Probation (DVD)

Janet Holman is a spoiled society girl attracted to trouble. Hoping to reform the girl, her Uncle George, an esteemed judge, allows her to sit in while he's hearing cases. She takes particular interest in handsome defendant Nick Jarrod. Janet and Nick fall in love, but his violent past threatens to tear them apart.

Leading lady Sally Blane (1910-'97) was the sister of actresses Loretta Young and Polly Ann Young. She appeared in over 70 films before marrying actor-director Norman foster and retiring from the screen.

The small but pivotal role of Nick's saucy sister Ruth marked the first credited role for Betty Grable (1916-'73), then under contract to Samuel Goldwyn. In a few years, she would become one of the most popular actresses and sex symbols in the world, starring in such classics as Million Dollar Legs (1939), Down Argentine Way (1940), Moon Over Miami (1941) and How to Marry a Millionaire (1953).

Director Richard Thorpe (1896-1991) enjoyed a long and durable Hollywood career beginning with a string of low-budget Western silents. At MGM in the 1930s, he began directing more important films, including the classic thriller Night Must Fall (1937) and several films in the popular Tarzan series. Big-budget success awaited Thorpe with Ivanhoe (1952) and The Prisoner of Zenda (1952), Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957), and the Elvis Presley classics Jailhouse Rock (1957) and Fun in Acapulco (1963).

• drama