10 Films to Rediscover on DVD: A Viewing Guide

A good discovery can begin with a familiar actor in an unfamiliar role, a director working outside the films you know, or a story that crosses your usual genre boundaries. These ten choices offer different starting points, from a child's journey across Africa to a robot learning how to care for a dog.

Each film has a linked Retro Classic Flixs DVD listing. Start with the kind of evening you want, then consult the product page for availability and edition details. Age alone does not make a release rare, and streaming availability varies by place and date.

Adventure and suspense

1. Sammy Going South (1963)

After an air raid leaves Sammy orphaned in Port Said, he sets off for an aunt in Durban. Alexander Mackendrick directs, with Fergus McClelland as Sammy and Edward G. Robinson as the hunter he meets. Choose it for a journey built around encounters: deciding which adults to trust matters as much as covering the distance. Explore the Sammy Going South DVD.

2. The Satan Bug (1965)

A theft from a germ-warfare laboratory becomes a race to prevent a biological attack in John Sturges' thriller, starring George Maharis. The threat is something investigators cannot simply see coming. It is a useful next choice if the shifting information and deadlines in a thriller interest you more than an unstoppable action hero. Explore The Satan Bug DVD.

3. The Left Hand of God (1955)

Humphrey Bogart plays an American assuming the identity of a priest at a mission in China. Edward Dmytryk directs, and Gene Tierney co-stars. The central question is how an assumed role changes a man's responsibilities to other people. For a Bogart double bill, pair it with a familiar performance and compare how much authority he conveys before explaining himself. Explore The Left Hand of God DVD.

Horror, monsters and a frontier pursuit

4. Blood and Roses (1960)

Roger Vadim reshapes Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla around desire, jealousy and a family's vampire legend. Its mansion setting and uncertain boundary between psychological distress and the supernatural make it a choice for atmospheric horror. Look at how a room or a garden can feel threatening without becoming a conventional monster lair. Explore the Blood and Roses DVD.

5. Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Ishiro Honda's monster ensemble imagines creatures confined to Monsterland before alien interference overturns the arrangement. Godzilla and other kaiju make this the spectacle choice on the list. It offers a change of scale after Blood and Roses: private unease gives way to the pleasure of seeing giant creatures share the frame. Explore the Destroy All Monsters DVD.

6. Winterhawk (1975)

Charles B. Pierce's Western follows a Blackfoot chief seeking medicine during a smallpox outbreak; betrayal leads to kidnapping and pursuit. Michael Dante plays Winterhawk. Watch it with attention to who tells the story and how the film frames its Native American characters, rather than treating its frontier imagery as a historical record. Explore the Winterhawk DVD.

Lives, memory and responsibility

7. A Man of No Importance (1994)

Albert Finney plays a Dublin bus conductor whose love of Oscar Wilde fuels an amateur theatre production. Suri Krishnamma directs this story of a gay man negotiating private longing and public expectations. The attraction is the tension between the ordinary workday and the larger life a person imagines through art. Explore the A Man of No Importance DVD.

8. Frankie Starlight (1995)

Michael Lindsay-Hogg's drama follows Frankie, his mother Bernadette and the relationships that shape his memories. Astronomy becomes part of the way he tells his story. Anne Parillaud, Gabriel Byrne, Matt Dillon and Corban Walker star. Try it alongside A Man of No Importance for two approaches to expressing a life through storytelling. Explore the Frankie Starlight DVD.

9. The Highest Honor (1982)

Also cataloged as The Highest Honour, this wartime drama explores a friendship between an Australian Army captain and a Japanese civilian security official in Singapore. Its interest lies in the relationship across enemy lines. Approach it as a dramatization, with the focus on how the two men come to understand one another. Explore The Highest Honor DVD.

10. Finch (2021)

Tom Hanks plays a robotics engineer who builds a robot to look after his dog when he cannot. Director Miguel Sapochnik places that small act of planning within a devastated world. It makes an inviting bridge from character drama into science fiction: the unfamiliar technology serves a recognizable worry about someone we love. Explore the Finch DVD.

Choose the film, then check the disc

Film credits do not establish a DVD's transfer, language tracks, subtitles or supplements. Read the specific listing and ask about any detail that matters to your purchase. Our About Our DVDs guide explains the formats and playback considerations; the full DVD catalog offers more starting points.

Film references: ICO: Sammy Going South; Kino Lorber: The Satan Bug; AFI: The Left Hand of God; BFI: Blood and Roses; Criterion: Destroy All Monsters; AFI: Winterhawk; A Man of No Importance film listing; Ferndale Films: Frankie Starlight; Screen Australia: The Highest Honour; Apple: Finch.