Helen Hayes

Cavalcade of the Academy Awards

Carey Wilson, Janet Gaynor

This 1940 presentation features highlights of earlier (1928 onward) Oscar ceremonies including Shirley Temple and Walt Disney, plus acceptance speeches for films released in 1939 with recipients and presenters including Vivien Leigh, Judy Garland, Hattie McDaniel, Fay Bainter, Mickey Rooney, Thomas Mitchell, Sinclair Lewis, and more, with host Bob Hope.

Harvey

Fielder Cook

James Stewart, Helen Hayes

Elwood P. Dowd's constant companion is Harvey, a six-foot tall invisible rabbit. To his sister, his obsession with Harvey has been a thorn in her plans to marry off her daughter. However, when she decides to put Elwood in a mental institution, a mix-up occurs, and she finds herself committed instead. It's now up to Elwood and "Harvey" to straighten out the mess.

The Bat

Paul Nickell

Helen Hayes, Jason Robards

A sinister criminal known only as "The Bat" attempts to locate a fortune in stolen securities supposedly hidden in the rambling mansion owned by spinster Cornelia Van Gorde.

Crime without Passion

Lee Garmes, Charles MacArthur

Claude Rains, Margo

Caddish lawyer Lee Gentry is going out with Katy Costello, but carrying on an affair with dancer Carmen Brown. When he wants to end the dalliance with Carmen, she is so distraught that she becomes suicidal. Seizing the gun from Carmen, he accidentally shoots her, and thinking she's dead, concocts a series of increasingly outlandish alibis to cover his tracks under the guidance of a ghostly apparition that is his alter ego.

The Dancing Town

Edmund Lawrence

Helen Hayes, Clarence Nordstrom

Young kids face off in a dance competition.

Anastasia

Anatole Litvak

Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner

Russian exiles in Paris plot to collect ten million pounds from the Bank of England by grooming a destitute, suicidal girl to pose as heir to the Russian throne. While Bounin is coaching her, he comes to believe that she is really Anastasia. In the end, the Empress must decide her claim.

Third Man on the Mountain

Ken Annakin

Michael Rennie, James MacArthur

The thrilling, critically acclaimed account of Rudi Matt, a young kitchen worker who is determined to conquer the Citadel -- the jagged, snowcapped peak that claimed his father's life.

A Family Upside Down

David Lowell Rich

Helen Hayes, Fred Astaire

An elderly married couple find that as their physical and mental health deteriorates, they find themselves dependent more and more upon their grown children.

Arsenic and Old Lace

Robert Scheerer

Bob Crane, Sue Lyon

A drama critic learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden aunts are homicidal maniacs, and that insanity runs in his family.

Hopper's Silence

Brian Doherty

Edward Hopper, Jo Hopper

Documentary about painter Edward Hopper and his wife.

Candleshoe

Norman Tokar

David Niven, Jodie Foster

When ex-con artist Harry claims that a secret treasure is hidden inside Candleshoe, an English estate, he creates an elaborate plan to find and steal the prize. By convincing a girl named Casey to impersonate the estate owner's long-lost granddaughter, Harry hopes to uncover the treasure's location. But when Casey has a change of heart, she must follow the clues and find the treasure, in order to save Candleshoe and stop Harry before it is too late.

Airport

George Seaton

Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin

Melodrama about a bomber on board an airplane, an airport almost closed by snow, and various personal problems of the people involved.

What Every Woman Knows

Gregory La Cava

Helen Hayes, Brian Aherne

Aspiring young Scottish politician John Shand enters into an unusual agreement with the wealthy Wylie family -- if they fund his education, he must marry their daughter, Maggie. Staying true to his word, John weds Maggie and begins a successful career, thanks largely to his savvy wife. The couple's relationship is placed in jeopardy when John faces temptation in the form of the lovely aristocrat Lady Sybil Tenterden.

The Sin of Madelon Claudet

Edgar Selwyn

Helen Hayes, Lewis Stone

Out of jail for a crime she did not commit, Madelon turns to prostitution and thievery to send her illegitimate son to medical school.

The Ten-Year Lunch

Aviva Slesin

Heywood Hale Broun, Marc Connelly

The story of the legendary wits who lunched daily at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City during the 1920s. The core of the so-called Round Table group included short story and poetry writer Dorothy Parker; comic actor and writer Robert Benchley; The New Yorker founder Harold Ross; columnist and social reformer Heywood Broun; critic Alexander Woollcott; and playwrights George S. Kaufman, Marc Connelly, Edna Ferber and Robert Sherwood.

Another Language

Edward H. Griffith

Helen Hayes, Robert Montgomery

A newlywed discovers that she and her husband's snobby family speak different languages.