Melvyn Douglas

Being There -- Chance, a simple gardener, has never left the estate until his employer dies. His simple TV-informed utterances are mistaken for profundity.

The Candidate -- Superstar Robert Redford ('Up Close and Personal,' 'Indecent Proposal') stars as a young, aggressive lawyer seduced into a political race against a well-respected incumbent Senator.

Legendary Academy Award-honoree and Emmy-winner Barbara Stanwyck ("Double Indemnity," "Meet John Doe," TV's "The Thorn Birds") stars as the pistol packin' sharpshooter who learns that she needs more than a gun to get a man when she falls for a rival marksman. Biographical romp co-stars Oscar-winner Melvyn Douglas ("Hud," "Ninotchka") and Preston Foster ("The Informer").

Character Oscar-nominee James Garner ("Maverick", TV's "The Rockford Files") stars as a pacifistic American naval officer who discovers that he has been selected to become the first casualty of the Normandy invasion as part of a military PR scheme. As he deals with this, he tries to win the heart of a British widower, played by Oscar-winner Julie Andrews ("The Sound of Music," "Victor/Victoria," "Mary Poppins"). Nominated for two Academy Awards, this black romantic comedy also stars Oscar-winners Melvyn Douglas ("Being There," "Hud") and James Coburn ("The Great Escape," "Affliction"). Directed by Oscar-winner Arthur Hiller ("Love Story," "Beverly Hills Cop III"). Written by Academy Award-winner Paddy Chayefsky ("Network," "Altered States"). Selected by the prestigious American Film Institute as one of the 400 best American films of all time.

Having been burned by compromises to censors on his earlier films Cat On a Hot Tin Roof and Sweet Bird of Youth, Paul Newman decided to star in as uncompromising a property as he could find. That property was Hud, inspired by a portion of Larry McMurtry's novel, Horseman Pass By. Hud Bannon (Newman) is a young Texas rancher who lives with his cattleman father Homer (Melvyn Douglas) and his hero-worshipping nephew Lon (Brandon DeWilde). Hud is an amoral, cold-hearted creature; his father, who holds Hud responsible for the death of his other son, tries to imbue Lon with a sense of decency and responsibility to others, but Lon is devoted to Hud and isn't inclined to listen. When hoof-and-mouth disease shows up in one of the elder Bannon's cows, Hud is all for selling the herd before the government inspectors find out. But Homer orders the cattle destroyed (the film's most harrowing sequence), driving an even deeper wedge between himself and Hud. Finally, Hud steps over the line by attempting to rape Alma (Patricia Neal), the earthy but warm-hearted housekeeper. Paul Newman was so repellantly brilliant as an unregenerate heel that his Oscar nomination for Hud was a foregone conclusion. Although Newman lost the Oscar to Sidney Poitier in Lilies of the Field, Oscars did go to Neal for Best Actress, Douglas for Best Supporting Actor, and cinematographer James Wong Howe.

Director Roman Polanski casts himself in the lead of the psychological thriller The Tenant. Trelkovsky (Polanski) rents an apartment in a spooky old residential building, where his neighbors — mostly old recluses — eye him with suspicious contempt. Upon discovering that the apartment's previous tenant, a beautiful young woman, jumped from the window in a suicide attempt, Trelkovsky begins obsessing over the dead woman. Growing increasingly paranoid, Trelkovsky convinces himself that his neighbors plan to kill him. He even comes to the conclusion that Stella (Isabel Adjani), the woman he has fallen in love with, is in on the "plot." Ultimately, Polanski assumes the identity of the suicide victim — and inherits her self-destructive urges. Some critics found the movie tedious and overdone; others compared it to Polanski's early breakthrough, Repulsion. The film was based on Le Locataire Chimerique, a novel by Roland Topor.

A spooky old house, ghostly apparitions, terrifyingly bizarre accidents, and the fear of horrifying vengeance grip four elderly men who are haunted by a murderous secret they have carried for half a century.

A spooky old house, ghostly apparitions, terrifyingly bizarre accidents, and the fear of horrifying vengeance grip four elderly men who are haunted by a murderous secret they have carried for half a century.

Four successful elderly gentlemen, members of the Chowder Society, share a gruesome, 50-year old secret. When one of Edward Wanderley's twin sons dies in a bizarre accident, the group begins to see a pattern of frightening events developing.

Four successful elderly gentlemen, members of the Chowder Society, share a gruesome, 50-year old secret. When one of Edward Wanderley's twin sons dies in a bizarre accident, the group begins to see a pattern of frightening events developing.

Four successful elderly gentlemen, members of the Chowder Society, share a gruesome, 50-year old secret. When one of Edward Wanderley's twin sons dies in a bizarre accident, the group begins to see a pattern of frightening events developing.

Academy Award winners Melvyn Douglas ("Being There," "The Candidate") and Lila Kedrova ("Zorba the Greek," "The Tenant") make screen magic as a long-married couple who go on a cross-country journey when it is discovered that the wife is dying. Together they try to reconnect with their estranged daughter before it is too late. Also starring Peter Coyote ("Femme Fatale," "A Walk to Remember") and Brooke Adams (the "Lace" miniseries, "The Dead Zone").