Bingebox #5 : 1940s.
(DVD)

Each bingebox is lent as a single unit. Limit 1 box per patron at a time. Other loan rules: 3-week borrowing period, no holds, no renewals.

Battleground: Van Johnson, George Murphy, John Hodiak, Ricardo Montalban, Marshall Thompson.

Brief encounter: Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, Joyce Carey, Cyril Raymond, Everly Gregg, Marjorie Mars, Margaret Barton.

The heiress: Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift, Ralph Richardson, Miriam Hopkins, Mona Freeman, Vanessa Brown, Selena Royle.

His girl Friday: Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Bellamy, Gene Lockhart, Helen Mack, Porter Hall.

Mildred Pierce: Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden, Ann Blyth, Bruce Bennett, Lee Patrick, Moroni Olsen, Veda Ann Borg, Jo Ann Marlowe.

The Philadelphia story: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, Ruth Hussey, John Howard, Roland Young, John Halliday, Mary Nash, Virginia Weidler.

Battleground: Follows a group of soldiers through the Battle of the Bulge.

Brief encounter: Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson star as middle-class suburbanites whose casual friendship evolves into a passionate yearning for each other. But as their affections grow stronger, they must face a difficult decision that will affect both of their lives forever.

The heiress: From the play by Ruth & Augustus Goetz & the novel "Washington square" by Henry James. Originally released as a motion picture in 1949.

His girl Friday: Hildy Johnson is a reporter. Hildy is matched in force only by her conniving but charismatic editor and ex-husband, Walter Burns, who dangles the chance for her to scoop her fellow news writers with the story of an impending execution in order to keep her from hopping the train that's supposed to take her to Albany and a new life as a housewife.

Mildred Pierce: Melodrama casts noirish shadows in this portrait of maternal sacrifice from Hollywood master Michael Curtiz. Its iconic performance by Joan Crawford as Mildred, a single mother hell-bent on freeing her children from the stigma of economic hardship, solidified Crawford's career comeback and gave the actor her only Oscar. But as Mildred pulls herself up by the bootstraps, first as an unflappable waitress and eventually as the well-heeled owner of a successful restaurant chain, the ingratitude of her materialistic firstborn (a diabolical Ann Blyth) becomes a venomous serpent's tooth, setting in motion an endless cycle of desperate overtures and heartless recriminations.

The Philadelphia story: A sophisticated romantic comedy about a rich, spoiled socialite who learns some things about who she is and what she really wants on the eve of her second marriage.

MPAA ratings: Not rated