This Chaplin Collection DVD box set contains the following films, also available separately: The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), The Circus (1928), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), The Great Dictator (1940), Monsieur Verdoux (1947) and Limelight (1952). Full details can be found in our Chaplin Collection feature. There are also two films exclusive to this box set: A Woman of Paris (1923) and A King in New York (1957), plus the documentary Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin--see DVD Description below.
This is one of Valentino's best films he plays a bullfighter in a small town in Spain and becomes one of the most idolised matadors in his country. The swaggering but sincere Valentino marries a good Catholic girl Lila Lee a coy innocent with bow-tie lips but is seduced by Nita Natal a high society man-eater who decides to add a bullfighter to her conquests.
A Hazard of Hearts, dramatised for television in 1987, could hardly be a better demonstration of Barbara Cartland's unique status as the most critically reviled, yet widely read, romantic novelist. The qualities which feed both points of view are present in abundance. There are the certainties of a wafer-thin plot: vulnerable but plucky young heiress falls on hard and tragic times, sails through mortal danger and escapes the clutches of lecherous older man, chastity intact, before claiming enigmatic and devastatingly handsome Lord for her own at the last minute. There are the pantomime characters, atrocious dialogue-by-numbers, set-piece scenes involving duels and smugglers, tight breeches and heaving bosoms. Produced by Lew Grade and the team behind The New Avengers and The Professionals, this is 90 minutes of camp hokum crammed to bursting point with stars clearly having the time of their lives. Helena Bonham Carter, her face like an earnest, worried raisin, is the heroine Serena, with Marcus Gilbert as her paramour. But Diana Rigg's evil Lady Harriet steals the show. To be watched without shame. On the DVD: A Hazard of Hearts is presented in 4:3 video format with a Dolby Digital stereo soundtrack which is splendid for Laurence Johnson's florid themes. The transfer has the appropriately soft-focus look and feel of a 1980s miniseries. The stately home settings certainly provide a sense of quality, but the disc has no extras. --Piers Ford
There's a sucker born every minute. Director Miguel Bardem (Javier Bardem's brother) delivers a stylish Grifters-style crime thriller that would not only make David Mamet proud - it would have him second-guessing the plot twists right down to the final frame. The slick handsome Ernesto (Ernesto Alterio) has spent a lifetime in the small-racket crime world working the three-card monte on suckers on the streets of Madrid conning store owners and scouting the train stations for easy marks to rob. His pleasant but decidedly small-time lifestyle changes when he meets the elderly El Manco (Manuel Alexandre) a veteran of the trade who has close contacts to the mysterious and masterful Federico (Federico Luppi) the king of all con men. The three hook up and after ascending to the rarified world of elegant hotels and high living Federico proposes a real estate con that will net them millions. The only hitch is that they need the assistance of Federico's ex-lover Pilar (Victoria Abril). A former con artist herself Pilar (who cheated Federico on a scam years earlier) is now living in luxury with her new elderly husband. The chase is on as the team embarks on their new complicated con . . . but can everyone be trusted? Swindled is an elegant fun fast-moving film where the secrets treachery and twists will keep you on the edge of your seat until the final frame.
A superb fun filled feature film for all the family! At Christmas the children of a village organise a snowball fight. But the flight gets a little bit out of control and both sides learn a lesson they will never forget.
Available "fully uncut" for the first time in the UK, Two Thousand Maniacs! is the second of director HG Lewis' "blood" trilogy. Though the "once-in-a-lifetime" title makes a promise no film could keep--only about 30 maniacs show up--and the level of gore is a notch or so down from Blood Feast--only four deaths--this is perhaps the director's most watchable film. The Brigadoon-derived plot nugget concerns a Deep South town (variously suggested to be in Georgia or Arkansas, but actually Florida) wiped out by Union raiders during the Civil War, which reappears once every 100 years to wreak "blood vengeance". For the centennial celebrations, Pleasant Valley lures Yankee tourists off the road and subjects them to gruesome fairground games--a cannibal BBQ, a "horse-race", a "barrel roll" and "teetering rock". The ideas are nasty, and Lewis even attempts subtlety by keeping the quartering and the spiked barrel inside mostly off screen, but the creepiest touch is the "aw-shucks" good humour with which the ghostly Confederate maniacs--led by a mayor who is the spitting image of Sergeant Bilko's Colonel Hall--treat their horrible sport. It has the usual Lewis drawbacks--mostly inept staging, acting that veers between the wooden ("Playmate" Connie Mason) and the amateurishly hammy (one of the worst child actors in film history), clumsy editing, community theatre production values--but his fans wouldn't have it any other way and the hayseed music is great! On the DVD: The full-screen image is as good as this ever will look, considering Lewis' primitive understanding of lighting cinematography, with rich scarlet blood, vividly ugly 1963 leisurewear and very few print imperfections. The features offer an imaginative "Welcome to Pleasant Valley Centennial" menu, with buttons like the target you have to hit to drop the "teetering rock" on the Yankee; lurid original trailer ("Two thousand maniacs crazed for carnage started bathing a whole town in pulsing, human blood ... brutal, evil, ghastly beyond belief"); filmographies for Lewis, Friedman and star William Kerwin (aka Thomas Wood); promotional art gallery; notes by aptly-monickered expert Billy Chainsaw, highlighting the connections with John Waters and Brigadoon; a teaser trailer for "the Herschell Gordon Lewis Collection"; a mass of trailers for other "Tartan terror" titles. The Lewis-Friedman commentary and mind-numbing outtakes reel available on the Region 1 DVD are sadly absent, but that release doesn't have this one's major bonus addition--the entire soundtrack album, with compositions by Lewis himself (including the immortal "Yee-Hah, the South's Gonna Rise Again") and Flatt and Scruggs (of Bonnie and Clyde fame). --Kim Newman
When an armed train carrying a treasure is attacked and the money disappears three men embark on a mission to find the fortune. One is a notorious bandit known as Monetero infamous for his daring raids and one is a straight-laced banker named Clayton who is determined to retrieve the money that was in his protection. The third is simply known as The Stranger a mysterious bounty hunter whose loyalties and intentions are unclear. 0 000 in gold awaits the last man standing in this tale of deceit and murder
A precious jewel 'The Star Of Rhodesia' is stolen from a train. The master detective is forced to use all his powers of deduction with the help of his trusty aid Dr. Watson in this fast paced thriller.
Mary Martin And Ethel Merman - The Ford 50th Anniversary Sho
Narracted by Robert Downey Jr. It'll Be Better Tomorrow is a harrowing and engaging exploration of the life and art of Hubert Selby Jr. a self described 'scream looking for a mouth!' Selby overcame incredible odds to become one of the 20th Century's most celebrated and controversial authors by writing some of the most remarkable and distinctive books ever! Featuring archival material and new interviews this sharp penetrating documentary includes rare footage of Selby reflecting on his life and work along with contributions from: Lou Reed Ellen Burstyn Jared Leto Darren Aronofsky Uli Edel Nicolas Winding Refn Henry Rollins Jerry Stahl Richard Price Gilbert Sorrentino Anthony Kiedis Michael Silverblatt and others! Requiem For A Dream follows the blighted lives of four Coney Islanders; a lonely widowed mother (Academy Award Winner Ellen Burstyn) her son Harry (Jared Leto) his beautiful girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly) and his best friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans). The film is a hypnotic tale of four human beings each pursuing their vision of happiness. Even as everything begins to fall apart they refuse to let go plummeting with their dreams into a nightmarish gut-wrenching freefall.
Stan Laurel in 'The Home Wrecker' Discharged from the 372nd infantry on account of a bean shortage Smithy (Laurel) seeks employment as a labourer. Given a note to take to the Foreman who upon reading it asks ""Do you know anything about building?"" ""No "" Smithy replies to which the foreman says ""Just the man we're looking for"". So starts a wonderful little comedy. Oliver Hardy in 'The Four Wheeled Terror' Hardy plays ""Dangerous Dan McGraw"" who along with his henchmen try to pr
Based on a novel by Barbara Cartland, A Ghost in Monte Carlo is an undemanding period romp packed full of twists and turns. The perfect cinematic equivalent of Cartland's literary style, the film is a glossy, star-filled but ultimately shallow exercise. Lysette Anthony is the wide-eyed innocent Mistral, released from her convent upbringing into the care of her Aunt Emilie (Sarah Miles). On arriving in glamorous Monte Carlo, she immediately strikes up a relationship with a dashing young lord and sets out to experience her newfound freedom. Matters take an unexpected, darker turn as Mistral finds herself caught up in the plotting of her aunt and in increasing danger. The performances range from Anthony's passable purity to a ludicrously over-the-top turn from Miles. The much-vaunted all-star casting amounts to a series of brief cameos from the likes of Oliver Reed, Joanna Lumley, Lewis Collins and Gareth Hunt--presumably at the request of executive producer Lord Lew Grade. It's fun for what it is but only as long as you leave any critical sensibilities on hold. On the DVD:A Ghost in Monte Carlo is essentially a video release transferred directly to DVD. The sound is digitally remastered and there is a very poor interactive menu to guide you through the various chapters but no extras. --Phil Udell
The Railway Grandchildren
Farewell To Arms (Dir. Frank Borzage 1932): Ernest Hemingway's tragic wartime romance comes to vivid life in this classic 1932 film starring Oscar winners Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes. The cataclysm of WW1 sets the stage for an impassioned story of star-crossed love between a daring American ambulance driver (Cooper) and an English nurse (Hayes) in an army hospital. The tumult of war conspires to push the pair together and then wrench them apart in what becomes an ultimate tes
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