Anna Karenina (1961)

Legendary stars Sir Sean Connery and Claire Bloom ignite the screen in this BBC television production, never before seen in the US. Miserable in her loveless marriage to a Russian diplomat, young Anna (Bloom) does the unthinkable and succumbs to her desire for the dashing officer, Count Vronsky (Connery). When her husband discovers the affair, he offers to forgive Anna if she will leave Vronsky, but Anna can't imagine giving up her sensuous new life. Sparks fly in this much-loved production of Leo Tolstoy's 19th-century masterpiece, filmed the year before Connery became James Bond. A perennial favorite often re-broadcast in the UK, and now meticulously restored in the original black and white.