Publisher's Synopsis
Eight dramas starring Hollywood leading ladies. Joan Crawford stars in the classic Hollywood melodrama 'Rain' (1932). A ship's passengers are quarantined on Pago Pago Island, an American military base, and faced with an indefinite wait. Prostitute Sadie Thompson (Crawford) amuses herself with the soldiers who are stationed there, but soon falls foul of the base missionary, Reverend Alfred Davidson (Walter Huston). The only man on the base who genuinely loves Sadie is Sergeant O'Hara (William Gargan), although his offer of marriage to her is rejected. When Sadie is raped by Davidson, though, tortured by his own lust after he manages to soften her resolve, it looks as if O'Hara's offer of marriage could be the salvation that Sadie needs. While the credits of the melodrama 'A Star is Born' (1937) list eight writers including David Selznick and William Wellman, the acid-sharp dialogue is generally attributed to renowned writer and wit Dorothy Parker. The story concerns a fading star, Norman Maine (Fredric March), who was once a big box office draw, but is now fading fast and all but he can see it. At a Hollywood party he gets drunk, as usual, and picks up a waitress (Janet Gaynor), claiming he will make her into a star. Maine persuades his producer, Oliver Niles (Adolphe Manjou), to give her a screen test, which he reluctantly does. Niles ends up liking her and decides to make her a star. He starts by changing her name from Esther Blodgett to Vicki Lester and then proceeds to change her physically and painfully, moulding her image. Norman and Vicki get married and as her career takes off, his grinds to a halt and in desperation he turns again to drink, and despite Vicki's love and encouragement, finally takes his own life. 'The Outlaw' (1941) is Howard Hughes's version of the story of Billy the Kid, notorious in its day for being the film in which Jane Russell and her ample cleavage made their debut. Russell stars as the half-breed girl who comes between Billy the Kid (Jack Buetel), Doc Holliday (Huston)and Pat Garrett (Thomas Mitchell) when the trio meet up at a way station. Judy Garland stars alongside Robert Walker in 'Till the Clouds Roll By' (1946), a biopic of 'Showboat' composer Jerome Kern. Starting out as a penniless composer, Kern (Walker) finds early success after moving to England. It is there that he meets his future wife, but his return to America is followed by a fallow period, which only ends when he begins a successful collaboration with Oscar Hammerstein II (Paul Langton). Jane Wyman stars in the romantic comedy 'Three Guys Named Mike' (1951) as an air hostess who becomes romantically involved with an airline pilot, a college professor and a successful businessman. Jayne Mansfield makes one of her final on-screen appearances in 'The Fat Spy' (1966), a beach party comedy in which a group of teenagers run amok on a paradisical island off the coast of Florida, rumoured to boast a fountain of eternal youth. Bette Davis makes an early appearance in the Howard Higgin drama 'Hell's House' (1932), in which a young man (Junior Durkin) is sent to reform school after becoming caught up in the schemes of bootlegger Matt (Pat O'Brien). Finally, Lana Turner stars in 'Mr Imperium' (1951) as an aspiring actress who secretly becomes romantically entangled with the eponymous playboy crown prince (Ezio Pinza).
