Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever

W.S. Van Dyke

Academy Award winner Mickey Rooney stars as Andy Hardy--a high school student who falls hopelessly in love with his drama teacher. The ill-fated infatuation reaches a climax during the school play, when Andy proposes marriage but discovers that his beloved is already betrothed in this lighthearted comedy.


Rose Marie (1936)

W.S. Van Dyke

Starring the inimitable team of Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, along with James Stewart and David Niven in smaller roles, this definitive screen adaptation of Rudolf Friml's popular operetta tells the story of an opera singer who goes undercover in the Canadian wilderness to help her criminal brother and ends up falling in love with the Mountie who captures him. Songs "Rose Marie" and "Indian Love Call" are featured. Shot outdoors in Lake Tahoe, California, the lavish production features over 700 Indians from 50 different tribes.


Manhattan Melodrama

W.S. Van Dyke

Academy Award winner Clark Gable stars with William Powell and Myrna Loy in the story of two orphaned brothers who grow up to lead lives on different sides of the law in a Manhattan Melodrama. Gambler Blackie Gallagher (Gable) and his brother, straight arrow attorney Jim Wade (Powell), although pursuing radically different paths in life, remain close. But when Wade marries Gallagher's former girlfriend, Eleanor (Myrna Loy), their lives eventually lead to opposite sides of a courtroom battle.


Dr. Kildare's Victory

W.S. Van Dyke

Dr. Kildare fights to have an unjust law repealed after another intern is fired for choosing to save a life rather than comply with the law.


I Live My Life

W.S. Van Dyke

Academy Award winner Joan Crawford stars as a wealthy heiress who, stifled in her life of ease, sets out to see the world, falls in love with a young archaeologist and somehow manages to rein in her own headstrong ways long enough to make it to the altar in this screwball romantic comedy.


Stand Up and Fight (1939)

W.S. Van Dyke

Wallace Beery and Robert Taylor star in this action drama set in the 19th century American West. Empire-building Blake Cantrell (Taylor) clashes with Captain Boss Starkey while constructing a railroad across the wide open spaces. As Cantrell progresses from drunken roisterer to pioneering visionary, Starkey goes from deadly foe to trusted friend. Charles Bickford and Florence Rice also star.


White Shadows In the South Seas

W.S. Van Dyke

Filmed on location in Tahiti, this unique drama combining documentary sensibilities with grand Hollywood storytelling explores the tolls that Western "civilization"--drugs, alcohol, prostitution--take on the natives of a Polynesian island. Matthew Lloyd (Monte Blue) has drifted away from a respectable career as a physician and lives a mediocre existence on a Polynesian island where pearl trader Sebastian (Robert Anderson) and his associates recklessly exploit the natives who work for them as divers. After falling in love with a native girl (Raquel Torres) and witnessing the appalling consequences of modern life on the local population, Matthew vehemently condemns Sebastian's greed and ruthlessness but meets serious opposition. The film is one of the first to use sound. It won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography. Based on the novel by Frederick O'Brien.


Tarzan the Ape Man (1932) [Tarzán de los Monos]

W.S. Van Dyke

This classic adventure paired Olympic swim champ Johnny Weismuller and the beautiful Maureen O'Sullivan as jungle lovers from different sides of the vine. Weismuller portrays Tarzan — a British lord who was raised by apes — who falls for and kidnaps the English-bred Jane, only to rescue her from countless dangers. The film that launched the Tarzan franchise. Tarzan was recently selected by the prestigious AFI as part of their 50 Greatest Heroes!


Shadow of the Thin Man

W.S. Van Dyke

A jockey who threw a race is murdered in the locker room. "My, they're strict at this track!" Nora Charles exclaims. With that, she (Myrna Loy) and hubby Nick (William Powell) are off to the races on another case of murder, mirth and perfect martinis. Highlights of this fourth Thin Man include a visit to the arena for the evening's wrasslin' and dinner at Mario's Grotto where, no matter what anyone wants, the waiter insists upon the sea bass. As in all films in the series, the supporting cast is extraordinary, with Sam Levene, Barry Nelson, Donna Reed, Henry O'Neill and Stella Adler among Shadow's heroes and possible villains. Red herrings abound. But we still recommend the sea bass.


Rage In Heaven

W.S. Van Dyke

W.S. Van Dyke directs Ingrid Bergman, George Sanders and Robert Montgomery in a gripping psychological thriller from the pen of celebrated English author Christopher Isherwood. Montgomery plays British steel mill owner Philip Monrell, whose outward charm and flippancy conceal a terrible secret, while Sanders plays Ward Andrews, the best friend Philip hides behind. But when Philip marries Stella Bergen (Bergman), he becomes obsessed with the belief that Ward is trying to steal Stella away from him. An obsession that soon turns to twisted, murderous intent… With the two leading men swapping type (Montgomery as the insouciant cynic with the sinister streak, Sanders as the amiable, self-effacing wit), Rage in Heaven's examination of murderous envy and jealousy takes on deeper layers as the viewer's own assumptions about character and intent are called into question.


Forsaking All Others

W.S. Van Dyke

Here comes the bride - there goes the groom! The night before Mary Clay's (Joan Crawford) wedding, her flaky fiancé Dillon elopes with someone else. Mary's friend Jeff grabs his chance to buck up the jilted bride - and pitch some woo. Then Dillon reenters Mary's life and she must choose between the two men. Since Clark Gable plays Jeff and Robert Montgomery plays Dillon, it's a choice any woman would love to make! The three stars prove marriage is a funny affair in this snappy, sophisticated comedy. Director W.S. Van Dyke (The Thin Man), scriptwriter Joseph L. Mankiewicz (All About Eve) and supporting comedy virtuosos Rosalind Russell, Billie Burke and Arthur Treacher put extra sparkle in the wedding punch.


Love On the Run

W.S. Van Dyke

An American heiress flees from her planned wedding to a Prince with a man whom she doesn't know is a reporter. When they steal an airplane in the process, they discover secret spy plans hidden inside that inadvertently embroil them in a spy chase.


The Devil Is a Sissy

W.S. Van Dyke

No squealers, that's the rule. And Claude Pierce, a child of privilege eager to throw in with two rough-and-tumble lower East Siders, aims to live by it. But through their adventures the trio of would-be toughs discovers another rule. It's harder to go straight than to live a life of crime. That's why The Devil Is a Sissy. This full-hearted drama from the era of Dead End unites a trio of top 1930s child stars for the only time: Freddie Bartholomew (David Copperfield), Jackie Cooper (The Champ) and Mickey Rooney. All three shine. "But it is Mickey Rooney, the Puck of A Midsummer Night's Dream, who penetrates beyond the script and emerges as a living study of Gig, the son of a murderer" (Frank S. Nugent, The New York Times).


I Love You Again

W.S. Van Dyke

"Thin Man" stars William Powell and Myrna Loy star in this comedy about a seemingly staid married businessman whose recovery from amnesia exposes his past existence as a con artist threatens his marriage.


The Thin Man

W.S. Van Dyke

Oscar-nominee William Powell ("Life With Father") and Oscar-honoree Myrna Loy ("The Best Years of Our Lives") star as a husband-and-wife detective team who take on the search for a missing inventor and almost get killed for their efforts. The original comedy detective classic that inspired several sequels received Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Actor (William Powell), Director and Screenplay. Co-starring Maureen O'Sullivan ("David Copperfield"). Inducted into the Library of Congress National Film Registry and recently selected by the prestigious American Film Institute as one of the 400 greatest American films of all time.


San Francisco

W.S. Van Dyke

Things really get shaken up when an aspiring opera singer becomes involved with a bawdy saloon owner and his high-society rival during the devastating earthquake of 1906. Spectacular special effects are second only to the stellar performances of Oscar-winner Clark Gable ("Gone With the Wind", "It Happened One Night"), Oscar-winner Spencer Tracy ("Mutiny on the Bounty," "Adam's Rib") and Jeanette MacDonald ("Love Me Tonight"). Nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Writing and Director. Spencer Tracy received his first of nine nominations. Look for The Three Stooges in one of their few feature appearances. With buildings crumbling, streets opening up, and fires erupting, this is the disaster picture that set the standard.


Marie Antoinette (1938)

W.S. Van Dyke & Julien Duvivier

Lavish biography of the French queen who "let them eat cake."


It's a Wonderful World

W.S. Van Dyke

Screwball comedy caper starring Oscar-winners James Stewart ("It's A Wonderful Life," "The Shop Around the Corner") and Claudette Colbert ("It Happened One Night") about an on-the-lam private detective who enlists the help of a poetess in order to prove his death-row client innocent.


After the Thin Man

W.S. Van Dyke

The hilarious Oscar-nominated sequel to the classic "The Thin Man," finds married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles as they try to clear Nora's cousin of a murder charge. Starring Oscar-nominee William Powell ("The Thin Man," "Life with Father"), Oscar-honoree Myrna Loy ("The Thin Man," "The Best Years of Our Lives") and Oscar-winner James Stewart ("It's a Wonderful Life," "The Philadelphia Story").