"Actor: Chris Courtenay"

• Doctor Zhivago | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £3.92   |  Saving you £10.07 (256.89%)   |  RRP £13.99

  David Lean's wintry adaptation of Boris Pasternak's melodramatic Russian Revolution romance, Doctor Zhivago, is a masterpiece of epic filmmaking, but one that risks leaving the viewer cold. Though none of the film was shot in the then USSR, Lean's assured technique nevertheless illuminates the breathtaking backgrounds magnificently: from the snowy wastes of the Urals to the strife-torn streets of Moscow, Lean stages a series of wonderful set-pieces showing war, revolution and its terrible aftermath. The problem lies in the foreground. Omar Sharif's entirely passive Zhivago is, we are told, a romantic poet of great sensitivity who internalises all his emotions and expresses them in verse. The trouble is the audience never gets to see a line of his poems, not even the centrally important "Lara" cycle. Thus Zhivago at the end of the picture is as much an emotional blank to us as he was at the beginning. His affair with the idealised beauty that is Julie Christie's Lara is also taken for granted by the filmmakers rather than set up in any convincing way, their mutual attraction remaining a mystery that creates a vacuum at the core of the picture. Given that none of the central characters with the exception of Rod Steiger's fire-breathing lecher Komarovsky ever give way to strong emotions, the romantic heart of the film remains oddly frigid. Matters are not helped by composer Maurice Jarre's incessant "Lara's Theme", which many will find teeth-grindingly irritating. Still, any David Lean epic, even a flawed one, is always going to be a first-class cinematic experience, and Zhivago is assuredly that. On the DVD: A stunning anamorphic widescreen print is the ideal way to appreciate David Lean's craftsmanship and this movie's glorious, wintry cinematography. Maurice Jarre's "Lara's Theme" and the rest of his patchwork score can be heard in a music-only track, while Omar Sharif is joined by Lean's widow Sandra and Rod Steiger for an intermittent commentary. The second bonus disc contains a good hour-long making-of documentary plus 10 shorter contemporary documentaries giving various insights into the location shooting and the cast and crew. But it's the sheer beauty of the picture that will astonish and make this disc forever treasurable. --Mark Walker

• Let Him Have It | DVD | (09/08/2010) from £10.35   |  Saving you £2.64 (25.51%)   |  RRP £12.99

  From the director of The Krays comes a horrifying true story of injustice and murder..... A policeman is shot dead and two South London boys stand accused of his murder. The verdict and the sentence passed upon the young Derek Bentley (Christopher Eccleston) proved to be as controversial as the crime. Both the verdict and the sentence were subsequently quashed. This is the case that shocked the nation.

• Let Him Have It | DVD | (29/07/2002) from £7.05   |  Saving you £-1.06 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A policeman is shot dead and two South London boys stand accused of his murder. The verdict and the sentence passed the crime. Both the verdict and the sentence were subsequently quashed. This is the case that shocked the nation.

• Let Him Have It | DVD | (28/06/2004) from £5.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  From the director of The Krays comes a horrifying true story of injustice and murder..... A policeman is shot dead and two South London boys stand accused of his murder. The verdict and the sentence passed upon the young Derek Bentley proved to be as controversial as the crime. Both the verdict and the sentence were subsequently quashed. This is the case that shocked the nation.

• Anzio/Cockleshell Heroes/Night of the Generals | DVD | (04/07/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Anzio (1968): Robert Mitchum Peter Falk and Arthur Kennedy star in the rivetting war drama Anzio a vivid portrait of one of the bloodiest WWII battles ever fought. After landing with Allied troops at Anzio Italy in 1944 war correspondent Dick Ennis (Mitchum) and buddy Corporal Rabinoff (Falk) tell Anzio commander General Lesley (Kennedy) that the road to Rome is wide open. But instead of heading to Rome Lesley attempts to build a coastal stronghold only to discover that the Germans have outflanked them by enclosing the Anzio beachhead. Four months and over 30 000 casualties later the Allied forces smash through the German lines and victoriously march to Rome. Directed by Edward Dmytryk Anzio is a powerful film and a symbol of heroic tenacity. Cockleshell Heroes (1955): In World War II Royal Marine Major Stringer (Jose Ferrer) and Captain Thompson (Trevor Howard) chose volunteers for an unknown job. They trained the volunteers intensively in top secrecy for more than a year and then embarked with them on the most dangerous mission of the war - the canoe invasion of an enemy-held French port for the purpose of blowing up the giant battleships. The ten ""canoe commandoes"" were carried to their jump-off point by submarine despite a depth-charge attack. Facing fantastic hazards they paddled 70 miles through enemy waters to complete their mission. But only two survivors would return... Night Of The Generals (1967): Five years after their triumphant teaming in Lawrence of Arabia Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif reunited for this powerful World War II thriller about a Nazi General who becomes a serial killer. When a Polish prostitute is brutally murdered in Nazi-occupied Warsaw her killer is identified as a German General. The investigator Major Grau (Sharif) narrows the suspects to three Generals in the German high command: the heroic Tanz (O'Toole) the cynical Kahlenberge (Donald Pleasence) and the weak Von Seidlitz-Gabler (Charles Gray). For years the crime remains unsolved until the killer strikes again bringing this mesmerising mystery to its unforgettable finish. Also starring Christopher Plummer Tom Courtney Philippe Noiret and Joanna Pettet The Night Of The Generals is an all-star thriller from a master of the form.

• Credo | DVD | (25/05/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Following a wild party five friends are evicted from their student digs and are forced to seek refuge in an abandoned hall of residence in central London. They soon sense they're not alone and recall the story of a ritual group suicide that occurred in that same building a few years before. When they conduct a s''ance to uncover the reason behind the suicides the answer comes not from the ghosts of dead students but from the terrifying entity that drove them to their deaths. And now it knows they're here it's not going to let them leave.