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Directed by John Cromwell, Since You Went Away (1944) is set in 1943 and tells the story of Anne Hilton (Claudette Colbert), an upper-middle-class housewife with two teenage daughters, Jane (Jennifer Jones) and Bridget «Brig» (Shirley Temple). After Anne's husband, Tim, enlists in the U.S. Army, the family must make sacrifices for the war effort, including food rationing, giving up the services of their maid, Fidelia (Hattie McDaniel), who is still willing to keep on working for free, and taking in a boarder, the retired Colonel William G. Smollett (Monty Woolley). In contrast, their cynical socialite neighbour, Emily Hawkins (Agnes Moorehead), complains about the inconveniences caused by the war and criticizes the Hiltons' efforts and patriotism. Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones and Shirley Temple in Since You Went Away .   In the meantime, an old friend of the Hiltons, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Tony Willett (Joseph Cotten), visits the family while awaiting his orders. Jane soon ...

Gone with the Wind (1939) is widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. Directed by Victor Fleming, this Civil War epic tells the story of Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh), the strong-willed daughter of a Georgia plantation owner, following her life from her romantic pursuit of her gentlemanly neighbour, Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard), to her marriage to Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), a wealthy older bachelor and society pariah. Running at over 230 minutes, the film was a massive critical and commercial success upon release, winning a total of ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress for Leigh. Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn! (Rhett Butler)   Written by Sidney Howard based on Margaret Mitchell's 1936 bestselling novel of the same name, Gone with the Wind features a series of well-known quotes, many of which have entered popular culture. The most iconic of these is, of course, the classic «Frankly, my dear, I don't gi...

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Spellbound (1945) begins when Dr. Anthony Edwardes (Gregory Peck) arrives at a therapeutic community mental hospital in Vermont to replace its elderly director, Dr. Murchison (Leo G. Carroll). Headstrong psychoanalyst Dr. Constance Petersen (Ingrid Bergman), who also works there, soon notices that Edwardes has a peculiar phobia about sets of parallel lines against a white background. As Constance and Edwardes begin to fall in love with each other, he confides to her that he killed the real Dr. Edwardes and then assumed his identity. He suffers from massive amnesia and does not know who he is. Believing that the man is innocent and suffering from a guilt complex, Constance resolves to use her psychoanalytic training to break down his amnesia and discover what truly happened.    Gregory Peck, Ingrid Bergman and Michael Chekhov in Spellbound . To protect him, Constance takes the impostor — calling himself «John Brown» — to the New York home of he...

Theatrical release poster Directed by George Cukor, Dinner at Eight (1933) revolve s around the eminent dinner part hosted by Millic ent Jordan (Billie Burke), the s nobbish soci alite wife of shipping magnate Oliver Jordan (Lion el Barrymore). Millic ent is so aggrav ated about every thing going wrong that she is oblivious to Oliv er's impendin g bankrup t cy and serious heart condition, as well as her daug hter Paula 's (M ad ge Evans) preoccupa tion about the return of her fiancé, Ernest DeGraff (Phillips Holmes), from Europe. One of the invited g uests is Carlott a Vance ( Marie Dressler), a former sta ge s tar and Oliver's one -time flame. Also invited are corrupt mining t yco on Dan Packard (Wallace Beery), who is secretly consuming Oliver's business , and his brassy young wife Kitty (Jean Harlow). On the eve of the dinner, Millicen t, short of an extra man for Carlotta , in vites wash ed-up silent movie star Larry Renault (John Barrymore), compl...