Fred Crane Movies

While it is true that Lost in Space officially debuted on September 15, 1965, every true fan of the series knows that it actually begins on October 16, 1997, the date that the Robinson family, along with pilot Don West (Mark Goddard), are to be launched in the space vessel Jupiter 2 on a colonization mission to Alpha Centauri. Shortly before lift-off, the Robinsons are given words of encouragement by their trusted associate Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris)--who, once he is alone, reveals himself to be an enemy agent, intent upon sabotaging the Jupiter 1 before it reaches its destination. For this purpose, Smith has planted a booby-trapped robot in the space vessel, programmed to destroy both the vessel and its occupants. Unfortunately for Smith, he himself is trapped on board the Jupiter a few seconds before the final countdown! Much of the expository footage in this episode is lifted from the original pilot film for Lost in Space, in which neither Dr. Smith nor the robot appeared. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Gone With the Wind boils down to a story about a spoiled Southern girl's hopeless love for a married man. Producer David O. Selznick managed to expand this concept, and Margaret Mitchell's best-selling novel, into nearly four hours' worth of screen time, on a then-astronomical 3.7-million-dollar budget, creating what would become one of the most beloved movies of all time. Gone With the Wind opens in April of 1861, at the palatial Southern estate of Tara, where Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) hears that her casual beau Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard) plans to marry "mealy mouthed" Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland). Despite warnings from her father (Thomas Mitchell) and her faithful servant Mammy (Hattie McDaniel), Scarlett intends to throw herself at Ashley at an upcoming barbecue at Twelve Oaks. Alone with Ashley, she goes into a fit of histrionics, all of which is witnessed by roguish Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), the black sheep of a wealthy Charleston family, who is instantly fascinated by the feisty, thoroughly self-centered Scarlett: "We're bad lots, both of us." The movie's famous action continues from the burning of Atlanta (actually the destruction of a huge wall left over from King Kong) through the now-classic closing line, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." Holding its own against stiff competition (many consider 1939 to be the greatest year of the classical Hollywood studios), Gone With the Wind won ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress (Vivien Leigh), and Best Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American to win an Oscar). The film grossed nearly 192 million dollars, assuring that, just as he predicted, Selznick's epitaph would be "The Man Who Made Gone With the Wind." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi