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Review Second Sight Films Ltd. / The Girl Can't Help It [1956]
Actors & Directors
  • Jayne Mansfield
  • Edmond O'Brien
  • Julie London
  • Tom Ewell
  • Frank Tashlin
  • Ray Anthony
Release date: 2004-09-06
Run time: 93 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £4.98

Review The Girl Can't Help It [1956] / Second Sight Films Ltd.:


Review ITV DVD / Carry On Camping [1968]
Actors & Directors
  • Kenneth Williams
  • Sid James
  • Charles Hawtrey
  • Gerald Thomas
  • Terry Scott
  • Joan Sims
Release date: 2003-07-07
Run time: 136 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £2.40

Review Carry On Camping [1968] / ITV DVD:

There are three periods to Carry On. Early on, they were typical British light comedy capers, hardly risqué. By the 1970s, the loveable double-entendres had been replaced by an almost nasty sleaziness, culminating in 1977's Carry On Emanuelle. 1969's Carry On Camping, thankfully, belongs to the Golden Years. Pretty much everybody is present and correct, if not politically. Sid James is a likely-ish, if slightly elderly lad, persuading Joan Sims to join him at what he secretly expects to be a nudist colony. Terry Scott is a put-upon suburbian, coerced into outdoor vacations by his ghastly, horsey-laughed wife, while Charles Hawtrey is the campest of campers who befriends them. Kenneth Williams, who alone makes this worth watching, is gloriously ridiculous as head of a girl's school, Chayste Place, with Hattie Jacques as Matron and Barbara Windsor as one of the 30 year old fifth formers in their charge. Technically it's terrible stuff, with Barbara Windsor's flying bra, laboured puns galore, peeping tomfoolery, punchlines visible two miles off, "comedy" incidental music and a reactionary denouement in which they chase off a bunch of hippies. Yet if you don't chuckle at least half a dozen times during this, however many times you've seen it, there's probably something wrong with you. [+]
-David Stubbs Made in 1969, Carry On Camping belongs to the Golden Years before the loveable double-entendres had been replaced by an almost nasty sleaziness. Pretty much everybody is present and correct, if not politically. Sid James is a likely-ish, if slightly elderly lad, persuading Joan Sims to join him at what he secretly expects to be a nudist colony. Terry Scott is a put-upon suburban, coerced into outdoor vacations by his ghastly, horsey-laughed wife, while Charles Hawtrey is the campest of campers who befriends them. Kenneth Williams, who alone makes this worth watching, is gloriously ridiculous as head of a girl's school, Chayste Place, with Hattie Jacques as Matron and Barbara Windsor as one of the 30-year-old fifth formers in their charge. Technically it's terrible stuff, with Barbara Windsor's flying bra, laboured puns galore, peeping tomfoolery, punchlines visible two miles off, "comedy" incidental music and a reactionary denouement in which they chase off a bunch of hippies. Yet if you don't chuckle at least half a dozen times during this, however many times you've seen it, there's probably something wrong with you. -David Stubbs.

Review MGM Entertainment / A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum [1966]
Actors & Directors
  • Buster Keaton
  • Richard Lester
  • Zero Mostel
  • Phil Silvers
  • Michael Crawford
  • Jack Gilford
Release date: 2004-01-12
Run time: 93 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.25

Review A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum [1966] / MGM Entertainment:

The words of the opening song pretty much describe the menu in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum-"Something familiar, something peculiar, something for everyone: a comedy tonight!"-a frantic adaptation of the stage musical by Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove. The wild story, based on the Latin comedies of Plautus and set in ancient Rome, follows a slave named Pseudolus (Zero Mostel, snorting and gibbering) as he tries to extricate himself from an increasingly farcical situation; Mostel and a bevy of inspired clowns, including Phil Silvers, Jack Gilford and Buster Keaton, keep the slapstick and the patter perking. The cast also includes the young Michael Crawford as a love-struck innocent. This project landed in the lap of Richard Lester, then one of the hottest directors in the world after his success with the Beatles' films. Lester telescoped the material through his own joke-a-second sensibility, and also ripped out some of the songs from Stephen Sondheim's Broadway score. The result is very close to the vaudeville spirit suggested by the title-though anyone with a low tolerance for Zero Mostel's overbearing buffoonery may be in trouble. Oddly enough, amid all the frenzy, Lester creates a grungy, earthy Rome that seems closer to the real thing than countless respectable historical films on the subject. Frankie Howerd, who played Pseudolus on the London stage, kept the tradition going with his Up Pompeii TV series. -Robert Horton.

Review Paramount / The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty [1947]
Actors & Directors
  • Ann Rutherford
  • Virginia Mayo
  • Fay Bainter
  • Boris Karloff
  • Norman Z. McLeod
  • 'Danny Kaye
Run time: 105 min.
Price: £14.99

Review The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty [1947] / Paramount:

Walter Mitty, the bashful, hen-pecked protagonist played by Danny Kaye, is a mild-mannered magazine editor who escapes from his dull, dreary reality in daydreams where the incarnates various swashbuckling heroes (including an RAF fighter ace, a brave sea captain, a riverboat gambler and a virtuosic surgeon) who come to life in spectacular sequences. But reality and dreams collide when a mysterious damsel in distress glamorous Virginia Mayo turns to Walter for help, embroiling him in a real cloak-and-dagger thriller of a struggle with various villains (including all-time baddie Boris Karloff) hot on his trail, bent on recovering an elusive secrete notebook.

Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / Bell, Book And Candle [1958]
Actors & Directors
  • James Stewart
  • Ernie Kovacs
  • Richard Quine
  • Jack Lemmon
  • Hermione Gingold
  • Kim Novak
Release date: 2002-08-19
Run time: 102 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.94

Review Bell, Book And Candle [1958] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

Bell, Book and Candle (1958) is a sparkling, exotic and intelligent comedy based on John Van Druten's original play about the unlikely subject of witchcraft in Manhattan. In his last romantic lead role, James Stewart is publisher Shep Henderson, sucked into the underworld of Greenwich Village by the extraordinarily beautiful Gillian Holroyd (Kim Novak). Their liaison kicks off when Gillian employs her skills to indulge in a bit of fun. By the time Shep gets wise and rejects the artificial premise for a relationship, she has sacrificed her powers to emotional awakening and all is set for a happy ending. Largely thanks to an eccentric supporting cast, which includes Jack Lemmon as Gillian's warlock brother, Hermione Gingold as a fruity nightclub owner and Elsa Lanchester as Gillian's dotty aunt, the film has a delightfully off-centre quality. It's also a bittersweet allegory about being different. "We forfeit everything and then we end up in a little world of separateness from everyone", sighs Gillian. Novak is at the height of her beauty and here, as in her other 1958 triumph Vertigo (also with Stewart), her other-worldly quality fits the character so perfectly that her thespian limitations are well disguised. It's entrancing in every sense. On the DVD: Bell, Book and Candle's vibrant Technicolor explodes from the screen in this DVD release, which is enhanced for 16:9 widescreen televisions. [+]
Everything looks fresh and new-particularly the exotic nightclub scenes-and the mono soundtrack has lasted well. Extras include selected filmographies and original trailers, and detailed background in the booklet notes. -Piers Ford.

Review Universal Pictures UK / Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House [1948]
Actors & Directors
  • Melvyn Douglas
  • H.C. Potter
  • Cary Grant
  • Myrna Loy
Release date: 2007-05-04
Run time: 90 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £4.97

Review Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House [1948] / Universal Pictures UK:

Cary Grant stars as an advertising executive who dreams of getting out of the city and building a perfect home in the country, only to find the transition fraught with problems. (See the 1980s Tom Hanks comedy The Money Pit for an updated version of the same idea. ) The big appeal here are the two leads, Grant and Myrna Loy, who were each in their early 40s and at the peak of their careers. Together with solid support from Melvyn Douglas and a screenplay that might have been tailor-made for their polished brand of comedy, the stars dominate this simple project. -Tom Keogh.

Review TLA Releasing / The 2 Sides Of The Bed (Los 2 Lados de la Cama) [2005]
Actors & Directors
  • Maria Esteve
  • Guillermo Toledo
  • Lucia Jimenez
  • Veronica Sanchez
  • Ernesto Alterio
  • Emilio Martinez-Lazaro
Release date: 2008-09-08
Run time: 100 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £8.98

Review The 2 Sides Of The Bed (Los 2 Lados de la Cama) [2005] / TLA Releasing:


Review Joyce Grenfell / Joyce Grenfell - The BBC Collection [1964]
Release date: 2007-03-12
Run time: 215 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £12.44

Review Joyce Grenfell - The BBC Collection [1964] / Joyce Grenfell:


Review Warner Home Video / Charlie Chaplin Complete Box Set [1921]
Actors & Directors
  • Charlie Chaplin
  • Jackie Coogan
  • Claire Bloom
  • Edna Purviance
Release date: 2003-09-22
Run time: 724 min.
RRP: £139.99
Price: £97.99

Review Charlie Chaplin Complete Box Set [1921] / Warner Home Video:

This Chaplin Collection DVD box set contains the following films, also available separately: The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), The Circus (1928), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), The Great Dictator (1940), Monsieur Verdoux (1947) and Limelight (1952). Full details can be found in our Chaplin Collection feature. There are also two films exclusive to this box set: A Woman of Paris (1923) and A King in New York (1957), plus the documentary Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin-see DVD Description below.

Review 2 Entertain Video / Morecambe & Wise : Surviving Footage From BBC Series 1 & Complete Series 2 [1968]
Actors & Directors
  • Ernie Wise
  • Eric Morecambe
Release date: 2007-06-04
Run time: 213 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £5.99

Review Morecambe & Wise : Surviving Footage From BBC Series 1 & Complete Series 2 [1968] / 2 Entertain Video:


Review Walt Disney Video / Camp Rock [2008] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Maria Canals
  • Julie Brown
  • Jordan Francis
  • Matthew Diamond
  • Daniel Fathers
  • Alyson Stoner
Release date: 2008-08-19
Run time: 98 min.
Creator: Girish Bhargava
Price: £12.25

Review Camp Rock [2008] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Walt Disney Video:


Review Uca / Georgy Girl [1966]
Actors & Directors
  • Alan Bates
  • Lynn Redgrave
  • James Mason
Release date: 2005-05-02
Run time: 95 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £4.29

Review Georgy Girl [1966] / Uca:


Review Cinema Club / Entertaining Mr Sloane [1969]
Actors & Directors
  • Peter McEnery
  • Alan Webb
  • Beryl Reid
  • Harry Andrews
  • Douglas Hickox
Release date: 2005-06-20
Run time: 90 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £3.48

Review Entertaining Mr Sloane [1969] / Cinema Club:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Sabrina [1954]
Actors & Directors
  • Billy Wilder
  • William Holden
  • Humphrey Bogart
  • Audrey Hepburn
  • John Williams (II)
  • Walter Hampden
Release date: 2001-09-03
Run time: 109 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £1.99

Review Sabrina [1954] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

Audrey Hepburn is the delightful, young, eponymous Sabrina, the daughter of a chauffeur who is hopelessly in love with David Larrabee (William Holden), the playboy younger son in the rich Long Island household her father works for. In order to help her forget her woes, Sabrina is shipped off to cooking school in Paris. While there, she befriends a baron who provides a bit of culture-and the encouragement to snip off her childlike ponytail. Upon her return to New York, Sabrina is transformed into a sophisticated woman, and David is entranced by her. However, his older brother Linus (Humphrey Bogart) has arranged David's marriage to Elizabeth Tyson in order to seal a business merger and thus must steer David away from Sabrina. To do this, Linus takes on the task of wooing her for himself. Full of great dialogue ("A woman happy in love, she burns the soufflé; a woman unhappy in love, she forgets to turn on the oven") and wonderful performances, this film is a romantic masterpiece. Also enjoyable is the 1995 remake, starring Julia Ormond and Harrison Ford. -Jenny Brown For almost 20 years Audrey Hepburn's pixie-like features lit up Hollywood's silver screens with hit after hit and she became not only a screen icon, but also a style icon (with a little help from Givenchy), and still features high in polls of the world's most beautiful women. It's perhaps no surprise, then, that Paramount have chosen to honour her with a box set of some of her best-known films. [+]
However, this is only "some of", with the absence of her dazzling performances in Roman Holiday and My Fair Lady, leaving three out of the four films included here lacking in comparison. Breakfast at Tiffany's is the strongest and certainly the best-loved Hepburn film in this collection, offering beautifully comic performances by both Hepburn and her leading man, George Peppard. Funny Face also makes a welcome entry, if only for the wonderful performance by Fred Astaire; Hepburn, though, was not a strong enough dancer to hold her own against Astaire's brilliance. Sabrina holds its own as the Cinderella story of a chauffeur's daughter who turns into a beautiful society girl, but it was clearly a quick and easy vehicle for Paramount to produce in the wake of Hepburn's success in Roman Holiday. The mysterious entry of the collection is Paris When It Sizzles, probably one of Hepburn's least-known and most quirky films, with two parallel love stories played out on the screen. Although not an obvious hit and hard work in places it offers an interesting screwball performance by Hepburn, even if the sparks did not fly with her screen partner William Holden. On the DVD: The Audrey Hepburn Collection offers a nice clean widescreen transfer for three of its movies, but Sabrina is a full-frame transfer that lacks something in comparison. All but Breakfast at Tiffany's (which has a 5. 1 Dolby Digital soundtrack) are mono sound transfers, which is only a real disappointment in Funny Face because of George and Ira Gershwin's score. The special features are also lacking, with only a trailer offered on two of the films and a mildly interesting documentary on Sabrina. The best is the featurette on Funny Face, which charts the success of Paramount in the 1950s, but offers nothing a film fan would not have known already. All in all this is an attractive box set, but perhaps one for the die-hard Hepburn fan only. -Nikki Disney.

Review Universal Pictures UK / Laurel & Hardy Volume 3 - Way Out West/Shorts [1937]
Actors & Directors
  • James Horne
  • Rosina Lawrence
  • Sharon Lynne
  • Oliver Hardy
  • Stan Laurel
  • James Finlayson
Release date: 2006-10-02
Run time: 207 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £4.76

Review Laurel & Hardy Volume 3 - Way Out West/Shorts [1937] / Universal Pictures UK:


Review Warner Home Video / The Great Race [1965] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Keenan Wynn
  • Jack Lemmon
  • Natalie Wood
  • Tony Curtis
  • Blake Edwards
  • Peter Falk
Release date: 2002-06-04
Run time: 160 min.
Price: £8.00

Review The Great Race [1965] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:


Review 2 Entertain Video / The Very Best of Dad's Army [1968]
Actors & Directors
  • John Laurie
  • Arthur Lowe
  • David Croft
  • James Beck
  • John Le Mesurier
  • Clive Dunn
  • Bob Spiers
Release date: 2001-10-01
Run time: 153 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.60

Review The Very Best of Dad's Army [1968] / 2 Entertain Video:

If the mark of a successful TV comedy is that repeat showings attract new viewers, then Dad's Army must be one of the best. The Very Best of Dad's Army includes five episodes almost covering its whole time span-from 1969's "Sons of the Sea", an entertaining caper when lost at home, to 1977's final episode "Never Too Old", in which sparky Corporal Jones marries his longtime sweetheart, and the ageing Second World War platoon drinks a toast to Britain's Home Guard. Along with these is 1973's "The Deadly Attachment", where a captive U-boat crew falls prey to dummy hand-grenades; 1972's "Keep Young and Beautiful", a touching tale of looking younger and sticking together; and the same year's "Asleep in the Deep", where the platoon uses its skill and judgement, plus a little luck, to escape a life-threatening situation. Fans and newcomers will enjoy the priceless interplay of Arthur Lowe and John le Mesurier, along with the contributions of Clive Dunn, John Laurie, Arnold Ridley, Ian Lavender and James Beck, in this nostalgic depiction of Britain as it once was. On the DVD: The 4:3 picture reproduction has come up well and the dual mono sound is more than adequate. Each episode features six scene selections, while the artist profiles provide brief but relevant biographical details. The half-hour Selection Box gives celebrities past and present a chance to pick their favourite extracts and explain just why they're hooked. Chances are you will be too. -Richard Whitehouse.

Review Optimum Home Entertainment / Alastair Sim - The Comic Icons Collection [1951]
Actors & Directors
  • Alastair Sim
Release date: 2007-10-29
Run time: 447 min.
RRP: £34.99
Price: £10.70

Review Alastair Sim - The Comic Icons Collection [1951] / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review ITV DVD / Norman Wisdom Collection [1953]
Actors & Directors
  • Norman Wisdom
Release date: 2008-09-01
Run time: 1088 min.
RRP: £59.99
Price: £25.98

Review Norman Wisdom Collection [1953] / ITV DVD:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Father Goose [1964]
Actors & Directors
  • Ralph Nelson
  • Leslie Caron
  • Cary Grant
  • Trevor Howard
Release date: 2007-05-04
Run time: 112 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £5.59

Review Father Goose [1964] / Universal Pictures UK:

Cary Grant's penultimate feature before retirement was this cheerful 1964 effort to overturn his career-long image of urbane sophistication. As the unshaven, messy misanthrope Walter Eckland, a World War II-era beach bum who monitors Japanese air activity for the Australian navy in exchange for booze, Grant makes a convincingly hard-bitten, hard-drinking antihero. Until, that is, a pretty French schoolmistress (Leslie Caron) and her seven little charges (all girls) survive a nearby plane crash and invade Eckland's raunchy isolation. Directed by 1960s hit-maker Ralph Nelson (The Lilies of the Field, Charly), Father Goose is a glossy comedy that also does justice to its more suspenseful scenes (a deadly snakebite suffered by Caron's character is especially memorable) and leaves plenty of room for Grant to indulge in some entertaining if atypical screen behaviour. All in all, this is a minor treat in the actor's magnificent filmography. -Tom Keogh.

Models & Brands:
The Girl Can't Help It [1956], Carry On Camping [1968], A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum [1966], The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty [1947], Bell, Book And Candle [1958], Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House [1948], The 2 Sides Of The Bed (Los 2 Lados de la Cama) [2005], Joyce Grenfell - The BBC Collection [1964], Charlie Chaplin Complete Box Set [1921], Morecambe & Wise : Surviving Footage From BBC Series 1 & Complete Series 2 [1968], Camp Rock [2008] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Georgy Girl [1966], Entertaining Mr Sloane [1969], Sabrina [1954], Laurel & Hardy Volume 3 - Way Out West/Shorts [1937], The Great Race [1965] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Very Best of Dad's Army [1968], Alastair Sim - The Comic Icons Collection [1951], Norman Wisdom Collection [1953], Father Goose [1964]

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