SHORTLIST VINTAGE FILM OF 1968

American astronauts crash land on a planet where humans aren’t at the top of the food chain. Co-written by Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling, POTA offers the same fare – though-provoking sci-fi, action, drama, and a wicked plot twist – on an epic scale. The best-ever surprise ending? Perhaps. The best film ever with a twelve-tone musical score? For sure.

Though the actors are not household names, most households listen every day to the helpful and detached (yet often infuriating) responses of Alexa and Siri – direct descendants the voice of the HAL 9000 onboard computer. If only Kubrick had stuck with his original voice actor (Martin Balsam), how different might the world sound today?

Oliver Reed doesn’t play Oliver, nor is he related to the director, Carol Reed…confused yet? Thank goodness this is Dickens, so the characters’ names are far less ambiguous than those in the credits. If your kids won’t spend 16 hours reading the original, let them watch this – either way, they’ll know what a Fagin is when it comes up on the exam.

A washed-up Broadway impresario and his accountant conspire to produce the worst musical ever, then keep the investors’ money when it flops. The script they choose is in incredibly bad taste, but we won’t spoil it for you here – just enjoy it and don’t bother with the 2005 remake…the things producers will do to make a buck!

Despite the absence of Clint Eastwood from its cast, Sergio Leone’s follow-up to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is the Italian director’s highest-rated film (by fans, at least).

When Allied commandos parachute behind enemy lines to storm a German castle and stage a daring rescue, they encounter a few bombshells along the way (and not all of them are rocking dirndls). Much smarter than your average war movie, this one has a killer plot twist that’s made it a classic.

Proof that a great star can carry a so-so script to great heights. For those who never understood why Barbra Streisand is such a big deal, this is the film you need to see.

In what is perhaps the original “New York luxury real estate thriller” (hat tip to A.O. Scott), things get even colder than in Fargo as an expecting mother (Farrow) begins to suspect that the Dakota building (called The Bramford here) may be an ideal home for other creatures than for her baby.

Shakespeare, that most-feared game show category, attracts a much larger audience when a (living) talented writer brings the story to life for us. Still set in 1183 (not 2001), James Goldman’s script gave King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine plenty of red-carpet opportunities after the curtain fell.

Before Lightning McQueen, there was a race driver and iconic actor named Steve McQueen who took the wheel for three weeks of shooting to give us Hollywood’s first big-time car chase. The masterfully-edited Mustang vs. Charger set piece lasts only nine minutes on screen (try to spot the green VW Beetle) but McQueen carries the rest on foot.