Arthur Hiller

Despite the presence of hack director Arthur Hiller, this hybrid comedy-thriller works most of the time as pleasant faux Hitchcock. Gene Wilder is a book editor who is relaxing by taking a cross-country train ride. Then he gets caught up in a murder--and becomes a suspect. It's up to him to prove his own innocence. As noted, the script, by Colin Higgins, owes a big debt to Alfred Hitchcock; but the mystery isn't all that mysterious and the comedy isn't all that hilarious--at least not until Richard Pryor shows up, which is at least halfway through the film.

Plaza Suite is a confection of three witty comedic tales, all starring one of America's finest comic actors, Walter Matthau. The scene is Suite 719 of New York City's Plaza Hotel. In the first vignette, Matthau's wife (Maureen Stapleton) discovers that he is fooling around with his secretary. In the next story, Matthau portrays a producer who calls an old flame for a rendezvous - but the lady has more on her mind than romance. In the final tale, Matthau and Lee Grant are frustrated parents of a bride-to-be who has locked herself in the bedroom - moments before the wedding!

This 1979 comedy is absolutely indispensable for fans of Peter Falk, Alan Arkin, or Andrew Bergman, who wrote the film's screenplay and went on to direct The Freshman and Honeymoon in Vegas. (Let's forgive him for Striptease.) Arkin is extraordinarily funny as a dentist who quickly grows skeptical about the wild claims of his daughter's future father-in-law (Peter Falk) that he is a CIA agent. When he is drawn into a bizarre adventure in a banana republic, however, he takes a different view.

John Goodman ("O Brother, Where Art Thou?") brings the legendary Babe Ruth to life in this triumphant film "Entertainment Weekly" calls "a crowd pleaser." Co-starring Kelly McGillis ("Witness"), The Babe chronicles Ruth's phenomenal story--from his hard knock beginnings at a Baltimore orphanage, to his meteoric rise to baseball superstardom and his poignant retirement from the game. His amazing career included seven American League pennants, four World Series championships, two tempestuous marriages and a wild lifestyle that earned him numerous suspensions.