"Actor: John Fraser"

• The Dam Busters | Blu Ray | (04/06/2018) from £10.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A BRAND NEW RESTORATION COMMEMORATING THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ORIGINAL WWII RAID A much-loved British classic, Michael Anderson's 1955 drama captures the tension and bravery of an audacious raid on the center of Nazi Germany's industrial complex and the quintessentially English combination of inventiveness and dogged determination. Split into two distinct sections, the film deals first with the fraught, but the ultimately successful development of a new bomb, by Dr. Barnes N. Wallis (Michael Redgrave). The second deals with the mission itself during the British raid on the Ruhr Dams, and its associated costs for the enemy and for the British airmen. Adapted by R.C. Sherriff from Paul Brickhill's book Enemy Coast Ahead and featuring superlative special effects photography by Gilbert Taylor (to say nothing of Eric Coates' stirring theme tune), The Dam Busters was Britain's biggest box office the success of 1955

• Armchair Cinema Collection | DVD | (31/08/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  Armchair Cinema: Collection (5 Discs)

• Rising Damp: The Works | DVD | (14/06/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Featuring all the episodes from Series 1 to 4 including: 'Rooksby' 'Black Magic' 'Charisma' 'Night Out' 'All Our Yesterdays' 'The Prowler' 'Permissive Society' 'Food Glorious Food' 'A Body Like Mine' 'The Perfect Gentleman' 'The Last Of The Big Spenders' 'Things That Go Bump In The Night' and 'Moonlight And Roses'. Includes the unreleased episode 'Stand Up And Be Counted'.

• The Good Companions | DVD | (11/11/2013) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Adapted from J.B. Priestley's famous novel charting the ups and downs of a struggling touring concert party, this endearing musical comedy features an outstanding array of British talent - including John Fraser, Rachel Roberts, Joyce Grenfell, Celia Johnson, Anthony Newley and Thora Hird. The Good Companions is presented here in a brand-new transfer from original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio. The future looks bleak for The Dinky Doos when their manager runs off w...

• Isadora | Blu Ray | (18/05/2015) from £17.48   |  Saving you £7.50 (51.76%)   |  RRP £21.99

  Vanessa Redgrave & James Fox stars in Karel Reisz’s Academy Award and BAFTA-nominated film biopic of Isadora Duncan the most iconic dancer of the 20th century. Vanessa Redgrave regarded this as her best-ever dramatic performance and this Blu-ray release includes newly filmed extras with Melvyn Bragg and many more extras.

• Repulsion | DVD | (25/08/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Carol a young girl living in Sixties' London is repelled yet fascinated by men. Her radiant beauty attracts the opposite sex but she shrinks from their advances. Her days are spent in an intensely feminine atmosphere: working in a beauty salon and clinging to her sister Helen for love. But as she incarcerates herself in her sinister shadowy flat men begin to invade her dreams night and day mixing her terror with delight as bizarre hallucinations take hold of her mind. The

• Tony Hancock Double Bill | DVD | (16/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Punch & Judy Man: Tony Hancock is a melancholy Punch and Judy man trying to establish himself as an important citizen in the seaside town where he works. When his snobbish wife is taught a lesson at an important social event it looks like the British comic genius may just get the new lease of life of which he's always dreamed... (Dir. Jeremy Summers 1963) The Rebel: Tony Hancock portrays a bored city clerk who has ambitions of becoming an artist in France. (Dir. Robert Day 1961)

• Sex Pistols - The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle | DVD | (13/06/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  The Sex Pistols star in Julien Temple's at times surreal at times hilarious factional documentary that charts the rise and fall of punk's most notorious band through the eyes of its calculating and grandiose manager Malcolm McLaren played here with full Machiavellian swagger. Written and directed by Temple whilst he was still a film student it mixes animation and midgets with footage of some of the Sex Pistols' most electrifying live performances. Originally released in UK theatres in 1980 the film presents the band's success as an elaborate scam perpetrated by McLaren to make ""a million pounds"" at the expense of record companies outraged moralists the British Royal Family - and even the fans and band members themselves. As the film's original tagline stated The Great Rock Rock 'n' Roll Swindle is the film that incriminated its audience. As the brief but beautiful period of punk rock is now as far away from 2007 as 1976/77 was from the end of World War 2 it will be hard for anyone under 35 to comprehend just how shocking this film was and the incredible controversy it caused as depressed Britain blighted by inner city riots and waking to the birth of Thatcherism lurched into the Eighties. However watching it again it is still immensely powerful just as riveting still retains the capability to shock and is as valid now as it was then. More than 25 years after their break-up the Sex Pistols' music continues to influence punk and post-punk bands the world over - and The Great Rock Rock 'n' Roll Swindle shows why. It helped add to the band's already riotous reputation with scenes of Sid Vicious attacking a Parisienne prostitute (with a French tart) the subversive Queen's Silver Jubilee Day concert on the Thames in 1977 their infamous appearance on the ""Bill Grundy Show"" and underage female nudity. It even had to contend with the death of Sid Vicious who died between the ending of filming and its theatrical release. But it is the Sex Pistols music that emerges as the films biggest star: performances of ""Anarchy In The UK"" ""God Save The Queen"" and ""Holidays In The Sun"" are mesmeric while Vicious' ""My Way"" maintains an air of tragedy and exquisiteness at once. Tenpole Tudor (ingeniously called ""Tadpole"" by Irene Handl in the film) weighs in with vocals on ""Who Killed Bambi"" and ""Rock Around The Clock"" and even on-the-run Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs turns up to sing on ""No One Is Innocent"" and ""Belsen Vos A Gasser"". Having spawned the phrase ""making cash from chaos"" it's worth remembering that the Sex Pistols were voted the ""1977 Young Businessmen of the Year"" by their antitheses in the City of London..

• A Yank In The RAF | DVD | (03/05/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  When slick money-motivated pilot Tim Baker (Power) takes a high-paying job ferrying bombers across the Atlantic he meets up with Carol (Grable) an old flame who sparks enough new heat that Baker joins England's R.A.F. just to be near her. But Carol is also pursued by another pilot - Baker's superior officer! And when Baker must begin flying bombing missions life suddenly takes on far more meaning than ever before...

• Rising Damp - The Complete 1st Series | DVD | (07/05/2001) from £10.46   |  Saving you £4.53 (43.31%)   |  RRP £14.99

  First broadcast in 1974, the ITV bedsitland sitcom Rising Damp was an instant and enduring success. It starred Leonard Rossiter as the miserly and lovelorn landlord Rigsby who is constantly needling young lodger Alan (Richard Beckinsale), a science student whose long hair and earrings are symptomatic to Rigsby of the parlous effeminacy of the modern age. He's also in love with Frances De La Tour's dowdy spinster Miss Jones, though his tentative advances are forever rebuffed. She in turn carries a torch for Philip (Don Warrington), the elegant son of an African chief who also resides at Rigsby Towers. Some aspects of Rising Damp have not aged well, principally Rigsby's stream of racist jibes at Philip. Although these were doubtless well-meant and supposed to illustrate Rigsby's foolish bigotry, you suspect that that was a convenient cover for audiences in the 1970s to enjoy racist humour. However, Rossiter's Rigsby--stuttering, stammering, bent perpetually over backwards--remains a great comic creation, embodying all the festering prejudices, small-mindedness and self-delusion of the lower middle class Little Englander. --David Stubbs

• Repulsion | Blu Ray | (24/03/2017) from £11.19   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Roman Polanski's psychological drama was his first English-language feature. A young Belgian woman (Catherine Deneuve) is left alone in a Kensington apartment when her sister goes away. She becomes increasingly unstable, experiencing hallucinations which have their roots in her fear of male sexuality. When two aggressive men turn up, her tortured nightmares spill into real life violence.

• Tunes Of Glory | DVD | (17/03/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A gripping military drama starring Alec Guinness as Major Jock Sinclair. During World War 2 Sinclair was promoted to Acting CO of his Highland Regiment but now it has returned to Scotland a new CO (John Mills) is to be appointed; leading Jock to pit his wits against the new CO and the other officers in the Mess.

• Tony Hancock: The Rebel / The Punch And Judy Man | DVD | (14/04/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The Rebel (1961) and The Punch and Judy Man (1963) are the only two feature films made expressly as star vehicles for the great television comic Tony Hancock. The Rebel is by far the more ambitious, being in colour with Parisian locations, a large cast, and not least a supporting role for international star George Sanders. The opening rebellion against office life surely inspired The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, while references follow to Look Back in Anger (1958) and Billy Wilder's The Apartment (1960) and Some Like It Hot (1959). Hancock goes to Paris to follow his artistic muse and as he rises through the art world his naivety is taken for genius, allowing for some very funny moments and spot-on satire, which are just as relevant today as 40 years ago. Filmed in black-and-white in Bognor Regis, The Punch and Judy Man is a more modest yet evocative portrait of life in a small coastal resort. Hancock is the titular beach entertainer who is happy to live from day to day with the affable companionship of John Le Mesurier and Hugh Lloyd. The problem is he's burdened with a socially ambitious wife, Sylvia Syms. Gentle humour comes from Hancock's frustrations as a proto-Basil Fawlty, and the film, packed with familiar British character actors, has an old-fashioned charm. It makes for an enjoyable supporting feature to The Rebel, which is undoubtedly a minor classic. On the DVD: Tony Hancock Double Feature presents both films at 4:3 ratio. The earlier film looks decidedly cropped in several scenes, though the latter survives the reformatting largely unscathed. The Rebel's colour is faded and the image grainy, while The Punch and Judy Man generally has a much stronger black and white image. Even so, there is some flickering and print damage. The music is distorted in The Rebel but the mono sound is fine during The Punch and Judy Man. There are no extras. --Gary S Dalkin

• The Wild Geese | DVD | (31/05/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Their home is their battlefield. Their calling is war. Their only loyalty is to each other. They are the Wild Geese. While they fight their mission in Africa sinister forces in the corridors of power are working to seal their fate.

• El Cid | DVD | (30/10/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Sumptuous in every way, visually magnificent, with grandiose sets, panoramic Spanish vistas and intricately detailed costumes, possessor of one of cinema's greatest music scores, boasting vast and astonishingly kinetic battles, and breathing heroic virtue in every scene, El Cid is the very epitome of epic. For this reworking of the medieval legend of the Cid (Arabic for "Lord") who united warring factions and saved 11th-century Spain from invasion, producer Samuel Bronston and director Anthony Mann insisted every set had to be created from scratch, every costume specially made for this movie alone; they also shot entirely on location in La Mancha and along the Mediterranean coast of Spain to enhance the film's authenticity. The cinematography is saturated with the burnished hues of the Spanish landscape, as are the palatial sets and rich costumes; Miklos Rozsa's resplendent score is also the result of painstaking research into medieval Spanish sources. The screenplay is imbued with knightly gravitas and more than a little salvation imagery, from the opening scene of the young Rodrigo rescuing a cross from a burning church, to the movie's indelible finale as The Cid rides "out of the gates of history into legend".Charlton Heston is at his most indomitable as Rodrigo, "The Cid", a natural leader of men and the embodiment of every manly virtue (note that he fathers twins--a sure token of his virility); Sophie Loren is ravishing as Chimene, the woman whose love for Rodrigo conflicts with her filial instincts after he kills her father, the king's champion, over a point of honour. Their scenes together create a humane warmth at the heart of this vast movie: the moment when Chimene finally declares her love (beneath a shrine of three crosses--more symbolism) to the exiled Rodrigo forms a pivotal and very intimate centrepiece. Shortly thereafter he must rise from their rural marriage bed to lead his followers into battle, and the tension between his public and private lives adds a piquancy to the film's stunning battle sequences. The international supporting cast sometimes look like makeweights, especially when chewing on the occasionally stilted dialogue, but any such faults are easily forgiven as the scale and spectacle of El Cid carries the viewer away on a tide of chivalry.On the DVD: This disc is a sadly missed opportunity to present a classic epic in its original form. Although formatted for 16:9 widescreen TVs, which initially gives hope that this might be an anamorphic widescreen presentation, only the opening and closing titles appear in the correct cinematic ratio. Otherwise this is essentially the same picture as the pan & scan VHS version with the same poor print quality. Since a restored 35mm print of El Cid has been shown at cinemas and on TV in recent years there seems to be no excuse for this cut-down presentation. Add some decidedly minimal extras and the result is a disappointing disc. --Mark Walker

• A Family At War | DVD | (12/01/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £59.99

  "Family Guy" revolves around the Griffin family and their madcap adventures.

• The Arcata Promise | DVD | (17/09/2012) from £5.77   |  Saving you £7.22 (55.60%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Once upon a time, in the small town of Arcata in California, a rich and successful actor made a promise to a young, attractive and vulnerable girl: I shall love you. Look after you. I don't want to hurt you or oppress you, or deny you in any way. But the promise was broken. After being constantly abused and assaulted, the girl left, and the actor fell into a self-destructive spiral: drink, no friends, no work. Now, left alone in a shabby basement flat, he is haunted by that promise, the girl to whom he made it, and himself. Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins stars opposite Kate Nelligan in renowned playwright David Mercer s intense, harrowing screenplay, for which producer Peter Willes received a Silver Medal for Outstanding Creative Achievement from the Royal Television Society. First screened as part of ITV s Sunday Night Drama anthology, The Arcata Promise showcases a tour-de-force performance from one of the world's most significant and respected actors.

• 101 Dalmatians - Live Action | DVD | (22/01/2001) from £19.33   |  Saving you £-1.34 (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  It's hard to know who thought it would be a good idea to make a live-action version of Disney's animated classic. The one bright notion anyone had was casting Glenn Close as Disney Übervillainess Cruella de Vil; her flashing eyes and angular features are a perfect match and do credit to what is one of the most indelible animated characters Disney has ever created. The story remains essentially the same, focusing on Cruella's plot to kidnap the puppies of a young married couple (Jeff Daniels and Jolie Richardson) and make them into a coat. But the dreaded John Hughes, who wrote this script, fills it with sadistic slapstick and far too few genuine laughs. The human actors work hard, but to little avail; thankfully, there's a posse of puppies to regularly steal scenes when the going gets dreary--although there are only so many laughs to be had from inappropriate dog puddles. --Marshall Fine, Amazon.com

• Tamahine | DVD | (29/06/2015) from £12.98   |  Saving you £-1.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  When her father dies Tamahine a lovely young half-Polynesian girl is sent to England to visit her father's cousin headmaster of a celebrated boys' public school. She has a disturbing influence on boys and masters alike however with all and sundry falling under the spell of her natural beauty and charm! This sparkling comedy stars Nancy Kwan as the free-spirited Tamahine with Dennis Price as the staid guardian who is both bewitched and inspired by her presence. Boasting an equally strong supporting cast the film earned a BAFTA nomination for Geoffrey Unsworth the double-Oscar winning cinematographer whose credits include Cabaret Tess and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Tamahine is featured here in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements in its as-exhibited aspect ratio.

• 3 John Wayne Classic Westerns - Vol. 1 - Blue Steel / The Trail Beyond / Winds Of The Wastelands | DVD | (04/10/2004) from £4.03   |  Saving you £0.96 (19.20%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Features three John Wayne classics 'Blue Steel' 'Winds of the Wasteland' and 'The Trail Beyond'.