The Corn is Green (DVD)

Miss Moffat, an Englishwoman who relocates to an early 1900s mining community, is astonished to see children working in the mines. "After one week," a townsman observes, "they are old men." She resolves to make the children -- and especially one prize pupil -- something else: scholars. Katharine Hepburn stars in director George Cukor's exquisite version of Emlyn Williams' beloved play. This 10th and final Hepburn/Cukor collaboration met initial reluctance when its star was first approached. But Hepburn found the script's message of hope irresistible. "Everybody now talks about the impossibility of life," she said. "This is all about the possibility." With Hepburn in the lead, this masterful, touching film graduates with honors.

• drama