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Review Arrow Films / Les Diaboliques [1954]
Actors & Directors
  • Paul Meurisse
  • Jean Brochard
  • Simone Signoret
  • Charles Vanel
  • Véra Clouzot
  • Henri-Georges Clouzot
Release date: 1995-01-16
Run time: 116 min.
Creator: Thomas Narcejac
RRP: £15.99
Price: £9.80

Review Les Diaboliques [1954] / Arrow Films:

Legend has it that Henri-Georges Clouzot beat out Alfred Hitchcock to secure the rights to this novel, which proved to be a veritable blueprint for an icy masterpiece of murder, mystery and suspense. Véra Clouzot plays the sickly wife of a callous headmaster of a provincial boarding school going to seed, and the commanding Simone Signoret is the headmaster's mistreated mistress. Together they plot and carry out his murder, a brutal drowning that director Clouzot documents in chilly detail, but the corpse disappears and a nosy detective starts sniffing around the grounds as threatening notes taunt the women. Clouzot's thriller is as precise and accomplished a work as anything in Hitchcock's canon, a film of gruelling suspense and startling shocks in an overcast, grey world of decay, but his icy manipulations lack the human dimension and emotional resonance of the master of suspense. Many critics have accused the film of being misanthropic, and Clouzot's attitude toward his characters is bitter at best, contemptuous at worst. The viewer is left on the outside looking in, but the razor precision and terrifying twists deliver a sleek, bleak spectacle worthy of attention. -Sean Axmaker, Amazon. com.

Review 20th Century Fox / The Ghost and Mrs. Muir [1947] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Joseph L. Mankiewicz
  • Vanessa Brown
  • Edna Best
  • Gene Tierney
  • George Sanders
  • Rex Harrison
Release date: 2003-04-01
Run time: 104 min.
Creator: Philip Dunne
Price: £6.36

Review The Ghost and Mrs. Muir [1947] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / 20th Century Fox:

Joseph Mankiewicz's moody 1947 classic The Ghost and Mrs Muir is less a ghost story than a romantic fantasy, a handsome drama of impossible love. Independent young widow Lucy Muir (the luminous Gene Tierney), desperate to escape her uptight in-laws, falls in love with a grand seaside house and moves in, only to discover the cantankerous ghost of the hot-tempered Captain Gregg (a histrionically flamboyant performance by Rex Harrison). Lucy refuses to let the bombastic captain frighten her away, earning his respect, his friendship, and later his love. They team up to turn the captain's salty memoirs into a bestseller, but as his affection grows he fades away, leaving Lucy free to undertake a more worldly suitor, notably a charismatic children's author (George Sanders at his smarmy smoothest) with his own guarded secret. Charles Lang's melancholy black-and-white photography and Bernard Herrmann's haunting score set the tone for this sublime adult drama, and Tierney delivers one of her most understated performances as the resolute Mrs Muir, Mankiewicz turns this ghost story into a refreshingly mature and down-to-earth romance. -Sean Axmaker.

Review Criterion / Shop on Main Street [1965] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Ida Kaminska
  • Hana Slivková
  • Ján Kadár
  • Martin Hollý
  • Jozef Króner
  • Adám Matejka
  • Elmar Klos
Release date: 2001-09-18
Run time: 128 min.
Creator: Milos Broz
Price: £14.38

Review Shop on Main Street [1965] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Criterion:


Review Warner Home Video / Darling [1965]
Actors & Directors
  • Julie Christie
  • Roland Curram
  • Dirk Bogarde
  • Laurence Harvey
  • José Luis de Villalonga
  • John Schlesinger
Release date: 2000-07-10
Run time: 122 min.
Creator: Frederic Raphael
RRP: £9.99
Price: £4.70

Review Darling [1965] / Warner Home Video:

"It's far too pleased with itself. I wince when I see it now", director John Schlesinger observes of his 1965 film, Darling. You can tell why he's embarrassed. Looking back, his swinging 60s' satire about a model (Julie Christie) so keen to get ahead that she ditches her husband and betrays a succession of boyfriends looks hideously dated. With its self-consciously hip dialogue and unnecessary voice-over, the screenplay by Frederic Raphael (who also wrote Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut) doesn't help. Most of the men Christie encounters, whether Laurence Harvey's slick businessman (who can't pass a mirror without preening himself in it) or Dirk Bogarde's neurotic TV pundit (who has delusions of literary grandeur), are as narcissistic as she is. Although this seems to be a cautionary tale about slick, superficial London media and fashion folk, it's obvious that the filmmakers are half in love with the world they're pretending to lampoon. The visual gags-rich, society matrons at a charity event gorging themselves on food or Christie's poster being plastered over an image of a starving child-are heavy-handed in the extreme. Still, Christie is tremendous in the role which established her as an international star (she won an Oscar). However shallow and selfish her character seems, we can't help but warm to her. [+]
-Geoffrey Macnab.

Review Anchor Bay / Dead of Night/Queen of Spades [1945] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Alberto Cavalcanti
  • Googie Withers
  • Charles Crichton
  • Mervyn Johns
  • Mary Merrall
  • Robert Hamer
  • Michael Redgrave
  • Basil Dearden
  • Thorold Dickinson
  • Roland Culver
Release date: 2003-05-20
Run time: 198 min.
Creator: Arthur Boys
Price: £67.95

Review Dead of Night/Queen of Spades [1945] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Anchor Bay:


Review 20th Century Fox / Leave Her to Heaven [1946] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Vincent Price
  • Gene Tierney
  • John M. Stahl
  • Mary Philips
  • Cornel Wilde
  • Jeanne Crain
Release date: 2005-02-22
Run time: 110 min.
Price: £6.53

Review Leave Her to Heaven [1946] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / 20th Century Fox:


Review C'est La Vie / Combat Dans L'Ile, Le [1962]
Actors & Directors
  • Romy Schneider
  • Diane Lepvrier
  • Jean-Louis Trintignant
  • Alain Cavalier
  • Robert Bousquet
  • Henri Serre
Release date: 2004-10-25
Run time: 104 min.
Creator: Jean-Paul Rappeneau
RRP: £19.99
Price: £8.19

Review Combat Dans L'Ile, Le [1962] / C'est La Vie:


Review Universal Studios / Wake Island [1942] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Macdonald Carey
  • John Farrow
  • Brian Donlevy
  • Albert Dekker
  • William Bendix
  • Robert Preston
Release date: 2004-05-25
Run time: 87 min.
Creator: Frank Butler
Price: £5.54

Review Wake Island [1942] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Universal Studios:


Review 20th Century Fox / David and Bathsheba [1951] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Raymond Massey
  • Susan Hayward
  • James Robertson Justice
  • Gregory Peck
  • Henry King
  • Kieron Moore
Release date: 2006-03-14
Run time: 116 min.
Price: £6.33

Review David and Bathsheba [1951] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / 20th Century Fox:


Review MGM Entertainment / The Magnificent Seven [1960]
Actors & Directors
  • Robert Vaughn
  • Steve McQueen
  • John Sturges
  • Yul Brynner
  • Eli Wallach
  • Charles Bronson
Release date: 2001-06-11
Run time: 125 min.
Creator: William Roberts
RRP: £9.99
Price: £1.95

Review The Magnificent Seven [1960] / MGM Entertainment:

Akira Kurosawa's rousing Seven Samurai was a natural for an American remake-after all, the codes and conventions of ancient Japan and the Wild West (at least the mythical movie West) are not so very far apart. Thus The Magnificent Seven effortlessly turns samurai into cowboys (the same trick worked more than once: Kurosawa's Yojimbo became Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars). The beleaguered denizens of a Mexican village, weary of attacks by banditos, hire seven gunslingers to repel the invaders once and for all. The gunmen are cool and capable, with most of the actors playing them just on the cusp of '60s stardom: Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn. The man who brings these warriors together is Yul Brynner, the baddest bald man in the West. There's nothing especially stylish about the approach of veteran director John Sturges (The Great Escape), but the storytelling is clear and strong, and the charisma of the young guns fairly flies off the screen. If that isn't enough to awaken the 12-year-old kid inside anyone, the unforgettable Elmer Bernstein music will do it: bum-bum-ba-bum, bum-ba-bum-ba-bum. Followed by three inferior sequels, Return of the Seven, Guns of the Magnificent Seven, and The Magnificent Seven Ride! -Robert Horton.

Review Video Artists International / Mussorgsky - Boris Godunov (Nebolsin) [1954]
Actors & Directors
  • Ivan Kozlovsky
  • Vera Stroyeva
  • Aleksandr Pirogov
  • Georgi Nelepp
  • Maksim Mikhajlov
  • Nikandr Khanayev
Release date: 2004-07-22
Run time: 110 min.
Creator: Nikolai Golovanov
RRP: £22.99
Price: £12.84

Review Mussorgsky - Boris Godunov (Nebolsin) [1954] / Video Artists International:


Review Criterion / The Fire Within [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Louis Malle
  • Hubert Deschamps
  • Maurice Ronet
  • Léna Skerla
  • Yvonne Clech
  • Jean-Paul Moulinot
Release date: 2008-05-13
Run time: 108 min.
Creator: Pierre Drieu La Rochelle
Price: £14.96

Review The Fire Within [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Criterion:


Review Pinnacle Vision / C.I.D. [1956]
Actors & Directors
  • Johny Walker
  • Dev Anand
  • Shakila
  • Raj Khosla
  • Waheeda Rehman
  • Mehmood
Release date: 2006-08-07
RRP: £9.99
Price: £2.98

Review C.I.D. [1956] / Pinnacle Vision:


Review Image / Kid Monk Baroni [1952] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Mona Knox
  • Richard Rober
  • Leonard Nimoy
  • Harold D. Schuster
  • Allene Roberts
  • Bruce Cabot
Release date: 2007-01-09
Run time: 80 min.
Price: £4.98

Review Kid Monk Baroni [1952] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Image:


Review Criterion / The Lovers [1958] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Louis Malle
  • Jean-Marc Bory
  • Alain Cuny
  • Patricia Garcin
  • José-Luis de Villalonga
  • Michéle Girardon
Release date: 2008-05-13
Run time: 90 min.
Creator: Johannes Brahms
Price: £15.30

Review The Lovers [1958] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Criterion:


Review ST Clair Vision / Robert Mitchum: Signature Collection [1943]
Actors & Directors
  • Robert Mitchum
Release date: 2007-09-25
Run time: 251 min.
Price: £4.37

Review Robert Mitchum: Signature Collection [1943] / ST Clair Vision:


Review MPI Home Video / The Hound of the Baskervilles [1939] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Sidney Lanfield
  • Richard Greene
  • Lionel Atwill
  • Wendy Barrie
  • Nigel Bruce
  • Basil Rathbone
Release date: 2004-04-27
Run time: 80 min.
Creator: Ernest Pascal
Price: £7.10

Review The Hound of the Baskervilles [1939] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / MPI Home Video:


Review Legend Films / The Gospel According to St. Matthew [1967] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Mario Socrate
  • Marcello Morante
  • Margherita Caruso
  • Enrique Irazoqui
  • Susanna Pasolini
  • Pier Paolo Pasolini
Release date: 2007-03-27
Run time: 227 min.
Price: £6.79

Review The Gospel According to St. Matthew [1967] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Legend Films:


Review Alpha Video / Sin Takes a Holiday [1930] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Rita La Roy
  • Paul L. Stein
  • Kenneth MacKenna
  • Constance Bennett
  • Louis John Bartels
  • Basil Rathbone
Release date: 2004-05-25
Run time: 81 min.
Creator: Robert Milton
Price: £2.83

Review Sin Takes a Holiday [1930] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Alpha Video:


Review MGM / Hour of the Wolf [1968] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Gertrud Fridh
  • Max von Sydow
  • Georg Rydeberg
  • Ingmar Bergman
  • Erland Josephson
  • Liv Ullmann
Release date: 2004-04-20
Run time: 90 min.
Creator: Lars-Owe Carlberg
Price: £12.39

Review Hour of the Wolf [1968] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / MGM:


Models & Brands:
Les Diaboliques [1954], The Ghost and Mrs. Muir [1947] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Shop on Main Street [1965] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Darling [1965], Dead of Night/Queen of Spades [1945] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Leave Her to Heaven [1946] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Combat Dans L'Ile, Le [1962], Wake Island [1942] (REGION 1) (NTSC), David and Bathsheba [1951] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Magnificent Seven [1960], Mussorgsky - Boris Godunov (Nebolsin) [1954], The Fire Within [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC), C.I.D. [1956], Kid Monk Baroni [1952] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Lovers [1958] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Robert Mitchum: Signature Collection [1943], The Hound of the Baskervilles [1939] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Gospel According to St. Matthew [1967] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Sin Takes a Holiday [1930] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Hour of the Wolf [1968] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

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