Mysterious Island (1961)

During the American Civil War, a group of Union soldiers led by a Captain (Michael Craig) escape from a Confederate prison camp in a hot air balloon. Along with the soldiers, there's a Union war correspondent (Gary Merrill) and an unwilling Confederate soldier (Percy Herbert). A horrific storm sweeps them out to sea where they eventually come to land on an unchartered island. Based on the the 1874 Jules Verne novel and directed by Cy Endfield (ZULU). This sci-fi adventure is one of the best of Ray Harryhausen's stop motion feature films. For those of us who first saw it as children, it's indelibly tattooed on our cinema psyche and I don't think I've met anyone, man or child, who didn't enjoy this film and next to JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, it's my favorite Jules Verne film adaptation. We've got giant crabs, giant bees, giant birds, pirates, a superb Bernard Herrmann score and the wonderful Joan Greenwood. What's not to like? With Michael Callan, Beth Rogan, Dan Jackson and as Captain Nemo, Herbert Lom.