Days of Wine and Roses (1962)

Alcoholism continues to plague American families. It ruins m a r r i a g e s , careers and the lives of children whose parents are addicted to drink. None of the recent films on the subject (28 Days and the overrated Leaving Las Vegas) can equal the dramatic intelligence and emotional impact of Days of Wine and Roses. Joe Clay (Jack Lemmon) is a public-relations executive who can't relax without a drink. He meets Kirsten Arneson (Lee Remick), who doesn't drink but loves chocolate, and orders her a Brandy Alexander. They fall in love and marry despite the opposition of her father (Charles Bickford).

Kirsten becomes an alcoholic like her husband. Joe loses his job and hits bottom, getting sober with the help of an Alcoholics Anonymous counselor (Jack Klugman). But Kirsten is unable to get off the sauce. Director Blake Edwards (The Pink Panther) and screenwriter J.P. Miller make us like their main characters even as they destroy everything around them.

Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954)

Sometimes sequels are better than the originals. Demetrius and the Gladiators is the highly successful follow-up to the b l o c k b u s t e r Roman epic The Robe. Both are based on novelist Lloyd Douglas's c h a r a c t e r s . Demetrius could be characterized as a Christianized version of the recent Oscar-winner Gladiator. The title character (Victor Mature) is a Greek slave freed by the Christian convert Marcellus (Richard Burton) before his death. The freedman is given the robe Our Lord wore to the cross. When he kills a Roman soldier, he's arrested and forced into the arena as a gladiator.

Demetrius renounces his faith after Lucia (Debra Paget), the woman he loves, is unfairly beaten. He becomes a champion fighter and a member of the palace guard of the anti-Christian emperor Caligula (Jay Robinson). An encounter with the apostle Peter (Michael Rennie) brings him back to Our Lord, and he must find a way to stand up to Caligula. Directed Delmer Daves (Dark Passage) and screenwriter Philip Dunne keep the action moving with a grand, over-the-top style.