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Review Bfi Video / Ghost Camera, The / The Last Journey [1933]
Actors & Directors
  • Godfrey Tearle
  • Julien Mitchell
  • Judy Gunn
  • Bernard Vorhaus
  • Mickey Brantford
  • Hugh Williams
Release date: 1998-05-04
Run time: 128 min.
Creator: Joseph Jefferson Farjeon
RRP: £12.99
Price: £49.99

Review Ghost Camera, The / The Last Journey [1933] / Bfi Video:


Review Image Entertainment / Alice in Acidland/Smoke and Flesh (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Joseph Mangine
  • Buxx Banner
  • Patty Roberts
  • Colleen Murphy
  • John Donne
  • Richard Howell
  • Ed Sansone
Release date: 2004-12-28
Run time: 122 min.
Creator: Gertrude Steen
Price: £10.34

Review Alice in Acidland/Smoke and Flesh (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Image Entertainment:


Review 20th Century Fox / Boston Strangler [1968] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Tony Curtis
  • George Kennedy
  • Mike Kellin
  • Hurd Hatfield
  • Henry Fonda
  • Richard Fleischer
Release date: 2004-09-07
Run time: 116 min.
Creator: Edward Anhalt
Price: £4.15

Review Boston Strangler [1968] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / 20th Century Fox:


Actors & Directors
  • Terence Morgan
  • Val Guest
  • Mai Zetterling
Release date: 2008-04-14
Run time: 84 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £12.65

Review Dance Little Lady [1954] / Simply Media:


Review Warner Home Video / Angels With Dirty Faces [1938]
Actors & Directors
  • James Cagney
  • Ann Sheridan
  • George Bancroft
  • Michael Curtiz
  • Humphrey Bogart
  • Pat O'Brien
Release date: 2000-03-06
Run time: 94 min.
Creator: Warren Duff
RRP: £9.99
Price: £4.95

Review Angels With Dirty Faces [1938] / Warner Home Video:

Gangster Rocky Sullivan (James Cagney) returns from prison to make a name for himself in the crime world. He's soon discovered by the Dead End Kids, who idolise him, and childhood pal Father Jerry Connolly (Pat O'Brien), who has taken a different turn from Rocky and is struggling to bring the Kids around. While still friends with Rocky, the good Father tries to persuade him to steer clear of the gang of urchins. Rocky runs foul of the law, however, when he guns down his former partners Frazier (Humphrey Bogart) and Keefer (George Bancroft) after they betray him over a cut of crime-related profits. Seen as a whole, Angels with Dirty Faces may seem dated to many viewers, but its ending is still enough to bring chills. Director Michael Curtiz infused this gritty l938 effort with an amazing amount of energy and pacing; the Dead End Kids, in their screen debut, supply a fair amount of comic relief along with their dramatic roles. It's also worth noting that at the time, the notion of a criminal being a product of his environment was a controversial one. The swaggering bantam-rooster role played by Cagney, one of the screen's greats, helped define how he would be perceived (and parodied) for years to come. This movie easily stands along with The Roaring Twenties and Little Caesar as one of the most important, archetypal gangster films of the 1930s. -Jerry Renshaw, Amazon. [+]
com.

Review Momentum Pictures / La Dolce Vita [1960]
Actors & Directors
  • Marcello Mastroianni
  • Federico Fellini
  • Anita Ekberg
  • Magali Noël
  • Anouk Aimée
  • Yvonne Furneaux
Release date: 2000-01-17
Run time: 167 min.
Creator: Tullio Pinelli
RRP: £15.99
Price: £4.99

Review La Dolce Vita [1960] / Momentum Pictures:

At three brief hours, Fellini's cynical, engrossing social commentary, La Dolce Vita, stands as his timeless masterpiece. A rich, detailed panorama of Rome's modern decadence and sophisticated immorality, the film is episodic in structure but held tightly in focus by the wandering protagonist through whom we witness the sordid action. Marcello Rubini is a tabloid reporter trapped in a shallow high-society existence, as extraordinarily played by Marcello Mastroianni, a man of paradoxical, emotional juxtapositions: cool but tortured, sexy but impotent. He dreams about writing something important but remains seduced by the money and prestige that accompany his shallow position. He romanticises about finding true love but acts unfazed upon finding that his girlfriend has taken an overdose of sleeping pills. Instead, he engages in a ménage à trois, then frolics in a fountain with a giggling American starlet (bombshell Anita Ekberg), and in the film's unforgettably inspired finale, attends a wild orgy that ends, symbolically with its participants finding a rotting sea animal while wandering the beach at dawn. Fellini saw his film as life affirming (thus its title, "The Sweet Life"), but it's impossible to take him seriously. While Mastroianni drifts from one worldly pleasure to another, be it sex, drink, glamorous parties or rich foods, they are presented, through his detached eyes, as merely momentary distractions. His existence, an endless series of wild evenings and lonely mornings, is ultimately soulless and facile. Because he lacks the courage to change, Mastroianni is left with no alternative but to wearily accept and enjoy this "sweet" life. [+]
-Dave McCoy, Amazon. com.

Review Miramax / The Hunchback of Notre Dame [1957] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Jean Danet
  • Robert Hirsch
  • Anthony Quinn
  • Alain Cuny
  • Jean Delannoy
  • Gina Lollobrigida
Release date: 2003-09-02
Run time: 104 min.
Creator: Ben Hecht
Price: £3.93

Review The Hunchback of Notre Dame [1957] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Miramax:


Review 20th Century Fox / The Day the Earth Stood Still [1951] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Sam Jaffe
  • Patricia Neal
  • Hugh Marlowe
  • Robert Wise
  • Billy Gray
  • Michael Rennie
Release date: 2003-03-04
Run time: 92 min.
Creator: Edmund H. North
Price: £6.72

Review The Day the Earth Stood Still [1951] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / 20th Century Fox:

The very epitome of a cult SF classic, The Day the Earth Stood Still is more often referenced than seen, which is a pity since it remains even now one of the most thought-provoking examples of the genre. The title is a misnomer, a mere tease to entice 1950s audiences into the cinema in the expectation of seeing another sensationalist B-movie about murderous aliens (i. e. Communists). In fact, Robert Wise's film of Edmund North's screenplay is a thoughtful Cold War allegory about a Christ-like visitor (Michael Rennie) who comes to Earth preaching a message of salvation for mankind, only to be spurned, killed then finally resurrected (significantly, Rennie's character Klaatu adopts the pseudonym "Mr Carpenter" while on the run from the authorities). Aside from its philosophical message, the film also boasts memorable imagery-notably the giant robot Gort-a much-quoted catchphrase in "Klaatu barada nikto", and one of composer Bernard Herrmann's most admired scores, featuring the theremin and other electronic instruments that must have sounded very otherworldly back in 1951. The result is a bona fide landmark in cinema SF with a central message about "weapons of mass destruction" that's still uncannily relevant today. On the DVD: The Day the Earth Stood Still has been splendidly restored for its DVD incarnation from the original 35 mm print, and the results are demonstrated in the "Restoration Comparison" feature. Also included is a fascinating 1951 newsreel showing Klaatu receiving a certificate of merit amid stories of Communist threats, the Korean war and beauty pageants ("Pomp and pulchritude on parade in Atlantic City"). Best of all is an absorbing commentary track with director Robert Wise in conversation with Nicholas Meyer (both men have Star Trek movies on their CV). [+]
-Mark Walker.

Review ITV DVD / The Red Shoes [1948]
Actors & Directors
  • Gordon Littmann
  • Moira Shearer
  • Michael Powell
  • Anton Walbrook
  • Marius Goring
  • Emeric Pressburger
  • Jean Short
Release date: 1996-04-15
Run time: 128 min.
Creator: Keith Winter
RRP: £5.99
Price: £5.90

Review The Red Shoes [1948] / ITV DVD:

Overall, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's 1948 tale of the tragic ballerina Vicky Page (Moira Shearer) is not in the top drawer of their achievements. The backstage wranglings offer insufficient scope for their usual cinematic vision (though the Monte Carlo scenes are prettily sumptuous). Page's central dilemma, meanwhile, is a bit on the trite side-she must choose between love for a young composer and her career under stern taskmaster Boris Lertomov (Anton Walbrook), the ballet company impresario. The climax is also risibly melodramatic, a rare fumble for Powell and Pressburger. That said, The Red Shoes is worth purchasing alone for its middle sequence, a fantasy cinematic setting of the ballet of The Red Shoes, based on the Hans Christian Andersen tale of a girl who dances herself to death. A superb score by Brian Easdale is matched by an impossibly elaborate, shifting backdrop in which all of Powell and Pressburger's sense of drama, colour, invention and the super-real is encapsulated in one small but intensely concentrated dose. While the rest of the film is relatively dispensable, the ballet scene bears up to repeated rewindings. -David Stubbs Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's most celebrated Technicolor fairy-tale, The Red Shoes is both metaphor and melodrama of unparalleled boldness. So extravagantly theatrical a movie was regarded as simply unreleasable by the Rank Organisation back in 1948, but in spite of their attempted suppression it has long since been acknowledged as one of British cinema's landmark achievements. Not only were Powell and Pressburger unorthodox enough to populate the cast with real ballet dancers (including the radiant Moira Shearer in the pivotal role), they built the whole film around an extraordinarily daring 17-minute ballet sequence in which the camera moves from outside the proscenium arch into a subjective whirl of impressionistic images inspired and informed by Brian Easdale's marvellous score. [+]
Only after seeing this, so the story goes, was Gene Kelly able to see how he could make An American in Paris. The melodramatic plot, metaphorically acted out in the "Red Shoes Ballet" then re-enacted for real by the main characters, presents Great Art as something worth dying for, and, in the person of Anton Walbrook's Lermontov, gives us a portrait of the artist as a man for whom anything and everything is worth sacrificing in its pursuit. Loosely based on Diaghilev, impresario of the Ballets Russes, Walbrook's magnetic central performance is of sufficient stature to conceal the rather trite predicament of his ballerina protégée, and the film's contrived, over-the-top tragic ending. On the DVD: Sadly for a film in which music is such a central element, the advertised digital remastering doesn't seem to have extended to the mono soundtrack, which shows its age quite badly. The colour print, however, looks very vibrant. This special edition also includes a new 25-minute "making-of" feature with a few comments from crew members (or their relatives) and admirers of the film, including ballerina Darcey Bussell. "The Ballet of the Red Shoes" can be seen on its own in a separate featurette, and there are text biographies and a trailer. -Mark Walker.

Review Warner Home Video / The Astaire & Rogers Collection, Volume 2 (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Irene Dunne
  • William A. Seiter
  • Fred Astaire
  • Dolores del Rio
  • Mark Sandrich
  • Gene Raymond
  • Thornton Freeland
  • Ginger Rogers
  • H.C. Potter
Release date: 2006-10-24
Creator: Cyril Hume
Price: £32.20

Review The Astaire & Rogers Collection, Volume 2 (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:


Review Warner Home Video / The F-Troop: The Complete Second Season (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • David Alexander
  • Gene Nelson
  • Forrest Tucker
  • Hal March
  • Gary Nelson
  • Ken Berry
  • Melody Patterson
  • James Hampton
  • Larry Storch
  • Hollingsworth Morse
Release date: 2007-05-29
Run time: 784 min.
Creator: Al Gordon
Price: £22.72

Review The F-Troop: The Complete Second Season (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:


Review Criterion / Playtime [1967] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Nicolas Ribowski
  • Stéphane Goudet
  • Rita Maiden
  • France Rumilly
  • Jacques Tati
  • Jacques Tati
  • France Delahalle
  • Barbara Dennek
Release date: 2006-09-05
Run time: 124 min.
Creator: Jacques Lagrange
Price: £18.23

Review Playtime [1967] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Criterion:


Review Alpha Video / British Intelligence [1940] (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Holmes Herbert
  • Terry O. Morse
  • Bruce Lester
  • Margaret Lindsay
  • Boris Karloff
  • Leonard Mudie
Release date: 2003-03-18
Run time: 61 min.
Creator: Jack L. Warner
Price: £12.95

Review British Intelligence [1940] (NTSC) / Alpha Video:


Review MGM / Girl With Green Eyes [1964] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Desmond Davis
  • Rita Tushingham
  • Lynn Redgrave
  • Maire Kean
  • Peter Finch
  • Arthur O'Sullivan
Release date: 2002-02-05
Run time: 91 min.
Creator: Edna O'Brien
Price: £6.52

Review Girl With Green Eyes [1964] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / MGM:


Review Warner Home Video / The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone [1961] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Coral Browne
  • Jill St. John
  • Lotte Lenya
  • Vivien Leigh
  • José Quintero
  • Warren Beatty
Release date: 2006-05-02
Run time: 104 min.
Price: £8.96

Review The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone [1961] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:


Review Whe Europe Limited / His Girl Friday [1940]
Actors & Directors
  • Howard Hawks
  • Rosalind Russell
  • Gene Lockhart
  • Cary Grant
  • Porter Hall
  • Ralph Bellamy
Release date: 2003-12-08
Run time: 92 min.
Creator: Charles MacArthur
RRP: £4.99
Price: £1.95

Review His Girl Friday [1940] / Whe Europe Limited:

His Girl Friday is one of the five greatest dialogue comedies ever made. Howard Hawks had his cast play it at breakneck speed, and audiences hyperventilate trying to finish with one laugh so they can do justice to the four that have accumulated in the meantime. Rosalind Russell, not Hawks' first choice to play Hildy Johnson-the ace newsperson whom demonic editor Walter Burns is trying to keep from quitting and getting married-is triumphant in the part, holding her own as "one of the guys" and creating an enduring feminist icon. Cary Grant's Walter Burns is a force of nature, giving a performance of such concentrated frenzy and diamond brilliance that you owe it to yourself to devote at least one viewing of the movie to watching him alone. But then you have to go back (lucky you) and watch it again for the sake of the press-room gang-Roscoe Karns, Porter Hall, Cliff Edwards, Regis Toomey, Frank Jenks, and others-the kind of ensemble work that gets character actors onto Parnassus. -Richard T Jameson, Amazon. com.

Review Universal Studios / Frankenstein: The Legacy Collection (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • David J. Skal
  • Mae Clarke
  • Rowland V. Lee
  • Erle C. Kenton
  • Colin Clive
  • Boris Karloff
  • James Whale
  • Basil Rathbone
  • Elsa Lanchester
Release date: 2004-04-27
Run time: 384 min.
Creator: Edward T. Lowe Jr.
Price: £14.51

Review Frankenstein: The Legacy Collection (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Universal Studios:


Review Warner Home Video / The Val Lewton Horror Collection (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Jean Brooks (II)
  • Isabel Jewell
  • James Bell
  • Val Lewton
  • Margaret Landry
  • Margo
Release date: 2005-10-04
Run time: 646 min.
Price: £32.18

Review The Val Lewton Horror Collection (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:


Review Shakespeare: a Critical Guide / Themes Of Shakespeare ¿ Othello And Julius Caesar
Release date: 2007-08-20
Run time: 60 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £3.30

Review Themes Of Shakespeare ¿ Othello And Julius Caesar / Shakespeare: a Critical Guide:


Review Cheezy Flicks 06-015 / G-Men vs. The Black Dragon [1943] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Maxine Doyle
  • Rod Cameron
  • Hooper Atchley
  • Walter Fenner
  • William Witney
  • Noel Cravat
Release date: 2007-11-20
Run time: 244 min.
Price: £6.98

Review G-Men vs. The Black Dragon [1943] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Cheezy Flicks 06-015:


Models & Brands:
Ghost Camera, The / The Last Journey [1933], Alice in Acidland/Smoke and Flesh (REGION 1) (NTSC), Boston Strangler [1968] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Dance Little Lady [1954], Angels With Dirty Faces [1938], La Dolce Vita [1960], The Hunchback of Notre Dame [1957] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Day the Earth Stood Still [1951] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Red Shoes [1948], The Astaire & Rogers Collection, Volume 2 (REGION 1) (NTSC), The F-Troop: The Complete Second Season (REGION 1) (NTSC), Playtime [1967] (REGION 1) (NTSC), British Intelligence [1940] (NTSC), Girl With Green Eyes [1964] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone [1961] (REGION 1) (NTSC), His Girl Friday [1940], Frankenstein: The Legacy Collection (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Val Lewton Horror Collection (REGION 1) (NTSC), Themes Of Shakespeare ¿ Othello And Julius Caesar, G-Men vs. The Black Dragon [1943] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

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