"Actor: Sydney Tafler"

• Reach For The Sky | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £3.99   |  Saving you £6.00 (150.38%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Reach for the Sky was a box-office hit in 1956 and rightly remains a fondly regarded classic of British cinema. Kenneth More is ideally cast as Douglas Bader, the gifted pilot who loses both legs in a pre-war air crash, only to play a major role in the Battle of Britain, rise to the rank of Group Captain and become a war hero. Based on Paul Brickhill's biography, this is an "official" history maybe, but Lewis Gilbert's screenplay and direction are historically accurate and informed by that very British humour, of which More was a natural. The film is graced by a decent supporting cast and a typically "widescreen" score from John Addison. On the DVD: Reach for the Sky is vividly reproduced in 16:9 anamorphic format and decent mono. There are subtitles for the hard of hearing and detailed biographies of More, Gilbert and Barder. The original theatrical trailer is included, but it would also have made sense to include an interview or documentary footage of Bader himself. --Richard Whitehouse

• The Sea Shall Not Have Them (Digitally Remastered) | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £9.45   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A stirring British war film depicting the boat crews whose job it was to rescue downed RAF pilots. After the Normandy D-Day landings, a dangerous attempt is made to rescue the survivors of a WWII British Hudson bomber, crashed at sea. On board is an Air Commodore who has secret plans that could stop enemy air raids on London. Produced by Daniel M. Angel. Written by Lewis Gilbert and Vernon Harris from the novel by John Harris.

• Wide Boy | DVD | (06/07/2015) from £4.99   |  Saving you £5.00 (100.20%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Sydney Tafler is perfectly cast as a small-time blackmarketeer whose criminal ambitions lead him into new and dangerous territory while starlet Susan Shaw is the girl he is desperate to hold on to – whatever it takes. The feature-length directorial debut of BAFTA nominee Ken Hughes this acclaimed post-war crime drama is featured here in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio. Benny has never made the big time. He's just another petty crook making a poor and precarious living on the black market – and certainly not making enough to satisfy the demands of his girlfriend Molly a lady of expensive tastes. So when presented with the opportunity to try his hand at blackmail Benny leaps at the chance... Bonus Features: Image Gallery

• Bottoms Up! | DVD | (07/04/2014) from £7.62   |  Saving you £2.37 (31.10%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Based on the enormously popular television and radio sitcom Whack-O!, this 1960 comedy feature stars Jimmy Edwards in the classic role of devious, cane-brandishing headmaster. A later addition to the impressive series of comedies by Two Cities Films co-founder Mario Zampi, Bottoms Up! was co-scripted by Michael Pertwee and Whack-O! writers Frank Muir and Denis Norden; Edwards co-stars include Melvyn Hayes and, in an early film role, Richard Briers. The film is presented here in a brand-new tr...

• Dial 999: The Complete Series | DVD | (26/04/2021) from £59.92   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Scarlet Thread | DVD | (21/05/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  This 1951 Nettlefold Production was directed by top British director Lewis Gilbert who directed Alfie, Shirley Valentine,Moonraker, Sink The Bismark and Reach for the Sky as well as many others..Scarlet Thread was one of his earliest works and he displays his obvious talent in this production.Laurence Harvey stars as a small time crook looking for the high life and Sydney Tafler as an educated gang boss living the high life - both take part in a robbery that goes wrong.Good scenes of Cambridge and supporting cast Harry Fowler, Kathleen Bryon and good time girl Dora Bryan make for anenjoyable British crime drama.

• Bottoms Up! | Blu Ray | (20/07/2020) from £14.71   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Based on the enormously popular television and radio sitcom Whack-O!, this uproarious comedy stars Jimmy Edwards in his signature role of a devious, cane-brandishing headmaster. Co-scripted by Michael Pertwee and Whack-O! writers Frank Muir and Denis Norden, Bottoms Up! is featured here as a brand-new High Definition transfer from original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio. Chiselbury School, allegedly, is an academy 'for the sons of gentlefolk'. Far from being gentlemen, however, the boys are an undisciplined rabble... it is, in fact, a school like no other! But Chiselbury's head, Professor Jim Edwards, is about to put into action a novel scheme to raise the school's profile...

• Children's Film Foundation Collection: Runaways | DVD | (21/04/2014) from £15.98   |  Saving you £6.00 (42.89%)   |  RRP £19.99

  JOHNNY ON THE RUN | HIDE AND SEEK | TERRY ON THE FENCE For Over 30 years the Children’s Film Foundation produced quality entertainment for young audiences employing the cream of British filmmaking talent. Newly transferred from the best available elements held in the BFI National Archive these much-loved and fondly remembered films finally return to the screen after many years out of distribution in this specially curated DVD release from the BFI. Johnny on the Run a superb early work by illustrious British director Lewis Gilbert (You Only Live Twice Education Rita Alfie) follows orphaned Polish refugee Janek who runs into trouble in the shape of two scheming thieves. Starring Sydney Tafler (Carve Her Name with Pride The Spy Who Loved Me) as a cunning spiv and featuring an appearance from John Laurie (The 39 Steps Dad’s Army) Johnny on the Run is an action-packed adventure with a remarkable performance from its young lead. Hide and Seek stars a teenage Gary Kemp (The Krays) as do-gooding Chris who becomes entangled with a borstal escapee known locally as the Deptford Dodger. With friend Bev Chris traces the ungrateful Dodger’s disreputable dad. With Roy Dotrice and Robin Askwith in supporting roles this thriller is among the best of the Foundation’s 1970s output. In Terry on the Fence when our 11-year-old protagionist runs away from home he only intends to put the wind up his parents. But a gang of older bullies led by tough-nut Les soon draw him into their daunting world of break-ins and stolen goods. Based on the book by author Bernard Ashley Terry on the Fence goes far beyond the concept of goodies and baddies to the ambiguity at the heart of Terry’s moral dilemma.

• Carve Her Name With Pride | DVD | (16/06/2003) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-10.01 (-100.20%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The moving and dramatic story of Violette Szabo (McKenna) a courageous WW2 secret agent who was captured in northern France... Carve Her Name With Pride is the inspiring true life story of Violette Szabo. During World War II Violette (Virgina McKenna) volunteers to parachute into France as a secret agent to aid a Resistance group. Her mission successful she joins the Resistance where she stays until captured by the Germans. Tortured by the Gestapo for information she refuses to betray her comrades... Directed by Lewis Gilbert Carve Her Name With Pride is a moving tale about the endurance of the human spirit in even the most adverse circumstances.

• Mystery Junction | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £6.87   |  Saving you £3.12 (45.41%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Sydney Tafler stars as a celebrated crime writer who finds life imitating art when he boards a train on which murder is a travelling companion... Also featuring Barbara Murray and soon-to-be Hollywood star Patricia Owens, Mystery Junction is a rare and inventive addition to the classic whodunnit genre. Believed to be lost for decades, it is presented here in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio.Miss Owens, an avid reader of detective stories, finds herself travelling in the same railway compartment as crime writer Larry Gordon neither of them realising that amongst their fellow passengers is a prisoner under escort to trial for murder. When a rescue attempt claims a policeman's life and the passengers become snowbound at a remote railway station, it's a race against time to unmask the culprit before the murderer strikes again!SPECIAL FEATURE:Image Gallery

• Passport To Pimlico | DVD | (21/06/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  An archaic document found in a bombsite reveals that the London district of Pimlico has for centuries technically been part of France. The local residents embrace their new found continental status seeing it as a way to avoid the drabness austerity and rationing of post-war England. The authorities do not however share their enthusiasm... A whimsical and charming British film 'Passport To Pimlico' is one of the finest examples of the classic Ealing comedies.

• The Birthday Party | DVD | (02/07/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Harold Pinter's first full-length stage play, The Birthday Party, was 10 years old when William (The Exorcist) Friedkin directed it for the cinema in 1968. In some ways, it was already a period-piece by then, Pinter's use of a combination of silence and excruciatingly banal dialogue to generate precipitous dramatic tension having been absorbed by contemporary theatrical mythology long since. Are the sinister McCann and Goldberg real? Or do they exist only in Stan's head? At the end, we're none the wiser. But Friedkin's claustrophobic direction, with the tormented Stan as its focus, has taken us through a master study in understated horror. The handheld camera, so fashionable in modern television drama, has rarely been used to such hypnotic effect. As Stan, Robert Shaw is mesmerising in his descent to animal-like submission. Sydney Tafler's Goldberg and Patrick Magee 's McCann make a truly terrifying double act. Cult television fans will appreciate an early appearance by Helen Fraser (these days best known as a sadistic prison warder in Bad Girls) as the easily seduced neighbour. Now that Friedkin's film is itself over 30 years old, the scent of mothballs ought to be even more pronounced. Its decrepit seaside boarding house setting and the drabness of the peripheral players are redolent of the distinctly non-swinging side of the 1960s in which it was made. But more than anything, The Birthday Party is about unspecified terror and the sort of inner demons that lurk in all of us. On the DVD: Excellent sound quality helps to make this a compellingly theatrical experience: never has the noise of tearing newspaper been more menacing. And the picture quality retains the grainy authenticity of the original print. Special features include brief backgrounders on the history of the play and Friedkin's career, and a slide show of still s from key scenes. --Piers Ford

• Once A Sinner | DVD | (18/03/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Once A Sinner

• Too Many Crooks | DVD | (27/05/2002) from £4.99   |  Saving you £5.00 (100.20%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Too Many Crooks (1958) boasts an intricate plot in which Terry Thomas is being blackmailed for the hoards he's stashed away as a renowned tax dodger. Driving around in a Jaguar XK 150, a desirable sports car of the period, his intricate private life unravels as his put-upon wife, Brenda de Banzie, draws on her expertise as a wartime PT instructress to turn the tables on him by marshalling the support of a band of crooks (George Cole, Sidney James, Bernard Bresslaw and Joe Melia). Look out for the very funny court scene, where TT makes three appearances on separate charges before a bemused magistrate, John Le Mesurier. On the DVD: Too Many Crooks is in 4:3 ratio and has a mono soundtrack. The only extra feature is a trailer. More TT tomfoolery can be found in the three-disc Terry Thomas Collection. --Adrian Edwards

• 3 Classic Wartime Dramas - A Town Like Alice / Carve Her Name With Pride / This Happy Breed | DVD | (20/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A Town Like Alice - Virginia McKenna and Peter Finch star in this moving story about a party of women compelled to trek through the Malayan jungle during World War II as no Japanese office will take responsibility for their care. Based on Nevil Shute's best selling novel the film tells how the women come to terms with their hardships and how they are befriended by a tough Australian prisoner of war who dreams of returning to his home town of Alice Springs... Carve Her Name With Pride - The moving and dramatic story of Violette Szabo (McKenna) a courageous WW2 secret agent who was captured in northern France... Carve Her Name With Pride is the inspiring true life story of Violette Szabo. During World War II Violette (Virgina McKenna) volunteers to parachute into France as a secret agent to aid a Resistance group. Her mission successful she joins the Resistance where she stays until captured by the Germans. Tortured by the Gestapo for information she refuses to betray her comrades... Directed by Lewis Gilbert Carve Her Name With Pride is a moving tale about the endurance of the human spirit in even the most adverse circumstances. This Happy Breed - 'This Happy Breed' is a splendidly acted classic portraying how an ordinary British family lived between the wars. Just after WWI the Gibbons family moves to a nice house in the suburbs. The inhabitants of 17 Sycamore Road are ordinary people with their irritable in-laws their just-plain-folks camaraderie and their unshakeable belief that no matter how hard the times are Mother England is forged of good stock and common sense will somehow prevail. This is a wonderful adaptation of Noel Coward's play written by Anthony Havelock-Allan and directed by David Lean who brought us the critically acclaimed classic 'Brief Encounter'.

• Make Mine Mink | DVD | (27/05/2002) from £7.28   |  Saving you £2.71 (37.23%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Make Mine Mink (1960) was adapted from a West End stage farce, Breath of Spring. In a mansion block in Knightsbridge, a gang of middle-aged biddies decide to brighten up "the dullness of the tea time of life" by staging a series of robberies on furriers, then donating the proceeds to charitable concerns. Terry Thomas as a retired army officer leads the gang, which includes Athene Seyler and Hattie Jacques, on a series of capers that nearly go awry when their maid, Billie Whitelaw, an ex-con and also a resident of the block, falls for a police officer. Among many funny scenes is a particular gem between Seyler and Kenneth Williams, her nephew to whom she hopes to palm off a stolen mink, and another where Terry Thomas enters a low-down dive to the accompaniment of the "Harry Lime theme". The playing of the whole cast is second to none under the direction of Robert Asher, who with his cameraman disguises the stage origins of the piece very adeptly. On the DVD: Make Mine Mink comes to DVD in 4:3 ratio with a mono soundtrack. The theatrical trailer is introduced by Terry Thomas, who presents us to his gang of fur thieves as the voice on the soundtrack announces him as "fur, fur funnier than you've seen him before". More TT tomfoolery can be found in the three-disc Terry Thomas Collection. --Adrian Edwards

• Assassin for Hire | DVD | (02/03/2015) from £5.99   |  Saving you £4.00 (66.78%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A taut, noir-ish crime thriller produced by Primetime Emmy nominee and future Avengers lynchpin Julian Wintle, Assassin for Hire stars Sydney Tafler as a hitman who nurtures his younger brother's musical talent with blood money; Ronald Howard is the Scotland Yard inspector who doggedly pursues him using any means at his disposal. This early-fifties 'B'-movie gem is featured here in a brandnew transfer from the original film elements, in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio.Antonio Riccardi, a rare stamp dealer who is secretly a hired killer, pays for the violin lessons of his gifted brother Giuseppe. To meet the expenses of Giuseppe's concert debut he accepts a further job, but his decision to do so provides Detective Inspector Carson, who has long hoped to ensnare Tony, with an opportunity hat might now enable him to bring about his downfall...SPECIAL FEATURE:Original Press Release PDF

• The Counterfeit Plan | DVD | (15/02/2016) from £5.99   |  Saving you £4.00 (66.78%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A classic high-tension thriller directed by Montgomery Tully, this rarely seen gem features an exceptional transatlantic cast including Zachary Scott (on magnificently sinister form as a brutal master-criminal), Mervyn Johns, noir heroine Peggie Castle, fan favourite Lee Patterson and British screen spiv Sydney Tafler. The Counterfeit Plan is featured here in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements, in its original theatrical aspect ratio.With the aid of his accomplices, convicted murderer Max Brandt escapes whilst being escorted to a French prison and flees across the Channel. Arriving in England he seeks out a wartime acquaintance, Louie. An expert forger, Louie has now turned his back on his criminal career but Brandt is determined to blackmail him into putting his formidable skills to use once more...SPECIAL FEATURES:Alternative Titles (mute)Original Theatrical TrailersImage GalleryOriginal Synopsis PDF

• The Sea Shall Not Have Them (Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (15/05/2017) from £11.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A stirring British war film depicting the boat crews whose job it was to rescue downed RAF pilots. After the Normandy D-Day landings, a dangerous attempt is made to rescue the survivors of a WWII British Hudson bomber, crashed at sea. On board is an Air Commodore who has secret plans that could stop enemy air raids on London. Produced by Daniel M. Angel. Written by Lewis Gilbert and Vernon Harris from the novel by John Harris.

• Carry On Regardless | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £6.66   |  Saving you £-0.67 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  It's non stop romps as the Carry On team deliver the goods in one of the rudest and funniest of the Carry On films. The cast are all on top form as a bunch of no-hoppers who join an agency in the search for a job. The anarchy mounts as they do a series of odd jobs including a chimps tea party trying to stay sober at a wine tasting and demolishing a house.