a street corner, in a restaurant, or in the privacy of a hotel room, these forgotten archives summon the greatest filmmakers, actors, and actresses of the last seventy years, from Jean Cocteau to David Lynch, for an anthology of the Festival's history.
Featurette documenting the making of the film "Death On The Nile".
Her story is well-known — the lonely child who yearned for affection and approval which she finally seemed to find as Hollywood's greatest love goddess. But even though she scaled heights few could even dream of, she was one of the loneliest of stars.
Through film trailers and newsreel footage, this program pays tribute to Marilyn Monroe's silver screen legacy -- and The Misfits director John Huston goes behind the scenes to examine her tumultuous personal life.