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Review Universal Pictures UK / Road To Utopia [1946]
Actors & Directors
  • Hal Walker
  • Bing Crosby
  • Bob Hope
  • Dorothy Lamour
Release date: 2005-01-10
Run time: 86 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £2.98

Review Road To Utopia [1946] / Universal Pictures UK:

I feel sorry for people who can't appreciate Hope and Crosby "road" pictures. This is the fourth in the series, and has the boys masquerading as the killers Sperry and McGurk, from whom they've stolen the map to a gold mine, but which really belongs to Dorothy Lamour, but which. and you know it really doesn't matter anyway. The point is they've got this thin plot on which to hang a series of hit-and-miss jokes, coming fast enough to make it just all right and a certain amount of time to see who gets Dorothy Lamour, while maintaining their fierce and friendly and wisecracking rivalry. They're in the Klondike this time around, which doesn't stop the film from working in a glimpse of Dorothy in her sarong. Along the way, animals talk, including the humourist Robert Benchley, whose thoroughly dispensable introduction and running commentary I wouldn't dispense with for anything. This is arguably the goofiest of the road pictures. My favorite joke is when Bob is bested in fishing with Bing. [+]
Bob remarks, "My worm must have B. O. " Bing comes back with "Couldn't B. U. " You may not care where you're going, just as long as you're with them. Put it there, pal, put it there. -Jim Gay.

Review Universal Pictures UK / Crossfire [1947]
Actors & Directors
  • Robert Young
  • Robert Ryan
  • Edward Dmytryk
  • Gloria Grahame
  • Robert Mitchum
Release date: 2007-02-12
Run time: 82 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £4.29

Review Crossfire [1947] / Universal Pictures UK:

Crossfire was nominated for the 1947 Best Picture Oscar won by Gentleman's Agreement. Gentlemen may propose, if not agree, that Crossfire was better. Like its upscale rival, the film noir raises the specter of anti-Semitism in America: just after World War II, an affable Jew (Sam Levene) is beaten to death by one of several GIs out "crawling. " Solving the crime takes all night, but for the audience the killer's identity is scarcely in doubt; Robert Ryan's chilling study in psychopathic bigotry scored him his lone Oscar nomination. He's nearly matched in creepiness by Paul Kelly as an odd nightbird married to sultry Gloria Grahame. Two other worthy Roberts-Young and Mitchum-respectively play the police detective and the Army sergeant wondering which of his guys is a murderer. Incidentally, the hot button in the Richard Brooks novel was not anti-Semitism but homophobia-a sweaty subtext in Edward Dmytryk's film. -Richard T. Jameson.

Review Victory at Sea / Victory at Sea [4 Disc Box Set] [1952]
Release date: 2008-10-06
Run time: 660 min.
RRP: £29.99
Price: £13.99

Review Victory at Sea [4 Disc Box Set] [1952] / Victory at Sea:


Review Metro Goldwyn Mayer DY 17249.1 / The Charge Of The Light Brigade [1968] [Dutch Import]
Actors & Directors
  • Tony Richardson
  • Harry Andrews
  • Trevor Howard
  • Jill Bennett
  • John Gielgud
  • Vanessa Redgrave
Run time: 133 min.
Price: £8.47

Review The Charge Of The Light Brigade [1968] [Dutch Import] / Metro Goldwyn Mayer DY 17249.1:

PLOT SUMMARY: A chronicle of events that led to the British involvement in the Crimean War against Russia and which led to the siege of Sevastopol and the fierce Battle of Balaclava on October 25, 1854 which climaxed with the heroic, but near-disastrous calvary charge made by the British Light Brigade against a Russian artillery battery in a small valley which resulted in the near-destruction of the brigade due to error of judgement and rash planning on part by the inept British commanders (written by Matthew Patay). ABOUT THE DVD: This is a MGM release of the film for the NETHERLANDS market (Region 2 PAL format, same as the UK, so will play on all standard DVD players in this country without problem). Some of the text on the rear of the packaging is in Dutch. The audio is the original English (there are also Dutch, Spanish, French, Italian and German options), and subtitles are available in English, Dutch, German, Spanish and French. The film is presented in 2. 35:1 widescreen and runs for a total of 133 minutes.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Another Time, Another Place [1958]
Actors & Directors
  • Glynis Johns
  • Barry Sullivan
  • Lewis Allen
  • Lana Turner
  • Sid James
  • Sean Connery
Release date: 2005-09-12
Run time: 92 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £2.70

Review Another Time, Another Place [1958] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Review Momentum Pictures / The Graduate [1967]
Actors & Directors
  • Dustin Hoffman
  • Murray Hamilton
  • Mike Nichols
  • William Daniels
  • Katharine Ross
  • Anne Bancroft
Release date: 2001-03-26
Run time: 101 min.
Creator: Charles Webb
RRP: £17.99
Price: £4.49

Review The Graduate [1967] / Momentum Pictures:

Few films have defined a generation as The Graduate did. The alienation, the non-conformity, the intergenerational romance, the blissful Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack-they all served to lob a cultural grenade smack into the middle of 1967 America, ultimately making the film the third most profitable up to that time. Seen from a later perspective, its radical chic has dimmed a bit, yet it's still a joy to see Dustin Hoffman's bemused Benjamin and Anne Bancroft's deliciously decadent, sardonic Mrs. Robinson. The script by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham is still offbeat and dryly funny, and Mike Nichols, who won an Oscar for his direction, has just the right, light touch. -Anne Hurley, Amazon. com.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Desk Set [1957]
Actors & Directors
  • Spencer Tracy
  • Walter Lang
  • Dina Merrill
  • Katharine Hepburn
  • Gig Young
  • Joan Blondell
Release date: 2005-08-01
Run time: 99 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.92

Review Desk Set [1957] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / The Ten Commandments [1957]
Actors & Directors
  • Cecil B. De Mille
  • Debra Paget
  • Nina Foch
  • Cedric Hardwicke
  • Anne Baxter
  • Martha Scott
Release date: 2006-11-27
Run time: 220 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £8.99

Review The Ten Commandments [1957] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Review Universal Pictures UK / The Lady Eve [1941]
Actors & Directors
  • Eugene Pallette
  • Barbara Stanwyck
  • William Demarest
  • Henry Fonda
  • Preston Sturges
  • Charles Coburn
Release date: 2006-10-02
Run time: 94 min.
Creator: Monckton Hoffe
RRP: £9.99
Price: £1.99

Review The Lady Eve [1941] / Universal Pictures UK:

In 1941, Barbara Stanwyck was offered two screwball roles equally suited to her tart intelligence, deft comic timing, and undeniable sex appeal, and it's a photo finish as to which was funnier-showgirl-on-the-lam Sugarpuss O'Shea, the title character in Howard Hawks's Ball of Fire, or con artist Jean Harrington a. k. a. Lady Eve Sidwich, the delirious fulcrum for this classic Preston Sturges comedy. Under Sturges's typically antic microscope, the collision between the gold-digging Harrington and the very rich, very hapless brewery-heir-turned-herpetologist Charles Pike (a wonderfully callow, guileless Henry Fonda) yields ample opportunity for the writer-director to skewer issues of class and sex; as always, Sturges is bold in pushing the censors' envelope, capturing a palpable erotic heat between the canny Jean and the literally feverish Charlie, who, after a year up the Amazon, is instantly smitten by the mere sight of her shapely ankles (in hindsight, a precursor to her subsequent effect in Double Indemnity). To give away the plot machinations driving the farce would spoil the fun, beyond confirming impersonations, mixed signals, and misunderstandings as the turns in a consistently rollicking ride that makes good use of Charles Coburn and screwball character veterans Eugene Pallette, William Demarest, and Eric Blore. -Sam Sutherland.

Review DD Home Entertainment / Millions Like Us [1943]
Actors & Directors
  • Anne Crawford
  • Frank Launder
  • Gordon Jackson
  • Patricia Roc
  • Basil Radford
  • Sidney Gilliat
  • Naunton Wayne
Release date: 2004-01-26
Run time: 98 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £8.45

Review Millions Like Us [1943] / DD Home Entertainment:


Review Warner Home Video / Rebel Without A Cause (Special Edition) [1955]
Actors & Directors
  • Nicholas Ray
  • Sal Mineo
  • James Dean
  • Natalie Wood
  • Jim Backus
  • Ann Doran
Release date: 2005-06-06
Run time: 106 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.29

Review Rebel Without A Cause (Special Edition) [1955] / Warner Home Video:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Cape Fear [1961]
Actors & Directors
  • Gregory Peck
  • J. Lee Thompson
  • Robert Mitchum
  • Polly Bergen
  • Martin Balsam
Release date: 2008-05-05
Run time: 101 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £4.21

Review Cape Fear [1961] / Universal Pictures UK:

Superior to Martin Scorsese's punishing 1991 remake, this 1962 thriller directed by J. Lee Thompson (The Guns of Navarone) stars Robert Mitchum as a creepy ex-con angry at the attorney (Gregory Peck) whom he believes is responsible for his incarceration. After Mitchum makes clear his plans to harm Peck's family, a fascinating game of crisscrossing ethics and morality takes place. Where the more recent version seemed trapped in its explicitness, Thompson's film accomplishes a lot with a more economical and telling use of violence. The result is a richer character study with some Hitchcockian overtones regarding the nature of guilt. -Tom Keogh.

Review MGM Entertainment / The Pride And The Passion [1957]
Actors & Directors
  • John Wengraf
  • Sophia Loren
  • Theodore Bikel
  • Cary Grant
  • Stanley Kramer
  • Frank Sinatra
Release date: 2004-04-05
Run time: 130 min.
Creator: Edward Anhalt
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.07

Review The Pride And The Passion [1957] / MGM Entertainment:


Review Optimum Home Entertainment / Saraband For Dead Lovers [1948]
Actors & Directors
  • Flora Robson
  • Frederick Valk
  • Joan Greenwood
  • Françoise Rosay
  • Stewart Granger
  • Basil Dearden
Release date: 2007-05-07
Run time: 92 min.
Creator: John Dighton
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.71

Review Saraband For Dead Lovers [1948] / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review ITV DVD / Early Bird, The / Press For Time [1965]
Actors & Directors
  • Robert Asher
  • Paddie O'Neil
  • Jerry Desmonde
  • Bryan Pringle
  • Norman Wisdom
  • Edward Chapman
Release date: 2003-05-12
Run time: 191 min.
Creator: Jack Davies
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.50

Review Early Bird, The / Press For Time [1965] / ITV DVD:

Norman Wisdom reprises his best-loved character, the comically inept Pitkin, in 1965's The Early Bird, ably supported once again by Edward Chapman in his final appearance as Mr Grimsdale. This time around Wisdom is the only milkman working for Grimsdale's Dairy, a small business threatened by a menacing large corporation in the shape of Consolidated Dairies and their electric milk floats. Grimsdale and Pitkin must evoke the Dunkirk spirit to save their family firm from the grasp of the faceless giant. Of course, the wafer-thin plot is the merest excuse for a series of calamitous set pieces in which Wisdom wreaks havoc in his trademark bumbling manner. The best bits involve a disastrous game of golf, the usual shenanigans with a fire hose and a virtuoso tour de force opening sequence as the household struggles to wake up in the morning, all set to Ron Goodwin's tongue-in-cheek music score. -Mark Walker In Press for Time Norman Wisdom offered his version of the crusading reporter movie, though by 1966 time was running out for Norman's style of big-screen comedy. Perhaps a sign of his growing frustration with the formulaic nature of his pictures was that he stretched himself to play not just his usual underdog hero, but also his own mother and his grandfather, the Prime Minister. Wisdom also cowrote the movie in which, as a reporter in a small seaside town, he causes chaos for the council, organises a beauty parade and dresses as a suffragette. Though now nearing the end of his years as a movie star, Wisdom shows himself to still be as polished as ever at his own brand of good-natured slapstick. -Gary S Dalkin.

Review Arrow Films / Miracle In Milan [1950]
Actors & Directors
  • Francesco Golisano
  • Brunella Bovo
  • Vittorio De Sica
  • Emma Gramatica
  • Guglielmo Barnabo
Release date: 2006-02-20
Run time: 92 min.
RRP: £17.99
Price: £4.75

Review Miracle In Milan [1950] / Arrow Films:


Review Warner Home Video Y10802 / Captain Horatio Hornblower [1951] (REGION 2) (PAL) [Dutch Import]
Actors & Directors
  • Robert Beatty
  • Stanley Baker
  • James Robertson Justice
  • Virginia Mayo
  • Gregory Peck
  • Raoul Walsh
Run time: 112 min.
Price: £9.03

Review Captain Horatio Hornblower [1951] (REGION 2) (PAL) [Dutch Import] / Warner Home Video Y10802:

In 1807, unflappable Capt. Hornblower of the British Navy is sent on a secret mission to divert Napoleon's Spanish allies by sponsoring a megalomaniac's Central American revolution. After a hard voyage, unexpected complications force Hornblower to revise his plans. and play reluctant host to the beautiful sister of the Duke of Wellington. Sea-battles, remarkable adventures, and a star-crossed romantic interlude follow.

Review Orbit Media Ltd. / Ten Little Indians [1965]
Actors & Directors
  • Shirley Eaton
  • George Pollock
  • Hugh O'Brian
Release date: 2008-05-05
Run time: 93 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £8.10

Review Ten Little Indians [1965] / Orbit Media Ltd.:


Review Sony Bmg / Elvis Presley - '68 Comeback Special [Deluxe Edition] [1968]
Actors & Directors
  • Elvis Presley
Release date: 2004-07-05
Run time: 440 min.
RRP: £28.99
Price: £28.88

Review Elvis Presley - '68 Comeback Special [Deluxe Edition] [1968] / Sony Bmg:

Elvis: '68 Comeback Special shows how, isolated from his original audience after a long sojourn on Hollywood soundstages, and threatened by the vibrancy and social gravity of rock, the King sought to reclaim his throne. This was filmed five years before he achieved broadcast history with his legendary 1973 global satellite telecast, Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii, but more than three decades later, it's Comeback Special that looms as the Memphis icon's most substantial achievement as a stage performer. If the candy-coloured sets and hyperactive choreography of its larger production numbers smack of its network packagers' desperation to be hip, Elvis himself rises to a riveting, assured performance at the peak of his powers. Looking fit and relaxed, and sheathed in black leather, Elvis covers a shrewd song list encompassing early rockabilly hits, gospel (rendered unintentionally hilarious by its florid dance routines) and comparatively restrained ballads. Standout performances include two intimate stage sets that put him literally within his fans' reach, most strikingly in a brief reunion with four of his earliest bandmates (including guitarist Scotty Moore and drummer DJ Fontana). The latter segment is only a brief sample of a session posthumously released on video as One Night with You, which is, if anything, even better than this terrific portrait of a towering American artist. -Sam Sutherland.

Review Odeon Entertainment / Light Up The Sky [1960]
Actors & Directors
  • Victor Maddern
  • Lewis Gilbert
  • Sidney Tafler
  • Tommy Steele
  • Benny Hill
  • Ian Carmichael
Release date: 2007-10-15
Run time: 90 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £6.71

Review Light Up The Sky [1960] / Odeon Entertainment:


Browse Classics:

Models & Brands:
Road To Utopia [1946], Crossfire [1947], Victory at Sea [4 Disc Box Set] [1952], The Charge Of The Light Brigade [1968] [Dutch Import], Another Time, Another Place [1958], The Graduate [1967], Desk Set [1957], The Ten Commandments [1957], The Lady Eve [1941], Millions Like Us [1943], Rebel Without A Cause (Special Edition) [1955], Cape Fear [1961], The Pride And The Passion [1957], Saraband For Dead Lovers [1948], Early Bird, The / Press For Time [1965], Miracle In Milan [1950], Captain Horatio Hornblower [1951] (REGION 2) (PAL) [Dutch Import], Ten Little Indians [1965], Elvis Presley - '68 Comeback Special [Deluxe Edition] [1968], Light Up The Sky [1960]

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