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Broadway audiences know and love Angela Lansbury especially for her turns as Mame (in the 1966 musical of that title) and that meatpie entrepreneur Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd. The more knowledgeable date Lansbury's prominence to her appearance as the iron-willed Mayoress in Stephen Sondheim's earlier musical Anyone Can Whistle, which lasted merely an instant — nine performances, if you will — in the spring of 1964, while the crowds flocked to see Carol Channing's Dolly across the street.

But this was not Lansbury's first Broadway spotlight. The lady — whose career started at 19 in Hollywood with back-to-back Oscar nominations for "Gaslight" (1944) and "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1945) — attracted attention as foil to Bert Lahr in the 1957 farce "Hotel Paradiso." More to the point was her searing portrayal of an alcoholic mother in the 1960 Broadway production of Shelagh Delaney's "A Taste of Honey." Lansbury did not get to recreate her role on film, alas, so this performance seems to have disappeared into the ether.

However, John Frankenheimer — a TV director who had just made a splash with his 1961 feature "The Young Savages" — seems to have taken notice. He immediately cast Lansbury in his upcoming film, "All Fall Down." (This 1962 family drama, with a screenplay by William Inge, starred Warren Beatty, Eva Marie Saint and Karl Malden.) Next up was the thriller "The Manchurian Candidate." Top-billed star Frank Sinatra apparently wanted Lucille Ball to play the key role of the villainess, but Frankenheimer knew what Lansbury was capable of. As the mother of brainwashed assassin Laurence Harvey — who at 34 was only two years younger than Angela — Ms. Lansbury gives what must be one of the most chillingly evil performances in the history of the American cinema. From our dear Angela!

This discussion is brought on by the recent release of the John Frankenheimer Collection [MGM/Fox]. Given the director's extensive resumι — including titles like "Birdman of Alcatraz" and "Seven Days in May" — the films chosen to accompany "The Manchurian Candidate" make a rather unlikely quartet. They are "The Young Savages" (1961, starring Burt Lancaster); "The Train" (1964, starring Lancaster); and "Ronin" (1998, starring Robert DeNiro).

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If it's one of those big-screen '50s tearjerkers you're looking for, you can hardly do better than An Affair to Remember [20th Century Fox]. This is the one where boy meets girl on shipboard, they "fall in love" — in capital letters — and vow to meet six months later on the observation platform of the Empire State Building. The boy in this case was Cary Grant (at 53!) while the girl was Deborah Kerr (a mere lass of 36). The title song, with music by Harry Warren to lyrics by Harold Adamson and Leo McCarey, rode the airwaves, and the film set audiences weeping across the nation.

This was a remake, in actuality; I myself have always preferred the original 1939 version, "Love Affair," which starred Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer. But "An Affair to Remember" holds its place in the Hollywood echelon, and was given new life when Nora Ephron incorporated clips and the theme song into "Sleepless in Seattle."

Perhaps the most surprising thing one finds here is in the billing, with director Leo McCarey credited in type double the size of Grant and Kerr. (The official title of the film seems to be "Leo McCarey's An Affair to Remember" — a testament, I suppose, to how much the 1957 producers wanted the remake rights!) McCarey is pretty much forgotten today, but he was at one time a major presence; take the 1944 Bing Crosby vehicle "Going My Way," which he produced, directed and wrote, and which was the first film (and one of not very many) to win Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay. McCarey, back in 1926, was responsible for pairing two small-time comedians into the team of Laurel & Hardy. He won his first Oscar for directing the 1937 Cary Grant/Irene Dunne classic "The Awful Truth." McCarey's best film, perhaps, is the 1933 Marxian-fest "Duck Soup." He directed the original "Love Affair" in 1939, and pretty much reused the screenplay — although with contemporary locations — for "An Affair to Remember." A 1994 remake — also called "Love Affair," starring Warren Beatty and Annette Bening — was the weakest of the three.

Katharine Hepburn played the hero's grandmother in the Beatty remake. This role had been played in 1957 by Cathleen Nesbitt, just finished with her Broadway stint as Henry Higgins' mother in the original Broadway production of My Fair Lady. Marni Nixon — who sang for Ms. Kerr in the 1956 film version of The King and I —also sang for Kerr in "An Affair to Remember," and is featured on the audio commentary accompanying the two-disc 50th anniversary edition release (which also includes a bunch of featurettes and an AMC feature on the film). Ms. Nixon is just now touring the states in Ms. Nesbitt's role of Mrs. (or should it be Ms.?) Higgins, which ties things up very nicely. Continued...