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Classic Adventure

Remember those moments where the main character finds himself in a difficult or precarious dilemma, or confronted with a shocking revelation, those thrill-a-minute extravaganzas, those rip-roaring spectacles, swashbuckling and derring-do action, cliff-hanger endings .... that was what Saturday Matinees were made of. Below is a compilation of the 'essence' of this wonderful genre. See also 'Cliff-Hanger Serials'

Damn the Defiant! (1962)

7.2/10
Director: Lewis Gilbert
Starring: Alec Guinness, Dirk Bogarde, Anthony Quayle

Alec Guinness must battle a mutinous crew and Napoleon's fleet in this rousing, historical adventure. As commander of the British warship H.M.S. Defia... Read more

The Adventures Of Robin Hood (1938)

8/10
Director: Michael Curtiz, William Keighley
Starring: Olivia de Havilland, Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains, Eugene Pallette

One of cinema's greatest adventure films sees Errol Flynn at his swashbuckling best in a role originally slated for James Cagney. Claude Rains is the... Read more

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954)

7.2/10
Director: Richard Fleischer
Starring: Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Paul Lukas, Peter Lorre

The great Disney version of Jules Verne's famous adventure/fantasy about a sailor (Kirk Douglas) and a scientist who get involved with Captain Nemo, (... Read more

The Guns of Navarone (1961)

7.6/10
Director: J Lee Thompson
Starring: Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn, Stanley Baker, Anthony Quayle, Irene P...

Gregory Peck, David Niven, and Anthony Quinn star as a team of Allied military specialists recruited for a dangerous but imperative mission: to infilt... Read more

Treasure Island (1950)

7/10
Director: Byron Haskin
Starring: Bobby Driscoll, Robert Newton, Basil Sydney

Disney's first live action movie was this vivid take on Robert Louis Stevenson's classic, filmed in England (not the West Indies!) with Bobby Driscoll... Read more

Captain Blood (1935)

7.8/10
Director: Michael Curtiz
Starring: Lionel Atwill, Olivia de Havilland, Errol Flynn

Errol Flynn is the young physician, sentenced to slavery, who's rescued by Olivia de Havilland and begins a life of piracy on the high seas. Superb sw... Read more

Captain Horatio Hornblower (1950)

7.4/10
Director: Raoul Walsh
Starring: Gregory Peck, Virginia Mayo, Robert Beatty

This thrilling adventure saga stars Gregory Peck as a British naval officer caught in the crossfire between the Spanish, the French and a Central Amer... Read more

Moby Dick (1956)

7.4/10
Director: John Huston
Starring: Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart, Orson Welles, Leo Genn, James Robertson Justice,...

Herman Melville's sea classic is brought to the screen with intensity by director John Huston. Starring Gregory Peck as Ahab, Richard Basehart as Ishm... Read more

Modesty Blaise (1966)

5.2/10
Director: Joseph Losey
Starring: Monica Vitti, Dirk Bogarde, Terence Stamp

Of the many '60s cinema spies who arrived in the wake of James Bond, none cut a finer figure than Italian siren Monica Vitti as jewel thief-turned-sec... Read more

Davy Crockett, King Of The Wild Frontier (1955)

7.1/10
Director: Norman Foster
Starring: Fess Parker, Buddy Ebsen, Hans Conried

Originally filmed as three segments for Disney's TV show, this created a phenomenon riveling that of the Hula Hoop and is still great today. With Fess... Read more