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Review Arrow Films / Closely Observed Trains [1966]
Actors & Directors
  • Vlastimil Brodský
  • Josef Somr
  • Vladimír Valenta
  • Alois Vachek
  • Václav Neckár
  • Jirí Menzel
Release date: 2004-02-23
Run time: 92 min.
Creator: Bohumil Hrabal
RRP: £17.99
Price: £5.06

Review Closely Observed Trains [1966] / Arrow Films:


Review Network / The League Of Gentlemen - Special Edition [1960]
Actors & Directors
  • Jack Hawkins
  • Nigel Patrick
  • Roger Livesey
  • Basil Dearden
  • Richard Attenborough
  • Bryan Forbes
Release date: 2007-01-29
Run time: 115 min.
Creator: John Boland
RRP: £14.99
Price: £6.88

Review The League Of Gentlemen - Special Edition [1960] / Network:

The League of Gentlemen is a sardonic crime drama in which Jack Hawkins plays an embittered retired army officer who recruits seven fellow ex-soldiers to carry out a bank raid with military precision. The film presents an England between post-war austerity and the more liberated 1960s where traditional moral certainties were rapidly being discarded; a London where ex-officers left on the scrapheap at war's end could justify turning their military experience to armed robbery. Unfortunately the tale is neither particularly amusing or thrilling, with an overlong central detour via an army camp prefacing the exciting heist and a largely anti-climactic ending. Nevertheless Hawkins effectively subverts his heroic officer type from The Cruel Sea (1953) and The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), and there's excellent support from a great cast including Nigel Patrick, Richard Attenborough and Roger Livesey. Bryan Forbes not only wrote the cynical screenplay but costarred with wife Nanette Newman in her first significant screen role. More influential than truly classic, The League of Gentlemen has lent its name to a modern BBC comedy, an "Extraordinary" comic strip-turned-movie, and proved the template for heist films ever since, including both versions of The Italian Job (1969 and 2003). On the DVD:The League of Gentlemen is presented in an anamorphically enhanced 16:9 transfer from an excellent condition print and mostly looks and sounds fine. There's minimal print damage, though sadly Philip Green's ironically patriotic main title music suffers from significant distortion. The only extra is the original trailer, which is now something of a period piece itself. -Gary S Dalkin.

Review 2 Entertain Video / Hancock's Half Hour - Vol. 1 [1961]
Actors & Directors
  • Johnny Vyvyan
  • Tony Hancock
  • Sid James
  • Alan Tarrant
  • Hugh Lloyd
  • Alec Bregonzi
Release date: 2004-09-13
Run time: 193 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £7.56

Review Hancock's Half Hour - Vol. 1 [1961] / 2 Entertain Video:


Review Optimum Home Entertainment / Carry On Teacher [1959]
Actors & Directors
  • Gerald Thomas
  • Hattie Jacques
  • Joan Sims
  • Leslie Phillips
  • Kenneth Connor
  • Charles Hawtrey
Release date: 2007-01-29
Run time: 83 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.98

Review Carry On Teacher [1959] / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Laurel And Hardy - No. 19 - Pardon Us And Related Shorts [1931]
Actors & Directors
  • Oliver Hardy
  • Wilfred Lucas
  • Walter Long
  • Stan Laurel
  • James Parrott
  • June Marlow
Release date: 2004-05-03
Run time: 183 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £0.99

Review Laurel And Hardy - No. 19 - Pardon Us And Related Shorts [1931] / Universal Pictures UK:


Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / You Were Never Lovelier [1942]
Actors & Directors
  • Fred Astaire
  • Rita Hayworth
  • Leslie Brooks
  • Adolphe Menjou
  • Isobel Elsom
  • William A. Seiter
Release date: 2004-05-24
Run time: 93 min.
Creator: Sixto Pondal Ríos
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.11

Review You Were Never Lovelier [1942] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Laurel & Hardy Volume 5 - Our Relations/Dual Roles Shorts [1936]
Actors & Directors
  • Harry Lachman
  • Stan Laurel
  • Oliver Hardy
  • Bette Healy
  • James Finlayson
  • Daphne Pollard
Release date: 2006-10-02
Run time: 215 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £0.99

Review Laurel & Hardy Volume 5 - Our Relations/Dual Roles Shorts [1936] / Universal Pictures UK:


Review Metrodome Video / The List Of Adrian Messenger [1963]
Actors & Directors
  • Gladys Cooper
  • Kirk Douglas
  • George C. Scott
  • John Huston
  • Walter Huston
  • Dana Wynter
Release date: 2008-03-17
Run time: 94 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.64

Review The List Of Adrian Messenger [1963] / Metrodome Video:


Review ITV DVD / Will Hay - Ask A Policeman / Boys Will Be Boys [1939]
Actors & Directors
  • Gordon Harker
  • Will Hay
  • Graham Moffatt
  • Jimmy Hanley
  • Moore Marriott
  • Marcel Varnel
  • William Beaudine
Release date: 2003-06-16
Run time: 148 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £5.90

Review Will Hay - Ask A Policeman / Boys Will Be Boys [1939] / ITV DVD:


Review Eureka Entertainment / The Buster Keaton Collection [1926]
Actors & Directors
  • James W. Horne
  • Clyde Bruckman
  • Buster Keaton
  • Charles Reisner
  • Buster Keaton
  • Marion Mack
  • Jim Farley
  • Frederick Vroom
  • Glen Cavender
Release date: 2001-10-08
Run time: 321 min.
Creator: Carl Harbaugh
RRP: £39.99
Price: £10.85

Review The Buster Keaton Collection [1926] / Eureka Entertainment:

Buster Keaton's 1926 masterpiece The General shows the great stone-faced comedian at the height of his powers. Buster is a train driver from the South who's caught up in the American Civil War. The film is basically an extended chase, with trains pursuing each other up the track. The level of stuntwork (including a huge train wreck) has to be seen to be believed, but it's the deftness and elegance of Keaton's comedy that is ultimately most memorable. For many, Buster Keaton is the greatest comedian of the silent era rated even above Chaplin, and College (1927) is one of his finest films. A poor student who has to work his way through college, Buster is desperate to win the attention of a pretty girl so takes up sports. Through every disaster, the great "stone face" as he was nicknamed betrays not a flicker of emotion, enduring all humiliations with aplomb. College shows Keaton at the top of his form. Steamboat Bill Jr dates from 1928 and is the last great film Buster Keaton made before he gave up his independence. Buster is the rather fey son of an elderly steamboat owner who is being driven out of business by a wealthy competitor. [+]
More by accident than intention Buster turns things around and gets the girl as well. The last 15 minutes are truly astonishing: a storm sequence in which a whole town is blown apart, with Buster experiencing a series of amazing escapes as buildings fall down around his ears. Tragically, the following year he lost his independence when he signed for MGM. His career collapsed, his marriage broke up and he became an alcoholic, never to regain former glories. On the DVD: The organ music accompanying this silent feature is pleasantly unobtrusive, and apart from a short section in the middle where it deteriorates, the print quality is a reasonable 4. 3. In addition there are five excellent Keaton shorts, One Week (1920), The Boat (1921) Cops (1922), The Blacksmith (1922) and The Balloonatic (1923). -Ed Buscombe.

Review Pias UK / A Home Of Your Own
Actors & Directors
  • Bernard Cribbins
  • Ronnie Barker
Release date: 2006-08-07
Run time: 43 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £6.85

Review A Home Of Your Own / Pias UK:


Review Optimum Home Entertainment / Belles Of St Trinians [1954]
Actors & Directors
  • Beryl Reid
  • Joyce Grenfell
  • Hermione Baddeley
  • Frank Launder
  • Alastair Sim
  • George Cole
Release date: 2007-01-01
Run time: 87 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.79

Review Belles Of St Trinians [1954] / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review 2 Entertain Video / The Best Of Steptoe And Son [1962]
Actors & Directors
  • Dudley Foster
  • Wilfrid Brambell
  • Tim Buckland
  • Frank Thornton
  • Harry H. Corbett
Release date: 2001-10-01
Run time: 147 min.
Creator: Richard Steel
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.91

Review The Best Of Steptoe And Son [1962] / 2 Entertain Video:

The Very Best of Steptoe and Son is wonderful collection of "Steptoe" moments. but not entirely what it claims to be. This selection, is in fact a collection of five episodes from the two surviving series of the four shot in colour in the 1970s-the four black and white series shot in the 1960s are neglected entirely. However by the 1970s, Wilfred Brambell and Harry H Corbett had been playing Albert and Harold Steptoe for almost a decade and the parts of the greedy needy old man and his witty feeble son were second nature to them. One of the best episodes on show here is "The Desperate Hours", which sets the father and son duo off against a similar couple-Leonard Rossiter's escaped bank robber and the old lag who taught him everything he knows-both couples come to understand the shared dynamic of their relationships. The 1970s episodes included more external shots and opened the show out from its original two-hander format-"Oh What a Beautiful Mourning", for example, introduces us to a large selection of the Steptoe clan, played by a variety of well known character actors. On the DVD: The DVD is presented in a standard television 4:3 aspect ratio and adds the luxury of Dolby Sound to the show's original mono; the Ron Grainger signature tune has never sounded so good. There are no subtitles, but the DVD includes a short account of the two stars' careers and an extended interview in which Galton and Simpson, the scriptwriters, talk about the history of the show from its origin as a one-off Comedy Playhouse episode through to the eventual decision that after the eighth series it was time to call it a day. [+]
-Roz Kaveny.

Review MGM Entertainment / Some Like It Hot [1959]
Actors & Directors
  • Marilyn Monroe
  • Tony Curtis
  • Jack Lemmon
  • George Raft
  • Billy Wilder
  • Pat O'Brien
Release date: 2000-10-09
Run time: 117 min.
Creator: Robert Thoeren
RRP: £15.99
Price: £2.98

Review Some Like It Hot [1959] / MGM Entertainment:

Maybe "nobody's perfect", as one character in this masterpiece suggests. But some movies are perfect, and Some Like It Hot is one of them. In Chicago, during the Prohibition era, two skirt-chasing musicians, Joe and Jerry (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon), inadvertently witness the St Valentine's Day Massacre. In order to escape the wrath of gangland chief Spats Colombo (George Raft), the boys, in drag, join an all-woman band headed for Florida. They vie for the attention of the lead singer, Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe), a much-disappointed songbird who warbles "I'm Through with Love" but remains vulnerable to yet another unreliable saxophone player. (When Curtis courts her without his dress, he adopts the voice of Cary Grant-a spot-on impersonation. ) The script by director Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond is beautifully measured; everything works, like a flawless clock. [+]
Aspiring screenwriters would be well advised to throw away the how-to books and simply study this film. The bulk of the slapstick is handled by an unhinged Lemmon and the razor-sharp Joe E. Brown, who plays a horny retiree smitten by Jerry's feminine charms. For all the gags, the film is also wonderfully romantic, as Wilder indulges in just the right amounts of moonlight and the lilting melody of "Park Avenue Fantasy". Some Like It Hot is so delightfully fizzy, it's hard to believe the shooting of the film was a headache, with an unhappy Monroe on her worst behaviour. The results, however, are sublime. -Robert Horton.

Review Showbox Home Entertainment / Comedy Classics - The Love Match [1955]
Actors & Directors
  • William Franklyn
  • Jill Adams
  • Shirley Eaton
  • David Paltenghi
  • Arthur Askey
  • Dorothy Blythe
Release date: 2007-04-02
Run time: 85 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £5.80

Review Comedy Classics - The Love Match [1955] / Showbox Home Entertainment:


Review Universal Pictures UK / Marlene Dietrich
Actors & Directors
  • George Marshall
  • Charles Winninger
  • James Stewart
  • Josef von Sternberg
  • Mischa Auer
  • Marlene Dietrich
  • Clive Brook
Release date: 2006-08-28
Creator: Max Brand
RRP: £49.99
Price: £8.86

Review Marlene Dietrich / Universal Pictures UK:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Breakfast At Tiffany's [1961]
Actors & Directors
  • Blake Edwards
  • Audrey Hepburn
  • Buddy Ebsen
  • George Peppard
  • Martin Balsam
  • Patricia Neal
Release date: 2000-11-06
Run time: 109 min.
Creator: Truman Capote
RRP: £15.99
Price: £24.98

Review Breakfast At Tiffany's [1961] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

No film better utilises Audrey Hepburn's flighty charm and svelte beauty than this romantic adaptation of Truman Capote's novella. Hepburn's urban sophisticate Holly Golightly, an enchanting neurotic living off the gifts of gentlemen, is a bewitching figure in designer dresses and costume jewellery. George Peppard is her upstairs neighbour, a struggling writer and "kept" man financed by a steely older woman (Patricia Neal). His growing friendship with the lonely Holly soon turns to love and threatens the delicate balance of both of their compromised lives. Taking liberties with Capote's bittersweet story, director Blake Edwards and screenwriter George Axelrod turn New York into a city of lovers and create a poignant portrait of Holly, a frustrated romantic with a secret past and a hidden vulnerability. Composer Henry Mancini earned Oscars for the hit song "Moon River" and his tastefully romantic score. The only sour note in the whole film is Mickey Rooney's demeaning performance as the apartment's Japanese manager, an offensively overdone stereotype even in 1961. The rest of the film has weathered the decades well. Edwards's elegant yet light touch, Axelrod's generous screenplay and Hepburn's mix of knowing experience and naivety combine to create one of the great screen romances and a refined slice of high-society bohemian chic. -Sean Axmaker.

Review Warner Home Video / Charlie Chaplin Complete Box Set [1921]
Actors & Directors
  • Edna Purviance
  • Claire Bloom
  • Charlie Chaplin
  • Jackie Coogan
Release date: 2003-09-22
Run time: 724 min.
RRP: £139.99
Price: £48.87

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 ITV DVD / Carry On At Your Convenience [1971]
Actors & Directors
  • Kenneth Williams
  • Charles Hawtrey
  • Joan Sims
  • Gerald Thomas
  • Sid James
  • Hattie Jacques
Release date: 2003-07-07
Run time: 87 min.
Creator: Talbot Rothwell
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.73

Review Carry On At Your Convenience [1971] / ITV DVD:

In 1971 when Carry On at Your Convenience hit our screens, the series had long since become part of the fabric of British popular entertainment. Never mind the situation, the characters were essentially the same, film after film. The jokes were all as old as the hills, but nobody cared, they were still funny. But it's just too easy to treat them as a job lot of postcard humour and music hall innuendo. This tale of revolt at a sanitary ware factory-Boggs and Son, what else?-certainly chimed in with the state of the nation in the early 1970s when strikes were called at the drop of a hat. Here, tea urns, demarcation and the company's decision to branch out into bidets all wreak havoc. Kenneth Williams as the company's besieged managing director, Sidney James and Joan Sims give their all as usual, but it's the lesser roles that really add some lustre. Hattie Jacques as Sid's budgerigar-obsessed, sluggish put-upon wife and Renee Houston as a superbly domineering battleaxe with a penchant for strip poker remind us that in the hands of fine actors, even the laziest of caricatures become real human beings. -Piers Ford.

Review ITV DVD / Early Bird, The / Press For Time [1965]
Actors & Directors
  • Paddie O'Neil
  • Edward Chapman
  • Bryan Pringle
  • Jerry Desmonde
  • Norman Wisdom
  • Robert Asher
Release date: 2003-05-12
Run time: 191 min.
Creator: Jack Davies
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.98

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.

Models & Brands:
Closely Observed Trains [1966], The League Of Gentlemen - Special Edition [1960], Hancock's Half Hour - Vol. 1 [1961], Carry On Teacher [1959], Laurel And Hardy - No. 19 - Pardon Us And Related Shorts [1931], You Were Never Lovelier [1942], Laurel & Hardy Volume 5 - Our Relations/Dual Roles Shorts [1936], The List Of Adrian Messenger [1963], Will Hay - Ask A Policeman / Boys Will Be Boys [1939], The Buster Keaton Collection [1926], A Home Of Your Own, Belles Of St Trinians [1954], The Best Of Steptoe And Son [1962], Some Like It Hot [1959], Comedy Classics - The Love Match [1955], Marlene Dietrich, Breakfast At Tiffany's [1961], Charlie Chaplin Complete Box Set [1921], Carry On At Your Convenience [1971], Early Bird, The / Press For Time [1965]

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