Classic Films

In a tyrannical kingdom, the queen lusts after Hercules, who is in love with a handmaiden. When the king kills the handmaiden, Hercules finds himself drawn to the rebels' cause.

Jason Robards Jr. became an overnight star with his indelible performance as the glad-handing, doom-ridden Hickey in the legendary 1956 Circle in the Square revival of Eugene O'Neill's towering masterpiece (first staged in 1939). In his harrowing drama, O'Neill shines a harsh but compassionate spotlight on the failed lives, empty hopes, and perpetual pipe dreams of an assortment of down-and-out denizens of a seedy saloon, set in New York in 1912....

Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is one of the great young-adult novels of the 19th century. It describes the coming-of-age of the four March sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, whose loving mother cares for them while their father serves in the Civil War. Jo, who falls in love and becomes a writer, is clearly an analogue for Alcott herself. This 1949 film adaptation stars Elizabeth Taylor as Amy, Janet Leigh as Meg, June Allyson as Jo, and Mary Astor...

The screenplay of this 1941 docudrama was written by John Steinbeck himself. The film focuses on the life of a family in a small Mexican town. The son, Juan Diego, is introduced to concepts of modern medicine by an idealistic teacher. When disease strikes, Juan Diego struggles to overcome local superstition and help save the townspeople. Burgess Meredith is the narrator.

This 1937 film is an adaptation of H. Rider Haggard's classic "lost world" novel, in which a group of adventurers search for the legendary mines in Africa.

Kingsley Amis's most famous book, often considered the funniest campus novel ever written, is here adapted into a highly successful comedy. Jim Dixon, an intelligent but hapless junior lecturer, tries to please a dim senior professor and a boring girlfriend, until things change dramatically for him. His misadventures are both hilarious and pitiful. As Jim Dixon, the British actor Ian Carmichael gave what some regard as his finest performance. Also...

This early sound adaptation of Shakespeare's classic comedy stars the legendary couple Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford as the feuding couple Katherine and Petruchio. Also starring Edwin Maxwell and Joseph Cawthorn.

In what is often considered the very first documentary film, Robert Flaherty recorded the daily life of Nanook the Inuk hunter and his family living in the harsh conditions of Canada's Hudson Bay region. Essential viewing for students of anthropology and film, Nanook of the North raises many questions about truth, storytelling, and culture. Educators, consider pairing this film with Nanook Revisited (FoD #2250), a documentary revisiting Flaherty's...

Anthony Asquith directed this famous adaptation of Oscar Wilde's classic play about romance and mistaken identify. Michael Redgrave and Michael Denison star as two wealthy Victorian dandies, and Edith Evans adds a legendary performance as the formidable Lady Bracknell. According to the film magazine "Variety": "All the charm and glossy humor of Oscar Wilde's classic comedy emerges faithfully." Also starring Dorothy Tutin as Cecily and Margaret Rutherford...

Mistreated foundling Heathcliff and Catherine fall in love, but she marries a wealthy man, Edgar Linton so Heathcliff becomes obsessed with getting revenge. through his own loveless marriage to Edgar's sister Isabella. In this television adaptation of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, realism and gothic symbolism combine to form a romance novel that's full of social relevance.