"For film buffs and literature lovers alike, this is an essential guide to 52 great reads, and the cinema classics they inspired"--

Rebel without a cause (1955): The adolescent son of a well-to-do family gets into trouble with other kids and the police. East of Eden (1955): A wayward Salinas Valley youth vies for the affection of his hardened father with his favored brother. Cat on a hot tin roof (1958): A drama of the problems of a wealthy but decadent family in the South. A streetcar named Desire (1951): Set in the steamy squalor of New Orleans, the story of a neurotic woman's...

In The searchers, a Civil War veteran spends five years on the trail of a Comanche raiding party that kidnapped his dead brother's daughter. In Fort Apache, a calvary officer whose by-the-book tactics and ignorance of the western frontier cause him to lead his men into a fatal Apache ambush. In Rio Bravo, a Texas border sheriff fights off hired gunmen to keep a murderer in custody. In The cowboys, a rancher is deserted by his regular cattle drivers...

In Easter parade, Don Hewes and Nadine Hale are a dancing team, but on the day before Easter she refuses to sign a new contract with him. In Meet me in St. Louis, The well-off Smith family has four beautiful daughters, including Esther and little Tootie. The family is shocked when Mr. Smith reveals that he has been transferred to a nice position in New York. In Singin' in the rain, Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont are the darlings of the silent silver...

Disc 1: The Maltese falcon: Some high-living lowlifes want to get their hands on a bejeweled falcon. Detective Sam Spade wants to find out why and find out who will take the fall for his partner's murder. The big sleep: L.A. private eye Philip Marlowe takes on a blackmail case and ends up wearing out his gumshoes trailing murderers, nightclub rogues, the spoiled rich and more. Disc 2: Ex-tennis pro Tony Wendice decides to murder his wife for her...

42nd Street: A Broadway producer sends in an understudy when his star twists her ankle. Gold diggers of 1937: Rosmer Peck is an insurance agent with musical ambitions who becomes romantically involved with Norma Perry, a showgirl who has given up spangles for a stenographer's pad. Her friends Genevieve Larkin and Sally LaVerne give up their tap shoes for gold digging and take up with executives in a theatrical production company that, unbeknowst...

Gigi: Gaston is the scion of a wealthy Parisian family who finds emotional refuge from the superficial lifestyle of upper class Parisian 1900s society with the former mistress of his uncle and her outgoing, tomboy granddaughter, Gigi. When Gaston becomes aware that Gigi has matured into a woman, her grandmother and aunt, who have educated Gigi to be a wealthy man's mistress, request he become her provider. An American in Paris: Jerry Mulligan is a...

Arsenic and old lace (Side A, 118 min.): A drama critic about to marry discovers insanity runs in his family. A night at the opera (Side B, 91 min.): A New York scandal, a riot on a ship, and an evening of insanity in a concert hall are some of the problems resulting from Groucho's outrageous business schemes. The goal-- to bring Milan's finest opera stars to Manhattan.

Built around a story involving a corporal who wins a date with winsome Joan Leslie, Hollywood Canteen is a salute to the WWII club for GIs. Real-life canteen cofounders Bette Davis and John Garfield plus dozens more stars dazzle the troops and modern fans.