"Actor: James Barton"

• 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea | DVD | (29/03/2004) from £5.85   |  Saving you £9.14 (156.24%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The swashbuckler genre bumped into science fiction in 1954 for one of Hollywood's great entertainments, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The Jules Verne story of adventure under the sea was Walt Disney's magnificent debut into live-action films. A professor (Paul Lukas) seeks the truth about a legendary sea monster in the years just after the Civil War. When his ship is sunk, he, his aide (Peter Lorre), and a harpoon master (Kirk Douglas) survive to discover that the monster is actually a metal submarine run by Captain Nemo (James Mason). Along with the rollicking adventure, it's fun to see the future technology that Verne dreamed up in his novel, including diving equipment and sea farming. The film's physical prowess is anchored by the Nautilus, an impressive full-scale gothic submarine complete with red carpet and pipe organ. In the era of big sets, 20,000 Leagues set a precedent for films shot on the water and deservedly won Oscars for art direction and special effects. Lost in the inventiveness of the film and great set pieces including a giant squid attack are two great performances. Mason is the perfect Nemo, taut and private, clothed in dark fabric that counters the Technicolor dreamboat that is the beaming red-and-white-stripe-shirted Kirk Douglas as the heroic Ned Land. The film works as peerless family adventure nearly half a century later. --Doug Thomas

• The Misfits | DVD | (26/11/2001) from £4.37   |  Saving you £11.62 (265.90%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A down-on-her-luck divorced woman meets and falls for a disenchanted outcast cowboy who earns his living by capturing wild mustangs. When she witnesses this cruel spectacle she teams up with a jaded rodeo performer in an attempt to free the horses. Last screen appearance for both Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe who was married to playwright Arthur Miller during the course of the filming.

• The Bonfire Of The Vanities (1990) | DVD | (01/06/2006) from £7.09   |  Saving you £6.90 (97.32%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Is it time, after the anonymous disaster of Mission to Mars, to give Brian De Palma's famously doomed film of Tom Wolfe's bulky novel Bonfire of the Vanities another chance? The uproarious ins and outs of the film's troubled production have become well-known via Julie Salamon's account of its making, The Devil's Candy, and fans of that might want to flick between page and screen to see just when Melanie Griffith caused untold continuity problems by having her breasts inflated. Techno buffs will surely appreciate the pointless but somehow wonderful trickery of an extended tracking shot at the outset that exists only to last a few seconds longer than the one in Orson Welles Touch of Evil (1958). Tom Hanks was rather better cast than was generally allowed, as "master of the universe" Sherman McCoy, who comes a cropper after a hit-and-run accident, since his nice-guy act shows intriguing cracks. And even Bruce Willis does his best on a hiding to nothing as the drunken writer. It is funny in parts, agonising in others, and misses Wolfe's tone--but somehow its failures might make it as symptomatic of the long-gone excesses of the early 90s as the novel was of the 80s. --Kim Newman

• The Reckless Moment | DVD | (18/09/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This Ophuls film noir classic is rich in suspense strikingly photographed and features career best performances from Joan Bennett and James Mason. Based on the story 'The Blank Wall' by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding.

• The Man From Laramie | DVD | (01/10/2001) from £8.73   |  Saving you £4.26 (48.80%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The Man from Laramie is the last of five remarkable Westerns Anthony Mann made with James Stewart (starting with Winchester '73 and peaking with The Naked Spur). Only John Ford excelled Mann as a purveyor of eye-filling Western imagery, and Mann's best films are second to no one's when it comes to the fusion of dynamic action, rugged landscapes and fierce psychological intensity. This collaboration marked virtually a whole new career for Stewart, whose characters are all haunted by the past and driven by obsession--here, to find whoever set his cavalry-officer brother in the path of warlike Indians. The Man from Laramie aspires to an epic grandeur beyond its predecessors. It's the only one in CinemaScope, and Stewart's personal quest is subsumed in a larger drama--nothing less than a sagebrush version of King Lear, with a range baron on the verge of blindness (Donald Crisp), his weak and therefore vicious son (Alex Nicol) and another, apparently more solid "son", his Edmund-like foreman (Arthur Kennedy). There are a few too many subsidiary characters, and the reach for thematic complexity occasionally diminishes the impact. But no one will ever forget the scene on the salt flats between Nicol and Stewart--climaxing in the single most shocking act of violence in 50s cinema--or the final, mountain-top confrontation. For decades, the film has been seen only in washed-out, pan-and-scan videos, with the characters playing visual hopscotch from one panel of the original composition to another. It's great to have this glorious DVD--razor-sharp, fully saturated (or as saturated as 50s Eastmancolor could be) and breathtaking in its CinemaScope sweep. --Richard T Jameson, Amazon.com

• Detroit Rock City | DVD | (24/04/2000) from £21.14   |  Saving you £-1.15 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Edward Furlong, Giuseppe Andrews, Sam Huntington and newcomer James De Bello star in the story of four Midwestern High Schoolers on an unstoppable quest to snag a quartet of KISS concert tickets.

• Three Faces West & Shepherd of the Hills (John Wayne) | DVD | (26/06/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Three Faces Of The West (Dir. Bernard Vorhaus 1940): A refugee physician and his daughter find themselves part of a group of townspeople who are trying to relocate out of the dust bowl region of the South Central U.S. John Wayne stars the group's tireless leader. Shepherd Of The Hills (Dir. Henry Hathaway 1941): When a stranger comes to an isolated mountain village and tempers the rough rage of its inhabitants one of the mountaineers (""The Duke"") is still suspicious of this mysterious interloper--and not incidentally still bitter over being deserted by his father as an infant.

• Return To The Blue Lagoon | DVD | (02/12/2002) from £7.99   |  Saving you £5.00 (62.58%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Orphaned at the age of 8 on a deserted island a young boy and girl grow up together and learn about survival love and their own sexuality. Once a captain and his daughter sail upon their deserted shore and tempts them back to civilization they must now learn what is most important: each other...

• Yellow Sky | DVD | (28/08/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Outlaw chief James 'Stretch' Dawson (Gregory Peck) takes refuge in a frontier ghost town where the only inhabitants are the elderly 'Grandpa' (James Barton) and his pretty granddaughter Constance Mae (Anne Baxter). When it becomes apparent that Grandpa is sitting on a large amount of gold 'Stretch's' compadres led by 'Dude' (Richard Widmark) plot the old man's downfall and claim the booty for themselves. However Stretch falls for the granddaughter and cannot abide the intention

• The Time Of Your Life | DVD | (01/07/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  When James Cagney starred in the movie adaptation of The Time of Your Life in 1948, it was hotly been debated whether William Saroyan’s stage play was really filmable at all. Because of its small cast, because all the action takes place on a single claustrophobic set, because the "plot" consists entirely of sub-plots, and because Saroyan’s "dirty sentimentality" isn’t to everyone’s taste, such doubts are still understandable today. However, accept the movie for what it is--a play in a box--and you’ll be captivated. The story revolves around a slightly down-at-heel bar-restaurant, where a group of disparate characters come and go as their stories gradually unfold. They include an ex-prostitute desperately seeking a new life, a dancer looking for a break into showbusiness, a down-and-out who discovers a vocation as a pianist, a beer-sodden cowboy and a villainous "stoolie" who, needless to say, gets his comeuppance. This gaggle of misfits is presided over by an enigmatic, champagne-drinking philanthropist (brilliantly played by Cagney) who gently nudges them towards their goals while indulging his own fascination with the minutiae of daily life. Throughout this quietly delightful picture the audience are not told why he’s this way, but it is possible to make an educated guess. On the DVD: The Time of Your Life might be a classic, but it apparently warrants no extra features. The black and white picture is 4:3. --Roger Thomas

• The Time Of Your Life | DVD | (01/07/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  When James Cagney starred in the movie adaptation of The Time of Your Life in 1948, it was hotly been debated whether William Saroyan’s stage play was really filmable at all. Because of its small cast, because all the action takes place on a single claustrophobic set, because the "plot" consists entirely of sub-plots, and because Saroyan’s "dirty sentimentality" isn’t to everyone’s taste, such doubts are still understandable today. However, accept the movie for what it is--a play in a box--and you’ll be captivated. The story revolves around a slightly down-at-heel bar-restaurant, where a group of disparate characters come and go as their stories gradually unfold. They include an ex-prostitute desperately seeking a new life, a dancer looking for a break into showbusiness, a down-and-out who discovers a vocation as a pianist, a beer-sodden cowboy and a villainous "stoolie" who, needless to say, gets his comeuppance. This gaggle of misfits is presided over by an enigmatic, champagne-drinking philanthropist (brilliantly played by Cagney) who gently nudges them towards their goals while indulging his own fascination with the minutiae of daily life. Throughout this quietly delightful picture the audience are not told why he’s this way, but it is possible to make an educated guess. On the DVD: The Time of Your Life might be a classic, but it apparently warrants no extra features. The black and white picture is 4:3. --Roger Thomas

• The Glenn Miller Story | DVD | (21/02/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The true story of an unassuming band leader and trombonist Glenn Miller (played by James Stewart) who got his first break playing his own arrangement of 'Everybody Loves My Baby' at an audition. He never looked back. He married his childhood sweetheart and everything he played became an instant hit...songs like 'Moonlight Serenade' 'String of Pearls' and 'Tuxedo Junction'. Hollywood beckoned and success piled upon success. But then came World War II. A war from which Glenn Mille