Pat Dowell

Lewis, whose comedic duo with Dean Martin launched him to the peak of showbiz, starred and directed in dozens of films. He was perhaps just as famous for his charity work fighting muscular dystrophy.

No One Knows About Persian Cats tells the story of Iranian musicians trying to put together a band in a country where heavy metal, rock and hip-hop are illegal. The film won two prizes at last year's Cannes International Film Festival, and opens in this week in the U.S.

Filmmaker John Huston -- born 100 years ago Saturday, on Aug. 5, 1906 -- made some of cinema's most enduring classics, among them The Maltese Falcon and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

This Wednesday, Steven Spielberg's version of The War of the Worlds opens across the country. The film is based on H. G. Wells' classic novel, which has been adapted many times since it was published in 1898. Most famous is Orson Welles' 1938 radio play, which frightened millions who mistook it for a news report. The 1953 film version appeared during a wave of sci-fi movies that hit American screens in the 1950s, a time of great fear in the United States.

Volker Schlondorff is an Academy Award-winning German filmmaker who has focused on many aspects of German culture and history, but vowed never to make a movie about concentration camps -- until now. The Ninth Day tells the story of a priest who is torn between what is best for the church and his people.