25 films added to National Film Registry

WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- The Library of Congress Wednesday announced 25 films -- including movies featuring Popeye, Bruce Lee and Elvis -- were added to the National Film Registry.

"The films we choose are not necessarily the 'best' American films ever made or the most famous," Librarian of Congress James Billington said in a release, "but they are films that continue to have cultural, historical or aesthetic significance."

"The selection of a film, I stress, is not an endorsement of its ideology or content but rather a recognition of the film's importance to American film and cultural history and to history in general," he said.

The National Film Registry has enrolled 400 films.

Among the films selected this year: "Schindler's List" and "Unforgiven" which won Academy Awards for directors Steven Spielberg and Clint Eastwood; "Ben-Hur" with Charlton Heston in the title role; "The Court Jester" starring Danny Kaye; the murder mystery "D.O.A."; the what to do in a nuclear attack "Duck and Cover"; Lee's "Enter the Dragon"; "Going My Way" with Bing Crosby; Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock"; Jerry Lewis' "The Nutty Professor"; "Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor," and "Pups is Pups" featuring "Our Gang."

The other films selected this year are: "The Blue Bird," "A Bronx Morning," "Clash of the Wolves," "Daughters of the Dust," "Empire," "Eraserhead," "Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers," "Kannapolis, NC," "Lady Helen's Escapade," "OffOn," "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," "Swingtime" and "There It Is."