It’s hard to evaluate what the best 3-D movies might be, as the definition of the format has changed over the years, but here are a few milestones in the now half-century- long effort to make things fly off the screen and into your eyeglasses.

HOUSE OF WAX(1953)— Warner Bros.’ response to the 3-D landmark “Bwana Devil” was directed by the great, eye-patch- wearing Andre de Toth, who was blind in one eye and thus couldn’t experience the effects of his own three-dimensional horror-thriller. Vincent Price starred as the maddened killer whose museum displays his paraffin-coated victims.

GORILLA AT LARGE (1954) — For a cheesily titled entry into the 3-D canon, this mystery boasted quite the cast, including Anne Bancroft, Lee J. Cobb, Raymond Burr and Lee Marvin. Fortunately for them, the flick is remembered best for its special effects.

DIALMFOR MURDER (1954) — Using 3-D sparingly, Alfred Hitchcock created an intricately plotted thriller in which a jealous and homicidal Ray Milland plots the ruination of his adulterous wife (Grace Kelly) and her lover (Robert Cummings). Interest in 3-D faded, though, and a 2-D version was released.

THE STEWARDESSES (1969) — 3-D didn’t die after the ’50s, exactly, but new inventions were required to further the cause. This soft-core sex comedy used Stereovision (a single strip of 35 mm film on which two images were squeezed side by side). The film played a long time in certain markets, but it probably wasn’t because of 3-D. A remake was reportedly planned for this year.

HELL’S PIT (2004) — Music video by Insane Clown Posse becomes the first 3-D film shot in high-definition video.

THE POLAR EXPRESS (2004) — Ambitious but cast with creepy characters, Robert Zemeckis’ Christmas movie was released as IMAX’s first full-length, animated 3-D feature, and the returns from the 66 IMAX theaters accounted for 25 percent of the returns from a total of 3,584 2-D theaters. Hence the industry enthusiasm for more 3-D. — Newsday