Hard Times (1975) | Blu Ray | (24/04/2017)
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| RRP Walter Hill's colourful directorial debut has quite a cult following for its toughness and violence, and it may well be his best film. Charles Bronson plays a silent street fighter in 1930s New Orleans, managed by the cool James Coburn. Jill Ireland, Strother Martin, and Michael McGuire co-star in this spare existential Depression dirge. It owes a lot to its noir origins that Hill adores so much, yet there's something very fresh and vital about its subject and approach. That's really what made so many of these films from the '70s so endearing. A bonus is the love and affection displayed by the real-life husband and wife team of Bronson and Ireland. --Bill Desowitz
M | DVD | (27/08/2012)
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| RRP Of all Fritz Lang's creations none have been more innovative or influential than M the film that launched German cinema into the sound era with stunning sophistication and mesmerising artistry. A spate of child killings has stricken a terrified Berlin. Peter Lorre gives a legendary performance as the murderer Hans Beckert who soon finds himself chased by all levels of society. From cinema's first serial killer hunt Lang pulls back to encompass social tapestry police procedural and underworld conspiracies in an astonishingly multi-faceted and level-headed look at a deeply incendiary topic. One of the greatest psychological thrillers of all time M remains as fresh and startling almost 80 years on.
Touch of Evil (1958) (Masters of Cinema) | Blu Ray | (14/11/2011)
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| RRP Considered by many to be the greatest B movie ever made, the original-release version of Orson Welles's film noir masterpiece Touch of Evil was, ironically, never intended as a B movie at all--it merely suffered that fate after it was taken away from writer-director Welles, then reedited and released in 1958 as the second half of a double feature. Time and critical acclaim would eventually elevate the film to classic status (and Welles's original vision was meticulously followed for the film's 1998 restoration), but for four decades this original version stood as a testament to Welles's directorial genius. From its astonishing, miraculously choreographed opening shot (lasting over three minutes) to Marlene Dietrich's classic final line of dialogue, this sordid tale of murder and police corruption is like a valentine for the cinematic medium, with Welles as its love-struck suitor. As the corpulent cop who may be involved in a border-town murder, Welles faces opposition from a narcotics officer (Charlton Heston) whose wife (Janet Leigh) is abducted and held as the pawn in a struggle between Heston's quest for truth and Welles's control of carefully hidden secrets. The twisting plot is wildly entertaining (even though it's harder to follow in this original version), but even greater pleasure is found in the pulpy dialogue and the sheer exuberance of the dazzling directorial style. --Jeff Shannon
CURE | Blu Ray | (23/04/2018)
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| RRP Released to critical acclaim in both the East and the West, Cure was a breakthrough film for director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, a nerve shredding thriller about the hunt for a serial killer in a bleak and decaying Tokyo. A series of murders have been committed by ordinary people who claim to have had no control over their horrifying actions. Following the only link a mysterious stranger who had brief contact with each perpetrator and their victim detective Kenichi Takabe (Kôji Yakusho, 13 Assassins, Tokyo Sonata) places his own sanity on the line as he tries to end the wave of inexplicable terror. Described as one of the greatest films of all time by Bong Joon-ho (The Host, Snowpiercer), Cure is a deeply unsettling masterpiece of its genre, and has shockingly been unavailable on home video in the UK until now. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Cure in a special Dual Format edition. Features: Limited Edition O-card [2000 copies First Print Run Only] 1080p presentation of the film on Blu-ray, with a progressive encode on the DVD Original Japanese Stereo audio (Uncompressed LPCM on the Blu-ray) Optional English subtitles A new video interview with critic & author Kim Newman An archival interview with director Kiyoshi Kurosawa Original theatrical trailer A collector's booklet featuring an essay by Tom Mes
Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (Masters of Cinema) Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) edition | Blu Ray | (21/01/2019)
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| RRP Eureka Entertainment to release HUSH HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE; Robert Aldrich's brooding and tense tale of murder, mayhem and deceit starring Bette Davis, as part of The Masters of Cinema Series for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK in a special Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) edition on 21 January 2019. Originally conceived as an informal follow-up to What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Robert Aldrich's Hush Hush, Sweet Charlotte was yet another hit for the legendary director, receiving seven Academy Award nominations. Charlotte Hollis (Bette Davis) has been closeted in her mansion since the grisly murder of her married lover many years earlier. When the county wants to tear down the house to build a highway, the spinster's relatives and friends appear to rally behind her, but each slowly preys on her mind until the gruesome rumours of the last 40 years appear to be coming true. On hand are cousin Miriam (Olivia de Havilland), Dr. Drew Bayliss (Joseph Cotten), Jewel Mayhew (Mary Astor), and the scariest inhabitant of all, loyal servant Velma (Oscar® nominee Agnes Moorehead). A dark and twisted psychological thriller from one of Hollywood's most idiosyncratic filmmakers, The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Robert Aldrich's Hush Hush, Sweet Charlotte for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK in a special dual-format edition. DUAL FORMAT SPECIAL FEATURES: 1080p presentation on Blu-ray, with a progressive encode on the DVD LPCM 2.0 Audio (on Blu-ray) Optional English SDH subtitles New and exclusive feature length audio commentary by critic Kat Ellinger Audio commentary by film historian Glenn Erickson Hush Hush, Sweet Joan: The Making of Charlotte [22 mins] Bruce Dern Remembers [13 mins] Wizard Work [5 mins] an archival behind-the-scenes look at the film, narrated by Joseph Cotton Trailer & TV spots PLUS: A collector's booklet featuring a new essay by Lee Gambin, illustrated with archival imagery
Cover Girl (Masters Of Cinema) (Dual Format) (Blu-ray & DVD) | Blu Ray | (13/02/2017)
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| RRP Cover Girl was one of the big hits of Rita Hayworth's run as movie queen (and World War II pinup girl), a splashy musical geared to the talents of its redheaded star. Be warned: this is the kind of movie in which a single magazine cover turns an unknown dancer into the toast of her own Broadway show, virtually overnight. The corn runs high, but so do the spirits; plus, Eve Arden is around to toss in her trademark one-liners. Gene Kelly, as Hayworth's sulky choreographer and part-time boyfriend, stops the movie cold with his brilliant dance alongside his own reflection. The Jerome Kern-Ira Gershwin songs are middling, except for the lovely "Long Ago and Far Away". One number presents a parade of magazine cover girls come to life (great snapshot of an era). And check out the movie's hats: a parade of insane creations, perched uncertainly on many beautiful women's heads. --Robert Horton
Silent Running (1971) (Masters of Cinema) | Blu Ray | (14/11/2011)
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| RRP Three years after helping to achieve some of the most amazing imagery in cinema history with 2001: A Space Odyssey, special effects maestro Douglas Trumbull made an auspicious directorial debut at age 29 with the environmentally themed science fiction classic Silent Running. In the distant future, plant life on our planet is extinct. Remaining specimens are cultivated in vast greenhouse-like domes orbiting in space. Bruce Dern (Marnie, Coming Home, The 'burbs, Monster) stars as Freeman Lowell, dedicated botanist aboard the Valley Forge, awaiting the call to refoliate Earth - despite the scorn of his crewmates. When an order comes to instead destroy the domes and return home, Lowell takes matters into his own hands, beginning a long and lonely voyage into the unknown. With its remarkable special effects (especially the robot drones Huey, Dewey, and Louie); glorious score (including songs performed by Joan Baez); memorable sound effects (created by Joseph Byrd from the cult band The United States of America); a screenplay co-written by Michael Cimino (The Deer Hunter) and Steven Bochco (Hill Street Blues), and an impassioned central performance from Dern, Silent Running remains a uniquely contemplative and haunting adventure that continues to make hippies of young children, even today.
Human Desire (Masters of Cinema) Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) edition | Blu Ray | (18/02/2019)
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| RRP Eureka Entertainment to release HUMAN DESIRE, a hard-edged and chilling film-noir from legendary filmmaker Fritz Lang, starring Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame, as a worldwide premiere on Blu-ray in a definitive Dual Format edition as part of The Masters of Cinema Series from 11 February 2019. A startlingly dark, late film noir masterwork by director Fritz Lang, Human Desire reunites Lang with his hero Glenn Ford and femme fatale Gloria Grahame from the previous year's The Big Heat and the screenwriter of Lang's 1952 noir Clash by Night, Alfred Hayes. Like those two classics, Human Desire finds Lang casting a pitiless eye on all of the human weaknesses that define film noir: deception, infidelity, passion, and murder. Adapted from the same Ãmile Zola novel previously filmed by Jean Renoir in La Bête humaine (1938), Lang's gripping thriller has Ford as train engineer Jeff, just home from the Korean War. He's instantly attracted to passenger Vicki (Grahame), not yet realizing that she's the abused wife of Jeff's alcoholic railroad yard superior Carl (Broderick Crawford) -- or that Vicki was just entangled in a jealousy-fuelled murder committed by Carl. As Jeff and Vicki embark on a steamy affair, she tells him about the crime, and Carl's blackmail hold on her. If only Carl could be taken out of the picture The only thing that's not pitch black in this noir are the ethical shades of grey inhabited by all its characters. Yet its placid small town setting also offers a unique perspective on the genre, with Lang uncovering sinister secrets on these quiet streets that could rival any big city immorality. The Masters of Cinema is proud to present one of this brilliant filmmaker's most underrated films for the first time ever on Blu-ray. Special Features: 1080p presentation on Blu-ray (with a progressive encode on the DVD) LPCM Mono audio Optional English SDH subtitles A new and exclusive interview with film historian Tony Rayns PLUS: A Collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film alongside rare archival imagery
Lifeboat | Blu Ray | (23/04/2012)
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| RRP Based on an unpublished novella by John Steinbeck (written on commission expressly to provide treatment material for Hitchcock's screen scenario), Lifeboat found the Master of Suspense navigating a course of maximal tension - in the most minimal of settings - with a consistently inventive, beautifully paced drama that would foreshadow the single-set experiments of Rope and Dial M for Murder. After a Nazi torpedo reduces an ocean liner to wooden splinters and scorched personal effects, the survivors of the attack pull themselves aboard a drifting lifeboat in the hope of eventual rescue. But the motivations of the German submarine captain (played by Walter Slezak) on the eponymous craft might extend beyond mere survival... With a cast including Shadow of a Doubt veteran Hume Cronyn and the extraordinary, irrepressible Tallulah Bankhead, this picture of characters, as Franois Truffaut aptly termed the film, oscillates dazzlingly between comic reparte and white-knuckle suspense - a perfect example of the Hitchcock touch.
High Noon (Masters of Cinema) Blu-ray | Blu Ray | (02/03/2020)
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| RRP One of the most treasured Hollywood classics, and one of the most influential and iconic Westerns ever made, High Noon remains a powerful study of heroism, and the tension between the individual and the society around him. One of the best films by director Fred Zinnemann (From Here to Eternity) -- and produced by Stanley Kramer -- High Noon is riveting entertainment and an acknowledged American masterpiece, yet one with surprisingly tumultuous roots. In his Oscar-winning performance, Gary Cooper stars as small town Marshal Will Kane, preparing to retire and leave town with his young bride Amy (Grace Kelly). However, plans are derailed with the impending arrival of outlaw Frank and his brutal gang. Unfolding in real time, High Noon follows Will as he futilely tries to assemble a posse with the reluctant townspeople, who want Will to forget about a conflict -- as does Amy, a Quaker pacifist who just wants to avoid violence. But as high noon approaches, Will realises he must do the moral thing...with or without help. Special Features 4K Digital Restoration Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing Exclusive audio commentary by historian Glenn Frankel, author of High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic Exclusive audio commentary by western authority Stephen Prince Video interview with film historian Neil Sinyard, author of Fred Zinnemann: Films of Character and Conscience A 1969 audio interview with writer Carl Foreman from the National Film Theatre in London The Making of High Noon' [22 mins] a documentary on the making of the film Inside High Noon' [47 mins] and Behind High Noon' [10 mins] two video pieces on the making and context of the film Theatrical Trailer PLUS: A collector's booklet featuring an essay by Philip Kemp; two archival pieces on the film by critic Richard Combs, including an analysis of the film's timekeeping; and On The Wayne, an article by Carl Foreman originally published in Punch Magazine in 1974
THE SECRET OF NIMH (Masters of Cinema) Standard Edition Blu-ray | Blu Ray | (03/02/2025)
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| RRP
The Quiet Man | Blu Ray | (30/11/2015)
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| RRP Blarney and bliss, mixed in equal proportions. John Wayne plays an American boxer who returns to the Emerald Isle, his native land. What he finds there is a fiery prospective spouse (Maureen O'Hara) and a country greener than any Ireland seen before or since--it's no surprise The Quiet Man won an Oscar for cinematography. It also won an Oscar for John Ford's direction, his fourth such award. The film was a deeply personal project for Ford (whose birth name was Sean Aloysius O'Fearna), and he lavished all of his affection for the Irish landscape and Irish people on this film. He also stages perhaps the greatest donnybrook in the history of movies, an epic fistfight between Wayne and the truculent Victor McLaglen--that's Ford's brother, Francis, as the elderly man on his deathbed who miraculously revives when he hears word of the dustup. Barry Fitzgerald, the original Irish elf, gets the movie's biggest laugh when he walks into the newlyweds' bedroom the morning after their wedding and spots a broken bed. The look on his face says everything. The Quiet Man isn't the real Ireland but as a delicious never-never land of Ford's imagination, it will do very nicely. --Robert Horton
Oedipus Rex | Blu Ray | (24/09/2012)
from £9.99
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| RRP Three years after The Gospel According to Matthew, Pier Paolo Pasolini resumed his series of classical adaptations with asavage, highly personal take on Sophocles' ancient Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex (Edipo Re). As his first colour feature, Oedipus Rex makes brilliant use of wildly alternating Moroccan landscapes to transpose collective myth into a particular vision that is at once tender, sensual, and wholly unsparing.The film is divided into three sections set in different eras. The opening takes place in 1920s Italy, and recounts a birth thatechoes that of the director himself, the product of a beautiful bourgeoise's affair with a military officer. The mid section depicts a time outside of history - it is here that the myth of Oedipus (portrayed by Franco Citti of Accattone and Coppola's The Godfather), one of patricide and incest, plays out opposite the young man's mother/lover (Silvana Mangano). An epilogue shot on the streets of present-day Bologna finds Oedipus playing his flute for a bustling citizenry.
FLOATING WEEDS | Blu Ray | (03/12/2012)
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| RRP Towards the end of his career, Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu (Tokyo Story; Late Spring; Early Summer; An Autumn Afternoon; Good Morning) returned to a story he had made some 25 years earlier as a silent, Ukigusa monogatari [A Story of Floating Weeds], for a magnificent colour reworking, photographed by legendary cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa (Rashomon, Ugetsu monogatari).When a travelling theatre troupe brings their show to a seaside port, Komajuro (Ganjiro Nakamura), an ageing actor, is reunited with his former lover, sake bar owner Oyoshi (Haruko Sugimura), and his illegitimate son Kiyoshi (Hiroshi Kawaguchi), to the distress of his current mistress Sumiko (Machiko Kyo).From this simple scenario, Ozu builds, one exquisite image at a time, a saga of profound humanity and rich understanding. Encompassing a novelistic range of emotions and tones with the utmost delicacy, Floating Weeds stands tall even amidst a body of work as extraordinary as Ozu's. Making its worldwide Blu-ray debut, The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Floating Weeds in a beautiful new high-definition restoration.
EARLY UNIVERSAL VOL. 2 (Masters of Cinema) Blu-ray | Blu Ray | (25/10/2021)
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| RRP The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present three early silent features from Universal Pictures, all fully restored as part of the studio's ongoing restoration program. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (dir. Stuart Paton, 1916) Allen Holubar stars as the domineering Captain Nemo, who rescues the passengers of an American naval vessel after ramming them with his iron-clad, steampunk submarine, The Nautilus. Incorporating material from Verne's Mysterious Island, the film also follows the adventures of a group of Civil War soldiers whose hot-air balloon crash lands on an exotic island, where they encounter the untamed Child of Nature (Jane Gail). The Calgary Stampede (dir. Herbert Blaché, 1925) Real life rodeo champion Hoot Gibson plays Dan Malloy, an expert rider who wins the big one, the Calgary Stampede. When the father of his new French-Canadian girlfriend (Virginia Browne Faire) turns up dead, Malloy is the only suspect! What Happened to Jones? (dir. William A. Seiter, 1926) Reginald Denny plays a wealthy young bachelor on the night before his wedding. He is convinced to attend a poker party which is promptly raided, sending him on the run in a series of increasingly hilarious disguises. Special Features: Limited Edition O-Card Slipcase [First Print Run of 2000 Copies Only] 1080p presentation on Blu-ray from restorations undertaken by Universal Pictures (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and What Happened to Jones? restored in 4K, The Calgary Stampede restored in 2K) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea score by Orlando Perez Rosso The Calgary Stampede score by Chris Tin What Happened to Jones? score by Anthony Willis 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea New video appreciation by author / critic Kim Newman The Calgary Stampede Brand new audio commentary by professor and film scholar Jason A. Ney What Happened to Jones? New audio commentary by film historian and writer David Kalat PLUS: A Collector's Booklet featuring new writing on the films included in this set * All extras subject to change
The Lost Weekend | Blu Ray | (25/06/2012)
from £11.85
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| RRP "I'm not a drinker--I'm a drunk." These words, and the serious message behind them, were still potent enough in 1945 to shock audiences flocking to The Lost Weekend. The speaker is Don Birnam (Ray Milland), a handsome, talented, articulate alcoholic. The writing team of producer Charles Brackett and director Billy Wilder pull no punches in their depiction of Birnam's massive weekend bender, a tailspin that finds him reeling from his favorite watering hole to Bellevue Hospital. Location shooting in New York helps the street-level atmosphere, especially a sequence in which Birnam, a budding writer, tries to hock his typewriter for booze money. He desperately staggers past shuttered storefronts--it's Yom Kippur, and the pawnshops are closed. Milland, previously known as a lightweight leading man (he'd starred in Wilder's hilarious The Major and the Minor three years earlier), burrows convincingly under the skin of the character, whether waxing poetic about the escape of drinking or screaming his lungs out in the D.T.'s sequence. Wilder, having just made the ultra-noir Double Indemnity, brought a new kind of frankness and darkness to Hollywood's treatment of a social problem. At first the film may have seemed too bold; Paramount Pictures nearly killed the release of the picture after it tested poorly with preview audiences. But once in release, The Lost Weekend became a substantial hit, and won four Oscars: for picture, director, screenplay, and actor. --Robert Horton
Metropolis | Blu Ray | (22/11/2010)
from £14.87
| Saving you £4.12 (27.71%)
| RRP With its dizzying depiction of a futuristic cityscape and alluring female robot Metropolis is among the most famous of all German films and the mother of sci-fi cinema (an influence on Blade Runner and Star Wars among countless other films). Directed by the legendary Fritz Lang (M Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse The Big Heat etc.) its jaw-dropping production values iconic imagery and modernist grandeur - it was described by Luis Bu'uel as a captivating symphony of movement - remain as powerful as ever. Drawing on - and defining - classic sci-fi themes Metropolis depicts a dystopian future in which society is thoroughly divided in two: while anonymous workers conduct their endless drudgery below ground their rulers enjoy a decadent life of leisure and luxury. When Freder (Gustav Fr''hlich) ventures into the depths in search of the beautiful Maria (Brigitte Helm in her debut role) plans of rebellion are revealed and a Mariareplica robot is programmed by mad inventor Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) and master of Metropolis Joh Fredersen (Alfred Abel) to incite the workers into a self-destructive riot. A Holy Grail among film finds Metropolis is presented here in a newly reconstructed and restored version as lavish and spectacular as ever thanks to the painstaking archival work of the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung and the discovery of 25 minutes of footage previously thought lost to the world. Lang's enduring epic can finally be seen - for the first time in 83 years - as the director originally intended and as seen by German cinema-goers in 1927.
Drunken Master (1978) | Blu Ray | (24/04/2017)
from £15.20
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| RRP Though it wasn't Jackie Chan's first film, Drunken Master is the film that cemented his stardom. Jackie plays the rebellious son of a kung fu master. To teach Jackie the value of discipline, his father apprentices him to another master named So Hi, who has a unique "drunken" fighting style. Jackie chafes at So Hi's rigorous exercises and runs away--only to be brutally humiliated at the hands of a hired killer named Thunderleg. Chastened, Jackie becomes So Hi's devoted student. He soon discovers he will need everything he's learned when Thunderleg is hired to kill his father. In Drunken Master, Jackie is only beginning to cultivate his mixture of action and comedy; here the emphasis is on kung fu acrobatics, but the moves are astounding. The final fight is dizzying and amazingly choreographed by director Yuen Woo-ping (now famous as the fight choreographer for The Matrix). --Bret Fetzer
Metropolis | DVD | (22/11/2010)
from £34.52
| Saving you £-11.53 (N/A%)
| RRP With its dizzying depiction of a futuristic cityscape and alluring female robot Metropolis is among the most famous of all German films and the mother of sci-fi cinema (an influence on Blade Runner and Star Wars among countless other films). Directed by the legendary Fritz Lang (M Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse The Big Heat etc.) its jaw-dropping production values iconic imagery and modernist grandeur - it was described by Luis Bu'uel as a captivating symphony of movement - remain as powerful as ever. Drawing on - and defining - classic sci-fi themes Metropolis depicts a dystopian future in which society is thoroughly divided in two: while anonymous workers conduct their endless drudgery below ground their rulers enjoy a decadent life of leisure and luxury. When Freder (Gustav Fr''hlich) ventures into the depths in search of the beautiful Maria (Brigitte Helm in her debut role) plans of rebellion are revealed and a Mariareplica robot is programmed by mad inventor Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) and master of Metropolis Joh Fredersen (Alfred Abel) to incite the workers into a self-destructive riot. A Holy Grail among film finds Metropolis is presented here in a newly reconstructed and restored version as lavish and spectacular as ever thanks to the painstaking archival work of the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung and the discovery of 25 minutes of footage previously thought lost to the world. Lang's enduring epic can finally be seen - for the first time in 83 years - as the director originally intended and as seen by German cinema-goers in 1927.
Fixed Bayonets! (1951) | Blu Ray | (15/02/2016)
from £34.99
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| RRP Samuel Fuller writes and directs this unsentimental portrait of life for a platoon of weary soldiers in the Korean War. With an American division of 15,000 men trapped and ammunition running low, a plan is hatched to fool the enemy into believing they are still in place while they make a hasty retreat. To do this, a small party is ordered to stand guard while the main troops leave, with a reluctant Corporal Denno (Richard Basehart) soon forced to assume command, as one by one his superior officers are killed.Based on: The novel by John Brophy Technical Specs: Languages(s): EnglishHard of Hearing Subtitles: EnglishInteractive MenuScreen ratio 1:1.33 Extras included: BookletCommentary: Adrian MartinImage GalleryTrailers
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