Billy Budd (1962): It's 1797, and the English frigate Avenger sails wartime seas, ready to engage the French navy in combat. But there's another type of warfare going on aboard the king's ship. It's the battle of good versus evil, the powerful theme of Billy Budd. Terence Stamp, in his film debut, plays the title role, scoring a nomination for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar as an archetype of goodness. Robert Ryan portrays the master-at-arms, efficient and cruel - especially so to young Billy. And director Peter Ustinov also stars as the captain caught between the inevitable clash of polar opposites.
Captain Horatio Hornblower (1950): In one of his favourite roles, Gregory Peck plays the valiant Napoleonic Era British naval hero in this swashbuckling saga adapted for the screen by Hornblower's creator C.S. Forester. True to the famed source novels, Hornblower outthinks his rivals to outfight them. He's unflinching under fire, modest in victory - and more than a little at sea romantically with Lady Barbara Wellesley (Virginia Mayo).
Director Raoul Walsh (White Heat, High Sierra) guides the broadside-for-broadside action with flourishes befitting sea warfare's most exciting era. Two fully-rigged and three nearly complete ships - from a 38-gun frigate to a 100-gun command ship - are used in the film.
Madame Bovary (1949): Jennifer Jones stars as the lovely Emma Bovary in this lush adaptation of the Gustave Flaubert novel that scandalized 19th-century France. As the wife of a country doctor, she longs for romance, glamour and possessions. But instead gets routine, motherhood and penny-pinching. So when she catches the eye of a handsome aristocrat, Emma risks all to reach for what she thinks will be happiness. The film's highlight is the stunning ballroom scene, contrasting Emma's social success with her husband's failure, culminating in his drunken arrival on the dance floor. In the famed sequence, director Vincente Minnelli skillfully combines dissolves, cross-cuts, pans, long takes - a library of techniques - into a seamless triumph of head-spinning gaiety, heart-breaking despair and moviemaking artistry.
The Prisoner of Zenda: Adventure, pageantry and royal intrigue abound in the two finest screen versions of the beloved 1894 Anthony Hope novel filmed many times. Major Rudolph Rassendyll has the appearance and manner of King Rudolph, yet he's really his look-alike cousin, and on his shoulders rests all hope of foiling a blackguard's plot to usurp the throne. Ronald Colman (A Tale of Two Cities) plays the double role in the resilient 1937 David O. Selznick production, making palpable the heartbreak of the royal stand-in whose gallantry is tested by his love for the real king's fiancee (Madeleine Carroll), with Douglas Fairbanks outstanding as the villain. Stewart Granger (Scaramouche) stars in the lavish 1952 colour version, romancing Deborah Kerr and wielding his sword boldly in the film's bravura climactic duel against the scoundrel Rupert (James Mason).
The Three Musketeers (1948): To the cry of "all for one and one for all" comes a version of the Alexandre Dumas classic that's fun for all - a rousing, swashbuckling adaptation that was Gene Kelly's favourite among his non-musical movies. Kelly plays country lad D'Artagnan, who comes to Paris with heady ambition and duels his way into the ranks of King Louis XIII's musketeers. He swashes-and-buckles with brio, bringing to action scenes the virile athleticism that set him apart as a dancer in movie musicals.
