Smilin' Through

Two generations of tragic love make Smilin' Through one of the screen's great romances. The story begins in 1868 England, when John Carteret's fiancee is shot dead on the couple's wedding day by a rejected lover aiming at the groom. Flash forward to 1915, after the devoted John has raised his fiancee's niece Kathleen as his own. Kathleen falls in love with an American -- the murderer's son -- and the past sweeps back to haunt the present. Film legends Norma Shearer, Fredric March (both in dual roles) and Leslie Howard (whose character ages 50 years) find every tear and triumph in this Best Picture Oscar nominee (1932-33) that is "lovely, simply lovely an example of romantic melodrama at its best" (The Movie Guide).