Release date: 2005-10-10
Run time: 627 min.
RRP: £34.99
Price: £13.98
Review Studio Classic: Classic War Stories / Classic War Stories:
![Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Monkey Business [1952]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51DY7EGCNHL._SL160_.jpg)
Actors & Directors
- Cary Grant
- Charles Coburn
- Howard Hawks
- Marilyn Monroe
- Ginger Rogers
Run time: 93 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.99
Review Monkey Business [1952] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:
![Review Dd Home Entertainment / The Quatermass Experiment [1955]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51QYW02Z4VL._SL160_.jpg)
Actors & Directors
- Jack Warner
- Val Guest
- Brian Donlevy
- Thora Hird
- Margia Dean
- Gordon Jackson
Run time: 78 min.
Creator: Robert L. Lippert
RRP: £15.99
Price: £12.94
Review The Quatermass Experiment [1955] / Dd Home Entertainment:
![Review Criterion / M. Hulot's Holiday [1953] (REGION 1) (NTSC)](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51P5v1SqsSL._SL160_.jpg)
Actors & Directors
- René Clément
- Nathalie Pascaud
- Jacques Tati
- Micheline Rolla
- Jacques Tati
- Louis Perrault
- Valentine Camax
Run time: 87 min.
Creator: Jean-Marie Huard
Price: £15.36
Review M. Hulot's Holiday [1953] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Criterion:Forefather of Rowan Atkinson's Mr. Bean, Jacques Tati's Monsieur Hulot-a recurring character in several of his movies-is a blithely clumsy troublemaker, an insouciant twit who leaves uproar in his wake without being aware of it. Trying to describe this 1953 comedy is next to impossible except to say it is a series of vignettes at a vacation resort, with the distracted Hulot providing a lot of laughs. Tati directs, and in a way what that really means is that he composes this movie with a perfect eye and ear for the comic possibilities in everything: composition, lighting, minimal marble-mouth dialogue, certain sounds (a duck call, a door repeatedly opening and shutting). This is a superior work that ranks among all-time classic comedies. -Tom Keogh.
![Review ITV DVD / Back Room Boy [1942]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518rvBhAvaL._SL160_.jpg)
Actors & Directors
- Moore Marriott
- Herbert Mason
- Googie Withers
- Graham Moffatt
- Arthur Askey
- Vera Frances
Run time: 82 min.
RRP: £4.99
Price: £2.43
Review Back Room Boy [1942] / ITV DVD:
Actors & Directors
- Greta Gynt
- David Niven
- Leslie Howard
- James Mason
Run time: 290 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £13.38
Review Best Of British War / Odeon Entertainment:
Actors & Directors
- Moore Marriott
- Arthur Askey
- Herbert Mason
- Graham Moffatt
- Googie Withers
- Vera Frances
Run time: 82 min.
RRP: £4.99
Price: £2.43
Review Back Room Boy [1942] / ITV DVD:
![Review Optimum Home Entertainment / Frankenstein Created Woman [1967]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RYTXK9SDL._SL160_.jpg)
Actors & Directors
- Peter Cushing
- Thorley Walters
- Terence Fisher
- Susan Denberg
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £5.37
Review Frankenstein Created Woman [1967] / Optimum Home Entertainment:
![Review 20th Century Fox / The Keys of the Kingdom [1944] (REGION 1) (NTSC)](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51H0QQ8J2ML._SL160_.jpg)
Actors & Directors
- John M. Stahl
- Vincent Price
- Rose Stradner
- Roddy McDowall
- Gregory Peck
- Thomas Mitchell
Run time: 137 min.
Price: £6.69
Review The Keys of the Kingdom [1944] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / 20th Century Fox:
Actors & Directors
- John Krish
- Robert Day
- Patrick Macnee
- James Hill
- Sidney Hayers
- John Moxey
- Diana Rigg
Run time: 280 min.
RRP: £24.99
Price: £22.00
Review The Avengers : The Definitive Dossier 1967 (Box Set 3) / Contender Entertainment Group:1967 was a good year for the Avengers: The Definitive Dossier, Files 5 and 6 contains six classic episodes in which Patrick McNee and Diana Rigg get to flirt with stylish decadence as John Steed and Mrs Emma Peel. As they are at pains to point out at the end of one episode, their adventures often start with the mysterious death of an agent, and their involvement usually means at least one more death along the way-one of them gets tied up and the other has to engage in some perfunctory martial arts to save them. Yet none of this is important-it is the charm that matters, and the fact that the show was so aware of its own clichés is part of that charm. Another factor was the parade of British character actors in minor roles. Here Peter Cushing is a silkily vengeful villain, John Laurie a railway enthusiast and, in a body-switching episode, Freddie Jones and Patricia Haines are Steed and Emma themselves. The plots involve killer robots, engineered premonition in nightmares and hypnotic regression to childhood; the touches of surreal are part of The Avengers style blended with 60s fashions and loopy plots to create something effectively original and hugely influential. On the DVD: the DVDs are presented in a standard 4:3 television visual aspect with good mono sound for their date. As with other releases in this series, the special features consist of short biographies, a picture gallery and a "Follow the Hat" feature (modelled on the "White Rabbit" from The Matrix) in which Patrick McNee introduces each episode and interesting facts about cast and designers are flashed onto the screen. -Roz Kaveney.
![Review Tartan Video / Summer With Monika [1952]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5150BPC2WZL._SL160_.jpg)
Actors & Directors
- Åke Fridell
- Naemi Briese
- Lars Ekborg
- Harriet Andersson
- Ingmar Bergman
- Dagmar Ebbesen
Run time: 91 min.
Creator: Per Anders Fogelström
RRP: £19.99
Price: £14.98
Review Summer With Monika [1952] / Tartan Video:Released in 1953, Summer with Monika, an early Ingmar Bergman-directed melodrama, did much to establish the reputation of Swedish cinema, and perhaps Swedish women in general, as leading the vanguard in sexual liberation. The film attracted the wrath of the censors and one scene of lovemaking had to be cut. While subsequent generations will look at the film and wonder whatever the fuss was about, it retains a vivid and frolicsome sensuality, before submitting to the inevitable, Bergmanesque bleakness. The film tells the story of a young couple, Harry (Lars Ekborg) and Monika (18-year-old Harriet Andersson, with whom Bergman would fall in love) stuck in lousy jobs in Stockholm. Harry is beset by parental responsibility-his mother died young and his father is ill-while Monika is fed up with her drunken, violent father. They escape in a motorboat and to spend a blissful summer on an island in the archipelago. Once Monika gets pregnant and they're forced to steal food, however, the idyll concludes and they return to Stockholm, where the relationship disintegrates. You realise that Monika, from a large and fractious family, yearns for escapism, while Harry, who has never known true family life, longs for domestic stability. It is he who is left holding the baby. But Bergman does not quite condemn Monika, giving her one of his best scenes: in a cafe, estranged from Harry, chatting up a stranger, she stares unwaveringly and directly to camera, as if defying us to judge her. [+]Visually ravishing, this film would have a deep impact on French New Wave cinema. On the DVD: Summer with Monika on disc offers a fine restoration of the original film, and includes notes from Phillip Strick who points out that the film is in part hymn of praise to Stockholm's beauty and was influenced by the documentary "City Symphonies" made during World War II. -David Stubbs.
![Review Warner Home Video / Quo Vadis [1952]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51H6N38YBKL._SL160_.jpg)
Actors & Directors
- Mervyn LeRoy
- Deborah Kerr
- Patricia Laffan
- Leo Genn
- Robert Taylor
- Peter Ustinov
- Anthony Mann
Run time: 162 min.
Creator: Sonya Levien
Price: £9.99
Review Quo Vadis [1952] / Warner Home Video:"Welcome to Nero's House of Women" greets a concubine to a slave girl, Lygia (Deborah Kerr). Later this self-same greeter reveals that she, too, like Lygia, is really a fellow Christian neophyte. And it's that mixture of tawdry Hollywood sex and a strong Christian message that makes this film an enjoyable "gentiles and gladiators" flick. Marcus Vinicius returns home after conquering the Britons to find that Rome is infected with a crazy new sect called Christians and that his beloved emperor Nero (Peter Ustinov, roly-poly and wicked) has become increasingly wacky. Marcus tries his centurion wiles on Lygia, and she's smitten, but she's also a Christian convert and begs Marcus not to force her to choose between him and her god. The Christians have a tough go of it, with martyrdom in the Coliseum as punishment for belonging to the new religion in town. Though three hours long, director Mervyn LeRoy's film always has something going on. It could help you enjoyably kill any rainy Sunday afternoon. -Keith Simanton, Amazon. com.
Actors & Directors
- Terence Fisher
- Peter Cushing
- Thorley Walters
- Susan Denberg
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £5.37
Review Frankenstein Created Woman [1967] / Optimum Home Entertainment:
![Review Optimum Home Entertainment / Gonks Go Beat [1965]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61bCyPfhqLL._SL160_.jpg)
Actors & Directors
- Reginald Beckwith
- Robert Hartford-Davis
- Jerry Desmonde
- Kenneth Connor
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £4.58
Review Gonks Go Beat [1965] / Optimum Home Entertainment:
![Review 20th Century Fox / No Way Out [1950] (REGION 1) (NTSC)](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/518GXBWB1KL._SL160_.jpg)
Actors & Directors
- Linda Darnell
- Joseph L. Mankiewicz
- Mildred Joanne Smith
- Stephen McNally
- Richard Widmark
- Sidney Poitier
Run time: 106 min.
Price: £6.08
Review No Way Out [1950] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / 20th Century Fox:
Actors & Directors
- Diana Rigg
- John Moxey
- James Hill
- John Krish
- Patrick Macnee
- Sidney Hayers
- Robert Day
Run time: 280 min.
RRP: £24.99
Price: £22.00
Review The Avengers : The Definitive Dossier 1967 (Box Set 3) / Contender Entertainment Group:1967 was a good year for the Avengers: The Definitive Dossier, Files 5 and 6 contains six classic episodes in which Patrick McNee and Diana Rigg get to flirt with stylish decadence as John Steed and Mrs Emma Peel. As they are at pains to point out at the end of one episode, their adventures often start with the mysterious death of an agent, and their involvement usually means at least one more death along the way-one of them gets tied up and the other has to engage in some perfunctory martial arts to save them. Yet none of this is important-it is the charm that matters, and the fact that the show was so aware of its own clichés is part of that charm. Another factor was the parade of British character actors in minor roles. Here Peter Cushing is a silkily vengeful villain, John Laurie a railway enthusiast and, in a body-switching episode, Freddie Jones and Patricia Haines are Steed and Emma themselves. The plots involve killer robots, engineered premonition in nightmares and hypnotic regression to childhood; the touches of surreal are part of The Avengers style blended with 60s fashions and loopy plots to create something effectively original and hugely influential. On the DVD: the DVDs are presented in a standard 4:3 television visual aspect with good mono sound for their date. As with other releases in this series, the special features consist of short biographies, a picture gallery and a "Follow the Hat" feature (modelled on the "White Rabbit" from The Matrix) in which Patrick McNee introduces each episode and interesting facts about cast and designers are flashed onto the screen. -Roz Kaveney.
Actors & Directors
- Roddy McDowall
- Thomas Mitchell
- Rose Stradner
- John M. Stahl
- Gregory Peck
- Vincent Price
Run time: 137 min.
Price: £6.69
Review The Keys of the Kingdom [1944] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / 20th Century Fox:
![Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Romeo And Juliet [1968]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51E0AW4BJ2L._SL160_.jpg)
Actors & Directors
- John McEnery
- Leonard Whiting
- Franco Zeffirelli
- Michael York
- Olivia Hussey
- Milo O'Shea
Run time: 132 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £11.49
Review Romeo And Juliet [1968] / Paramount Home Entertainment:Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was unique in its day for casting kids in the play's pivotal roles of, well, kids. Seventeen-year-old Leonard Whiting and 15-year-old Olivia Hussey play the titular pair, the Bard's star-crossed lovers who defy a running feud between their families in order to be together in love. Typically played on stage and in previous film productions by adult actors, the innocent look and rawness of Whiting and Hussey resonated at the time with a burgeoning youth movement from San Francisco to Prague. The tragic romance at the centre of the story also clicked with anti-authority sentiments, but even without that, Zeffirelli scores points by validating the ideals and passions of strong-willed adolescents. Less successful are scenes requiring the actors to have a fuller grasp of the text, though the best thing going remains the unambiguous duel between Romeo and Tybalt (Michael York). Lavishly photographed by Pasquale de Santis on location in Italy, this Romeo and Juliet brought a different tone and dimension to a story that had become tiresome in reverential presentations. -Tom Keogh.
![Review Bfi Video / Geoffrey Jones: The Rhythm Of Film [1956]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/514E3C241YL._SL160_.jpg)
Release date: 2005-06-27
Run time: 86 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £13.49
Review Geoffrey Jones: The Rhythm Of Film [1956] / Bfi Video:
![Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / Here Comes Mr Jordan [1941]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HVXdN0pPL._SL160_.jpg)
Actors & Directors
- Claude Rains
- Evelyn Keyes
- Edward Everett Horton
- Alexander Hall
- James Gleason
- Robert Montgomery
Run time: 90 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.70
Review Here Comes Mr Jordan [1941] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:
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Studio Classic: Classic War Stories, Monkey Business [1952], The Quatermass Experiment [1955], M. Hulot's Holiday [1953] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Back Room Boy [1942], Best Of British War, Back Room Boy [1942], Frankenstein Created Woman [1967], The Keys of the Kingdom [1944] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Avengers : The Definitive Dossier 1967 (Box Set 3), Summer With Monika [1952], Quo Vadis [1952], Frankenstein Created Woman [1967], Gonks Go Beat [1965], No Way Out [1950] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Avengers : The Definitive Dossier 1967 (Box Set 3), The Keys of the Kingdom [1944] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Romeo And Juliet [1968], Geoffrey Jones: The Rhythm Of Film [1956], Here Comes Mr Jordan [1941] |
