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Carole Lombard is undoubtedly one the greatest comediennes in cinema history. Born Jane Alice Peters to a wealthy Indiana family on October 6, 1908, Lombard began her acting career at the age of 12, when director Allan Dwan cast her as Monta Blue's sister in A Perfect Crime (1921). Although the film was not widely distributed and paid only $50, the experience spurred Lombard's mother to enroll her in drama school. In 1924, just as she turned 16, she was screentested by Fox Film Corporation, which led to a co-starring role opposite Edmund Lowe in Marriage in Transit (1925). Both movies are now considered lost.   Unlike many other actors, Lombard made an easy transition to sound, signing a five-year contract with Paramount Pictures in 1930. Four years later, she was loaned out to Columbia to work on Twentieth Century (1934), a film that not only made her a major star, but also became the prototype of screwball comedies.   LEFT: Carole Lombard and Monta Blue in A Perfect Crim...

Directed by David Lean, The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) begins as a group of British World War II prisoners, including Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) and Major Clipton (James Donald), arrive at a Japanese POW camp in Burma. The commandant, Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), informs them that all prisoners, regardless of rank, are to work on the construction of a railway bridge over the River Kwai, which will be a vital link for the Japanese in the war. Citing the Geneva Conventions, Nicholson defies Saito and orders his officers to remain behind while the enlisted men go to work. As punishment, Saito leaves the officers standing all day in the intense tropical heat and locks Nicholson in an iron box.   Alec Guinness as Nicholson, Sessue Hayakawa as Saito and William Holden as Shears.   At one point, three prisoners — among them United States Navy Commander Shears (William Holden) — attempt to escape. Two are shot dead, but Shears manages to get away, although ...

Directed by Daniel Petrie, A Raisin in the Sun (1961) follows the Youngers, an impoverish Negro family whose routine is suddenly disrupted when Lena Younger (Claudia McNeil) receives a $10,000 check from the company that insured her late husband. Lena wants to use the money to buy a house and to help her daughter, Beneatha (Diana Sands), finish medical school. On the other hand, Lena's son, Walter Lee (Sidney Poitier), would rather use the money to invest in a liquor store, but his mother disapproves of the idea. Instead, she makes a down payment of $3,500 on a small house in a white neighborhood. Frustrated and enraged, Walter Lee quarrels with his mother and his wife, Ruth (Ruby Dee), and storms out of the flat.   (from left to right) Stephen Perry, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands and Sidney Poitier; Diana Sands, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil and Sidney Poitier.   Three days later, Lena finds Walter Lee in a bar and offers him the remaining $6,500, telling him to save $3,...

Directed by Edward Dmytryk, The Caine Mutiny (1954) begins in 1944, when Ensign Willie Keith (Robert Francis) of the Naval Reserve is assigned to the dilapidated destroyer-minesweeper USS Caine , stationed at the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The ship is under the command of the casual Captain William De Vriess (Tom Tully), who is soon replaced by the tyrannical Lieutenant Commander Francis Philip Queeg (Humphrey Bogart). At first, Queeg's strict discipline appears to be an improvement on the Caine 's lax crew, but he quickly begins to behave erratically, displaying cowardice during a beachhead landing and drastically overreacting when strawberries go missing from the officers' mess. LEFT: Fred MacMurray, Robert Francis, Van Johnson and Humphrey Bogart. RIGHT: Humphrey Bogart as Captain Queeg in The Caine Mutiny .   As Queeg's mental condition worsens, Lieutenant Tom Keefer (Fred MacMurray) pushes the executive officer, Lieutenant Stephen Maryk (Van Jo...