"Actor: John James"

• Inspector Morse - Disc 21 And 22 - Dead On Time / Happy Families | DVD | (12/08/2002) from £4.98   |  Saving you £10.01 (201.00%)   |  RRP £14.99

  When Inspector Morse first appeared on television in 1987, nobody could have predicted that it would run into the next century, maintaining throughout a quality of scripts and story lines that raised the genre of the detective series to a new level. Much of its success can be attributed to John Thaw's total immersion in the role. Morse is a prickly character and not obviously easy to like. As a detective in Oxford with unfulfilled academic propensities, he is permanently excluded from a world of which he would dearly love to be a part. He is at odds with that world--and with his colleagues in the police force--most of the time. Passionate about opera and "proper beer", he is a cultural snob for whom vulgarity causes almost physical pain. As a result, he lives from one disillusionment to another. And he is scarred--more deeply than he would ever admit--by past relationships. But he also has a naïve streak and, deep-down sensitivity, which makes him a fascinating challenge for women. At the heart of Morse's professional life is his awkward partnership with Detective Sergeant Lewis, the resolutely ordinary, worldly sidekick who manages to keep his boss in an almost permanent state of exasperation while retaining his grudging respect. It's a testament to Kevin Whateley's consistently excellent performance that from such unpromising material, Lewis becomes as indispensable to the series as Barrington Pheloung's hypnotic, classic theme music. Morse's investigations do occasionally take him abroad to more exotic locations, but throughout 14 successful years of often gruesome murders, the city of Oxford itself became a central character in these brooding two-hour dramas: creator Colin Dexter stating he finally had to kill Morse off because he was giving Oxford a bad reputation as a dangerous place! --Piers Ford

• Creature from the Black Lagoon: Complete Legacy Collection | Blu Ray | (10/06/2019) from £24.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The original Creature from the Black Lagoon is one of the silver screen's most unforgettable characters and, along with the other Universal Classic Monsters, defined the Hollywood horror genre. The Creature from the Black Lagoon: Complete Legacy Collection includes all 3 films from the original legacy including the gripping classic and the sequels that followed. These landmark motion pictures perfectly blended Universal's classic monster heritage with the science-fiction explosion of the 1950s and continue to inspire remakes and adaptations that strengthen the legend of the Creature from the Black Lagoon to this day. Bonus Features: Back to the Black Lagoon Documentary 3 Feature Commentaries Production Photographs Theatrical Trailers

• The Rescuers | Blu Ray | (01/10/2012) from £7.50   |  Saving you £2.49 (33.20%)   |  RRP £9.99

  From Walt Disney's original team of legendary master animators who brought you The Jungle Book comes a thrilling adventure and timeless tale overflowing with action, suspense and extraordinary little heroes you can't help but love! Join the shy but brave mouse Bernard and his glamorous partner Miss Bianca - two tiny heroes on a great big mission to save Penny, a young girl who has sent an urgent call for help! Taking off on the wings of the albatross Orville, together they soar to the marshy swamp of Devil's Bayou. There, they find themselves on the riverboat hideout of the hilariously evil Madame Medusa, who wants to use Penny to steal the world's largest diamond! With Oscar-nominated music, a snappy new remastering, and bursting with bonus features with a multitude of surprises, The Rescuers is high-flying fun you'll want to share with your loved ones again and again. Special Features: Peoplitis - The Deleted Song Three Blind Mouseketeers - Silly Symphony Animated Short Water Blinds - A Walt Disney True Life Adventure Someone's Waiting For You - Sing-Along Song The Making of the Rescuers Down Under Discover Blu-Ray 3D with Timon and Pumbaa

• Blood On The Sun | DVD | (04/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  Newspaper editor Nick Condon (James Cagney) is the crusading chief of the Tokyo Chronicle in 1920s Japan. He has his suspicions about Japanese plans for future expansion suspicions that are confirmed when he runs an article accusing Japanese Premier Tanaka (John Emery) and Colonel Tojo (Robert Armstrong) of planning world conquest and gets a visit from the Imperial Police. Then one of his reporters Ollie Miller (Wallace Ford) and his wife Edith (Rosemary DeCamp) are murdered shortly

• The Shootist | DVD | (06/06/2005) from £9.29   |  Saving you £10.70 (115.18%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The last film of John Wayne, The Shootist, could not have been more fitting, full of details that can't help but make one reflect upon his legacy in the movies and his life as a star. Wayne plays a career gunfighter in the autumn of his life, trying to hang up his pistols after he discovers he's dying of cancer. Boarding in the house of an attractive widow (Lauren Bacall) and her son (Ron Howard), Wayne's character opts for peace in his final days but is dogged by his reputation when a handful of killers seeks him out for a final fight. Howard is fine as a fatherless boy who needs the strong mentor the hero represents, and James Stewart--who costarred with Wayne in the great Man Who Shot Liberty Valance--plays the doctor who gives the big man the bad news. Don Siegel (Invasion of the Body Snatchers) thoughtfully directs a very special and sensitive production. --Tom Keogh

• The Sons of Katie Elder (Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (15/09/2020) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• The Whistle Blower | DVD | (05/05/2001) from £5.56   |  Saving you £-2.57 (N/A%)   |  RRP £2.99

  A 1987 espionage thriller, The Whistle Blower stars Michael Caine as Frank Jones, a businessman and regular patriotic war veteran whose son Bob (Nigel Havers) is a Russian linguist who works at GCHQ. Bob begins to express doubts to his father about aspects of his work; days later, police report to Frank that his son has died in a fall. A verdict of accidental death is recorded. However, in the midst of his grief, Frank is puzzled by aspects of the death and decides to conduct his own investigation. In so doing he finds himself pitted against an utterly unscrupulous Secret Service prepared to stop at nothing, including murder, to cover up their operations. Set at the time when concerns about GCHQ were at their height and the Cold War had yet to thaw, many of the film's concerns seem, years subsequently, to be thankfully dated. Moreover, it's hard to believe that the bumbling British Secret Services would actually be capable of organising a convivial soiree in a brewery, let alone orchestrate the sort of skulduggery they perpetrate here. Still, with a cast that features all the usual British suspects (Sir John Gielgud, James Fox, Gordon Jackson) there's no doubting the pedigree of The Whistle Blower, which, despite its ostensibly uncomfortable message, actually makes for very agreeable comfort viewing. Michael Caine is especially fine as Michael Caine. --David Stubbs

• The Remains Of The Day | DVD | (22/10/2001) from £6.98   |  Saving you £6.01 (86.10%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The Remains of the Day is one of Merchant-Ivory's most thought-provoking films. Anthony Hopkins is a model of restraint and propriety as Stevens, the butler who "knows his place"; Emma Thompson is the animated and sympathetic Miss Kenton, the housekeeper whose attraction to Stevens is doomed to disappointment. As Nazi appeaser Lord Darlington, James Fox clings to the notion of a gentleman's agreement in the ruthless political climate before World War Two. Hugh Grant is his journalist nephew all too aware of reality, while Christopher Reeves gives a spirited portrayal of an American senator, whose purchase of Darlington Hall 20 years on sends Stevens on a journey to right the mistake he made out of loyalty. As a period drama with an ever-relevant message, this 1993 film is absorbing viewing all the way. On the DVD: the letterbox widescreen format reproduces the 2.35:1 aspect ratio with absolute clarity. Subtitles are in French and German, with audio subtitles also in English, Italian and Spanish, and with 28 separate chapter selections. The "making-of" featurette and retrospective documentary complement each other with their "during and after" perspectives, while "Blind Loyalty, Hollow Honour" is an interesting short on the question of appeasement and war. The running commentary from Thompson, Merchant and Ivory is more of a once-only diversion. --Richard Whitehouse

• The Vicar of Dibley - The Immaculate Collection | DVD | (14/10/2019) from £11.64   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Classic BBC comedy starring Dawn French (French & Saunders) and written by Richard Curtis (Love Actually, Four Weddings and a Funeral). Geraldine Granger is not your run-of-the-mill village vicar. She is a bubbly, young reverend overseeing an eccentric congregation in a rural community. She and her off-the-wall parishioners bring us unconventional laughs in Richard Curtis' award-winning divine comedy. Includes Series 1-3, plus the Easter Special (1996) and Christmas Specials (1996 & 1997).

• The Missouri Breaks | DVD | (05/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Montana Badlands rancher David Braxton is a self-made man. Through years of tireless effort and determination he has transformed his vast and rugged land into a thriving prosperous empire. So when his livestock his fortune are threatened by a ruthless horse thief Braxton takes matters into his own hands. Hiring a sadistic 'regulator' to track down the outlaw Braxton intends to liberate the territory from crime but what he initiates instead is a complex series of events that re

• Don Giovanni - Mozart | DVD | (14/03/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £21.99

  The Opera Don Giovanni drama in two acts.

• Chocky | DVD | (07/10/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  First transmitted in 1984, Chocky is a six-part TV adaptation of John Wyndham's clever novel. Matthew, an apparently normal 12-year-old boy, starts talking to an invisible presence called Chocky, who quizzes him on a wide variety of subjects as if unfamiliar with life on Earth. Over the course of the serial it is suggested that Chocky is an alternate personality or, after Matthew has been helped by Chocky to rescue his sister from drowning, a guardian angel. But we realise early on that this non-imaginary friend is in fact an alien who has made exploratory contact with the boy. Though Chocky manifests as a swirl of blue light, this is a rare piece of TV science fiction that sticks to the domestic arena, exploring ideas rather than playing with special effects. Wyndham's very 1950s-styled novel is updated by making the kids less well-spoken, and throwing in Rubik's cubes and space invaders video games, but adaptor Anthony Read's script preserves the virtues of the novel. Young Andrew Ellams is fine in a demanding role, and there's good-quality puzzled concern from dad James Hazeldine and 80s TV's resident sexy mum Carol Drinkwater. Apart from a few eye-abusing 1984 fashions--Jeremy Bulloch's huge glasses and blinding white jeans in a cameo as a psychiatrist--and the general leisurely pace, which is no bad thing in such a careful piece of drama, this has dated little. Those who remember its first broadcast will find it lives up to the memory, and those who weren't born then should still find it an entertaining watch. On the DVD: Chocky on disc can be accessed as a marathon two-and-a-half-hour watch or as six individual episodes (the latter is recommended). Print quality is fine given the techniques of its production. A nice extra is a 20-minute, in-depth chat with writer Anthony Read. --Kim Newman

• Creature from the Black Lagoon: Complete Legacy Collection | DVD | (10/06/2019) from £27.09   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The original Creature from the Black Lagoon is one of the silver screen's most unforgettable characters and, along with the other Universal Classic Monsters, defined the Hollywood horror genre. The Creature from the Black Lagoon: Complete Legacy Collection includes all 3 films from the original legacy including the gripping classic and the sequels that followed. These landmark motion pictures perfectly blended Universal's classic monster heritage with the science-fiction explosion of the 1950s and continue to inspire remakes and adaptations that strengthen the legend of the Creature from the Black Lagoon to this day. Bonus Features: Back to the Black Lagoon Documentary 3 Feature Commentaries Production Photographs Theatrical Trailers

• Deadlier Than The Male / Some Girls Do | DVD | (15/08/2005) from £11.98   |  Saving you £5.00 (50.05%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Join Hugh ""Bulldog"" Drummond in two of his groovy sixties adventures! Deadlier Than The Male (Dir. Ralph Thomas 1966): For Hire: Deadly Weapons! - Blonde Brunette Redhead A rarely seen 1966 tongue-in-cheek spy thriller starring Richard Johnson as Hugh Bulldog Drummond investigating the attempted sabotage of oil deals and assassination of a Persian King. Elke Sommer co-stars. Some Girls Do (Dir. Ralph Thomas 1969): Hugh ""Bulldog"" Drummond returns! Drummond'

• The Big Sleep | DVD | (06/11/2006) from £6.34   |  Saving you £0.65 (10.25%)   |  RRP £6.99

  Raymond Chandler's hard boiled novel is brought to the screen with sleuth Phillip Marlowe finding himself involved with murder blackmail and violence when hired to protect a General's young daughter.

• Buck and the Preacher (1972) (Criterion Collection) UK Only | Blu Ray | (26/09/2022) from £21.84   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  !With his rousingly entertaining directorial debut, SIDNEY POITIER (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner) helped rewrite the history of the western, bringing Black heroes to a genre in which they had always been sorely underrepresented. Combining boisterous buddy comedy with blistering, Black Powerera political fury, Poitier and a marvellously mischievous HARRY BELAFONTE (Carmen Jones) star as a tough and taciturn wagon master and an unscrupulous, pistol-packing preacher, who join forces in order to take on the white bounty hunters threatening a westward-bound caravan of recently freed enslaved people. A superbly crafted revisionist landmark, Buck and the Preacher subverts Hollywood conventions at every turn and reclaims the western genre in the name of Black liberation. Special Features New digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack New interview with Mia Mask, author of Black Rodeo: A History of the African American Western Behind-the-scenes footage featuring actor-director Sidney Poitier and actor Harry Belafonte Interviews with Poitier and Belafonte from 1972 episodes of Soul! and The Dick Cavett Show New interview with Gina Belafonte, daughter of Harry Belafonte English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing PLUS: An essay by critic Aisha Harris

• When The Boat Comes In - Series 1 - Part 1 | DVD | (14/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A Land Fit for Heroes and Idiots. Ex-Sergeant Jack Ford returns home to Gallowshields on Tyneside after the end of World War One. It is time of economic depression and Jack finds his home town gripped by decline and unemployment. Jack soon falls in with the Seaton family and is determined to make his mark on the world. Originally broadcast on BBC in 1976 this double DVD release of When The Boat Comes In contains the first five episodes from the fondly remembered drama series.

• The Outlaw Josey Wales | DVD | (01/10/1999) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  During the Civil War, Union "Redlegs" attack Southerner Josey Wales's dirt farm and wipe out his family. Seeking vengeance, Wales throws in with a company of Reb guerrillas. Tagged as a renegade after the surrender, he flees west into the vastness of the Indian Territories, where, quite unintentionally, he finds himself cast as the straight-shooting paterfamilias of an ever-growing, spectacularly motley community of misfits and castaways. Which is to say, Josey's personal quest for survival and something like peace of mind evolves into a funky, multicultural allegory of the healing of America. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Clint Eastwood's 31st film as an actor, 20th as international star and 5th as director, was the first to win him widespread respect. Critics had grumbled when the producer-star replaced Philip Kaufman (The Right Stuff) in the director's chair a week into shooting. They ended up cheering when Eastwood delivered both his most sympathetic performance to date and--with the heroic collaboration of cinematographer Bruce Surtees--an impressive Panavision epic that stresses the scruffiness, rather than the scenic splendors, of frontier life. Though it's been honoured with a place in the National Film Registry, Josey Wales is good, not great, Eastwood. The big-gun fetishism can get tiresome, and too many characters exist only to serve as six-gun (and at one point Gatling gun) fodder. But mostly the film is agreeably eccentric, and almost furtively sweet in spirit--a key transitional title in the Eastwood filmography, and one of his most entertaining. --Richard T. Jameson

• Inspector Gadget 2 | DVD | (12/05/2003) from £7.97   |  Saving you £10.02 (125.72%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Inspector Gadget 2 sees the unlikely detective with higher-tech gadgets and more special effects. French Stewart (from TV's Third Rock from the Sun) replaces Matthew Broderick as the bumbling detective in a plot that revolves around the glitch-ridden Gadget being replaced by a completely robotised female. Parent Trap's Elaine Hendrix does what little she can with the one-dimensional role of "G2". Still, Gadget falls for his rival and the pair team up with his smart-as-a-whip niece Penny and her brainy beagle for a showdown with Claw. Where Broderick struggled to humanise the caricature of an inept detective in the 1999 original, Stewart doesn't even try. Instead he plays Gadget as a cartoon with endless over-the-top theatrics. The enhanced special effects may placate young viewers, but without the comedy of the original, that's small comfort. --Kimberly Heinrichs

• Joe Kidd | DVD | (06/10/2003) from £9.39   |  Saving you £0.60 (6.39%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Joe Kidd which concerns a land war in New Mexico at the turn of the century marks Clint Eastwood at the top of his form as a western hero. Filmed in 1971 Kidd brings together a veteran western Director John Sturges the classic backdrop of the High Sierras the top notch acting skills of Robert Duvall and the rugged Eastwood as a ""hired gun"" who takes action based on his own particular sense of justice. And like a very classic western it has gunfights conflicts and a slam-bang f