Shirley MacLaine

Winner of five 1960 Academy Awards including Best Picture, The Apartment is legendary writer/director Billy Wilder at his scathing, satirical best, and one of the "finest comedies Hollywood has turned out" (Newsweek). C.C. "Bud" Baxter (Jack Lemmon) knows the way to success in business... it's through the door of his apartment! By providing a perfect hideaway for philandering bosses, the ambitious young employee reaps a series of undeserved promotions. But when Bud lends the key to big boss J.D. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray), he not only advances his career, but his own love life as well.

Larry McMurtry's novel becomes a winning film as directed by James L. Brooks (As Good As It Gets), with Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger playing a combative mother and daughter who see each other through various ups and downs in love and loss, and most especially through a terminal illness endured by Winger's character. Jack Nicholson deservedly won an Oscar for his supporting role as a free-spirited astronaut who backs away from a romance with MacLaine and then returns in the clutch.

Clint Eastwood is a hard-hitting high plains drifter who rides into town and single-handedly rescues a local nun (Shirley MacLaine) from a gang of attackers. After meeting a band of Mexican revolutionaries bent on resisting the French occupation of Mexico, the cowboy and Sister Sara decide to join forces with the freedom fighters and set off on a deadly mission to capture the enemy's garrison. But along the way, a steamy romance develops between them when the soft-spoken hero discovers the nun is not what she seems.

Thirty big-name stars, 300-horsepower horseplay and 3,000 breakneck miles: that's the revved-up sequel Cannonball Run II. A real-life race inspired both The Cannonball Run and this follow-up. Director Hal Needham drove in a good-natured yet admittedly illegal race called The Cannonball Sea-to-Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash. To elude the law, Needham and his pals disguised their entry as an ambulance.

Around the World in 80 Days on DVD sports an attractive transfer and an inside look at 1950s Hollywood. BBC Radio's Brian Sibley offers a trivia-laden commentary track, while Turner Film Classics host Robert Osborne provides some nice historical perspective in his introductions to most of the extra features. Most interesting is "Around the World with Mike Todd," a 50-minute 1968 documentary about the film's producer, covering his Broadway hits, his films, and his life with Elizabeth Taylor.