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Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / Revenge Of Frankenstein [1958]
Actors & Directors
  • Peter Cushing
  • Eunice Gayson
  • Michael Gwynn
  • Francis Matthews
  • Terence Fisher
  • John Welsh
Release date: 2002-08-19
Run time: 87 min.
Creator: Jimmy Sangster
RRP: £12.99
Price: £5.89

Review Revenge Of Frankenstein [1958] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

The Revenge of Frankenstein was an inevitability after Hammer Films had made an international star of Peter Cushing in The Curse of this sequel-rich franchise. The plot here is a braver twist on the story than the many follow-ups would take. The Creature doesn't make its presence known until the final reel, up to which point the only sense of lurking menace comes from Cushing's deliciously mannered performance as a disguised Dr Stein. A new name and a new town is a gamble sure to fail, and circumstances almost immediately conspire against the deceit. Also rattling around the brilliantly lit studio sets are Eunice Gayson and Francis Matthews, while Michael Gwynn gives everything he's got in stiff competition to predecessor Christopher Lee in the Creature role. It's subtle and simply screams out for enfranchisement-so of course Hammer dutifully made another five in the series. On the DVD: The Revenge of Frankenstein comes with mono sound (all you're going to get from Hammer and 1958), but the 1. 66:1 ratio is a treat. You also get a trailer (and a surprise additional movie trailer) plus 10 photos. -Paul Tonks.

Review 2 Entertain Video / In Search of Shakespeare [2003]
Actors & Directors
  • Robert Whitelock
  • Gerald Kyd
  • Fred Melamed
  • Ray Fearon
  • Michael Wood
Release date: 2003-08-25
Run time: 240 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £15.93

Review In Search of Shakespeare [2003] / 2 Entertain Video:

The BBC series In Search of Shakespeare could be the English teacher's most important ally yet. With his typical mixture of intensive research, detective work, boyish enthusiasm and popular appeal, television historian Michael Wood comes closer than anyone to bringing the Bard to life. There are some astonishing discoveries along the way, which help to give a documentary cohesion to Shakespeare's story. But Wood is never arrogant enough to claim to have pinned the playwright's character down. The ifs, buts and maybes are all part of the fascination. The man himself remains tantalisingly just out of reach, which is probably as it should be. Instead, Wood takes us on an exhilarating journey through Elizabethan and Jacobean England, building a picture of his subject through painstaking reference to the climate of the age: a police state in which Shakespeare's family was devastated by the persecution of Catholics. Social, familial and political influences are all unravelled and pieced together, counterpointed with scenes from the plays-RSC actors conveniently to hand-and the life and times of the travelling actor and playwright are evoked in front of our eyes, becoming tangible and relevant. Wood gives us the chance to consider the plays in context, products of a great mind living in interesting times, rather than in academic isolation. It's a compelling tale, full of bloody danger, sex, celebrity and social history, and densely packed with layers of detail. [+]
Wood's great gift is to tell it in such an accessible way and without the sense of superiority that some of his peers bring to popular history. -Piers Ford.

Review Yume Pictures / Naked Youth [1960]
Actors & Directors
  • Nagisa Oshima
Release date: 2008-02-25
Run time: 96 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £4.58

Review Naked Youth [1960] / Yume Pictures:


Review Fremantle Home Entertainment / Portrait Of Jennie [1948]
Actors & Directors
  • Cecil Kellaway
  • Lillian Gish
  • Ethel Barrymore
  • William Dieterle
  • Jennifer Jones
  • Joseph Cotten
Release date: 2001-08-06
Run time: 86 min.
Creator: Robert Nathan
RRP: £12.99
Price: £5.75

Review Portrait Of Jennie [1948] / Fremantle Home Entertainment:


Review United Artists / The Secret of Santa Vittoria [1969] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Eduardo Ciannelli
  • Stanley Kramer
  • Gigi Bonos
  • Aldo de Carellis
  • Gigi Ballista
  • Valentina Cortese
Release date: 2008-05-13
Run time: 140 min.
Creator: Ernest Gold
Price: £6.40

Review The Secret of Santa Vittoria [1969] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / United Artists:


Review Network / Coronation Street: 1961, 1970, 1984 - 3 Episodes with Elsie Tanner [1960]
Actors & Directors
  • Alan Bromly
  • Barbara Knox
  • Sue Nicholls
  • Simon Gregson
  • Baz Taylor
  • Brian Lennane
  • Anne Ross Muir
  • Alan Grint
  • William Roache
  • Helen Worth
Release date: 2007-01-15
Run time: 75 min.
RRP: £1.99
Price: £2.75

Review Coronation Street: 1961, 1970, 1984 - 3 Episodes with Elsie Tanner [1960] / Network:


Review Optimum Home Entertainment / Le Jour Se Leve [1939]
Actors & Directors
  • Marcel Carné
  • Arletty
  • René Génin
  • Jules Berry
  • Jean Gabin
  • Mady Berry
Release date: 2007-04-30
Run time: 86 min.
RRP: £17.99
Price: £7.92

Review Le Jour Se Leve [1939] / Optimum Home Entertainment:


Review Criterion / The Red Balloon [1956] (REGION 1) NTSC (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Paul Perey
  • Pascal Lamorisse
  • Wladimir Popof
  • Michel Pezin
  • Georges Sellier
  • Albert Lamorisse
Release date: 2008-04-29
Run time: 34 min.
Creator: Pierre Gillette
Price: £7.33

Review The Red Balloon [1956] (REGION 1) NTSC (NTSC) / Criterion:


Review Uca / The Wild One [1954]
Actors & Directors
  • Laslo Benedek
  • Marlon Brando
  • Jay C. Flippen
  • Robert Keith
  • Mary Murphy
  • Lee Marvin
Release date: 2006-03-06
Run time: 76 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £3.14

Review The Wild One [1954] / Uca:


Review Warner Home Video / Key Largo [1948]
Actors & Directors
  • Lauren Bacall
  • Edward G. Robinson
  • John Huston
  • Lionel Barrymore
  • Claire Trevor
  • Humphrey Bogart
Release date: 2006-06-01
Run time: 97 min.
Creator: Richard Brooks
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.87

Review Key Largo [1948] / Warner Home Video:

John Huston (The Maltese Falcon) directed this smart thriller about a gangster (Edward G. Robinson) who holds a number of people hostage in a hotel on the Florida keys during a tropical storm. Humphrey Bogart is the returning war veteran who takes on the villains, and Lauren Bacall is on hand as one of the people on the wrong end of Robinson's gun. Somewhat similar in tone to Howard Hawks's To Have and Have Not (which also featured Bogart and Bacall), Key Largo is a moody movie which captures a certain despair offset by the bond between individuals united by common purpose. Claire Trevor won an Academy Award for her part as Robinson's alcoholic girlfriend. -Tom Keogh.

Review Nouveaux Pictures / Umberto D
Actors & Directors
  • Lina Gennari
  • Maria Pia Casilio
  • Vittorio De Sica
  • Alberto Albani Barbieri
  • Carlo Battisti
Release date: 2004-09-27
Run time: 74 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £4.69

Review Umberto D / Nouveaux Pictures:


Review Fremantle Home Entertainment / They Shoot Horses Don't They? [1969]
Actors & Directors
  • Michael Sarrazin
  • Susannah York
  • Gig Young
  • Red Buttons
  • Sydney Pollack
  • Jane Fonda
Release date: 2008-10-13
Run time: 120 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £5.68

Review They Shoot Horses Don't They? [1969] / Fremantle Home Entertainment:


Review Eureka Entertainment LTD / Ugetsu Monogatari / Oyu-Sama [Masters Of Cinema] [1951]
Actors & Directors
  • Nobuko Otowa
  • Kinuyo Tanaka
  • Masayuki Mori
  • Kenji Mizoguchi
  • Machiko Kyo
Release date: 2008-04-21
Run time: 191 min.
RRP: £24.99
Price: £16.98

Review Ugetsu Monogatari / Oyu-Sama [Masters Of Cinema] [1951] / Eureka Entertainment LTD:


Review MGM Entertainment / The Killing [1956]
Actors & Directors
  • Sterling Hayden
  • Elisha Cook Jr.
  • Vince Edwards
  • Stanley Kubrick
  • Coleen Gray
  • Jay C. Flippen
Release date: 2002-07-15
Run time: 80 min.
Creator: Lionel White
RRP: £15.99
Price: £2.49

Review The Killing [1956] / MGM Entertainment:

Among Stanley Kubrick's early film output The Killing stands out as the most lastingly influential: Quentin Tarantino credits the film as a huge inspiration for Reservoir Dogs and just about any movie or TV show that plays around with its own internal chronology owes the same debt. This sort of convoluted crime caper had really kicked off with John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle in 1950. From then on, nouveau noir scripts kept trying to find new ways of telling very similar stories. Here the novel Clean Break is adapted for the screen in a jigsaw-puzzle structure that caught Kubrick's eye. With a dry narration we're introduced to the key players in a racetrack heist as it's being planned, but the story bounces back and forth between what happens to each of them during and before the big event. All of this keeps the audience guessing as to exactly how it will go wrong, while the downbeat telling, the unsympathetic characters and the excessively dramatic score clearly foretell that it will go wrong from the start. The denouement is comically daft no matter how many times you see it. On the DVD: The Killing is a no-frills DVD transfer, in 4:3 ratio and with its original mono soundtrack. Criminally, just one trailer is all that's been dug up as an extra. -Paul Tonks.

Review Warner Home Video / Cool Hand Luke [Blu-ray] [1967]
Actors & Directors
  • Stuart Rosenberg
  • Anthony Zerbe
  • Joe Don Baker
  • Paul Newman
  • George Kennedy
  • Harry Dean Stanton
Release date: 2008-09-15
Run time: 121 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £15.24

Review Cool Hand Luke [Blu-ray] [1967] / Warner Home Video:

- Paul Newman, Harry Dean Stanton, George Kennedy, Joe Don Baker, Anthony Zerbe

Review Tartan Video / The Phantom Carriage (Sjostrom) & The Image Makers (Bergman) [1921]
Actors & Directors
  • Hilda Borgstrom
  • Ingmar Bergman
  • Elin Klinga
  • Victor Sjöström
  • Tore Svennberg
  • Victor Sjöström
  • Anita Bjork
Release date: 2008-02-11
Run time: 206 min.
RRP: £24.99
Price: £48.90

Review The Phantom Carriage (Sjostrom) & The Image Makers (Bergman) [1921] / Tartan Video:


Review Network / The Card [1952]
Actors & Directors
  • Valerie Hobson
  • Ronald Neame
  • Glynis Johns
  • Edward Chapman
  • Petula Clark
  • Alec Guinness
Release date: 2007-03-12
Run time: 87 min.
Creator: Eric Ambler
RRP: £9.99
Price: £4.11

Review The Card [1952] / Network:


Review Bfi Video / Ossessione [1942]
Actors & Directors
  • Vittorio Duse
  • Dhia Cristiani
  • Clara Calamai
  • Massimo Girotti
  • Luchino Visconti
  • Juan De Landa
Release date: 2003-05-05
Run time: 140 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £7.80

Review Ossessione [1942] / Bfi Video:


Review Network / The Scarlet Pimpernel/Return Of The Scarlet Pimpernel [1935]
Actors & Directors
  • Leslie Howard; Merle Oberon; James Mason; Barry Barnes
Release date: 2007-07-30
Run time: 170 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £6.93

Review The Scarlet Pimpernel/Return Of The Scarlet Pimpernel [1935] / Network:


Review MGM Entertainment / Never On Sunday [1960]
Actors & Directors
  • Georges Foundas
  • Jules Dassin
  • Jules Dassin
  • Titos Vandis
  • Melina Mercouri
Release date: 2005-07-11
Run time: 97 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £4.97

Review Never On Sunday [1960] / MGM Entertainment:


Models & Brands:
Revenge Of Frankenstein [1958], In Search of Shakespeare [2003], Naked Youth [1960], Portrait Of Jennie [1948], The Secret of Santa Vittoria [1969] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Coronation Street: 1961, 1970, 1984 - 3 Episodes with Elsie Tanner [1960], Le Jour Se Leve [1939], The Red Balloon [1956] (REGION 1) NTSC (NTSC), The Wild One [1954], Key Largo [1948], Umberto D, They Shoot Horses Don't They? [1969], Ugetsu Monogatari / Oyu-Sama [Masters Of Cinema] [1951], The Killing [1956], Cool Hand Luke [Blu-ray] [1967], The Phantom Carriage (Sjostrom) & The Image Makers (Bergman) [1921], The Card [1952], Ossessione [1942], The Scarlet Pimpernel/Return Of The Scarlet Pimpernel [1935], Never On Sunday [1960]

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