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Review Eureka Entertainment / Laurel And Hardy - March Of The Wooden Soldiers [1934] [DVD]
Actors & Directors
  • Henry Brandon
  • Gus Meins
  • Stan Laurel
  • Charlotte Henry
  • Oliver Hardy
  • Felix Knight
  • Charley Rogers
Release date: 2002-10-21
Run time: 77 min.
Creator: Victor Herbert
RRP: £5.99
Price: £4.33

Review Laurel And Hardy - March Of The Wooden Soldiers [1934] [DVD] / Eureka Entertainment:

The most lavish feature built around Laurel and Hardy, 1934's March of the Wooden Soldiers is also the most bizarre. Opening unpromisingly with one of several mawkish numbers derived from Victor Herbert's musical Babes in Toyland, the antics of toyshop labourers Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee are worked into a scenario midway between Lewis Carroll and The Brothers Grimm. Nursery-rhyme characters come and go in a surreal fantasy, with the evil Mr Barnaby threatening to evict Widow Peep from her shoe unless he receives her daughter Bo in marriage. The movie culminates in a full-scale invasion of Toyland by the yeti-ish Bogeymen and their defeat by the 100 six-foot wooden soldiers that Stan and Ollie have built by mistake. Henry Brandon gives a characterful performance, while 1930s child star Charlotte Henry is an appealing heroine. Directors Gus Meins and Charles R Rogers milk the slapstick to an increasingly unnerving degree. Reputedly Hardy's favourite among the double act's features, March of the Wooden Soldiers emerges now as their most audacious screen appearance. On the DVD: March of the Wooden Soldiers on disc reproduces the original black and white print in 4:3 ratio with pristine clarity; the mono soundtrack has similarly worn well. The potted biographies of Laurel and Hardy are too brief to be worthwhile, but the inclusion of the 1915 short Hustling for Health-among the earliest of Stan Laurel's film appearances-is a valuable bonus. -Richard Whitehouse.

Review Warner Home Video / Gentleman Jim [DVD] [1942] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actors & Directors
  • Alexis Smith
  • Raoul Walsh
  • Del Frazier
  • Mel Blanc
  • Jane Wyman
  • Errol Flynn
  • Friz Freleng
  • Ronald Reagan
Release date: 2007-03-27
Run time: 104 min.
Creator: Michael Maltese
Price: £7.81

Review Gentleman Jim [DVD] [1942] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] / Warner Home Video:


Review Umbrella Entertainment / Black Orpheus [DVD]
Actors & Directors
  • Marpessa Dawn
  • Léa Garcia
  • Lourdes de Oliveira
  • Marcel Camus
  • Marcel Camus
  • Breno Mello
Release date: 2004-04-21
Run time: 107 min.
Creator: Vinicius de Moraes
RRP: £10.60
Price: £5.16

Review Black Orpheus [DVD] / Umbrella Entertainment:

Marcel Camus's 1959 update of the Greek myth features an all-black cast and a story set in the frenetic energy of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. Orpheus, a trolley car conductor and superb samba dancer, is engaged to Mira but in love with Eurydice. For his change of heart, Orpheus and his new doomed lover are pursued by a vengeful Mira and a determined Death through the feverish Carnival night. Camus at once demystifies and remystifies the old story, shifting not only its location but its tone and context, forcing a re-evaluation of the legend as a more passionate, pulsing, sensual experience. The film is really one-of-a-kind, an absolute whirl that barely needs words. -Tom Keogh, Amazon. com.

Review Columbia TriStar / Bye Bye Birdie [DVD] [1963] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actors & Directors
  • Maureen Stapleton
  • Janet Leigh
  • Dick Van Dyke
  • Bobby Rydell
  • George Sidney
  • Ann-Margret
Release date: 1999-07-27
Run time: 112 min.
Creator: Irving Brecher
Price: £5.46

Review Bye Bye Birdie [DVD] [1963] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] / Columbia TriStar:


Review ITV DVD / Bulldog Breed, The / One Good Turn [DVD] [1960]
Actors & Directors
  • John Paddy Carstairs
  • Robert Asher
  • Ian Hunter
  • David Lodge
  • Robert Urquhart
  • Norman Wisdom
  • Edward Chapman
Release date: 2003-05-12
Run time: 184 min.
Creator: Ian Hunter
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.47

Review Bulldog Breed, The / One Good Turn [DVD] [1960] / ITV DVD:

In 1960, Norman Wisdom was left all at sea in The Bulldog Breed. He had already made a farce of the army in The Square Peg (1958), so what better than to join the navy? Back in the real world, the Russians had kick-started the space race putting Sputnik into orbit, so Norman rapidly finds himself selected to be the first Brit in space. Playing to type, the result is excellent physical comedy and copious tomfoolery at the expense of the upper ranks. With support from John Le Mesurier and Edward Chapman (the legendary "Mr Grimsdale") and uncredited appearances from Oliver Reed and Michael Caine, this is a notable British comedy, with an unusually direct reference to the risqué Carry On movies. For his second starring role Norman Wisdom played the oldest orphan of Greenwood Children's Home in 1954's One Good Turn. Not only does he have to find the money to buy one of the orphans a model car, but after a visit to Brighton he discovers Greenwood is due to be closed down by the home's own unscrupulous chairman, a property developer with plans to build a factory on the site. Also starring Thora Hird, One Good Turn was surely a film with a personal resonance for Wisdom who was himself brought-up in an orphanage after his mother died and his father was unable to raise him. As would become a tradition, he contributes a song, "Please Opportunity", and the movie, though produced by Rank, now sits easily in that classic Ealing era where the ordinary man took on the big guys and won. The innocent knockabout humour remains appealing. -Gary S Dalkin.

Review Warner Home Video / Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol. 1 [DVD] [1933] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actors & Directors
  • Alfred E. Green
  • George Brent
  • Chester Morris
  • Lewis Stone
  • James Whale
  • Jack Conway
  • Barbara Stanwyck
  • Jean Harlow
Release date: 2006-12-05
Run time: 308 min.
Creator: Gene Markey
Price: £18.90

Review Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol. 1 [DVD] [1933] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] / Warner Home Video:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Hello Dolly [VHS] [1969]
Actors & Directors
  • Michael Crawford
  • Barbra Streisand
  • Gene Kelly
  • Walter Matthau
  • Danny Lockin
  • Marianne McAndrew
Release date: 2000-03-13
Run time: 139 min.
Creator: Thornton Wilder
RRP: £9.99
Price: £3.98

Review Hello Dolly [VHS] [1969] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Criterion / Simon of the Desert [DVD] [1965] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actors & Directors
  • Francisco Reiguera
  • Enrique Álvarez Félix
  • Silvia Pinal
  • Luis Buñuel
  • Hortensia Santoveña
  • Claudio Brook
Release date: 2009-02-10
Run time: 40 min.
Creator: Julio Alejandro
Price: £11.35

Review Simon of the Desert [DVD] [1965] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] / Criterion:


Review Warner Home Video / I'll See You in My Dreams [DVD] [1951] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actors & Directors
  • Danny Thomas
  • Patrice Wymore
  • Frank Lovejoy
  • Michael Curtiz
  • James Gleason
  • Doris Day
Release date: 2007-04-10
Run time: 110 min.
Creator: Melville Shavelson
Price: £8.40

Review I'll See You in My Dreams [DVD] [1951] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] / Warner Home Video:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Bright Eyes [DVD] [1934]
Actors & Directors
  • Shirley Temple
  • David Butler
Release date: 2006-10-02
Run time: 81 min.
Creator: Shirley Temple
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.69

Review Bright Eyes [DVD] [1934] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Warner Home Video / Charlie Chaplin - Gold Rush [DVD] [1925]
Actors & Directors
  • Charles Chaplin
  • Tom Murray
  • Mack Swain
  • Henry Bergman
  • Georgia Hale
Release date: 2003-09-22
Run time: 69 min.
Creator: Georgia Hale
RRP: £13.99
Price: £8.39

Review Charlie Chaplin - Gold Rush [DVD] [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 Warner Home Video / Presenting Lily Mars [DVD] [1943] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actors & Directors
  • Mary Elliott
  • Josef Berne
  • Fritz Feld
  • Fred Brady
  • Tex Avery
  • Steven Geray
  • Norman Taurog
  • Eric Blore
Release date: 2006-12-19
Run time: 104 min.
Creator: Gladys Lehman
Price: £8.11

Review Presenting Lily Mars [DVD] [1943] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] / Warner Home Video:


Review United Artists / If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium [DVD] [1969] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actors & Directors
  • Senta Berger
  • Marina Berti
  • Pamela Britton
  • Sandy Baron
  • Mario Carotenuto
  • Mel Stuart
Release date: 2008-05-20
Run time: 98 min.
Creator: David Saxon
Price: £8.96

Review If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium [DVD] [1969] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] / United Artists:


Review ITV DVD / Doctor In Love [DVD] [1960]
Actors & Directors
  • Virginia Maskell
  • Ralph Thomas
  • Leslie Phillips
  • Michael Craig
  • Carole Lesley
  • James Robertson Justice
Release date: 2003-04-14
Run time: 92 min.
Creator: Richard Gordon
RRP: £9.99
Price: £2.92

Review Doctor In Love [DVD] [1960] / ITV DVD:


Review Universal Pictures UK / My Little Chickadee [DVD] [1940]
Actors & Directors
  • W.C. Fields
  • Edward F. Cline
  • Mae West
  • Joseph Calleia
Release date: 2008-05-05
Run time: 80 min.
Creator: Mae West
RRP: £9.99
Price: £4.01

Review My Little Chickadee [DVD] [1940] / Universal Pictures UK:

West portrays voluptuous Flowerbelle Lee, whose reputation is tarnished when she is seen embracing a masked bandit in her bedroom. Forced to leave town until she can prove she is respectable -and married - Flowerbelle boards a train where she meets incorrigible Guthbert J. Twillie (Fields). Believing he's quite a catch, Flowerbelle accepts Twillie's marriage proposal. The newlyweds stop in the town of Greasewood where Twillie's exaggerated tales of adventures earn him the honor of becoming the sheriff of the town and bartender at 'The Last Gasp' saloon. Mishaps magnify as West continues her flirtatious ways leading to one of the funniest scenes in the film - when the masked bandit visits again and he's not at all who Flowerbelle expects!.

Review Universal Studios / Flower Drum Song [DVD] [1961] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actors & Directors
  • Jack Soo
  • Benson Fong
  • Nancy Kwan
  • Juanita Hall
  • Henry Koster
  • James Shigeta
Release date: 2006-11-07
Run time: 133 min.
Creator: Oscar Hammerstein II
Price: £4.94

Review Flower Drum Song [DVD] [1961] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] / Universal Studios:


Review AG Plate / Laurel & Hardy: Babes In Toyland [March of the Wooden Soldiers] (1934)
Actors & Directors
  • Stanley Laurel
  • Oliver Hardy
Price: £2.98

Review Laurel & Hardy: Babes In Toyland [March of the Wooden Soldiers] (1934) / AG Plate:

Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee do their best to keep Mother Peep from being evicted by the evil Silas Barnaby. When that fails, Bo Peep reluctantly agrees to marry Barnaby to save Mother Peep. Thanks to Stan and Ollie's trickery, the marriage is botched and Mother Peep's overdue mortgage is ripped up. Barnaby takes out his revenge by rounding up the Bogeymen to finish off Toyland. The boys and the Wooden Soldiers come to the rescue and save the day. The film is based on the Victor Herbert operetta of 1903 and includes much of the original score throughout the film. However, the operetta consisted entirely of a musical revue, without an actual story. Of course, this would not play on the big screen. So a plot, involving many of the classic fairy tales characters, was developed specifically for the film.

Review Warner Home Video / A Date with Judy [DVD] [1948] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actors & Directors
  • Elizabeth Taylor
  • Jane Powell
  • Wallace Beery
  • William Hanna
  • Joseph Barbera
  • Carmen Miranda
  • Xavier Cugat
  • Richard Thorpe
Release date: 2008-04-22
Run time: 113 min.
Creator: Joe Pasternak
Price: £7.74

Review A Date with Judy [DVD] [1948] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] / Warner Home Video:


Review Prism Leisure Corporation / What's Up Tiger Lily? [DVD]
Actors & Directors
  • Woody Allen
  • Tatsuya Mihashi
  • Mie Hama
  • John Sebastian
  • Akiko Wakabayashi
  • Senkichi Taniguchi
  • Woody Allen
Release date: 2004-02-02
Run time: 80 min.
Creator: Mickey Rose
RRP: £2.99
Price: £6.95

Review What's Up Tiger Lily? [DVD] / Prism Leisure Corporation:

What better way for writer-star Woody Allen to cash in on the success of What's New Pussycat? than to write a quickie exploitation comedy that makes fun of quickie exploitation films? In What's Up Tiger Lily? his actors dub new dialogue onto a ridiculous Japanese spy extravaganza. Allen's exquisite sense of the absurd is in fine form as espionage professionals pursue a top-secret recipe for egg salad. At one point during the planning of a break-in, a spy unfolds a map of their quarry's residence, explaining that the man "lives here". "He lives on that small piece of paper?" questions one of the henchmen. It's that silly. But it's often uproarious. Louise Lasser, Allen's former wife is among the voice actors. -Jim Emerson, Amazon. com.

Review delta home entertainment / Gary Cooper- Meet John Doe [DVD] [2004]
Actors & Directors
  • Gary Cooper
  • Edward Arnold
  • Frank Capra
  • Walter Brennan
  • Barbara Stanwyck
  • Spring Byington
Release date: 2004-04-19
Run time: 83 min.
Creator: Barbara Stanwyck
RRP: £3.99
Price: £0.99

Review Gary Cooper- Meet John Doe [DVD] [2004] / delta home entertainment:


Models & Brands:
Laurel And Hardy - March Of The Wooden Soldiers [1934] [DVD], Gentleman Jim [DVD] [1942] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], Black Orpheus [DVD], Bye Bye Birdie [DVD] [1963] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], Bulldog Breed, The / One Good Turn [DVD] [1960], Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol. 1 [DVD] [1933] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], Hello Dolly [VHS] [1969], Simon of the Desert [DVD] [1965] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], I'll See You in My Dreams [DVD] [1951] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], Bright Eyes [DVD] [1934], Charlie Chaplin - Gold Rush [DVD] [1925], Presenting Lily Mars [DVD] [1943] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium [DVD] [1969] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], Doctor In Love [DVD] [1960], My Little Chickadee [DVD] [1940], Flower Drum Song [DVD] [1961] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], Laurel & Hardy: Babes In Toyland [March of the Wooden Soldiers] (1934), A Date with Judy [DVD] [1948] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], What's Up Tiger Lily? [DVD], Gary Cooper- Meet John Doe [DVD] [2004]

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