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Review MGM Entertainment / In The Heat Of The Night [1967]
Actors & Directors
  • Norman Jewison
  • Lee Grant
  • Rod Steiger
  • Sidney Poitier
  • Larry Gates
  • Warren Oates
Release date: 2003-02-03
Run time: 105 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £4.97

Review In The Heat Of The Night [1967] / MGM Entertainment:

This 1967 film took home lots of Oscars for its fascinating drama about a Philadelphia detective (Sidney Poitier) who assists a redneck Southern sheriff (Rod Steiger) in solving a murder. A study in racism that ebbs a bit through the collective and shared need between a black man and a white man who don't want to be working together, In the Heat of the Night continues to strike a chord today. Steiger is a mass of snarling danger, Poitier a bundle of nerves covered in class. Norman Jewison (Moonstruck) directs with a keen feeling for the cultural and social atmosphere of the setting. -Tom Keogh.

Review Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm / The Incredible Journey [1963]
Actors & Directors
  • Emile Genest
  • John Drainie
Release date: 2006-07-10
Run time: 77 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £3.88

Review The Incredible Journey [1963] / Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm:


Review MGM Entertainment / Chitty Chitty Bang Bang [1968]
Actors & Directors
  • Sally Ann Howes
  • Lionel Jeffries
  • Ken Hughes
  • Anna Quayle
  • Gert Fröbe
  • Dick Van Dyke
Release date: 2000-02-01
Run time: 136 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £2.78

Review Chitty Chitty Bang Bang [1968] / MGM Entertainment:

This re-mastered, pan-and-scan 30th-anniversary edition of that kiddie-car caper is flawed but solid family fare. It retains a quaint charm while some of the songs-including the title tune-are quite hummable. A huge plus is Dick Van Dyke, who is extremely appealing as an eccentric inventor around the turn of the century. With nimble fingers and a unique way of looking at the world, he invents for his children a magic car that floats and flies. Or does he? The special effects are tame by today's standards, and the film is about 20 minutes too long-but its enthusiasm charms. The script was cowritten by Roald Dahl and based on the novel by Ian Fleming, best known for his James Bond adventures. -Rochelle O'Gorman Chitty Chitty Bang Bang entranced and thrilled children and their parents when it puttered into the cinema in 1968. More than three decades later, and despite the eventual arrival of a stage version that throws the full weight of blockbuster effects at the story, the original remains the real thing for fans of all ages. The flying car is the star and it's impossible not to feel a surge of thrilling relief as the wings kick in when she plunges over the cliff and soars off on her great adventure. The songs might not be the greatest in musical history, but they are delivered with great charm by Dick Van Dyke as Caractacus Potts (a toned-down version of his infamous Bert in Mary Poppins), Sally Ann Howes (Truly Scrumptious) and the children. [+]
And then there is Robert Helpmann's child catcher, a terrifyingly sinister figure who exudes a pungent whiff of undiluted evil unmatched by any character since Dorothy squared up to the witch in The Wizard of Oz. Cameos from British character actors abound: Benny Hill, Lionel Jeffries, Anna Quayle, James Robertson Justice and Max Wall all put in appearances that add some fibre to the overall sweetness of the story. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is the ultimate nostalgic confection for family viewing. On the DVD: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Special Edition comes to DVD in widescreen format with a Dolby soundtrack to recreate the authentic cinematic experience for everyone who remembers it from the first time round. The picture quality is robust, revealing some rather homespun aspects to the special effects. Extras are dominated by Dick Van Dyke remembering his time on the film, plus a short item on the origins of the car itself and various trailers. -Piers Ford.

Review Optimum Home Entertainment / Carry On Cleo [1965]
Actors & Directors
  • Sid James
  • Kenneth Connor
  • Jim Dale
  • Kenneth Williams
  • Joan Sims
  • Gerald Thomas
Release date: 2007-01-29
Run time: 91 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.20

Review Carry On Cleo [1965] / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review Eureka Entertainment / Metropolis - Masters of Cinema series [1927]
Actors & Directors
  • Brigitte Helm
  • Fritz Lang
  • Alfred Abel
Release date: 2005-01-24
Run time: 118 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £8.74

Review Metropolis - Masters of Cinema series [1927] / Eureka Entertainment:


Review MGM Entertainment / The Bishop's Wife [1947]
Actors & Directors
  • David Niven
  • James Gleason
  • Monty Woolley
  • Henry Koster
  • Loretta Young
  • Cary Grant
Release date: 2006-11-06
Run time: 105 min.
RRP: £7.99
Price: £4.89

Review The Bishop's Wife [1947] / MGM Entertainment:


Review Optimum Home Entertainment / School For Scoundrels [1960]
Actors & Directors
  • Ian Carmichael
  • Janette Scott
  • Robert Hamer
  • Hal E. Chester
  • Alastair Sim
  • Terry-Thomas
  • Cyril Frankel
  • Dennis Price
Release date: 2006-10-30
Run time: 90 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.51

Review School For Scoundrels [1960] / Optimum Home Entertainment:

In School for Scoundrels wimpy Ian Carmichael wants to impress girls and get one over on all-round show-off and cad Terry Thomas (playing gloriously to type). Discovering Alastair Simms' unorthodox school Carmichael happily enrols and learns the quaint tricks of the day for securing the admiration of a fair lady. Ultimately as a star pupil he teaches the Master a thing or two about true love when everything turns out just fine in the end. Appealing to all male sensibilities is the idea of a magical set of simple rules for winning someone's affections. Set in the tweed-rich environment of an English boarding school makes this an even quainter notion. To watch this classic comedy is to cock one's snoot at womanisers everywhere while unavoidably making a mental list of anything that might actually work! The three central performances are brilliantly realised, particularly the role reversal between Carmichael and Thomas. Try playing a tennis match after a viewing without calling "hard cheese". -Paul Tonks.

Review MGM Entertainment / The Night Of The Hunter [1955]
Actors & Directors
  • Shelley Winters
  • James Gleason
  • Evelyn Varden
  • Charles Laughton
  • Lillian Gish
  • Robert Mitchum
Release date: 2001-03-19
Run time: 89 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.48

Review The Night Of The Hunter [1955] / MGM Entertainment:

In the entire history of American movies, The Night of the Hunter stands out as the rarest and most exotic of specimens. It is, to say the least, a masterpiece-and not just because it was the only movie directed by flamboyant actor Charles Laughton or the only produced solo screenplay by the legendary critic James Agee (who also co-wrote The African Queen). The truth is, nobody has ever made anything approaching its phantasmagoric, overheated style in which German expressionism, religious hysteria, fairy-tale fantasy (of the Grimm-est variety), and stalker movie are brought together in a furious boil. Like a nightmarish premonition of stalker movies to come, Night of the Hunter tells the suspenseful tale of a demented preacher (Robert Mitchum, in a performance that prefigures his memorable villain in Cape Fear), who torments a boy and his little sister-even marries their mixed-up mother (Shelley Winters)-because he's certain the kids know where their late bank-robber father hid a stash of stolen money. So dramatic, primal, and unforgettable are its images-the preacher's shadow looming over the children in their bedroom, the magical boat ride down a river whose banks teem with fantastic wildlife, those tattoos of LOVE and HATE on the unholy man's knuckles, the golden locks of a drowned woman waving in the current along with the indigenous plant life in her watery grave-that they're still haunting audiences (and filmmakers) today. -Jim Emerson, Amazon. com.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / The Day The Earth Stood Still [1951]
Actors & Directors
  • Michael Rennie
  • Billy Gray
  • Hugh Marlowe
  • Robert Wise
  • Sam Jaffe
  • Patricia Neal
Release date: 2005-04-18
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.98

Review The Day The Earth Stood Still [1951] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Cinema Club / Jules And Jim [1962]
Actors & Directors
  • Jeanne Moreau
  • Oskar Werner
  • Vanna Urbino
  • François Truffaut
  • Henri Serre
  • Boris Bassiak
Release date: 2006-09-25
Run time: 102 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £7.96

Review Jules And Jim [1962] / Cinema Club:

François Truffaut's third feature, though it's named for the two best friends who become virtually inseparable in pre-World War I Paris, is centred on Jeanne Moreau's Catherine, the most mysterious, enigmatic woman in his career-long gallery of rich female portraits. Adapted from the novel by Henri-Pierre Roché, Truffaut's picture explores the 30-year friendship between Austrian biologist Jules (Oskar Werner) and Parisian writer Jim (Henri Serre) and the love triangle formed when the alluring Catherine makes the duo a trio. Spontaneous and lively, a woman of intense but dynamic emotions, she becomes the axle on which their friendship turns as Jules woos her and they marry, only to find that no one man can hold her. Directed in bursts of concentrated scenes interspersed with montage sequences and pulled together by the commentary of an omniscient narrator, Truffaut layers his tragic drama with a wealth of detail. He draws on his bag of New Wave tricks for the carefree days of youth-zooms, flash cuts, freeze frames-that disappear as the marriage disintegrates during the gloom of the postwar years. Werner is excellent as Jules, a vibrant young man whose slow, melancholy slide into emotional compromise is charted in his increasingly sad eyes and resigned face, while Serre plays Jim as more of an enigma, guarded and introspective. But both are eclipsed in the glare of Moreau's radiant Catherine: impulsive, demanding, sensual, passionate, destructive, and ultimately unknowable. A masterpiece of the French New Wave and one of Truffaut's most confident and accomplished films. -Sean Axmaker.

Review Optimum Home Entertainment / Went The Day Well? [1942]
Actors & Directors
  • Valerie Taylor
  • Alberto Cavalcanti
  • Leslie Banks
  • Marie Lohr
  • C.V. France
  • Basil Sydney
Release date: 2006-11-13
Run time: 89 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.82

Review Went The Day Well? [1942] / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / An Affair To Remember [1957]
Actors & Directors
  • Richard Denning
  • Deborah Kerr
  • Cathleen Nesbitt
  • Neva Patterson
  • Cary Grant
  • Leo McCarey
Release date: 2005-05-09
Run time: 110 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.22

Review An Affair To Remember [1957] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

Get out your handkerchiefs for this four-star weepie, a 1957 remake of the 1939 Love Affair, directed by Leo McCarey, who also made the original. Grant and Kerr are strangers on an ocean liner, involved with other people, but who can't resist each other for a shipboard romance. They decide to test whether this is the real thing by agreeing to split up, then meet in six months atop the Empire State Building. Is there anyone who can resist that setup or the tragic romantic mishap that nearly splits them up? Can you keep dry eyes during the famous finale? Some prefer the original (with Charles Boyer); practically no one liked the underrated 1994 remake with Warren Beatty and Annette Bening. While occasionally a shade slow, this one soars on Grant's charm and Kerr's noble suffering. -Marshall Fine.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Sunset Boulevard [1950]
Actors & Directors
  • Gloria Swanson
  • Erich von Stroheim
  • Fred Clark
  • Billy Wilder
  • Nancy Olson
  • William Holden
Release date: 2003-04-07
Run time: 105 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £3.84

Review Sunset Boulevard [1950] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

More than half a century after its release in 1950, Sunset Boulevard is still the most pungently unflattering portrait of Hollywood ever committed to celluloid. Billy Wilder, unequalled at combining a literate, sulphurous script with taut direction, hits his target relentlessly. The humour-and the film is rich in this, Wilder's most abundant commodity-is black indeed. Sunset Boulevard is viciously and endlessly clever. William Holden's opportunistic scriptwriter Joe Gillis, whose sellout proves fatal, is from the top drawer of film noir. Gloria Swanson's monstrously deluded Norma Desmond, the benchmark for washed-up divas, transcends parody. And her literal descent down the staircase to madness is one of the all-time great silver-screen moments. Sunset Boulevard isn't without pathos, most notably in Erich von Stroheim's protective butler who wants only to shield his mistress from the stark truths that are massing against her. But its view of human beings at work in a ruthlessly cannibalistic industry is bleak indeed. Nobody, not even Nancy Olson's sparkily ambitious writer Betty Schaefer, is untainted. [+]
And neither are we, "those wonderful people out there in the dark". Norma might be ready for her close-up, but it's really Hollywood that's in the frame. No wonder Wilder incurred the charge of treachery from his peers. It's cinematic perfection. On the DVD: Sunset Boulevard lends itself effortlessly to a collector's edition of this quality. The film itself is presented in full-frame aspect ratio from an excellent print and the quality of the mono soundtrack is faultless: the silver screen comes to life in your living room. The extras are superb, including a commentary from film historian Ed Sikov and a making-of documentary which includes the memories of Nancy Olson. Interactive features such as the Hollywood location map add to the fun. -Piers Ford.

Review 2 Entertain Video / Doctor Who - Resurrection Of The Daleks [1983]
Actors & Directors
  • Peter Davison
  • Janet Fielding
Release date: 2002-11-18
Run time: 98 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £6.75

Review Doctor Who - Resurrection Of The Daleks [1983] / 2 Entertain Video:

The Doctor Who adventure "Resurrection of the Daleks" marked the Doctor's first encounter with his most famous foe since 1979's "Destiny of the Daleks" five years earlier, and Peter Davison's only full-scale battle with the cybernetic aliens. Weakened by a Movellan virus the Daleks assault a space station prison where Davros is being held. The Daleks plan to use duplicates of the Doctor and his companions to assassinate leading Timelords, and further duplicates to take over the Earth. The action is split between the space station and abandoned London riverside warehouses, and is notable for its grim tone and high body count. The duplicate police-assassins recall the Autons from the Jon Pertwee "Spearhead from Space" (1970) and proved controversial on original broadcast. Also notable is that although the show was designed as a four-part adventure it was transmitted in two double-length episodes. This edition presents the story in the original four parts. Meanwhile there are more than the usual quota of name guest stars, including Rodney Bewes, Rula Lenska and Lesley Grantham. The tale also marks Janet Fielding's final appearance as Tegan. In every respect this is a key adventure in the history of Doctor Who, even if the tense, incident-packed story is ultimately weighed down by too many elements to resolve them all satisfactorily. [+]
On the DVD: Doctor Who: Resurrection of the Daleks is accompanied by a warm and highly jocular commentary from Peter Davison, Janet Fielding and director Mathew Robinson. A new 18-minute "On Location" documentary intriguingly revisits the now upmarket waterfront locations with interviews featuring producer John Nathan Turner, writer Eric Saward and Matthew Robinson. A seven-minute clip from Breakfast Time spotlights Janet Fielding and John Nathan-Turner, and composers Brian Hodgson and Malcolm Clarke. Also included are seven minutes of deleted and extended scenes, a BBC1 trailer and a photo gallery that plays automatically for three minutes, set to sound effects. There is optional on-screen information text and selectable subtitles for the programmes and commentary. The sound is available in broadcast mono, a remarkably effective Dolby Digital 5. 1 remix, and as a mono music only track. TARDIS Cam No. 4 is a very short new digital animation. -Gary S Dalkin.

Review Warner Home Video / The Big Sleep [1946]
Actors & Directors
  • John Ridgely
  • Humphrey Bogart
  • Dorothy Malone
  • Howard Hawks
  • Martha Vickers
  • Lauren Bacall
Release date: 2006-06-01
Run time: 110 min.
RRP: £13.99
Price: £2.99

Review The Big Sleep [1946] / Warner Home Video:

Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall made screen history together more than once, but they were never more popular than in this 1946 adaptation of Raymond Chandler's novel, directed by Howard Hawks (To Have and Have Not). Bogart plays private eye Philip Marlowe, who is hired by a wealthy socialite (Bacall) to look into troubles stirred up by her wild, young sister (Martha Vickers). Legendarily complicated (so much so that even Chandler had trouble following the plot), the film is nonetheless hugely entertaining and atmospheric, an electrifying plunge into the exotica of detective fiction. William Faulkner wrote the screenplay. -Tom Keogh.

Review Warner Home Video / Full Metal Jacket [1987]
Actors & Directors
  • R. Lee Ermey
  • Stanley Kubrick
  • Adam Baldwin
  • Dorian Harewood
  • Matthew Modine
  • Vincent D'Onofrio
Release date: 2006-06-01
Run time: 112 min.
RRP: £13.99
Price: £4.97

Review Full Metal Jacket [1987] / Warner Home Video:

One of a series of revisionist Vietnam cinema released in the late 1980s, Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket is essentially split into two stories linked by a number of characters. The film follows new recruit Joker (Matthew Modine) and his fellow soldiers through their basic training and into combat in Vietnam. The first half is a chilling portrayal of military brutality and de-humanisation, mainly at the hands of Sgt Hartman (played at a level of staggering intensity by ex-Marine Lee Ermey), that centres around the tragic character of Private Pyle, a young man pushed to the edge of his endurance. The tone of the film is no less harsh when transported to the combat zone as we see the results of the training process in action: the young men turned into unquestioning killing machines. Joker is perhaps the one exception, a soldier with "Born to Kill" written on his helmet who also sports a peace sign on his lapel. But the film finds itself caught in the trap of many of the war movies of the time-how to create audience empathy with characters who are essentially in the wrong. It's a dilemma that Full Metal Jacket never really solves, although as a spectacle the film is a masterpiece. Made in the days before CGI became the norm, the battle sequences-filmed, rather bizarrely, in London's Docklands before its redevelopment-are hugely realistic and are perhaps the key moments of the movie, heightening the disorientation and fear felt by the soldiers. By offering no more than a snapshot of the Vietnam conflict (the action deals with one individual skirmish), Kubrick cleverly leaves any judgement on the war to the audience, although clearly attempting to influence them. The fate of the characters who survive is also left in the balance, but we can perhaps imagine what awaits them. [+]
On the DVD: Part of a series of Kubrick DVD reissues, Full Metal Jacket has been treated to the full remastering and restoration treatment. The battle sequences have benefited the most, gaining a new audio and visual crispness and clarity that adds to their already impressive sense of realism-you can almost feel the heat searing from the screen and the explosions detonating around you. Maybe not the best war film ever made, as some may claim, but certainly one to take you right to the heart of the action. -Phil Udell.

Review MGM Entertainment / 633 Squadron [1964]
Actors & Directors
  • Cliff Robertson
  • Harry Andrews
  • Walter Grauman
  • Donald Houston
  • George Chakiris
  • Maria Perschy
Release date: 2003-05-05
Run time: 92 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.12

Review 633 Squadron [1964] / MGM Entertainment:


Review MGM Entertainment / The Apartment [1960]
Actors & Directors
  • Shirley MacLaine
  • Billy Wilder
  • Jack Kruschen
  • Jack Lemmon
  • Ray Walston
  • Fred MacMurray
Release date: 2001-11-26
Run time: 120 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £3.09

Review The Apartment [1960] / MGM Entertainment:

Romance at its most anti-romantic-that is the Billy Wilder stamp of genius, and this Best Picture Academy Award winner from 1960 is no exception. Set in a decidedly unsavoury world of corporate climbing and philandering, the great filmmaker's trenchant, witty satire-melodrama takes the office politics of a corporation and plays them out in the apartment of lonely clerk CC Baxter (Jack Lemmon). By lending out his digs to the higher-ups for nightly extramarital flings with their secretaries, Baxter has managed to ascend the business ladder faster than even he imagined. The story turns even uglier, though, when Baxter's crush on the building's melancholy elevator operator (Shirley MacLaine) runs up against her long-standing affair with the big boss (a superbly smarmy Fred MacMurray). The situation comes to a head when she tries to commit suicide in Baxter's apartment. Not the happiest or cleanest of scenarios, and one that earned the famously caustic and cynically humoured Wilder his share of outraged responses, but looking at it now, it is a funny, startlingly clear-eyed vision of urban emptiness and is unfailingly understanding of the crazy decisions our hearts sometimes make. Lemmon and MacLaine are ideally matched and while everyone cites Wilder's Some Like It Hot closing line "Nobody's perfect" as his best, MacLaine's no-nonsense final words-"Shut up and deal"-are every bit as memorable. Wilder won three Oscars for The Apartment, for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay (cowritten with long-time collaborator I A L Diamond). -Robert Abele.

Review Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm / Annie [1999]
Actors & Directors
  • Rob Marshall
  • Alicia Morton
  • Alan Cumming
  • Kristin Chenoweth
  • Kathy Bates
  • Audra McDonald
Release date: 2004-03-29
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £3.47

Review Annie [1999] / Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm:


Review 2 Entertain Video / Doctor Who - The Time Meddler [1965]
Actors & Directors
  • Peter Purves
  • William Hartnell
  • Maureen O'Brien
Release date: 2008-02-04
Run time: 97 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £8.26

Review Doctor Who - The Time Meddler [1965] / 2 Entertain Video:

One of the most popular adventures from the William Hartnell era of Doctor Who, The Time Meddler pits the Time Lord against Carry On star Peter Butterworth in an entertaining, well-written adventure. Set in England back in 1066, on the eve of the Battle of Hastings, The Time Meddler sees the Doctor drawn to a monastery where a single monk resides. So how come the singing of the monks can be heard from far away? And what's the reasoning behind the modern utensils he discovers? All paths lead to the aforementioned Butterworth, whose character's backstory adds a nice twist to the story. The Time Meddler throws in the backstory of Jamie discovering the world of time travel for the first time, but it's the sparring between Hartnell and Butterworth that provides the sparks. And while it's not a perfect adventure, The Time Meddler is very entertaining, and a nice slice of classic Doctor Who. Poignantly, the late Verity Lambert joins an intelligent, interesting commentary track in the highlight of the disc's extras. The Time Meddler was the last Doctor Who story she produced, and her contribution to the supplementary features package is both interesting and a fitting tribute to her work. It also helps make a very strong release for fans of classic Doctor Who. -Simon Brew.

Browse Classics:

Models & Brands:
In The Heat Of The Night [1967], The Incredible Journey [1963], Chitty Chitty Bang Bang [1968], Carry On Cleo [1965], Metropolis - Masters of Cinema series [1927], The Bishop's Wife [1947], School For Scoundrels [1960], The Night Of The Hunter [1955], The Day The Earth Stood Still [1951], Jules And Jim [1962], Went The Day Well? [1942], An Affair To Remember [1957], Sunset Boulevard [1950], Doctor Who - Resurrection Of The Daleks [1983], The Big Sleep [1946], Full Metal Jacket [1987], 633 Squadron [1964], The Apartment [1960], Annie [1999], Doctor Who - The Time Meddler [1965]

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