Over 60 great film musicals from Hollywood's major studios are given detailed treatment, while hundreds more are briefly noted in this comprehensive guide to the best of America's vintage movie musical classics that are now available on DVD.

Award-winning films and movies, plus those motion pictures that were critically acclaimed, plus some purely personal picks (or should I say, "pix"?) figure in this new movie book by acclaimed (but also disparaged) critic, John Howard Reid. (You can't win them all!)

Crime is not exactly a risky business for movie makers. In fact, this category has always been high on Hollywood's agenda, and there are very few crime films that have actually lost money. Crime and film noir make such a fascinating subject, that although the author set out to detail 150 of his favorite films, he has actually reviewed 185! 125 of these movies are also supplied with their exhaustive credit details, as well as copyright and other release information, plus a brief synopsis. Fortunately, many of these movies - both justly famous and even the unjustly neglected - are now available on DVD. Many are also frequently presented on pay TV.

Gathered in this large volume paperback are some of Hollywood's best loved and most famous movies. In addition to the many film classics, however, the author has included a number of equally entertaining films that deserve to be better known. Many of these movies are now available on DVD. Full credits and detailed reviews are provided for over a hundred of these classic films. Over two hundred more movies are represented by short reviews. Many of the reviews contain DVD details. Of course, not all classic movies have surfaced on DVD to date, but they are being issued at the rate of around forty a month! If you love classic movies, this book will provide an invaluable guide to some of the enjoyable films that are now available (and also, of course, some of the disappointing films that you might wisely avoid).

Almost all the CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD MOVIES discussed in this book are currently available on DVD. Many are sold by specialist stores such as Oldies. And now that vintage titles are being pressed on demand, theoretically they will never go out of print! However, an attempt has been made to include some of the classics that are not so well-known, as well as those that are more frequently aired on TV or are prominently featured in retail and mail order stores. Here, for example, are a few of the movie titles that begin with the letter "S" Seven Keys to Baldpate (1917), Seven Keys to Baldpate (1947), She Goes To War (1929), the Shining Adventure (1925), the Ship of Lost Men (1929), Show-Off (1926), Silent Enemy (1930), Sky Bride (1932), Sky High (1922), Slums of New York (1932), the Smart Set (1928), Son of the Gods (1930), Speedway (1929), Spite Marriage (1929), the Squall (1929), Square Shoulders (1929), Stranger in Town (1932), Strictly Unconventional (1930), Sunset Trail (1932), Svengali (1931).

Hollywood has had an off and on romance with the Bible -- thanks largely to Cecil B. DeMille whose ground-breaking silent picture "The King of Kings" has rarely been equalled for its faithfulness and fidelity, and certainly not in its dreadful re-make by producer Sam Bronston and director Nicholas Ray. This book examines both the hits and misses in the Bible stakes, as well as many other movies in which religion plays a major role, such as "The Garden of Allah", "Samson and Delilah", "The Silence of Dean Maitland", "Stars in My Crown", "Mary of Scotland" and "The Ten Commandments".

More than 50 of Hollywood's most famous movies are examined in detail in this book, which provides full cast and production credits, release dates, background information, DVD suppliers, plus up-to-date assessments and reviews. This information not only covers almost everything you would want to know about some of your favorite movies, but guides you towards further classic films you might enjoy! To name just twenty of the more than fifty titles, they include An American in Paris, The Apartment, The Caine Mutiny, Casablanca, China Seas, Duck Soup, From Here To Eternity, Gone With The Wind, The Greatest Show On Earth, If I Had a Million, In Old Chicago, It Happened One Night, Laura, Out of the Past, The Palm Beach Story, the Picture of Dorian Gray, A Place in the Sun, two versions of State Fair, The Wizard of Oz, Wonder Bar, and Yankee Doodle Dandy.