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Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Gunfight At The Ok Corral [1957]
Actors & Directors
  • Whit Bissell
  • John Sturges
  • Rhonda Fleming
  • Burt Lancaster
  • Kenneth Tobey
  • Kirk Douglas
Release date: 2006-09-25
Run time: 122 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £3.57

Review Gunfight At The Ok Corral [1957] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Review Warner Home Video / The Law and Jake Wade [1958] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Robert Taylor
  • John Sturges
  • Patricia Owens
  • Robert Middleton
  • Richard Widmark
  • Henry Silva
Release date: 2008-08-26
Run time: 86 min.
Price: £4.01

Review The Law and Jake Wade [1958] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:


Review Network / Nearest And Dearest - The Complete Series Collection [1968]
Actors & Directors
  • Jimmy Jewell; Hylda Baker
Release date: 2007-06-04
Run time: 1175 min.
RRP: £89.99
Price: £19.97

Review Nearest And Dearest - The Complete Series Collection [1968] / Network:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Hell Is For Heroes [1962]
Actors & Directors
  • James Coburn
  • Harry Guardino
  • Steve McQueen
  • Bobby Darin
  • Don Siegel
  • Fess Parker
Release date: 2003-10-13
Run time: 86 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £3.00

Review Hell Is For Heroes [1962] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Review MGM Entertainment / Judgement At Nuremberg [1961]
Actors & Directors
  • Marlene Dietrich
  • Spencer Tracy
  • Stanley Kramer
  • Maximilian Schell
  • Richard Widmark
  • Burt Lancaster
Release date: 2004-05-03
Run time: 178 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.99

Review Judgement At Nuremberg [1961] / MGM Entertainment:


Review Warner Home Video / Adam's Rib [1949]
Actors & Directors
  • Tom Ewell
  • David Wayne
  • Katharine Hepburn
  • Spencer Tracy
  • Judy Holliday
  • George Cukor
Release date: 2003-04-28
Run time: 97 min.
RRP: £13.99
Price: £2.70

Review Adam's Rib [1949] / Warner Home Video:

Adam's Rib, released in 1949, was one of the on-screen peaks for the matchless pairing of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. George Cukor's instinctively light touch on the director's tiller, the wittiest of Garson Kanin scripts and apparently effortless acting from the stars, merge for 100 minutes of sophisticated comic perfection. It's tempting to think that, as the sparring husband and wife lawyers, Hepburn and Tracy drew on aspects of their now legendary real-life love affair. Screen chemistry alone can't account for the endless nuances, sidelong looks and timing which make Adam's Rib such a delight. There's also a generosity to their fellow actors that few major stars, then or now, would be confident enough to indulge in. Judy Holliday, playing the wife accused of shooting her philandering husband, had still not secured the lead in the film of her Broadway hit, Born Yesterday. Aware that anything else would have been a travesty, Hepburn as her defence lawyer ensured that Holliday was favoured in their scenes together and she duly got the part. In all the best ways, Adam's Rib is a quick-fire battle-of-the-sexes comedy, with Hepburn's brittle feminism striking sparks off Tracy's bemused chauvinism. The verdict might be a victory for Hepburn, but the real winner is an underlying love and respect which made this partnership one of the all time greats. On the DVD: Adam's Rib is presented in standard 4:3 format from a decent print, with a picture quality and mono soundtrack to please anyone who knows the film primarily from TV matinees. [+]
The lack of extras, apart from a scene index, is disappointing for a film of this stature. -Piers Ford.

Review Warner Bros / Escape to Victory
Release date: 2006-10-23
RRP: £13.99
Price: £5.97

Review Escape to Victory / Warner Bros:

A group of P. O. W. s at a German prison camp agree to compete against Nazi soccer players in this World War II drama set in 1943 Occupied Europe. German Major Karl von Steiner, who played soccer professionally before the war, comes up with the idea. When his superior officers find out about the competition, they pit the Allies against Germany's best team-but they don't realize that the P. O. W. s plan to use the upcoming big game as a means of escaping. The Allied team includes John Colby, a British officer who also played soccer before the war, and Robert Hatch, an American soldier who cares far more about gaining his freedom than the game itself. [+]
When the P. O. W. s realize they have a good shot at beating the Nazi team in front of a huge crowd, they must decide what's more important: finishing the match or getting out alive.

Review Warner Home Video / Tom And Jerry - Classic Collection - Vol. 2
Actors & Directors
  • Tom And Jerry
Release date: 2004-05-03
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.98

Review Tom And Jerry - Classic Collection - Vol. 2 / Warner Home Video:

The second DVD in the collector's edition series features classic cartoons capers from the world's most famous cat and mouse duo, taking us in chronological order up to the 1950s episode entitled 'Safety Second'. This collection also includes the famous Oscar-winning installment 'The Cat Concerto', which sees Tom and Jerry turn a concert performance of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody into a pitched battle on the piano.

Review ITV DVD / The Wicked Lady [1945]
Actors & Directors
  • Patricia Roc
  • Griffith Jones
  • James Mason
  • Michael Rennie
  • Leslie Arliss
  • Margaret Lockwood
Release date: 2004-03-15
Run time: 99 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £4.76

Review The Wicked Lady [1945] / ITV DVD:

An extraordinarily racy movie for its time, The Wicked Lady was and still is as notable for its acres of heaving bosom as for its radical challenge to female stereotypes. This bodice-ripper about a bored aristocratic woman who turns highwayman just for kicks became a huge box-office success in post-war Britain, but Margaret Lockwood's eloquent bust proved a bit too expressive for Hollywood, so the film was expensively reshot for a sanitised US release. (From 1945 right up to Janet Jackson at the 2004 Superbowl, American audiences apparently have an enduring problem with those prominent parts of the female anatomy). This is the definitive Gainsborough picture, a period romp crammed with cads, in which the camera gazes lasciviously down (it's all shot from a male eyelevel) at the low-cut ladies' dresses. But this time the female anti-heroine gives as good as she gets. and then some. Lockwood's Lady Barbara Skelton is quite gleefully amoral-more so even than Thackeray's arch-manipulator Becky Sharp from Vanity Fair-failing even to pay lip service to the moral standards of the 1940s, let alone those of the 17th century. It is she who wears the trousers (quite literally, in her highwayman guise) while the weak-chinned and weak-willed men around her crumble under the weight of their conventionality. [+]
Only James Mason's handsome dandy highwayman can keep up with her, but even he has to draw the line somewhere. Ultimately, social mores reassert their grip and Lady Barbara gets her comeuppance, but not before she's overturned every contemporary movie convention about femininity. "She was the wickedest woman ever seen on the screen", trumpets the original theatrical trailer on this otherwise bare-bones DVD release: it's still probably true even today. -Mark Walker.

Review Starz Home Entertainment / Mario Bava Collection [1960]
Actors & Directors
  • Mario Bava
Release date: 2007-10-01
Run time: 432 min.
RRP: £34.99
Price: £12.98

Review Mario Bava Collection [1960] / Starz Home Entertainment:


Review Bfi Video / The Red Desert [1964]
Actors & Directors
  • Richard Harris
  • Monica Vitti
  • Michelangelo Antonioni
Release date: 2008-10-20
Run time: 112 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £12.98

Review The Red Desert [1964] / Bfi Video:


Review Second Sight Films Ltd. / Madame De... [1953]
Actors & Directors
  • Danielle Darrieux
  • Charles Boyer
  • Jean Debucourt
  • Max Ophüls
  • Jean Galland
  • Vittorio De Sica
Release date: 2006-09-18
Run time: 96 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £5.91

Review Madame De... [1953] / Second Sight Films Ltd.:


Review Universal Pictures UK / The Magnificent Ambersons [1942]
Actors & Directors
  • Tim Holt
  • Orson Welles (Director)
  • Anne Baxter
  • Agnes Moorehead
  • Delores Costello
  • Joseph Cotten
Release date: 2006-05-29
Run time: 84 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £4.98

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 Warner Home Video / A Streetcar Named Desire (2 disc edition) [1951]
Actors & Directors
  • Wright King
  • Marlon Brando
  • Vivien Leigh
  • Kim Hunter
  • Karl Malden
Release date: 2006-05-08
Run time: 119 min.
RRP: £20.99
Price: £7.47

Review A Streetcar Named Desire (2 disc edition) [1951] / Warner Home Video:


Review Universal Pictures Video / She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (John Wayne) [1949]
Actors & Directors
  • Ben Johnson
  • John Ford
  • John Agar
  • Harry Carey Jr.
  • Joanne Dru
  • John Wayne
Release date: 2006-06-05
Run time: 99 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £0.45

Review She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (John Wayne) [1949] / Universal Pictures Video:

The second installment of John Ford's famous cavalry trilogy (which also includes Fort Apache and Rio Grande), this meditative Western continues the director's fascination with history's obliteration of the past. It features one of John Wayne's more sensitive performances as Capt. Nathan Brittles, a stern yet sentimental war horse who has difficulty preparing for his impending military retirement. All things considered, he refuses to leave before fulfilling his obligation to the local Indian tribe. It's a film about honor and duty as well as loneliness and mortality. And Oscar-winner Winton C. Hoch beautifully photographs it in Remington-like Technicolor tones (you've never seen such stunning cloud-covered skies). The combination of melancholy and farce (Victor McLaglen makes a perfect court jester) evokes comparisons to Shakespeare. Best of all, the scene in which Wayne fights back tears when receiving a gold watch from his troops is unforgettably bittersweet. If you view the whole trilogy, it actually makes sense to save this for last. [+]
-Bill Desowitz.

Review ITV DVD / A Tale Of Two Cities [1958]
Actors & Directors
  • Paul Guers
  • Ian Bannen
  • Dirk Bogarde
  • Ralph Thomas
  • Marie Versini
  • Dorothy Tutin
Release date: 2002-02-18
Run time: 137 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £1.77

Review A Tale Of Two Cities [1958] / ITV DVD:


Review Warner Home Video / Charlie Chaplin - Gold Rush [1925]
Actors & Directors
  • Georgia Hale
  • Tom Murray
  • Charles Chaplin
  • Henry Bergman
  • Mack Swain
Release date: 2003-09-22
Run time: 69 min.
RRP: £13.99
Price: £5.77

Review Charlie Chaplin - Gold Rush [1925] / Warner Home Video:

Chaplin's personal favourite among his own films, The Gold Rush embodies all the trademarks of his mix of slapstick, satire, social commentary and sentiment-a perfect showcase for his ever-popular Little Tramp. Set during the Klondike Gold Rush in 1898, the film features a comic reworking of the gruesome Donner Party story, where a group of snowbound immigrants resorted to eating their clothes and then each other to stay alive. It opens with a grand shot of gold prospectors snaking up the side of a mountain. We then see the Tramp, typically estranged from the rest of the group, making his own way across the snow. Seeking shelter in a blizzard, he finds the cabin of the dangerous criminal Black Larson (Tom Murray) and when another prospector, Big Jim McKay (Mack Swain), comes along, the two of them take charge of the cabin and eventually drive him out. Starving on Thanksgiving, the pair decide to dine in style when the Tramp cooks one of his shoes, famously acting as if he's cooking a fine piece of meat; twirling the laces up like spaghetti and savouring every last nibble. When he finally escapes, the Tramp ends up in a local town and falls in love, only to be rebuffed on New Year's Eve. When a chance meeting reunites him with Big Jim, the two go back in search of gold hidden near the cabin. Despite its unlikely origins, the story is shaped into a classic comedy containing many famous set-pieces, including the cabin teetering on the edge of a cliff and the Tramp morphing into a chicken before the starving Big Jim. Ultimately it's Chaplin's endearing and amusing persona that makes this material genuinely enduring. [+]
On the DVD The Gold Rush comes to DVD in a decent transfer with good mono sound and the option of Dolby Digital 5. 1. The second disc of bonus features opens with an introduction by David Robinson, who chronicles Chaplin's work on the film, which was interrupted when his clandestine affair with his 15-year-old leading lady meant that, due to her becoming pregnant, the filming had to close for a few months while a new female lead was found. The original 1925 version of the film, before Chaplin updated it with the addition of sound in 1942, appears in full. The Chaplin Today documentary illustrates the influence of the film on director Idrissa Ouedraogo from Burkina Faso, whose own work follows similar themes, as well as going behind the scenes on the original production. Trailers, posters and stills round off this worthy addition to the Chaplin Collection. -Laura Bushell.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / All That Jazz [1979]
Actors & Directors
  • Leland Palmer
  • Bob Fosse
  • Cliff Gorman
  • Jessica Lange
  • Roy Scheider
  • Ann Reinking
Release date: 2003-06-30
Run time: 118 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £2.96

Review All That Jazz [1979] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

Choreographer-turned-director Bob Fosse turns the camera on himself in All That Jazz, a nervy, sometimes unnerving 1979 feature, a nakedly autobiographical piece that veers from gritty drama to razzle-dazzle musical, allegory to satire. It's an indication of his bravura, and possibly his self-absorption, that Fosse (who also co-wrote the script) literally opens alter ego Joe Gideon's heart in a key scene-an unflinching glimpse of cardiac surgery, shot during an actual open-heart procedure. Roy Scheider makes a brave and largely successful leap out of his usual romantic lead roles to step into Gideon's dancing pumps and supplies a plausible sketch of an extravagant, self-destructive, self-loathing creative dynamo, while Jessica Lange serves as a largely allegorical Muse, one of the various women that the philandering Gideon pursues (and usually abandons). Gideon's other romantic partners include Fosse's own protégé (and a major keeper of his choreographic style since his death) Ann Reinking, whose leggy grace is seductive both "onstage" and off. Fosse/Gideon's collision course with mortality, as well as his priapic obsession with the opposite sex, may offer insights into the libidinal core of the choreographer's dynamic, sexualised style of dance, but musical aficionados will be forgiven for fast-forwarding to cut out the self-analysis and focus on the music, period. At its best-as in the knockout opening, scored to George Benson's strutting version of "On Broadway", which fuses music, dance and dazzling camera work into a paean to Fosse's hoofer nation-All That Jazz offers a sequence of classic Fosse numbers-hard-edged, caustic and joyously physical. -Sam Sutherland.

Review ITV DVD / Carry On Doctor [1967]
Actors & Directors
  • Kenneth Williams
  • Sid James
  • Gerald Thomas
  • Jim Dale
  • Charles Hawtrey
  • Frankie Howerd
Release date: 2003-02-17
Run time: 91 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £2.82

Review Carry On Doctor [1967] / ITV DVD:

Bedpan humour rules in Carry On Doctor, the vintage 1968 offering from gang, assisted by guest star Frankie Howerd as bogus faith healer Francis Bigger. Hospitals, of course, always provided the Carry On producers with plenty of material. Today, these comedies induce a twinge of serious nostalgia for the great days of the National Health Service when Matron (Hattie Jacques, naturally) ran the hospital as if it was a house of correction, medical professionals were idolised as if they were all Doctor Kildare and Accident and Emergency Departments were deserted oases of calm. But even if you aren't interested in a history lesson, Talbot Rothwell's script contains some immortal dialogue, particularly when Matron loosens her stays. "You may not realise it but I was once a weak man", says Kenneth Williams' terrified Doctor Tinkle to Hattie Jacques. "Once a week's enough for any man", she purrs back. Other highlights include Joan Sims, excellent as Frankie Howerd's deaf, bespectacled sidekick, Charles Hawtrey suffering from a phantom pregnancy, 1960s singer Anita Harris in a rare film role, and Barbara Windsor at her most irrepressible as nurse Sandra May. -Piers Ford.

Review Walt Disney Home Video / The Sword In The Stone [1963]
Actors & Directors
  • Ginny Tyler
  • Rickie Sorensen
  • Wolfgang Reitherman
  • Junius Matthews
  • Sebastian Cabot
  • Karl Swenson
Release date: 2002-06-03
Run time: 76 min.
RRP: £17.99
Price: £7.85

Review The Sword In The Stone [1963] / Walt Disney Home Video:

As far as Disney is concerned, The Sword in the Stone was a portent of things to come, with slapstick upstaging storytelling, and cultural in-jokes substituting for wonder. Based on TH White's beloved novel The Once and Future King, this Disney version chronicles King Arthur's boyish adventures. There's much to enjoy here as coach Merlin the magician shows the young Arthur, nicknamed Wart, the skills that will help him become the future ruler of the Britons. The transformation sequences, where the boy is turned into a fish, a bird and a squirrel are vintage Disney. The oft-repeated scene of Merlin battling it out with mean old Madame Mim still is worth a few chuckles, but it underlines the problem with most of the film-most of its scenes are only played for laughs. References by Merlin to television and other items of modern life also mar the generally innocuous landscape. Younger children will like it, while older kids will find it slower compared with recent Disney films. -Keith Simanton, Amazon. com.

Browse Classics:

Models & Brands:
Gunfight At The Ok Corral [1957], The Law and Jake Wade [1958] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Nearest And Dearest - The Complete Series Collection [1968], Hell Is For Heroes [1962], Judgement At Nuremberg [1961], Adam's Rib [1949], Escape to Victory, Tom And Jerry - Classic Collection - Vol. 2, The Wicked Lady [1945], Mario Bava Collection [1960], The Red Desert [1964], Madame De... [1953], The Magnificent Ambersons [1942], A Streetcar Named Desire (2 disc edition) [1951], She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (John Wayne) [1949], A Tale Of Two Cities [1958], Charlie Chaplin - Gold Rush [1925], All That Jazz [1979], Carry On Doctor [1967], The Sword In The Stone [1963]

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