"Actor: S"

• LA POISON | DVD | (25/02/2013) from £19.99   |  Saving you £-2.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  One of the great late period films by Sacha Guitry - the total auteur who delighted (and scandalised) the French public and inspired the French New Wave as a model for authorship as director-writer-star of screen and stage alike. In every one of his pictures (and almost every one served as a rueful examination of the war between the sexes), Guitry sculpted by way of a rapier wit - one might say by way of the Guitry touch - some of the most sophisticated black comedies ever conceived... and La Poison [Poison] is one of his blackest. Michel Simon plays Paul Braconnier, a man with designs on murdering his wife Blandine (Germaine Reuver) - a woman with similar designs on her husband. When Braconnier visits Paris to consult with a lawyer about the perfect way of killing a spouse - that is, the way in which he can get away with it - an acid comedy unfolds that reaches its peak in a courtroom scene for the ages. From the moment of Guitry's trademark introduction of his principals in the opening credits, and on through the brilliant performance by national treasure Michel Simon (of Renoir's Boudu sauve des eaux and Vigo's L'Atalante, to mention only two high-water marks), here is fitting indication of why Guitry is considered by many the Gallic equal of Ernst Lubitsch. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to introduce Sacha Guitry into the catalogue with La Poison for the first time on video in the UK in a dazzling new Gaumont restoration. Special Features: Newly translated optional subtitles Substantial booklet containing writing on the film, vintage excerpts, and rare archival imagery

• Bad Habits | DVD | (04/12/2006) from £8.99   |  Saving you £9.00 (100.11%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Nothing is quite what it seems in this early Almodovar comedy in which the unconventional nuns of a dilapidated Madrid convent write soft porn get high and still find time to design fabulous evening wear!

• Wristcutters - A Love Story | DVD | (26/05/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  From the moment Zia (Patrick Fugit) cuts his wrists and enters a bizarre afterlife reserved for suicides, this film becomes a strangely uplifting, darkly comic tale about a journey through the hereafter.

• Stroszek | DVD | (15/11/2004) from £14.46   |  Saving you £2.53 (17.50%)   |  RRP £16.99

  After being released from prison Berlin street musician Bruno Stroszek (Bruno S.) finds himself lost in a world where he simply doesn't belong. So along with his prostitute girlfriend (Eva Mattes) and an eccentric neighbour (Clemens Scheitz) Stroszek moves to America where he's told everyone is rich. It doesn't take long however after moving into a mobile home and taking a job as a mechanic for Stroszek to realise that the streets of Railroad Flats Wisconsin aren't paved with

• Avalanche | DVD | (05/05/2003) from £13.47   |  Saving you £-7.48 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A father and his two children struggle to escape certain death after an avalanche entombs their remote mountain cabin. A suspicious plane crash higher up in the mountains has caused the avalanche and swept the lone survivor a dangerous smuggler up against one of the buried cabin's windows. The unsuspecting family pull the stranger into the cabin and revive him. While the cabin slowly and dangerously buckles under the tremendous weight of the avalanche the smuggler forces his rescuers to abandon their escape plans and assist him in finding his stolen cache of diamonds. Time is running out all will surely die in this icy tomb if not from the collapsing cabin then from a bullet fired from the pistol of the cold-hearted stranger.

• King Of Bandit Jing - Vol. 1 - Episodes 1 To 4 | DVD | (19/01/2004) from £15.90   |  Saving you £4.09 (25.72%)   |  RRP £19.99

  No priceless bauble or exquisite jewel is safe from the leering eyes and stealthy hands of Jing the King of Bandits. With a heart of gold and girl-crazy albatross sidekick Kir Jing steals his way through one exciting adventure after another! The Capital Of Thieves: The notorious Capital Of Thieves is home to the fabled Double Mermaids a treasure under guard by the city's evil mayor: Jing will do anything to retreive the prize but this jewel isn't quite what everyone expe

• Happy Campers | DVD | (15/07/2002) from £13.30   |  Saving you £7.95 (66.03%)   |  RRP £19.99

  After the camp director is injured a group of freshman counsellors take charge and make radical and rude changes to the everyday routine...

• Handel - Agrippina (Malgoire, Grande Ecurie, Chambre Du Roy) | DVD | (12/07/2004) from £27.29   |  Saving you £-2.30 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Agrippina was staged for the first time in late December 1709 - or possibly at the beginning of 1710 - at Venice's Teatro San Grisostomo and met with enormous success as testified by twenty-seven following performances a record number even for 18th-century standards. Agrippina's triumph sanctioned Handel's definitive investiture as an operatic composer. After nearly 300 years this opera appears as a masterpiece of 18th-century music and an innovative work considering that when Handel composed it he was just twenty-four years old. The composer's melodic creativity and sense of theatre are quite remarkable. The cast conducted by Jean-Claude Malgoire includes Vronique Gens in the title role.

• Fascination | DVD | (24/01/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A pair of society women dressed in all their finery stand in the middle of an abattoir, animal carcasses hanging behind them and blood splashed across the floor. Giggling and fidgeting, they drink their prescribed glass of ox blood. The startling, unreal image of high-society manners in the midst of gore and death pitches Jean Rollin's 1979 feature Fascination into a turn-of-the-century culture come unhinged. When a well-dressed rogue, fleeing from angry partners he double-crossed, takes refuge in a lavish, moat-protected mansion, servant girls Franca Mai and Brigitte Lahaie cajole, tease and seduce him into staying for their night-time soiree. "You have stumbled into Elizabeth and Eva's life, the universe of madness and death", mutters one of them as they await the cabal where he is the guest of honour. Shot on a starvation budget and populated with stiff performers, Rollin's direction is arch and at times sloppy and his story never more than an outline. It's the mix of dreamy and nightmarish imagery that gives Fascination its fascination: blonde Lahaie stalking victims with a scythe, the bourgeois blood cult swarming over a fresh victim like wild animals, alabaster faces streaked in blood. While it lacks the delirious spontaneity of his earlier vampire films Shiver of the Vampires and Requiem for a Vampire, the languid pace and austere beauty creates an often-mesmerising fantasy. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

• Handel: Messiah | Blu Ray | (04/01/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• A Haunting at Cypress Creek | DVD | (03/08/2015) from £6.02   |  Saving you £8.97 (149.00%)   |  RRP £14.99

  When Jordan and her friends decide they need a weekend away, they head towards Cypress Creek and sneak into an isolated cabin on the lookout for adventure. As the lone moon rises in the dark sky, the temperature suddenly drops and all goes silent. Wondering if they are not alone, the girls stumble across an abandoned, bloodied doll and start to believe they are being watched. Spooky objects, loud creaking and the unexplained echoes of a baby crying get louder and louder as the friends realise there is a place where evil resides... The question quickly becomes: who has been possessed, and who is still alive?

• Offenbach: La Belle Helene -- Paris/Minkowski | DVD | (03/12/2001) from £11.02   |  Saving you £15.23 (156.05%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Jacques Offenbach's 19th century parody of life under the yoke of Napoleon III, La Belle Hélène, has always seemed as tongue-in-cheek as the material could go. This new staging from the Théâtre Musical de Paris' 2000 season proves you can always go further. As if the social comment and knowing musical allusions (eg: Wagner's Tannhäuser) weren't enough, now via director Lauren Pelly's imagination Helen (Dame Felicity Lott) becomes a modern sexually frustrated woman dreaming the entire scenario. In her dream she is singled out as the most beautiful woman on Earth (prompting vain delusions to rival Snow White's wicked stepmother) as reward for Pâris (Yann Beuron) choosing Venus as most beautiful Goddess off Earth. Act 1 takes place in the bedroom and bed of Helen and ineffectual husband/king Ménélas (Michel Sénéchal). Here the fusion of costumes worn by High Priest Calchas (François Le Roux) seems incongruous until the archaeological dig setting of Act 2 turns everything into a dream. From then on, the analogy of bed as throne, the sheep costumes and male and female swimsuit parade followed by synchronised stage "swimming" of Act 3 all take on greater significance. Les Musicians du Louvre give a tremendous performance under Marc Minkowski's baton (which you often see popping into frame), particularly in the centrepiece duet between Lott and Beuron for their "Dream of Love". Contemporary makeovers of opera often lose sight of the original's intentions, but this update certainly preserves the spirit of Offenbach's vision. On the DVD: A choice of Stereo, Dolby 5.1 or DTS is a testament to the careful staging of this production, as is the video's multi-camera edit. In fact, the 25-minute behind-the-scenes documentary reveals the DVD was conceived as part of the staging. Four interviews make this a most welcome supplement, with Dame Lott having the most to say. --Paul Tonks

• Dr Jeckyll`s Mistress | DVD | (09/10/2017) from £6.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Melissa a student at college in Austria is invited to spend the festive season at the impressive castle of her uncle Dr Conrad Fisherman. What she finds on arrival, however, is a mood of peculiar solemnity and ambient menace. Her aunt, Ingrid seems to have been driven mad, and her uncle acts suspicious. A photo of her father, who died before she was born, sets off her curiosity still further. But terror is unleashed when she discovers that her uncle has reanimated her father and is using him as a undead killer...

• Pardon My Sarong / Who Done It | DVD | (28/08/2006) from £15.20   |  Saving you £-5.21 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Pardon My Sarong: Bud and Lou play a couple of bus drivers who quickly get in trouble. Who Done It?: The stooges are private detectives looking for a missing millionaire. They wander around the millionaire's spooky mansion confronting various crooks and a dangerous dame. The stooges vanquish the crooks (Shemp uses his ""trusty shovel"") and find the missing man.

• One Man Force | DVD | (05/09/2002) from £4.99   |  Saving you £-1.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  Detective Jake Swan does things by the book - his book. But when a drug bust he plans results in his partner's death Jake goes on a rampage that ends in his suspension from the force and a quick slide into booze and guilty depression.

• Casablanca 80th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition with Steelbook | Blu Ray | (07/11/2022) from £100.81   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman light up the screen in one of the most enduring romances in movie history. At his Moroccan nightclub, cynic Rick Blaine (Bogart) turns a blind eye to the misery of WWII until his former lover, Ilsa Lund (Bergman), walks through the door, forcing Rick to choose between a life with the woman he loves or becoming the hero she needs. Product Features 3-Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition Includes: Steelbook Rigid Slipcase 32-Page Vintage Pressbook 2-Sided Poster 7 Art Card Reproductions: 3 Lobby Cards, 3 Location/Blueprint Sketches, Letter of Transit Custom Envelope Special Features: Introduction by Lauren Bacall Two Separate Commentaries: Roger Ebert and Film Historian Rudy Behlmer Also on Blu-ray: Michael Curtiz: The Greatest Director You Never Heard Of Casablanca: An Unlikely Classic Warner Night at the Movies Great Performances: Bacall on Bogart You Must Remember This: A Tribute to Casablanca As Time Goes By: The Children Remember Deleted Scenes Outtakes Cartoons Audio-Only Scoring Stage Sessions 19/11/47 Vox Pop Radio Broadcast Theatrical Trailers Added Bonus Disc: You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story The Brothers Warner Jack L. Warner: The Last Mogul Documentary And More

• The Desperate Hours | DVD | (06/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Director William Wyler's suspense classic marks the only time cinema giants Humphrey Bogart and Fredric March worked together. And the result is everything you'd expect: taut terrifying and terrific. Bogart plays an escaped con who has nothing to lose. March is a suburban Everyman who has everything to lose - his family is held hostage by Bogart. As The Desperate Hours tick by the two men square off in a battle of wills and cunning that tightens into an unforgettable fear-drench

• Les Espions | DVD | (27/10/2003) from £16.99   |  Saving you £3.00 (17.66%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Clouzot's most ambitious movie remains one of his most modern with an elaborate screenplay giving his grand European cast a full chance to shine in this tale of a doctor who takes on a Faustian pact in order to save his failing practice...

• A Family Divided | DVD | (30/06/2003) from £12.22   |  Saving you £-6.24 (N/A%)   |  RRP £2.99

  When Karen Billingsly's (Faye Dunaway) college-aged son Chad participates in a fraternity gang rape of a high school girl his attorney father Roger (Stephen Collins) advises Chad and his frat brothers to say nothing. But when Karen finds out she is devastated. The cover-up of the crime takes a toll on both her marriage and family as Roger plays on her motherly instincts and insists that she conceal the truth to protect their son and his future. Torn between doing what's right and safeguarding everything she holds dear Karen pleads with Chad to have the courage to face the truth accept the consequences and not be swayed by the lack of ethics in others.

• Sherlock Holmes And The Deadly Necklace | DVD | (25/09/2006) from £8.08   |  Saving you £-2.09 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Holmes and Watson are on the trail to find a necklace that once belonged to Cleopatra. Holmes must unravel the mystery which brings him face to face with his arch rival Moriarty...