The Italian Job 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition This is the Self-Preservation Society!' Celebrate 50 years of iconic cult classic The Italian Job with the 50th Anniversary Limited Edition box set. Presented in a deluxe black and gold rigid gift box, this product includes: The Italian Job on both DVD and Blu-ray Exclusive landscape collector's booklet with a new bespoke 50th Anniversary text written by Matthew Field, the leading authority on The Italian Job, and behind-the-scenes photos Individually-numbered collector's certificate Complete script Customisable replica 1960s driving licence 50th Anniversary A3 poster 6 artcards with vintage and international film poster art The quintessential British caper film of the 1960s, The Italian Job is a flashy, fast romp that chases a team of career criminals throughout one of the biggest international gold heists in history. Michael Caine is Charlie Croker, a stylish robber and skirt-chaser just out of British prison.
Too Many Crooks (1958) boasts an intricate plot in which Terry Thomas is being blackmailed for the hoards he's stashed away as a renowned tax dodger. Driving around in a Jaguar XK 150, a desirable sports car of the period, his intricate private life unravels as his put-upon wife, Brenda de Banzie, draws on her expertise as a wartime PT instructress to turn the tables on him by marshalling the support of a band of crooks (George Cole, Sidney James, Bernard Bresslaw and Joe Melia). Look out for the very funny court scene, where TT makes three appearances on separate charges before a bemused magistrate, John Le Mesurier. On the DVD: Too Many Crooks is in 4:3 ratio and has a mono soundtrack. The only extra feature is a trailer. More TT tomfoolery can be found in the three-disc Terry Thomas Collection. --Adrian Edwards
Vintage comedy by Jimmy Perry and David Croft. As Walmington-on-Sea trembles at the thought of a mighty Nazi invasion the indefatigable Captain Mainwaring and his eager Home Guard are ready and waiting - regardless that some of them are so old they can hardly stand up... Starring Arthur Lowe John Le Mesurier and Clive Dunn. Winner of 3 Writers Guild awards and a BAFTA. Episodes Comprise: 1. The Deadly Attachment 2. My British Buddy 3. The Royal Train 4. We Knows Our Onions
Who do you think you are kidding Mr. Hitler If you think we're on the run. We are the boys who will stop your little game We are the boys who will make you think again. So who do you think you are kidding Mr. Hitler If you think old England's done. Mr. Brown goes off to town on the 8:21. But he comes home each evening and he's ready with his gun. So who do you think you are kidding Mr. Hitler If you think old England's done. The hapless homeguard of Walmington-On-Sea
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)
Michael Redgrave and Robert Morley head a stellar cast in this marvellous comedy of skulduggery and deception from Ealing Studios lynchpin Charles Crichton and Oscar-winning screenwriter T.E.B. Clarke - best known as the team behind The Lavender Hill Mob. Law and Disorder is presented here in a brand-new transfer from the original elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio. Percy Brand's growing son Colin thinks his father is a clergyman when Percy's real vocation is that of confidence trickster - his frequent spells 'inside' explained away as missionary trips abroad. When Colin studies law and eventually becomes a judge's marshal his father feels bound to retire to a fishing village. But he cannot keep away from his life of crime and in no time at all he's getting involved in the local squire's brandy smuggling activities... Special Features: Original Theatrical Trailer Image gallery Script and Promotional PDFs
This box set contains both versions of The Italian Job--the original 60s classic starring Michael Caine and the 2003 remake, featuring Mark Wahlberg.
Pre-dating Mel Brooks' The Producers by a year this 1967 comedy stars the inimitable Charlie Drake as a budding playwright whose magnum opus seems a cast-iron guarantee of box-office disaster. Featuring support from an array of British film and television stars - including George Baker John Le Mesurier Ronald Radd and Wanda Ventham - Mister Ten Per Cent is presented here in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio. Percy Pointer may work on a building site but his passion is the theatre and all his spare time is devoted to the play he is writing. It means everything to him: he lives in the fictional world he is creating acting out to the full every emotion and situation that he pens. When Percy's play is finished it arrives on the desk of Jocelyn Macauley London's leading impresario at a time when he is particularly anxious to stage a resounding flop and so incur an impressive tax loss. To Macauley Oh My Lord! is made to order... Special Features: Original Theatrical Trailer Image Gallery Original Pressbook PDF
The late Freddie Garrity (of Freddie and the Dreamers) stars in this 1967 Eternal films comedy. Directed by Duncan Woodwho produced Hancocks Half Hour, Steptoe and Son and Oh Brother amongst many others.A good British cast, Kenneth Connor, Victor Maddern, John Le Mesurier and Arthur Mullard tell the story of a troopof scout misfits, The Cuckoo Troop, led by Garrity on their way to scout camp and all the scrapes they stumble into!Picture and sound of excellent quality following extensive restoration work by Renown.
Tony Hancock stars with Sid James as the irrepressible tenant of 23 Railway Cuttings East Cheam. Hancock's Half-Hour is the yardstick against which all subsequent British sitcoms have been measured the vast majority failing to size up to its extremely high standards. Based on his famous radio show of the same name the TV run consolidated Tony Hancock's standing as Britain's leading comic of the day; the entertainer providing ample proof that his wonderfully flexible
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 madcap doctor team are at it again! This time Dr. Burke stows away on a cruise ship when his girlfriend is assigned a modelling job aboard the vessel and ends up as a ship's doctor.
Remembered dimly as Peter Sellers' only venture into "serious" acting, Never Let Go has a lot of other things to recommend it, mostly because it manages to include a lot of the lurid elements that gained it an X certificate in 1960. It has a near-demented melodrama plot, as two desperate obsessives collide in a bizarre feud. Richard Todd, doing meek and put-upon, is a sales rep for smug Peter Jones' cosmetics firm whose life is turned upside-down when his Ford Anglia, bought on hire purchase and uninsured, is stolen by teddy boy Adam Faith. Looking like an inhabitant of Royston Vasey in The League of Gentlemen, Sellers plays a grinning, jumped-up spiv who runs a legitimate garage which is a front for the car thieves and is sugar daddy to teenage tartlet Carol White. Typical of Sellers' demonic rottenness is a scene in which he breaks down-and-out Melvyn Johns' heart by stamping on his beloved terrapin. "Peanut" Todd's crusade to get back his motor (catchphrase "what about my car?") brings trouble too: he gets repeatedly beaten up, abandoned by his wife (Elizabeth Sellars) and dragged to the edge of madness for a final punch-up in a garage. With a delightfully sleazy, jazzy John Barry score, lots of local colour in the caffs and gaffs of criminal London circa 1960 and a parade of welcome character actors (John le Mesurier, David Lodge, Noel Willman, Nigel Stock), this has its soapy spells, but it's a fascinating relic. On the DVD: Never Let Go's menu plays under Faith's theme song ("When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again--Oh Yeah Oh Yeah!"). The print is slightly letterboxed but looks a few generations away from the master with some careless transfer work that greys shadows and overexposes some scenes. --Kim Newman
When Nikki Ferris and her aunt took a trip to a small Greek island they never expected to get involved in jewel theft and murder. A strangely reluctant innkeeper a handsome Englishmen a missing boy and a mysterious yacht all play a part in this mystery / romance based on a Mary Stewart novel.
The Very Best of Dad's Army, Vol 2 is a further helping of episodes from the BBC's most durable comedy, well chosen to illustrate the variety of situations and predicaments in which Warmington-on-Sea's home guard find themselves. "Menace from the Deep" sees them marooned on the town pier, having to contend with a rogue mine and an inebriated Hodges. "Mum's Army" has Captain Mainwaring set up a women's division and promptly fall for the charming Miss Gray, in a cunning take on Brief Encounter. "No Spring for Frazer" charts Frazer's beleaguered attempts to locate a missing gun part with predictably disastrous results. "When Did You Last See Your Money?" similarly puts Corporal Jones through the mill after he switches a package containing £500 with one containing a half-pound of sausages. Finally, "The Honourable Man" brings the enmity of Mainwaring and Sergeant Wilson to a head when the latter inherits an honorary title. The performances have that spontaneity and gently self-mocking humour so familiar, yet so enjoyable, however many times around. On the DVD: The Very Best of Dad's Army, Vol 2 on disc has an accompanying documentary (partially reprised from that on Volume 1) containing interviews with surviving cast members, present-day comedians and Messrs Croft and Perry, whose inspired scriptwriting continues to amuse and entertain. The early-70s prints have come up well, with subtitles and six chapter headings per episode to make locating favourite scenes easier than ever. --Richard Whitehouse
After a decade on radio in The Goons, 1959's I'm All Right Jack set Peter Sellers on the road to international stardom. Sellers played both Sir John Kennaway, and unforgettably, the Bolshy trade union leader Fred Kite (he would go on to take three roles in Dr Strangelove and featured endless disguises in The Pink Panther in 1963) series. The result is laugh-out-loud comedy with a satiric edge, lampooning the then burning issue of industrial relations. Bertram Tracepurcel's (Dennis Price) plans to make a fortune from a missile contract, a scheme which involves manipulating his innocent nephew Stanley Windrush (Ian Carmichael) into acting as the catalyst in an escalating labour dispute, from which the socialist Mr Kite is only too keen to make capital. Management and labour both have their self-serving hypocrisy dissected in this ingenious comedy, actually a sequel to the military comedy Private's Progress (1956), but which stands independent of the earlier film. Both films were made by the brothers John and Roy Boulting, director and producer of such British classics as Brighton Rock (1947), Seven Days to Noon (1950), Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (1959) and Heaven's Above (1963). The superb cast of I'm All Right Jack also features Richard Attenborough, John Le Mesurier, Margaret Rutherford and Terry Thomas. --Gary S. Dalkin
In The Square Peg Norman Wisdom plays one of a pair of council workmen who, while repairing the road outside an army base, come to illustrate the oxymoronic nature of the phrase "military intelligence". Finding themselves drafted, the workmen are sent to repair the roads ahead of the Allied advance through war-torn Europe by the sergeant they previously embarrassed. Norman finds himself behind the German lines, joins up with French Resistance, gets captured then sets out to rescue British prisoners from a German military HQ by impersonating General Schreiber. Of course Wisdom plays Schreiber too. The Square Peg is the film that introduced Norman Wisdom's famous catch-phrase, "Mr. Grimsdale!". Also here Hattie Jacques gets to sing a remarkable duet with Wisdom, and a pre-Goldfinger Honor Blackman provides the love interest. Following his rising star was just what Norman Wisdom's audience had been doing all through the 1950s and, by 1959, and after six films with director John Paddy Carstairs, it was time for a change. Hence Robert Asher made his directorial debut with Follow a Star. The plot is a comedy version of A Star is Born (1954), with Norman yet again playing a dreaming shop worker, this time aspiring to singing stardom. Vernon Carew (played by Wisdom regular Jerry Desmonde) is the fading singer who schemes to use Wisdom's talent to sustain his own rapidly failing career, while the girl is overlooked starlette June Laverick. Norman is surrounded by a particularly strong supporting cast, with Hattie Jacques returning from The Square Peg (1958), Richard Wattis, John Le Mesurier, Fenella Fielding, Ron Moody and, uncredited, future Bond villain Charles Grey. --Gary S Dalkin
A perennial afternoon telly treat, Carlton-Browne of the F.O. is a little less tart and smart in its assault on British diplomacy than the earlier John and Roy Boulting satires. The much-loved Terry Thomas, is the idiot son of a great ambassador, given a sinecure in the Foreign Office that becomes a hot seat when crises rock the almost-forgotten former colony of Gaillardia. Clod-hopping "dance troupes" of every world power dig for cobalt, a line of partition is painted across the entire island, and the young King (Ian Bannen) is undermined by his wicked uncle (John le Mesurier) and unscrupulous Prime Minister Amphibulos (Peter Sellers). There's a touch of Royal romance as the King gets together with a rival princess (the winning Luciana Paoluzzi), but it's mostly mild laughs at the expense of British ineptitude, with Thorley Walters as the dim army officer who sends his men to put down a rebellion with orders that lead them to turn in a circle and capture his own command post, Miles Malleson as the gouty consul who should have come home in 1916, and a snarling Raymond Huntley as the minister appalled that the new monarch of a British ally was a member of the Labour Party at Oxford. The film finds Sellers' non-specific foreign accent unusually upstaged, with Terry Thomas walking off with most of the comedy scenes, blithely inspecting a line of shabby crack troops who keep passing out at his feet. It fumbles a bit with obvious targets, especially in comparison with similar films like Passport to Pimlico and The Mouse That Roared, but you can't argue with a cast like this. Down in the ranks are: John Van Eyssen, Irene Handl, Nicholas Parsons, Kenneth Griffith, Sam Kydd and Kynaston Reeves. On the DVD: Carlton-Browne of the F.O. comes to disc in fullscreen, with a decent-ish quality print. The film is also available as part of the four-disc Peter Sellers Collection.--Kim Newman
An astronaut and his robot companion inadvertantly enter a time-space warp and are hurled into the past where they find themselves in the court of King Arthur!
Dangerous Cargo (1954)/Dead Man's Evidence (1962)
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