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Review Elstree Hill Entertainment / Meet John Doe [1941]
Actors & Directors
  • Gary Cooper
  • Edward Arnold
  • James Gleason
  • Barbara Stanwyck
  • Frank Capra
  • Walter Brennan
Release date: 2008-05-19
Run time: 122 min.
RRP: £4.99
Price: £3.01

Review Meet John Doe [1941] / Elstree Hill Entertainment:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Shane [1953]
Actors & Directors
  • Van Heflin
  • Jean Arthur
  • George Stevens
  • Brandon De Wilde
  • Jack Palance
  • Alan Ladd
Release date: 1998-09-07
Run time: 113 min.
Creator: Jack Sher
RRP: £5.99
Price: £9.21

Review Shane [1953] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

Consciously crafted by director George Stevens as a piece of American myth making, Shane is on nearly everyone's shortlist of great movie Westerns. A buckskin knight, Shane (Alan Ladd) rides into the middle of a range war between farmers and cattlemen, quickly siding with the "sod-busters". While helping a kindly farmer (Van Heflin), Shane falls platonically in love with the man's wife (Jean Arthur, in the last screen performance of a marvellous career). Though the showdowns are exciting, and the story simple but involving, what most people will remember about this movie is the friendship between the stoical Shane and the young son of the farmers. The kid is played by Brandon De Wilde, an amazing child performer; his parting scene with Shane is guaranteed to draw tears from even the most stony-hearted moviegoer. And speaking of stony hearts, Jack Palance made a sensational impression as the evil gunslinger sent to clean house-he has fewer lines of dialogue than he has lines in his magnificently craggy face, but he makes them count. The photography, highlighting the landscape near Jackson Hole, Wyoming, won an Oscar. -Robert Horton.

Review 20th Century Fox / Moontide [1942] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Claude Rains
  • Jerome Cowan
  • Fritz Lang
  • Archie Mayo
  • Ida Lupino
  • Thomas Mitchell
  • Jean Gabin
Release date: 2008-09-02
Run time: 94 min.
Creator: Willard Robertson
Price: £5.93

Review Moontide [1942] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / 20th Century Fox:


Review New Yorker Video / Privilege [1967] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Mark London
  • William Job
  • Jean Shrimpton
  • Paul Jones
  • Max Bacon
  • Peter Watkins
Release date: 2008-07-29
Run time: 103 min.
Creator: Timothy Burrill
Price: £38.00

Review Privilege [1967] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / New Yorker Video:


Review Columbia TriStar / The Eddy Duchin Story [1956] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Tyrone Power
  • Kim Novak
  • Rex Thompson
  • James Whitmore
  • Victoria Shaw
  • George Sidney
Release date: 2002-07-16
Run time: 123 min.
Creator: Jonie Taps
Price: £8.67

Review The Eddy Duchin Story [1956] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Columbia TriStar:


Review Warner Home Video / The Bad and the Beautiful [1952] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Vincente Minnelli
  • Lana Turner
  • Dick Powell
  • Walter Pidgeon
  • Barry Sullivan
  • Kirk Douglas
Release date: 2002-02-05
Run time: 118 min.
Creator: George Bradshaw
Price: £9.46

Review The Bad and the Beautiful [1952] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:


Review Warner Home Video / Seven Brides For Seven Brothers [1954]
Actors & Directors
  • Russ Tamblyn
  • Jane Powell
  • Howard Keel
  • Jeff Richards
  • Stanley Donen
  • Tommy Rall
Release date: 2000-03-27
Run time: 98 min.
Creator: Stephen Vincent Benet
RRP: £10.99
Price: £1.46

Review Seven Brides For Seven Brothers [1954] / Warner Home Video:

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, starring MGM soprano Jane Powell and handsome baritone Howard Keel, has retained a remarkably loyal following among fans of the musical film ever since its release in 1954. Although it was filmed in state-of-the-art CinemaScope, Stanley Donen was obliged to direct much of the film on Metro's sound stages, where the artificial sets and painted backdrops don't inevitably live up to the scenes shot on location in Oregon. Viewers coming fresh to the picture may find this visual discrepancy jarring and some too may find Miss Powell's singing a shade plummy. The screenplay, by husband and wife team Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich with Dorothy Kingsley, tells the story of seven brothers living in the Oregon hills and their adventures to find themselves wives. The casting of each brother with his rugged, masculine looks and ability to dance with grace and athleticism, presided over by an authoritative Howard Keel, gives the film a dynamic impetus second to none in an MGM musical. The lengthy barn-raising episode under choreographer Michael Kidd's intrepid direction, where the music and the incredibly agile and energetic male and female dance ensemble unite as one, produces a square dance without parallel. The music and lyrics by Gene De Paul and Johnny Mercer-including the mating chorus, "Spring, Spring, Spring", the rollicking "Bless You're Beautiful Hide", the rousing "Sobbin' Women" and the visually enchanting "June Bride"-are both tuneful and mindful of the plot's exposition. Adolph Deutsch and Saul Chaplin won the Academy Award in 1954 for their arrangements and conducting. On the DVD: The digital remastering has created a clearer picture of what had been a faintly muddy Ansco colour system on the original print while the polish and attack with which the MGM Studio Orchestra play the music on this full-bodied stereophonic soundtrack remains a thing of wonder. Howard Keel, standing tall and erect in his 80s, hosts the "making of" documentary. [+]
Director Donen, choreographer Kidd, Jane Powell and several of the dancers recall how the film was considered a "sleeper" during production and wasn't expected to do as well as Brigadoon, in production at the same time. The documentary also highlights the care taken over the casting of the brothers, two of whom including Keel were not dancers and their often brave and brilliant feats of acrobatic dancing executed on precarious planks and other props. When Howard Keel takes his farewell walk down the main street lot at MGM, breaking into a few brief dance steps, it's impossible not to feel a moment of regret that the curtain had to come down on MGM's most treasured possession. -Adrian Edwards.

Review ITV DVD / 3 Powell And Pressburger Films - A Matter Of Life And Death / Life And Death Of Col. Blimp/I Know Where I'm Going [1946]
Actors & Directors
  • Emeric Pressburger
  • David Niven
  • Wendy Hiller
  • Albert Lieven
  • Michael Powell
  • Roland Culver
  • Valentine Dyall
Release date: 2003-10-20
Run time: 344 min.
RRP: £17.99
Price: £12.84

Review 3 Powell And Pressburger Films - A Matter Of Life And Death / Life And Death Of Col. Blimp/I Know Where I'm Going [1946] / ITV DVD:


Review Fox Lorber / Lola Montes [1955]
Actors & Directors
  • Henri Guisol
  • Peter Ustinov
  • Max Ophüls
  • Lise Delamare
  • Martine Carol
  • Anton Walbrook
Release date: 1999-02-23
Run time: 110 min.
Creator: Jacques Natanson
Price: £54.36

Review Lola Montes [1955] / Fox Lorber:


Review Network / Armchair Thriller Vol. 3 - Dying Day [1967]
Actors & Directors
  • Patrick Malahide
  • Michael Troughton
  • Ian McKellen
  • Robert Tronson
Release date: 2008-05-05
Run time: 103 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £8.50

Review Armchair Thriller Vol. 3 - Dying Day [1967] / Network:


Review Acorn Media / The First Churchills - Part 1 [1969]
Actors & Directors
  • Margaret Tyzack
  • James Villiers
  • David Giles
  • John Standing
  • Susan Hampshire
  • John Neville
Release date: 2005-05-09
Run time: 270 min.
RRP: £24.99
Price: £17.44

Review The First Churchills - Part 1 [1969] / Acorn Media:


Review Metrodome Distribution / Body And Soul [1947]
Actors & Directors
  • Hazel Brooks
  • Robert Rossen
  • Lilli Palmer
  • James Burke
  • John Garfield
  • William Conrad
Release date: 2006-01-30
Run time: 110 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £6.97

Review Body And Soul [1947] / Metrodome Distribution:


Review Network / Quartet [1948]
Actors & Directors
  • Mervyn Johns
  • George Cole
  • Dirk Bogarde
  • Ken Annakin
  • Ralph Smart
  • Hermione Baddeley
  • Cecil Parker
  • Arthur Crabtree
  • Harold French
Release date: 2007-05-21
Run time: 114 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £4.79

Review Quartet [1948] / Network:


Review Odeon Entertainment / Fear In The Night [1947]
Actors & Directors
  • Paul Kelly
  • DeForest Kelley
Release date: 2006-02-20
Run time: 75 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £1.44

Review Fear In The Night [1947] / Odeon Entertainment:


Review 2 Entertain Video / Doctor Who The Green Death [1963]
Actors & Directors
  • Jon Pertwee
  • Peter Davison
  • Patrick Troughton
  • Tom Baker
  • William Hartnell
Release date: 1996-10-07
Run time: 154 min.
Creator: Sydney Newman
RRP: £16.99
Price: £6.99

Review Doctor Who The Green Death [1963] / 2 Entertain Video:


Review Warner Home Video / Baby Doll [1956] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Mildred Dunnock
  • Elia Kazan
  • Lonny Chapman
  • Carroll Baker
  • Karl Malden
  • Eli Wallach
Release date: 2006-05-02
Run time: 114 min.
Price: £8.29

Review Baby Doll [1956] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:


Review Odeon Entertainment / Blackout/Bond Of Fear [1950]
Actors & Directors
  • Eric Pohlmann
  • Janet Barett
  • Dermot Walsh
  • Maxwell Read
  • Henry Cass
Release date: 2008-05-26
Run time: 134 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £7.88

Review Blackout/Bond Of Fear [1950] / Odeon Entertainment:


Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / Miss Sadie Thompson [1953]
Actors & Directors
  • Russell Collins
  • Aldo Ray
  • Diosa Costello
  • Rita Hayworth
  • José Ferrer
  • Curtis Bernhardt
Release date: 2003-08-18
Run time: 87 min.
Creator: W. Somerset Maugham
RRP: £12.99
Price: £2.71

Review Miss Sadie Thompson [1953] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:


Review MGM / I Could Go On Singing [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Aline MacMahon
  • Dirk Bogarde
  • Jack Klugman
  • Ronald Neame
  • Gregory Phillips
  • Judy Garland
Release date: 2004-05-11
Run time: 100 min.
Creator: Robert Dozier
Price: £3.48

Review I Could Go On Singing [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / MGM:


Review Prism Leisure / The Killing Of Sister George [1968]
Actors & Directors
  • Coral Browne
  • Patricia Medina
  • Susannah York
  • Beryl Reid
  • Ronald Fraser
  • Robert Aldrich
Release date: 2002-04-08
Run time: 135 min.
Creator: Lukas Heller
RRP: £5.99
Price: £19.99

Review The Killing Of Sister George [1968] / Prism Leisure:

"Sister George" within The Killing of Sister George is Britain's best-loved soap opera character, played by actress June Buckeridge (Beryl Reid). Buckeridge has become so identified with her character-a sweet old Miss Marple-ish nurse who putters around her quaint little village on a motor scooter-even her friends call her George. But outside the studio she's a hard-drinking, hot-tempered, foul-mouthed lesbian living with an immature young thing she's nicknamed "Childie" (Susannah York, who makes her memorable entrance in a sheer baby-doll nightie). At her worst Sister George is an abusive monster (in a moment of rage she forces Childie to eat the butt of her cigar) but beneath the bluster is an insecure television actress. When the studio decides to kill her character off and an executive makes a play for Childie, the soap star desperately clings to her young lover. Director Robert Aldrich, best known for his tough action films and gothic thrillers, brings his fierce vision of human nature to Frank Marcus's play. In its best moments the film simmers in angry suspicion and helpless frustration, brought to life by Reid's vivacious performance but other scenes are overlong and stage-bound and would have benefited greatly from judicious trimming and tightening. The caricatured portrayals of lesbian life have aged rather poorly-an inevitable sign of the times-but this acidic show-biz drama still carries a hefty emotional punch. -Sean Axmaker, Amazon. com.

Models & Brands:
Meet John Doe [1941], Shane [1953], Moontide [1942] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Privilege [1967] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Eddy Duchin Story [1956] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Bad and the Beautiful [1952] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Seven Brides For Seven Brothers [1954], 3 Powell And Pressburger Films - A Matter Of Life And Death / Life And Death Of Col. Blimp/I Know Where I'm Going [1946], Lola Montes [1955], Armchair Thriller Vol. 3 - Dying Day [1967], The First Churchills - Part 1 [1969], Body And Soul [1947], Quartet [1948], Fear In The Night [1947], Doctor Who The Green Death [1963], Baby Doll [1956] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Blackout/Bond Of Fear [1950], Miss Sadie Thompson [1953], I Could Go On Singing [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Killing Of Sister George [1968]

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