Michael Anderson had the bright idea of collecting hundreds of stars together way before Robert Altman thought of it and here they all are, in glorious technicolour. Niven is suberb, as always, as the impeccable Fogg who, for a wager, tries to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days! Hop on a sailing railroad across The West! Be attacked by fierce prairie Indians! Rescue a Princess in India! Sail a burning Atlantic paddle-wheeler! Fight bulls in Spain! Romp through Paris! Won Best Picture at 1956 Ac find out more...

Shot in five sections "How The West Was Won" is a sprawling multi-star epic following the fortunes of one family from 1839 and New York to 1889 and Arizona. 'The Rivers' (dir Henry Hathaway); the Prescotts head west down the Ohio river. 'The Plains' (dir Henry Hathaway); Lily moves to St Louis and on to Caifornia. 'The Civil War' (dir John Ford); Linus and Zeb enlist on the Union side. 'The Railroad' (dir George Marshall); the settlers multiply and cavalry officer Zeb finds himself in a war with find out more...

In the winter of 1820, the New England whaling ship Essex was assaulted by something no one could believe: a whale of mammoth size and will, and an almost human sense of vengeance. The real-life maritime disaster would inspire Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. But that told only half the story. "In the Heart of the Sea" reveals the encounter's harrowing aftermath, as the ship's surviving crew is pushed to their limits and forced to do the unthinkable to stay alive. Braving storms, starvation, pani find out more...

Brooks's adaptation of Conrad's novel, the story of an idealistic young naval officer who is discharged for cowardice and tries to redeem himself by taking some explosives into the unmapped jungles of Sumatra, where he is captured and tortured by a feudal war lord. O'Toole's Jim and Mason's Gentleman Brown discussing the age of the world and the price of evil while sat on a raft in the middle of a fog-bound river is a classic scene, and Freddie Young's photography does for the Asian jungles what find out more...

The story of Tracy Edwards, a 24-year-old cook on charter boats, who became the skipper of the first ever all-female crew to enter the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1989. This is a film that doesn't leave you: the images of gigantic waves and ice bergs and superhuman levels of courage and endurance are hard to process. If it were a work of fiction you would dismiss it as Hollywood hype: but it's not, find out more...

Captain "Lucky" Jack Aubrey is a naval commander whose ship comes under heavy fire from a vastly superior enemy vessel while on patrol off the Brazilian coast during the Napoleonic wars. Only the luck of the gods and Jack's renowned cunning save him and the crew from certain doom, enabling their ship to slip away from battle before all is lost in the icy depths of the ocean. With his pride and his ship in a poor way Jack vows to turn the tables on his foe and so begins a tense game of cat and mo find out more...

Melville's wild and brilliant gothic tale is electrically adapted by John Huston. Peck's performance, as Ahab with his gradual descent into madness, make a powerful centrepiece, whilst the deliberate sepia feel, the narration, and the fine supporting cast (including Orson Welles) all add depth. find out more...

Saloon singer Monroe, violence prone farmer Mitchum and the young son he hardly knows, drift down-river by raft from both immediate dangers and their immediate pasts. They must try the impossible, to restart their broken lives and return to being an ideal family. Mitchum's performance is excellent, but the film holds most interest as an early Monroe performance. There really is no return. A tale of betrayal, revenge and love in the wild Wild West. find out more...

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An entertaining version of the famous book, which, while being a good period drama and an interesting comparison of moral and sexual codes, fails to match the book's post-structuralist approach to genre melodrama or its hard look at Victorian sexuality. An excellent, if slightly flawed movie! find out more...