Ronald Reagan delivered one of his most critically acclaimed performances in "King's Row." The story of a young man who has his legs amputated is actually one of several subplots in this complex, and somewhat dark, motion picture. It was unusual for the World War II [..]

Orson Welles' second film after 1941's classic "Citizen Kane" was another gem based on a 1918 novel by Booth Tarkington. "The Magnificent Ambersons" tells the story of the trials and tribulations of a wealthy Indianapolis family in the early 1900's, with the new "horseless carriage" prominent in the [..]

"Drunk Parents" is a comedy movie about a couple facing a series of financial challenges. His once successful business is on the verge of bankruptcy, their house is in foreclosure, and they have just sent their daughter to an Ivy League college. The couple escape their financial [..]

"The Man Who Came to Dinner" is a screwball comedy about a New York City radio star who slips and falls on the steps of a home of a family in Ohio. He insists on recuperating in their home during the Christmas holiday, with the family [..]

Carole Lombard's final motion picture was "To Be or Not to Be," a dark comedy about an acting troupe in Nazi-occupied Poland who use their performing talents in the resistance movement. Producer-director Ernest Lubitsch ("Ninotchka" 1939) put together this efficaciously entertaining film with screenwriter Edwin Justus [..]

"Larceny, Inc." is a gangster-comedy-holiday film starring Edward G. Robinson as a prison convict who decides to go straight, but is continually tempted to return to a life of crime. Just before he is released from Sing Sing prison, he is already approached by former "associates" to rob [..]

"Wake Island" is an action war film telling the story of the Japanese attack on the U. S. military outpost there following the Dec. 7, 1941, strike on Pearl Harbor. Director John Farrow ("A Bill of Divorcement" 1940) put together a well-paced film which maintains a [..]

"Reap the Wild Wind" is an exciting action-adventure film set in Key West, Florida, in the 1840's. The story centers around cut-throat salvagers who profit from the wrecks of transatlantic cargo ships, and also wreak havoc by attacking active shipping. Raymond Massey plays once such salvage captain who [..]

The Best Picture of 1942 is....."Mrs. Miniver." This outstanding drama depicts a middle class English family enduring the stresses and strains of Nazi Germany's bombardment of their nation during the early years of World War II. The film took home six Oscars (out of [..]

"Touch of Evil" is a crime drama film noir about kidnapping, murder, drugs, and police corruption in a town along the U. S.-Mexican border. The complex plot is too involved to summarize in this space. Orson Welles ("Citizen Kane" 1941) tightly [..]