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06 susan_sarandon BULL DURHAM

(1988, MGM) What kind of a woman could steal a movie about one of America's most testosterone-filled pastimes, the mustache-adorned, tobacco-spittin', butt-pattin' sport of baseball? The kind of impeccably funny, lust-lidded siren that Susan Sarandon became in this role. With a Southern drawl as comfortable as a well-oiled glove, Sarandon's Annie Savoy takes on the local minor-league franchise's most promising player each season, educating him in love and ''life wisdom.'' Combining smoldering sensuality with a gentle, protective nature, the actress slides without a drop of sweat from advising her charge (Tim Robbins) on the unfastening of garters to the wonders of Walt Whitman. An actress of less depth would have bobbled Annie Savoy's complexity, but Sarandon turns her into Bull Durham's most valuable player.

07 john_cazale THE GODFATHER PART 2

(1974, Paramount) Michael got the brains, Sonny got the brawn, but Fredo -- poor, forlorn Fredo -- what did he get? Passed over. With Mike (Al Pacino) now in charge, the middle Mafia child is all impotence. The guy can't even betray right. Pitiable, but Cazale never plays it like that. He's awkward and sweet, and so very mournful of the old days (watch him glow like a sickly moon when he spots a friend from back East). When he finally blurts his reasons for turning on his brother, it's with the resentment of a child. ''I'm not dumb! I'm smart and I want respect!'' he bellows, wobbling helplessly on a patio chair. Thanks to Cazale, who made just six movies, all great, before his death at 42, Fredo got the heart -- and the good and bad that go with it.

08 judy_garland THE WIZARD OF OZ

(1939, Warner) We all know The Wizard of Oz is chockful of heart, brains, and courage, but the girl who made the whole thing dance was Garland. The 17-year-old had big shoes to fill working alongside old pros like Jack Haley (Tin Man), Ray Bolger (Scarecrow), and Bert Lahr (Lion), but her wide-eyed innocence and powerful voice are what truly brought the film over the rainbow. (They also helped land Garland a specially created Juvenile Award at the 1940 Oscars, a kiddie-table honor that's no longer passed out.) Later in life, Garland would lose the innocence and concentrate more on her singing career. And though she could still light up a screen on occasion (most notably in 1954's Star Is Born), to find one of cinema's (Continued on page 47) (Continued from page 45) most indelible performances, you must backtrack down the yellow brick road.

09 marilyn_monroe SOME LIKE IT HOT

(1959, MGM) She drove everyone nuts. She arrived late on set, flubbed her lines, and deferred to her acting coach, Paula Strasberg, over director Billy Wilder. But she was Marilyn Monroe. And she was worth it. Though Wilder didn't have Monroe in mind at first (he assumed the part was too small for such a megastar), Sugar Kane, the ukulele-strumming, bourbon-swigging sexpot, is nothing if not pure Marilyn. Her wide-eyed, blissful sensuality is the perfect counterpart to Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon's drag show and confirmed what many already knew from 1955's The Seven Year Itch: that Monroe was a gifted comedian who sparkled more vibrantly than all of Sugar's sequined dresses stitched together. When she breathily boop-boop-be-doops in the middle of ''I Wanna Be Loved by You,'' you have to wonder what fool wouldn't wanna be loved by her.

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