The Sound of Music is a 1965 musical drama film produced
and directed by Robert Wise from a screenplay written by
Ernest Lehman, and starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, with Richard Haydn, Peggy Wood, Charmian Carr,
and Eleanor Parker. The film is an adaptation of the 1959
stage musical, composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics
by Oscar Hammerstein II.
The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson’s controversial film about
the last 44 hours of Jesus of Nazareth’s life, opened in theaters
across the U.S.on February 25, 2004. Not coincidentally, the day
was Ash Wednesday, the start of the Catholic season of Lent.
Star Jim Caviezel (left) and director Mel Gibson.
Peter Sellers
Stanley Kubrick’s black comic masterpiece, Dr. Strangelove or:
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb opened in
theaters to both critical and popular acclaim. The movie’s
popularity was evidence of changing attitudes toward atomic
weapons and the concept of nuclear deterrence.
Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers
George C. Scott
Sterling Hayden
Slim Pickens
On December 26, 1973, The Exorcist, a horror film starring the
actress Linda Blair as a girl possessed by an evil spirit, made
its debut in theaters; it went on to earn a reputation as one
of the scariest movies in history.
The film stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Jason Miller,
and Linda Blair.
It become the first horror film to be nominated for the Academy
Award for Best Picture, as well as nine others.
On December 12, 1967, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,
a groundbreaking movie about an interracial romantic
relationship starring Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy,
Sidney Poitier and Katharine Houghton, opened in theaters.
The film was the final role for Spencer Tracy. He was very
ill during production but insisted on continuing. Filming
of his role was completed just 17 days before his death
from a heart attack in June 1967. He was 67.
Hepburn never saw the completed film, saying it would be
too painful for her.
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner was nominated for 10 Academy
Awards, including Best Picture, and collected two Oscars,
including Best Actress for Hepburn, the second of her career.
