"Actor: Hugh Ross"

• Oliver | DVD | (11/12/2000) from £19.15   |  Saving you £0.84 (4.39%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Film buffs and critics can argue until their faces turn blue about whether this lavish Dickensian musical deserved the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1968, but the movie speaks for itself on grandly entertaining terms. Adapted from Dickens's classic novel, it's one of the most dramatically involving and artistically impressive musicals of the 1960s, directed by Carol Reed with a delightful enthusiasm that would surely have impressed Dickens himself. Mark Lester plays the waifish orphan Oliver Twist, who is befriended by the pick-pocketing Artful Dodger (Jack Wild) and recruited into the gang of boy thieves led by Fagin (played to perfection by Ron Moody). The villainous Bill Sikes (Oliver Reed) casts his long shadow over Oliver and his friends, but the young orphan is still able to find loving care in the most desperate of circumstances. Full of memorable melodies and splendid lyrics, Oliver! is a timeless film, prompting even hard-to-please critic Pauline Kael to call it "a superb demonstration of intelligent craftsmanship," and to further observe that "it's as if the movie set out to be a tribute to Dickens and his melodramatic art as well as to tell the story of Oliver Twist". --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Before You Go | DVD | (21/04/2003) from £5.72   |  Saving you £14.27 (249.48%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Julie Walters, Joanne Whalley and Victoria Hamilton star as three sisters coming to terms with their mother's death in this adaptation of the stageplay "The Memory of Water."

• Simon and The Witch - Series One & Two (25 episodes) (BBC) | DVD | (23/10/2017) from £9.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (100.10%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Based on the books by Margaret Stuart Barry, Simon and The Witch tells the magical adventures of a little boy Simon who befriends a very mischievous witch! All 25 episodes of this classic BBC Children's show are on 2-disc DVD for the first time. Starring Elizabeth Spriggs, Hugh Pollard, David Crane, Joan Sims, Sarah Wynter, Nicola Stapleton, Ilan Ostrove & Joe Grossi.

• Birdman Of Alcatraz | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £8.18   |  Saving you £7.81 (95.48%)   |  RRP £15.99

  How does bitter convict Robert Stroud cope with a lifetime of solitary confinement? The answer in a sense comes from above in the form of a feeble sparrow he finds in the isolation yard. Stroud brings this newfound companion to his cell nurses it to health and from that point on there's no turning back. Despite having only a third grade education and no hope of parole Stroud becomes a renowned ornithologist and achieves a greater sense of freedom and purpose behind prison walls

• Charlotte Gray | DVD | (05/01/2004) from £5.58   |  Saving you £4.41 (79.03%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Set in Nazi-occupied France at the height of World War Two the story centres on a young Scottish woman (Cate Blanchett) working with the French Resistance in the hope of rescuing her lover, a missing RAF pilot shot down behind enemy lines.

• Death Line | Blu Ray | (27/08/2018) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Donald Pleasence gives a memorable performance as an idiosyncratic police inspector hot on the trail of a nest of inbred subterranean cannibals in this notoriously violent arthouse slasher movie from the early 1970s. A long-time cult favourite, Death Line features stylishly grim imagery from Oscar-nominated cinematographer Alex Thomson and a rumbustuously sleazy soundtrack from Wil Mallone and Jeremy Rose. Remastered from original film elements it is presented here as a brand-new High Definition transfer in its original theatrical aspect ratio. When a philandering politician goes missing on the Underground, the subsequent police investigation uncovers a terrifying secret kept hidden since the 1800s. Who or what is turning the Underground tunnels into a Death Line..?

• Earth vs The Flying Saucers | DVD | (14/10/2002) from £14.49   |  Saving you £-1.50 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Notable neither for its director nor its stars, Earth vs the Flying Saucers has been given the widescreen DVD treatment rather because of its special-effects man, the legendary Ray Harryhausen. A Twilight Zone styled voiceover introduces Dr Marvin Russell and his wife of two hours as they're buzzed by an overhead flying saucer--the first of many. When a translation device reveals the saucer-occupants' fiendish plan to take over the world, it's time for a good old army-alien punch-up. Cue screenfuls of avuncular patriarchs, loads of techno-flannel space-speak and plenty of gratuitous American-monument destruction. A by-numbers B-movie, this is only really notable for Harryhausen's stop-motion FX work--and though this, his fifth feature, isn't a patch on his later Technicolor masterpieces, his trick of demolishing facsimiles of recognisable landmarks is cited by many premier filmmakers as being hugely influential on their work. This is very much of its time, the saucer-people arousing few of the thrills engendered by his later creations (Sinbad's Cyclops, for example). And with Cold War fears now just a memory, the Ruskies, or rather aliens, can no longer prevail upon a zeitgeist of xenophobic paranoia for their power. On the DVD: Earth vs the Flying Saucers's black-and-white picture is clean and crisp in this anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen transfer and the Dolby digital mono soundtrack is clear enough. The theatrical trailer will please fans of kitsch, as will the featurette "This Is Dynamation" produced at the same time as the first Sinbad movie. The real corker here though is the generously proportioned documentary "The Harryhausen Chronicles": narrated by Leonard Nimoy, it features a stellar cast of devotees (George Lucas among them) waxing lyrical about the influence of Harryhausen's films, and allows the man himself to ramble fascinatingly over clips of his filmic canon. If you're a fan, it's Harryhausen heaven. --Paul Eisinger

• Elmer Gantry | DVD | (03/02/2003) from £15.29   |  Saving you £-2.30 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Brothers and sisters, can we get a witness for Elmer Gantry, a woeful tale of saints and sinners? Burt Lancaster earned his only Oscar as the wide-smiling, glad-handing, soul-saving charlatan Gantry, a salesman who turns his gift for preaching into a career at the pulpit. Climbing on board the barnstorming evangelical tour of revivalist Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons), Gantry declaims, invokes, and sermonises his way to the top, until a former flame-turned-prostitute (Shirley Jones in an Oscar-winning performance) threatens to reveal his dark past as a womaniser and con man. Lancaster harnesses all his physical vigour and natural charisma for this role, literally throwing himself into his preaching with the suppleness of an acrobat and the sing-song delivery of a gospel singer--he even brays like a hound to show the Holy Spirit within him. Gantry is a showman, pure and simple, and while he doesn't fool true-believer Sister Sharon, he gives her a few object lessons in playing the crowd. Director Richard Brooks, who also took home an Oscar for his screenplay (adapted from the Sinclair Lewis novel), creates a rousing drama both on and off the pulpit, and provides fine roles for an excellent supporting cast, including Arthur Kennedy, Dean Jagger, John McIntire, and singer Patti Page. --Sean Axmaker

• For Love Of The Game | DVD | (15/01/2001) from £10.89   |  Saving you £2.09 (26.46%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Billy Chapel (Kevin Costner) is forced to re-examine his priorities in life when he is confronted with unexpected circumstances

• Sirens | DVD | (20/05/2002) from £14.96   |  Saving you £0.03 (0.20%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Sirens is an affectionate, semi-fictional comedy of manners set in 1930s Australia. In an audacious stroke of casting Hugh Grant plays a stereotypically awkward and diffident Englishman, in this case a Church of England priest. The priest is despatched into the Blue Mountains west of Sydney in an effort to press the Good Word upon Norman Lindsay, an artist whose lurid works are scandalising the upright citizenry. Lindsay--capably played here by Sam Neill--really existed and though he fancied himself as a dashing Bohemian artist, his paintings were dreadful. Sirens sees Grant's rigidly decent young priest and his equally prim wife (Tara Fitzgerald) gradually tempted further and further into the rustic bacchanalia that Lindsay has founded up in the bush. This sensual world is represented by Lindsay's young muses, played by supermodel Elle MacPherson, a pre-Ally McBeal Portia De Rossi and Kate Fischer. The three are more or less unclothed for most of the film, and spend what seems an unnecessary amount of time washing each other in rock-pools. This may or may not reflect awareness on the part of the producers that the film's predictable plot and overwrought dialogue weren't going to fill a lot of seats without some help. On the DVD: Sirens is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen, but there are no extra features.--Andrew Mueller

• Paperback Hero | DVD | (22/08/2005) from £13.48   |  Saving you £-3.49 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  He's hard tough ... and doesn't give a XXXX for anything ... except romantic novels. Jack Wallis is a road-train driver with a secret... He has just become a top selling romance novelist. However being a 'mans man' in the Australian outback to avoid embarrassment he needs a name a woman's name - and he chooses that of his best friend Ruby. When a glamorous city publisher shows up to sign 'Ruby Vale' to a major book deal Jack must do some fancy footwork to keep up the cha

• Robbie The Reindeer Trilogy - The Whole Herd | DVD | (02/11/2009) from £7.25   |  Saving you £0.75 (10.34%)   |  RRP £8.00

  Robbie The Reindeer Trilogy: The Whole Herd

• Seven Days To Noon | DVD | (22/02/2010) from £8.99   |  Saving you £4.00 (44.49%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Professor Willingdon (Barry Jones) is a scientist engaged on highly secret Government research. When he sends a letter to 10 Downing St threatening to blow up the Houses of Parliament within 7 days unless the Prime Minister agrees to his demands it is first dismissed as a hoax. When Willingdon disappears however alarm bells ring and soon the whole of London has joined in the manhunt for this modern day Guy Fawkes. Also starring Joan Hickson the film won the Oscar for Best Screenplay that year.

• Someone To Watch Over Me | DVD | (08/11/2004) from £15.58   |  Saving you £-9.59 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Someone to Watch Over Me is a stylish, smart film noir directed by Ridley Scott (Blade Runner). The movie stars Tom Berenger as a New York cop and family man who falls for the rich and beautiful witness (Mimi Rogers) he's assigned to protect. Scott, who always displays a distinctive eye for extraordinary art direction, does something here he should be doing a lot more often: directing contemporary noir. Berenger and Rogers rise to the occasion, seemingly aware that they're making something special. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

• Seven Days To Noon | DVD | (14/07/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  An English scientist steals atomic bomb from a research centre. In a letter sent to the British Prime Minister he threatens to blow up the center of London if the Government refuses to end research into atomic weapons.

• Between The Lines - Season 2 | DVD | (20/02/2006) from £99.90   |  Saving you £-74.91 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The complete second series of investigations for DS Tony Clark (Pearson) finding himself even deeper in the disturbing world that is the Complaints Investigation Bureau (CIB). Increasingly unpopular with both those that work there and those he's investigating Clark and his team have their work cut out deciphering the truth from the deceit... Episodes comprise: 1. New Order 2. Manslaughter 3. Crack Up 4. Honourable Men 5. Some Must Watch... 6. Manoeuvre 11 7. The Fifth Estate

• Sharpe's Battle / Sharpe's Sword | DVD | (08/07/2002) from £6.54   |  Saving you £8.45 (56.40%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Based on the novels by Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe (1993-7) ran to 14 full-length television films that follow the adventures of the titular soldier through the later years of the Napoleonic Wars. The programmes are an outstanding achievement for the small screen, dominated by Sean Bean's central performance as the heroic, troubled outsider who turns out to be a resourceful and loyal leader. Bolstered by a strong supporting cast, particularly Daragh O'Malley as Harper and (in later episodes) Abigail Cruttenden as Jane, Sharpe is often visually striking, the action tense and gripping. Consistency is maintained by all 14 episodes being directed by Tom Clegg. On the DVD: Sharpe on DVD's sound is full-bodied stereo while the very "sharp" (pun intended) picture has been transferred slightly letterboxed at 14:9. Though looking much better than the original TV transmissions the occasionally cropped framing makes it apparent the films were shot in 16:9 widescreen, so it is regrettable they have not been transferred to DVD in that format. Otherwise these are first-rate releases. --Gary S Dalkin

• Madame Bovary | DVD | (13/03/2006) from £7.36   |  Saving you £8.63 (117.26%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Trapped on a small provincial French farm with her widowed father Emma dreams of marrying her way up the social ladder to lead a glittering fairytale life amid the bright lights of the big city. To escape she marries a young doctor Charles Bovary but his dull pedestrian ways and lack of ambition soon leave her disenchanted and dreaming of a grander life elsewhere. Enchanted by stories of the many affairs of Mary Antoinette and the great romances she finds in novels Madame Bova

• Luther | DVD | (21/02/2005) from £11.30   |  Saving you £8.69 (43.50%)   |  RRP £19.99

  An adaptation of John Osborne's play based on the Augustinian Monk Martin Luther and his pivotal role in the political social economic and religious revolt against the medieval Catholic Church.

• The John Cassavetes Collection | DVD | (12/09/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  A collection of films from famed actor and independent director John Cassavetes comprising: Shadows (1959): A depiction of the struggle of three black siblings to survive the mean streets of Manhattan 'Shadows' was Cassavetes' jazz-scored improvisational film exploring interracial friendships and relationships in Beat-Era (1950s) New York City made from a script entirely improvised by the talented cast heralding a vital new era in independent filmmaking. Faces (1968):