"Actor: Raymond Greenleaf"

• Birdman Of Alcatraz | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £8.18   |  Saving you £7.81 (95.48%)   |  RRP £15.99

  How does bitter convict Robert Stroud cope with a lifetime of solitary confinement? The answer in a sense comes from above in the form of a feeble sparrow he finds in the isolation yard. Stroud brings this newfound companion to his cell nurses it to health and from that point on there's no turning back. Despite having only a third grade education and no hope of parole Stroud becomes a renowned ornithologist and achieves a greater sense of freedom and purpose behind prison walls

• All The King's Men | DVD | (09/07/2001) from £9.54   |  Saving you £10.45 (109.54%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Best Picture Oscar in 1949 went to All the King's Men, a hard-hitting political melodrama that will strike any number of eerily familiar chords with audiences weaned on later American politics: from the Kennedys to Nixon, Bill Clinton and beyond, US politicians obviously haven't changed much in the intervening decades. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, this grittily realistic movie charts the rise and fall of Willie Stark (Broderick Crawford in an Oscar-winning role), a hick lawyer whose ideals are inexorably eroded by his relentless pursuit of power. When we first meet him, Stark is the people's champion, a struggling self-taught advocate who isn't afraid to speak out against "graft". Although inspired by the real-life story of Louisiana Governor Huey Pierce Long, All the King's Men also parallels the much later Primary Colors (1998), which is itself a thinly disguised portrait of Bill Clinton's presidential campaign. Like that movie, this one tells the tale from the point of view of a young idealist (John Ireland) who succumbs to the fledgling politician's charm and joins his campaign team. There he meets cynical aide Sadie Burke (Mercedes McCambridge, in another Oscar-winning role) and together they connive at and excuse every increasingly corrupt move made in the name of political expediency, until matters get dangerously out of hand after the governor's son kills his girlfriend in a drunk-driving incident (a spooky premonition of Chappaquidick?). The performances are all top-notch, as is the fast-paced screenplay and direction from Robert Rossen (later director of The Hustler in 1961). Less idealistic than Capra's Mr Smith Goes to Washington, this is a movie ahead of its time which still has plenty to say about the state of modern politics, American or otherwise. --Mark Walker

• For The Love Of Mary | DVD | (04/04/2011) from £5.83   |  Saving you £7.16 (122.81%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A perkyt switchboard operator for the White House makes not one but three love connections and her attampts to keep each Romeo on the line leads to alot of crossed wires....

• Wild In The Country | DVD | (14/02/2005) from £7.76   |  Saving you £2.23 (28.74%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Elvis Presley stars as a rebellious backwoods delinquent gifted with a rare literary talent. Hope Lange is the sympathetic psychiatrist who tries to help him while Tuesday Weld and Millie Perkins round out an all-star cast as his seductive cousin and childhood sweetheart. This is Elvis at his untamed bad-boy best!