Edmund O'Brien (The Web) gets involved in the mob's bookmaking racket in 711 Ocean Drive, also starring Joanne Dru (Red River), and Otto Kruger (Escape in the Fog). Telephone operator Mal Granger uses his technical knowledge to run an illegal bookmaking operation, but when Granger falls for a mobster's wife, and with both the police and the syndicate on his tail, it's only a matter of time before his luck runs out. With a ripped from the headlines' approach which required the crew to have police protection on location, 711 Ocean Drive is a riveting film noir, one made with such realism by director Joseph M Newman (Abandoned) that it was shown to a Senate investigation into organised crime. Product Features High Definition presentation Original mono audio Audio commentary with author and film critic Glenn Kenny (2021) Diary of a Sergeant (1945, 24 mins): Joseph M Newman's documentary portrait of Harold Russell, a soldier who lost his hands during World War II and would later win an Oscar for his performance in The Best Years of Our Lives Three Sappy People (1939, 18 mins): the Three Stooges play a trio of telephone repairmen who make an unexpected career switch Original theatrical trailer Image gallery: publicity and promotional material New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
The original and best version of Gaston Leroux's legendary book The Phantom Of The Opera is an awesome monument to the Golden Age of Hollywood starring ""The Man of a Thousand Faces"" Lon Chaney. In the film Chaney is Erik the horribly disfigured Phantom who leads a menacing existence in the catacombs and dungeons beneath the Paris Opera. When Erik falls in love with a beautiful prima donna (Mary Philbin) he kidnaps her and holds her hostage in his lair where he is destined to have
Oh Vunderbar! This is the perfect drive-in flick (if there were any drive-ins left) as astronaut Alex Rebar returns to Earth from a botched space mission only to have contracted a strange disease that makes him slowly melt. This leads to a bloody killing spree. The first fifteen minutes of this trots out all the B-movie standards (gore campy moments and breasts!) which will leave any low-budget Vipco fan grinning! Packed full of great over-the-top moments fantastic make-up effects (
Fantomas the mysterious arch criminal who holds Paris in the grip of terror was first brought to the screen in this legendary serial by celebrated French cinema pioneer Louis Feuillade. The creation of authors Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre Fantomas perpetrated the most appalling crimes in 32 hugely popular pulp novels and became a cult favourite of the avante garde including the painters Rene Magritte and Salvador Dali. Feuillade's serial was one of cinema's earliest and mo
From a northern working-class background James Kavanagh has climbed to the top of an elite profession through hard work and a love of the law. But his dedication to work the long hours and difficult cases have taken their toll on lfe at home with his wife and two teenage children. Episodes comprise: Mute Of Malice Blood Money Ancient History Diplomatic Baggage The Ties We Bind In God We Trust.
Edmund O'Brian - DOA
Alongside Come Play with Me and Confessions of a Window Cleaner Eskimo Nell takes its place as one of the most celebrated British sex comedies of the 1970s. Featuring a witty script from Michael Armstrong (who also stars) and directed by a young Martin Campbell - years before he helmed the James Bond movies GoldenEye and Casino Royale - Eskimo Nell is a hilarious satire on the low-budget British movie industry. Three inexperienced filmmakers (Armstrong Christopher Timothy and Terence Edmond) attempt to make a movie version of the notoriously rude poem 'The Ballad of Eskimo Nell' with disastrous results. This classic British comedy features a cast of famous faces including Roy Kinnear (The Three Musketeers) Katy Manning (Doctor Who) Christopher Biggins (Porridge) Diane Langton (Carry On England) Anna Quayle (Grange Hill) and an eye-popping cameo from 1970s' sex-bomb Mary Millington in her début movie. Re-mastered from the original film elements and boasting a host of special features Eskimo Nell celebrates its 40th anniversary on Blu-ray for the very first time. Special Features: Region Free Brand-new audio commentary with writer Michael Armstrong and historian Simon Sheridan 'When Dead-Eye Dick Met Mexican Pete' - The Making of Eskimo Nell (documentary) Reversible sleeve with alternate poster art Booklet notes by Simon Sheridan Theatrical Trailer Bonus short Mary Millington film
Grard Blain and Jean-Claude Brialy star in the first of their collaborations with the great Claude Chabrol. The director's masterful feature debut - ironic, funny, unsparing - is a revelation: another of that rare breed of film where the dusty formula might be used in full sincerity: Le Beau Serge marks the beginning of the Chabrol touch. In this first feature film of the French New Wave, one year before Truffaut's The Four Hundred Blows, the dandyish Franois (Brialy, of Godard's A Woman Is a Woman, Rohmer's Claire's Knee, and countless other cornerstones of 20th-century French cinema) takes a holiday from the city to his home village of Sardent, where he reconnects with his old chum Serge (Blain), now a besotted and hopeless alcoholic, and sly duplicitous carnal Marie (Bernadette Lafont). A grave triangle forms, and a tragic slide ensues. From Le Beau Serge onward up to his final film Bellamy in 2009, the revered Chabrol would come to leave a significant and lasting impression upon the French cinema - frequently with great commercial success. It is with great pride that we present Le Beau Serge, the kickstart of the Nouvelle Vague and of Chabrol's enormous body of work, on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK for the first time. Special Features: Gorgeous new Gaumont restoration of the film in its original aspect ratio New and improved English subtitles Original theatrical trailer A 56-minute documentary about the making of the film L'Avarice [Avarice], Chabrol's 1962 short film A lengthy booklet with a new and exclusive essay by critic Emmanuel Burdeau; excerpts of interviews and writing by Chabrol; and more
Grard Blain and Jean-Claude Brialy star in the first of their collaborations with the great Claude Chabrol. The director's masterful feature debut - ironic, funny, unsparing - is a revelation: another of that rare breed of film where the dusty formula might be used in full sincerity: Le Beau Serge marks the beginning of the Chabrol touch. In this first feature film of the French New Wave, one year before Truffaut's The Four Hundred Blows, the dandyish Franois (Brialy, of Godard's A Woman Is a Woman, Rohmer's Claire's Knee, and countless other cornerstones of 20th-century French cinema) takes a holiday from the city to his home village of Sardent, where he reconnects with his old chum Serge (Blain), now a besotted and hopeless alcoholic, and sly duplicitous carnal Marie (Bernadette Lafont). A grave triangle forms, and a tragic slide ensues. From Le Beau Serge onward up to his final film Bellamy in 2009, the revered Chabrol would come to leave a significant and lasting impression upon the French cinema - frequently with great commercial success. It is with great pride that we present Le Beau Serge, the kickstart of the Nouvelle Vague and of Chabrol's enormous body of work, on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK for the first time. Special Features: Gorgeous new Gaumont restoration of the film in its original aspect ratio, presented in 1080p on the Blu-ray New and improved English subtitles Original theatrical trailer A 56-minute documentary about the making of the film L'Avarice [Avarice], Chabrol's 1962 short film A lengthy booklet with a new and exclusive essay by critic Emmanuel Burdeau; excerpts of interviews and writing by Chabrol; and more
Coming from a working class northern background Kavanagh has risen to the top of an elite profession. However his dedication to justice has taken its toll on his private life... Episode comprise: 1. Previous Convictions 2. The More Loving One 3. Time Of Need 4. Endgames 5. The End Of Law (2 hour special episode)
The great love story of the Great War. Hollywood once again looks back at the undeniably compelling story of D-Day this time through the device of two officers facing the coming battle one American and one British recalling their love for the same woman.
Irwin Allen's visually impressive but scientifically silly Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea updates 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea as the world's most advanced experimental submarine manoeuvres under the North Pole while the Van Allen radiation belt catches fire, giving the concept "global warming" an entirely new dimension. As the Earth broils in temperatures approaching 170 degrees F, Walter Pidgeon's maniacally driven Admiral Nelson hijacks the Seaview sub and plays tag with the world's combined naval forces on a race to the South Pacific, where he plans to extinguish the interstellar fire with a well-placed nuclear missile. But first he has to fight a mutinous crew, an alarmingly effective saboteur, not one but two giant squid attacks and a host of design flaws that nearly cripple the mission (note to Nelson: think backup generators). Barbara Eden shimmies to Frankie Avalon's trumpet solos in the most form-fitting naval uniform you've ever seen; fish-loving Peter Lorre plays in the shark tank; gloomy religious fanatic Michael Ansara preaches Armageddon; and Joan Fontaine looks very uncomfortable playing an armchair psychoanalyst. It's all pretty absurd, but Allen pumps it up with larger-than-life spectacle and lovely miniature work. Fantastic Voyage is the original psychedelic inner-space adventure. When a brilliant scientist falls into a coma with an inoperable blood clot in the brain, a surgical team embarks on a top-secret journey to the centre of the mind in a high-tech military submarine shrunk to microbial dimensions. Stephen Boyd stars as a colourless commander sent to keep an eye on things (though his eyes stay mostly on shapely medical assistant Raquel Welch), while Donald Pleasence is suitably twitchy as the claustrophobic medical consultant. The science is shaky at best, but the imaginative spectacle is marvellous: scuba-diving surgeons battle white blood cells, tap the lungs to replenish the oxygen supply and shoot the aorta like daredevil surfers. The film took home a well-deserved Oscar for Best Visual Effects. Director Richard Fleischer, who had previously turned Disney's 1954 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea into one of the most riveting submarine adventures of all time, creates a picture so taut with cold-war tensions and cloak-and-dagger secrecy that niggling scientific contradictions (such as, how do miniaturised humans breathe full-sized air molecules?) seem moot. --Sean Axmaker
John Thaw is Kavanagh Q.C. one of the most respected criminal advocates in London. From a northern working-class background James Kavanagh has climbed to the top of an elite profession through hard work and a love of the law. But his dedication to work the long hours and difficult cases have taken their toll on life at home with his wife and two teenage children. This double DVD release features Series Four of Kavanagh Q.C.. Episode titles: 1. Memento Mori 2. Care In The Com
The Terror (Dir. Roger Corman 1963): A lieutentant in Napoleon's army (a young Jack Nicholson) traces a mysterious woman to a castle on the Baltic coast and finds himself trapped by a mad baron (Boris Karloff). This highly enjoyable atmopsheric slice of low-budget horror from the great Roger Corman was also reportedly directed at points by future talents Francis Coppola and Peter Bogdanovich. Zombie The Hitch-hiker (Dir. Ida Lupino 1953): Brilliantly directed
It's difficult sometimes to fathom how compilers think. This Chiller Theatre threesome consists of two classic silent horror films, plus a low-budget B-movie from the early 1960s. The connection? You decide! Yet these are films that belong in any self-respecting collection, and this package is a good way of acquiring them. Of those featuring Lon Chaney, it's the original 1923 The Hunchback of Notre Dame that comes across best. Chaney's grotesquerie is shot-through with pathos, and Patsy Ruth Miller's Esmeralda has enduring freshness. Wallace Worsley handles crowd scenes and cathedral stunts with aplomb, and there's an atmospheric "posthumous" soundtrack, though anyone looking for accuracy in the depiction of medieval French society is in for a shock. 1925's The Phantom of the Opera is slow-moving and uneventful by comparison, with Rupert Julian's direction never escaping the narrow Gothic trappings of the novel. Chaney cranks (or is that camps?) up his range of gestures to the limit, and Mary Philbin is an eye-catching heroine, but the denouement in the Paris sewers seems endless--with looped extracts of Schubert and Brahms as a hardly appropriate soundtrack. Cut to 1962, and The Carnival of Souls--made in Kansas for under $100,000--is an undeniable cult classic. Herk Harvey sustains the increasingly surreal narrative with ease, Candace Hilligoss is striking (if a tad gauche) as the young organist caught on the cusp of this world and the next, and Gene Moore's organ soundtrack is a masterly backdrop for the motley assemblage of ghouls who pursue her around the seaside pier in a memorable closing sequence. On the DVD: Chiller Theatre is very acceptably remastered--with 1.33:1 aspect ratio and 12 chapter headings per film--and decently if minimally packaged. --Richard Whitehouse
The great love story of the Great War.Hollywood once again looks back at the undeniably compelling story of D-Day, this time through the device of two officers facing the coming battle, one American and one British, recalling their love for the same woman.
A World War II double-bill comes to DVD with the pairing of The Young Lions (1958) and D-Day the Sixth of June (1956). Edward Dmytryk's The Young Lions is one of the most thoughtful films about the War. Based on a novel by Irwin Shaw, it tells parallel stories of two American soldiers (Montgomery Clift and Dean Martin) and one German officer (Marlon Brando), whose war experiences we follow until they intersect outside a concentration camp. Martin plays what he calls "a likable coward", Clift is intense as a Jewish GI, and Brando experiments with the limits of his part as a Nazi re-evaluating his beliefs. Legend has it that Clift accused Brando of bleeding-heart excessiveness. Interestingly, the two Method actors share no scenes together. --Tom Keogh D-Day the Sixth of June is a misleading title for a very tame wartime romance with barely 10 minutes of combat in the last reel. What we mostly get is a year's worth of flashbacks depicting the reluctant, London-based affair of a married US staff officer (Robert Taylor) and a British Red Cross worker (Dana Wynter) whose commando suitor (Richard Todd) is fighting in Africa. To be sure, the emotional desperation and embattled decency of good people in time of war is as worthy of film treatment as any military campaign, and the script works pre-invasion Anglo-American tensions into the story. But the CinemaScope production is utterly formulaic, with leaden direction by Henry Koster. Wynter's porcelain beauty apparently didn't permit changes of expression, and Taylor looks about 15 years past his prime. --Richard T Jameson
Police drama set in the sleazy world of the Metropolitan Police Vice Squad. Award-winning actor Ken Stott (Fever Pitch Shallow Grave) stars in The Vice a hard-hitting drama set in the vice unit of the Metropolitan Police based in the heart of London's West End. Prostitution porography and murder are all part of the workload for the vice team as they investigate the capital's darker secrets. The Vice portrays a city of extraordinary social contrasts moving swiftly from the back streets of King's Cross to the bars of Park Lane hotels. Episode 1: Daughters Episode 2: Sons Episode 3: Dabbling.
The gripping police TV series peeks into the darkest corners of British society as the team led by D.I. Chappel (Ken Stott) aims to uncover the very worst criminals dealing in prostitution and pornography in the London sex trade... Series 1: 1. Daughters (Part 1) 2. Daughters (Part 2) 3. Sons (Part 1) 4. Sons (Part 2) 5. Dabbling (Part 1) 6. Dabbling (Part 2) Series 2: 1. Home Is The Place (Part 1) 2. Home Is The Place (Part 2) 3. Walking On Water (Part 1) 4. Walkin
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