"Actor: Raymond"

• Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers | DVD | (27/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  You can't kill the bogeyman", the children insist to a terrorised Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) in the original Halloween. How right they are. Laurie is gone, but guess who's back in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers? Acting as if the third entry never existed, this instalment picks up 10 years after the original, with mad maniac Myers in a coma and moved to a new facility. But wouldn't you know it that as soon as a loose-lipped orderly lets slip that Myers has a surviving niece he springs back into action, leaving a bloody trail of corpses on the road to Haddonfield. Donald Pleasance returns as Dr Loomis, scarred and crippled from his last encounter with Myers and seething with a fanatical zeal to stop the freak from repeating his previous rampage. Pleasance is the best thing about the film as an ageing hero seemingly on the verge of madness who drags a bum leg in his manic rush to save little orphan Jamie (Danielle Harris), the 10-year-old waif terrorised by her homicidal uncle. Director Dwight Little has managed a generic if professional slasher picture, rife with improbabilities and dominated by a killer whose superhuman powers reach near-mystical dimensions, but he delivers the goods: shocks, stabs and cold, cruel killings. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

• It Happened at the World's Fair | Blu Ray | (22/06/2021) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• The Plumber | DVD | (01/01/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  There is evil hidden in every shadow... everyday things are not what they seem. One morning there is an unexpected knock on the door and Jilly opens it to a wild man who says he's 'the plumber'. So begins five days of mental torment that will change her life...

• 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

• Monty Python's Flying Circus - The Best Of Monty Python's Flying Circus - Vol. 1 | DVD | (04/10/1999) from £8.00   |  Saving you £11.99 (149.88%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The coming together of the influential Python team is regarded as a milestone for modern absurdist comedy, though each of the six members had been doing similar sketch work prior to this first 1969 series, of whose highlights this video consists. The most revolutionary aspect of Python was its eschewal of punch lines, preferring as they did bizarre, surreal links and quantum leaps into the imagination of animator Terry Gilliam. Inevitably, Python has dated. Sketches such as "The Upper Class Twit of the Year" and the "Wink-wink, nudge nudge" man are worn down by familiarity. There's some clunky stereotyping and "Oo, ducky"-style gay references. That said, much of this still stands up. "Hells Grannies" and the race to find the world's funniest joke are fine, the Eric Idle-driven documentary spoofs are witty while the Batley Townswomen's Guild's re-enactment of Pearl Harbour is intelligently ridiculous. John Cleese, however, stands literally and metaphorically head and shoulders above the rest. His and Chapman's sketches, involving a mountaineering expedition leader with double vision and an arts TV interviewer who can't get past the etiquette of how to refer to his guest ("Eddie baby...") are pursued to their absurd non-conclusions with the remorseless logic of a top-drawer barrister. --David Stubbs

• Space is the Place (Special Edition) (+ DVD) | Blu Ray | (14/06/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• PTU - Police Tactical Unit | DVD | (23/07/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Into the perilous night... Set against a TsimShaTsui that never sleeps a stolen police gun triggers a suspenseful chain of events. Tracking down the missing gun before dawn cop LO first gets his car vandalized then his butt kicked. Suddenly he is wedged between two gangs on the brink of bloodbath while staving off investigations by both the Anti-vice Squad and Homicidal Unit who are embroiled in their own turf war. His only lifeline is a maverick team of Police Tactical Un

• Hail The Conquering Hero | DVD | (30/01/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  When Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith is discharged from the Marines due to a hayfever condition he is reluctant to return home. However on the advice of some fellow marines Woodrow fabricates a story which elevates him to the status of war hero...

• Perry Mason - Series 2 | DVD | (14/09/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Raymond Burr stars as the defense attorney who never lost a case in the landmark series Perry Mason. In every episode Mason matches wits with his courtroom adversary D.A. Hamilton Burger (William Talman). Every time Mason - aided by devoted secretary Della Street (Barbara Hale) and loyal private eye Paul Drake (William Hopper) - uncovers evidence that clears his client of murder.

• Alexei Sayle's Stuff - Series 2 | DVD | (23/01/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  This DVD features complete second series of the popular Liverpudlian comedian in his pomp; a winning combination of Pythonesque surrealism and 'alternative' comedy philosophy honed with a satirical edge.

• Zombie Flesh Eaters 2 | DVD | (01/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Somewhere in South East Asia a cloud of toxic waste escapes from a nuclear power plant and quickly contaminates everything around. Immediately the military take charge and are faced by a growing army of contaminated people who die awful deaths and return as ferocious flesh eating zombies! The army goes ballistic and all hell breaks loose in this mad sequel to Lucio Fulci's Zombie Flesh Eaters which Fulci co-directed with an uncredited Bruno Mattei. Uncut.

• Paris When It Sizzles | DVD | (14/09/2009) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-10.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A veteran Hollywood screenwriter goes to Paris to write the screenplay of his career--in three days. Lacking fresh ideas he turns to his gamine secretary to provide fuel for his imagination and they come up with various scenarios for his screenplay called 'The Girl Who Stole The Eiffel Tower'. William Holden and Audrey Hepburn heat up the main characters with terrific supporting help from the likes of Frank Sinatra Noel Coward Tony Curtis Fred Astaire Marlene Dietrich and the glorious city of Paris.

• On The Beat / Man Of The Moment | DVD | (12/05/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In 1962's On the Beat, Norman Wisdom's Pitkin, the most famous incarnation of his riotous buffoon character, is dreaming of something better as usual. Pitkin wants to follow in his father's footsteps and become a policeman, but being decidedly on the short side, has to settle for washing police cars. Of course it's not long before Norman is impersonating an officer of the law. Wisdom also plays his nemesis here, the German General Schreiber, as well as the chief suspect in a series of jewel robberies which only Pitkin's chaotic antics can solve. Terence Alexander effectively reprises his character from The Square Peg (1958), and Wisdom regular David Lodge, previously seen costarring in The Bulldog Breed (1960), is also on hand, though otherwise the supporting cast is less stellar than before. By the time of 1955's Man of the Moment, Wisdom was firmly established as Britain's favourite movie comedian, his shy, helpful and good-natured "gump" character forever unintentionally causing catastrophe in the great tradition of Charlie Chaplin. However, while Chaplin ventured into politics in Modern Times (1936) for satirical purposes, when Norman's minor civil servant here accidentally becomes the UK delegate at a conference in Geneva the emphasis is on farce and pratfalls. The plot sees Norman sticking up for the rights of the fictional kingdom of Tawaki against less-than-honest government interests, while his new-found status brings the attention of the ladies, including the return of his Trouble in Store (1953) costar Lana Morris. Continuing his collaboration with veteran director John Paddy Carstairs, the film is a polished laughter machine that continues to entertain. --Gary S Dalkin

• The Black Torment | Blu Ray | (02/02/2015) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £21.99

  Heather Sears and Patrick Troughton star in this gothic British chiller! Sir Richard (John Turner) returns to his manor with a new bride - only to discover that a man matching his description has been slaying beautiful young women in the area; and his first wife’s ghost appears on the lawn and accuses Sir Richard of her murder.

• Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers | DVD | (05/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  You can't kill the bogeyman", the children insist to a terrorised Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) in the original Halloween. How right they are. Laurie is gone, but guess who's back in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers? Acting as if the third entry never existed, this instalment picks up 10 years after the original, with mad maniac Myers in a coma and moved to a new facility. But wouldn't you know it that as soon as a loose-lipped orderly lets slip that Myers has a surviving niece he springs back into action, leaving a bloody trail of corpses on the road to Haddonfield. Donald Pleasance returns as Dr Loomis, scarred and crippled from his last encounter with Myers and seething with a fanatical zeal to stop the freak from repeating his previous rampage. Pleasance is the best thing about the film as an ageing hero seemingly on the verge of madness who drags a bum leg in his manic rush to save little orphan Jamie (Danielle Harris), the 10-year-old waif terrorised by her homicidal uncle. Director Dwight Little has managed a generic if professional slasher picture, rife with improbabilities and dominated by a killer whose superhuman powers reach near-mystical dimensions, but he delivers the goods: shocks, stabs and cold, cruel killings. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

• The Best of Monty Python's Flying Circus Volumes 1-3 / Live in Aspen | DVD | (01/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Nudge-nudge wink-wink say no more... it's a 4 disc box set including a feast of Monty Python sketches such as The Dead Parrot Sketch The 127th Upperclass Twit of the Year Competition From Hurlingham Park Bicycle Repair Man Vicious Gangs of Old Ladies The Lumberjack Song The Man With Three Buttocks The Joke That Kills People The Bishop It's In The Mind Nobody Expects The Spanish Inquisition The Finals of the All-England Summarise Proust Competition The Fifteenth Ideal Loon Exhibition The Cheese Shop Sketch Stand and Deliver The Ministry of Silly Walks Whicker Island Sam Peckinpah's Salad Days... and many more!

• The Prisoner | DVD | (21/03/2005) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-7.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Two old pros light up the screen... British theatrical director Peter Glenville made his film directorial debut with 1955's The Prisoner (Glenville had previous helmed the London stage production of this Bridget Boland play). The film is based on the real-life travails of Hungarian Cardinal Mindszenty who after suffering under Nazi persecution was imprisoned by the new Communist regime for remaining loyal to his religious convictions. Alec Guinness plays an unnamed Cardinal in an un

• Lucky Break | DVD | (14/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  This new British comedy from "The Full Monty" director Peter Cattaneo stars Jimmy Nesbitt and Olivia Williams as an in-mate and a prison councillor whose unlikely romance blossoms behind bars.

• Meet Danny Wilson | DVD | (25/05/2009) from £12.13   |  Saving you £0.86 (6.60%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Frank Sinatra shines as a gifted but quick tempered up and coming lounge singer Danny Wilson who makes a meagre living singing in dive bars and hustling pool with best friend Mike Ryan (Alex Nicol). Even with a set of golden tonsils Easy Street isn't so easy for Danny to find. One night by chance they meet entertainer Joy Carroll (Shelley Winters) who gets them a job at gangster Nick Driscoll's well-to-do nightclub. But Nick (Raymond Burr) seeing the future potential in Danny's career wants a high price - 50% of all Danny's future earnings! Soon Danny's career takes off and with success comes love money and... complications! A messy love triangle emerges with Danny falling head over heels for Joy the club's star singer who in turn is smitten with his pianist and best friend Mike. Directed by Joseph Pevney (Flesh and Fury Man of a Thousand Faces) and starring Frank Sinatra (Ocean's Eleven The Manchurian Candidate) OSCAR'' winning actress Shelley Winters (Lolita The Night of the Hunter) and the Emmy'' award winning Raymond Burr (Rear Window Perry Mason) the film also includes cameo appearances from Tony Curtis and Jeff Chandler. Meet Danny Wilson is a classic musical drama containing a wonderful range of Sinatra standards such as (I Got A Woman Crazy For Me) She's Funny That Way That Old Black Magic When You're Smiling (The Whole World Smiles With You) All of Me I've Got a Crush on You How Deep is the Ocean? and more.

• The Beverly Hillbillies - 4 Classic Episodes - Vol. 2 - The Clampetts Strike Oil / Getting Settled | DVD | (06/06/2005) from £4.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Four episodes from the Beverly Hillbillies television comedy are featured on this DVD. The episodes included are: The Clampets Strike Oil Getting Settled Meanwhile Back at the Cabin and The Servants.