Frank Scannell

The Country Girl -- Grace Kelly received an Oscar for her brilliant portrayal of the wife, and Bing Crosby gave one of the most outstanding performances of his varied career as an alcoholic, guilt-ridden and has-been actor.

The Band Wagon -- Oscar-winner and legendary hoofer Fred Astaire ('Top Hat') stars in this fun-filled Oscar-nominated musical as a Hollywood celebrity who stumbles into trouble when he agrees to star in a Broadway show.

Discovered while playing amateur baseball, Jerome Dean, a brash loudmouth with the skills to back it up, is signed by the St. Louis Cardinals and sent to play on a minor league Texas farm team. While in Texas, Dean meets and marries Patricia Nash, and before long is a starting pitcher for the Cards. Nicknamed 'Dizzy' for his colorful antics both on and off the field, his brother Paul, nicknamed 'Daffy' by the press, soon joins him on the team, and together they lead the Cardinals to victory in the 1934 World Series. Plagued by an arm injury that never fully healed, Dean is forced out of baseball and retreats into the bottle, neglecting everything including his wife. He finds a second career as a color commentator but never being properly educated, his use of uncommon and eccentric grammar gets him in trouble with schoolteachers who believe he's a bad influence on children. In a pre-emptive move Dean announces he will resign rather than hurt kids, but St. Louis rallies behind him and he keeps his job, becoming one of the most beloved broadcasters in baseball.

A clever, self-parodic version of the Aladdin tales has Aladdin (Cornel Wilde) trying to win the heart of Adele Jergens (Princess Armina). Nothing goes right for him until he discovers the magic lamp that houses the genie (Evelyn Keyes). She, in turn, falls for her new master and successfully thwarts his would-be royal romance.