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Review Image Entertainment / The Mikado [1939] (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Martyn Green
  • Victor Schertzinger
  • Gregory Stroud
  • Sydney Granville
  • Jean Colin
  • Kenny Baker (II)
Release date: 1998-12-22
Run time: 87 min.
Price: £8.07

Review The Mikado [1939] (NTSC) / Image Entertainment:


Review Cinema Club / On The Buses - The Best Of Series 3 And 4 - Vol. 4 [1969]
Actors & Directors
  • Howard Ross (II)
Release date: 2003-08-11
Run time: 100 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £3.49

Review On The Buses - The Best Of Series 3 And 4 - Vol. 4 [1969] / Cinema Club:


Review Warner Music Vision / Barbra Streisand - My Name Is Barbra [1965]
Actors & Directors
  • Joe Layton
  • Barbra Streisand
  • Dwight Hemion
Release date: 2006-10-02
Run time: 54 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £6.64

Review Barbra Streisand - My Name Is Barbra [1965] / Warner Music Vision:

Barbra Streisand's first television special was My Name Is Barbra (April 14, 1965), shot shortly after she played in Funny Girl. Shot in black and white, it's a little different from the other variety shows of the day (e. g. , The Judy Garland Show) in that there's no parade of guest stars or dancing girls. That's a good thing, as those are the numbers that get dated very quickly. Instead, we have all Barbra, even if she's more comfortable singing than doing comedy monologues. The show winds its way through an Alice in Wonderland sequence which ends in a plain but magnificent rendition of "People," then has Streisand in a store's fur department. Last is a simple concert setting that includes a Funny Girl medley with "Don't Rain on My Parade" and "The Music that Makes Me Dance. " The closing concert segment would become a staple, and the peak, of all her shows. -David Horiuchi.

Review Image / Carry on Christmas [1973] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Sid James
Release date: 2007-11-06
Run time: 199 min.
Price: £7.92

Review Carry on Christmas [1973] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Image:


Review Sony Pictures / I Dream of Jeannie: The Complete Fourth Season (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Leo Garen
  • Richard Kinon
  • Richard Goode
  • Barton MacLane
  • Jerrold Bernstein
  • Emmaline Henry
  • Joseph Goodson
Release date: 2007-09-11
Run time: 639 min.
Price: £16.48

Review I Dream of Jeannie: The Complete Fourth Season (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Sony Pictures:


Review United Artists / What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? [1966] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Blake Edwards
  • Dick Shawn
  • Aldo Ray
  • Sergio Fantoni
  • Giovanna Ralli
  • James Coburn
Release date: 2008-05-20
Run time: 116 min.
Price: £7.64

Review What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? [1966] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / United Artists:


Review MGM / The Killing of Sister George [1968] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Ronald Fraser
  • Susannah York
  • Coral Browne
  • Patricia Medina
  • Beryl Reid
  • Robert Aldrich
Release date: 2005-08-23
Run time: 140 min.
Price: £5.03

Review The Killing of Sister George [1968] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / MGM:

"Sister George" within The Killing of Sister George is Britain's best-loved soap opera character, played by actress June Buckeridge (Beryl Reid). Buckeridge has become so identified with her character-a sweet old Miss Marple-ish nurse who putters around her quaint little village on a motor scooter-even her friends call her George. But outside the studio she's a hard-drinking, hot-tempered, foul-mouthed lesbian living with an immature young thing she's nicknamed "Childie" (Susannah York, who makes her memorable entrance in a sheer baby-doll nightie). At her worst Sister George is an abusive monster (in a moment of rage she forces Childie to eat the butt of her cigar) but beneath the bluster is an insecure television actress. When the studio decides to kill her character off and an executive makes a play for Childie, the soap star desperately clings to her young lover. Director Robert Aldrich, best known for his tough action films and gothic thrillers, brings his fierce vision of human nature to Frank Marcus's play. In its best moments the film simmers in angry suspicion and helpless frustration, brought to life by Reid's vivacious performance but other scenes are overlong and stage-bound and would have benefited greatly from judicious trimming and tightening. The caricatured portrayals of lesbian life have aged rather poorly-an inevitable sign of the times-but this acidic show-biz drama still carries a hefty emotional punch. -Sean Axmaker, Amazon. com.

Review Warner Home Video / Carry On Nurse [1958]
Actors & Directors
  • Gerald Thomas
  • Shirley Eaton
  • Hattie Jacques
  • Terence Longdon
  • Kenneth Connor
  • Charles Hawtrey
Release date: 2001-08-27
Run time: 84 min.
RRP: £16.99
Price: £4.78

Review Carry On Nurse [1958] / Warner Home Video:


Review Warner Home Video / Cabin in the Sky [1943] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Vincente Minnelli
  • Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson
  • Ethel Waters
  • Busby Berkeley
  • Lena Horne
  • Rex Ingram
  • Louis Armstrong
Release date: 2006-01-10
Run time: 98 min.
Price: £7.02

Review Cabin in the Sky [1943] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:

The first film directed by Vincente Minnelli (who directed the original Broadway version), this musical offers its pleasures but also may make you squirm at the racial stereotypes that were considered both acceptable and entertaining in 1943. A story of the struggle between good and evil for the soul of a man named Little Joe (Eddie "Rochester" Anderson), the film plays with the same kind of racial notions that made Stepin Fetchit a star. Still, there's much to recommend it, particularly performances by some of the greatest musical stars of the day: Lena Horne, Ethel Waters, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington, among others. The film also includes a terrific score, a combination effort by Ellington, Harold Arlen, Vernon Duke and E Y Harburg that includes the song "Taking a Chance on Love. " -Marshall Fine.

Review MGM / Green Acres: The Complete Second Season (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Barbara Pepper
  • Ralph Levy
  • Sid Melton
Release date: 2005-03-08
Run time: 754 min.
Price: £11.92

Review Green Acres: The Complete Second Season (REGION 1) (NTSC) / MGM:


Review Warner Home Video / Seven Faces of Dr. Lao [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • George Pal
  • Noah Beery Jr.
  • Arthur O'Connell
  • Tony Randall
  • John Ericson
  • Barbara Eden
Release date: 2000-10-03
Run time: 100 min.
Price: £8.22

Review Seven Faces of Dr. Lao [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:


Review C'est La Vie / Une Parisienne [1957]
Actors & Directors
  • Brigitte Bardot
  • Noël Roquevert
  • Henri Vidal
  • Charles Boyer
  • Madeleine LeBeau
  • Michel Boisrond
Release date: 2003-09-29
Run time: 86 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £5.71

Review Une Parisienne [1957] / C'est La Vie:


Review Vision Video Ltd. / Laurel And Hardy - The Classics - Way Out West / Sons Of The Desert / The Music Box [1937]
Actors & Directors
  • Oliver Hardy
  • Dorothy Christy
  • James Parrott
  • Stan Laurel
  • William A. Seiter
  • Mae Busch
  • Charley Chase
Release date: 1999-10-18
Run time: 175 min.
Price: £12.99

Review Laurel And Hardy - The Classics - Way Out West / Sons Of The Desert / The Music Box [1937] / Vision Video Ltd.:

In Greek mythology, there is a cursed old King called Sisyphus who is punished in Hades by eternally having to push a heavy stone up a hill (as soon as he gets to the top, it comes rolling down). Sisyphus's closest relations in Hollywood are Stan and Ollie, whose punishment in The Music Box is delivering a piano to a house at the top of a seemingly interminable staircase. This Oscar-winning comedy short should be shown to anybody who doubts Laurel and Hardy's genius. It's one of their greatest films, as painful as it is funny to watch. Way Out West, their sole foray into cowboy country, benefits from their rousing rendition of "The Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia" (a song which made it into the British charts a few years ago) and some inspired villainy from James Finlayson, the Scottish actor who was frequently cast as Stan and Ollie's nemesis (here, he plays villainous bartender Mickey Finn). The plot is some hokum about Stan and Ollie's attempts to deliver deeds to a gold mine to the daughter of an old pal. What matters is the clowning-most of which is inspired. In Sons of the Desert, the duo play truant from their wives to attend a Masonic lodge convention, but don't get away with the deception. -Geoffrey Macnab.

Review Paramount / Donovan's Reef [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • John Ford
  • Elizabeth Allen
  • Jack Warden
  • Lee Marvin
  • John Wayne
  • Cesar Romero
Release date: 2001-06-05
Run time: 108 min.
Price: £2.81

Review Donovan's Reef [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Paramount:


Review Momentum Pictures / Two Way Stretch [1960]
Actors & Directors
  • Robert Day
  • Wilfrid Hyde White
  • David Lodge
  • Beryl Reid
  • Lionel Jeffries
  • Peter Sellers
Release date: 2002-07-08
Run time: 83 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £34.95

Review Two Way Stretch [1960] / Momentum Pictures:

A great British crime comedy always worth another watch, Two Way Stretch is the one about the cosily imprisoned crooks who hatch a scheme to pull off a heist with a perfect alibi by breaking out of their nick, doing the job and then breaking back into the jug again to serve out their sentences. Peter Sellers, usually an eccentric support in these things, takes a rare lead as cocky mastermind Dodger Lane, confident enough to share the screen with performers who would be doing serious time if scene-stealing were an actual offence. The chief delight of the film, obvious inspiration for Blakey from On the Buses, is Lionel Jeffries' bristling, infuriated, hilariously humiliated warder Sidney Crout, forever fuming as Dodger gets away with some new scheme. Also in on the scam: Wilfrid Hyde White as a bogus clergyman of extreme unctuousness, David Lodge as the dim-witted muscle bloke, and Bernard Cribbins in the nice young man part. The wayward plot finds room for cameos from such national institutions as Beryl Reid, Irene Handl and Liz Fraser. Director Robert Day, probably best known for the Hammer version of She, is nobody's idea of an auteur, but he puts this pacey little gem together perfectly. The British cinema has been turning out an unheralded series of wonderful caper comedies for decades, from The Lavender Hill Mob through A Fish Called Wanda to The Parole Officer; this effort-along with the follow-up The Wrong Arm of the Law-ranks among the best. On the DVD: Two Way Stretch comes to disc in a nice print. The film is also available as part of the four-disc Peter Sellers Collection. -Kim Newman.

Review Criterion / Trouble in Paradise [1932] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Robert Greig
  • Tyler Brooke
  • Luis Alberni
  • Hooper Atchley
  • Mary Boland
Release date: 2003-01-07
Run time: 82 min.
Creator: W. Franke Harling
Price: £15.43

Review Trouble in Paradise [1932] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Criterion:


Review Origin Arts / The Nine Ages of Nakedness [1969]
Actors & Directors
  • Charles Gray
  • Julian Orchard
  • Max Bacon
  • Max Wall
  • Harrison Marks
  • Cardew Robinson
  • George Harrison Marks
Release date: 2006-12-19
Run time: 90 min.
Price: £8.83

Review The Nine Ages of Nakedness [1969] / Origin Arts:


Review Warner Home Video / Love in the Afternoon [1957] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Gary Cooper
  • Van Doude
  • John McGiver
  • Audrey Hepburn
  • Maurice Chevalier
  • Billy Wilder
Release date: 2002-01-08
Run time: 130 min.
Price: £7.89

Review Love in the Afternoon [1957] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:


Review Rhino Entertainment Company / Mystery Science Theatre 3000 Collection, Vol. 10.2 [2008][REGION 1][NTSC] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Jim Asp
  • Roger Corman
  • Ben Parker
  • Stacy Smith
  • Rick Harris (II)
  • Bill Bloom
  • Ray Kellogg
  • Bill Rebane
  • John Ensign (II)
Release date: 2008-02-05
Run time: 370 min.
Price: £21.22

Review Mystery Science Theatre 3000 Collection, Vol. 10.2 [2008][REGION 1][NTSC] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Rhino Entertainment Company:


Review MGM / It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Sid Caesar
  • Ethel Merman
  • Buddy Hackett
  • Stanley Kramer
  • Spencer Tracy
  • Milton Berle
Release date: 2003-10-07
Run time: 161 min.
Price: £3.80

Review It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / MGM:

Stanley Kramer's 1963 It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World is a sprawling comedy about a search for buried treasure by at least a dozen people-all played by well-known entertainers of their day-is the kind of mass comedy that has recently come back to the for-front of Hollywood with the film Rat Race. After a number of strangers (including Milton Berle, Jonathan Winters, Sid Caesar, Phil Silvers and others) witness a dying stranger (Jimmy Durante) identify the location of hidden money, a conflict-ridden hunt begins, watched over carefully by a suspicious cop (Spencer Tracy). The ensuing two and a half hours of mayhem has its ups and downs-some sketches and performers are certainly funnier than others. But Kramer, who is better known for socially conscious, serious cinema (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?), is in a mood for broad comic characterization, and some of his jokes are so intentionally obvious (Durante literally kicks a bucket when he dies), they could have derived from the Airplane! reject bin. Watch for lots of cameo appearances, including Jerry Lewis. -Tom Keogh, Amazon. com.

Models & Brands:
The Mikado [1939] (NTSC), On The Buses - The Best Of Series 3 And 4 - Vol. 4 [1969], Barbra Streisand - My Name Is Barbra [1965], Carry on Christmas [1973] (REGION 1) (NTSC), I Dream of Jeannie: The Complete Fourth Season (REGION 1) (NTSC), What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? [1966] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Killing of Sister George [1968] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Carry On Nurse [1958], Cabin in the Sky [1943] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Green Acres: The Complete Second Season (REGION 1) (NTSC), Seven Faces of Dr. Lao [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Une Parisienne [1957], Laurel And Hardy - The Classics - Way Out West / Sons Of The Desert / The Music Box [1937], Donovan's Reef [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Two Way Stretch [1960], Trouble in Paradise [1932] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Nine Ages of Nakedness [1969], Love in the Afternoon [1957] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Mystery Science Theatre 3000 Collection, Vol. 10.2 [2008][REGION 1][NTSC] (REGION 1) (NTSC), It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

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