"Actor: Jack Ward"

• Superman | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £7.19   |  Saving you £6.80 (94.58%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Modern blockbuster cinema came of age with the release of three huge science fiction/fantasy extravaganzas in the late 1970s. In 1978 Superman was the last of these, a gigantic hit unfairly overshadowed by Star Wars (1977) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Christopher Reeve is completely convincing as both Superman and mild-mannered alter ego Clarke Kent, sparking real chemistry with Margot Kidder's fellow reporter Lois Lane. Very much a film of two halves, the opening tells the origin of Superman from the apocalyptic fate of Krypton to his nostalgically rendered boyhood in the mid-West. After a wonderful sequence introducing the Fortress of Solitude the film changes gear as the adult Clarke Kent arrives in Metropolis and Superman battles arch-nemesis Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman). Though the tone becomes lighter and introduces comedy, Superman succeeds because Donner plays the titular character straight. From Marlon Brando's heavyweight cameo to the surprisingly wrenching finale, Superman unfolds as an epic modern myth, a spiritual fable for a secular age and a fantastic entertainment for the young at heart. With breathtaking production design, still special effects, gorgeous cinematography, thrilling set-pieces, wit, romance and John Williams' extraordinarily rich music score, Superman has the power to make you believe a man can fly.On the DVD: Superman is presented in an extended director's cut which adds eight minutes to the theatrical original. The restored material is so artfully integrated many viewers may not even notice, but it would have been nice to at least have the opportunity to watch the original via seamless branching. The sound has been remixed into extraordinarily powerful Dolby Digital 5.1--the superb main title sequence is worth the price alone--and the anamorphically enhanced 2.35:1 image is, except for some unavoidably grainy effects shots, pristine. The commentary by Richard Donner and writer Tom Mankiewicz reveals more about the background than all but the most dedicated fan will ever need to know, while film music aficionados will revel in the opportunity to listen to John Williams' score isolated in Dolby Digital 5.1. On the second side of the disc are a eight alternate John Williams music cues, a selection of deleted scenes and the screen tests of a variety of would-be Lois Lanes, introduced and with optional commentary by casting director Lynn Stalmaster. These are fascinating, and show how right for the part Margot Kidder really was. A DVD-ROM only feature presents the storyboards plus various Web features, while the real highlight is a 90-minute documentary divided into three sections covering pre-production, filming and special effects. The picture quality on all the extras is very good indeed. An enthralling package, DVD doesn't get much better than this. --Gary S Dalkin

• Escape From Alcatraz | DVD | (07/05/2001) from £6.99   |  Saving you £6.00 (85.84%)   |  RRP £12.99

  One of Clint Eastwood's two most important filmmaking mentors was Don Siegel (the other was Sergio Leone), who directed Eastwood in Dirty Harry, Coogan's Bluff, Two Mules for Sister Sara and this enigmatic, 1979 drama based on a true story about an escape from the island prison of Alcatraz. Eastwood plays a new convict who enters into a kind of mind game with the chilly warden (Patrick McGoohan) and organises a break leading into the treacherous waters off San Francisco. As jailbird movies go, this isn't just a grotty, unpleasant experience but a character-driven work with some haunting twists. --Tom Keogh

• 12 Angry Men | DVD | (13/01/2014) from £5.49   |  Saving you £4.50 (81.97%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Adapted from Reginald Rose's television play, this film marked the directing debut of Sidney Lumet. At the end of a murder trial in New York City, the twelve jurors retire to consider the verdict. The man in the dock is a young Puerto Rican accused of killing his father, and eleven of the twelve jurors do not hesitate in finding him guilty. However, one of the jurors (Henry Fonda), reluctant to send the youngster to his death without any debate, returns a vote of not guilty. From this single ...

• Colditz | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £25.00

  This classic series deals with Allied prisoners of war imprisoned at the supposedly escape-proof Colditz Castle during World War II and their many attempts to escape captivity as well as the relationships formed between the various nationalities and their German captors. One memorable episode portrays the attempts of a prisoner Wing Commander Marsh (Michael Bryant) to get out of Colditz by feigning insanity. He succeeds but is pushed to the limits of his sanity in the process...

• The Verdict | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £14.98   |  Saving you £-1.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  When attorney Frank Calvin (Newman) is given an open-and-shut medical malpractice case that no one thinks he can win he courageously decides to refuse a settlement from the hospital. Instead he takes the case and the entire legal system to court... Sidney Lumet's riveting courtroom drama earned five Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best Actor for Paul Newman's towering performance as a down-and-out alcoholic who stumbles onto one last chance to redeem himself.

• All The President's Men | DVD | (06/02/2012) from £6.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• While You Were Sleeping | DVD | (22/01/2001) from £8.25   |  Saving you £6.74 (81.70%)   |  RRP £14.99

  If you don't mind a heavy dose of schmaltz and sentiment, this romantic comedy has a gentle way of seducing you with its charms. While You Were Sleeping was the first starring role for Sandra Bullock after her blockbuster success in Speed. In a role that nicely emphasises her easygoing appeal, Bullock is the reason the movie works at all. She plays Lucy Eleanor Moderatz, a Chicago Transit tollbooth clerk who's hopelessly smitten with a daily commuter, Peter Callaghan (Peter Gallagher). She saves the object of her affection from certain death after he's mugged and falls onto the train tracks. While Peter is in a coma, she lets his family believe that she is his fiancée, and surprisingly finds herself drawn to his brother (Bill Pullman), for whom the attraction is definitely mutual. How Lucy gets out of this amorous predicament is what makes this pleasant movie less predictable than its familiar ingredients would initially indicate. It's feel-good fluff, with characters and performances that keep you smiling through the drippy plot mechanics. --Jeff Shannon

• Twelve Angry Men | DVD | (19/03/2001) from £5.82   |  Saving you £7.17 (123.20%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Sidney Lumet's directorial debut Twelve Angry Men remains a tense, atmospheric (though slightly manipulative and stagey) courtroom thriller, in which the viewer never sees a trial and the only action is verbal. As he does in his later corruption commentaries such as Serpico or Q & A, Lumet focuses on the lonely one-man battles of a protagonist whose ethics alienate him from the rest of jaded society. As the film opens, the seemingly open-and-shut trial of a young Puerto Rican accused of murdering his father with a knife has just concluded and the 12-man jury retires to their microscopic, sweltering quarters to decide the verdict. When the votes are counted, 11 men rule guilty, while one--played by Henry Fonda, again typecast as another liberal, truth-seeking hero--doubts the obvious. Stressing the idea of "reasonable doubt", Fonda slowly chips away at the jury, who represent a microcosm of white, male society--exposing the prejudices and preconceptions that directly influence the other jurors' snap judgments. The tight script by Reginald Rose (based on his own teleplay) presents each juror vividly using detailed soliloquies, all which are expertly performed by the film's flawless cast. Still, it's Lumet's claustrophobic direction--all sweaty close-ups and cramped compositions within a one-room setting--that really transforms this contrived story into an explosive and compelling nail-biter. --Dave McCoy, Amazon.com

• 12 Angry Men | Blu Ray | (15/05/2017) from £21.39   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  SIDNEY LUMET'S UNPARALLELED TRIAL DRAMA STARRING HENRY FONDA ONE OF THE TEN MOST POPULAR FILMS OF ALL TIME, ACCORDING TO IMDB.COM! 12 Angry Men, by SIDNEY LUMET (Network), may be the most radical big-screen courtroom drama in cinema history. A behind-closed-doors look at the American legal system as riveting as it is spare, the iconic adaptation of Reginald Rose's teleplay stars HENRY FONDA (Young Mr. Lincoln) as the initially dissenting foreman on a jury of white men ready to pass judgment on a Puerto Rican teenager charged with murdering his father. What results is a saga of epic proportions that plays out in real time over ninety minutes in one sweltering room. Lumet's electrifying snapshot of 1950s America on the verge of change is one of the great feature-film debuts. SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES: New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack Frank Schaffner's 1955 television version, with an introduction by Ron Simon, director of the Paley Centre for Media Studies 12 Angry Men: From Television to the Big Screen, a video essay by film scholar Vance Kapley comparing the Sidney Lumet and Schaffner versions Archival interviews with Lumet New interview about the director with writer Walter Bernstein New interview with Simon about television writer Reginald Rose New interview with cinematographer John Bailey in which he discusses cinematographer Boris Kaufman Tragedy in a Temporary Town (1956), a teleplay directed by Lumet and written by Rose Original theatrical trailer PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by writer and law professor Thane Rosenbaum Click Images to Enlarge

• Zulu | DVD | (18/11/2002) from £7.19   |  Saving you £10.06 (169.65%)   |  RRP £15.99

  One of the last of the classic-era widescreen epics, Zulu was also one of the last war movies to celebrate the virtues of the famous British stiff upper lip. At Rorke's Drift in 1879 a handful of British soldiers, hopelessly outnumbered by 4,000 Zulu warriors, fought one of the most celebrated defensive actions in military history. Zulu tells the story on an epic scale, bringing to life the heroism, courage, loyalty and sacrifice of those desperate hours. This is truly cast-of-thousands filmmaking, with vast action wonderfully captured in widescreen Technirama. John Barry, who also scored Goldfinger in the same year, provides a telling musical accompaniment. The superb cast includes Stanley Baker and Jack Hawkins, but Zulu's final claim to fame is that it made an instant international superstar of a young actor whose name is Michael Caine. A belated sequel arrived in 1979 in Zulu Dawn, which despite even more spectacular action and a great cast died at the box-office. It is nevertheless well worth seeing. On the DVD: Zulu on disc has excellent prologic stereo considering the age of the film, while the anamorphically enhanced 2.35:1 transfer is crystal-clear, boasting rich colours, strong contrast and detail and only occasional minor print flaws. The original American trailer, also presented anamorphically enhanced at 2.35:1, is a worthwhile addition. There is a very good new 45-minute "making of" (1.77:1 anamorphic, in stereo), curiously split into two parts. The heart of the programme consists of interviews with survivors from the film, focusing on Stanley Baker's widow. The only let down is lack of input from Michael Caine and composer John Barry. The commentary by film historian Sheldon Hall, author of a forthcoming book on the movie, and Second Unit Director Robert Porter is serious and packed with information. --Gary S Dalkin

• Serpico | DVD | (23/12/2002) from £4.99   |  Saving you £11.00 (220.44%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Sidney Lumet's tense thriller based on real events featuring an outstanding Al Pacino as an undercover officer who incurs the wrath of cop colleagues for exposing corruption within the force...

• The Malta Story | DVD | (17/05/2004) from £6.19   |  Saving you £3.80 (61.39%)   |  RRP £9.99

  In 1942 Malta is of critical importance to the Allied forces for it keeps the vital shipping supply lines open. As Peter Ross (Guinness) lands on the island and is attached to the local regiment he discovers aerial photographs that indicate Italian units are preparing to invade. Ross is selected to trace and destroy the enemy convoy before it is too late...

• Arsenic and Old Lace | DVD | (27/01/2020) from £6.49   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Toys | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £13.32   |  Saving you £-0.33 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Enter a spectacular world of whimsy fun and fantasy in this acclaimed visual extravaganza. Leslie Zevo is a fun-loving adult who must save his late father's toy factory from his evil uncle a war-loving general who builds weapons disguised as toys. Aided by his sister and girlfriend Leslie sets out to thwart his uncle and restore joy and innocence to their special world.

• The Nan Movie | DVD | (13/06/2022) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Catherine Tate's iconic character Nan hits the big screen as she goes on a wild road trip from London to Ireland with her grandson Jamie (Mathew Horne) to make amends with her estranged sister Nell (Katherine Parkinson). Militant vegan arsonists, raucous rugby teams, all-night raves, and crazed cops on motorbikes all make for a proper day out. An origin story that mixes Nan's present with her past where we finally find out what's made her the cantankerous old b*****d she is today.

• Cary Grant - Screen Legends | DVD | (05/06/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The Awful Truth (Dir. Leo McCarey 1937): Love is a comic battlefield especially when presided over by two superbly-matched sparring partners Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. A classic screwball Hollywood romp! Bringing Up Baby (Dir. Howard Hawks 1938): A dog belonging to an eccentric heiress (Hepburn) steals a dinosaur bone from David (Grant) an absent-minded Zoology professor. David follows the heiress to her home and all hell breaks loose when he loses his pet leopard

• Death On The Nile | Blu Ray | (23/10/2017) from £10.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A visually sumptuous and quintessentially British production, Death on the Nile won an Oscar® for Anthony Powell's costume design and introduced Peter Ustinov in his first portrayal as the Belgian detective Poirot. Abroad a luxury Nile steamer a mystery assassin takes the life of an heiress. EXTRAS Making Of Interview with costume designer Anthony Powell Interview with Dame Angela Lansbury Interview with producer Richard Goodwin Behind the scenes stills gallery Costume designs stills gallery

• From Here To Eternity | DVD | (14/01/2002) from £4.94   |  Saving you £15.05 (304.66%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From Here to Eternity offers a much more heartfelt interpretation of the event that propelled the United States into World War II than any film made in recent years. Here there are no angst-ridden scenes where "true love" returns from the dead, no costly CGI and definitely no Hallmark happy ending. This is a film about illicit sex, military machismo and tragic loss of love, friendship and ultimately life. The filmmakers did, however, have to make some compromises when adapting James Jones's novel: Alma becomes a "hostess" rather than a prostitute and the very downbeat ending, where Captain Holmes is essentially rewarded for his brutality by the military, was replaced with the morally acceptable punishment of his actions by a more self-aware army. Although Private Robert E Lee Pruitt's story provides the meat of the film, there are other subplots woven into the narrative, including a couple of doomed love affairs, which explore themes of adultery and social acceptance. Sergeant Warden (Burt Lancaster) begins a torrid affair with the commander's wife Karen (Deborah Kerr) leading to one of the most famous moments in movie history--the "clinch in the surf". From then on everything is challenged. Love, honour and eventually whether you should conform or stand up for what you believe in. At the end the couples are left wondering about the future of their relationship, but fate decides for them as the Japanese launch their attack on Pearl Harbor, leaving us with one of the most dramatic and moving endings of any war film. On the DVD: The black and white film is not anamorphically enhanced but presented full frame in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1, although the transfer is well done and the picture is pretty sharp. Sound is 2.0 mono rather than the standard 5.1 reworking of the audio track, and it works. The dialogue is clear without any noticeable hiss. There's a 22-minute "making of" documentary, which doesn't really do justice to the film and contains very little information of interest. Along with this is Fred Zinnemann's As I See It, an extract from the director's home video footage from the shoot. You also get the theatrical trailer, but the best feature is the audio commentary, by Fred Zinnemann's son Tim and screenwriter Alvin Sargent, which has some fantastic detail about the struggle between director and studio-head Harry Cohn over casting, along with the run-ins with the censor and US military over the "inflammatory nature" of the film.--Kristen Bowditch

• Orange County | DVD | (07/07/2003) from £3.49   |  Saving you £12.50 (358.17%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A guidance counselor mistakenly sends out the wrong transcripts to Stanford University under the name of an over-achieving high schooler.

• Arsenic And Old Lace | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  A drama critic learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden aunts are homicidal maniacs, and that insanity runs in his family.