A minor classic from Disney, this 1973 all-animal, all-animated musical version of the familiar story of Robin Hood is more charming than one might expect. Perhaps it's the warm, chummy take on key relationships within the legend--the way Robin Hood (Brian Bedford) gets twitterpated whenever the subject of Maid Marian (Monica Evans) comes up or the way best pal Little John (Phil Harris voicing a variation on his own Baloo from The Jungle Book) admonishes the Sherwood Forest hero, "Aw, Rob, why dontcha just marry the girl?" (Then, of course, there's the canny "casting" of the romantic leads as foxes: Robin the sly one and Marian the, well, foxy one.) The rest of the vocal cast is lively and eclectic: Peter Ustinov, Andy Devine, Terry Thomas, George Lindsey. Roger Miller provides the songs and voice for the minstrel character Allan-A-Dale. The film is ably directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, whose decades of work in Disney's animation division helped create the studio's rich legacy. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
Considered to be one of the most influential films of all-time Hollywood legend John Wayne and director John Ford come together in this Oscar winning western which proved a tour de force for both men. At the dustbowl town of Tonto Arizona a motley group of characters board a east-bound stagecoach heading for Lordsburg New Mexico. Between them and their destination lies hostile Indian country hunting ground of Apache Chief Geronimo and his braves. The journey is further complicated as elaborate deceptions are weaved and the reason for each passenger's place upon the stagecoach becomes clear. When it comes to a star-studded action-packed classic they don't come much bigger or better than this.
The Lakes brought writer Jimmy McGovern and actor John Simm a great deal of critical praise in 1997. Following a particularly dry period for British TV drama, the show's realistic characterisations and their painfully honest decisions hit audiences hard. Simm is a twentysomething trapped in a life of compulsive gambling, theft and being on the dole in Liverpool. On a whim he heads north to the Lake District. He expects to find the countryside quietude where his hidden poetical leanings might find a home, but instead gets caught up in a community like any other. Lies, temptation and tragedy beset every household just as much as the big city. The focus of Series 1 is Danny's relationship with Emma (Emma Cunniffe) and the consequences of having a child. As time races by, his link to the Lakes becomes an exercise in torment when the eyes of blame fall easily upon him after the accidental deaths of four schoolgirls. Stoking the flames of a series of secondary explosions in waiting are a pair of affairs, one adulterous, the other complicated by religion. In the far longer sequel series that came two years later, these back-stories would come to the fore. Although exploring Danny's tortured soul might have been the obvious continuation, instead an almost Hitchcockian murder scenario occupies far more screen time. But by stretching things out, this second series does not have the same self-contained impact of the original. Additional writers only served to drag out Danny's boy-to-man journey. Ultimately, lessons are learned, including the realistic conclusion that life is without a poetical status quo. Despite the tail-off in overall quality, you'd be hard pressed to identify a better British drama in the years since. On the DVD: The Lakes complete series 1 and 2 box set comes with two separate commentary tracks for the very first episode. In interviews, John Simm fondly recalls how cold the lake water was and director David Blair recalls putting him in it. It's a shame the two weren't recorded together. It's also a shame that's all there is in this package. Even a few cast biographies would have been welcome. Picture is 4:3 and stereo sound is as you'd expect from 1990s UK TV. --Paul Tonks
A minor classic from Disney, this 1973 all-animal, all-animated musical version of the familiar story of Robin Hood is more charming than one might expect. Perhaps it's the warm, chummy take on key relationships within the legend--the way Robin Hood (Brian Bedford) gets twitterpated whenever the subject of Maid Marian (Monica Evans) comes up or the way best pal Little John (Phil Harris voicing a variation on his own Baloo from The Jungle Book) admonishes the Sherwood Forest hero, "Aw, Rob, why dontcha just marry the girl?" (Then, of course, there's the canny "casting" of the romantic leads as foxes: Robin the sly one and Marian the, well, foxy one.) The rest of the vocal cast is lively and eclectic: Peter Ustinov, Andy Devine, Terry Thomas, George Lindsey. Roger Miller provides the songs and voice for the minstrel character Allan-A-Dale. The film is ably directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, whose decades of work in Disney's animation division helped create the studio's rich legacy. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
Corvette K-225 is a stirring salute to the heroism of the Corvette crews and commanders who steered Allied convoys through the treacherous, U-Boat-infested Atlantic ocean throughout WWII. The story follows a particularly perilous voyage from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Britain. The nail-biting tension is heightened by our knowledge that the film uses actual historic sea combat footage! Better known previously for his tall in the saddle' Western roles, Randolph Scott brings dignity and restraint to the role of a heroic Canadian Navy commander in what's possibly his finest performance. In addition to the thrilling battle scenes, as the doughty Corvette strives to protect the convoys from attack after attack, the film has far greater emotional maturity and depth than most Hollywood wartime action films.Not only is there a terrific supporting cast including Barry Fitzgerald (The Quiet Man), Ella Raines (Hail the Conquering Hero), Thomas Gomez (Key Largo), Noah Beery Jr. (The Rockford Files) and even a glimpse of a young Robert Mitchum (The Night of the Hunter), there's also room for a romantic sub-plot!
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is a late film from the long career of director John Ford that tells of the civilising of an Old West town, Shinbone, through the sad memories of settlers looking back. Ford's nostalgia for the past is tempered by his stark approach, unusual for the visual poet of Stagecoach and The Searchers. The two heavyweights, John Wayne and James Stewart, are good together, with Wayne the embodiment of rugged individualism and Stewart the idealistic prophet of the civilisation that will eventually tame the Wild West. This may be the saddest Western ever made, closer to an elegy than an action movie, and as cleanly beautiful as its central symbol, the cactus rose. --Robert Horton
Television has become so much a part of our lives that it rarely surprises us anymore, so when a series like Queer as Folk comes along--truly shocking and genuinely touching--it's an event to be remembered. Originally broadcast as eight half-hour episodes on Channel 4, QAF follows the lives of three men through life, love and all the travails of such in Manchester. That the protagonists are all gay--and Nathan (Charlie Hunnam) is just 15 years old--is treated as matter of course, and were it not for the fact that every character who is introduced is so vividly realised, it would be the only point. The ultimate triumph of QAF is not that the explicit, explosive subject matter is handled (mostly) tastefully, or that it made it on screen at all--it's that the characters are so intriguing that the unflinching looks at sex and relationships almost fade completely into the background. The series certainly starts with a bang: in the first episode, young Nathan is deflowered, Stuart (Aiden Gillen) becomes a father and Vince (Craig Kelly) pines away with an unrequited love that quickly establishes itself as the series' main theme. (That Vince spends half of QAF with a boyfriend complicates the situation some.) Nathan has already come to terms with his sexuality by the time the series starts, but that doens't mean that the rest of his family--or his fellow students--have; Stuart, the biggest (or, at least, busiest) stud in town, and QAF's approaches 30 and starts to re-examine his life; and Vince has to live with the rest of them. The parents, families, friends and co-workers of all involved get plenty of screen time, and occasionally steal the scenes themselves--especially Denise Black (hairdresser Denise Osbourne from Coronation Street). The DVD includes a Photo Gallery and a handful of interviews, which add little to the package. --Randy Silver
The West's most violent story... The West's most valiant hour! John Ford's criminally overlooked western (the first collaboration between Ford and James Stewart) finally makes its way to DVD for the first time! A group of children are held captive by the Indians. A Lieutenant enlists the help of a Texas Marshall in a rescue attempt. Based on the novel by Will Cook.
A documentary which focuses on the director John Ford and his interest in the western film. Featuring insights from the actors who so often starred in his westerns; James Stewart John Wayne and Henry Fonda.
When the infamous Dalton Boys fall out with the sharp shooting Belle Starr (Jane Russell), she decides to form her own outlaw gang and quickly becomes the scourge of the Oklahoma Territories with a big bounty on her beautiful head.Disguising herself as a widowed showgirl, she hides away at the Birdcage gambling parlour and saloon, intending to rob the place at the first opportunity. But what Belle hasn't reckoned on is falling in love with the saloon owner Tom Bradfield (George Brent) - or the Dalton Boys riding into town looking for revenge...
The frozen unforgiving terrain of subarctic Canada is the setting as screen giant John Wayne heads an all-star cast in this meticulously restored adventure drama. Set after World War II Wayne play Dooley a former army pilot flying transport missions who is forced to crash-land his fuel-starved plane on a frozen lake after is strays from its course. A desperate game of survival begins as Dooley and his men confront a meager food supply limited shelter inadequate clothing a primitive emergency radio transmitter and an impending arctic storm. Meanwhile Dooley's fellow pilots and their crews launch a seemingly overwhelming air search of the bleak uncharted landscape - grimly realizing that the rescue of the missing men diminishes with each tick of the clock. Lloyd Nolan Walter Abel James Arness Andy Devine and Harry Carey Jr. also star in this engrossing tale of bravery hope and survival of the human spirit.
A drama which follows the lives of three men living in Manchesters gay village. Stuart is rich and gorgeous Vince is funny and Nathan is young and wild as he finds his own identity.... This special collector's box set contains all the episodes from series 1 and 2.
Hollywood sweetheart Doris Day lights up the screen with her timeless sparkle in this light hearted Western. Upon the death of her husband, feisty rancher Josie is determined to make a success of her sheep farm in small town Wyoming, much to the outrage of her male counterparts. Determined to prove her equality and defend her land, she stirs up a women’s rights riot, and even a little romance along the way.
Hoodlum, Bill Duke's interesting but flawed blaxploitation take on the classic gangster movie, usefully redresses a balance. It is all too easy to see the criminal underworld of the 1920s as an all-white affair, in which Harlem is an exotic locale where occasionally white gangsters patronise the black performers of the Cotton Club, from which black audiences were specifically barred. Yet one of the principal sources of illegal revenue was the numbers racket in Harlem--gambling on stock market closing figures--revenue on which the likes of Dutch Schultz and Lucky Luciano were keen to lay their hands. Lawrence Fishburne is an impressive "Bumpy" Johnson, the street enforcer turned strategist for the matriarchal Queen (Cicely Tyson), gradually learning a ruthlessness that forfeits him the love of a good woman, Francine (Vanessa Williams). Tim Roth as Schultz and Andy Garcia as Luciano are essentially melodramatic turns--the foul-mouthed punk and the reptilian smoothy--and both turn in enjoyably full-blooded unsubtle performances. --Roz Kaveney
A collection of films celebrating the outstanding iconic collaboration of actor John Wayne and director John Ford. Films comprise: 1. Stagecoach (1939) 2. The Long Voyage Home (1940) 3. Fort Apache (1948) 4. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) 5. Rio Grande (1951) 6. The Quiet Man (1952)
The great American motion picture! The O'Leary family are pioneer settlers whose eldest boys achieve notoriety and power in bustling Chicago. After Jack (Don Ameche) gets elected mayor with the help of his popular brother Dion (Tyrone Power) the two lock horns over the future of Chicago's slums. Using his cabaret singer wife (Alice Faye) as a pawniin their dispute Dion accelerates their intense rivalry as the whole town takes sides. It is not until a massive fire wipes out a
The O'Leary brothers -- honest Jack and roguish Dion -- become powerful figures, and eventually rivals, in Chicago on the eve of its Great Fire.
Please wait. Loading...
This site uses cookies.
More details in our privacy policy