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Review Vci Video / Pearl of the South Pacific [1955] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Murvyn Vye
  • David Farrar
  • Virginia Mayo
  • Dennis Morgan
  • Allan Dwan
  • Lance Fuller
Release date: 2002-02-12
Run time: 86 min.
Price: £4.73

Review Pearl of the South Pacific [1955] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Vci Video:


Review Alpha Video / Glorifying the American Girl [1930] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Sr. Noah Beery
  • Eddie Cantor
  • Irving Berlin
  • Edward Crandall
  • Billie Burke
Release date: 2007-02-27
Run time: 93 min.
Creator: Larry Spier
Price: £2.99

Review Glorifying the American Girl [1930] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Alpha Video:


Review Alpha Video / Home Town Story [1951] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Virginia Campbell
  • Byron Foulger
  • Barbara Brown
  • Griff Barnett
  • Arthur Pierson
  • Harry Harvey
Release date: 2007-06-26
Run time: 62 min.
Creator: Louis Forbes
Price: £2.76

Review Home Town Story [1951] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Alpha Video:


Review 4 Front Video / The Virgin Soldiers [1969]
Actors & Directors
  • John Dexter
  • Lynn Redgrave
  • Hywel Bennett
  • Rachel Kempson
  • Nigel Davenport
  • Nigel Patrick
Release date: 2003-01-13
Run time: 90 min.
Creator: Leslie Thomas
RRP: £5.99
Price: £9.99

Review The Virgin Soldiers [1969] / 4 Front Video:


Review Kino / On Our Merry Way [1948] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Harry James
  • Leslie Fenton
  • Burgess Meredith
  • John Huston
  • James Stewart
  • Henry Fonda
  • Paulette Goddard
Release date: 2000-06-06
Run time: 108 min.
Price: £12.01

Review On Our Merry Way [1948] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Kino:


Review Homevision / Rediscover Jacques Feyder French Film Master: Queen of Atlantis/Crainquebille/Faces of Children [1925]
Actors & Directors
  • Georges Melchior
  • Jean Angelo
  • Marie-Louise Iribe
  • Jacques Feyder
  • Stacia Napierkowska
  • Abd-el-Kader Ben Ali
Release date: 2006-10-24
Run time: 360 min.
Creator: Pierre Benoît
Price: £22.58

Review Rediscover Jacques Feyder French Film Master: Queen of Atlantis/Crainquebille/Faces of Children [1925] / Homevision:


Review Criterion / Le Million [1931] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Jean-Louis Allibert
  • René Lefèvre
  • René Clair
  • Annabella
  • Constantin Siroesco
  • Paul Ollivier
Release date: 2000-05-16
Run time: 81 min.
Price: £14.38

Review Le Million [1931] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Criterion:


Review Image Entertainment / A Farewell to Arms [1932] (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Gary Cooper
  • Adolphe Menjou
  • Helen Hayes
  • Mary Philips
  • Jack La Rue
  • Frank Borzage
Release date: 1999-06-22
Run time: 89 min.
Price: £14.95

Review A Farewell to Arms [1932] (NTSC) / Image Entertainment:

The 1932 version of A Farewell to Arms owes as much to the shimmering house style of Paramount Pictures as it does the novel by Ernest Hemingway. If Hemingway purists can get past the romanticising of the book, however, this film offers its own glossy appeal. On the Italian front in World War I an American ambulance driver (Gary Cooper) falls in love with a nurse (Helen Hayes). Cooper was a Hemingway friend in real life, and later played the hero of Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls; his boyish simplicity is just right for director Frank Borzage's heartfelt approach. The Oscar-winning cinematography of ace cameraman Charles Lang is the kind of lush black and white that can capture the glow from a cigarette as it plays across Cooper's darkened face-a breathtaking touch. The jaded battle scenes show the influence of the hit film version of All Quiet on the Western Front, especially in a gripping montage depicting Cooper's progress alone through the war zone. Hemingway would have none of it, of course; he once disdainfully wrote that "in the first picture version Lt. Henry deserted because he didn't get any mail and then the whole Italian Army went along, it seems, to keep him company". This is first and foremost a love story, however, and as such it succeeds beautifully, right through to the remarkably intense ending. -Robert Horton, Amazon. [+]
com.

Review Anchor Bay / The British War Collection [1942] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Basil Dearden
  • Jack Hawkins
  • Richard Todd
  • Michael Anderson
  • John Mills
  • Michael Redgrave
  • Alberto Cavalcanti
  • Charles Frend
  • Guy Hamilton
  • Donald Sinden
Release date: 2005-03-22
Run time: 535 min.
Creator: Diana Morgan
Price: £22.98

Review The British War Collection [1942] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Anchor Bay:


Review Kino / Way Down East [1920] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Lillian Gish
  • D.W. Griffith
  • Richard Barthelmess
  • Kate Bruce
  • Lowell Sherman
  • Burr McIntosh
Release date: 2008-11-18
Run time: 145 min.
Creator: Lottie Blair Parker
Price: £11.60

Review Way Down East [1920] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Kino:

Way Down East was the most successful film of the 1920s, even more so than the original versions of Ben-Hur or The Ten Commandments. That says much about tastes and values of the day, since this is no visually spectacular epic designed to wow audiences: director DW Griffith gave it the subtitle "A Simple Story of Plain People". The story follows impoverished New England country girl Anna Moore (Lillian Gish) to Boston in search of family aid. Instead she's duped into a fake marriage by playboy Lennox Sanderson (Lowell Sherman). Pregnancy forces Sanderson to abandon her to care for the child alone, which dies soon after birth. The disgrace sends her back into the countryside to work for Squire Bartlett, whose son David (Richard Barthelmess) begins to fall for her. But the dreadful secret threatens to be revealed, since the dastardly Sanderson turns out to be their neighbour. Themes of loyalty and social change come to a head for a thrilling finale. Amazing stunt work occurs on a frozen river's ice sheets that break up, dashing an unconscious Anna toward a waterfall. Populated by eccentric cameo roles, this view of 1920s' life is a far more fascinating exploration of the contemporary female than the novel or disastrous stage play that preceded it. [+]
On the DVD: Naturally a movie from 1920 is in mono and 4:3 ratio (which is effectively the old Academy standard ratio). But with subtle colour tints and using a musical score from its 1931 reissue, it still looks pretty good. Only a few reels have suffered damage (eg some heat blisters), otherwise film historian David Shepard's restoration job is commendable. The only extra is an essay on the history of the film which scrolls up the screen as an introduction. -Paul Tonks.

Review Kultur / Henrik Ibsen: The Master Builder [1960] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Lois Smith
  • John Stix
  • Joanna Roos
  • E.G. Marshall
  • James Paterson
  • Phyllis Love
Release date: 2003-10-14
Run time: 103 min.
Creator: Henrik Ibsen
Price: £9.40

Review Henrik Ibsen: The Master Builder [1960] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Kultur:


Review Madacy / Two Women [1960] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Vittorio De Sica
  • Andrea Checchi
  • Eleonora Brown
  • Jean-Paul Belmondo
  • Carlo Ninchi
  • Sophia Loren
Release date: 1998-06-30
Run time: 93 min.
Price: £1.82

Review Two Women [1960] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Madacy:


Review Universal Studios / To Kill a Mockingbird [1962] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Frank Overton
  • Rosemary Murphy
  • Gregory Peck
  • John Megna
  • Ruth White
  • Robert Mulligan
Release date: 2005-09-06
Run time: 129 min.
Creator: Harper Lee
Price: £14.16

Review To Kill a Mockingbird [1962] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Universal Studios:

Ranked 34 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest American Films, To Kill a Mockingbird is quite simply one of the finest family-oriented dramas ever made. A beautiful and deeply affecting adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee, the film retains a timeless quality that transcends its historically dated subject matter (racism in the Depression-era South) and remains powerfully resonant in present-day America with its advocacy of tolerance, justice, integrity and loving, responsible parenthood. It's tempting to call this an important "message" movie that should be required viewing for children and adults alike, but this riveting courtroom drama is anything but stodgy or pedantic. As Atticus Finch, the small-town Alabama lawyer and widower father of two, Gregory Peck gives one of his finest performances with his impassioned defence of a black man (Brock Peters) wrongfully accused of the rape and assault of a young white woman. While his children, Scout (Mary Badham) and Jem (Philip Alford), learn the realities of racial prejudice and irrational hatred, they also learn to overcome their fear of the unknown as personified by their mysterious, mostly unseen neighbour Boo Radley (Robert Duvall, in his brilliant, almost completely nonverbal screen debut). What emerges from this evocative, exquisitely filmed drama is a pure distillation of the themes of Harper Lee's enduring novel, a showcase for some of the finest American acting ever assembled in one film, and a rare quality of humanitarian artistry (including Horton Foote's splendid screenplay and Elmer Bernstein's outstanding score) that seems all but lost in the chaotic morass of modern cinema. -Jeff Shannon.

Review MGM / Mississippi Mermaid [1969] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Jean-Paul Belmondo
  • Nelly Borgeaud
  • Marcel Berbert
  • François Truffaut
  • Catherine Deneuve
  • Martine Ferrière
Release date: 2001-01-23
Run time: 123 min.
Creator: Cornell Woolrich
Price: £5.18

Review Mississippi Mermaid [1969] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / MGM:


Review 4 Front Video / I Walked With a Zombie [1943]
Actors & Directors
  • Frances Dee
  • Tom Conway
  • Edith Barrett
  • James Ellison
  • James Bell
  • Jacques Tourneur
Release date: 1998-06-08
Run time: 66 min.
Creator: Inez Wallace
Price: £5.99

Review I Walked With a Zombie [1943] / 4 Front Video:


Review Warner Home Video / The Cheyenne Social Club/Fire Creek [1968] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Henry Fonda
  • James Stewart
  • Gene Kelly
  • Sue Ane Langdon
  • Vincent McEveety
  • Elaine Devry
  • Shirley Jones
Release date: 2006-08-15
Run time: 206 min.
Creator: Calvin Clements Sr.
Price: £9.34

Review The Cheyenne Social Club/Fire Creek [1968] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:


Review Optimum Home Entertainment / Les Amants [1958]
Actors & Directors
  • Louis Malle
  • Alain Cuny
  • José Luis de Villalonga
  • Jean-Marc Bory
  • Jeanne Moreau
  • Judith Magre
Release date: 2007-03-26
Run time: 87 min.
Creator: Louise de Vilmorin
RRP: £15.99
Price: £5.37

Review Les Amants [1958] / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review 4 Front Video / The Taming Of The Shrew [1967]
Actors & Directors
  • Alfred Lynch
  • Michael Hordern
  • Cyril Cusack
  • Elizabeth Taylor
  • Richard Burton
  • Franco Zeffirelli
Release date: 2002-07-01
Run time: 122 min.
Creator: William Shakespeare
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.00

Review The Taming Of The Shrew [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 Heritage Theatre Ltd / King Lear
Actors & Directors
  • Paul Sorvino
  • James Earl Jones
  • Edwin Sherin
  • Raul Julia
Release date: 2002-09-23
Run time: 180 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £12.91

Review King Lear / Heritage Theatre Ltd:


Review Warner Home Video / The L-Shaped Room [1962]
Actors & Directors
  • Verity Edmett
  • Avis Bunnage
  • Bryan Forbes
  • Patricia Phoenix
  • Anthony Booth
  • Leslie Caron
Release date: 2000-07-10
Run time: 120 min.
Creator: Lynne Reid Banks
RRP: £9.99
Price: £4.95

Review The L-Shaped Room [1962] / Warner Home Video:

The L-Shaped Room, adapted by writer-director Bryan Forbes from Lynne Reid Banks' novel, unfolds in a dank, depressing London boarding house. Leslie Caron plays Jane Fosset, a 27-year-old French woman, down on her luck, who takes a room. There are bugs in her mattress. The taps drip. The landlady ("the lovely Doris") is a drunken, malicious busybody. Forbes doesn't paint the English in a flattering light. They're covetous, eccentric and xenophobic. "I never close my door to the nigs," Doris tells Fosset, as if to prove that she is no racist. When Fosset reveals that she's pregnant and unmarried, everybody turns against her. The one real friend Fosset makes is Toby (Tom Bell), an impoverished would-be writer who lives in the room downstairs. [+]
She starts an affair with him, but for all his protestations to the contrary, he too turns out to be moralistic and conservative-he can't accept the idea that she is having another man's baby. Forbes' dialogue sometimes grates, the film risks running into a dead end (Fosset is stuck with nowhere to go and no prospects), but this is compelling fare all the same. Cameraman Douglas Slocombe (who went on to shoot Raiders of the Lost Ark) makes the boarding house seem as gloomy and oppressive as a Gothic mansion. Forbes doesn't sentimentalise at all. The London he portrays is nothing like the swinging, hedonistic city shown in later British movies of the 60s. -Geoffrey Macnab.

Models & Brands:
Pearl of the South Pacific [1955] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Glorifying the American Girl [1930] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Home Town Story [1951] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Virgin Soldiers [1969], On Our Merry Way [1948] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Rediscover Jacques Feyder French Film Master: Queen of Atlantis/Crainquebille/Faces of Children [1925], Le Million [1931] (REGION 1) (NTSC), A Farewell to Arms [1932] (NTSC), The British War Collection [1942] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Way Down East [1920] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Henrik Ibsen: The Master Builder [1960] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Two Women [1960] (REGION 1) (NTSC), To Kill a Mockingbird [1962] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Mississippi Mermaid [1969] (REGION 1) (NTSC), I Walked With a Zombie [1943], The Cheyenne Social Club/Fire Creek [1968] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Les Amants [1958], The Taming Of The Shrew [1967], King Lear, The L-Shaped Room [1962]

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