"Actor: Stanley Van Beers"

• The Dambusters | DVD | (18/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Something of a cult item among British war movies (and brilliantly spoofed a few years back by a lager ad), The Dam Busters turns a minor World War II incident into a saga of heroic stiff-upper-lippery in the classic British style. A bombing raid is proposed on a strategically vital Ruhr dam, but its position is inaccessible. Enter eccentric inventor Dr Barnes Wallis (Michael Redgrave in best daffy professor mode) who comes up with a genius idea--a bomb that will bounce on water like a skimmed pebble. Naturally the top brass pooh-pooh it, but gallant Wing Commander Guy Gibson (Richard Todd) is persuaded, and between them flyer and boffin forge ahead. The touches of carefully understated emotion now verge on self-parody, but it's hard not to get caught up in the narrative sweep, especially when the bombers take off on their mission and Eric Coates' stirring march hits the soundtrack. The modelwork, state-of-the-art for its early 1950s period, still looks impressive, and the death of Gibson's beloved black Labrador (embarrassingly called Nigger) is a three-hanky moment to rival the shooting of Bambi's mum. --Philip Kemp

• Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel - The Complete Series | DVD | (30/07/2012) from £9.99   |  Saving you £20.00 (200.20%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Marius Goring, one of British cinema's most gifted and versatile actors, brings his remarkable talents to the role of the enigmatic adventurer risking his life to save innocent French aristocrats from the guillotine during Robespierre's revolutionary Terror. Switching between the flamboyant Pimpernel and his foppish, outwardly simple alter ego Sir Percy Blakeney with consummate ease, Goring is ably supported by Patrick Troughton in another of ITC's mid '50s swashbuckler series which, though not seen in sixty years, easily holds its own alongside stablemates The Adventures of Robin Hood, William Tell and The Buccaneers.This classic adventure series also features a guest cast that includes Robert Shaw, Christopher Lee, Conrad Phillips, Ivor Dean, William Franklyn, Alfie Bass and John Laurie.