Every time this journalist starts searching through our voluminous film files, it brings back memories of outstanding movies worthy of encore viewings.

It happened again recently while looking for pictures from some of Charlton Heston's films. When he worked as a schoolboy usher at our village movie theatre, little did he imagine his image would some day be filling that screen.

Innovative Sam Meyers had built a remarkable shopping plaza just across Sheridan Road from Lake Michigan. Unique for its time, it was Spanish in architecture, very upscale in mood with exclusive shops not unlike Palm Beach.

It was located only three blocks from the lakefront estate of Carbon Petroleum Dubbs, who spent some of his oil fortune in 1927 building a home, which is still a standout today.

C.P. Dubbs later moved to Chelston in Bermuda, but like everyone else in the village, he frequented the exceptional Teatro del Lago. Sam is gone now and so is the theatre.

And as Heston never imagined he would some day fill screens like that, we never imagined we'd some day have a wall full of files filled with some of the best . . . and worst . . . Hollywood had to offer.

After years of writing about movies and television productions filmed in exciting locations around the world, one realises some achieved so much deserved acclaim at the time, yet are often forgotten today.

And that's a pity because some were so exceptional, they deserve an encore. Escalating production costs make duplicating the scope of many such films too prohibitive today.

Those with an historical background were always our favourites. Watching filmmakers interpret history, then researching it to ascertain accuracy of what really happened was always interesting.

Several caught our attention this time while searching for Heston photos. All had dramatic travel worthy locations.

In quick succession there was Gandhi, A Bequeath To The Nation, Patton, Nicolas and Alexandra, Out of Africa, Becket, Lawrence of Arabia, The African Queen, Flame Trees of Thika, Sound of Music, Song of Norway, Jewel In The Crown . . . and on and on.

If you've not seen them, your video store is waiting. If you have, don't you agree they're worth a second viewing? All were filmed on locations that will make you want to immediately call your travel agent.

Many serve as a valuable history lesson. Gandhi chronicled the rise of Mahatma Gandhi to an acclaimed national leader. So impressive was this production, it garnered eight Oscars, including Best Picture, Actor and Director. We'll take readers to some of its remarkable locations another time.

This week and next we're focusing on two very colourful and unique individuals . . . General George Patton and Lord Horatio Nelson. The films about their lives are excellent background, both scenically and historically.

Patton, examining a totally different sort of personality, is spellbinding. Can you imagine fighting the Battle of the Bulge in Spain? How about tangling with Rommel's Afrika Korps or marching through occupied France . . . all within a reasonable distance of Madrid?

The setting may sound unusual, but the final filmed effect brought to the screen by Twentieth Century Fox was acclaimed as nothing less than superb. It not only examines the man, but serves as a fascinating travelogue.

This is more than just another war picture . . . it's also an epic, an in-depth study of a man often at war within himself.

The battles he planned and led have been magnificently recreated with the help of the Spanish Army, who were not only able to provide the World War Two equipment in mint condition, but the staff to operate it.

The entire film is played against an almost overpowering background of mountains, forest, desert and ancient ruins, each closely paralleling the area where the action originally took place.

Few productions have been as authentic. General Omar Bradley (played by Karl Malden) acted as senior military adviser for the film. He actually took producer Frank McCarthy (himself a retired Brigadier General) on a tour of the routes and battlefields of Patton's campaigns.

Then terrain and buildings were carefully matched with similar locations in Spain and the result was an amazing mood of authenticity.

Opening scenes picturing a chilling defeat of Allies by the Afrika Korps are quickly followed by Patton's brilliant battle of Guettar, Tunisia shot around Almeria along the Costa del Sol in southernmost Andulusian Spain.

Stark, whitewashed Moorish villages complete with camels, palms and bazaars are definitely Arab in personality.

Lush green hedgerows of France vintage 1944 are actually the Pamplona region of Basque Spain and the crippling blizzard and dense forest through which Patton's troops struggled to Bastonge were staged in Segovia's snowy highlands 80 miles northwest of Madrid.

No fewer than 71 locations on three continents were used for the film's really exceptional background scenery, although the greatest emphasis is Spain.

Amphibious operations of the Sicily landing were shops in Crete, Greece and Sicily.

The Sultan's marching pomp and pageantry, which Patton actually described as "a combination of Hollywood and the Bible" was filmed in Rabat, capital of Morocco.

It was there King Hassan II arranged to restage a rarely seen parade with camels, desert horsemen and 1,800 slow-striding, emblazoned-in-red, warriors. It recreates a rare honour paid to General Patton in 1942 by Morocco's Sultan.

It is while roaming through 200 BC ruins of Volubilis, Morocco, a Pompeii-like metropolis at the Atlas Mountain foothills near Meknes, that Patton discusses his great interest in ancient battles of Carthaginians, Phoenecians and Romans, giving viewers an enlightening history lesson.

British headquarter scenes were shot in their actual wartime locale at Knutsford, England.

Interior shots prove as exciting as exterior ones, since Patton's headquarters are a series of lavish, opulent palaces, many with elaborately landscaped grounds in the area of Segovia and Aranjuz.

Winner of seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Actor and Director, George C. Scott's characterisation was masterful.

We found the character study particularly interesting, because Patton has so often been compared with a colourful military ancestor of ours . . . General Philip Sheridan.

Both were individualists, consistently in hot water with their commanding officers, but leading their men to remarkable victories over what seemed like insurmountable odds. Both expected high performance of their men . . . but delivered the same themselves.

There was a time when some aspects of Sheridan's reputation were embarrassing . . . until reading and researching how his men worshipped him as a leader who actually raced out ahead of them into battle on horseback, not lingering behind from a safe, secure position.

"Which is one reason I particularly enjoyed playing Patton," Scott confided to us during an interview. "I think he was maligned and ignored by historians and I wanted to give him an even break."

Visiting the museum at Bastogne, Belgium, chronicling the Battle of the Bulge is very interesting and worth a detour to anyone travelling in that region.

So was a memorable trip across the Tunisian desert listening to two retired military friends of mine actually involved in that desert campaign. Both are now deceased.

American journalist Hank Chapman compared where he was fighting for the Allies with former Afrika Korps member Karl Koepke, then an executive with Lufthansa Airlines, as we drove past former battle sites.

Hank received his start as a journalist during the Great Depression as part of the widely acclaimed WPA Writer's Project. Karl had been a member of the Luftwaffe, captured and taken to a Texas prisoner of war camp. He eventually became one of Lufthansa's top men in North America.

Listening to them reminisce as we drove across that harsh desert landscape where these two men had actually fought against each other is one of those memories that helps make history come alive. So is the film.

Next: Travelling through England with Lord Horatio Nelson