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Review Carat / It's a Wonderful Life
Actors & Directors
  • Thomas Mitchell
  • Lionel Barrymore
  • Henry Travers
  • James Stewart
  • Frank Capra
  • Donna Reed
Release date: 2003-02-24
Run time: 130 min.
Creator: Philip Van Doren Stern
RRP: £4.99
Price: £29.99

Review It's a Wonderful Life / Carat:

Now perhaps the most beloved American film, It's a Wonderful Life was largely forgotten for years, due to a copyright quirk. Only in the late 1970s did it find its audience through repeated TV showings. Frank Capra's masterwork deserves its status as a feel-good communal event, but it is also one of the most fascinating films in the American cinema, a multilayered work of Dickensian density. George Bailey (played superbly by James Stewart) grows up in the small town of Bedford Falls, dreaming dreams of adventure and travel, but circumstances conspire to keep him enslaved to his home turf. Frustrated by his life, and haunted by an impending scandal, George prepares to commit suicide on Christmas Eve. A heavenly messenger (Henry Travers) arrives to show him a vision: what the world would have been like if George had never been born. The sequence is a vivid depiction of the American Dream gone bad, and probably the wildest thing Capra ever shot (the director's optimistic vision may have darkened during his experiences making military films in World War II). Capra's triumph is to acknowledge the difficulties and disappointments of life, while affirming-in the teary-eyed final reel-his cherished values of friendship and individual achievement. It's a Wonderful Life was not a big hit on its initial release, and it won no Oscars (Capra and Stewart were nominated); but it continues to weave a special magic. -Robert Horton.

Review MGM Entertainment / Women in Love [1969]
Actors & Directors
  • Ken Russell
  • Jennie Linden
  • Alan Bates
  • Eleanor Bron
  • Glenda Jackson
  • Oliver Reed
Release date: 1993-06-21
Run time: 125 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £10.00

Review Women in Love [1969] / MGM Entertainment:

Before director Ken Russell's name became synonymous with cinematic extravagance and overkill, he actually directed what is one of the most passionate and involving adaptations of DH Lawrence in recent memory. Oliver Reed and Alan Bates star as friends who fall in love with a pair of sisters (Jennie Linden and Glenda Jackson, who won an Oscar for the role). But the relationships take markedly different directions, as Russell explores the nature of commitment and love. Bates and Linden learn to give themselves to each other; the more withdrawn Reed cannot, finally, connect with the demanding and challenging Jackson. Shot with great sensuality, Women in Love was surprisingly frank for its period (1970) and includes one of the most charged scenes in movie history: Bates and Reed as manly men, wrestling nude by firelight. -Marshall Fine.

Review Warner Home Video / Sweet Bird of Youth [1962] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Shirley Knight
  • Ed Begley
  • Paul Newman
  • Rip Torn
  • Geraldine Page
  • Richard Brooks
Release date: 2006-05-02
Run time: 120 min.
Creator: Tennessee Williams
Price: £9.60

Review Sweet Bird of Youth [1962] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:


Review Momentum Pictures / Open Your Eyes [1997]
Actors & Directors
  • Eduardo Noriega
  • Alejandro Amenábar
  • Najwa Nimri
  • Fele Martínez
  • Penélope Cruz
  • Chete Lera
Release date: 2002-02-18
Run time: 114 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £9.96

Review Open Your Eyes [1997] / Momentum Pictures:

Open Your Eyes ("Abre Los Ojos") is a film that may give anyone who has seen Tom Cruise's Vanilla Sky (2001) déjà vu. Indeed, the Hollywood version is an inferior remake of this superb Spanish original. The plots of the two movies are virtually the same-Penelope Cruz even plays the same role in both-but here everything is done with rather more European subtlety and intelligence. It's also easy to see how the part of a good-looking urban playboy whose life is thrown into crisis must have appealed to Cruise, as Eduardo Noriega's star turn here seems a tailor-made template for the American superstar. After a car accident, which leaves Noriega's character seriously disfigured, he finds himself in an almost literal nightmare charged with murder and beset by a memory so unreliable the very identity of the people around him shifts. Like the novels of Christopher Priest-particularly The Affirmation and The Glamour-this is a tale with strong science-fictional appeal, about the nature of personality, memory and identity. Powerfully written, scored and directed by Alejandro Amanabar (The Others), Open Your Eyes is a delirious, erotic and stylish thriller whose recursive ending provides its own sequel. It's the best head-trip this side of Memento and definitely not to be confused with Tom Cruise's similarly titled Eyes Wide Shut. On the DVD: Open Your Eyes on DVD has no features of any kind, with the film presented in the original Spanish with large, easy-to-read yellow subtitles imposed directly onto the print itself and no option to turn them off. The sound is good, well-balanced stereo and the picture-presented non-anamorphically at 1. [+]
77:1-is clear, detailed and mostly lacking in grain. -Gary S Dalkin.

Review AmCo / Madonna of the Seven Moons [1945]
Actors & Directors
  • Peter Glenville
  • Patricia Roc
  • Phyllis Calvert
  • Stewart Granger
  • Arthur Crabtree
  • John Stuart
Release date: 2005-06-07
Run time: 88 min.
Creator: Roland Pertwee
RRP: £11.24
Price: £35.00

Review Madonna of the Seven Moons [1945] / AmCo:


Review 20th Century Fox / Satan Never Sleeps [1962] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Athene Seyler
  • Martin Benson
  • Clifton Webb
  • William Holden
  • Leo McCarey
  • France Nuyen
Release date: 2005-02-22
Run time: 125 min.
Creator: Pearl S. Buck
Price: £6.53

Review Satan Never Sleeps [1962] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / 20th Century Fox:


Review Eureka Entertainment / Broken Blossoms [1919]
Actors & Directors
  • D.W. Griffith
  • Arthur Howard
  • Edward Peil Sr.
  • Donald Crisp
  • Richard Barthelmess
  • Lillian Gish
Release date: 2000-10-16
Run time: 69 min.
Creator: Thomas Burke
RRP: £15.99
Price: £13.99

Review Broken Blossoms [1919] / Eureka Entertainment:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Tony Rome [1967]
Actors & Directors
  • Frank Sinatra
  • Jill St. John
  • Sue Lyon
  • Gena Rowlands
  • Richard Conte
  • Gordon Douglas
Release date: 2006-07-03
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.51

Review Tony Rome [1967] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Alpha Video / The Eyes of the Mummy [1922]
Actors & Directors
  • Harry Liedtke
  • Ernst Lubitsch
  • Max Laurence
  • Pola Negri
  • Emil Jannings
  • Margarete Kupfer
Release date: 2006-03-28
Run time: 57 min.
Price: £2.86

Review The Eyes of the Mummy [1922] / Alpha Video:


Review Warner Home Video / Cat On A Hot Tin Roof [1958]
Actors & Directors
  • Judith Anderson
  • Burl Ives
  • Elizabeth Taylor
  • Paul Newman
  • Jack Carson
  • Richard Brooks
Release date: 2000-09-04
Run time: 103 min.
Creator: Tennessee Williams
RRP: £9.99
Price: £2.44

Review Cat On A Hot Tin Roof [1958] / Warner Home Video:

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof offers a smouldering, angry Elizabeth Taylor as Maggie, the feline in question. Paul Newman is her ex-athlete husband, Brick Pollitt, an alcoholic who frustrates and disappoints his wife and his overbearing father, Burl Ives, the vulgar patriarch of this positively Gothic Southern family whose children return to the nest like vultures when they learn he is dying of cancer. Infidelities, addictions, latent homosexuality, depression, unrequited love and mendacity are woven into this powerful adaptation of Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Though it was somewhat whitewashed by Hollywood, the sentiment remains powerful due to the provocative performances. The film was nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor and Actress for Newman and Taylor. -Rochelle O'Gorman, Amazon. com.

Review Warner Home Video / Mrs Miniver [1942]
Actors & Directors
  • Reginald Owen
  • Greer Garson
  • William Wyler
  • Teresa Wright
  • Dame May Whitty
  • Walter Pidgeon
Release date: 2000-03-20
Run time: 134 min.
Creator: Jan Struther
RRP: £9.99
Price: £11.99

Review Mrs Miniver [1942] / Warner Home Video:

A movie doesn't win seven Oscars for nothing. A glowing Greer Garson (Best Actress) commands the screen as Mrs Miniver, a middle-class British housewife whose strength holds her family together as World War II literally hits their home. Walter Pidgeon as her architect husband seems to be the prototype for future TV dads in this affecting portrait of love-familial and romantic-during war. But the relationship between Mrs Miniver's college-age son (Richard Ney) and the upper-crust Carol (Best Supporting Actress Teresa Wright) is filled with inherent drama-as the war speeds up their young love, it also has the potential to doom it. The 1942 film, which also won for Best Picture and Best Director, is filled with colourful characters, snappy dialogue and sensational plot twists. Although you spend much of the movie dreading that one of the Minivers will become a casualty of war, when it finally happens, it's not what you anticipated. Exactly what you would expect from a legendary film that lives up to its billing. -Valerie J. Nelson, Amazon. com.

Actors & Directors
  • Ted de Corsia
  • Allan Dwan
  • Arlene Dahl
  • John Payne
  • Kent Taylor
  • Rhonda Fleming
Release date: 2002-02-26
Run time: 99 min.
Creator: Robert Blees
Price: £4.07

Review Slightly Scarlet [1956] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Vci Video:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / The Littlest Rebel [1935]
Actors & Directors
  • John Boles
  • Shirley Temple
  • Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson
  • David Butler
Release date: 2006-10-02
Run time: 73 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.13

Review The Littlest Rebel [1935] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Warner Home Video / Petulia [1968] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Julie Christie
  • Shirley Knight
  • Richard Lester
  • George C. Scott
  • Richard Chamberlain
  • Arthur Hill
Release date: 2006-06-20
Run time: 105 min.
Creator: Raymond Wagner
Price: £9.21

Review Petulia [1968] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Gentlemen Prefer Blondes [1951]
Actors & Directors
  • Elliott Reid
  • Marilyn Monroe
  • Jane Russell
  • Tommy Noonan
  • Howard Hawks
  • Charles Coburn
Release date: 1988-07-21
Run time: 89 min.
Creator: Joseph Fields
RRP: £5.99
Price: £1.48

Review Gentlemen Prefer Blondes [1951] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Anita Loos' old story from the 1920s about a pair of single women in search of husbands, gets a makeover in Howard Hawks' 1953 musical. The remake stars Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe as two friends who go to Paris looking for mates. The film is charged by Hawks's stylish snap, a famous set piece or two (Monroe descending that staircase while singing "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend"), Russell's wit and songs by Leo Robin and Jule Styne. The film may largely be a fluff project best remembered as a showcase for its leading actresses, but then Monroe and Russell rarely got such extended opportunities to prove that they were more than cinematic icons. -Tom Keogh, Amazon. com.

Review Infinity / The Importance Of Being Earnest [1952]
Actors & Directors
  • Anthony Asquith
  • Edith Evans
  • Michael Denison
  • Walter Hudd
  • Richard Wattis
  • Michael Redgrave
Release date: 2006-08-28
Run time: 115 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £29.00

Review The Importance Of Being Earnest [1952] / Infinity:


Review Legend Films / Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon [1942] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • John Burton
  • Paul Bryar
  • Lionel Atwill
  • Rudolph Anders
  • Nigel Bruce
Release date: 2006-11-01
Creator: Frank Skinner
Price: £4.13

Review Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon [1942] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Legend Films:


Review Cinema Epoch / Song at Midnight [1937] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Weibang Ma-Xu
  • Shan Jin
  • Chau-shui Yee
  • Menghe Gu
  • Ping Hu
  • Wenzhu Zhou
Release date: 2007-05-08
Run time: 120 min.
Creator: Shankun Zhang
Price: £7.96

Review Song at Midnight [1937] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Cinema Epoch:


Review Columbia TriStar / Texas Cyclone [1932] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • D. Ross Lederman
  • Shirley Grey
  • Wallace MacDonald
  • Tim McCoy
  • Wheeler Oakman
  • John Wayne
Release date: 2005-05-31
Run time: 63 min.
Creator: William Colt MacDonald
Price: £6.42

Review Texas Cyclone [1932] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Columbia TriStar:


Review BBC Enterprises Ltd / Doctor Who - Spearhead from Space [1970] [1963]
Actors & Directors
  • Jon Pertwee
  • Nicholas Courtney
  • Caroline John
  • Derek Martinus
Release date: 1997-04-02
Run time: 97 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £6.38

Review Doctor Who - Spearhead from Space [1970] [1963] / BBC Enterprises Ltd:


Models & Brands:
It's a Wonderful Life, Women in Love [1969], Sweet Bird of Youth [1962] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Open Your Eyes [1997], Madonna of the Seven Moons [1945], Satan Never Sleeps [1962] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Broken Blossoms [1919], Tony Rome [1967], The Eyes of the Mummy [1922], Cat On A Hot Tin Roof [1958], Mrs Miniver [1942], Slightly Scarlet [1956] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Littlest Rebel [1935], Petulia [1968] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes [1951], The Importance Of Being Earnest [1952], Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon [1942] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Song at Midnight [1937] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Texas Cyclone [1932] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Doctor Who - Spearhead from Space [1970] [1963]

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