 The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) - This best picture Oscar nominee by Orson Welles has only been available commercially on Region 2 DVD for some reason. (Our movies do not have regional restrictions.) The marvelous cast (led by Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter, Tim Holt and Agnes Moorehead) and sparkling dialogue make the movie fun to watch despite many studio-imposed edits that Welles opposed but couldn't fight. Some critics believe that it could have been as good as or even better than Citizen Kane!
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 Maisie (1939) - Originally written for Jean Harlow, who died before it was filmed, the part of "Maisie" was given to Ann Sothern, thus starting a franchise that went on until 1947, included ten films, and became the first movie series with a female star. But this was the original movie about the wisecracking and indepedent showgirl, who makes the most of being stranded in a Wyoming town after a promised job disappears. Robert Young is her co-star in a "hate at first sight" love story.
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 Married Before Breakfast (1937) - Robert Young is delightfully goofy as a newly rich inventor spending a night wooing a woman who is engaged to somebody else (Florence Rice) and giving away his money to whoever will take it in this entertaining but nonsensical screwball B movie.
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 Maytime (1937) - The third MGM musical starring superstars Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy tells the tragic story of a popular, and married, Parisian opera singer, her young lover, and her jealous husban, who is also her mentor. This one is spectacular even in black and white.
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 Mister Cinderella (1936) - Jack Haley, who played the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz (among many other roles) stars in this funny slapstick comedy about a barber impersonating a millionaire in order to meet a movie star (Betty Furness). Includes one of Arthur Treacher's many butler roles, and a good one.
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 The Mortal Storm (1940) - This great anti-Nazi film, made before the U.S. entered the war, caused Hitler to ban all MGM movies from occupied Europe. Set in 1933, it deals primarily with the shift in attitudes both for and against the National Socialists, even within a single family. The strong cast includes Frank Morgan, James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan, and Bonita Granville, with early performances by Robert Young, Robert Stack and Dan Dailey.
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 Mr. Belvedere Goes to College (1949) - The second installment in the three-film "Mr. Belvedere" series (the first was Sitting Pretty starring Clifton Webb finds Mr. B at college, pretending to be an undergraduate and helping to solve everybody's problems, as usual, including a teenage Shirley Temple, Tom Drake, Jessie Royce Landis, and Alan Young.
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 Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell (1951) - The third and final installment in the "Mr. Belvedere" trilogy features the inimitable Clifton Webb offering his many skills to the residents of a retirement home that's seen better days. Joanne Dru, Hugh Marlowe and Zero Mostel also star. Not quite as funny as the first two, but gentler and more heart-warming in its treatment of the elderly.
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 Murder on a Honeymoon (1935) - Edna Mae Oliver stars as schoolteacher/sleuth Hildegarde Withers, predating Miss Marple by a couple of decades, in the third and last of her appearances in this role. Much of the action takes place on an airplane, an oddity for 1935. James Gleason and Leo G. Carroll co-star.
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 Murder on the Blackboard (1934) - The second of the three Hildegarde Withers mysteries starring Edna Mae Oliver, with James Gleason as Oscar Piper, takes place in the New York City school where the lead character teaches. Though a formula mystery in the Miss Marple mold, Oliver is a great character and the mystery is entertaining, with some nice comic elements provided by Gleason and an able crew of character actors.
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 My Man Godfrey (1957) - In this remake of the 1936 Depression-era comedy, June Allyson and David Niven take the parts originally played by Carole Lombard and William Powell. Still entertaining, though, like most remakes, it suffers somewhat by comparison.
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 My Son, My Son! (1940) - Charles Vidor directed this melodrama about an overindulgent father and his spoiled son. Starring Madeline Carroll, Brian Aherne, Louis Hayward, Laraine Day, Henry Hull, and Josephine Hutchinson.
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 My Wild Irish Rose (1947) - You'll hear over 25 songs in this underrated Technicolor musical (still unreleased due to a lot of politically incorrect minstrel show content) that stars Dennis Morgan and a very young Arlene Dahl in her first starring performance. Nominated for a best music Oscar (lost to Alfred Neuman, one of his nine wins, for Mother Wore Tights); the big supporting cast is kept dancing and singing almost constantly for an hour and forty minutes!
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 The Mysterious Island (1929) - Borrowing the title (and not much else) from Jules Verne's novel, this early silent fantasy film features a young Lionel Barrymore, underwater photography, giant monsters, and visual design by MGM's legendary Art Director Cedric Gibbons. Includes music accompaniment.
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 The Naked and the Dead (1958) - Based very loosely on the gritty anti-war novel by Norman Mailer, this film directed by Raoul Walsh was not well-received by critics, but judged on its own merit is a watchable movie about a group of American soldiers during World War II, led by three contrasting characters played by Aldo Ray as the lunatic Sergeant, Cliff Robertson as the conflicted Lieutenant, and Raymond Massey as the General who believes in being tough on his men. The music by the great Bernard Hermann often doesn't seem right for this film, and is often reminiscent of his Oscar-nominated Taxi Driver score!
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 Never a Dull Moment (1950) - In one of Irene Dunne's last big-screen appearances, she plays Fred MacMurray's wife in a goofy slapstick comedy about rural life, supported by William Demarest, Andy Devine, Chester Conklin and other character types, plus a 12-year-old Natalie Wood stuck in a twilight zone between adorable child and gorgeous leading lady.
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 The Next Voice You Hear (1950) - This is the one where the voice of God comes over the radio, with mixed results. Never released on DVD, it has become something of a cult favorite. Starring James Whitmore and Nancy Davis (widow of Ronald Reagan).
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 Nightmare (1956) - Kevin McCarthy has one of his greatest roles as a jazz musician who dreams he's committed a murder, which may turn out to be true. Homicide detective Edward G. Robinson at first believes he's innocent, then changes his mind, while McCarthy's character becomes increasingly panic-stricken and guilty. Based on the Cornell Woolrich story originally filmed in 1947 as Fear in the Night.
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 No Highway in the Sky (1951) - James Stewart turns in his usual believable performance, this time as an eccentric American aeronautical engineer tortured by his inability to convince anybody that a new British aircraft design has a fatal flaw. Jack Hawkins, Glynis Johns and Marlene Dietrich head a fine cast. Among other things, the film offers a nice glimpse of airline travel in the early 50s.
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 Nora Prentiss (1947) - The lovely Ann Sheridan inspires a straight-laced physician (Kent Smith) to give up everything in order to be with her. Variously viewed as noir or melodrama, this long out-of-print film was directed by Vincent Sherman, director of Mr. Skeffington and All Through the Night, who turned 100 in July 2006.
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 Not as a Stranger (1955) - Stanley Kramer directed Robert Mitchum, Olivia de Havilland, Frank Sinatra and Gloria Grahame in this medical melodrama with lots of conflict, a little humor, and a great deal of medical misinformation that you might expect from a half-century-old movie about a science that has come a long way in the meantime. Worth watching if only to see doctors smoking on duty and medical classes with no women!
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