ClassX

Rated: G

An animated documentary showcasing the world's many different animal species, both past and present.

The movie may be lost, but the animation survives! To be frank, I've never seen the movie "The Animal World" but as a kid, I inherited the View-Master reels, and later the "Prehistoric Animals" packet, from my older brother... Boy! Did I wish I could see the movie one day! Being a monster movie buff, I bought the movie "The Black Scorpion" on DVD lately and to my surprise, I found out that the entire "Dinosaur Sequence" animated by Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen from "Animal World" was included as an extra feature on it! Wow! I finally saw it! And it was worth the wait... in part. I'm giving it a rating of 8/10 because the sequence is composed of superb stop-motion animation by two great masters, but also of cheesy looking dinosaur puppets... Anyway, it's great fun to look at! - burtsimpson555

Director: Irwin Allen

Rated: PG

While awaiting execution for murder, Baron Victor Frankenstein tells the story of a creature he built and brought to life - only for it to behave not as he intended.

In prison and awaiting execution, Dr. Victor Frankenstein recounts to a priest what led him to his current circumstance. He inherited his family's wealth after the death of his mother when he was still only a young man. He hired Paul Krempe as his tutor and he immediately developed an interest in medical science. After several years, he and Krempe became equals and he developed an interest in the origins and nature of life. After successfully re-animating a dead dog, Victor sets about constructing a man using body parts he acquires for the purpose including the hands of a pianist and the brain of a renowned scholar. As Frankenstein's excesses continue to grow, Krempe is not only repulsed by what his friend has done, but is concerned for the safety of the beautiful Elizabeth, Victor's cousin and fiancée who has come to live with them. His experiments lead to tragedy and his eventual demise.

Director: Terence Fisher

Rated: PG-13

An independent former ranch foreman is kidnapped along with an heiress, who is being held for ransom by trio of ruthless outlaws.

Having lost his horse in a bet, Pat Brennan hitches a ride with a stagecoach carrying newlyweds, Willard and Doretta Mims. At the next station, the coach and its passengers fall into the hands of a trio of outlaws headed by a man named Usher. After he learns that Doretta is the daughter of a rich copper mine owner, he decides to hold her for ransom. Tension builds over the next 24 hours as Usher awaits a response to his demands and as a romantic attachment grows between Brennan and Doretta. — dinky-4

Director: Budd Boetticher

Rated: PG

The life of brilliant but tortured artist Vincent van Gogh.

Vincent Van Gogh is the archetypical tortured artistic genius. His obsession with painting, combined with mental illness, propels him through an unhappy life full of failures and unrewarding relationships. He fails at being a preacher to coal miners. He fails in his relationships with women. He earns some respect among his fellow painters, especially Paul Gauguin, but he does not get along with them. He only manages to sell one painting in his lifetime. The one constant good in his life is his brother Theo, who is unwavering in his moral and financial support. — John Oswalt

Directors: Vincente Minnelli, George Cukor

Rated: PG

Farmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, and he gathers six other samurai to join him.

A veteran samurai who has fallen on hard times answers a village's request for protection from bandits. He gathers six other samurai to help him. They teach the townspeople how to defend themselves, and the townspeople supply the samurai with three small meals a day. The film culminates in a giant battle when 40 bandits attack the village. — Colin Tinto

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Rated: G

Moses, raised as a prince of Egypt in the Pharaoh's household, learns of his true heritage as a Hebrew and his divine mission as the deliverer of his people from slavery.

To escape the edict of Egypt's Pharaoh Rameses I (Ian Keith), condemning all newborn Hebrew males, the infant Moses (Fraser C. Heston) is set adrift on the Nile in a reed basket. Saved by the pharaoh's daughter Bithiah (Nina Foch), he is adopted by her and brought up in the court of her brother, Pharaoh Sethi (Sir Cedric Hardwicke). Moses (Charlton Heston) gains Sethi's favor and the love of the throne Princess Nefretiri (Anne Baxter), as well as the hatred of Sethi's son, Rameses II (Yul Brynner). When his Hebrew heritage is revealed, Moses is cast out of Egypt, and makes his way across the desert where he marries, has a son, and is commanded by God to return to Egypt to free the Hebrews from slavery. In Egypt, Moses' fiercest enemy proves to be not Rameses II, but someone near to him who can "harden his heart".

Director: Cecil B. DeMille

Rated: PG

The sole survivor of a lost whaling ship relates the tale of his captain's self-destructive obsession to hunt the white whale, Moby Dick.

This classic story by Herman Melville revolves around Captain Ahab and his obsession with a huge whale, Moby Dick. The whale caused the loss of Ahab's leg years before, leaving Ahab to stomp the boards of his ship on a peg leg. Ahab is so crazed by his desire to kill the whale, that he is prepared to sacrifice everything, including his life, the lives of his crew members, and even his ship to find and destroy his nemesis, Moby Dick.

Director: John Huston

Rated: PG-13

A former sheriff blames himself for his wife's death during a Wells Fargo robbery and vows to track down and kill the seven men responsible.

Ex-sheriff Ben Stride tracks the seven men who held up a Wells Fargo office and killed his wife. Stride is tormented by the fact that his own failure to keep his job was the reason his wife was working in the express office, so he is partly responsible for her death. Stride encounters a married couple heading west for California and helps them; along the way they are joined by two ne'er-do-wells, Masters and Clete, who know that Stride is after the express-office robbers. They plan to let Stride lead them to the bandits, then make away with the loot themselves. But they aren't the only ones carrying a secret. — Jim Beaver

Director: Budd Boetticher

Rated: PG

Davy and his friends leave for New Orleans to sell some fur pelts.

Davy Crockett and his sidekick Georgie compete against boastful Mike Fink ("King of the River") in a boat race to New Orleans. Later, Davy and Georgie, allied with Fink, battle a group of river pirates trying to pass themselves off as Native Americans. — Ken Miller

Director: Norman Foster

Rated: PG-13

An American Civil War veteran embarks on a years-long journey to rescue his niece from the Comanches after the rest of his brother's family is massacred in a raid on their Texas farm.

Three years after the Civil War, battle-scarred Confederate veteran Ethan Edwards returns to his brother Aaron's remote Texan homestead. But instead of finding peace, the taciturn soldier finds tragedy when the murderous raiding party of ruthless Comanche Chief Scar massacres his family, burns the ranch to the ground, and abducts his 9-year-old niece, Debbie. Fearing the worst, Ethan and his young companion, Martin Pawley, embark on a dangerous 5-year odyssey to rescue the girl, fueled by hatred and a thirst for vengeance. However, as the searchers ride through the unforgiving desert to track down their lost Debbie, they must confront their demons and answer an unvoiced question. Is the woman they seek still the same person they once knew? — Nick Riganas

Director: John Ford