"Actor: Richard Barthelmess"

• Only Angels Have Wings (1939) | DVD | (01/10/2018) from £11.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Cary Grant, Jean Arthur and Rita Hayworth star in this classic drama directed by Howard Hawks. As the San Luis ship docks into the port of Barranca to deliver supplies, cabaret singer Bonnie Lee (Arthur) seizes the opportunity to take a look around. While exploring the town she meets a group of American pilots who risk their lives on a daily basis to fly cargo planes over the Andes. As Bonnie gets to know pilot Geoff (Grant) and sparks between them fly, Geoff faces the difficult decision of whether to commit to his new love, giving up his one passion in life: his job.

• Only Angels Have Wings | Blu Ray | (18/04/2016) from £17.73   |  Saving you £10.26 (57.87%)   |  RRP £27.99

  Hands down, Only Angels Have Wings is one of the most buoyantly entertaining movies in the American cinema. It is also a razor-sharp example of the action-oriented films of Howard Hawks, the wide-ranging auteur who would go on to make To Have and Have Not and Red River. This one is set in Barranca, a South American port city swathed in perpetual night fog, where a band of mail pilots struggle daily to get their planes through a treacherous mountain pass. They don't care about the mail so much as they live by the rules of adventure, professionalism and friendly rivalry. Cary Grant is the leader of this daredevil group, a man who won't be pinned down to anything except his own code of stoicism. ("I don't believe in laying in a supply of anything" he says, which may be why he's always asking people for matches to light his cigarettes.) His cool style is tested by the arrival of a wisecracking blonde (Jean Arthur) and an ex-mistress (Rita Hayworth); Rita's now married to a pilot (Richard Barthelmess), disgraced by a single act of cowardice. Hawks always got great mileage from throwing a bunch of colourful characters together in an enclosed space, where death could strike in a moment. The great secret about Hawks is that although his feel for action was crackling, he was really more interested in the way people exchanged sidelong glances or lit each other's cigarettes--there's a lot of both in Only Angels Have Wings. --Robert Horton

• Only Angels Have Wings | DVD | (10/01/2005) from £8.49   |  Saving you £-2.50 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Available for the first time on DVD! Thrilling As Love Born Amid A Thousand Fabulous Adventures! A tale of adventure and excitement directed by Howard Hawks. The story focuses on a pilot who delivers mail to remote locations by plane. But when a showgirl sets her sights on him he discovers that some women can be more dangerous than flying solo over the Andes...

• The Spoilers (John Wayne) | DVD | (05/06/2006) from £5.34   |  Saving you £4.65 (87.08%)   |  RRP £9.99

  In Nome Alaska miner Roy Glennister and his partner Dextry financed by saloon entertainer Cherry Malotte fight to save their gold claim from crooked commissioner Alexander McNamara.

• Broken Blossoms | DVD | (16/10/2001) from £26.98   |  Saving you £-6.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A Chinese man visits London in the hope that he can bring the message of Buddha to others. He falls in love with the daughter of a prize fighter and cares for her when she is beaten. Their friendship is to prove fateful... Silent with the original 1919 orchestral score by Louis F. Gottschalk.

• D.W. Griffith - Monumental Epics | DVD | (24/06/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  There’s little doubt that much of what we now take for granted about cinema owes much to the vision of director D W Griffith. Monumental Epics collects five of his most influential silent masterpieces. The Birth of a Nation (1915) is also the birth of the epic film. Made to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the American Civil War this provocative film unflinchingly shows the humiliation of Southern culture, the "heroism" of the Ku Klux Klan, and links the Union and Confederacy by a common Aryan birthright. All of which has to be viewed in its period context if it is to be viewed at all. Intolerance (1916) is film-making of epic complexity. Human intolerance is related through a modern tale of wrongful conviction, intercut by three stories from Babylonian, Judean, and French history to point up the issue through the ages. The intricacy of the intercutting is breathtaking even now, but those as confused as the first audiences evidently were can opt to see each story separately. Sensitively tinted, this is Griffith's finest three hours. Broken Blossoms (1919) has Griffith venturing into domestic melodrama. Although there's a clear moral to be drawn from this tale of compassion in the face of ignorance and brutality, neither the over-acting of Lillian Gish and Donald Crisp, nor the vein of sentimentality that creeps into their characters' relationship allow the viewer to forget the period-piece nature of the film. Here an appropriately expressive musical score helps keep viewing at an attentive level. Way Down East (1920) shows Griffith moving from the epic to the personal, though still on a large scale. The combining of old-style melodrama with latter-day female emancipation is tellingly brought off, and Lillian Gish excels as the country girl used and abused by male society, until "rescued" by a farmer of true moral scruples. Unconvinced? Then go straight to the climactic snowstorm and ice floe sequences--Eisenstein et al are inconceivable without this as trailblazer. Abraham Lincoln (1930) marked Griffith's entry into the talkie era. Tautly directed, it offers a historically accurate account of the 16th US President's rise to power and his visionary outlook on American society. Civil War scenes are implied rather than enacted, and its Walter Huston's robust yet understated acting that carries the day, with sterling support from Una Merkel as Ann Rutledge and Hobart Bosworth as General Lee. On the DVD: Stylishly packaged, restoration and digital remastering has been carried out to Eureka's usual high standard, and the 4:3 aspect ratio has commendable clarity. Birth of a Nation has Joseph Carl Breil's original orchestral score and a pithy "making of" film by Russell Merritt. Intolerance contains a useful rolling commentary and a great wurlitzer soundtrack too. Way Down East includes a commentary. Abraham Lincoln also has a commentary, though Hugo Riesenfeld's score often verges on the mawkish. Overall this set is a must for anyone remotely interested in film as a living medium.--Richard Whitehouse

• John Wayne In Action | DVD | (15/11/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  A collection of action films starring the legendary John Wayne. Films comprise: 1. The Spoilers 2. Tycoon 3. Wake of the Red Witch 4. The Conqueror 5. The Magnificent Showman 6. Hellfighters

• Way Down East | DVD | (07/05/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Way Down East was the most successful film of the 1920s, even more so than the original versions of Ben-Hur or The Ten Commandments. That says much about tastes and values of the day, since this is no visually spectacular epic designed to wow audiences: director DW Griffith gave it the subtitle "A Simple Story of Plain People". The story follows impoverished New England country girl Anna Moore (Lillian Gish) to Boston in search of family aid. Instead she's duped into a fake marriage by playboy Lennox Sanderson (Lowell Sherman). Pregnancy forces Sanderson to abandon her to care for the child alone, which dies soon after birth. The disgrace sends her back into the countryside to work for Squire Bartlett, whose son David (Richard Barthelmess) begins to fall for her. But the dreadful secret threatens to be revealed, since the dastardly Sanderson turns out to be their neighbour. Themes of loyalty and social change come to a head for a thrilling finale. Amazing stunt work occurs on a frozen river's ice sheets that break up, dashing an unconscious Anna toward a waterfall. Populated by eccentric cameo roles, this view of 1920s' life is a far more fascinating exploration of the contemporary female than the novel or disastrous stage play that preceded it. On the DVD: Naturally a movie from 1920 is in mono and 4:3 ratio (which is effectively the old Academy standard ratio). But with subtle colour tints and using a musical score from its 1931 reissue, it still looks pretty good. Only a few reels have suffered damage (eg some heat blisters), otherwise film historian David Shepard's restoration job is commendable. The only extra is an essay on the history of the film which scrolls up the screen as an introduction. --Paul Tonks

• DW Griffith Collection | DVD | (20/03/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Avenging Conscience:Nightmarish visions of ghouls and devils highlight this D.W. Griffith silent feature based around Edgar Allen Poe's The Telltale Heart and Annabelle Lee. A young man (Henry B. Walthall) finds himself prevented from wooing the girl he loves (Blanche Sweet) due to the tyrannical edicts of his mean old uncle (Spottiswoode Aitken). The poor lad becomes haunted by a series of visions that convince him to murder this interfering relative. After the murder has been planned and executed the man finds himself haunted by still more visions this time of the fire and brimstone variety. An inquiring detective (Ralph Lewis) adds to the ever-mounting paranoia. Birth Of A Nation: The first part of the film chronicles the Civil War as experienced through the eyes of two families; the Stonemans from the North and the Camerons of the South. Lifelong friends they become divided by the Mason-Dixon line with tragic results. Large-scale battle sequences and meticulous historical details culminate with a staged re-creation of Lincoln's assassination. The second half of the film chronicles the Reconstruction as Congressman Austin Stoneman (Ralph Lewis) puts evil Silas Lynch (George Siegmann) in charge of the liberated slaves at the Cameron hometown of Piedmont. Armed with the right to vote the freed slaves cause all sorts of trouble until Ben Cameron (Henry B. Walthall) founds the Ku Klux Klan and restores order and decency to the troubled land. While The Birth Of A Nation was a major step forward in the history of filmmaking it must be noted that the film supports a racist worldview. Broken Blossoms: This strangely beautiful silent film from D.W. Griffith is also one of his more grim efforts; an indictment of child abuse and the violence of western society. An idealistic Asian (Richard Barthelemess) travels to the west in hopes of spreading the Buddha's message of peace to the round-eyed sons of turmoil and strife. Instead he winds up a disillusioned opium-smoking shopkeeper in London's squalid Limehouse District. Down the street a poor waif (Lillian Gish) suffers horrific abuse at the hands of her boxer father (Donald Crisp). When fortune delivers the battered girl into the Asian's tender care a strange and beautiful love blossoms between them a love far too fragile to survive their brutal environment. Intolerance: D.W. Griffith's biggest most ambitious spectacle uses stories from different times and places to illustrate humanity's intolerance of religious differences throughout the ages. The most visually impressive of these chronicles is the fall of Babylon for which Griffith built the largest sets in Hollywood and filled them with thousands of extras; there's also Christ's crucifixion and the massacre of the Heugenots in 15th century France. The most emotionally involving tale is the modern one about a poor girl (Mae Marsh) whose life is repeatedly ruined by the zealotry of social reformers. The image of a mother (Lillian Gish) rocking her child in a cradle links the stories. At one point angels reach down from heaven to stop soldiers in midbattle making it clear that Griffith intended this follow-up to The Birth Of A Nation as a message of global peace and love Way Down East: Innocent Anna is sent by her poverty-stricken mother to visit rich relations in Boston where she is seduced into a sham marriage by a smooth-talking scoundrel. When she becomes pregnant he abandons her; later the baby dies. Now a social outcast she changes her name and eventually finds shelter at the estate of the sternly religious Squire Bartlett. She falls in love with his handsome son but cannot divulge to him her terrible secret for fear of his father's righteous

• The Spoilers | DVD | (07/02/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  In Nome Alaska miner Roy Glennister and his partner Dextry financed by saloon entertainer Cherry Malotte fight to save their gold claim from crooked commissioner Alexander McNamara.