"Actor: Mike Mahoney"

• Born Yesterday | DVD | (05/08/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Born Yesterday was the box-office comedy hit of 1950 and won a Best Actress Oscar for the exceptional Judy Holliday, recreating her long-running Broadway triumph as Billie Dawn, the quintessential dumb blonde who finally gets herself some smarts. The film resonates with the sophisticated sparring in Garson Kanin's script and there are tightly controlled performances from William Holden as the cynical journalist hired to polish Billie up for Washington society and Broderick Crawford as Harry Brock, her rough, crooked and ambitious boyfriend. But Born Yesterday is Holliday's picture, as she runs the gamut from brassy insouciance to tentative, vulnerable enlightenment. She hasn't thought of her estranged father in five years: "It's nothing against him. I haven't thought of anything in five years." Her gradual awakening to the realisation that she is a stooge for Brock's corrupt business deals, and the way she sheds her chorus girl's intellect in the face of growing political awareness, are brilliantly traced. Holliday's dead-pan delivery makes the pathos of her self-discovery both hilarious and deeply touching; it's the hallmark of a comic genius, which makes the sparseness of her subsequent film appearances all the more regrettable. On the DVD: Born Yesterday is presented in full screen (1.33:1) ratio. Like the mono soundtrack, the black and white picture quality has triumphantly survived its more than half century. Extras include a gallery of vintage advertisements and an original theatrical trailer, plus filmographies and welcome, comprehensive booklet notes. --Piers Ford

• She's the One | Blu Ray | (03/02/2014) from £21.58   |  Saving you £-8.59 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  She's the One is actor-writer-director Edward Burns' second film, following the widely acclaimed The Brothers McMullen. Given a slightly larger budget to play with ($3m as against his debut project's $25,000), Burns revisits much the same territory--love and sibling rivalry within a New York Irish-American family--but rather more expansively. This time, too, he can run to a few stars-in-the-making (Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Aniston, and John Mahoney from Frasier) to jazz up his cast of relative unknowns. Burns himself plays Mickey, a cab-driver in the Big Apple, with Mike McGlone as his yuppie stockbroker brother, and Maxine Bahns as Hope, the girl Mickey falls for and impulsively marries, much to the romantic delight of Francis' neglected wife Renee (Aniston). Francis, meanwhile, is having a clandestine affair with Heather (Diaz), Mike's former girlfriend--something Mike has yet to learn. Dispensing flawed wisdom and generally muddying the waters yet further is the lads' blunt-spoken father (Mahoney). Plotwise that's about it. Burns relies on his appealing cast and some amiably barbed repartee to hold our interest in what's essentially a dialogue-driven movie. He makes shrewd and sometimes unexpected use of his New York locations, too--it's a fair bet most people's mental image of Brooklyn wouldn't include a waterfront fishing community. This is a good-natured, slightly old-fashioned movie whose benevolent view of the battle of the sexes (where the women are invariably smarter than the men) never digs too deep or hits too hard. On the DVD: She's the One is presented on disc in its original widescreen ratio (1.85:1) and Dolby 4.0 sound that does the movie fair justice. Along with the original trailer, we get a seven-minute "making-of" featurette and a music video of the title song "Walls" from Tom Petty, who composed the film's score. Burns provides an unpretentious voice-over commentary, dealing mainly with matters of casting and the problems of shooting on location. --Philip Kemp

• ECW - Wrestlepalooza '98 | DVD | (08/10/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  Includes: The Blue Meanie And Super Nova vs The FBI Bam Bam Bigelow vs New Jack Rob Van Dam vs Sabu and more...

• League Cup Final 1972 - Stoke City Vs Chelsea | DVD | (15/11/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £11.99

  All the highlights from the 1972 league cup final! A thirlling game between Stoke FC and Chelsea FC.....