Sylvia Sidney

A fleet of Martian spacecraft surrounds the world's major cities and all of humanity waits to see if the extraterrestrial visitors have, as they claim, "come in peace." U.S. President James Dale receives assurance from science professor Donald Kessler that the Martians' mission is a friendly one. But when a peaceful exchange ends in the total annihilation of the U.S. Congress, military men call for a full-scale nuclear retaliation.

At her husband's funeral, Pearl, Jewish mother of two divorced and antagonistic daughters, meets an old Italian friend of her husband, whose advice years previously had stopped the husband leaving home. For 23 years he, now a widower, has secretly loved Pearl...

A celebrity benefit for The Actors' Fund of America, featuring music, songs, dance and comedy.

Written by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Terrence McNally, Andre's Mother is the story of Katherine Gerard (Sada Thompson) who has lost her son to AIDS. Set at Andre's memorial service, the film follows Katherine's journey as she confronts the death of her son, the anguish of his lover Cal Porter (Richard Thomas), and, in flashbacks, the key moments of denial and miscommunication with those closest to her. Originally broadcast as part of "American Playhouse" on PBS (season nine, episode four).

A study of the Group Theatre, a company that changed the face of American drama. The Group was founded in 1931 by Cheryl Crawford, Harold Clurman and Lee Strasberg, who were strongly influenced by the naturalistic acting of Konstantin Stanislavski’s Moscow Art Theatre.

After an untimely death, a newly dead New England couple seek help from a deranged demon exorcist to scare an affluent New York family out of their home.

George Wagner (Sam Bottoms) moves his wife and family, including son Ben (Justin Gocke), to a new town, where he begins a real estate job for Angelo Romano (Craig Clyde). Ben, a high school freshman, doesn't seem to get along with his busy, somewhat distant father. He finds consolation with a mysterious young girl, Regina (Bettina Rae), and her Grammy (Sylvia Sidney), who are both thought by the townspeople to be witches. Ben soon believes himself bewitched by Regina, a secret he shares with his sister, Liz (Jamie Ballard), and he becomes more confident, making the school's basketball team and earning better grades, while still searching for his father's approval. Ben's snotty teenage sister, Susan (Elizabeth Shumway), who's trying to stay friends with the stuck-up rich girl Ashley Addison (Amy Allred), blackmails Liz into learning about Regina, causing a near-fatal accident when Liz follows Ben to the lake and tumbles into a stream.

A new family moves into town and their son, Ben, meets a mysterious girl named Regina, who is rumoured to be a witch.

Two retired fishing buddies stumble on an unmarked suitcase filled with three million dollars in cash. Then the fun starts flying as fast as bullets.

Michael Pierson, a young gay man and professional attorney, is struck with AIDS in the prime of his life. Having never even come out to his family, he finds himself in the unenviable position of dropping two bombshells on them. He must come to terms with the inevitability of his premature death while trying to maintain his relationships with family members who harbor fears, resentments, and denial. Airing on network television during the height of the original AIDS epidemic, "An Early Frost" was many people's first look at an AIDS victim as a human being rather than a statistic.

A schoolteacher in her early 40s, involved in a dead-end love affair with a married mortician, drifts into a relationship with an aging newspaperman.

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.

A NYPD officer imprisons and tortures an admitted cop-killer, but finds the tables turned when his victim refuses to break and in fact urges more punishment.

A mother afflicted with depression comes into conflict with own mother and children when she refuses to seek professional health care.

Thera Baylin is a fashion designer with a husband in New York and another one in California.

Chinatown, San Francisco, 1928. Former private detective Dashiell Hammett, a compulsive drinker with tuberculosis who writes pulp fiction for a living, receives an unexpected visit from an old friend asking for help.

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 payed 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.

Newly-widowed Mabel Lederer, who has psychic and mediumistic abilities, sells her house and belongings, changes her name, and moves to a new town. There she rents a room in a boarding house and holds a seance with the other tenants, with comical results.

A college professor is recruited by an undercover cop to pose as a bag lady to track down a drug connection following the brutal killing of a skid row crone.

Over the course of a day in a California hospice, three terminally ill patients are observed with their families reflecting on life and death.

Though visibly frail and weary, President Franklin D. Roosevelt runs for a precedent-setting fourth term. He also oversees plans for the D-Day Invasion and engages in tempestuous summit meetings with his wartime allies Stalin and Churchill.

New Tinseltown gossip columnist Dina Moran helps faded movie star Georgia O'Hanlon dig up dirt on amoral characters.

Since the sudden and highly suspicious death of his parents, 12-year-old Damien has been in the charge of his wealthy aunt and uncle. Widely feared to be the Antichrist, Damien relentlessly plots to seize control of his uncle's business empire—and the world. Anyone attempting to unravel the secrets of Damien's sinister past or fiendish future meets with a swift and cruel demise.

A drama about a community of senior citizens who are terrorized by a ruthless neighborhood gang. After learning that the police are stymied because the victims are too scared to testify against the bullying leader, a semi-retired toolmaker decides to take a stand.

A disturbed and institutionalized 16-year-old girl struggles between fantasy and reality.

A skier and his wife visit a friend's ski resort during a man beast's rampage, and must hide from the impending danger.

Based on a true Military operation by Israeli commandos. An Air France flight is hijacked by the PFLP. The plane has about 100 Jewish passengers. The plane is grounded in Uganda. Israelis would not negotiate. The movie then shows how less than 500 soldiers actually flew so far and rescued the passengers in one of the most successful Military operations in history. The only casualty for Israeli soldiers was Lt. Col. Jonathan "Yoni" Netanyahu..

A New York detective investigates a series of murders committed by random New Yorkers who claim that "God told them to."

Donna and Joel Gregory are staying at the estate of Lorna Love while researching a book about the long dead Hollywood goddess. Joel, whose father had a passionate affair with Lorna, becomes obsessed with her. His wife attempts to break the spell which threatens their marriage and their very lives.

The chronicle of an average American housewife who just happens to be addicted to gambling.

A man who is the pillar of his community has a secret - he has a compulsion to make obscene telephone calls.

Rita, a middle aged New York City homemaker, finds herself in an emotional crisis which forces her to re-examine her life, as well as her relationships with her mother, her eye doctor husband, her alienated daughter and estranged son.

Four elderly ladies with a lot of time on their hands get the idea to create a fictional "girl" for a computer dating service. However, things take a turn for the worse when their description of the "girl" attracts a psychopath.

A group prison breakout goes from bad to worse when the desperate warden tries to steal the gang's dough.

Beat cop Bragan is about to go off duty when he discovers a man standing on the ledge of a hotel more than a dozen stories up. Bragan tries to talk the man, Robert Cosick, down from his threatening perch and in the process learns the reasons for the Robert's suicide attempt.

Three men case a small town very carefully, with plans to rob the bank on the upcoming Saturday, which turns violent and deadly.

Jean Valjean, a Frenchman of good character, has nevertheless been convicted for the minor crime of stealing bread. A minor infraction leads to his pursuit by the relentless policeman Javert, a pursuit that consumes both men's lives for many years.

This entry of Screen Snapshots travels to Las Vegas, Nevada, and Ralph Staub visits and talks to many Hollywood notables as they arrive at the famed gambling city and vacation at a dude-ranch resort and spa. Included among the resort guests are Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Hart, Yvonne De Carlo, Clara Bow and her husband, former western-movie star and current Nevada politician, Rex Bell.

Cecily Harrington, struggling along on a small allowance, wins a fortune in a lottery. She decides to travel rather than marrying her fiance Nigel Lawrence. A stranger, Manuel Cortez, comes to rent her flat and she falls in love with him, and they are married. For their honeymoon, they go to an isolated English college where she, unlike the audience, doesn't realize she has married a fortune-hunting Bluebeard with a few murdered wives in his past. The question is will she be able to repent in leisure her decision to marry in haste.

With a screenplay adapted by Lillian Hellman from her own play, director William Dieterle's 1946 drama stars Robert Young as a U.S. ambassador in Europe in the years before WW2.

A rich society woman uses a gangster to win a congressional election.

Nick Condon, an American journalist in 1945 Tokyo, publishes the Japanese master plan for world domination. Reaction from the understandably upset Japanese provides the action, but this is overshadowed by the propaganda of the time.

Blooper out-takes from Torrid Zone, Four Mothers, The Wagons Roll at Night, The Sea Wolf, No Time for Comedy, The Bride Came C.O.D., and Affectionately Yours, among other Warner Brother productions of 1940 and 1941.

An escaped circus lion provides the impetus for the meeting of carnival owner Nick Coster and Matt Varney, a small-town man who suddenly becomes a lion tamer when he manages to subdue the big cat. While acclimating to carnival life, Matt begins a romance with Nick's sister, Mary, causing tension between Matt and Nick. The latter must also juggle his stormy relationship with glamorous circus star Flo Lorraine.

The negligent owner of a tenement slum becomes romantically involved with one of the building's residents.

Mr. Morris, the owner of a large metropolitan department store, gives jobs to paroled ex-convicts in an effort to help them reform and go straight. Among his 'employed-prison-graduates' are Helen Roberts and Joe Dennis, working as sales clerks. Joe is in love with Helen and asks her to marry him, but she is forbidden to marry as she is still on parole, but she says yes and they are married. In spite of their poverty-level life, their marriage is a happy one until Joe discovers she has lied about her past, in order to marry him. Disillusioned, he leaves, goes back to his old gang and plans to rob the department store.

Mobster "Baby Face" Martin returns home to visit the New York neighborhood where he grew up, dropping in on his mother, who rejects him because of his gangster lifestyle, and his old girlfriend, Francey, now a syphilitic prostitute. Martin also crosses paths with Dave, a childhood friend struggling to make it as an architect, and the Dead End Kids, a gang of young boys roaming the streets of the city's East Side slums.

Based partially on the story of Bonnie and Clyde, Eddie Taylor is an ex-convict who cannot get a break after being released from prison. When he is framed for murder, Taylor is forced to flee with his wife Joan Graham and baby. While escaping prison after being sentenced to death, Taylor becomes a real murderer, condemning himself and Joan to a life of crime and death on the road.

Karl Anton Verloc and his wife own a small cinema in a quiet London suburb where they live seemingly happily. But Mrs. Verloc does not know that her husband has a secret that will affect their relationship and threaten her teenage brother's life.

Joe, who owns a gas station along with his brothers and is about to marry Katherine, travels to the small town where she lives to visit her, but is wrongly mistaken for a wanted kidnapper and arrested.

A well-established tale of a long-running feud between two mountain clans.

A young woman who owns a coffee shop falls for a handsome young customer, unaware that he is a gangster.

A young secretary falls in love with her boss, a middle-aged playwright. Complications ensue when her boss' son falls for her.

After Michael Carter's fiancée commits suicide, Michael vows to seek revenge on his wealthy family, who sabotaged their marriage. He drives across the country angrily, and lands up at a saloon, where he is shot by an Indian, Pete. Pete's girlfriend, Tonita nurses Michael's wound and falls in love with him. Michael realizes this, proposes marriage to Tonita - a perfect revenge for his prejudice family. They marry and he takes her to New York, in full Indian dress hoping to embarrass the family.

A European princess arrives in New York City to secure a much-needed loan for her country. She contracts the mumps, and an actress who looks exactly like her is hired to impersonate her.

A chorus girl gets stranded in a small midwestern town. Against her better judgement, she hooks up with a smooth-talking con artist who says he can help her get out of town.

This turn-of-the-century tragedy chronicles the sorrowful travails of a woman who endures a series of devastating losses.

The scheme of a pair of married con artists goes awry when their victim dies, and they are both caught and imprisoned. When she gets out of prison, she tries to put her life back together.

Pinkerton marries Cho-Cho San in Japan, whilst on shore leave. When he leaves, she keeps his Japanese home as he left it. He returns three years later, having married again in America, and tells Cho-Cho that their affair is over. She has had a child in his absence, who is sent to her family, before she kills herself.

A grocery clerk, longing to become a cowboy actor, goes to Hollywood in search of fame and fortune. Unfortunately, his acting ability is non-existent.

A drunken newspaperman, Jerry Corbett, is rescued from his alcoholic haze by an heiress, Joan Prentice, whose love sobers him up and encourages him to write a play, but he lapses back into dipsomania.

A gang of crooks evade the police by moving their operations to a small town. There the gang's leader, John Madison, encounters a faith healer and uses him to scam the gullible public of funds for a supposed chapel. But when a real healing takes place, a change comes over the gang.

A woman tries to save her husband from the electric chair after both are sent to prison for a murder they didn't commit.

The setting is a city block during a sweltering summer, where the residents serve as representatives of the not-very-idealized American melting pot. There is idle chitchat, gossip, jealousy, racism, adultery, and suddenly but not unexpectedly, a murder.

A social climber charms a debutante, seduces a factory worker and commits murder.

A young college student gets pregnant by the man she loves, but circumstances prevent their marrying, so she marries a classmate she doesn't love. Soon, however, her lover returns, and she finds herself in a dilemma as to who to choose.

The House That Shadows Built (1931) is a short feature, roughly 48 minutes long, from Paramount Pictures made to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the studio's founding in 1912. It was a promotional film for exhibitors and never had a regular theatrical release and includes a brief history of Paramount, interviews with various actors, and clips from upcoming projects (some of which never came to fruition). The title comes from a biography of Paramount founder Adolph Zukor, The House That Shadows Built (1928), by William Henry Irwin.

A mobster's daughter leads her boyfriend from the circus into bootlegging.

When Bert Adams brings his boss, Mr. Mason, home for dinner, he and his wife Carrie hope Mason will take the opportunity to announce that Bert will be promoted to fill a new vacancy in the company's shipping department. But Mr. Mason has other plans for that vacancy, and for Bert.

Harvey Manning is placed on trial for the murder of Jack Winfield, his closest friend, whose body was found in the Manning home. During the trial, the prosecuting and the defense attorneys put forward sharply different versions of the character of Manning and his wife, Viola, and of the events leading up to the murder. The jury returns a verdict of guilty, but a young girl then comes forward and confesses that she killed Winfield for having wronged her.

Fannie joins Johnny to perform a music-hall act which becomes a success, until two Broadway producers catch the act and offer Fannie a job on their latest show; however, they have no place for Johnny, so Fannie turns down the offer. (Film considered lost.)