"Actor: Gary Cockrell"

• Lolita | DVD | (01/06/2006) from £6.19   |  Saving you £7.80 (126.01%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Stanley Kubrick's 1961 version of Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov's notorious 1953 novel, prompted a scandal in its day: even to address the issue of paedophilia on screen was deemed to be as perverted as the hapless protagonist Humbert Humbert. James Mason plays Humbert, the suave English Professor whose gentlemanly exterior peels away as quickly as his scruples once exposed to Sue Lyons' well-developed teenage beauty. In order to be close to her, he marries her mother, the lonely and pathetically pretentious Charlotte (Shelley Winters) only for her to expire conveniently, leaving Humbert free to embark on a motel-to-motel trek across America with Lolita in tow, evading suspicions that theirs is more than a father-daughter relationship. Peter Sellers, meanwhile, gives a Dr Strangelove-type tour de force performance as Clare Quilty, a TV writer also in pursuit of Lolita, who harasses Humbert under several guises, including a psychiatrist. As a movie, Lolita is flawed, albeit interestingly so. The sexual innuendo (a summer camp called Camp Climax, for example) seems jarring and pointless, while Sellers' comic turn detracts from any sense of guilt, tension or tragedy. It's as if the real purpose of the film is to offer a sort of silent, mocking laughter at the wretched Humbert and systematically divest him of his dignity. By the end, he is a babbling wretch while Sue Lyons' Lolita is pragmatic and self-possessed. It's Mason and Lyons' performances, which lift the film from its mess of structural difficulties. Decades on, their central relationship still makes for pitifully compulsive viewing. On the DVD: Few extras, sadly, though the brief original trailer is excellent, built around the question, "How could they make a film out of Lolita?". The original black and white picture and mono sound are excellent. --David Stubbs

• The Corridor People - The Complete Series | DVD | (13/08/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A surreal crime/fantasy adventure series in the mould of the The Avengers, The Corridor People ran for only four episodes yet has garnered considerable cult devotion. A host of unlikely characters include Kronk, a paternal CID agent, his henchmen Inspector Blood and Sergeant Hound, and American, Bogart-worshipping private eye Phil Scrotty; each episode sees them pitched against the avaricious schemes of Syrie Van Epp, a beautiful, treacherous Persian millionairess. Written by Edward Boyd (The Odd Man), the series stars larger-than-life character actor John Sharp and Elizabeth Shepherd, the actress originally cast as Emma Peel; guest stars include Windsor Davies and Pauline Collins. With wildly inventive storylines, offbeat, often humorous dialogue in which characters frequently break the fourth wall, strikingly original photography and heavily stylised sets, it's no surprise to find it described as 'the Twin Peaks of its day', or akin to 'a lost Harold Pinter play with an added dash of Monty Python'..! This unique series, unscreened since its original transmission in 1966, is now available on DVD for the very first time.

• The War Lover | DVD | (16/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Stationed in England during World War II Buzz Rickson (McQueen) is the bravest Air Force pilot in his squadron and the most reckless. His maniacal quest for thrills takes him to the brink of destruction during the B-17 bombing raids on Germany. But while Buzz's daredevil heroics win the grudging respect of his crew his rebellious attitude alienates everyone except his co-pilot Ed Bolland (Robert Wagner)...

• Tiara Tahiti | DVD | (14/03/2011) from £10.98   |  Saving you £4.00 (44.49%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In his first effort at directing a feature-length film William (Ted) Kotcheff best-known for movies like The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz does an excellent job in making this drama effective. He is helped in no small part by James Mason as Brett Aimsley a sophisticated at-ease former junior partner in a brokerage firm and John Mills as Lt. Col. Clifford Southey a former clerk in that same company. During the war the lieutenant carries his sense of inferiority from his peacetime job as a clerk with him. So when he has a chance to nail Brett (a junior officer now) for trying to bring some censored goods back into London he takes the chance and Brett is drummed out of service. Brett heads for Tahiti and a pretty good life in the sun until Clifford shows up on the island with big plans to build a hotel -- bringing with him the same defensive attitude.