"Actor: George Macready"

• Paths of Glory (Blu-ray) (1957) (Masters of Cinema) | Blu Ray | (19/09/2016) from £13.35   |  Saving you £6.64 (49.74%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The pity of war has been a much-favoured film topic; the treachery of war much less so, though never more persuasively than in Paths of Glory, Stanley Kubrick's breakthrough feature from 1957. Kirk Douglas gives one of his finest screen performances as Colonel Dax, the idealistic First World War soldier appalled by the arbitrary court-marshal meted out to three of his men after an impossible attempt to storm German lines goes disastrously wrong. George Macready is an utterly believable Gerneral Mireau, obsessed with his own honour and standing, whom Adolphe Majou complements tellingly as the urbane and cynical General Bruler. Those who know Kubrick from his later sprawling epics will be surprised at the tautness and concision shown here, even though the screenplay--which he co-wrote--has a certain theatrical stiffness. On the DVD: Paths of Glory on disc reproduces well in full-screen format, and Gerald Fried's bitingly ironic score comes through powerfully. There are five dubbed and six subtitled languages. The original trailer is a masterpiece of gritty reportage, well worth reviving. Along with Dr Strangelove and 2001, this is Kubrick's most focussed and durable film. --Richard Whitehouse

• Paths Of Glory | DVD | (15/07/2002) from £8.81   |  Saving you £7.18 (81.50%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The pity of war has been a much-favoured film topic; the treachery of war much less so, though never more persuasively than in Paths of Glory, Stanley Kubrick's breakthrough feature from 1957. Kirk Douglas gives one of his finest screen performances as Colonel Dax, the idealistic First World War soldier appalled by the arbitrary court-marshal meted out to three of his men after an impossible attempt to storm German lines goes disastrously wrong. George Macready is an utterly believable Gerneral Mireau, obsessed with his own honour and standing, whom Adolphe Majou complements tellingly as the urbane and cynical General Bruler. Those who know Kubrick from his later sprawling epics will be surprised at the tautness and concision shown here, even though the screenplay--which he co-wrote--has a certain theatrical stiffness. On the DVD: Paths of Glory on disc reproduces well in full-screen format, and Gerald Fried's bitingly ironic score comes through powerfully. There are five dubbed and six subtitled languages. The original trailer is a masterpiece of gritty reportage, well worth reviving. Along with Dr Strangelove and 2001, this is Kubrick's most focussed and durable film. --Richard Whitehouse

• Knock on Any Door (Standard Edition) | Blu Ray | (22/04/2024) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Humphrey Bogart (The Harder They Fall) and John Derek (The Family Secret) star in Knock on Any Door, a hard-hitting amalgam of film noir, social commentary, and courtroom drama. Nick Romano (Derek) is a young criminal whose motto is 'live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse'. But, when Nick faces the death penalty for killing a police officer, hotshot lawyer Andrew Morton (Bogart) defends him, arguing that the killer is merely a product of his environment. Based on the controversial novel by Willard Motley and directed by the great Nicholas Ray (In a Lonely Place), Knock on Any Door is an often-shocking indictment of the poverty that blights America's slums. Product Features High Definition remaster Original mono audio Audio commentary with writer and film historian Pamela Hutchinson (2022) Nobody Knows How Anybody Feels (2022, 20 mins): appreciation by critic and film programmer Geoff Andrew Tuesday in November (1945, 17 mins): documentary short about the democratic process in America, made as part of the Office of War's The American Scene series and boasting Nicholas Ray as assistant director Theatrical trailer Image gallery: promotional and publicity material New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• Desert Fox, The / The Desert Rats | DVD | (02/06/2003) from £14.35   |  Saving you £0.64 (4.46%)   |  RRP £14.99

  James Mason plays Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in both The Desert Fox (1951) and The Desert Rats (1953), a WWII double-bill on DVD. The Desert Fox, released six years after the end of the War, is a solemnly respectful tribute to Erwin Rommel, Germany's most celebrated military genius. James Mason's portrayal of this gallant warrior became a highlight of his career iconography. The film itself is oddly disjointed, though: a pre-credit commando raid to liquidate Rommel is followed by a flashback to the field-marshal's lightning successes commanding the Afrika Korps--a compressed account via documentary footage and copious narration (spoken by Michael Rennie, who also dubs Desmond Young, the Rommel biographer and one-time British POW appearing briefly as himself). The dramatic core is Rommel's growing disenchantment with Hitler (Luther Adler), his involvement in the plot to assassinate the Fuhrer, and his subsequent martyrdom. The Desert Rats stars Richard Burton in only his second Hollywood role (between Oscar-nominated turns in My Cousin Rachel and The Robe), as a Scottish commando put in charge of a battalion of the 9th Australian Division defending Tobruk. The Aussies don't like him, and with a year of grim North African duty already under his belt, he's not too crazy about his new responsibilities either. The outfit is charged with staving off the battering assaults of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel for two months, to give the British Army time to regroup in Cairo and prepare for a counterattack. In the end, the "desert rats" play hell with the Desert Fox for 242 days, during which time they and their commander develop some mutual respect. This is a solid, workmanlike World War II picture that, having been made in 1953 rather than 1943, can acknowledge a degree of eccentric humanity and soldierly professionalism in the enemy. Featured guest star James Mason reprises his Rommel from The Desert Fox, playing all his scenes in German except for a scene of ironical repartee with Burton. Another distinguished Brit, Robert Newton, gets costar billing as a boozy, self-confessed coward who used to be Burton's schoolmaster. However, a goodly number of Australians--including Chips Rafferty and Charles "Bud" Tingwell rate at least as much screen time. Robert Wise directed, with a trimness that reminds us he started out as an editor, and the pungent black-and-white cinematography is by Lucien Ballard. --Richard T. Jameson

• Gilda (1946) | DVD | (01/10/2018) from £5.00   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Gilda, are you decent? RITA HAYWORTH (The Lady from Shanghai) tosses her hair back and slyly responds, Me? in one of the great star entrances in movie history. Gilda, directed by CHARLES VIDOR (Cover Girl), features a sultry Hayworth in her most iconic role, as the much-lusted-after wife of a criminal kingpin (Paths of Glory's GEORGE MACREADY), as well as the former flame of his bitter henchman (3:10 to Yuma's GLENN FORD), and she drives them both mad with desire and jealousy. An ever-shifting battle of the sexes set on a Buenos Aires casino's glittering floor and in its shadowy back rooms, Gilda is among the most sensual of all Hollywood noirs. BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES: New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack Audio commentary from 2010 by film critic Richard Schickel New interview with film noir historian Eddie Muller Appreciation of Gilda from 2010 featuring filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Baz Luhrmann Rita Hayworth: The Columbia Lady, a 2000 featurette on Hayworth's career as an actor and dancer Trailer PLUS: An essay by critic Sheila O'Malley

• The Desert Fox | DVD | (01/08/2005) from £5.38   |  Saving you £7.61 (141.45%)   |  RRP £12.99

  James Mason delivers a strong performance in the title role of this sympathetic study of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. In the early 40's Rommel's juggernaut Afrika Korps dominated North Africa. But as the tide turned and he came to the painful realisation that his Fuhrer to whom he had sworn allegiance was destroying Germany his ingrained sense of duty pushed him into a conspiracy against Hitler. Focusing on the latter part of Rommel's career the flm portrays him as a dedicated so

• PATHS OF GLORY (Masters of Cinema) Special Edition 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray | Blu Ray | (26/02/2024) from £23.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Season One | DVD | (20/02/2006) from £29.49   |  Saving you £5.50 (18.65%)   |  RRP £34.99

  ""Good evening. I'm Alfred Hitchcock and tonight Im presenting the first in a series of stories of suspense and mystery called oddly enough Alfred Hitchcock Presents. I shall not act in these stories but will only make appearances. Something in the nature of an accessory before and after the fact. To give the title to those of you who cant read and to tidy up afterwards for those who don't understand the endings."" Alfred Hitchcock Presents was an anthology seri

• A Kiss Before Dying | DVD | (04/08/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Bud Corliss a darkly handsome college boy is so obsessed with wealth that he'll do anything to get it. When his rich girlfriend Dorothy gets pregnant and is threatened with disinheritance Bud stages her suicide sending her plummeting from the roof of a high-rise. It's the perfect crime; until Dorothy's sister Ellen begins to unravel Bud's deadly scheme...

• The Count Yorga Collection | Blu Ray | (24/10/2022) from £38.59   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  RESTORED! REJUVENATED! REBORN! By the end of the 1960s the boom in Old World gothic horror had begun to wane in the face of present day terrors like the Vietnam war. In response, American filmmakers brought horror out of the past and into the present, and the classic movie monsters packed their bags and headed for the New World. Count Yorga, Vampire was among the first to successfully transpose the classic vampire, cloak and all, to a modern day setting as the Count played unforgettably by Robert Quarry arrives in the United States and settles in a Southern California mansion with his mysterious brides. A drive-in favourite from the moment it was released, a sequel soon followed. The Return of Count Yorga ups the ante and sees the sardonic Count on the streets of San Francisco, his sights set on an orphanage as a potential source of sustenance. Director Bob Kelljan (Scream Blacula Scream) delivers a one-two punch of classic cult cinema mixing chills, thrills, style, and suspense with a knowing wit that revels in the genre trappings. Presented in all new restorations by Arrow Films from new scans of the original camera negative, The Count Yorga Collection is a full blooded feast to die for! Product Features Brand new 2K restorations by Arrow Films of Count Yorga, Vampire and The Return of Count Yorga from new 4K scans of the original 35mm camera negatives High Definition Blu-Ray (1080p) presentations of both films Original lossless mono audio Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing Illustrated perfect bound collector's book featuring new writing by film critic Kat Ellinger and horror author Stephen Laws, plus archive contributions by critic Frank Collins and filmmaker Tim Sullivan Limited edition packaging with reversible sleeves featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Heather Vaughan Fold-out double-sided posters for both films featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Heather Vaughan Twelve double-sided, postcard-sized lobby card reproduction artcards Reproduction pressbook for Count Yorga, Vampire DISC ONE COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE Brand new audio commentary by film critic Tim Lucas Archival audio commentary by film critics David Del Valle & C. Courtney Joyner The Count in California, a brand new appreciation by Heather Drain and Chris O'Neill I Remember Yorga, a brand new interview with Frank Darabont in which the award-winning filmmaker talks about his love for Count Yorga, Vampire A Vampire in L.A., a brand new interview with actor Michael Murphy Fangirl Radio Tribute to Robert Quarry, an archival episode featuring host Jessica Dwyer in conversation with Tim Sullivan filmmaker, Yorga fan and friend of Robert Quarry Theatrical trailer Radio spots Image galleries DISC TWO THE RETURN OF COUNT YORGA Brand new audio commentary by film critic Stephen R. Bissette Archival audio commentary by David Del Valle & C. Courtney Joyner The Count and the Counterculture, a brand new interview with film critic Maitland McDonagh Chamber-music of Horrors, a brand new interview with David Huckvale about the scores for both films Archival interview with film critic Kim Newman Theatrical trailer Radio spots Image gallery

• Gilda | Blu Ray | (27/06/2016) from £17.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (55.59%)   |  RRP £27.99

  Gilda, are you decent? RITA HAYWORTH (The Lady from Shanghai) tosses her hair back and slyly responds, Me? in one of the great star entrances in movie history. Gilda, directed by CHARLES VIDOR (Cover Girl), features a sultry Hayworth in her most iconic role, as the much-lusted-after wife of a criminal kingpin (Paths of Glory's GEORGE MACREADY), as well as the former flame of his bitter henchman (3:10 to Yuma's GLENN FORD), and she drives them both mad with desire and jealousy. An ever-shifting battle of the sexes set on a Buenos Aires casino's glittering floor and in its shadowy back rooms, Gilda is among the most sensual of all Hollywood noirs. Special Features: New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack Audio commentary from 2010 by film critic Richard Schickel New interview with film noir historian Eddie Muller Appreciation of Gilda from 2010 featuring filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Baz Luhrmann Rita Hayworth: The Columbia Lady, a 2000 featurette on Hayworth's career as an actor and dancer Trailer PLUS: An essay by critic Sheila O'Malley Click Images to Enlarge

• Vera Cruz | DVD | (11/06/2001) from £12.94   |  Saving you £3.04 (30.55%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Vera Cruz was only director Robert Aldrich's second Western (his first, made a few months earlier, was the revisionist, pro-Native-American Apache), but it's such an assured, stylish affair that he might have been roaming the sagebrush for decades. In the aftermath of the American Civil War two lone adventurers make their way south of the border, where Mexico is fighting a civil war of its own to rid the country of the French-imposed Emperor Maximilian. Neither the dour Benjamin Trane (Gary Cooper) nor the grinning, devil-may-care Joe Erin (Burt Lancaster) has much in the way of idealism, but Trane still retains a thin bitter edge of integrity, a quality quite alien to the cheerfully amoral Erin. In uneasy alliance, constantly looking to outwit or double-cross each other, the two find themselves escorting a beautiful French countess (Denise Darcel) and a shipment of gold across country. Cooper and Lancaster create a superb double-act, using their contrasted screen personas to point up the humour and the cynicism of the two mercenaries' relationship. Darcel makes less than she might of the femme fatale role, but there are relishable cameos from Cesar Romero as a suavely duplicitous aristo and Ernest Borgnine as another gringo with an exceptionally vicious streak. The script, according to Aldrich, was written on the run, "always finished about five minutes before we shot it", but you wouldn't guess it from the laconic wit of the dialogue. It looks great, too--Ernest Laszlo's widescreen photography makes the most of the handsome Mexican locations. With its irreverent take on the accepted moral conventions of the genre, Vera Cruz ushered in a new kind of Western, and its central love-hate relationship would be replayed in Sam Peckinpah's Ride the High Country (1962) and Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). On the DVD: Not much in the way of extras but the mono sound has been expertly remastered to the benefit of Hugo Friedhofer's spirited score. Above all, the film's presented in its full Superscope ratio (16:9), a blessed relief after all those years when it showed up panned-and-scanned on BBC1. If ever a movie needed widescreen, it's this one--if only to fit in all Burt's teeth. You can see why they called him "Crockery Joe". --Philip Kemp

• My Name Is Julia Ross | Blu Ray | (18/02/2019) from £16.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  After a promising start on Poverty Row quickies, Joseph H. Lewis (The Big Combo) made his first film at Columbia and established himself as a director to watch with this Gothic-tinged Hitchcockian breakout hit, which later proved so popular that Columbia promoted it to A-feature status. The morning after Julia Ross (Nina Foch, Executive Suite) takes a job in London as secretary to wealthy widow Mrs Williamson Hughes (Dame May Whitty, The Lady Vanishes), she wakes up in a windswept Cornish mansion, having been drugged. Mrs Hughes and her volatile son, Ralph (George Macready, Gilda), attempt to gaslight Julia into believing she is Ralph s wife, Marion. Her belongings have been destroyed, the windows barred and the locals believe that she is mad. Will Julia be able to escape before she falls prey to the Hughes sinister charade? And what happened to the real Marion Hughes? A briskly paced and brilliantly stylised mystery that grabs its audience from the start, My Name Is Julia Ross immediately cemented Lewis place in the noir pantheon, and anticipated the elaborate identity-based deceptions found in future classic thrillers like Alfred Hitchcock s Vertigo and Brian De Palma s Obsession. Special Features: High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation Original uncompressed mono PCM audio Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing Commentary by noir expert Alan K. Rode Identity Crisis: Joseph H. Lewis at Columbia - The Nitrate Diva (Nora Fiore) provides the background and an analysis of the film Theatrical trailer Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Scott Saslow FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by author and critic Adrian Martin

• Gilda | DVD | (10/01/2000) from £5.00   |  Saving you £14.99 (299.80%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The legendary Rita Hayworth sizzles with sensuality and magnetism as she sings ""Put the blame on Mame"" and delivers a dazzling performance as the enticing temptress Gilda. In the story of Gilda Johnny Farrell (Glenn Ford) goes to work for Ballin Mundson (George MacReady) the proprietor of an illegal gambling casino in a South American city and quickly rises to become Mundson's ""main man"". All is well until Mundson returns from a trip with his new bride Gilda - a woman from Johnn

• The Desert Hawk | DVD | (09/05/2016) from £11.50   |  Saving you £1.49 (12.96%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Non-stop adventure, romance and swashbuckling fun! A lavishly colourful Arabian Nights-style epic where the Desert Hawk battles valiantly against the evil Prince Murad like a Robin Hood of the desert. In a plot replete with twists and deceits, scimitars and bazaars, and double and triple crosses, he meets all manner of foes including Rock Hudson as the villainous Captain Ras! Among an extremely colourful cast of characters there's even an Aladdin, a Sinbad and, most important of all, the object of the Desert Hawk's desire the impossibly beautiful Princess Scheherazade.

• The Big Clock DVD | DVD | (23/08/2010) from £17.53   |  Saving you £-4.54 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  George Stroud (Ray Milland) executive editor at Crimeways magazine is involved with the wrong woman - his boss's. When Earl Janoth (Charles Laughton) his boss kills her in an argument he begins to cover his tracks and frame an innocent man whose identity he doesn't know but was seen outside her home just before the murder. Janoth knows someone saw him but not who . He puts Stroud in charge of finding the unidentified witness but the trouble is that Stroud was the missing man...

• Rogues Of Sherwood Forest | DVD | (24/10/2011) from £5.38   |  Saving you £4.61 (85.69%)   |  RRP £9.99

  This is a UK Region 2 DVD ( and Region's 4 and 5 ) released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in 2009. The film runs to about 76 minutes and is presented Widescreen ( 16:9 ratio ).

• Stanley Kubrick Collection - The Killing/Paths Of Glory/Killer's Kiss | DVD | (22/01/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The Killing: When ex-con Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) says he has a plan to make a killing everybody want to be in on the action. Especially when the plan is to steal $2 million in a racetrack robbery scheme in which ""no one will get hurt."" But despite all their careful plotting Clay and his men have overlooked on thing: Sherry Peatty (Marie Windsor) a money-hungry double-crossing dame who's planning to make a financial killing of her own...even if she has to wipe out Clay's entire gang to do it! Paths Of Glory: Safe in their picturesque chateau behind the front lines the French General Staff passes down a direct order to Colonel Dax: take the Ant Hill at any cost. A blatant suicide mission the attack is doomed to failure. Covering up their fatal blunder the Generals order the arrest of three innocent soldiers charging them with cowardice and mutiny. Dax a lawyer in civilian life rises to the men's defense but soon realizes that unless he can prove that the Generals were to blame nothing less than a miracle will save his clients from the firing squad. The Killer's Kiss: Stanley Kubrick's second film Killer's Kiss made the world take notice. The young moviemaker won acclaim for this dazzling film noir about a struggling New York boxer (Jamie Smith) whose life is imperiled when he protects a nightclub dancer (Irene Kane) from her gangster boss (Frank Silvera). ""Using his camera as a sandpaper block Kubrick has stripped away the veneer from the prizefight and dancehall worlds "" the New York Mirror proclaimed. Killer's Kiss not only lends considerable insight into future Kubrick classics - such as The Killing and Full Metal Jacket - but is also a remarkable film in its own right: the boxing match may be the most vicious this side of Raging Bull and the famed final battle remains an action tour-de-force.

• Gilda | DVD | (07/03/2011) from £6.73   |  Saving you £3.26 (48.44%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The legendary Rita Hayworth sizzles with sensuality and magnetism as she sings 'Put the Blame on Mame', and delivers a dazzling performance as the enticing temptress Gilda.In the story of Gilda, Johnny Farrell (Glenn Ford) goes to work for Ballin Mundson (George MacReady), the proprietor of an illegal gambling casino in a South American city, and quickly rises to become Mundson's 'main man'. All is well until Mundson returns from a trip with his new bride, Gilda - a woman from Johnny's past. Mundson unaware of their previous love affair, assigns Farrell the job of ensuring that Gilda is a faithful wife. Fraught with hatred, Gilda does her best to antagonize, intimidate and instill jealousy in Farrel - until circumstances allow him to get even.

• Paths of Glory | Blu Ray | (23/08/2022) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A