"Actor: Donald Webster"

• Straw Dogs | DVD | (07/10/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  According to critic Pauline Kael Straw Dogs was "the first American film that is a fascist work of art". Sam Peckinpah's only film shot in Britain is adapted from a novel by Gordon M Williams called The Siege of Trencher's Farm which Peckinpah described as a "lousy book with one good action-adventure sequence". The setting is Cornwall, where mild-mannered US academic David Sumner (Dustin Hoffman) has bought a house with his young English wife Amy (Susan George) in the village where she grew up. David is mocked by the locals (one of whom is Amy's ex-boyfriend) and treated with growing contempt by his frustrated wife, but when his house comes under violent siege he finds unexpected reserves of resourcefulness and aggression. The movie, Peckinpah noted, was much influenced by Robert Ardrey's macho-anthropological tract, The Territorial Imperative. Its take on Cornish village life is fairly bizarre--this is a Western in all but name--and many critics balked at the transposition of Peckinpah's trademark blood-and-guts to the supposed peace of the British countryside. A scene where Amy is raped caused particular outrage, not least since it's hinted she consents to it. Not for the first time in Peckinpah's movies there are disquieting elements of misogyny, and it doesn't help that the chemistry between Hoffman and George is non-existent. (Impossible to believe these two would ever have clicked, let alone married.) But taken as a vision of irrational violence irrupting into a civilised way of life Straw Dogs is powerful and unsettling, and the action sequences are executed with all Peckinpah's unfailing flair and venom. Oh, and that title? A quote from Chinese sage Lao-Tze, it seems, "The wise man is ruthless and treats the people as straw dogs." The film was long withheld from home viewing in Britain by nervous censors, but this release presents it complete and uncut. --Philip KempOn the DVD: Straw Dogs is as jam-packed a disc as is possible for a film made before the days of obligatory "making of" features. Both the sound and visuals have transferred well, and, like the script, have aged well. There's a bumbling original interview in the style of Harry Enfield's Mr. Cholmondley-Warner, along with stills and original trailers. The new material includes a feature on the history of the film's censorship and commentaries by Peckinpah's biographers musing over interesting fan-facts (though none of the speakers have any first-hand experience of the making of the film). However, Katy Haber's commentary, and interviews with Susan George and Dan Melnick, offer a much more in-depth and intimate portrayal of the man and the making of the film. --Nikki Disney

• Mr Rose | DVD | (14/05/2018) from £20.29   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The sequel to Granada Television's cult '60s crime series The Odd Man and It's Dark Outside, Mr. Rose sees Scotland Yard's acerbic Chief Inspector Rose emerging from a restless retirement to take on a further series of cases. With a memorable central performance from William Mervyn as Rose, this complete series set includes guest appearances from Terence Alexander, Nicola Pagett, John Le Mesurier, Judy Geeson, Barrie Ingham, Barbara Shelley, Tenniel Evans, Robert Urquhart, Geraldine Newman and Derek Newark. Mr. Rose has retired from the force to cultivate his cottage garden and concentrate on writing his memoirs. A number of people have good reason to fear Rose's vast personal collection of case files, however, which contain a wealth of incriminating detail that villains and former colleagues alike would rather remain unpublished... SPECIAL FEATURES: Image galleries (discs 1, 6 and 8) Promotional and Script PDFs (disc 8)

• Mr. Rose - The Complete Series 1 | DVD | (23/04/2012) from £21.98   |  Saving you £20.00 (100.05%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Scotland Yard's Chief Inspector Rose, portrayed by the charismatic William Mervyn (All Gas and Gaiters), was first introduced in The Odd Man and It's Dark Outside, Granada's cult crime series of the early 60s, and this sequel sees the acerbic detective emerging from a restless retirement to take on a further series of cases. Gillian Lewis plays Rose's beautiful secretary, Drusilla, and Donald Webster his enigmatic manservant, John; guest stars include Terence Alexander, Allan Cuthbertson, John Le Mesurier and Julie Goodyear. Retirement has afforded Mr. Rose the time not only to cultivate a cottage garden on the south coast, but also to write his memoirs. And it's the impending publication of those memoirs that brings a number of figures crawling out of the woodwork and back into his life: criminals and former colleagues alike, who know that his vast personal collection of case files contains a wealth of incriminating detail. Time may have mellowed Rose a little, but he's as sharp as ever, and now sets about a succession of new investigations with customary aplomb and evident relish.

• Mr Rose - The Complete Series 2 | DVD | (22/10/2012) from £12.19   |  Saving you £7.80 (63.99%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Scotland Yard’s Chief Inspector Rose (played by William Mervyn) was first introduced in The Odd Man and It’s Dark Outside Granada’s cult crime series of the early ’60s and this sequel sees the acerbic detective taking on a further selection of intriguing cases alongside Donald Webster as his enigmatic manservant John Halifax; this series also features guest turns from Barbara Shelley Tenniel Evans and Robert Urquhart.

• Straw Dogs | DVD | (22/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  According to critic Pauline Kael Straw Dogs was "the first American film that is a fascist work of art". Sam Peckinpah's only film shot in Britain is adapted from a novel by Gordon M Williams called The Siege of Trencher's Farm which Peckinpah described as a "lousy book with one good action-adventure sequence". The setting is Cornwall, where mild-mannered US academic David Sumner (Dustin Hoffman) has bought a house with his young English wife Amy (Susan George) in the village where she grew up. David is mocked by the locals (one of whom is Amy's ex-boyfriend) and treated with growing contempt by his frustrated wife, but when his house comes under violent siege he finds unexpected reserves of resourcefulness and aggression. The movie, Peckinpah noted, was much influenced by Robert Ardrey's macho-anthropological tract, The Territorial Imperative. Its take on Cornish village life is fairly bizarre--this is a Western in all but name--and many critics balked at the transposition of Peckinpah's trademark blood-and-guts to the supposed peace of the British countryside. A scene where Amy is raped caused particular outrage, not least since it's hinted she consents to it. Not for the first time in Peckinpah's movies there are disquieting elements of misogyny, and it doesn't help that the chemistry between Hoffman and George is non-existent. (Impossible to believe these two would ever have clicked, let alone married.) But taken as a vision of irrational violence irrupting into a civilised way of life Straw Dogs is powerful and unsettling, and the action sequences are executed with all Peckinpah's unfailing flair and venom. Oh, and that title? A quote from Chinese sage Lao-Tze, it seems, "The wise man is ruthless and treats the people as straw dogs." The film was long withheld from home viewing in Britain by nervous censors, but this release presents it complete and uncut. --Philip KempOn the DVD: Straw Dogs is as jam-packed a disc as is possible for a film made before the days of obligatory "making of" features. Both the sound and visuals have transferred well, and, like the script, have aged well. There's a bumbling original interview in the style of Harry Enfield's Mr. Cholmondley-Warner, along with stills and original trailers. The new material includes a feature on the history of the film's censorship and commentaries by Peckinpah's biographers musing over interesting fan-facts (though none of the speakers have any first-hand experience of the making of the film). However, Katy Haber's commentary, and interviews with Susan George and Dan Melnick, offer a much more in-depth and intimate portrayal of the man and the making of the film. --Nikki Disney