"Actor: Mary Hill"

• To Kill A Mockingbird | DVD | (03/07/2006) from £3.31   |  Saving you £13.94 (680.00%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Gregory Peck won an Oscar for his brilliant performance as the Southern lawyer who defends a black man accused of rape in this film version of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel. The setting is a dusty Southern town during the Depression. A white woman accuses a black man of rape. Though he is obviously innocent the outcome of his trial is such a foregone conclusion that no lawyer will step forward to defend him - except Peck the town's most distinguished citizen. His compassionate de

• Brassed Off | DVD | (10/09/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Take The Full Monty, add a sharper emotional edge and replace the strutting strippers with a dignified British band. That's the essence of Brassed Off, a bittersweet gem released in 1996, a year before its more popular (and Oscar-nominated) counterpart. In the Yorkshire town of Grimley, there has always been a coal mine, just as for the last 111 years there has been a brass band and it seems that Danny (the wondrous Pete Postlethwaite) has been the director for every one of those years. Tory economic policies, however, are closing coal mines around the country in favour of nuclear power and Grimley appears to be next on the list. Danny is unfazed by the threat, claiming, "It's music that matters." But some of the men are about to quit the band until the appearance of Gloria (Tara Fitzgerald at her most radiant), who dazzles the all-male group (including old flame Andy, played by Ewan McGregor) first with her beauty, then with her flügelhorn playing. The new member gives the band a boost as they continue to perform and compete but closure remains very real, as director Mark Herman (Little Voice) accompanies the band's performances (played with gusto by the Grimethorpe Colliery Band) with scenes of angry labour-management confrontations and family strife. In this context, some of the characters claim that the music is an irresponsible form of escapism. It becomes clear, however, from a touching performance of "Danny Boy" to the stirring conclusion at Royal Albert Hall, that music is an expression of the human spirit, a bit of beauty and sanity in a harsh world. With defiance, the band can play "Land of Hope and Glory" even when the land offers them neither. --David Horiuchi

• Murder One - Season 1 | DVD | (06/09/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  The complete first season of Murder One in which a single but multi-faceted case is explored from opening trial arguments to final judgment over the course of 23 enthralling episodes.

• Sister Act 2 - Back In The Habit | DVD | (08/04/2002) from £2.99   |  Saving you £12.00 (401.34%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Whoopi Goldberg returns in a gratuitous, poorly written sequel that contrives a reason to get her character back into Maggie Smith's convent. The "socially conscious" plot finds Goldberg being asked to relate to a bunch of street kids and pull them together into a choir. Since a bad guy is needed, the script grabs that old chestnut about a rich guy (James Coburn) preparing to close down the convent's school, and runs with it. The film is slow and unconvincing from start to finish, although co-stars Mary Wickes and Kathy Najimy get some good laughs, and the music is pretty spirited. --Tom Keogh

• To Kill a Mockingbird (Limited Edition Blu-ray Digibook) | Blu Ray | (13/02/2012) from £10.85   |  Saving you £7.14 (65.81%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Experience one of the most significant milestones in film history like never before with To Kill A Mockingbird 50th Anniversary Edition. Screen legend Gregory Peck stars as courageous Southern lawyer Atticus Finch - the Academy Award winning performance hailed by the American Film Institute as the Greatest Movie Hero of All Time. Based on Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize winning novel about innocence, strength and conviction and nominated for 8 Academy Awards, this beloved classic is now digitally remastered and fully restored for optimum picture and sound quality and boasts hours of unforgettable bonus features. Watch it and remember why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird. Limited Edition Blu-ray packaging with 44 page bok with Gregory Peck's script pages, personal letters, storyboards and much more! Special Features: Fearful Symmetry - A feature-length documentary on the making of To Kill A Mockingbird with cast and crew interviews A Conversation With Gregory Peck - A feature-length documentary on one of the most beloved actors in film history with interviews, clips, home movies and more. 100 Years of Universal: Restoring the Classics - An in-depth look at the film restoration process Academy Award Best Actor Acceptance speech - Gregory Peck's speech after winning the Academy Award for his performance as Atticus Finch. American Film Institute Life Achievement Award - Gregory Peck receiving the AFI Life Achievement Award Excerpt from Tribute to Gregory Peck - Cecilia Peck's farewell to her father given at the Academy in celbration of his life. Scout Remembers - Actress Mary Badham shares her experiences working with Gregory Peck Feature commentary - with Director Robert Mulligan and Alan Pakula Original theatrical trailer

• Leave Her To Heaven | DVD | (18/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Leave Her to Heaven is one of the most unblinkingly perverse movies ever offered up as a prestige picture by a major studio in the golden age of Hollywood. Gene Tierney, whose lambent eyes, porcelain features, and sweep of healthy-American-girl hair customarily made her a 20th Century Fox icon of purity, scored an Oscar nomination playing a demonically obsessive daughter of privilege with her own monstrous notion of love. By the time she crosses eyebeams with popular novelist Cornel Wilde on a New Mexico-bound train, her jealous manipulations have driven her parents apart and her father to his grave. Well, no, not grave: Wilde soon gets to watch her gallop a glorious palomino across a red-rock horizon as she metronomically sows Dad's ashes to the winds. Mere screen moments later, she's jettisoned rising-politico fiancé Vincent Price and accepted a marriage proposal the besotted/bewildered Wilde hasn't quite made. Can the wrecking of his and several other lives be far behind? Not to mention a murder or two. Fox gave Ben Ames Williams's bestselling novel (probably just the sort of book Wilde's character writes) the Class-A treatment. Alfred Newman's tympani-heavy music score signals both grandeur and pervasive psychosis, while spectacular, dust-jacket-worthy locations and Oscar-destined Technicolor cinematography by Leon Shamroy ensure our fixed gaze. Impeccably directed by the veteran John M. Stahl (who'd made the original Back Street, Imitation of Life, and Magnificent Obsession a decade earlier), the result is at once cuckoo and hieratic, and weirdly mesmerizing. Bet Luis Buñuel loved it. --Richard T. Jameson

• Sister Act / Sister Act 2: Back In The Habit | DVD | (26/09/2005) from £11.01   |  Saving you £8.98 (81.56%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Sister Act: A Hilariously Divine Comedy!"" -ABC Radio Network. Relive all the fun laughter and irresistible music of Sister Act - the inspired comedy hit that packed pews everywhere! Whoopi Goldberg stars as a sassy low-rent lounge singer forced to hide out from the mob in the last place anyone would ever look for her - a convent. While she's there her irreverent behavior attracts a flock of faithful followers and turns the nuns' tone-deaf choir into a soulful chorus of swin

• Some Kind Of Wonderful | DVD | (04/11/2002) from £7.05   |  Saving you £5.94 (84.26%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In Some Kind of Wonderful, John Hughes crystallises, for good and ill, much of the stock material of the modern high-school romantic comedy. There is the outsider boy Keith (Eric Stolz) with artistic talent and sexual ambitions above his lowly status in a hierarchy based on wealth and popularity. There is Watts, (Mary Stuart Masterson) the tomboy next door, whose good looks and love for him he has somehow always failed to notice. And, most interestingly, there is Amanda Jones (Lea Thompson), who has parlayed her looks into running with the rich kids, but is starting to realise she has the worst of the bargain. There are some odd ambiguities here--all three take passive-aggressive behaviour to a level that is not entirely sympathetic--as well as some slick plotting: Keith's attempt to befriend Amanda by following her into detention brings him into contact with delinquents like Duncan, a terrifying skinhead who is more than he seems. In the end, there is just enough edge and invention here to keep it from being as crass and sentimental as films which have imitated its formula. On the DVD: Some Kind of Wonderful is presented in 1.78:1 visual aspect ratio and has Dolby 5:1 sound in English, surround sound in Italian and mono in German and Italian--it also has subtitles in those languages and Danish, Dutch, French, Norwegian, Swedish and Turkish and no other special features whatever. --Roz Kaveney

• To Kill a Mockingbird | Blu Ray | (10/09/2012) from £21.95   |  Saving you £8.04 (36.63%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Ranked 34 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest American Films, To Kill a Mockingbird is quite simply one of the finest family-oriented dramas ever made. A beautiful and deeply affecting adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee, the film retains a timeless quality that transcends its historically dated subject matter (racism in the Depression-era South) and remains powerfully resonant in present-day America with its advocacy of tolerance, justice, integrity and loving, responsible parenthood. It's tempting to call this an important "message" movie that should be required viewing for children and adults alike, but this riveting courtroom drama is anything but stodgy or pedantic. As Atticus Finch, the small-town Alabama lawyer and widower father of two, Gregory Peck gives one of his finest performances with his impassioned defence of a black man (Brock Peters) wrongfully accused of the rape and assault of a young white woman. While his children, Scout (Mary Badham) and Jem (Philip Alford), learn the realities of racial prejudice and irrational hatred, they also learn to overcome their fear of the unknown as personified by their mysterious, mostly unseen neighbour Boo Radley (Robert Duvall, in his brilliant, almost completely nonverbal screen debut). What emerges from this evocative, exquisitely filmed drama is a pure distillation of the themes of Harper Lee's enduring novel, a showcase for some of the finest American acting ever assembled in one film, and a rare quality of humanitarian artistry (including Horton Foote's splendid screenplay and Elmer Bernstein's outstanding score) that seems all but lost in the chaotic morass of modern cinema. --Jeff Shannon

• Murder One - Season 1 And 2 | DVD | (31/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £69.99

  The complete two seasons of the thrilling Murder One show in which a single but multi-faceted case is explored from opening trial arguments to final judgment over the course of many enthralling episodes.

• A Place For Annie | DVD | (05/11/2001) from £6.16   |  Saving you £-3.17 (N/A%)   |  RRP £2.99

  A baby suffering with AIDS and abandoned in a hospital is given a home by a nurse who fights for custody... Based on a true story.

• Our Lips Are Sealed | DVD | (29/07/2002) from £5.38   |  Saving you £8.61 (61.50%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Look who grew up: in Our Lips Are Sealed Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, once the sleepy-eyed preschoolers in the hit TV sitcom Full House, wake to find themselves ready for their first day of high school. But the day doesn't shape up as ultra-fantastically as in their dreams. A series of bizarre circumstances force them into a life-threatening situation in which only the FBI Witness Protection Program can help. It turns out that Mary-Kate and Ashley are their own worst enemies; the girls continually blow their cover until finally they're booted down under to the warm and sparkling recreation mecca of Sydney, Australia. Here the challenge to keep a secret takes second fiddle to the bigger challenges of fitting in with the popular group, learning Aussie lingo, and (apparently) changing into a new set of adorable clothes and accessories in almost every scene. Fans from the ages of 6 to 13 will probably enjoy the daft antics of the Olsens, their adventures with cute boyfriends, and their ability to thwart the goofy bad guys. Also, their acting ability--although crippled by yet another bubblehead script--continues to improve. To the parental crowd, the film plays somewhat like a New Age beach-blanket movie with plenty of surfer parties, flower-power fun, overblown story points, mild potty humour, and lots of belly buttons (LOTS of belly buttons). The movie also has some inexplicable references (to such grown-up phenomena as The Blair Witch Project and The Sopranos) that are bound to go way over the target audience's heads but it's absolutely clean fun that fans will eat up. --Liane Thomas, Amazon.com

• One Magic Christmas | DVD | (26/09/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Miracles do happen! Christmas is a time of enchantment... when a wondrous feeling larger than life captures the soul...but not for everyone. Academy Award-Winner Mary Steenburgen stars as a young mother Ginny Grainger who is disillusioned with Christmas and finds its approach as adding only more pressures to an already stress-filled existence. Thanks to the unshakable faith of her young daughter Abbie and a guardian angel named Gideon (played by Harry Dean Stanton) G

• 3 Classic Horrors Of The Silver Screen - Vol. 4 - Carnival Of Souls / The Ape Man / Mesa Of Lost Women | DVD | (10/01/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Carnival Of Souls: Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) apparently survives a serious car accident. Shortly after she heads for Utah and a new job as a church organist but is pursued by a cadaverous phantom figure... The Ape Man: Mad scientist Dr. Brewster long thought dead is working away in his basement laboratory on a serum derived from gorilla spinal fluid. Experimenting on himself Dr. Brewster is dismayed to discover that the injections have given him a bushy beard a

• The Outsider | Blu Ray | (18/05/2015) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Medical drama and romance are intertwined in this engaging feature from Austrian-born director Paul L. Stein. Mary Maguire and George Sanders head a first-rate cast in The Outsider, based on Dorothy Brandon's popular 1920s stage play and presented here in a brand-new High Definition transfer from the original film elements. Lalage Sturdee is a brilliant pianist. Virtually abandoned at birth by her father an eminent surgeon a mishap at the hands of an unqualified practitioner has left her disabled for life... or so she believes. Despite her father's objections she puts her faith in Anton Ragatzy, the ebullient and outspoken inventor of a machine which appears to give miraculous results. A machine which will either cure her completely or cripple her forever...

• Talking To Heaven | DVD | (24/02/2003) from £33.99   |  Saving you £-31.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £2.99

  The true story of James Van Praagh the medium many believe opened the door between life and death. Praagh has been haunted by psychic visitations since childhood and although terrified by them he is encouraged by his friend Midge to delve deeper and by his mother - after she dies - to accept his gift as a blessing. But then a criminal investigation forces James to use his powers to solve a 30 year old murder involving seven young boys. Detective Karen Condrin helps him identify the children and they both set about solving the crime allowing the lost boys to continue their path to heaven.

• Casual Sex? (Retro VHS Packaging) | Blu Ray | (19/10/2021) from £8.72   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Love Potion No. 9 | DVD | (29/04/2002) from £24.99   |  Saving you £-19.00 (-317.20%)   |  RRP £5.99

  The premise of Love Potion No. 9--that a magic potion makes the user irresistible to the opposite sex--could be the setup for the crassest sex farce imaginable. Instead, this film is a surprisingly subtle romantic comedy. Nebbishy scientist Paul (Tate Donovan) goes to a Gypsy fortune teller (Anne Bancroft), who tells him she sees no women in his entire life. To make up for this depressing news, she gives him a few drops of a love potion--number 8. Paul, a biochemist, scoffs; but when his pet cat accidentally gets a taste and attracts every female cat in the neighborhood, he enlists fellow dweeby scientist Diane (Sandra Bullock) to analyse it. After experimenting on monkeys, they decide to test it on themselves; soon Diane is being pursued by handsome Italians in the street and comes close to marrying the Prince of England (sic), while Paul gets a little revenge on a woman who previously rejected him, then embarks on his own love spree. Shortly they discover that they really want each other; but before they can get married, an old boyfriend of Diane returns with his own dose of love potion number 8. Paul's only hope is to get something even more powerful. Love Potion No. 9 is genuinely clever and sweet, and both Donovan and Bullock work well with the low-key but effective humour of the movie's well-written script. It's a tribute to her talent and her girl-next-door looks that Bullock, unlike most pretty stars dressing down, is effective as both a lovelorn loser and the confident glamour-girl she becomes. Altogether, a charming and enjoyable film.--Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com

• Chiller Theatre Features | DVD | (03/02/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  It's difficult sometimes to fathom how compilers think. This Chiller Theatre threesome consists of two classic silent horror films, plus a low-budget B-movie from the early 1960s. The connection? You decide! Yet these are films that belong in any self-respecting collection, and this package is a good way of acquiring them. Of those featuring Lon Chaney, it's the original 1923 The Hunchback of Notre Dame that comes across best. Chaney's grotesquerie is shot-through with pathos, and Patsy Ruth Miller's Esmeralda has enduring freshness. Wallace Worsley handles crowd scenes and cathedral stunts with aplomb, and there's an atmospheric "posthumous" soundtrack, though anyone looking for accuracy in the depiction of medieval French society is in for a shock. 1925's The Phantom of the Opera is slow-moving and uneventful by comparison, with Rupert Julian's direction never escaping the narrow Gothic trappings of the novel. Chaney cranks (or is that camps?) up his range of gestures to the limit, and Mary Philbin is an eye-catching heroine, but the denouement in the Paris sewers seems endless--with looped extracts of Schubert and Brahms as a hardly appropriate soundtrack. Cut to 1962, and The Carnival of Souls--made in Kansas for under $100,000--is an undeniable cult classic. Herk Harvey sustains the increasingly surreal narrative with ease, Candace Hilligoss is striking (if a tad gauche) as the young organist caught on the cusp of this world and the next, and Gene Moore's organ soundtrack is a masterly backdrop for the motley assemblage of ghouls who pursue her around the seaside pier in a memorable closing sequence. On the DVD: Chiller Theatre is very acceptably remastered--with 1.33:1 aspect ratio and 12 chapter headings per film--and decently if minimally packaged. --Richard Whitehouse

• The Outsider | DVD | (18/05/2015) from £7.98   |  Saving you £4.00 (66.78%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Medical drama and romance are intertwined in this engaging feature from Austrian-born director Paul L. Stein. Mary Maguire and George Sanders head a first-rate cast in The Outsider, based on Dorothy Brandon's popular 1920s stage play and presented here in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements. Lalage Sturdee is a brilliant pianist. Virtually abandoned at birth by her father an eminent surgeon a mishap at the hands of an unqualified practitioner has left her disabled for life... or so she believes. Despite her father's objections she puts her faith in Anton Ragatzy, the ebullient and outspoken inventor of a machine which appears to give miraculous results. A machine which will either cure her completely or cripple her forever...