"Actor: Ann Dere"

• Hobson's Choice / The Sound Barrier | DVD | (14/04/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Hobson's Choice (1953) and The Sound Barrier (1952) is a double bill of cleverly juxtaposed films from David Lean's early canon, demonstrating that even without the landmark epics to come, British cinema would have been an infinitely poorer place without his tremendous contribution. Both films reflect his endlessly penetrating view of human behaviour and its perseverance through obstacles great and small. And both are effectively prisms that reflect all the aspects of that view, keeping the audience's sympathies constantly on the move. Hobson's Choice, based on Harold Brighouse's eternally popular 1916 comedy, boasts fine turns from Charles Laughton--at his brilliant, physical best--as the boot-shop owner with three troublesome daughters, and John Mills as the lowly boot maker, elevated and improved by the eldest daughter Maggie in a neat inversion of the Pygmalion fable. But both are kept in their place by Brenda de Banzie's portrayal of Maggie, a performance that glows with intelligence, truth and increasing warmth. The Sound Barrier is a drama about the race for a supersonic aeroplane. Superficially, its setting is quintessential post-World War II Britain: stiff upper lips, twin beds and clipped Rattigan dialogue. But it's prescient stuff. Ralph Richardson's aircraft manufacturer, sinister in his obsession, is an ominously skilful film performance. And Lean's take on the unthinkable cost of human achievement, interwoven with some spectacular cinematography, absorbs and unsettles. It's especially poignant now that the supersonic age has been summarily ended by Concorde's retirement. On the DVD: Hobson's Choice and The Sound Barrier are both black-and-white films presented in 4:3 picture format, from reasonable prints, and with a mono soundtrack of suitably robust quality for Malcolm Arnold's inventive scores. There are no extras, apart from scene indexes. --Piers Ford

• Angel | DVD | (07/06/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Director Neil Jordan's gothic outing is a unique excursion into horror.

• A Streetcar Named Desire | DVD | (23/03/2020) from £15.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Looking for a benchmark in movie acting? Breakthrough performances don't come much more electrifying than Marlon Brando's animalistic turn as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. Sweaty, brutish, mumbling, yet with the balanced grace of a prize-fighter, Brando storms through the role--a role he had originated in the Broadway production of Tennessee Williams's celebrated play. Stanley and his wife, Stella (as in Brando's oft-mimicked line, "Hey, Stellaaaaaa!"), are the earthy couple in New Orleans's French Quarter whose lives are upended by the arrival of Stella's sister, Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh). Blanche, a disturbed, lyrical, faded Southern belle, is immediately drawn into a battle of wills with Stanley, beautifully captured in the differing styles of the two actors. This extraordinarily fine adaptation won acting Oscars for Leigh, Kim Hunter (as Stella) and Karl Malden (as Blanche's clueless suitor), but not for Brando. Although it had already been considerably cleaned up from the daringly adult stage play, director Elia Kazan was forced to trim a few of the franker scenes he had shot. In 1993, Streetcar was re-released in a "director's cut" that restored these moments, deepening a film that had already secured its place as an essential American work. --Robert Horton

• A Streetcar Named Desire (2 Disc Special Edition) | DVD | (07/08/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £20.99

  Tennessee Williams based his screenplay on Oscar Saul's adaptation of Williams' own Pulitzer Prize-winning play set in a grimy New Orleans project. The story of the fragile sentimentalism of a woman who visits her sister only to be taunted mercilessly by her childish brother-in-law. This classic film garnered 12 Academy Award Nominations (including Best Picture Best Director Best Actor (Marlon Brando) and Best Screeplay) winning 4 including Best Actress (Vivien Leigh) Best Supporting Actress (Kim Hunter) and Best Supporting Actor (Karl Malden). This version features three minutes of footage that was deleted from the final 1951 release version upon demands made by the Production Code footage thought lost until its rediscovery in the early 1990s. This DVD release is the fully restored version of Elia Kazan's original cut and the documentary 'Desire And Censorship' on Disc 2 describes his struggle in getting the past the censors.

• A Streetcar Named Desire | Blu Ray | (28/01/2013) from £19.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A Streetcar Named Desire is the 1951 Elia Kazan/Tennessee Williams triumph that earned 12 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, while also courting controversy with some last-minute edits undertaken to appease the censorship board. Marlon Brando made his first indelible mark on audiences in this powerful adaptation of Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Gone With the Wind's Vivien Leigh is the neurotic belle Blanche du Bois who struggles to hold on to her fading Southern gentility against the brutish badgering of her brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski (Brando). Leigh, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden and the rich black-and-white cinematography were all awarded Oscars for this cinematic classic. While Brando was the only one of the film's four Oscar-nominated actors not to secure a win, his passionate cries of Stella! Stella! Stella! remain etched forever in Hollywood history. Special Features: Commentary by Karl Malden, Rudy Behlmer and Jeff Young Elia Kazan: A Director's Journey (1995 First Run documentary) A Streetcar on Broadway A Streetcar in Hollywood Censorship and Desire North and the Music of the South An Actor Named Brando Marlon Brando Screen Test Outtakes Audio Outtakes Warner Bros. (1951) 20th Century Fox (1958 Reissue) United Artists (1970 Reissue)