"Actor: Robinson"

• Alien Species | DVD | (13/10/2003) from £5.39   |  Saving you £-0.40 (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  A group of scientists employed by multi-national drugs company Earthtek are nearing the end of their two and a half year isolation five miles below the surface of the planet. In his quest for the perfection of their DNA experiments a radical young scientist working on a hidden agenda from the rest of the group unleashes a near immortal organism a hostile being capable of instant regeneration. With the lab's life support systems about to shut down the five scientists face their longest day five miles down with five minutes to live.

• Jancis Robinson - Wine! | DVD | (19/11/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  For amateur wine enthusiasts, Jancis Robinson’s 1995 BBC series Wine, covering the length and breadth of the viticulture industry, was a landmark event. Robinson’s mission was to strip away the mystique and pretentiousness surrounding wine production and consumption. This created a marvellously accessible piece of reportage which placed all the good things about wine drinking in the context of a radically changing world where small producers are an endangered species. "Wine is the liquid expression of a person and a place", she says, leaving you in no doubt about her own passion for her subject. But Robinson, an excellent television presenter in this age of mediocre all-purpose talking heads, balances her own expert knowledge with dry humour (Sauvignon Blanc is gently derided for its "reek of cat’s pee on a gooseberry bush"), cynicism and strong opinions. She tells of the political intrigues, superstitions and climactic conditions which shape the nature of the world’s most popular alcoholic beverage in all its forms. Character by character, region by region, grape by grape, she unravels a tale which has more than its share of dark and sinister moments. Endlessly fascinating. On the DVD: this is what genuinely interactive DVD viewing is all about. The picture quality is so-so and the sound quality erratic. But the extras add up to a veritable mini-encyclopaedia, cross-referencing regions, maps, hints and tips on the right wine for the right food, tasting and culture. Some take you to the appropriate section of the documentary, others provide static on-screen reference material. During the course of the programmes themselves, icons allow you to dip in and out of extra information about regions and labels. A comprehensive package, not unlike the redoubtable Jancis Robinson herself.--Piers Ford

• Scarlet Street | DVD | (17/11/2003) from £11.80   |  Saving you £-6.81 (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  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. But this time around, all three characters have moved several notches down the ethical scale. Robinson, who in the earlier film played a college professor who kills by accident, here becomes a downtrodden clerk with a nagging, shrewish wife and unfilled ambitions as an artist, a man who murders in a jealous rage. Bennett is a mercenary vamp, none too bright, and Duryea brutal and heartless. 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. When it was made the film hit censorship problems, since at the time it was unacceptable to show a murder going unpunished. Lang went out of his way to show the killer plunged into the mental hell of his own guilt, but for some authorities this still wasn't enough, and the film was banned in New York State for being "immoral, indecent and corrupt". Not that this did its box-office returns any harm at all. On the DVD: sparse pickings. There's an interactive menu that zips past too fast to be of much use. The full-length commentary by Russell Cawthorne adds the occasional insight, but it's repetitive and not always reliable. (He gets actors' names wrong, for a start.) The box claims the print's been "fully restored and digitally remastered", but you'd never guess. --Philip Kemp

• Ninja USA | DVD | (06/08/2007) from £8.49   |  Saving you £-2.50 (-41.70%)   |  RRP £5.99

  The Super Ninja takes on his deadliest enemy. The spellbinding Alexander Lou is back as the ever-popular masked avenger in this action-packed adventure! When a beautiful young bride is kidnapped by an evil drug cartel kingpin her groom (Lou) who just happens to be a top-notch undercover Ninja vows to take matters into his own hands - and blades!!

• 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 Tough Guys Collection - Bullets Or Ballots/San Quentin/A Slight Case Of Murder | DVD | (28/08/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £20.99

  Bullets Or Ballots: After Police Captain Dan McLaren becomes police commissioner former detective Johnny Blake knocks him down convincing rackets boss Al Kruger that Blake is sincere in his effort to join the mob. ""Buggs"" Fenner thinks Blake is a police agent. San Quentin: Do the crime do the time. But what happens during the long years spent behind the walls of San Quentin? The penitentiary's new yard captain wants to make those years a time of rehabilitation rather than punishment. But not everyone's buying it. Humphrey Bogart portrays Red continuing his climb to stardom in this brisk film that's one of a string of Depression-era works combining gangster-movie elements with a Big House setting. Studio mainstay Pat O'Brien plays Steve Jameson whose carrot-and-stick reforms begin to change Red's thinking. An inmates' strike and a scripture-quoting con who swipes a rifle are among the troubles Jameson faces- and Red is another as he reverts to his old ways and makes a violent break for freedom. A Slight Case Of Murder: A breakneck-paced comedy starring Edward G. Robinson as a tough but good-hearted bootlegger. When Prohibition is repealed Robinson faces a financial crisis: His beer tastes so awful that no one wants to drink it legally. As an additional headache Robinson is under scrutiny from the Law which is waiting to slip the cuffs on him for the slightest infraction. He arrives at his rented Saratoga mansion with his wife (Ruth Donnelly) daughter (Jane Bryan) and adopted son (Bobby Jordan) only to discover that a killer has left four corpses in his bedroom. Robinson and his stooges are forced to hide the bodies before his future son-in-law (Willard Parker) who happens to be a cop tumbles to the dilemma. Based on a stage play by Howard Lindsay and Damon Runyon.

• Triangle (1970) All Region | DVD | (07/09/2009) from £17.53   |  Saving you £-4.54 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A bisexual novelist accepts a teaching job from his wealthy aunt who runs a private girls school.He is torn between his feelings for one of his colleagues and a student. This once controversial movie from 1970 is presented on DVD for the first time.

• Standing Room Only | DVD | (16/02/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Three live concerts from Grove Washington (1990) Smokey Robinson (1990) and Ray Charles (1999) in one box set!

• Art Made Easy For Kids | DVD | (22/11/2004) from £25.90   |  Saving you £-5.91 (-29.60%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Patricia Robinson began her fine art training at the age of twelve and went on to study at St. Martin's in London and the Beaux Arts and the Grande Chaumiere in Paris. She then taught at the prestgious Royal College of Art in London working alongside leading British Artists. Thousands of children and hundreds of teachers have found these programs energizing easy to teach and easy to learn. This DVD contains eight separate tutorials designed to teach kids the basics of art: 1.

• Drive-In Movie Memories | DVD | (14/03/2011) from £20.08   |  Saving you £-0.09 (-0.50%)   |  RRP £19.99

  What began as an auto parts owner's business venture to make some easy money accidentally became a magical place where romance, fun and a sense of community flourished. This film chronicles the drive-in's birth and development, its phenomenal popularity with audiences of all ages, its tragic decline, and its inevitable comeback as a classic form of Americana. Described by Variety as 'slick and entertaining,' Drive-In Movie Memories includes photos and footage from the mid-1930s until ...

• Smokey Robinson - The Very Best Of - In Concert | DVD | (18/10/2004) from £29.99   |  Saving you £-14.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Recorded at the Desert Inn in Las Vegas in July 1992 Smokey Robinson Live showcases one of Motown's greatest talents. In this intimate concert Smokey Robinson performs his UK number one hits Tears Of A Clown and Being With You together with his trademark romantic ballads and up tempo party tunes. Tracklist: I Want A Love I Can See The Way You Do The Things You Do It's Growing Since I Lost My Baby Don't Look Back Get Ready My Girl Save The Best For Last More Love Tears Of A Clown Being With You Shop Around Intro And Vamping Shop Around I Second That Emotion Really Got A Hold On Me Ooh Baby Baby More Than You Know Double Good Everything I Love Your Face Rewind Tracks of My Tears Just To See Her Going To A Go Go.

• Stranger, The / Orson Welles On Film | DVD | (01/11/2000) from £7.54   |  Saving you £-3.55 (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

• King Richard II | DVD | (09/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The tragedy of a self-centred king whose treachery causes his own destruction. King Richard II was an inept and incompetent monarch who could not fend off his enemies in Ireland without the unity and support of his English noblemen. Yet he makes an enemy of the influential Bolingbroke his own cousin by seizing his property. Bolingbroke leading an army of discontented English noblemen rebels against Richard who succumbs and is imprisoned where he meets his death as Bolingbroke is

• Macbeth | DVD | (01/08/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Macbeth, one of William Shakespeare's finest works, is the tragedy of a king so blinded by ambition and paranoia that he senselessly murders those in his path, eventually leading to his own demise.

• Tom Robinson - Bedrock Live | DVD | (26/05/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £8.99

  Tom Robinson in concert recorded in Nottingham 1991 performing some of the best of his work. Tracklist: Number One Protection Winter Of '89 You Gotta Survive Rigging It Up Duncannon Green Green Green Green Green Blood Brother Glad To Be Gay War Baby 2 4 6 8 Motorway Up Against The Wall Power In The Darkness.

• Braveheart | DVD | (04/11/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A stupendous historical saga, Braveheart won five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for star Mel Gibson. He plays William Wallace, a 13th-century Scottish commoner who unites the various clans against a cruel English King, Edward the Longshanks (Patrick McGoohan). The scenes of hand-to-hand combat are brutally violent, but they never glorify the bloodshed. There is such enormous scope to this story that it works on a smaller, more personal scale as well, essaying love and loss, patriotism and passion. Extremely moving, it reveals Gibson as a multitalented performer and remarkable director with an eye for detail and an understanding of human emotion. (His first directorial effort was 1993's Man Without a Face.) The film is nearly three hours long and includes several plot tangents, yet is never dull. This movie resonates long after you have seen it, both for its visual beauty and for its powerful story. --Rochelle O'Gorman

• The Tami TNT Show - Rock 1964/1965 | DVD | (17/05/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £21.99

  In 1964 and 1965 thirteen of the top teenage recording acts were assembled for two spectacular shows: now they're here together in one red-hot rock n' roll extravaganza! 1. Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode Maybeline Sweet Little Sixteen Nadine 2. Gerry And The Pacemakers - Maybeline 3. Bo Diddley - Hey Bo Diddley Bo Diddley 4. Smokey Robinson And The Miracles - That's What Love Is Made Of You Really Got A Hold On Me Mickey's Monkey 5. The Ronettes - Be My Baby Shout 6. Mar

• 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.

• Crossing The Line | DVD | (17/05/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Laura a former basketball star is forced to coach her local team when their coach suffers a heart attack. The team continue to lose under Laura's direction and the fans begin to become violently involved with the games. As the arguments and violence start to get out of hand the girls find themselves teaching everyone a lesson in sportsmanship...

• 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