The second of the terrific Stewart/Mann Westerns is characteristic of their pairings: adult themes played out against prairie vistas in which betrayal and violence can erupt at any time. Formerly a vicious Missouri raider, Stewart now leads an Oregon bound wagon train that, having brushed aside ineffective Native American resistance to the invasion, becomes embroiled in a conflict over resources between farmers (decent folk) and miners (womanising, drinking, thieving, scumbags). Welcome to Middl find out more...

Michael Curtiz's epic Western 'Dodge City' stars Errol Flynn as Wade Hatton, a wagon master turned sheriff who tames the cow town at the end of the railroad. Flynn brings his trademark swash buckling charisma to the role of the justice-seeking sheriff, and Olivia de Havilland is both tough and lovely as Hatton's ally and inevitable love interest. The film also features one of the liveliest bar room brawls in cinematic history. find out more...

David Lean's much-acclaimed production of the gloomy Dickens classic. Briefly, a young boy befriends an escaped convict who later repays him anonymously, creating a bond which the now upwardly-mobile youngster could well do without...an interesting probe of Victorian class structure. Visually flawless, perfectly paced, it's a masterpiece. find out more...

Based on Jules Verne's fantasy adventure we follow Professor Lindenbrook and his motley posse into the bowls of the earth where they discover a land that time forgot (or something very similar). Very bad baddies, huge ravenous lizards, and giant mushrooms are just a taster of the goodies on offer. There's also a bit of effective sexual symbolism, in typical Hollywood style, which greatly enhances the syrupy romantic subplot. Excellent and with the added bonus of the late, great James Mason. find out more...

Among the lavish sets one can detect a plot in which one of Nero's Roman commanders falls in love with a Christian girl and they both get thrown to the lions. Ustinov barks, foams at the mouth, sets fire to the eternal city, and steals the show. Rivetting acting in one of the last great cinema epics.

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It's the off-season at the lonely Beauregard Hotel in Bournemoth, and only the long-term tenants are still in residence. Life is stirred up, however, when the beautiful Ann Shankland arrives to see her alcoholic ex-husband, John Malcolm, who is secretly engaged to Pat Cooper, the woman who runs the hotel. Meanwhile, snobbish Mrs Railton-Bell discovers that the kindly if rather doddering Major Pollock, played by David Niven, who won an Oscar for his performance, a retired officer who likes to find out more...

The John Huston classic about the prim missionary lady forced to team up with a drunken ne'er-do-well for a dangerous journey when the war comes to their remote bit of Africa. Their trying odyssey downriver, of course, gradually sees the two incompatibles falling in love, with the as always detached Bogart finally discovering commitment and attacking a German gunboat. find out more...

Based on David Low's cartoon character, Major General Clive Wynne-Candy, VC, we back-track over his life, drawing us into sympathy with the prime virtues of honour and chivalry which have transformed him from dashing young spark of the 1890s into crusty old buffer of World War II. Roger Livesey gives us not just a great performance, but a man's whole life, losing his only love (Deborah Kerr) to the German officer (Walbrook) with whom he fought a duel in pre-WWI Berlin, then becoming the latter's find out more...

Nominated for five Academy Awards; Michael Curtiz's expansive period drama sets the tumultuous on-again, off-again affair between Queen Elizabeth I and the second Earl of Essex against Essex's powerful ambition to assume power in England. Having won several important battles, Essex's popularity among the masses is soaring, but despite his own substantial cunning he is ultimately no match for his Queen, a woman Essex greatly admires but has sworn to usurp. An epic, rip-roaring reinterpretation of find out more...

After WW1, Lloyd returns to practice law, out-of-work Eddie Bartlett becomes a cab driver and former saloon keeper George Hally turns to bootlegging. Good guy Eddie builds up a fleet of cabs through the reluctant delivery of bootleg liquor and hires Lloyd as his lawyer. Ruthless George becomes Eddie's partner and the rackets flourish until love and rivalry interfere. An archetypal gangster thriller. find out more...