Joan Fontaine

For the first time one of Hollywood's greatest stars tells his own story, in his own words. From a childhood of poverty to global fame, Cary Grant, the ultimate self-made star, explores his own screen image and what it took to create it.

In the aftermath of Stonewall, a newly politicized Vito Russo found his voice as a gay activist and critic of LGBTQ+ representation in the media. He went on to write "The Celluloid Closet", the first book to critique Hollywood's portrayals of gays on screen. During the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, Vito became a passionate advocate for justice via the newly formed ACT UP, before his death in 1990.

Documentary on Alfred Hitchcock's 1941 film "Rebecca" and the working relationship of Hitchcock and producer David O. Selznick.

A documentary on Alfred Hitchcock's 1941 film, "Suspicion".

A reclusive millionaire who owed his fortune to his father, Howard Hughes staked his fame on many things, including his credits as a producer, director and aviator. But he is perhaps best known for his skills as a Casanova, reportedly romancing Jean Harlow, Ginger Rogers, Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth and Bette Davis. Actor Billy Zane narrates this documentary, which offers a glimpse of the man behind the glamour.

Based upon the true story that inpired the Christmas carol about a young king's care for his people.

Paying homage to two of Hollywood's central icons, the film creates an unparalleled portrait of two very different personalities amidst the demise of the studio system.

Documentary profile of singer-actress Eartha Kitt.

A woman hired to write the history of a wealthy family stays at the family's estate in Oregon. She discovers that she strongly resembles a long-dead ancestor in the family, and finds things happening to her that happened to--and led to the death of--that woman.

A beautiful girl from a small town with dreams of making it in Hollywood marries an actor whose career is fading, then schemes to get him back into the big time - and her with him.

A particular reading of the hard years of famine, repression and censorship after the massacre of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), through popular culture: songs, newspapers and magazines, movies and newsreels.

The crew of an atomic submarine battle to save the world from global destruction.

1920s, the French Riviera: wealthy expatriate Nicole Warren's mental illness strains her marriage to psychiatrist Dick. A young American actress named Rosemary Hoyt arrives and is drawn into their circle, becoming romantically involved with the older, married Dick and disrupting the fragile balance of the group. The thought of Dick possibly being attracted to another sends Nicole on an emotional downward spiral that threatens to consume them all.

Henry Fonda hosts this retrospective on the career and films of iconic filmmaker David O. Selznick, who epitomized the era of the auteur producer in the 30s and 40s.

Following a nervous breakdown, Gwen takes up the job of head teacher in the small village of Haddaby. There she can benefit from the tranquillity and peace, enabling her to recover fully. But under the facade of idyllic country life she slowly unearths the frightening reality of village life in which the inhabitants are followers of a menacing satanic cult with the power to inflict indiscriminate evil and death if crossed.

Manipulated by his jealous ensign Iago, the Moorish general Othello is driven to believe that his new wife Desdemona is unfaithful, setting in motion a chain of deception, jealousy, and violence that leads to tragedy.

A newspaper publisher, wanting to prove a point about the insufficiency of circumstantial evidence, talks his possible son-in-law Tom into a hoax in an attempt to expose ineptitude of the city's hard-line district attorney. The plan is to have Tom plant clues leading to his arrest for killing a female nightclub dancer. Once Tom is found guilty, he is to reveal the setup and humiliate the DA.

Sir Walter Scott's classic story of the chivalrous Ivanhoe who joins with Robin of Locksley in the fight against Prince John and for the return of King Richard the Lionheart.

Four sisters in New Zealand fall for soldiers en route to the Pacific theater in WWII.

San Francisco businessman Harry Graham and his wife and business partner, Eve, are in the process of adopting a child. When private investigator Mr. Jordan uncovers the fact that Graham has another wife, Phyllis, and a small child in Los Angeles, he confesses everything.

A scandalous tale of politics, social inequality, interracial romance, and murder set on a fictitious British-owned Caribbean island.

Italy 1757, Pippo Popolino, a lowly tailor, disguises himself as the great Casanova in order to romance the attractive widow Francesca. He little suspects what awaits him... Locked into the incongruous role by the desperation of the real Casanova's creditors, Pippo must journey to Venice on a delicate mission far beyond his capabilities.

An industrialist and a pianist meet on a trip and fall in love. Through a quirk of fate, they're reported dead in a crash though they weren't on the plane. This gives them the opportunity to live together free from their previous lives. Unfortunately, this artificial arrangement leads to increasing stress.

Advertising executive Alan Miller, a recovered alcoholic who now does interventions on behalf of Alcoholics Anonymous, is called to help Broadway actress Jenny Carey whose developing career is threatened by an increasing dependence on alcohol. Alan's growing interest in Jenny strains his marriage to Edna, with whom he has two children.

A wealthy woman discovers a vineyard worker with a beautiful operatic singing voice. She helps make him a star but then breaks his heart. He flees in misery to Mexico where he meets a sweet farm girl.

Christabel Caine has the face of angel and the heart of a swamp rat. She'll step on anyone to get what she wants, including her own family. A master of manipulation, she covertly breaks off the engagement of her trusting cousin, Donna, to her fabulously wealthy beau, Curtis Carey. Once married to Curtis herself, Christabel continues her affair with novelist Nick Bradley, who knows she's evil, but loves her anyway.

At the Tangier airport, a group of people await the arrival of a mysterious plane from behind the Iron Curtain. The reception committee includes Susan, an American; Gil Walker, a free-booting pilot; Danzer, a black market operator; and Danzer's girlfriend, Nicki. The plane crashes and burns. No survivors are found, nor are any corpses. Soon the search begins for a missing courier worth $3 million.

Two absentee American parents get to know their three children again after spending five years in Panama.

A pretty Parisian law student falls in love with her boyfriend's uncle.

Italian poet Boccaccio (Louis Jourdan) hides in the court of Fiammetta (Joan Fontaine) and tells three tales of love and lust.

A sheltered heiress falls for a charming playboy and elopes with him, but soon discovers his gambling vice and mounting debts. As his lies deepen and those around them meet mysterious ends, she begins to suspect that her husband’s affection may conceal a deadly motive—and that she could be his next victim.

Story of a young woman who marries a fascinating widower only to find out that she must live in the shadow of his former wife, Rebecca, who died mysteriously several years earlier. The young wife must come to grips with the terrible secret of her handsome, cold husband, Max De Winter. She must also deal with the jealous, obsessed Mrs. Danvers, the housekeeper, who will not accept her as the mistress of the house.

A pianist about to flee from a duel receives a letter from a woman he cannot remember. As she tells the story of her lifelong love for him, he is forced to reinterpret his own past.

Bill Saunders, a former prisoner of war living in England, whose experiences have left him unstable and violent, gets into a bar fight in which he kills a man and then flees. He hides out with the assistance of a nurse, Jane Wharton, who believes his story that the killing was an accident.

After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meets the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Edward Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Rochester's terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?

When Ivy, an Edwardian belle, begins to like Miles, a wealthy gentleman, she is unsure of what to do with her husband, Jervis, or her lover, Dr. Roger. She then hatches a plan to get rid of them both.

A brash American gramophone salesman tries to get Emperor Franz Joseph's endorsement in turn-of-the-century Austria.

In 1940 England, aristocratic Prudence Cathaway alarms her snobbish parents by joining the WAF service branch. She soon meets and falls in love with the brooding Clive Briggs, despite his prejudice against the upper classes, and agrees to spend a week with him at a Dover hotel. When Clive's soldier friend, Monty, arrives to retrieve him, Prudence learns that Clive went AWOL after Dunkirk, and urges him to recall why England must fight the war.

A young American soldier, with an honorable discharge, returns home from World War II to his bride, whom he married after a short courtship and has not seen for several years. The two come together with many trials and tribulations in trying to preserve their marriage in the post-war years.

The daughter of a musical mentor adores a promising composer, who is quite fond of the adolescent. When her father dies, an uncle arrives with his own grown daughter, who begins a romance with the composer which culminates in marriage but creates an emotional rivalry that affects the three.

Indecisive heiress Dee Dee Dillwood is pushed into marrying her sixth fiancée, but unable to face the wedding night, she flees into the adjacent hotel room of commercial pilot Marvin Payne, who just wants to sleep. She then persuades him to take her to California.

Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1942.

Susan is about to be married, but the wedding may get called off after her fiancé summons three former beaus. Each reveals a different portrait of Susan: one describes her as a naive country girl who reluctantly becomes an actress, another paints a picture of a gay party girl and and the third describes a serious intellectual.

An English lady falls in love with a French pirate after he kidnaps her from her ancestral home on the coast of Cornwall and sweeps her off her feet into a world of adventure.

A film's art director is in charge of the set, from conception to construction to furnishing. This short film walks the viewer through art directors' responsibilities and the demands on their talents. They read a script carefully and design a set to capture the time and place, the social strata, and the mood. They must be scholars of the history of architecture, furnishings, and fashion. They choose the colors on a set in anticipation of the lighting and the mood. Their work also sets styles, from Art Deco in the 20's to 30s modernism. Then it's on to the next project. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.

British army sergeants Ballantine, Cutter and MacChesney serve in India during the 1880s, along with their native water-bearer, Gunga Din. While completing a dangerous telegraph-repair mission, they unearth evidence of the suppressed Thuggee cult. When Gunga Din tells the sergeants about a secret temple made of gold, the fortune-hunting Cutter is captured by the Thuggees, and it's up to his friends to rescue him.

A happily married woman lets her catty friends talk her into divorce when her husband strays.

In the 1810s, an old maid poses as her own niece in order to teach her onetime beau a lesson.

Lady Alyce Marshmorton must marry soon, and the staff of Tottney Castle have laid bets on who she'll choose, with young Albert wagering on 'Mr. X'. After Alyce goes to London to meet a beau she is restricted to the castle to curb her scandalous behavior. Albert then summons Jerry to Alyce's aid in order to 'protect his investment'.

An Italian immigrant singer, Nino, hoping to succeed in Hollywood, falls in with a gang of crooks who use his talent to distract everyone at a party while they steal the jewels.

Socially prominent Michael Ashburn, chief assistant for a London loan broker makes a large loan during a closing time to a man for a pair of earrings. He is unaware that the collateral can not be removed from the ears in which they reside, so then Julie becomes part of the collateral.

Joan Fontaine models costumes in these wardrobe tests to determine the style of gown the nameless heroine would wear to the ill-fated Manderley costume ball. Costumes from Marie Antoinette (1938), Gone With the Wind (1939), Camille (1936), and Romeo and Juliet (1936) are among the six dresses featured.

The film begins with a knuckle-head playboy (Preston Foster) working on a road crew dressed in a tux in order to win a bet. Apparently, this guy will take on any bet or act on a whim. This becomes very apparent when he disrupts a food giveaway hosted by the mayor’s daughter and as a result of this, he announces he’s running for mayor–though he seems very much apolitical and has no interest in the job. Later, when he once again meets up with the mayor’s daughter (Joan Fontaine) they supposedly fall in love–although there seemed to be little chemistry between them and it made very little sense for Fontaine to suddenly love a guy she so quickly hated at the beginning of the film. Plus, she really had plenty of reason to dislike the guy.

A cocky new West Point cadet from Cambridge is given the cold shoulder by his classmates because of his rule-breaking antics.

A millionaire's son works as a milkman for a month to win a bet with his father. While delivering milk he falls in love with a young debutante whom he mistakes for a maid.

Young Jim Stanton is a conscientious surgeon, but spends too many off-duty hours pursuing his passion for aviation to suit his stuffy father. When it is discovered that a passenger killed in a plane that Jim crashes was a married woman, the resulting scandal prompts the hospital to put Jim on probation. His pride wounded, Jim takes to the open road and enjoys the simpler life of a vagabond. In Los Angeles--where he is arrested for vagrancy and put to work on a road crew--Jim runs into old pal Dick Miller, who gets him a job as a mechanic for Roberts Aviation. But maintaining his anonymity becomes more difficult, particularly when a pretty nurse, Doris King, decides to make Jim's redemption her personal crusade.

Joan Fontaine's screen test for Alfred Hitchcock's "Rebecca" (1940).

The story of Sam Houston, hero of the Texas revolution, statesman, and first president of the Republic of Texas.

The son of a disgraced Olympic decathlete prepares to become a star in his own right. His quest is complicated by a beautiful girl and a bitter rival.

A society girl tries to reform her playboy husband by making him jealous.