NCW Libraries

Silent movies are giving way to talking pictures, and a hoofer-turned-matinee idol is caught in that bumpy transition, as are his buddy, prospective ladylove, and shrewish costar. Rediscover the musical masterpiece in dazzling, restored high definition.

In 1927, George Valentin is a silent movie superstar. However, the advent of the talkies will kill his career and he will sink into oblivion. For young extra Peppy Miller, it seems the sky's the limit as major movie stardom awaits. Though their careers are taking different paths their destinies will become entwined.

The leading man has just had a disastrous one-night stand with the leading lady; the cinematographer is breaking up with the assistant director; the director's mother has wandered onto the set; and the dwarf hired for the dream sequence has a big attitude.

When P.L. Travers travels from London to Hollywood in 1961 to finally discuss Walt Disney's desire to bring her beloved character, Mary Poppins to the motion picture screen (a quest he began in the 1940s as a promise to his two daughters), Disney meets a prim, uncompromising sexagenarian not only suspect of the impresario's concept for the film, but a woman struggling with her own past. During her stay in California, Travers' reflects back on her...

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm take one: There have been many films about their own making, but few that examine the creative process from so many perspectives as this one. Greaves uses the shooting of one scene to analyze film production, beginning with directorial fallibility, the inherently collaborative nature of film making, and the creative possibilities that emerge from hardship. In the end, this renders the line between documentary and fiction moot,...

On June 16, 1959, police detectives arrive at a Benedict Canyon home to find Superman dead, felled by a single gunshot to the head. LAPD calls it suicide, but Reeves' grieving mother, Helen Bessolo, isn't so sure. She hires private detective Louis Simo to validate her suspicions, centered on George's fiancée, aspiring starlet Leonore Lemmon. Simo turns up suspects 2 and 3: Toni Mannix, aging trophy wife to MGM honcho Eddie Mannix, a tough little...