"Actor: John 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

• Brief Encounter | DVD | (26/09/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Noel Coward's timeless movie of a couple who meet in a railway station and must make a decision that will change their lives forever.

• Raising Cain | DVD | (14/06/2004) from £10.65   |  Saving you £-4.66 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Directed by Brian De Palm Raising Cain is about Carter Nix a man who obsesses over the upbringing of his daughter. But is this all his wife needs to worry about? A spate of local kidnappings forces her to accept the possibility that he may be trying to recreate the twisted mind-control experiments of his discredited psychologist father.

• Angel and the Badman (John Wayne) | DVD | (05/06/2006) from £5.43   |  Saving you £4.56 (83.98%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Quirt Evens an all round bad guy is nursed back to health and sought after by Penelope Worth a quaker girl. He eventually finds himself having to choose from his world or the world from which Penelope lives by.

• 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 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

• Backlash | DVD | (11/05/2009) from £18.88   |  Saving you £-2.89 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Legendary Hollywood director John Sturges breathed new life into the western and brought it to another level of greatness with landmark movies such The Magnificent Seven and Gunfight At The O.K Corral. He also proved himself to be master of action/drama with the equally iconic The Eagle Has Landed and The Great Escape. John Sturges expertly manages to bring all these elements together for Backlash a highly original unconventional western brimming with tense violent action and a plot riddled with mystery and suspense. Backlash features Richard Widmark the menacing and unforgettable star of film noir masterpieces such as Kiss Of Death and Panic In The Streets. Co-stars accomplished actress Donna Reed most renowned for her popular roles in It''s A Wonderful Life and From Here To Eternity. Backlash tells the story of one man''s journey in search of his estranged father and one woman''s attempt to discover the truth behind the disappearance of her husband both of whom were possibly the victims of a brutal Apache massacre. But the Arizona desert is a harsh merciless and unforgiving landscape filled with deadly secrets and few survivors.

• Brief Encounter | DVD | (02/04/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Noel Coward's timeless movie of a couple who meet in a railway station and must make a decision that will change their lives forever.

• Awakenings | DVD | (24/01/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Based on the acclaimed book by neurologist Oliver Sacks, director Penny Marshall's hit 1990 drama Awakenings stars Robin Williams as Dr. Malcolm Sayer. Sayer is a neurologist who discovers that the drug L-Dopa can be used to "unlock" patients in a mental hospital from the mysterious sleeping sickness that has left them utterly immobilized. Leonard (Robert De Niro) is one such patient who awakens after being in a comatose state for 30 years, leaving Sayer to guide Leonard in adjusting to the world around him. Penelope Ann Miller costars as the daughter of another patient, with whom Leonard falls tenuously in love. Earning Oscar nominations for best picture, actor and screenplay, this moving fact-based drama was a hit with critics and audiences alike. --Jeff Shannon

• 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.

• Angel and the Badman | DVD | (03/09/2001) from £6.54   |  Saving you £-3.55 (-118.70%)   |  RRP £2.99

  A womanising cowboy and former deputy sheriff is taken in by a Quaker family after being wounded in a fight...

• 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

• Western Union | DVD | (21/02/2005) from £22.06   |  Saving you £-12.07 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Former outlaw Vince Shaw gives up a life of crime and goes to work for a telegraph company. However his brother Jack Slade leads a gang of criminals to prevent the company from connecting the line between Omaha and Salt Lake City bringing the two into deadly conflict...

• Angel And The Badman | DVD | (31/03/2003) from £4.22   |  Saving you £1.03 (34.80%)   |  RRP £3.99

  A womanising cowboy and former deputy sheriff is taken in by a Quaker family after being wounded in a fight...

• Angel And The Badman | DVD | (11/08/2003) from £5.58   |  Saving you £-3.59 (N/A%)   |  RRP £1.99

  Gunslinger Quirt Evans is injured and found by Penelope Wirth and her father Thomas a Quaker family with values and a way of living in contrast to Quirt Evans'. Quirt and Penelope are drawn to each other although Quirt has no intention of embracing the Quaker lifestyle. He does however intervene to conivince a rancher to restore their water supply even if the family would not have approved of his methods... Evans' rival Laredo Stevens is unimpressed with the new peaceful Qu

• Wayne Out West | DVD | (15/11/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  A collection of classic Westerns starring the icon John Wayne. Films comprise: 1. Dark Command 2. Tall in the Saddle 3. Angel and the Bad Man 4. The Fighting Kentuckian 5. The War Wagon 6. Rooster Cogburn

• Western Box Set 2 | DVD | (18/10/2010) from £21.58   |  Saving you £-5.59 (-35.00%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Titles Comprise: Bullet For A Badman: A former Texas Ranger framed for murder escapes from prison and goes on the run in an attempt to prove his innocence. Glory Guns: Backlash: Legendary Hollywood director John Sturges breathed new life into the western and brought it to another level of greatness with landmark movies such The Magnificent Seven and Gunfight At The O.K Corral. He also proved himself to be master of action/drama with the equally iconic The Eagle Has Landed and The Great Escape. John Sturges expertly manages to bring all these elements together for Backlash a highly original unconventional western brimming with tense violent action and a plot riddled with mystery and suspense. Backlash features Richard Widmark the menacing and unforgettable star of film noir masterpieces such as Kiss Of Death and Panic In The Streets. Co-stars accomplished actress Donna Reed most renowned for her popular roles in It's A Wonderful Life and From Here To Eternity. Backlash tells the story of one man's journey in search of his estranged father and one woman's attempt to discover the truth behind the disappearance of her husband both of whom were possibly the victims of a brutal Apache massacre. But the Arizona desert is a harsh merciless and unforgiving landscape filled with deadly secrets and few survivors.

• Sexual Malice | DVD | (19/09/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Sex so hot, it's deadly", announces the tagline for Sexual Malice. Originally screened in 1994, this is a quintessential late-night TV movie. The well-worn plot concerns relationships inside and outside of marriage, with a twist obvious enough for the non-rocket scientists among us to have twigged well before the denouement. As for the sex scenes--there's little here that errs on the outré side of Dirty Dancing (interestingly enough, there's a secondary role for one Don Swayze), and the visuals are stylishly, almost tastefully done--Ashley Irwin's coffee-table funk adding the right musical enhancement. As the upwardly mobile accountant Christine Chandler, Diane Barton gives a creditable portrayal of a woman caught between the routine of marriage to the predictable Richard (stolidly dependable Edward Albert) and the excitement of an illicit affair with the passably seductive Quinn, played with a certain edge by Doug Jeffrey. The two subplots are wafer thin in narrative terms, but those who enjoy bump-and-grind under piers and in changing rooms will certainly stay the course. On the DVD: Sexual Malice comes to DVD in a 4:3 full frame print that's nonetheless a classy looking effort, and the stereo soundtrack is similarly pristine. There are detailed filmographies, a well-reproduced but oddly random photo gallery, and a trailer that manages to summarise a completely different scenario. As its closing voice-over proclaims, "Caught between a boring husband and a dangerous lover, a passionate woman can commit just about anything". Now you know.--Richard Whitehouse

• Angel And The Badman | DVD | (10/12/2001) from £9.69   |  Saving you £3.30 (34.06%)   |  RRP £12.99

• Reign In Darkness | DVD | (16/06/2003) from £12.15   |  Saving you £3.84 (31.60%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Molecular biologist Michael Dorn (Kel Dolen) is accidentally infected with a new virus he is developing and his life takes a dramatic turn for the worst. The virus which he believes is a cure for HIV harbours something far more sinister; turning it's victims into vampires. Now a threat to the very organisation for which he worked Michael is on the run a tortured soul living off the streets as he battles to come to terms with his violent new existence as a blood-lusting predato