"Actor: Phil Silvers"

• It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World | Blu Ray | (04/09/2017) from £21.65   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  STANLEY KRAMER followed his Oscar-winning Judgment at Nuremberg with this sobering investigation of American greed. Ah, who are we kidding? It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, about a group of strangers fighting tooth and nail over buried treasure, is the most grandly hare-brained movie ever made, a pileup of slapstick and borscht-belt-y one-liners performed by a nonpareil cast, including MILTON BERLE, SID CAESAR, ETHEL MERMAN, MICKEY ROONEY, SPENCER TRACY, JONATHAN WINTERS, and a boatload of other playingto-the-rafters comedy legends. For sheer scale of silliness, Kramer's wildly uncharacteristic film is unlike any other, an exhilarating epic of tomfoolery. TWO BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES: Restored 4K digital film transfer of the general release version of the film, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack New high-definition digital transfer of a 197-minute extended version of the film, reconstructed and restored by Robert A. Harris using visual and audio material from the longer original road-show versionincluding some scenes that have been returned to the film here for the first time New audio commentary featuring It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World aficionados Mark Evanier, Michael Schlesinger, and Paul Scrabo New documentary on the film's visual and sound effects, featuring rare behind-thescenes footage of the crew at work and interviews with visual-effects specialist Craig Barron and sound designer Ben Burtt Talk show from 1974 hosted by director Stanley Kramer and featuring Mad World actors Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, and Jonathan Winters Press interview from 1963 featuring Kramer and members of the film's cast Interviews recorded for the 2000 AFI program 100 Years . . . 100 Laughs, featuring comedians and actors discussing the influence of the film Two-part 1963 episode of the CBC television program Telescope that follows the film's press junket and premiere The Last 70mm Film Festival, a program from 2012 featuring cast and crew members from Mad World at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, hosted by Billy Crystal Selection of humourist and voice-over artist Stan Freberg's original TV and radio advertisements for the film, with a new introduction by Freberg Original and re-release trailers, and re-release radio spots PLUS: An essay by film critic Lou Lumenick and illustrations by legendary cartoonist Jack Davis

• Cover Girl (Masters Of Cinema) (Dual Format) (Blu-ray & DVD) | Blu Ray | (13/02/2017) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Cover Girl was one of the big hits of Rita Hayworth's run as movie queen (and World War II pinup girl), a splashy musical geared to the talents of its redheaded star. Be warned: this is the kind of movie in which a single magazine cover turns an unknown dancer into the toast of her own Broadway show, virtually overnight. The corn runs high, but so do the spirits; plus, Eve Arden is around to toss in her trademark one-liners. Gene Kelly, as Hayworth's sulky choreographer and part-time boyfriend, stops the movie cold with his brilliant dance alongside his own reflection. The Jerome Kern-Ira Gershwin songs are middling, except for the lovely "Long Ago and Far Away". One number presents a parade of magazine cover girls come to life (great snapshot of an era). And check out the movie's hats: a parade of insane creations, perched uncertainly on many beautiful women's heads. --Robert Horton

• It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World | DVD | (11/03/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Stanley Kramer's 1963 It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World is a sprawling comedy about a search for buried treasure by at least a dozen people--all played by well-known entertainers of their day--is the kind of mass comedy that has recently come back to the for-front of Hollywood with the film Rat Race. After a number of strangers (including Milton Berle, Jonathan Winters, Sid Caesar, Phil Silvers and others) witness a dying stranger (Jimmy Durante) identify the location of hidden money, a conflict-ridden hunt begins, watched over carefully by a suspicious cop (Spencer Tracy). The ensuing two and a half hours of mayhem has its ups and downs--some sketches and performers are certainly funnier than others. But Kramer, who is better known for socially conscious, serious cinema (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?), is in a mood for broad comic characterization, and some of his jokes are so intentionally obvious (Durante literally kicks a bucket when he dies), they could have derived from the Airplane! reject bin. Watch for lots of cameo appearances, including Jerry Lewis. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

• Cover Girl | DVD | (06/02/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Rita Hayworth Academy Award winner Gene Kelly Phil Silvers and Eve Arden star in this lavishly produced musical about a nightclub dancer from Brooklyn who leaves her sweetheart after winning a Cover Girl contest - only to learn that fame and fortune are no substitute for true love. Rusty Parker is a chorus girl at a nightclub run by her sweetheart Danny McGuire. Driven by ambition she enters a ""Cover Girl"" contest. When Coudair the magazine's publisher discovers that she is the

• Sergeant Bilko | DVD | (25/09/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Sgt. Bilko is in charge of the Motor Pool at an Army base. He's also a good natured con man providing gambling facilities for the soldiers on base. When an old enemy from his past shows up to inspect his records and steal away his fiancee Sgt. Bilko has to put his skills to creative use.... This 3 disc box set includes 18 episodes.

• Carry On Follow That Camel | DVD | (17/02/2003) from £6.22   |  Saving you £6.77 (108.84%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In Carry On Follow That Camel, Sergeant Bilko himself, Phil Silvers, lends lustre and trademark spectacles to this 1967 desert spectacle following the adventures of a group of foreign legionnaires who find themselves besieged by a bloodthirsty band of Bedouins. Silvers plays Sergeant Nocker, a rogue cast firmly in the Bilko mould, who takes a dislike to new recruit Jim Dale, a young upper class gent forced to join the legion following disgrace at a cricket match. He's accompanied, naturally, by his faithful manservant (Peter Butterworth), with the pair showing a fine disregard for the austere requirements of the Foreign Legion. However, once they reach an agreement with Sergeant Nocker, they can join forces to repel the Bedouins, led, not unpredictably, by Bernard Bresslaw. This is vintage Carry On, in spite of Sid James' absence. Kenneth Williams' performance is subdued by having to deliver the usual puns ("zere are a couple of points I still need to go over", he informs busty Joan Sims) in a mangled French accent but Silvers gets into the right mode of delivering broad comedy with subtle inflections. Peter Butterworth draws the short straw this time and must feature in the obligatory cross-dressing scene, while Charles Hawtrey is a splendidly unconvincing hardened legionnaire. As for Bresslaw, can any other British actor, with the exception of Sir Alec Guinness, have distinguished himself in such a variety of multi-ethnic roles? On the DVD: Sadly, there are no extra features except scene selection. The picture ratio is 4:3. --David Stubbs

• Sgt. Bilko - The Phil Silvers Show: The Very Best Of (2 DVD Set) | DVD | (25/05/2015) from £4.45   |  Saving you £10.54 (236.85%)   |  RRP £14.99

• Sgt. Bilko - The Phil Silvers Show - Complete Collection (20 disc set) | DVD | (22/09/2014) from £53.59   |  Saving you £71.40 (133.23%)   |  RRP £124.99

  It was originally called 'You'll Never Get Rich' but later had it's title changed to 'The Phil Silvers Show' but to it's fans' across the globe it's known simply as 'Bilko', the memorable name of one of the greatest comedy characters ever to grace the small screen. Woefully under-appreciated in it's home country, the series has always been feted in the UK and has regularly made the top tens of 'Best Sitcom' lists and is even recognised as the greatest ever sitcom from either side of the Atla.

• Sgt. Bilko | DVD | (16/02/2004) from £5.57   |  Saving you £0.42 (7.54%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Sgt. Bilko is back and up to his old tricks. The arrival of Major Thorn threatens to put a stop to the casino under-the-table deals and Bilko's other illicit businesses...

• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum | Blu Ray | (22/02/2016) from £14.49   |  Saving you £1.50 (10.35%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The words of the opening song pretty much describe the menu in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum--"Something familiar, something peculiar, something for everyone: a comedy tonight!"--a frantic adaptation of the stage musical by Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove. The wild story, based on the Latin comedies of Plautus and set in ancient Rome, follows a slave named Pseudolus (Zero Mostel, snorting and gibbering) as he tries to extricate himself from an increasingly farcical situation; Mostel and a bevy of inspired clowns, including Phil Silvers, Jack Gilford and Buster Keaton, keep the slapstick and the patter perking. The cast also includes the young Michael Crawford as a love-struck innocent. This project landed in the lap of Richard Lester, then one of the hot test directors in the world after his success with the Beatles' films. Lester telescoped the material through his own joke-a-second sensibility, and also ripped out some of the songs from Stephen Sondheim's Broadway score. The result is very close to the vaudeville spirit suggested by the title--though anyone with a low tolerance for Zero Mostel's overbearing buffoonery may be in trouble. Oddly enough, amid all the frenzy, Lester creates a grungy, earthy Rome that seems closer to the real thing than countless respectable historical films on the subject. Frankie Howerd, who played Pseudolus on the London stage, kept the tradition going with his Up Pompei TV series. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com

• A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum | DVD | (12/01/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The words of the opening song pretty much describe the menu in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum--"Something familiar, something peculiar, something for everyone: a comedy tonight!"--a frantic adaptation of the stage musical by Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove. The wild story, based on the Latin comedies of Plautus and set in ancient Rome, follows a slave named Pseudolus (Zero Mostel, snorting and gibbering) as he tries to extricate himself from an increasingly farcical situation; Mostel and a bevy of inspired clowns, including Phil Silvers, Jack Gilford and Buster Keaton, keep the slapstick and the patter perking. The cast also includes the young Michael Crawford as a love-struck innocent. This project landed in the lap of Richard Lester, then one of the hottest directors in the world after his success with the Beatles' films. Lester telescoped the material through his own joke-a-second sensibility, and also ripped out some of the songs from Stephen Sondheim's Broadway score. The result is very close to the vaudeville spirit suggested by the title--though anyone with a low tolerance for Zero Mostel's overbearing buffoonery may be in trouble. Oddly enough, amid all the frenzy, Lester creates a grungy, earthy Rome that seems closer to the real thing than countless respectable historical films on the subject. Frankie Howerd, who played Pseudolus on the London stage, kept the tradition going with his Up Pompeii TV series. --Robert Horton

• Sgt. Bilko: The Phil Silvers Show - Season 1 | DVD | (06/09/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  "Goldbricker." Now there's a term you don't hear much any more. But that's what Ed Sullivan called Sgt. Ernest G. Bilko back in the 1950s, and it's as apt a term as any for Phil Silvers' immortal comic creation. Hustler, gambler, scam artist, and con man also apply, but anyway you slice it, Bilko is inarguably one of the greatest characters to emerge in television's so-called Golden Age. Created by Nat Hiken and originally called "You'll Never Get Rich," The Phil Silvers Show is classic situation comedy. There's no character arc, no lessons learned, no sentimental denouement; just laughs, and plenty of 'em. The typical episode finds Bilko on the make--usually, though not exclusively, for money--and generally ends with him holding the short end of his own shtick. (They don't all follow the formula; a hilarious exception is "The Court Martial," in which Bilko is ordered to defend a chimpanzee that the Army has somehow managed to enlist and is now trying to expel.) Silvers, a master at both verbal and physical comedy, is the focal point, of course. But the ensemble work, featuring Bilko's usual stooges from the Fort Baxter motor pool (Barbella, Doberman, Paparelli), his favourite victims (cf. Col. Hall), and occasional guest stars, is uniformly brilliant, the acting is seemingly effortless, and the pleasure they take in their work is palpable. Bottom line: these shows may have been produced 50 years ago, but the jillions of TV comedies that followed have never improved on them. --Sam Graham

• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum | DVD | (22/02/2016) from £5.49   |  Saving you £10.50 (65.70%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The words of the opening song pretty much describe the menu in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum--"Something familiar, something peculiar, something for everyone: a comedy tonight!"--a frantic adaptation of the stage musical by Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove. The wild story, based on the Latin comedies of Plautus and set in ancient Rome, follows a slave named Pseudolus (Zero Mostel, snorting and gibbering) as he tries to extricate himself from an increasingly farcical situation; Mostel and a bevy of inspired clowns, including Phil Silvers, Jack Gilford and Buster Keaton, keep the slapstick and the patter perking. The cast also includes the young Michael Crawford as a love-struck innocent. This project landed in the lap of Richard Lester, then one of the hot test directors in the world after his success with the Beatles' films. Lester telescoped the material through his own joke-a-second sensibility, and also ripped out some of the songs from Stephen Sondheim's Broadway score. The result is very close to the vaudeville spirit suggested by the title--though anyone with a low tolerance for Zero Mostel's overbearing buffoonery may be in trouble. Oddly enough, amid all the frenzy, Lester creates a grungy, earthy Rome that seems closer to the real thing than countless respectable historical films on the subject. Frankie Howerd, who played Pseudolus on the London stage, kept the tradition going with his Up Pompei TV series. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com

• The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood | DVD | (20/08/2007) from £9.43   |  Saving you £0.56 (5.94%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Based on the best-selling book which had sold millions of copies by the time the film was made The Happy Hooker tells the funny and feisty tale of Xaviera Hollander - a girl on the verge of discovering her sexuality her financial freedom and the lusty lucrative connection between the two. Now on DVD for the first time along with its equally outrageous sequels the sexy sultry and seriously seductive movie aims to please! Two-time Bond girl Martine Beswicke stars as Xaviera now a best-selling author. And when Tinseltown comes calling with a less-than-savory offer for her book she flexes her independent spirit deciding to film the movie herself!

• Cover Girl | DVD | (18/08/2003) from £14.24   |  Saving you £-4.25 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Cover Girl was one of the big hits of Rita Hayworth's run as movie queen (and World War II pinup girl), a splashy musical geared to the talents of its redheaded star. Be warned: this is the kind of movie in which a single magazine cover turns an unknown dancer into the toast of her own Broadway show, virtually overnight. The corn runs high, but so do the spirits; plus, Eve Arden is around to toss in her trademark one-liners. Gene Kelly, as Hayworth's sulky choreographer and part-time boyfriend, stops the movie cold with his brilliant dance alongside his own reflection. The Jerome Kern-Ira Gershwin songs are middling, except for the lovely "Long Ago and Far Away". One number presents a parade of magazine cover girls come to life (great snapshot of an era). And check out the movie's hats: a parade of insane creations, perched uncertainly on many beautiful women's heads. --Robert Horton

• Tom, Dick and Harry | DVD | (28/02/2011) from £5.95   |  Saving you £7.04 (54.20%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Ginger Rogers stars in this sparkling comedy about a woman who just can't say no to marriage proposals! Janie is a somewhat dizzy and dreamy telephone operator who is going steady with Tom (George Murphy) an ambitious car salesman striving to fulfil the American Dream. But whilst Tom is proposing to her Janie is dreaming of being swept off her feet by a handsome millionaire. And despite accepting Tom's marriage proposal Janie leaps into dates with Harry (Burgess Meredith) an unambitious car mechanic whom she mistakes for a millionaire and Dick (Alan Marshal) a real millionaire playboy. But Janie can only marry one of her suitors...

• Carry On Follow That Camel | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £5.60   |  Saving you £4.39 (78.39%)   |  RRP £9.99

  In Carry On Follow That Camel, Sergeant Bilko himself, Phil Silvers, lends lustre and trademark spectacles to this 1967 desert spectacle following the adventures of a group of foreign legionnaires who find themselves besieged by a bloodthirsty band of Bedouins. Silvers plays Sergeant Nocker, a rogue cast firmly in the Bilko mould, who takes a dislike to new recruit Jim Dale, a young upper class gent forced to join the legion following disgrace at a cricket match. He's accompanied, naturally, by his faithful manservant (Peter Butterworth), with the pair showing a fine disregard for the austere requirements of the Foreign Legion. However, once they reach an agreement with Sergeant Nocker, they can join forces to repel the Bedouins, led, not unpredictably, by Bernard Bresslaw. This is vintage Carry On, in spite of Sid James' absence. Kenneth Williams' performance is subdued by having to deliver the usual puns ("zere are a couple of points I still need to go over", he informs busty Joan Sims) in a mangled French accent but Silvers gets into the right mode of delivering broad comedy with subtle inflections. Peter Butterworth draws the short straw this time and must feature in the obligatory cross-dressing scene, while Charles Hawtrey is a splendidly unconvincing hardened legionnaire. As for Bresslaw, can any other British actor, with the exception of Sir Alec Guinness, have distinguished himself in such a variety of multi-ethnic roles? On the DVD: Sadly, there are no extra features except scene selection. The picture ratio is 4:3. --David Stubbs

• Rita Hayworth: The Collection (Box Set) | DVD | (06/12/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  You Were Never Lovelier (1942) In this lavish Hollywood musical, the headstrong daughter (Hayworth) of a powerful Argentine hotelier has to contend with her father's attempts to get her to marry...; ; Cover Girl (1944) Rusty Parker (Hayworth), a red-headed leggy dancer at Danny McGuire's Night Club in Brooklyn, wants to be a successful Broadway star. She enters a contest to be a 'Cover Girl' as a stepping-stone in her career...; ; Gilda (1946) In the story of Gilda, Johnn...

• A Lady Takes A Chance | DVD | (31/05/2004) from £16.29   |  Saving you £-0.30 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  When New Yorker Molly Truesdale takes a bus tour of the West rodeo rider Duke Hudkins literally falls into her lap. It's love at first sight for Molly and she sets out to catch her cowboy! 'A Lady Takes A Chance' is vintage John Wayne available to buy for the first time in the UK.

• 100 Years Of Comedy | DVD | (01/09/2000) from £5.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  With the centennial of the invention of Motion Pictures comes a program with all the laughs that can be crammed into 100 minutes of non-stop merriment. Journey on a rip-roaring trip through the world of cinema comedy with the funniest moments in the history of Hollywood from the slapstick of the silents through the screwball comedies of the 1930s and '40s to the hi-jinks of Hollywood's most recent comedies. All the great movie comics are here from the great comic actors of the past to the laughmakers of today. Here are profiles of favorite comedy stars plus revealing looks at some of the 'forgotton' comics of the silent and talkie era. From past greats such as Laurel & Hardy The Marx Brothers and Buster Keaton through to modern day stars as Eddie Murphy Leslie Nielsen and Jim Carrey. Enjoy rare early movie comedy behind the scenes footage foreign film fun mockumentaries musical comedies and the unintentional hilarity of movies like Reefer Madness. 100 stars provide hundreds of laughs for a century's worth of a fun-filled film feast. This is one comedy kaleidoscope you'll watch again and again!