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Review Warner Home Video / The Dirty Dozen : The Movie & More (2 Disc Special Edition) [1967]
Actors & Directors
  • Lee Marvin
  • Ernest Borgnine
  • Charles Bronson
  • Jim Brown
  • Robert Aldrich
  • John Cassavetes
Release date: 2006-08-07
Run time: 143 min.
RRP: £8.99
Price: £3.18

Review The Dirty Dozen : The Movie & More (2 Disc Special Edition) [1967] / Warner Home Video:


Review 2 Entertain Video / Doctor Who - The Caves Of Androzani [1984] [1963]
Actors & Directors
  • Nicola Bryant
  • Peter Davison
Release date: 2001-06-18
Run time: 100 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £6.81

Review Doctor Who - The Caves Of Androzani [1984] [1963] / 2 Entertain Video:

Marking the final adventure of Peter Davison's Doctor, The Caves of Androzani saw the BBC pull out all stops to give him an unforgettable farewell. Deep within the titular caves the disfigured, masked antihero Sharez Jek (Christopher Gable) and his regiment of androids are locked in conflict with an army unit and a group of smugglers. At stake is control of the life-extending Spectrox, with plenty of subplots involving espionage, betrayal and revenge as well as big-business corruption, political assassination and silly looking reptilian monsters. When the Doctor and Peri (Nicola Bryant) enter this labyrinth they immediately become victims of deadly Spectrox poisoning. The first episode has one of the best cliffhangers ever: our heroes are executed by a firing squad armed with submachine guns. Freely borrowing from The Phantom of the Opera and Dune (David Lynch's film adaptation was made the same year) Robert Holmes' script shares concerns with his more satirical Doctor Who story, "The Sun Makers". This time everything is concentrated on delivering a breathlessly paced action thriller, the relentless death and destruction unfolding more like a PG-rated Sam Peckinpah film than BBC family drama, making Davison's heroic pacifism all the more effective. On the DVD: The disc is packed with features, from an eight-minute look at the creation of Sharez Jek narrated by Christopher Gable, to seven minutes of raw camera footage from Peter Davison's Doctor's transformation into Colin Baker's timelord. There are three BBC TV news reports on Davison's decision to leave the programme, and a BBC trailer for the first episode. In addition to a photo gallery, the entire first episode is included twice, as originally transmitted, and in a version with improved special effects. [+]
There are subtitles offering behind-the-scenes information and two additional audio options. The isolated musical score by Roger Limb may only interest the most hardcore fans, but the three-way commentary track with Peter Davison, Nicola Bryant and director Graeme Harper provides plenty of nostalgic reminiscences. Limited by the fact that the programme was shot on (professional) video, the DVD has picture quality no better than a good VHS tape, while the audio is clear, undistorted mono. -Gary S Dalkin.

Review Optimum Home Entertainment / Darling [1965]
Actors & Directors
  • John Schlesinger
  • Laurence Harvey
  • Julie Christie
  • Dirk Bogarde
Release date: 2007-03-05
Run time: 129 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £5.62

Review Darling [1965] / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review Optimum Home Entertainment / Mandy [1952]
Actors & Directors
  • Jack Hawkins
  • Phyllis Calvert
  • Alexander MacKendrick
  • Mandy Miller
  • Terence Morgan
Release date: 2008-01-28
Run time: 87 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £7.34

Review Mandy [1952] / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review Eureka Entertainment / M - A Film by Fritz Lang [1931]
Actors & Directors
  • Theodor Loos
  • Peter Lorre
  • Otto Wernicke
  • Fritz Lang
  • Ellen Widmann
  • Inge Landgut
Release date: 2003-10-06
Run time: 105 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £8.88

Review M - A Film by Fritz Lang [1931] / Eureka Entertainment:

Fritz Lang's first sound movie, the serial-killer film M, has often been voted the best German film of all time, but, until now, most of us have never seen it properly. What we have seen is a heavily cut 1950s re-edit with extra sound and music patched in, where Lang was deliberately economical with the new technology. This new "Ultimate Edition" is dominated by a marvellous restoration which is true to his intentions and oft-voiced complaints about what had been done to his best film. The young Peter Lorre is terrifyingly ordinary as the child-murderer whom police and criminals hunt down in what is still one of the best forensic police procedurals ever made, while Gustaf Grundgens has effortless charisma as the chief gangster. Lorre's Hollywood exile and decay, and Grundgens' betrayal of old friends and principles under the Nazis, merely add a layer of irony to all this. Lang's ironic cuts-a gangster's gesture is completed by his police equivalent-and dark, studio-bound cinematography make this one of the great precursors of American film noir. Simply, seen without cracks and pops and lines running down the screen, M is revealed as a true classic-a film that shames everything made in its genre since. On the DVD: M on disc has a great deal of documentary material featuring scholars and technicians telling us just how clever they have been in preparing this splendid restoration. The film also comes with a detailed commentary into which has been spliced interview material with Lang talking in English about specific sequences. There is a German-language film interview with Lang in which he talks through his career and re-enacts the interview with Goebbels that led to his exile; an audio interview with Peter Bogdanovich; and an intelligent video critical essay by film historian R Dixon Smith. [+]
The restored film is shown in its correct, unusual visual aspect ratio of 1. 90:1 and has vivid cleaned-up digital mono sound: the murderer's whistling of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" has never sounded so chilling. -Roz Kaveney.

Review Network / Black Narcissus [1946]
Actors & Directors
  • Deborah Kerr
  • Flora Robson
  • Sabu
  • Jean Simmons
  • David Farrar
Release date: 2005-09-26
Run time: 101 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £7.98

Review Black Narcissus [1946] / Network:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Von Ryan's Express [1965]
Actors & Directors
  • Mark Robson
  • Trevor Howard
  • Frank Sinatra
Release date: 2005-04-18
Run time: 112 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £2.99

Review Von Ryan's Express [1965] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Universal Pictures UK / The Magnificent Ambersons [1942]
Actors & Directors
  • Delores Costello
  • Agnes Moorehead
  • Joseph Cotten
  • Anne Baxter
  • Orson Welles (Director)
  • Tim Holt
Release date: 2006-05-29
Run time: 84 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £5.12

Review The Magnificent Ambersons [1942] / Universal Pictures UK:

Citizen Kane is considered by many to be Orson Welles's masterpiece, but more than a few prominent critics have argued that his second film, 1942's The Magnificent Ambersons, is an even greater artistic achievement. It's certainly the source of the most painful injustice of Welles's brief career in Hollywood, having been seized from the director's control, drastically cut from over two hours to merely 88 minutes, and reshot with a different, upbeat ending that Welles vehemently disapproved of. Adapted by Welles from the novel by Booth Tarkington, it remains a truncated masterpiece, as impressive for what remains as for the even greater film it might have been. The story is set during the late 19th century and follows the rise and fall of the wealthy Amberson family of Indianapolis, Indiana. Central to the drama is George Amberson Minafer (Tim Holt), who is snobbishly to the manor born, and whose petty jealousies and truculent pride compel him to prevent a wealthy inventor (Joseph Cotten) from marrying his widowed mother (Dolores Costello). This in part is the cause of the Ambersons' downfall, and ultimately leads to George's humbling "comeuppance" at the film's dramatic conclusion. It's an absorbing tale of fading traditions and changing times, and it's also a magnificent showcase for Welles's cinematic audacity, famous among film students for its long, fluid shots and ambitious compositions. Responding to the film's drastic cutting and re-editing, Welles justifiably complained that "they destroyed the heart of the film, really. " And yet, the director's stamp of genius is evident throughout-the work of a young master (Welles was only 26 when the film was made) that still shines despite its unfortunate fate. -Jeff Shannon.

Review 2 Entertain Video / Doctor Who - City of Death [1979] [2005]
Actors & Directors
  • Eleanor Bron
  • Michael Hayes
  • Tom Chadbon
  • Julian Glover
  • Tom Baker
  • Lalla Ward
Release date: 2005-11-07
Run time: 100 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £6.00

Review Doctor Who - City of Death [1979] [2005] / 2 Entertain Video:


Review Uca Catalogue / Georgy Girl [1966]
Actors & Directors
  • Lynn Redgrave
  • Alan Bates
  • James Mason
Release date: 2005-05-02
Run time: 95 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £4.23

Review Georgy Girl [1966] / Uca Catalogue:


Review Warner Home Video / The Barkleys Of Broadway [1949]
Actors & Directors
  • Charles Walters
  • Ginger Rogers
  • Fred Astaire
Release date: 2005-09-12
Run time: 104 min.
RRP: £16.99
Price: £2.98

Review The Barkleys Of Broadway [1949] / Warner Home Video:


Review Warner Home Video / The Complete James Dean Collection : East Of Eden / Rebel Without A Cause / Giant [1955]
Actors & Directors
  • George Stevens Jr.
  • Rock Hudson
  • Carroll Baker
  • Nicholas Ray
  • James Dean
  • Raymond Massey
  • Elia Kazan
  • Elizabeth Taylor
Release date: 2005-06-06
Run time: 412 min.
RRP: £40.99
Price: £14.76

Review The Complete James Dean Collection : East Of Eden / Rebel Without A Cause / Giant [1955] / Warner Home Video:


Review Network / The Way To The Stars [1945]
Actors & Directors
  • Rosamund John
  • John Mills
  • Douglas Montgomery
  • Anthony Asquith
  • Renee Asherson
  • Michael Redgrave
Release date: 2007-08-20
Run time: 104 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £7.97

Review The Way To The Stars [1945] / Network:


Review Universal Pictures UK / The Fred And Ginger Collection Vol. 1 [1935]
Actors & Directors
  • Jack Carson
  • Ralph Bellamy
  • Mark Sandrich
  • Ginger Rogers
  • Fred Astaire
  • Jerome Cowan
Release date: 2003-11-10
Run time: 399 min.
RRP: £34.99
Price: £16.99

Review The Fred And Ginger Collection Vol. 1 [1935] / Universal Pictures UK:


Review Starz Home Entertainment / The Message
Release date: 2006-02-06
Run time: 177 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.18

Review The Message / Starz Home Entertainment:


Review Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm / The Parent Trap [1961]
Actors & Directors
  • Brian Keith
  • David Swift
  • Maureen O'Hara
  • Hayley Mills
Release date: 2005-01-17
Run time: 122 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £3.10

Review The Parent Trap [1961] / Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm:


Review Warner Home Video / Finian's Rainbow [1968]
Actors & Directors
  • Fred Astaire
  • Keenan Wynn
  • Petula Clark
  • Tommy Steele
  • Don Francks
Release date: 2005-05-16
Run time: 139 min.
RRP: £13.99
Price: £4.42

Review Finian's Rainbow [1968] / Warner Home Video:


Review MGM Entertainment / The Killing [1956]
Actors & Directors
  • Jay C. Flippen
  • Sterling Hayden
  • Elisha Cook Jr.
  • Coleen Gray
  • Stanley Kubrick
  • Vince Edwards
Release date: 2002-07-15
Run time: 80 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £2.85

Review The Killing [1956] / MGM Entertainment:

Among Stanley Kubrick's early film output The Killing stands out as the most lastingly influential: Quentin Tarantino credits the film as a huge inspiration for Reservoir Dogs and just about any movie or TV show that plays around with its own internal chronology owes the same debt. This sort of convoluted crime caper had really kicked off with John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle in 1950. From then on, nouveau noir scripts kept trying to find new ways of telling very similar stories. Here the novel Clean Break is adapted for the screen in a jigsaw-puzzle structure that caught Kubrick's eye. With a dry narration we're introduced to the key players in a racetrack heist as it's being planned, but the story bounces back and forth between what happens to each of them during and before the big event. All of this keeps the audience guessing as to exactly how it will go wrong, while the downbeat telling, the unsympathetic characters and the excessively dramatic score clearly foretell that it will go wrong from the start. The denouement is comically daft no matter how many times you see it. On the DVD: The Killing is a no-frills DVD transfer, in 4:3 ratio and with its original mono soundtrack. Criminally, just one trailer is all that's been dug up as an extra. -Paul Tonks.

Review MGM Entertainment / Red River [1949]
Actors & Directors
  • Howard Hawks
  • Montgomery Clift
  • Coleen Gray
  • Joanne Dru
  • Walter Brennan
  • Arthur Rosson
  • John Wayne
Release date: 2000-06-12
Run time: 133 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £2.68

Review Red River [1949] / MGM Entertainment:

Any short list of the all-time greatest Westerns is bound to include this 1948 Howard Hawks classic about an epic cattle drive. Red River features one of John Wayne's greatest performances. Like his Ethan Edwards in John Ford's 1956 masterpiece The Searchers, the Duke plays an isolated and unsympathetic man who is possessed by bitterness. Wayne is Texas rancher Tom Dunson, who adopts a young boy orphaned in an Indian massacre. That boy, Matthew Garth (played as an adult by Montgomery Clift in his screen debut), becomes Dunson's assistant and heir apparent-until Dunson's temper gets out of control during a long cattle drive and Matt intervenes to stop him. From that moment on, Dunson swears he will kill Matt. Red River has everything a great Western ought to have: a sweeping sense of history, spectacular landscapes, stampedes, gunfights, Indian attacks, and, of course, Walter Brennan as Dunson's crusty old cook and comic sidekick, Nadine Groot. As a special bonus, the film also features the legendary Harry Carey (upon whom Wayne would base some of his gestures in The Searchers) and his son Harry Carey Jr, who became a fixture in Ford and Hawks' Westerns. Red River is essential for anyone who loves Westerns, or movies in general. This one's a real beaut. [+]
-Jim Emerson, Amazon. com.

Review Universal Pictures UK / Psycho Collection [1960]
Actors & Directors
  • Mick Garris
  • Richard Franklin
  • Anthony Perkins
  • Henry Thomas
  • Donna Mitchell
  • Roberta Maxwell
  • Anthony Perkins
  • Alfred Hitchcock
  • Olivia Hussey
Release date: 2003-10-20
Run time: 398 min.
RRP: £34.99
Price: £7.96

Review Psycho Collection [1960] / Universal Pictures UK:


Browse Classics:

Models & Brands:
The Dirty Dozen : The Movie & More (2 Disc Special Edition) [1967], Doctor Who - The Caves Of Androzani [1984] [1963], Darling [1965], Mandy [1952], M - A Film by Fritz Lang [1931], Black Narcissus [1946], Von Ryan's Express [1965], The Magnificent Ambersons [1942], Doctor Who - City of Death [1979] [2005], Georgy Girl [1966], The Barkleys Of Broadway [1949], The Complete James Dean Collection : East Of Eden / Rebel Without A Cause / Giant [1955], The Way To The Stars [1945], The Fred And Ginger Collection Vol. 1 [1935], The Message, The Parent Trap [1961], Finian's Rainbow [1968], The Killing [1956], Red River [1949], Psycho Collection [1960]

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