Affable bright and breezy Kenneth More epitomised the traditional English virtues of fortitude and fun. At the height of his fame in the 1950s he was Britain's most popular film star and had appeared in a string of box office hits including Genevieve (1953) Doctor in the House (1954) Reach for the Sky (1956) and A Night to Remember (1958). Like many British actors he commuted between film and theatre and steadily became of or Britain's most treasured actors. This 8 disc collection celebrates some of his greatest work. Films include: Chance of a Lifetime (1950): The workers in a small plough factory take over the firm but when a large order falls through the old management come back to help out. Genevieve (1953): Two friends race their vintage cars on the annual London to Brighton rally. But once they place a 'friendly' wager on who will win the race the competitive juices start flowing! Genevieve is the name of one of the cars which like her competitor runs into one problem after another. A Night to Remember (1958): Based on the best selling book by Walter Lord this is the true story of the R.M.S. Titanic which struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Europe to New York in 1912. The Galloping Major (1951): An elderly pet shop owner who sets up a scheme to buy ""Montana Mist "" a race horse who promises to finish in the money. When the animals are switched at an auction his lifelong dream comes crashing down - unless the old glue horse he has purchased turns out to be more than meets the eye. North West Frontier (1959): Captain Scott (More) is sent by the British Governor in India to rescue a five year old Hindu prince and his American governess (Bacall) when a rebellion breaks out among the tribesmen. Pursued by the abductors the trio commandeer a derelict steam train to take them 300 miles through the mountains to safety... Reach for the Sky (1956): A story of one man's indomitable courage and endurance. As a young sports-loving Pilot Officer Douglas Bader loses both legs in a flying accident. Not only does he overcome his devastating disability; he goes on to become a Battle of Britain ace. Eventually Bader is shot down and imprisoned in Germany. In 1945 when three hundred aircraft fly in triumph over London led by a solitary Spitfire the honour of leading the fly-past goes to Douglas Bader. This is the story of one of the few to whom so many owed so much.
Created by the writing partnership of Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran who went on to create such comedy classics as Birds of a Feather and Goodnight Sweetheart. Originally broadcast on ITV in 1985, Shine on Harvey Moon features a superb cast including Kenneth Cranham, Elizabeth Spriggs, Maggie Steed, Pauline Quirke, Linda Robson and Nigel Planer. More than just a comedy series, Shine on Harvey Moon was also an entertaining historical record of changing attitudes and changing lifestyles in a drastically changed world.After being demobbed from his post as a stores clerk for the RAF stationed in Bombay, former professional footballer Corporal Harvey Moon returned home to the east London district of Hackney only to discover that his family friends and neighbours had assumed him 'missing in action'.This three disc set comprises all eight episodes from Series F our:Kind Hearts and CoronetsAnything GoesMud SticksLove is BlindLover, Come Back to MeAll or Nothing At AllWe're in the MoneyLove and Marriage
The unlikely duo of Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker are reunited in this sequel. This time round their investigations take them from Hong Kong to L.A.
British intelligence officer is sent to investigate an anonymous letter sent to the foreign secretary accusing a key officer of communist affiliation. When the officer commits suicide the investigator suspects murder and presses his inquiry. The culprit is finally exposed in a surprise climax.
A mixed bag as variations on A Christmas Carol go, this 1970 British musical tells the usual story of Scrooge (Albert Finney) and his spirits on Christmas Eve, although the whole thing is set to music by Leslie Bricusse. Except for Finney's feisty and involved performance, however, there isn't much to recommend this. The songs, which absorb so much of the evolving story line and emotions, are not all that good. Plenty of support, however, from the likes of Roy Kinnear (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory) and Dame Edith Evans (Tom Jones), the handsome production is directed by veteran Ronald Neame (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie). --Tom Keogh
One of the funniest Carry Ons ever! Who is stealing virgins and turning them into shop-window mannequins? What is the meaning of the gigantic hairy finger found at the scene of the latest crime? What clues can the mad professor or his deathly pale and impossibly buxom sister provide to the hopeless Detective Bung?
Kenneth Brannagh and Kevin Kline supply the voices for the two young spaniards in search of the legengary city of gold - El Dorado
In the Flesh is set in a small village in the North of England post-zombie uprising as rehabilitated zombies are reintroduced back into society. Now known as PDS Sufferers (Partially Deceased Syndrome) they have been caught treated and armed with their flesh cover-up and special contact lenses are returning to their friends and families who previously thought them dead. The series follows our hero Kieren Walker a 17 year old who committed suicide four years' ago when his best mate Rick died serving in Afghanistan. He's now returning to a village where he always felt like an outsider and a family who never got to say goodbye. We follow Kieren as he struggles to cope with fitting back in with the guilt of what he did in his untreated state and the sudden reappearance of Rick a fellow PDS Sufferer. The boy that Kieren thought was dead is alive and the boy Rick thought was alive is dead.
The twist of private-eye show Randall & Hopkirk Deceased is that in the first episode, gumshoe Marty Hopkirk (Kenneth Cope) is killed off by the villains, only to pop up in an immaculate white suit as a ghost visible only to his hardboiled partner Jeff Randall (Mike Pratt). In theory, the supernatural streak--which meant a complex set of rules about Marty's appearances and effects on the physical world--should lead the show into wilder territory, but most episodes squander the team's unique abilities on ordinary cases about blackmail and murder-for-profit. A persistent subplot has the living Jeff getting cosy with the dead Marty's widow Jean (Annette Andre) to the discomfort of her late husband. The elementary effects and the nice underplaying of the leads have a certain period charm, and the show could afford a high calibre of special guest villains and dolly birds. A 1990s remake with Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer hasn't obliterated memories of the original. --Kim Newman
A lively musical tale of teen rebellion, Some People stars BAFTA winner Kenneth More alongside a group of young actors on the cusp of bursting onto the Swinging London film scene. Ray Brooks, Annika (Anneke) Wills and David Hemmings play the young, bored rebels living for kicks in this key British film from the early 1960s. Some People is featured here as a brand-new High Definition restoration from original film elements in its original theatrical aspect ratio. Young and bored, Johnnie, Bill and Bert are teenaged tearaways whose only interests are motorbikes and rock music. When they are banned from riding and fined heavily, they become convinced that society has no use for them. But a choirmaster finds them playing rock on a church organ and, for some of them at least, there seems to be a way out of a no-hope situation. Special Features: Fullscreen, as-filmed version of main feature Original theatrical trailer Image gallery
Made in 1960, Carry On Constable is one of the earliest Carry On comic romps, arriving before they'd carved out their bawdy niche in British cinema. In fact, this Gerald-Thomas-directed effort isn't dissimilar to most of the mainstream Brit-com of its era. A flu epidemic has forced a police station to take on a brace of callow recruits: Kenneth Connor, a superstitious bag of nerves; Leslie Phillips, playing his usual rapscallion self; the ludicrously effete Charles Hawtrey and Kenneth Williams. The "plot" is a sequence of thoroughly creaky gags at the expense of this bumbling quartet. The staple characters hadn't settled into their "classic" personae yet. Here, Sid James is an exasperated sergeant, not the sort of crinkly rogue he played in later years, Kenneth Williams is dry, detached and supercilious, while Hattie Jacques is no matron but a sympathetic sergeant, whose every walk-on is not yet accompanied by the portly strains of tubas and bassoons. The comedy here is, frankly, dismal--banana skins are slipped upon and officers' legs urinated upon bydogs, all to a rueful soundtrack of wah-wah trumpets. The main appeal of this movie is as a period slice of damp, pre-Beatles London in glorious black and white.On the DVD: Although picture and sound are adequate (though poorly dubbed in places), there are no extras at all, a shame for the hardcore Carry On aficionados to whom this release would surely, perhaps exclusively, appeal. --David Stubbs
Digitally re-mastered for superior sound and picture quality Lovin’ You is a genuine Elvis classic and an absolute “must have” for any true fan of the undisputed King of Rock’n’Roll from the days when he was lean mean and magnificent and had a hip wiggle that drove the girls crazy. Only Presley’s second ever feature film and his first in colour this rocking romance uncannily mirrors Elvis’s own explosion onto the music scene and rocket ride to fame and fortune. His raw animal prescence leaps sensationally from the screen in the all-singing all-dancing story of a humble delivery boy turned rock’n’roll star Deke Rivers – featuring the hit songs Teddy Bear Got A Lot Of Lovin’ To Do Hot Dog Mean Woman Blues Party and of course the tender ballad Lovin’ You. First released in the cinema in 1957 the movie showed Elvis had genuine acting talent with his gritty and emotional portrayal of a simple country boy catapulted to stardom. Interestingly two versions of the title song were recorded for the film and although two versions are on the Complete Fifties Masters both are shorter than the 2 minutes 12 seconds on-screen version here!
Very few first-time film directors would have been capable of making such a triumphant adaptation of Henry V; but a still-youthful Kenneth Branagh's years of stage experience paid off handsomely and his 1989 version qualifies as a genuine masterpiece, the kind of film that comes along once in a decade. He eschews the theatricality of Laurence Olivier's stirring, fondly remembered 1945 adaptation to establish his own rules: Branagh plays it down and dirty, seeing the Bard's play through revisionist eyes, framing it as an anti-war story in contrast to Olivier's patriotic spectacle. Branagh gives us harsh close-ups of muddied, bloody men, and of himself as Henry, his hardened mouth and wilful eyes revealing much about the personal cost of war. Not that the director-star doesn't provide lighter moments: his scenes introducing the French Princess Katherine (Emma Thompson) trying to learn English quickly from her maid are delightful. What may be the crowning glory of Branagh's adaptation comes when the dazed leader wanders across the battlefield, not even sure who has won. As King Hal carries a dead boy (a young Christian Bale) over the hacked bodies of both the English and French, a panorama of blood and mud and death greet the viewer as Branagh opens up the scene and Patrick Doyle's rousing hymn "Non nobis, Domine" provides marvellous counterpoint (like the director, the composer was another filmic first-timer). A more potent expression of the price of victory could scarcely be imagined. --Rochelle O'Gorman, Amazon.com
One of the last decent Carry On movies, Carry On Abroad is a 1972 venture into the world of package holidays. After this, the series descended into unfunny coarseness as opposed to camply laboured double entendre, culminating in the dreadful Carry On Emanuelle. Here, publican Sid James and dutiful mother's son turned sex maniac Charles Hawtrey are among a brace of Brits heading for the "paradise island" of Elsbels. Kenneth Williams is the out-of-his-depth tour operator, reverting to the sort of effete types he played in the 1950s, Peter Butterworth a pre-Manuel-style manager of a half-built hotel. A series of disasters ensue, with the entire gang landing up in jail following a fracas in a brothel at one point, but everyone finds romantic and sexual fulfilment in a quaint disco finale. This includes a gay character who is "dissuaded" from his homosexuality in a typical example of the thoroughly reactionary subtext that constitutes the really naughty bit of most Carry On films. Nonetheless, this throwback to an imaginary time when the lewdest innuendo of a dirty old man was greeted by young females with a flirty "Ooh, saucy!" is enjoyable on condition that you enter into its seaside-postcard spirit. June Whitfield is fine as a sexually uptight wife, Kenneth Connor a model of red-faced frustration as her wimpish husband. On the DVD: Sadly, no extra features except scene selection. The picture is a 4:3 ratio full-screen presentation. --David Stubbs
Carry On favourite Barbara Windsor makes her debut in this outrageous send-up of the James Bond movies. Fearless agent Desmond Simpkins and James Bind aided and abetted by the comely Agent Honeybutt and Agent Crump battle against the evil powers of international bad guys STENCH and their three cronies.
Miss Marple (New): Series 4 (4 Discs)
Featuring illustrious individual casts and outstanding scripts from a writing team that includes Randall and Hopkirk star Kenneth Cope, renowned playwright Peter Terson, fan favourite comedy dramatist Donald Churchill and Coronation Street contributors Harry Kershaw and Tim Aspinall, this Granada anthology features seven dramas centred on the events unfolding in a typical village hall. Diverse storylines explore the lives and idiosyncrasies of locals and visitors alike, with buried tensions, secret loves and rivalry all rising to the surface in these gently humorous portraits of provincial English life. This second series sees the village hall hosting a beauty contest with a few surprises, the increasingly ambitious pie-making efforts of two love rivals, the controversial visit of a German brass band, and the final reunion of a wartime battalion. Performers include John Le Mesurier, Zo Wanamaker, Joan Hickson, Anton Rodgers, Kenneth Cranham, Jan Francis, and Dinah Sheridan.
Director Clint Eastwood's 1997 box-office hit stars himself as Luther Whitney, a highly skilled thief who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, witnessing the murder of a woman involved in a secret tryst with the US president (played by Gene Hackman). Determined to clear his name, Whitney cleverly eludes a tenacious detective (Ed Harris) while investigating a corruption of power reaching to the highest level of government. Adapted by veteran screenwriter William Goldman from David Baldacci's novel, this thriller balances expert suspense with well-drawn characters and an intelligent plot that's just a pounding heartbeat away from real White House headlines. Absolute Power features the great Judy Davis in a memorable supporting role as the White House chief of staff who desperately attempts to cover up the crime. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
The John Woo gangster classic that started it all, a romantic, violent, swirlingly stylish melodrama about duelling brothers--with a mesmerizing lead performance by Hong Kong's favourite actor, Chow Yun-Fat. In repose, Chow's sleepy magnetism recalls the glory days of Robert Mitchum, Steve McQueen, and Takakura Ken; when he's stepping high, Chow has a unique, ebullient star presence, a man who embraces life so unselfconsciously that he becomes vulnerable to all kinds of suffering and heartache (he endures masochistic megadoses of violence here). The sequence in which Chow's Mark avenges his betrayed best friend---by blasting his way into, and then out of, a Chinese restaurant, twin .45s blazing---is a swashbuckling standout. Woo's film technique may have been more polished in later efforts, but A Better Tomorrow has a direct emotional power that is still unique. Kung fu star of the 1970s, Ti Lung is also terrific here as the 40ish established mobster, relied upon by all, who allows conflicting loyalties toward Mark and toward his younger brother, now a cop, to undermine the stability of his position. --David Chute, Amazon.com
For anyone who travels the congested roads of Britain these days the utterly delightful Genevieve will provoke a wistful, nostalgic sigh of regret for times gone by when there were no motorways, traffic jams were almost non-existent and friendly police motorcyclists riding classic Nortons (without helmets) cheerfully let people driving vintage cars race each other along country lanes. Even in 1953, Henry Cornelius gentle comedy must have seemed pleasingly old-fashioned, concerned as it is with the antics of two obsessive enthusiasts on the annual London to Brighton classic car rally. The principal quartet could hardly be bettered: though John Gregson is something of a cold fish as Genevieves proud owner, the radiant warmth of Dinah Sheridan as his long-suffering wife more than compensates. Kenneth More is ideally cast in the role of boastful rival enthusiast and Kay Kendall has possibly the best comic moment of all when she astonishes everyone with her drunken trumpet playing. Cornelius also directed Ealings Passport to Pimlico, so his sure eye for gently mocking and celebrating British eccentricities is never in doubt. The screenplay by (American writer) William Rose now seems like an elegy to a way of life long disappeared: the pivotal moment when Gregson stops to humour a passing old buffer about his love of classic cars comes from a vanished era of politeness before road rage; as does the priceless exchange between hotel owner Joyce Grenfell and her aged resident: "No ones ever complained before", says the mystified Grenfell after Gregson and Sheridan moan about the facilities, "Are they Americans?" asks the old lady, unable to conceive that anyone British could say such things. Genevieve is both a wonderful period comedy and a nostalgic portrait of England the way it used to be. On the DVD: the "Special Edition" version of Genevieve has a decent new documentary with reminiscences from Dinah Sheridan (still radiant), the director of photography and the films editor, who talk about the challenges of filming on location. Most treasurable of all, though, is legendary harmonica player Larry Adler, who remembers his distinctive score with much fondness and is not at all embittered by his Hollywood blacklisting, which meant he was denied an Academy Award nomination. Theres also a short piece on some of the locations used (which for economic reasons were mostly in the lanes around Pinewood studios), cast biographies and a gallery of stills. The 4:3 ratio colour picture looks pretty good for its age and the mono sound is adequate. --Mark Walker
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