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Review Warner Home Video / Ben Hur - 50th Anniversary Edition [DVD] [1959]
Actors & Directors
  • George Relph
  • Haya Harareet
  • Frank Thring
  • Cathy O'Donnell
  • William Wyler
  • Charlton Heston
Release date: 2009-07-13
Run time: 213 min.
Creator: George Relph
RRP: £15.99
Price: £8.98

Review Ben Hur - 50th Anniversary Edition [DVD] [1959] / Warner Home Video:


Review 4 Front Video / Journey Into Fear [1942] [VHS]
Actors & Directors
  • Dolores del Rio
  • Norman Foster
  • Joseph Cotten
  • Orson Welles
  • Orson Welles
Release date: 1998-08-10
Run time: 73 min.
Creator: Norman Foster
RRP: £5.99
Price: £13.50

Review Journey Into Fear [1942] [VHS] / 4 Front Video:


Review Ind-DVD Ltd / Sons And Lovers [1960] [DVD]
Actors & Directors
  • Trevor Howard
  • Wendy Hiller
  • Jack Cardiff
  • Dean Stockwell
Release date: 2006-02-13
Run time: 99 min.
Creator: Trevor Howard
RRP: £12.99
Price: £79.50

Review Sons And Lovers [1960] [DVD] / Ind-DVD Ltd:


Review Emphasis Entertainment Group / J'Accuse [DVD] [1919] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actors & Directors
  • Victor Francen
  • Abel Gance
Release date: 2008-09-16
Run time: 270 min.
Creator: Victor Francen
Price: £20.74

Review J'Accuse [DVD] [1919] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] / Emphasis Entertainment Group:


Actors & Directors
  • Hughie Green
  • Freddie Bartholomew
  • Billy Halup
  • Robert Stevenson
  • Cedric Hardwicke
  • Jimmy Lydon
Run time: 82 min.
Price: £3.49

Review TOM BROWN'S SCHOOLDAYS (1940) - Cedric Hardwicke / AG Plate EL2571:

1940 original Hollywood version.

Actors & Directors
  • Loretta Young
  • Charles Bickford
  • H.C. Potter
  • Rose Hobart
  • Joseph Cotten
  • Ethel Barrymore
Release date: 1997-05-05
Run time: 96 min.
Creator: Laura Kerr
Price: £4.99

Review The Farmer's Daughter [VHS] [1947] / 2 Entertain Video:


Review 4 Front Video / The Long Voyage Home [VHS] [1941]
Actors & Directors
  • Ward Bond
  • Ian Hunter
  • John Ford
  • Thomas Mitchell
  • John Wayne
  • Barry Fitzgerald
Release date: 1996-05-06
Run time: 100 min.
Creator: Eugene O'Neill
RRP: £5.99
Price: £4.79

Review The Long Voyage Home [VHS] [1941] / 4 Front Video:


Review MGM / Stella Dallas [DVD] [1937] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actors & Directors
  • Anne Shirley
  • Barbara Stanwyck
  • John Boles
  • Barbara O'Neil
  • King Vidor
  • Alan Hale
Release date: 2005-03-08
Run time: 106 min.
Creator: Victor Heerman

Review Stella Dallas [DVD] [1937] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] / MGM:


Actors & Directors
  • Irving Reis
  • Teresa Wright
  • Farley Granger
  • David Niven
  • Evelyn Keyes
  • Leo G Carroll
Run time: 97 min.
Creator: Teresa Wright
Price: £8.99

Review Enchantment [1948] [VHS] / Cinema Club:


Review Image Entertainment / And Then There Were None [DVD] [1945] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actors & Directors
  • Barry Fitzgerald
  • René Clair
  • June Duprez
  • Louis Hayward
  • Roland Young
  • Walter Huston
Release date: 2001-11-27
Run time: 97 min.
Creator: Agatha Christie
Price: £3.98

Review And Then There Were None [DVD] [1945] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] / Image Entertainment:

At first glance, René Clair might seem an odd match for Agatha Christie's mystery thriller And Then There Were None, but his buoyant touch is exactly what is missing from so many overly solemn remakes. Ten strangers gather for a mysterious gathering on a secluded island. It turns out to be a farewell party, for they have all been sentenced to die for crimes in their past by a self-appointed judge, jury and executioner who could be one of them. One by one, the guests are systematically dispatched as described in the lyrics of the children's rhyme "Ten Little Indians", while the survivors nervously eye one another, splintering into tenuous alliances until the next murder throws suspicion on someone new. A terrific cast of character actors have a ball with Dudley Nichols's witty script. The flamboyant sparring of Barry Fitzgerald (whose paternal Irish lilt takes a sinister dimension) and Walter Huston is almost upstaged by Roland Young's deadpan drollery. Romantic leads Louis Hayward and June Duprez come off as arch and stiff in a company that includes a sinisterly detached Judith Anderson, a dotty and distracted C Aubrey Smith, and a hilariously flippant Mischa Auer. The story has been remade numerous times under the title of Christie's novel, Ten Little Indians, but never as well as this 1945 version. Clair's effervescent, lively little gem is a fatal drawing-room comedy with a body count and a surreal mood of doom. -Sean Axmaker, Amazon. [+]
com.

Review Palisades Tartan / Crisis [DVD] [1946]
Actors & Directors
  • Dagny Lind
  • Stig Olin
  • Ingmar Bergman
  • Inga Landgré
  • Allan Bohlin
  • Marianne Löfgren
Release date: 2004-03-29
Run time: 95 min.
Creator: Leck Fischer
RRP: £19.99
Price: £6.31

Review Crisis [DVD] [1946] / Palisades Tartan:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / The Big Circus [VHS] [1959]
Actors & Directors
  • Joseph M. Newman
  • Rhonda Fleming
  • Vincent Price
  • Victor Mature
  • Red Buttons
  • Kathryn Grant
Run time: 103 min.
Creator: Red Buttons
RRP: £10.99
Price: £54.99

Review The Big Circus [VHS] [1959] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Alpha Video / The Phantom Submarine U-67 [DVD] [1931] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actors & Directors
  • Alan Hale
  • Claud Allister
  • Peter Erkelenz
  • William Nigh
  • Laura La Plante
  • Clarence H. Wilson
Release date: 2008-09-30
Run time: 62 min.
Creator: Tom Persons
Price: £3.22

Review The Phantom Submarine U-67 [DVD] [1931] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] / Alpha Video:


Review MGM / The Ride Back! [DVD] [1957] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actors & Directors
  • Jorge Treviño
  • Anthony Quinn
  • Lita Milan
  • Allen H. Miner
  • Oscar Rudolph
  • William Conrad
  • Victor Millan
Release date: 2003-05-20
Run time: 79 min.
Creator: Anthony Ellis
Price: £4.16

Review The Ride Back! [DVD] [1957] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] / MGM:


Review Columbia Tristar / Wild One [1968] [DVD]
Actors & Directors
  • Marlon Brando
  • László Benedek
  • Robert Keith
  • Lee Marvin
  • Jay C. Flippen
  • Mary Murphy
Release date: 1999-10-01
Run time: 79 min.
Creator: Mary Murphy
RRP: £19.99
Price: £4.25

Review Wild One [1968] [DVD] / Columbia Tristar:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / The Razor's Edge [VHS] [1964]
Actors & Directors
  • Anne Baxter
  • John Payne
  • Edmund Goulding
  • Gene Tierney
  • Tyrone Power
  • Clifton Webb
Run time: 146 min.
Creator: W. Somerset Maugham
RRP: £5.99
Price: £25.89

Review The Razor's Edge [VHS] [1964] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Walt Disney Video / Greyfriars Bobby [DVD] [1961] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actors & Directors
  • Don Chaffey
  • Laurence Naismith
  • Duncan Macrae
  • Donald Crisp
  • Gordon Jackson
  • Alex Mackenzie
Release date: 2004-07-06
Run time: 91 min.
Creator: Laurence Naismith
Price: £5.87

Review Greyfriars Bobby [DVD] [1961] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] / Walt Disney Video:

Greyfriars Bobby was released in 1961, the same year as The Absent-Minded Professor and The Parent Trap. Greyfriars Bobby epitomises the heart-on-its-sleeve sentimentality that was the special preserve of the Disney Studio. Based on a true story, the film follows the adventures of a wee Skye terrier who refuses to be separated from his master, even in death. Bobby sleeps on the old man's grave in the cemetery of Greyfriars church; he won't be driven away by Mr Brown, the groundskeeper (Donald Crisp), or adopted by Mr Trail (Laurence Naismith), the kindly restaurant owner. Bobby wins over both men, as well as the children in the neighbourhood tenements. When a priggish policeman charges Mr Trail with harbouring an unlicensed stray, the case becomes a tempest in a dog dish. Greyfriars Bobby offers handsome vistas of Edinburgh; however, even at 91 minutes the pace is meandering. Crisp and Naismith offer engaging performances as the reluctant friends (and rivals for Bobby's affection). Suitable for all ages. -Charles Solomon, Amazon. [+]
com.

Review Warner Home Video / Nosotros, Los Pobres [DVD] [1947] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Actors & Directors
  • Pedro Infante
  • Evita Muñoz 'Chachita'
  • Blanca Estela Pavón
  • Carmen Montejo
  • Miguel Inclán
  • Ismael Rodríguez
Release date: 2007-04-10
Run time: 115 min.
Creator: Evita Muñoz 'Chachita'
Price: £4.03

Review Nosotros, Los Pobres [DVD] [1947] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] / Warner Home Video:


Review 4 Front Video / The Taming Of The Shrew [VHS] [1967]
Actors & Directors
  • Alfred Lynch
  • Richard Burton
  • Michael Hordern
  • Cyril Cusack
  • Franco Zeffirelli
  • Elizabeth Taylor
Release date: 2002-07-01
Run time: 122 min.
Creator: William Shakespeare
RRP: £5.99
Price: £2.65

Review The Taming Of The Shrew [VHS] [1967] / 4 Front Video:

Liz and Dick (a. k. a. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton) almost seemed to be importing the psychodramas of their marriage into this 1967 film (of course, the same was true of every film they made together). Adapted from Shakespeare's play and directed by Franco Zeffirelli (Romeo and Juliet) with his usual eye for sumptuousness, this version of Taming of the Shrew features a particularly boisterous, bawdy, fun performance by its stars. Composer Nino Rota-best known for scoring several of Fellini's best-known works-received a National Board of Reviews award for his vivid soundtrack. -Tom Keogh.

Review ITV DVD / The Red Shoes [DVD] [1948]
Actors & Directors
  • Anton Walbrook
  • Moira Shearer
  • Jean Short
  • Gordon Littmann
  • Michael Powell
  • Emeric Pressburger
  • Marius Goring
Release date: 1999-10-11
Run time: 128 min.
Creator: Keith Winter
Price: £9.99

Review The Red Shoes [DVD] [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.

Models & Brands:
Ben Hur - 50th Anniversary Edition [DVD] [1959], Journey Into Fear [1942] [VHS], Sons And Lovers [1960] [DVD], J'Accuse [DVD] [1919] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], TOM BROWN'S SCHOOLDAYS (1940) - Cedric Hardwicke, The Farmer's Daughter [VHS] [1947], The Long Voyage Home [VHS] [1941], Stella Dallas [DVD] [1937] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], Enchantment [1948] [VHS], And Then There Were None [DVD] [1945] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], Crisis [DVD] [1946], The Big Circus [VHS] [1959], The Phantom Submarine U-67 [DVD] [1931] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], The Ride Back! [DVD] [1957] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], Wild One [1968] [DVD], The Razor's Edge [VHS] [1964], Greyfriars Bobby [DVD] [1961] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], Nosotros, Los Pobres [DVD] [1947] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC], The Taming Of The Shrew [VHS] [1967], The Red Shoes [DVD] [1948]

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