Clash by Night with Don’t Bother to Knock

The memoir of Danish author Karen Blixen (published under her pen name Isak Dinesen) was adapted by director Sydney Pollack and screenwriter Kurt Leudtke for this lavish romantic drama, focusing on the years Blixen (Best Actress nominee Meryl Streep) spent running a coffee farm in Nairobi and her relationship with hunter Denys Finch-Hatton (Robert Redford). Out of Africa was nominated for 11 Oscars and won seven including Best Picture, Directing (both for Pollack), Adapted Screenplay, Art Direction, Cinematography and Sound, with John Barry winning his fourth Oscar for an achingly romantic score.

This gritty biopic dives into the smoky, dangerous glamor of Prohibition-era Chicago for the true story of nightclub performer Joe E. Lewis, famous for being one of the few people who could make gangster Al Capone laugh. Crooner Frank Sinatra, lauded by the film's marketing as “the most electric personality of our time,” follows Lewis’s highs and lows with the same realism and range he brought to The Man with the Golden Arm (1955). Ol’ Blue Eyes also adds musical dimension to the character — the real Lewis was more comedian than singer—with director Charles Vidor (no relation to fellow director King) compounding his experience with musicals and comedies into a story with dramatic nuance.