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Review Walt Disney Video  / Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs [1938] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Otis Harlan
  • Billy Gilbert
  • David Hand
  • James MacDonald (II)
  • Wilfred Jackson
  • Roy Atwell
  • Marion Darlington
Release date: 2001-10-09
Run time: 274 min.
Price: £31.95

Review Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs [1938] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Walt Disney Video:

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was nicknamed "Disney's Folly" by contemporary observers; they doubted that the short cartoons shown before the main film could ever successfully make the transition from filler to feature presentation. Surely, no one would sit still for over an hour to watch an animated film, their eyes smarting from the bright colours on screen? Fortunately, Walt Disney and his army of artists persisted and the world's first full-length animated feature was finally released in 1937 to widespread acclaim. Adapted from the Grimm fairytale, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is chillingly dark in places, reflecting its roots in European folklore, but the deft Disney touch ensures that the overall tone remains light and the story develops apace, swept along on the perfect musical score. Any lingering gloom is quickly dispelled by the superbly characterised dwarfs and by the humorous antics of the various irresistible fauna that threaten to steal the show in several scenes. The pioneering animation is breathtaking and songs such as "Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho" and "Whistle While You Work", now firmly embedded in popular culture, are seamlessly interwoven with the action. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs happens to be an interesting technological milestone in cinema history-it is also an enduring masterpiece of family entertainment. To the millions who have fallen under its spell over the years, this magical fairy tale remains one of Disney's most enchanting and best-loved films. Only Grumpy could resist. -Helen Baker On the DVD: the video quality on this DVD is stunningly clear. Though it is noticeable that the film is nearly 65 years old, Disney has done a great job in the cleaning process: the bright colours shine clearly, the blacks are deep and the whites clear. [+]
There is little to no visible wearing on the film and the digital transfer has done wonders in restoring Snow White and her seven little pals. The sound is very clear and you get a real sense, in places, of the newly mastered 5. 1 Dolby Sound enhancements that have been added, making for enjoyable listening to the well-loved songs. The extras on disk one are plentiful and give a real insight into the making of Snow White. Little was done in 1937 for the filming of behind-the-scenes documentaries, but what could have been included has been. The audio commentary is strung together from interviews with Walt Disney himself, all of which are fascinating, and to keep the kids happy there is a familiar Disney sing-along and a Dopey game to play. The disk two extras are packed with information on the movie and Disney, from the 3-D virtual tour of the Snow White kingdom, that also has some documentary information, to an outtakes section showing abandoned footage and ideas that were never included in the final movie. There is also an informative timeline of the creation of the Walt Disney Studios that includes some deleted scenes from the movie. Altogether, great additions to a classic film. -Robert Hyde.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment  / M.A.S.H. [1970]
Actors & Directors
  • Sally Kellerman
  • Donald Sutherland
  • Robert Altman
  • Elliott Gould
  • Tom Skerritt
  • Robert Duvall
Release date: 2002-04-29
Run time: 111 min.
RRP: £22.99
Price: £3.20

Review M.A.S.H. [1970] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

It's set during the Korean War, in a mobile army surgical hospital. But no one seeing MASH in 1970 confused the film for anything but a caustic comment on the Vietnam War; this is one of the counterculture movies that exploded into the mainstream at the end of the 1960s. Director Robert Altman had laboured for years in television and sporadic feature work when this smash-hit comedy made his name (and allowed him to create an astonishing string of offbeat pictures, culminating in the masterpiece Nashville). Altman's style of cruel humour, overlapping dialogue, and densely textured visuals brought the material to life in an all-new kind of war movie (or, more precisely, antiwar movie). Audiences had never seen anything like it: vaudeville routines played against spurting blood, fuelled with open ridicule of authority. The cast is led by Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland, as the outrageous surgeons Hawkeye Pierce and Trapper John McIntyre, with Robert Duvall as the uptight Major Burns and Sally Kellerman in an Oscar-nominated role as nurse "Hot Lips" Houlihan. The film's huge success spawned the long-running TV series, a considerably softer take on the material; of the film's cast, only Gary Burghoff repeated his role on the small screen, as the slightly clairvoyant Radar O'Reilly. -Robert Horton MASH-a 1970 comedy-drama set among surgeons drafted into the Korean war-was a breakthrough not just for director Robert Altman but for movie-making in general. Although set in the 50s, there are few who did not realise that the film's anti-war messages were directed at the US involvement in Vietnam. Indeed, the Pentagon banned US servicemen from seeing the film. [+]
Starring Donald Sutherland as Hawkeye Pierce and Elliot Gould as Trapper John McIntyre, two hip young surgeons drafted against their will. Their general attitude-while never corroding either their humanity or their professionalism as surgeons-is one of insolence towards military authority and the arbitrary structures and regulations continually droning from the tannoy system. The film, too, thrives on a lack of attention to conventional order, with its cross-dialogue and random, episodic style reflecting the vivacious and unbuttoned feel of the content. However, MASH has dated and much of what seemed like "liberating" high jinks, today smacks of sexist, frathouse boorishness and harassment, especially at the expense of Major "Hotlips" Hoolihan (Sally Kellerman), while the episode in which "Painless" plans a suicide out of a fear of being gay reflects the persistence of homophobia even in 60s counterculture. Despite this MASH feels ahead of its time and certainly sharper and blacker than the too-cute sitcom it spawned. On the DVD: this is an excellent restoration, overseen by Altman himself, in which any obfuscation from the original have been cleaned up, especially the sound quality. As well as a commentary from Altman, there are three separate documentaries, featuring interviews with Altman, the cast and screenwriter Ring Lardner Jr, who had been blacklisted during the anti-Communist witch-hunt which swept through Hollywood in the 1950s. We learn he was initially appalled at how little of his script Altman actually used but was mollified by the Academy Award he received. Altman is candid about the making of the movie ("It wasn't released by Fox, it escaped from Fox"). There's an abundance of similarly rich, anecdotal material here. -David Stubbs.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment  / Barefoot In The Park [1967]
Actors & Directors
  • Herb Edelman
  • Robert Redford
  • Gene Saks
  • Charles Boyer
  • Mildred Natwick
  • Jane Fonda
Release date: 2001-05-07
Run time: 101 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £3.93

Review Barefoot In The Park [1967] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

Based on Neil Simon's own play, 1967's Barefoot in the Park is a perennially joyous film starring carefree Jane Fonda and staid lawyer Robert Redford as young newlyweds setting up home in Greenwich Village. Although the opening credits are fragrantly idyllic (aided by Neal Hefti's soundtrack, you can almost smell the blossom in Central Park), the film doesn't idealise apartment living in New York, à la Friends, far from it: Fonda and Redford's apartment is up several flights of stairs; there's a hole in the skylight and the bedroom is the size of a cupboard. All of this puts some strain on the marriage. When Fonda introduces fellow free spirit and ageing, behind-on-the-rent Lothario (Charles Boyer) to her somewhat inhibited mother (Mildred Natwick), the hapless Redford in particular is forced to come to terms with his own inhibitions. Although the second half of the film moves at a less cracking pace than the first, Barefoot in the Park is as exhilarating as a romantic weekend city break. Directo r Gene Saks, scriptwriter Neil Simon and composer Hefti would regroup in 1968 to make the similarly wonderful The Odd Couple. On the DVD: With the aid of filtering, the DVD recaptures the almost unreal colour quality common to films of this period, while the sound is faithful to the nuances of Hefti's soundtrack. The special features are miserly-subtitles, a choice of languages and the original trailer, though this at least conveys the engaging naiveté of the period-("The rarest, unsquarest, happiest motion picture in many a year!"). -David Stubbs.

Review Slam Dunk Media  / Charade [1963]
Actors & Directors
  • Audrey Hepburn
  • James Coburn
  • Walter Matthau
  • Stanley Donen
  • Cary Grant
  • George Kennedy
Release date: 2008-04-07
Run time: 113 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.94

Review Charade [1963] / Slam Dunk Media:


Review Warner Home Video  / The Valley Of Gwangi [1969]
Actors & Directors
  • Gila Golan
  • Jim O'Connolly
  • James Franciscus
  • Freda Jackson
  • Laurence Naismith
  • Richard Carlson
Release date: 2004-01-26
Run time: 91 min.
RRP: £13.99
Price: £3.37

Review The Valley Of Gwangi [1969] / Warner Home Video:


Review Optimum Home Entertainment  / I'm All Right Jack [1959]
Actors & Directors
  • Ian Carmichael
  • Irene Handl
  • John Boulting
  • Richard Attenborough
  • Peter Sellers
  • John Le Mesurier
Release date: 2007-02-05
Run time: 101 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.69

Review I'm All Right Jack [1959] / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm  / Pollyanna [1960]
Actors & Directors
  • Jane Wyman
  • Hayley Mills
  • David Swift
Release date: 2004-05-03
Run time: 129 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £4.00

Review Pollyanna [1960] / Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm:


Review 2 Entertain Video  / The Very Best of Dad's Army [1968]
Actors & Directors
  • James Beck
  • John Le Mesurier
  • Clive Dunn
  • John Laurie
  • Bob Spiers
  • Arthur Lowe
  • David Croft
Release date: 2001-10-01
Run time: 153 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £5.27

Review The Very Best of Dad's Army [1968] / 2 Entertain Video:

If the mark of a successful TV comedy is that repeat showings attract new viewers, then Dad's Army must be one of the best. The Very Best of Dad's Army includes five episodes almost covering its whole time span-from 1969's "Sons of the Sea", an entertaining caper when lost at home, to 1977's final episode "Never Too Old", in which sparky Corporal Jones marries his longtime sweetheart, and the ageing Second World War platoon drinks a toast to Britain's Home Guard. Along with these is 1973's "The Deadly Attachment", where a captive U-boat crew falls prey to dummy hand-grenades; 1972's "Keep Young and Beautiful", a touching tale of looking younger and sticking together; and the same year's "Asleep in the Deep", where the platoon uses its skill and judgement, plus a little luck, to escape a life-threatening situation. Fans and newcomers will enjoy the priceless interplay of Arthur Lowe and John le Mesurier, along with the contributions of Clive Dunn, John Laurie, Arnold Ridley, Ian Lavender and James Beck, in this nostalgic depiction of Britain as it once was. On the DVD: The 4:3 picture reproduction has come up well and the dual mono sound is more than adequate. Each episode features six scene selections, while the artist profiles provide brief but relevant biographical details. The half-hour Selection Box gives celebrities past and present a chance to pick their favourite extracts and explain just why they're hooked. Chances are you will be too. -Richard Whitehouse.

Review Optimum Home Entertainment  / The Lion In Winter [1968]
Actors & Directors
  • Anthony Hopkins
  • Anthony Harvey
  • Katharine Hepburn
  • Jane Merrow
  • Peter O'Toole
  • John Castle
Release date: 2008-08-25
Run time: 129 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £7.98

Review The Lion In Winter [1968] / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review 4 Front Video  / The Battle Of Midway [1976]
Actors & Directors
  • Donald Crisp
  • Jane Darwell
  • James Roosevelt
  • John Ford
  • Henry Fonda
  • Irving Pichel
Release date: 2005-05-02
Run time: 128 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.90

Review The Battle Of Midway [1976] / 4 Front Video:


Review Metrodome Distribution  / Shakespeare: The Animated Tales [1992]
Actors & Directors
  • Colin McFarlane
  • Gerard McSorley
  • Antony Sher
  • Brian Cox
  • Daniel Massey (II)
Release date: 2005-03-28
Run time: 307 min.
RRP: £20.99
Price: £20.77

Review Shakespeare: The Animated Tales [1992] / Metrodome Distribution:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment  / Rodgers And Hammerstein Collection: Carousel / The King and I / Oklahoma ! / The Sound of Music / South Pacific / State Fair
Actors & Directors
  • Shirley Jones
  • Robert Wise
  • Gordon MacRae
  • Rod Steiger
  • Walter Lang
  • Joshua Logan
  • Gloria Grahame
  • Henry King
  • Julie Andrews
  • Fred Zinnemann
Release date: 2008-02-18
Run time: 789 min.
RRP: £29.99
Price: £16.99

Review Rodgers And Hammerstein Collection: Carousel / The King and I / Oklahoma ! / The Sound of Music / South Pacific / State Fair / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

A 6 Disc collection of your favourite Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals, containing the following six classic films: Carousel; The King and I; Oklahoma!; The Sound of Music; South Pacific; State Fair; Carousel - Spectacular staging dots this widescreen deluxe Rodgers and Hammerstein musical as Gordon MacRae brings a blustery energy to the lead role of Billy Bigelow, a drifter and ne'er-do-well carnival 'barker'. The troubled soul finally settles down with a good woman (Shirley Jones) but then gets stabbed to death while committing a robbery. Many years later, an angel offers the roustabout the chance to return to earth for just one day to makes things right for his unhappy wife and the daughter he never had the chance to meet. Based on the French play "Lilion" by Ferene Molnar, Carousel ranks among the better Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, making it a classic by any standard. To boot, the film's tale of love between Bigelow and wife Julie rivals that of any other 1950s musical. Songs from the outstanding score include 'If I Loved You', 'June Is Busting Out All Over', and 'You'll Never Walk Alone'. The King and I - In 1955 this lavish production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway hit "The King and I", starring Yul Brynner as the King of Siam and Deborah Kerr as the governess sent to look after his children, was the most expensive film ever mounted by 20th Century Fox. The 40 sets in ripe decors by Walter M Scott and Paul S Fox included a ballroom of black marble with jade and silk tapestries and a banqueting scene with a table that gives the impression of stretching to infinity. The costumes by Irene Sharaff, notably the hoop ballroom gown for Deborah Kerr and those for the ballet "The Small House of Uncle Thomas", dazzle the eye in their delineation of Western manners and Oriental splendour. Brynner remains impressive as the King but his pidgin dialogue, inherited from Hammerstein's book, with the dropping of the definite article takes some adjustment. [+]
Alfred Newman put his unique stamp on the music: the Overture offers an example of his luminous divided string sound, the climactic ballroom scene a full bodied orchestral reprise of "Shall We Dance?" as the camera pulls away to a high angle producing an exultant visual finish to this celebrated polka. Oklahoma - The hit Broadway musical from the 1940s gets a lavish if not always exciting workout in this 1955 film version directed by old lion Fred Zinnemann (High Noon). Gordon MacRae brings his sterling voice to the role of cowboy Curly and Shirley Jones plays Laurie, the object of his affection. The Rodgers and Hammerstein score includes "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top", "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" and "People Will Say We're in Love", and Agnes DeMille provides the buoyant choreography. Among the supporting cast, Gloria Grahame is memorable as Ado Annie, the "girl who cain't say no", and Rod Steiger overdoes it as the villainous Jud. -Tom Keogh The Sound of Music - The most widely seen movie produced by a Hollywood studio, The Sound of Music grows fresher with each viewing. Though it was planned meticulously in pre-production (save for the scene where Maria and the children take a dipping in an Austrian lake that nearly cost a life), on each viewing one is struck anew by the spontaneous almost improvisatory air of the acting, notably of Julie Andrews under Robert Wise's direction. There are also the little human touches he brings to, for instance, the scene where Maria leads the children to the hills, over bridges and along tow paths where the smallest boy trips up and momentarily gets left behind: it creates a feeling that most of us have encountered. From the opening pre-credit sequence of muted excitement as the camera roves over the Austrian Alps (photographed in magnificent colour), where little phrases from the wind instruments on the soundtrack are flung as if on the breeze, foreshadowing the title song to follow, the production never puts a foot wrong. South Pacific - The dazzling Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, brought to lush life by the director of the original stage version, Joshua Logan. Set on a remote island during the Second World War, South Pacific tracks two parallel romances: one between a Navy nurse (Mitzi Gaynor) "as corny as Kansas in August" and a wealthy French plantation owner (Rossano Brazzi), the other between a young American officer (John Kerr) and a native girl (France Nuyen). The theme of interracial love was still daring in 1958, and so was director Logan's decision to overlay emotional moments with tinted filters-a technique that misfires as often as it hits. The comic relief tends to fall flat and an overly spunky Mitzi Gaynor is a poor substitute for the stage original's Mary Martin. But the location scenery on the Hawaiian island of Kauai is gorgeous and the songs are among the finest in the American musical catalogue: "Some Enchanted Evening", "Younger than Springtime", "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair", "This Nearly Was Mine". That's Juanita Hall as the sly native trader Bloody Mary, singing the haunting tune that launched a thousand tiki bars, "Bali H'ai". The movie is based on stories from James Michener's book "Tales from the South Pacific". -Robert Horton, Amazon. com State Fair - Good old-fashioned hometown pride is on display in lavish Technicolor in this remake of the 1933 film, the only Rodgers and Hammerstein musical written directly for the silver screen. When the Frake family travels to the fair, Ma and Pa (Charles Winninger and Fay Bainter) enter contests while daughter Margy (Jeanne Crain) and son Wayne (Dick Haymes) both fall in love for the first time. State Fair is attractively photographed and energised by the vibrant performances of the talented lead actors and actresses, but the high point of the film is the colourful hoopla and hullabaloo of the fair itself, a bustling nexus of strange, wonderful, and hilarious characters brought to life by the fine supporting cast. Songs from the Academy Award-nominated score include 'It's a Grand Night for Singing', 'That's For Me', and the Oscar-winning 'It Might As Well Be Spring'.

Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment  / Major Dundee (Special Extended Edition) [1965]
Actors & Directors
  • Richard Harris
  • Sam Peckinpah
  • James Coburn
  • Jim Hutton
  • Senta Berger
  • Charlton Heston
Release date: 2008-06-02
Run time: 130 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £6.89

Review Major Dundee (Special Extended Edition) [1965] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

This restoration of Sam Peckinpah's 1965 western Major Dundee is nothing short of magnificent, a noble attempt at restoring a famously wrecked masterpiece. When Peckinpah went over budget and over schedule during the Mexico shoot, unshot scenes were cancelled and the footage rudely cut by the studio. The director disowned the results. In 2005, surviving footage was patched back in, and a new musical soundtrack commissioned to replace the score Peckinpah hated. This raises some legitimate questions about interpreting a director's intentions, and about messing with film history, but Major Dundee-The Extended Version is such a rousing, mysterious experience, one feels grateful. Major Dundee (Charlton Heston) is a vainglorious officer busted to the decidedly inglorious job of overseeing prisoners in a fort in New Mexico. An abduction gives him the excuse to mount an expedition into Mexico, chasing the perpetrators and perhaps a shot at greatness. His ragtag posse includes Confederate POWs, notably one Captain Ben Tyreen (Richard Harris), whose intense former friendship with Dundee is tainted with a sense of betrayal on both sides. (Heston and Harris, two actors not known for subtlety, are splendid. ) Part Ahab, part Alexander the Great, Dundee leads the expedition away from its purpose and into a near-mythic kind of wandering. [+]
Peckinpah gets everything right-the landscapes, the sneaky humour, the code of men. He also takes time to distinguish the supporting characters, such as Jim Hutton's awkward young officer and Senta Berger's stranded widow. The Peckinpah stock company of amazing character actors is in place, too, including James Coburn, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, L. Q. Jones, and Slim Pickens. It will never be exactly what Peckinpah envisioned, but now Major Dundee rides suspiciously close to greatness. -Robert Horton.

Review ITV DVD  / Henry V [1944]
Actors & Directors
  • Laurence Olivier
  • Laurence Olivier
  • Leo Genn
  • Renee Asherson
  • Robert Newton
  • Leslie Banks
Release date: 2003-04-14
Run time: 137 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £2.49

Review Henry V [1944] / ITV DVD:

The definitive call to arms, Laurence Olivier's Henry V is a patriotic saga awash with pageantry, battles, romance and political chicanery. Intended to rally Britain during the darkest days of World War II, the film shows how the star of England sought to stake an ancestral, royal claim on the soil of France. Olivier once said, famously, that "it isn't until you're older that you can understand the pictorial beauty of heroism". And at the ripe age of 37, the actor essays an insouciant character endowed with great powers of strength, spirit, and intellect. From the moment Olivier strides on screen, the audience is held both rapt and willingly captive. During his magnificent "St. Crispin's Day" speech, Olivier refuses to indulge in excessive personal close-ups, choosing instead to depict the communal impact of his words on the troops. Though he understands the importance of clear, realistic communication, Olivier the director also displays a penchant for artifice-as exemplified by his decision to open the film in a replica of the Globe Theatre. The play's various diplomatic exchanges-usually of the dull, obligatory variety-are enlivened through touches of light comedy: a sly wind blows court papers over the set as courtiers argue over boundaries and treaties. There is also humour to be found in the King's taciturn romancing of Princess Katharine (Renée Asherson). [+]
But there are also plenty of large-scale events, with Olivier demonstrating the fleetness of Shakespeare's world even as he mimics the headlong rush of destruction. A romanticised film of a nation at war, the director leaves no doubt that the British victory over the French at Agincourt (1415) was Medieval England's and the King's finest military triumph. The film is rendered complete by William Walton's magnificent score, which pushes all the appropriate patriotic buttons. For his efforts, Olivier received a special Oscar "for his outstanding achievement as actor, producer, and director in bringing Henry V to the screen". -Kevin Mulhall.

Review Cinema Club  / Lucky Jim [1957]
Actors & Directors
  • Terry-Thomas
  • Sharon Acker
  • Ian Carmichael
  • Hugh Griffith
  • Jean Anderson
  • John Boulting
Release date: 2004-08-09
Run time: 91 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £2.11

Review Lucky Jim [1957] / Cinema Club:


Review Warner Home Video  / Charlie Chaplin - The Great Dictator [1940] Release date: 2003-09-01
Run time: 126 min.
RRP: £13.99
Price: £4.97

Review Charlie Chaplin - The Great Dictator [1940] / Warner Home Video:

The Great Dictator was Charles Chaplin's first fully talking picture, a scathing comic assault on Adolf Hitler, which these days will mostly play like brilliant slapstick. But in 1940, with America still neutral, it was the boldest anti-Nazi statement Hollywood had then put on screen. The thin plot doesn't matter, being just a peg for writer-director Chaplin's almost consistently inventive and hilarious set-pieces featuring himself in the duel roles of Adenoid Hynkel, the ludicrous anti-Semitic Dictator of Tomania, and an innocent Jewish barber who happens to be a Tomanian hero of the Great War. In the latter role he affectionately spins a variation on his beloved Tramp character while briefly romancing a lacklustre Paulette Goddard, costar of his equally satirical Modern Times (1936). Yet it's as Hynkel/Hitler that Chaplin really shines, from a side-splitting opening speech to some Duck Soup-style madness with rival leader Napaloni, played with flamboyant swagger by Jack Oakie. While the finale, a clarion call for a brave new world united by science and technological progress that seems to emanate straight from 1936's Things to Come, may jar, the comedic approach to a deadly serious subject has proved lastingly influential, from Dr Strangelove (1964) to Life is Beautiful (1997). On the DVD The Great Dictator is presented in the original 4:3 black and white with strong, clear mono sound and a picture so sharp and detailed that, bar a few very minor instances of damage, the film could have been shot yesterday. Also included are French and Italian dubbed versions and an English Dolby Digital 5. 1 version of the soundtrack, which is best avoided. The disc features multiple subtitle options, including English for hard of hearing. [+]
Disc Two begins with a superb 55-minute documentary, directed by film historian Kevin Brownlow and Michael Kloft, narrated by Kenneth Branagh and coproduced by the BBC. The Tramp and the Dictator goes seriously in-depth to explore the parallels between the world's most loved and hated men, drawing on many interviews and remarkable rare footage, including colour sequences of the making of The Great Dictator shot by Chaplin's brother, Sydney. Next comes the complete 25 minutes of that home-movie footage, including coverage of the original abandoned ending, and a seven-minute deleted scene from Sunnyside (1918), which inspired the barber scene. Finally there is a poster gallery and a scene from Monsieur Verdoux (1947) concerning the rise of Hitler and fascism. Marvellous stuff, though a commentary could have added considerably to the already remarkable silent colour material. -Gary S Dalkin.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment  / Moulin Rouge -- Two-Disc Set [2001]
Actors & Directors
  • Ewan McGregor
  • Nicole Kidman
  • John Leguizamo
  • Richard Roxburgh
  • Baz Luhrmann
  • Jim Broadbent
Release date: 2004-05-03
Run time: 122 min.
RRP: £22.99
Price: £2.00

Review Moulin Rouge -- Two-Disc Set [2001] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

Watching Baz Luhrmann's award-winning Moulin Rouge is a lot like falling in love. It is total immersion cinema and while you're experiencing it ("watching" is too passive a word) you can't imagine that cinema could be for anything else. In the harsh, objective post-viewing daylight Lurhmann's gaudy spectacular might seem like a triumph of glossy style over any genuine substance, but as the film unfolds Lurhmann subjects his audience to a such a barrage of overtly stylised music, dance, colour, design and human passion that the senses are overwhelmed and critical faculties put on hold for the duration. The story is paper-thin, but that's hardly the point. Nicole Kidman's courtesan Satine falls for poor poet Ewan McGregor while pledged to a psychotic English Duke. The show goes on, of course, and we know it will end in tragedy-because that's the sort of story this is, and the only thing that makes it bearable is the knowledge that it's all just brilliant artifice. The third of Luhrman's "Red Curtain" trilogy (after Strictly Ballroom and Romeo + Juliet), Moulin Rouge reinvents musical cinema, acknowledging its debt to past masters like Vincente Minnelli (Gigi) and Michael Powell (The Red Shoes), but taking in the best of rock video along the way. The incessant MTV-style editing might seem like a distraction, but in the end a film insane enough to include Jim Broadbent's cover of "Like a Virgin" defines its own genre rules. On the DVD: this double-disc package sets new standards of presentation while also having an ideally appropriate light-heartedness. The extra features are as inventive in their use of the format as the film itself. [+]
Highlights include not one but two commentaries-one by Luhrmann, his designer and his cinematographer, the other with Lurhmann and his fellow scriptwriter Craig Pearce. We get two videos of "Lady Marmalade" and there are also uncut dance numbers, for example the fabulously dark Tango sequence in all its detail, which come with alternate camera angles so that you can edit your own version. There are whole segments on the glittery costumes, the three-dimensional model of Paris and the transformation of Kylie Minogue into the Green Fairy of absinthe. The film is presented in anamorphic widescreen (formatted for 16:9 TVs) with a visual aspect ratio of 1. 85:1 and has lush, velvety Dolby Digital 5. 1 or DTS 5. 1 sound options. -Roz Kaveney.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment  / True Grit [1969]
Actors & Directors
  • John Wayne
  • Glen Campbell
  • Robert Duvall
  • Jeremy Slate
  • Kim Darby
  • Henry Hathaway
Release date: 2005-06-06
Run time: 128 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.40

Review True Grit [1969] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

John Wayne hams it up as a one-eyed, broken-down marshal in this 1969 adaptation of Charles Portis's bestselling novel. Kim Darby plays the formal-speaking adolescent who goes to Wayne for help tracking down her father's killer, and singer Glen Campbell straps on his guns to join the quest. Directed by old lion Henry Hathaway (Rawhide), True Grit is largely a showcase for Wayne (who finally won an Oscar), but it is also a decent Western with a particularly stirring final act. -Tom Keogh.

Review Bfi Video  / On And Off The Rails - The British Transport Films Collection - Vol. 1 [1951] Release date: 2005-06-27
Run time: 261 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £8.98

Review On And Off The Rails - The British Transport Films Collection - Vol. 1 [1951] / Bfi Video:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment  / Blue Hawaii [1961]
Actors & Directors
  • Jenny Maxwell
  • Angela Lansbury
  • Norman Taurog
  • Joan Blackman
  • Elvis Presley
  • Nancy Walters
Release date: 2002-03-18
Run time: 97 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.52

Review Blue Hawaii [1961] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

Elvis Presley's seventh film was the first of his "Hawaii trilogy" (a group completed by Girls! Girls! Girls! and Paradise, Hawaiian Style). While its story is daft-the King has just been released from his army-posting in Italy and returned to the islands, where he's trying to avoid working in his father's fruit business-the music, including "Blue Hawaii," "Almost Always True" and the beautiful "Can't Help Falling in Love", is not. Angela Lansbury plays Elvis's mother, who can't seem to get through to him. The film is directed by Elvis's frequent collaborator, Norman Taurog. -Tom Keogh.

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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs [1938] (REGION 1) (NTSC), M.A.S.H. [1970], Barefoot In The Park [1967], Charade [1963], The Valley Of Gwangi [1969], I'm All Right Jack [1959], Pollyanna [1960], The Very Best of Dad's Army [1968], The Lion In Winter [1968], The Battle Of Midway [1976], Shakespeare: The Animated Tales [1992], Rodgers And Hammerstein Collection: Carousel / The King and I / Oklahoma ! / The Sound of Music / South Pacific / State Fair, Major Dundee (Special Extended Edition) [1965], Henry V [1944], Lucky Jim [1957], Charlie Chaplin - The Great Dictator [1940], Moulin Rouge -- Two-Disc Set [2001], True Grit [1969], On And Off The Rails - The British Transport Films Collection - Vol. 1 [1951], Blue Hawaii [1961]

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