The Brothers Warner / Kings Row

THE BROTHERS WARNER, 2008, 90 min. An award-winning, intimate portrait of the four film pioneers (Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack Warner) who founded and ran Warner Bros. studios for over a half-century. Written and directed by Cass Warner, this epic story includes never-before-seen photos and footage from the Warner family archives. THE BROTHERS WARNER is the story of a family that rose from immigrant poverty through personal tragedies, persevering to create a major movie studio with a social conscience. The cast of interviewees includes Dennis Hopper, Debbie Reynolds and Norman Lear.

KINGS ROW, 1942, Warner Bros., 127 min. Life in a turn-of-the-century Midwestern small town is viewed though the perspective of five childhood friends (Robert Cummings, Ann Sheridan, Betty Field, Nancy Coleman and Ronald Reagan). Beneath the veneer of provincial civility lurks a creepy underworld of sadism, bigotry, sexual repression and assorted family skeletons.