Night Must Fall (1937)

Richard Thorpe

Rosalind Russell and Robert Montgomery star in the original version of this mystery thriller based on the play about a girl who suspects a killer but has no proof. Danny (Montgomery) is a wickedly charming Irish bellhop who wins the confidence of an elderly invalid (Dame May Whitty). The old woman's niece (Rosalind Russell) is not so easily swayed by Danny, but she finds him strangely attractive, especially when he exhibits a streak of viciousness. Montgomery was nominated for an Academy Award.


On an Island with You (1948)

Richard Thorpe

Esther Williams, Peter Lawford, Ricardo Montalban, Jimmy Durante, Cyd Charisse, and bandleader Xavier Cugat star in this highly successful musical comedy. Actress Rosalind Rennolds is shooting a song-and-dance film in Hawaii when a young Navy lieutenant is brought onto the production as a technical advisor. Having once performed a number with her in an Armed Forces show, the young officer is convinced he and Rennolds should be together--so he spirits her away to a desert island.


Three Little Words (1950)

Richard Thorpe

Fred Astaire, Vera-Ellen and Red Skelton star in this musical biography based on the lives and career of one of the United States' greatest songwriting teams--Three Little Words. From the moment they meet, lyricist and vaudeville star Bert Kalmar (Astaire--Silk Stockings, Easter Parade, Top Hat) and piano player and song huckster Harry Ruby (Skelton--"The Red Skelton Show") are destined for great things. The two have nothing in common except, together, the ability to craft chart-topping songs and the lifelong friendship that grows between them. Now, through work, women, setbacks and success these two reach the heights of their profession and overcome a rift that threatens to divide them forever.


The Prisoner of Zenda (1952)

Richard Thorpe

Stewart Granger and Deborah Kerr star in this swashbuckling adaptation of Anthony Hope's classic novel The Prisoner of Zenda. An English tourist (Granger) visiting a small Balkan kingdom looks like a twin of that country's crown prince. When the royal heir is poisoned and then kidnapped in a plot to block his coronation, the tourist is enlisted to double as the prince--saving the man and the country.


The Prodigal (1955)

Richard Thorpe

Lana Turner stars as the sexy, exotic pagan princess who tries to seduce a wayward Israelite in the Biblical tale of The Prodigal. As a young man, Micah (Edmund Purdom) takes his share of his family's wealth and leaves home for the decadent city. He follows the alluring Samarra (Turner) to Damascus, where he soon loses his fortune and is sold into slavery. Forced to do backbreaking labor and live locked in a dungeon, Micah could earn his freedom by renouncing his God and worshiping his owner's pagan idols--the one thing he refuses to do. But Micah's God does not forsake him, and his faith is rewarded by his freedom and return home.


That Funny Feeling

Richard Thorpe

Sandra Dee stars as Joan Howell, a young and pretty maid-for-hire, who meets and begins dating wealthy New York City businessman Tom Milford (Bobby Darin) in That Funny Feeling. Embarrassed about taking him home to her tiny apartment, Joan brings Tom to a swanky apartment she cleans - not knowing it's really his place. Tom carries on the deception until Joan discovers who he really is and sets out to exact sweet feminine revenge in this madcap romantic comedy of mistaken identity.


The Last Challenge

Richard Thorpe

Glenn Ford stars as a retired gunfighter, now the marshal of a small Western town, forced to confront a brash young gunslinger bent on proving who's best in The Last Challenge. Marshal Dan Blaine (Ford) recognizes himself as a young man in Lot McGuire (Chad Everett). He tries to show McGuire the foolish mistake he is determined to make and how it will change his life forever. But the two are drawn inexorably to a showdown from which only one man will walk away.


All the Brothers Were Valiant

Richard Thorpe

Swashbuckling screen legends Stewart Granger ("King Solomon's Mines") and Robert Taylor ("Ivanhoe") star as feuding New England whaling brothers. Their fraternal loyalties are tested when Granger leads Taylor's crew to mutiny in an effort to steal sacred pearls from island natives. Oscar-nominee Ann Blyth ("Mildred Pierce") costars. With Kurt Kasznar (TV's "Land of the Giants," "Lili"). Produced by Academy Award-recipient Pandro S. Berman ("Ivanhoe," "Top Hat," "Father of the Bride").


The House of the Seven Hawks

Richard Thorpe

Robert Taylor stars as a sea captain whose reputation for disregarding regulations comes back to haunt him when a man is found murdered aboard his ship ... a man who man have been killed over the cargo of diamonds lost by the Nazis as they retreated from Holland, a cargo the captain himself is seeking.


The Honeymoon Machine

Richard Thorpe

Steve McQueen stars as a navy lieutenant with a foolproof scheme to get rich by winning at a Venice casino with the help of The Honeymoon Machine. While playing poker with his pals, Lieutenant Fergie Howard (McQueen) gets the news that Operation Honeymoon has been successful: His ship's onboard computer can predict exactly where a missile will land. A great advance for world peace--and a great idea for how to make a million! The ship's computer tech (Jim Hutton) confesses that the computer can also tell where a roulette ball will land. As soon at their ship docks in Venice, Howard secretly wires the computer to a high-class casino, and the money starts to roll in. But when the admiral sees signals coming into the computer, he assumes that real missiles have been launched!


Athena (1954)

Richard Thorpe

Debbie Reynolds, Jane Powell, Steve Reeves and Vic Damone star in this story about two sisters in love. Everything should be wonderful, but their bodybuilder father doesn't approve of his daughters' physically underdeveloped fiancés, a singer and a lawyer, in this musical romantic comedy.


Follow the Boys (1963)

Richard Thorpe

Connie Francis and Paula Prentiss star as two young American women on the French Riviera looking for sun, sand and naval officers in this light-hearted musical romance.


The Horizontal Lieutenant

Richard Thorpe

Again and again, a Japanese raider strikes on an American-held Pacific island. He steals fruitcake from the military larder. Smoked oysters. Even gelfite fish. This means war! Lt. Merle Wye, who majored in French but was assigned to the intelligence group's Japanese interpretation unit, is given the daunting task of finding and stopping the marauding rascal. Meanwhile, Wye hopes he can make his efforts look heroic enough to impress a willowy army nurse. Jim Hutton and Paula Prentiss put the antic in romantic in this giddy service comedy that was their fourth film together. In the cast: Charles McGraw, Jim Backus, Miyoshi Umeki and Hermione, the typing chicken whose intelligence is second to none.


Tip on a Dead Jockey

Richard Thorpe

An expatriate American living in Madrid, former Air Force pilot Lloyd Tredman (Robert Taylor), is haunted by his memories of the Korean War and refuses to fly. So when he loses his last dollar on a horserace fixed by a smuggler, he forces himself to accept a $25,000 offer to transport a box of contraband currency from Egypt to Spain. But as Tredman makes the return flight home, he discovers his cargo also includes heroin as he races across the Mediterranean with Interpol hot on his trail. Co-starring Academy Award-winner Dorothy Malone and Jack Lord (Hawaii Five-O), Tip on a Dead Jockey was adapted by Charles Lederer (Kiss of Death) from a short story by best-selling novelist Irwin Shaw. Originally intended for Orson Welles, it was directed instead by Richard Thorpe, the sixth of eight films he would make with Robert Taylor, which include the swashbuckling classics Ivanhoe and Knights of the Round Table.


The Sun Comes Up

Richard Thorpe

Jeanette MacDonald and Margaret Hamilton star in this moving drama featuring canine superstar Lassie. Embittered widow Helen Winter (MacDonald), a former concert singer, can't help blaming Lassie for her son's death. Needing help with her chores, she hires an orphan but initially remains aloof from the charming lad, who quickly bonds with the collie. After Lassie saves the boy from a terrible fire in the orphanage, Helen realizes that she loves the boy and forgives Lassie. MacDonald, in her last film, sings the music of Dvorak, Puccini, and other classical composers, along with songs by the young André Previn.


The Thin Man Goes Home

Richard Thorpe

Outlaws come and go in Nick and Nora's lives. Now it's time to meet the in-laws. The debonair sleuths leave little Nicky Jr. at boarding school, grab Asta and head to Nick's boyhood home of Sycamore Springs. Of course, wherever they go, murder has a way of showing up on the doorstep - a point proven in this fifth Thin Man. Nick can show off his gumshoe talents for his parents (Harry Davenport and Lucile Watson) when an artist is killed. And he'll do it without customary liquid inspirations because Nick (William Powell) is on the wagon. He's also on his game. As is Nora (Myrna Loy), wrestling a folding lawn chair, tailing a presumed suspect through town, igniting a pool-hall rumble and cracking wise as goodas she gets. Make yourself at home, whodunit fans.


Double Wedding

Richard Thorpe

William Powell and Myrna Loy star in this romantic comedy about Charlie and Margit and Irene and Waldo ... and just who should be in love with whom and how they are going to sort things out for a proper Double Wedding. Margit's (Loy — Thin Man films) younger sister Irene (Florence Rice) is engaged to milquetoast Waldo (John Beal). The only problem is, Irene does not want the milquetoast, she wants Charlie (Powell — Thin Man films, My Man Godfrey), the Bohemian artist living out behind Spike's place. When Margit marches over to Charlie's place to order him to stay away from Irene, the two realize that they are perfect for each other. Now, for true love to prevail, Charlie is going to teach Waldo how to have a spine. Based on the play Great Love by Ferenc Molnár.


Challenge to Lassie

Richard Thorpe

In this tale of a stray puppy and the kind man who raises her to be a sheepherder, the two become inseparable until one fateful night when the sheepherder is killed and the law becomes a Challenge to Lassie. According to the legal code of Edinburgh, a dog whose ownership cannot be proven must be killed, so Lassie finds herself standing trial for her life. In desperation, Lassie attempts a daring escape down a treacherous mountainside. But the town's children come to Lassie's defense, and in a generous gesture, the court names Lassie a citizen of Edinburgh, ending the need for anyone to own her in this heartwarming family story.


Three Loves Has Nancy

Richard Thorpe

Janet Gaynor, Robert Montgomery, Franchot Tone and Grady Sutton play the four sides of a romantic quadrangle in this screwball comedy co-scripted by Bella and Samuel Spewack (Broadway's Kiss Me, Kate). Gaynor portrays small-town girl Nancy Briggs, whose nebbish fiancé George (Sutton) doesn't return from his Manhattan job in time to say, "I do." So Nancy heads to the big city to hunt for her hubby-to-be and, after a series of dizzy complications, lands in the apartment of a debonair author (Montgomery), in the romantic sights of his equally debonair pal (Tone), and in the middle of a three-man boxing match when George suddenly reappears. Will Nancy ever get to the altar? And if so, with whom? Gaynor was fresh off her triumph in A Star Is Born when she made this fast-paced comedy and met its costume designer, Adrian. She soon became his bride and, at the height of her popularity, bid the movie world goodbye for almost 20 years.


Carbine Williams

Richard Thorpe

Oscar-winner James Stewart ("It's A Wonderful Life," "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," "Vertigo") stars in the title role as a jailed bootlegger who invents the famed rifle and gains his freedom. Co-starring Oscar-nominee Jean Hagen ("Singin' in the Rain," "The Asphalt Jungle") and James Arness (TV's "Gunsmoke").


Malaya

Richard Thorpe

Smuggling landed Carnahan in Alcatraz. Smuggling will be his ticket out. It's World War II, and Uncle Sam needs a man of Carnahan's bold talent to sneak vitally needed rubber out of Japanese-held Malaya. The rare pairing of James Stewart and Spencer Tracy sparks this tale of an intrigue-filled, true-life wartime operation. Tracy portrays tough, edgy Carnahan. Stewart is sly foreign correspondent and Far East expert John Royer, a man with a plan who tells U.S. officials: "With the right kind of money and the wrong kind of man, I can get that rubber out for you." And with its right kind of stars, this brawny classic gets maximum heroics every moment. Adventure and starpower - Sydney Greenstreet in his final film, Lionel Barrymore and Gilbert Roland - are on the map in Malaya.


Quentin Durward

Richard Thorpe

During the reign of 15th century France's King Louis XI, a young Scottish man is sent by his English Lord to woo a French lady on his behalf. The plan goes awry when the young man falls in love with her. Starring Robert Taylor ("Ivanhoe," "Magnificent Obsession"), Kay Kendall ("Genevieve") and Oscar-nominee Robert Morley ("Marie Antoinette," "Beat the Devil"). Produced by Academy Award-recipient Pandro S. Berman ("Ivanhoe," "Top Hat," "Father of the Bride"). Based on the classic novel by Sir Walter Scott.


Ivanhoe (1952)

Richard Thorpe

Set in tumultuous 12th century England, Saxon knights do battle against the Norman invaders in an effort to free their kidnapped king. Nominated for Best Picture, Cinematography, and Music, this Sir Walter Scott classic stars Robert Taylor ("Magnificent Obsession") in the title role, Oscar-winners Elizabeth Taylor ("Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?," "National Velvet"), Joan Fontaine ("Rebecca," "Suspicion"), and George Sanders ("All About Eve," "The Picture of Dorian Gray," "Village of the Damned"). Highlighted by gripping battle scenes, stunning scenery and costumes.


Jailhouse Rock

Richard Thorpe

"Everybody, let's rock!" Rock'n'roll legend Elvis Presley makes his feature film debut in this critically-acclaimed classic. While serving time for manslaughter, young Elvis is taught how to play the guitar by his cellmate. After winning over the hardened inmates with his musical talent, he's released and struggles to become a major recording star. But conflict arises when his cellmate demands a cut of the action. Considered by many to be the best of the Presley films, it features a golden collection of Elvis standards, including "Treat Me Nice" and the Elvis-choreographed inmate dance number, "Jailhouse Rock." With Dean Jones ("Clear and Present Danger," "The Love Bug") and Mickey Shaughnessy ("From Here to Eternity").


Double Wedding

Richard Thorpe

Oscar-honoree Myrna Loy and her "Thin Man" co-star Oscar-nominee William Powell star in this wacky romantic comedy about a dress designer who tries to break her sister's engagement to a free-living artist, only to discover the lout is falling for her instead.


A Date With Judy

Richard Thorpe

A teenager thinks her grandfather is involved with a fiery Latin singer.


Above Suspicion (1943)

Richard Thorpe

Fred MacMurray and Joan Crawford are American honeymooners in pre-war Europe who are asked by British intelligence to help track down a missing agent.


Tarzan's New York Adventure

Richard Thorpe

When kidnappers take Boy to the United States as a circus attraction, Tarzan swings in to the rescue over the Brooklyn Bridge. Featuring Maureen O'Sullivan's last appearance as Jane.


Tarzan Escapes

Richard Thorpe

Tarzan is taken prisoner by a big-game hunter who wants to put him on exhibition in England. Leonard Maltin gives this *** (three stars), praising the high-energy direction and action that was considered too graphic at the film's release.


Tarzan's Secret Treasure

Richard Thorpe

Tarzan becomes involved with an expedition in search of treasure. Greedy gold seekers dupe Tarzan into helping them in their quest by holding Boy and Jane hostage.


Knights of the Round Table

Richard Thorpe

The legend of King Arthur comes alive in this Oscar-nominated picture. Stars Oscar-nominee Ava Gardner ("Mogambo") as Lady Guinevere, caught in a passionate love triangle with Robert Taylor ("Ivanhoe," "Magnificent Obsession") as Sir Lancelot and Mel Ferrer ("War and Peace") as the noble King Arthur.


The Adventures of Huck Finn (1939)

Richard Thorpe

Oscar-winner Mickey Rooney ("National Velvet," "Babes in Arms") stars in Mark Twain's classic adventure story about a young troublemaker who helps a runaway slave escape to the North.