"Actor: Orson WELLES"

• The Stranger | DVD | (07/04/2008) from £7.09   |  Saving you £-1.10 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Orson Welles stars and directs in this classic 1946 movie. Welles portrays Charles Rankin a respected academic at a Connecticut college. He seems to have the perfect American life - A beautiful new wife (Loretta Young) and a charming home in a small town that holds him in high esteem. Enter Mr. Wilson (Edward G. Robinson) a detective who is on the hunt for Nazi war criminal Franz Kindler. The appearance of Mr. Wilson threatens to reveal that beneath Charles Rankin's idyllic veneer is a very disturbing secret.

• Jane Eyre (Orson Welles) | DVD | (19/04/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  This 1943 version of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre was made just two years after Citizen Kane, and it certainly looks like star Orson Welles muscled his way behind the camera much of the time. (In fact, co-star Joan Fontaine--who plays the title character--has maintained that Welles methodically did just that every day on the set.) Not that the film's official director was a hack: Robert Stevenson gets the credit, a man who later had a busy career at Disney making numerous live-action hits such as Mary Poppins. But there's no mistaking Welles' masterful hand in this film's bold and creative look, and there's no getting away from his enigmatic charisma as Rochester, the widower who takes in Jane as a governess to his daughter. An engrossing, gorgeous film, there's even a small role for Elizabeth Taylor at the beginning as Jane's unlucky, doomed friend at a cruel boarding school. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

• The Edward G Robinson Collection | DVD | (15/10/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  In a career that spanned fifty years and some ninety films Edward G Robinson became best known for his 'tough guy' image being cast in many similar roles following the success of his 1931 film Little Caesar. The three DVD collection highlights other aspects of his career. He was just as comfortable playing more dramatic roles such as Scarlet Street and both he and Orson Welles give exceptional performances in The Stranger. The collection is completed with The Red House a suspense thriller.

• Treasure Island | DVD | (01/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

• Battle of Neretva | DVD | (07/06/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  In 1943 Hitler orders the final destruction of the Yugoslav Partisans. The Partisans and thousands of refugees begin a trek northward to the Bosnian Mountains; their goal is to cross the treacherous Neretva gorge over the one remaining bridge in order to get to safety. Their trip is fraught with danger every step of the way and they have to face German tanks Italian infantry Chetnik Cavalry strafing airplanes disease and natural elements. Only if they survive this can they can in peace.

• Muppet Movie, The / Muppet's Wizard Of Oz | DVD | (03/04/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Muppet Movie (1979): Jim Henson's Muppets make their film debut in this charming story that chronicles their rise to fame. It all begins with Kermit the Frog sitting in a swamp singing and strumming a guitar. Realizing he can use his talent to ""make people happy "" Kermit decides to head for Hollywood. During his trip Kermit meets fellow Muppets Fozzie the Bear the Great Gonzo Miss Piggy and an odd assortment of others who join Kermit on his song-filled journey. But before

• Treasure Island | DVD | (18/08/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Oscar Winning great Orson Welles gives an outstanding performance as the iconic Long John Silver in this wonderful adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel. This tall tale of piracy on the high seas begins with the arrival of a hardy sea captain Billy Bones at The Benbow Inn run by the inimitable Mrs. Hawkins and her son Jim. With his health deteriorating Captain Bones entrusts a priceless map of Treasure Island to Jim but warns him whatever he does he must beware the one legged man. Map in hand it is not long before Jim is embarking on his voyage of discovery. But strangely amongst the crew is a mysterious one-legged man. And so the adventure begins!

• The Hollywood Collection | DVD | (22/05/2017) from £8.96   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  THE HOLLYWOOD COLLECTION GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS AL PACINO HEADS A STUNNING STAR-STUDDED CAST... Close the deal...or you re history. The stakes couldn t be higher for four desperate Chicago real-estate salesmen: close the deal or lose your job. David Mamet s famously profanity-laden screenplay based on his own Pulitzer Prize-winning play ferociously nails the dog-eat-dog world where lies, flattery, threats, theft and bribery rule supreme as the four salesman scrabble to thrash the opposition and keep their livelihoods. But who will survive? Will it be top closer Ricky Roma? Has-been Shelley The Machine Levene? Timid no-hoper George Aaronow? Big-mouth Dave Moss? Or does ruthless office manager Williamson hold all the trump cards? Al Pacino, who earned both Academy Award® and Golden Globe® nominations for his powerhouse performance, heads a fabulous cast of big-name stellar talent, including Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Jonathan Pryce and Jack Lemmon (who won the Volpi Cup - Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival). JULIA Fred Zinnemann's last great movie. Based on part of Lillian Hellman's memoir, the film stars Jane Fonda as Hellman as she recounts her friendship with the enigmatic JULIA, played by Vanessa Redgrave. Fonda gives a gutsy performance, playing well with Redgrave and, to a greater degree, Jason Robards, who plays Dashell Hammett. Alvin Sargent's screenplay cleverly bends time, jumping back and forth as the story of Hellman's friendship with Julia is told and Zinnemann creates a melancholy feel that's sustained throughout. The excellent music by Georges Delerue is haunting and the cinematography by Douglas Slocombe is beautiful. The supporting cast features Meryl Streep as Anne Marie, Maximillian Schell as Johann, Cathleen Nesbitt as Julia's grandmother, Rosemary Murphy as Dorothy Parker and Hal Holbrook as Parker's husband Alan Campbell. THE LONG HOT SUMMER Paul Newman plays Ben Quick, the mysterious drifter who stirs up a town and its women when he hitches up in Frenchman s Bend, Mississippi, where life is dominated by elderly patriarch Will Varner (Orson Welles). Will s daughter Clara (Joanne Woodward) and son Jody (Anthony Franciosa) are a disappointment to him. While Jody spends his time fooling around with his alluring wife, Eula (Lee Remick), the strong-willed Clara is courted by Alan Stewart (Richard Anderson), a milquetoast mama s boy. Will himself is resisting being pressured into marriage by his long-term mistress Minnie (Angela Lansbury), but he sees in Ben the passion and drive that Jody lacks. He invites Ben to live with the family, and Ben launches a relentless campaign to break Clara s will and win her heart. This proves the final straw for Jody, who is driven to desperate measures to prove his manhood a situation that sparks both deadly danger and shocking revelations over the course of one long, hot summer.

• The Stranger | DVD | (18/03/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  The Stranger, according to Orson Welles, "is the worst of my films. There is nothing of me in that picture. I did it to prove that I could put out a movie as well as anyone else." True, set beside Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil, or even The Trial, The Stranger is as close to production-line stuff as the great Orson ever came. But even on autopilot Welles still leaves most filmmakers standing. The shadow of the Second World War hangs heavy over the plot. A war crimes investigator, played by Edward G Robinson, tracks down a senior Nazi, Franz Kindler, to a sleepy New England town where he's living in concealment as a respected college professor. The script, credited to Anthony Veiller but with uncredited input from Welles and John Huston, is riddled with implausibilities: we're asked to believe, for a start, that there'd be no extant photos of a top Nazi leader. The casting's badly skewed, too. Welles wanted Agnes Moorehead as the investigator and Robinson as Kindler, but his producer, Sam Spiegel, wouldn't wear it. So Welles himself plays the supposedly cautious and self-effacing fugitive--and if there was one thing Welles could never play, it was unobtrusive. What's more, Spiegel chopped out most of the two opening reels set in South America, in Welles' view, "the best stuff in the picture". Still, the film's far from a write-off. Welles' eye for stunning visuals rarely deserted him and, aided by Russell Metty's skewed, shadowy photography, The Stranger builds to a doomy grand guignol climax in a clock tower that Hitchcock must surely have recalled when he made Vertigo. And Robinson, dogged in pursuit, is as quietly excellent as ever. On the DVD: not much in the way of extras, except a waffly full-length commentary from Russell Cawthorne that tells us about the history of clock-making and where Edward G was buried, but precious little about the making of the film. Print and sound are acceptable, but though remastering is claimed, there's little evidence of it. --Philip Kemp

• Jane Eyre | DVD | (11/11/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  This 1943 version of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre was made just two years after Citizen Kane, and it certainly looks like star Orson Welles muscled his way behind the camera much of the time. (In fact, co-star Joan Fontaine--who plays the title character--has maintained that Welles methodically did just that every day on the set.) Not that the film's official director was a hack: Robert Stevenson gets the credit, a man who later had a busy career at Disney making numerous live-action hits such as Mary Poppins. But there's no mistaking Welles' masterful hand in this film's bold and creative look, and there's no getting away from his enigmatic charisma as Rochester, the widower who takes in Jane as a governess to his daughter. An engrossing, gorgeous film, there's even a small role for Elizabeth Taylor at the beginning as Jane's unlucky, doomed friend at a cruel boarding school. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

• Edward G. Robinson - Scarlet Street / The Stranger | DVD | (18/03/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In a way, Scarlet Street is a remake. It's taken from a French novel, La Chienne (literally, "The Bitch") that was first filmed by Jean Renoir in 1931. Renoir brought to the sordid tale all the colour and vitality of Montmartre; Fritz Lang's version shows us a far harsher and bleaker world. The film replays the triangle set-up from Lang's previous picture, The Woman in the Window, with the same three actors. Once again, Edward G Robinson plays a respectable middle-aged citizen snared by the charms of Joan Bennett's streetwalker, with Dan Duryea as her low-life pimp. The plot closes around the three of them like a steel trap. This is Lang at his most dispassionate. Scarlet Street is a tour de force of noir filmmaking, brilliant but ice-cold. The Stranger, according to Orson Welles, "is the worst of my films. There is nothing of me in that picture". But even on autopilot Welles still leaves most filmmakers standing. A war crimes investigator, played by Edward G Robinson, tracks down a senior Nazi to a sleepy New England town where he's living in concealment as a respected college professor. Welles wanted Agnes Moorehead as the investigator and Robinson as the Nazi Franz Kindler, but his producer, Sam Spiegel, wouldn't wear it. So Welles himself plays the supposedly cautious and self-effacing fugitive--and if there was one thing Welles could never play, it was unobtrusive. Still, the film's far from a write-off. Welles' eye for stunning visuals rarely deserted him and, aided by Russell Metty's skewed, shadowy photography, The Stranger builds to a doomy grand guignol climax in a clocktower that Hitchcock must surely have recalled when he made Vertigo. And Robinson, dogged in pursuit, is as quietly excellent as ever. On the DVD: sparse pickings. Both films have a full-length commentary by Russell Cawthorne which adds the occasional insight, but is repetitive and not always reliable. The box claims both print have been "fully restored and digitally remastered", but you'd never guess. --Philip Kemp

• The Witching / After Darkness / Blood Sabbath | DVD | (06/05/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The Withcing: A strange and sinister man Mr Cato (Orson Welles) wields extraordinary power in the small town of Lilith. Almost supernatural power. The townsfolk indulge in weird ritual in their pursuit of necromancy... bringing the dead back to life. Against this disturbing background it is a young beautiful girl Lori (Pamela Franklin) who becomes the human catalyst between life and death... After Darkness: Lawrence Hunningford (Julian Sands) becomes insane when as a child he witnesses the tragic drowning of his twin brother in the sands. He becomes gradually schizophrenic and is committed to the clinic. His elder brother Peter (John Hurt) accepts an invitation to teach at the University near the clinic. After Lawrence attempts to end his life Peter discharges his brother from the clinic and moves with him into a huge run down apartment and commits to take care of his brother. But the strain begins to show as more and more he neglects his family and work. Pascale (Victoria Abril) Peter's young assistant at the University worries about the strange changes she noticed in him. She follows him to his apartment and encounters Lawrence. Not suspecting anything and in spite of Peter's violent jealousy she interferes in the brother's relationship by answering Lawrence's desires. But more and more Lawrence's illness spreads to Peter whose jealousy and eventual madness end in tragedy and Lawrence is freed from his darkness. Blood Sabbath: When travelling through the woods young David is captured by a members of a witches' coven. Soon he is involved in a bizarre power struggle with a beautiful witch and the coven's evil queen...

• Necromancy | DVD | (21/04/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Orson Welles plays the head of a witches' coven in the town of Lilith.

• Confidential Report | DVD | (02/04/2007) from £9.43   |  Saving you £-3.44 (-57.40%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Guy Van Stratten a convicted American smuggler leaves an Italian prison term with one asset a dying man's words about the wealthy mysterious and elusive Gregory Arkadin. Guy sets out in search of the enigmatic Arkadin and starts to scrutinize him through his lovely daughter Raina. To thwart Van Stratten's investigation Arkadin claims amnesia about his early life and sends Guy off to investigate his ""unknown"" past. Guy's quest spans many continents and unearths eccentric characters who contribute information about the shadowy Arkadin. But the real purpose of Guy's assignment proves deadly - can he survive it? Orson Welles wrote directed and co-starred in this stylish serpentine mystery that carries echoes of his masterpiece 'Citizen Kane'.

• Stranger, The / Orson Welles On Film | DVD | (01/11/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  The Stranger, according to Orson Welles, "is the worst of my films. There is nothing of me in that picture. I did it to prove that I could put out a movie as well as anyone else." True, set beside Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil, or even The Trial, The Stranger is as close to production-line stuff as the great Orson ever came. But even on autopilot Welles still leaves most filmmakers standing. The shadow of the Second World War hangs heavy over the plot. A war crimes investigator, played by Edward G Robinson, tracks down a senior Nazi, Franz Kindler, to a sleepy New England town where he's living in concealment as a respected college professor. The script, credited to Anthony Veiller but with uncredited input from Welles and John Huston, is riddled with implausibilities: we're asked to believe, for a start, that there'd be no extant photos of a top Nazi leader. The casting's badly skewed, too. Welles wanted Agnes Moorehead as the investigator and Robinson as Kindler, but his producer, Sam Spiegel, wouldn't wear it. So Welles himself plays the supposedly cautious and self-effacing fugitive--and if there was one thing Welles could never play, it was unobtrusive. What's more, Spiegel chopped out most of the two opening reels set in South America, in Welles' view, "the best stuff in the picture". Still, the film's far from a write-off. Welles' eye for stunning visuals rarely deserted him and, aided by Russell Metty's skewed, shadowy photography, The Stranger builds to a doomy grand guignol climax in a clock tower that Hitchcock must surely have recalled when he made Vertigo. And Robinson, dogged in pursuit, is as quietly excellent as ever. On the DVD: not much in the way of extras, except a waffly full-length commentary from Russell Cawthorne that tells us about the history of clock-making and where Edward G was buried, but precious little about the making of the film. Print and sound are acceptable, but though remastering is claimed, there's little evidence of it. --Philip Kemp

• The Stranger | DVD | (19/05/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  The Most Deceitful Man A Woman Ever Loved! Welles stars as college professor Charles Rankin who is living a quiet life in a small Connecticut town with his lovely wife Mary. The arrival of jumpy German fellow Meineke leaves Rankin disturbed and his quiet life is destroyed as he must go to deadly measures to stop Meineke revealing his dark secret.

• The Stranger | DVD | (18/10/1999) from £4.99   |  Saving you £8.00 (160.32%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The legendary story that hovers over Orson Welles' The Stranger is that he wanted Agnes Moorehead to star as the dogged Nazi hunter who trails a war criminal to a sleepy New England town. The part went to Edward G. Robinson, who is marvellous, but it points out how many compromises Welles made on the film in an attempt to show Hollywood he could make a film on time, on budget and on their own terms. He accomplished all three, turning out a stylish if unambitious film noir thriller, his only Hollywood film to turn a profit on its original release. Welles stars as unreformed fascist Franz Kindler, hiding as a schoolteacher in a New England prep school for boys and newly married to the headmaster's lovely if naive daughter (Loretta Young). Welles, the director, is in fine form for the opening sequences, casting a moody tension as agents shadow a twitchy low-level Nazi official skulking through South American ports and building up to dramatic crescendo as Kindler murders this little man, the lovely woods becoming a maelstrom of swirling leaves that expose the body he furiously tries to bury. The rest of the film is a well designed but conventional cat-and-mouse game featuring an eye-rolling performance by Welles and a thrilling conclusion played out in the dark clock tower that looms over the little village. --Sean Axmaker

• Journey In To Fear | DVD | (28/02/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

• Orson Welles - Double Feature 1 | DVD | (10/04/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  The Stranger: In postwar Germany a meeting of the War Crimes Commission is being held. Those present decide that a heinous Nazi war criminal (Konstantin Shayne) should be released from prison in the hopes that he will lead the commission to his superior the infamous Franz Kindler (Orson Welles) one of the architects of the genocide against the Jews. A federal agent (Edward G. Robinson) is assigned to follow Shayne and the chase begins. This exciting thriller from Orson Welles moves to the town of Harper Connecticut where the Nazi Kindler is living under an assumed name... King Lear: Orson Welles stars in the title role in this made-for-television production of the Shakespearean tragedy about an aging king betrayed by his daughters.

• Confidential Report | DVD | (28/01/2002) from £14.99   |  Saving you £-9.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99