"Actor: Walter SLEZAK"

• This Land Is Mine | DVD | (13/02/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Oscar winner Charles Laughton gives one of the finest performances of his long and distinguished career in this powerful and compelling wartime story of a small French town under Nazi occupation. Albert Lory (Charles Laughton) is a timid schoolmaster desperately trying to ignore the realities of the war - and secretly in love with his pretty fellow schoolteacher Louise (Maureen O'Hara). The horrors of the Nazi occupation however soon become all too real. Books are burned, Jews rounded up and hostages taken when armed saboteurs start to fight back.Some townspeople, like Louise's Fianc George (George Sanders), become collaborators. Others, including her brother Paul (Kent Smith), offer violent resistance. As those he loves and cares for begin to disappear or die around him, Albert realises he can no longer afford to be frightened. The Nazis are about to discover that just one man - eloquent, unafraid and fired by a fierce sense of justice - can be more dangerous than a hundred armed saboteurs...

• Cornered | DVD | (22/08/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The war's over but ex-POW Lt. Lawrence Gerard (Dick Powell) has a score to settle and he doesn't mean to do things by the book. His bride was in the French resistance; she was one of fifty freedom fighters murdered by shadowy Vichy collaborator Marcel Jarnac. People tell him that Jarnac's dead but Gerard doesn't buy it. He tracks Jarnac's widow to Argentina and discovers that his quarry is not only still very much alive but has got some powerful - and dangerous - guardian angels. Gerard's mission is more urgent than ever - but who can he trust?

• Michael - Masters of Cinema | DVD | (25/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Danish master Carl Theodor Dreyer (1889-1968) directed 'Michael' in 1924 for Decla Bioscop the arstitic wing of German production powerhouse UFA. It was Dreyer's sixth feature in five years and his second in Germany. Based on Herman Bang's 1902 novel of the same name Dreyer's film is a fascinating fin-de-siecle study of 'decadent' elderly artist driven to despair by his relationship with his young protege and former model Michael. With suffocatingly sumptuous production design by

• Treasure Island | DVD | (02/12/2013) from £14.98   |  Saving you £-1.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Orson Welles stars as Long John Silver in this extensively remastered 1972 adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale of pirates and buried treasure! Join Jim Hawkins and his shipmates for an adventure of a lifetime in a swashbuckling spectacular that’s fun for all the family!

• Black Beauty | DVD | (22/10/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Black Beauty, a magnificent stallion, is born on a rundown family farm and loved by young Joe Evans (Mark Lester - Oliver!). Growing up together, the boy and his horse are inseparable - until the wicked new squire (Patrick Mower) forces the Evans family from the farm and steals Black Beauty away from Joe. Escaping from his cruel new master, Black Beauty finds himself caught up in a series of adventures - racing with gypsies, performing at the circus and even going to war. Back home, Joe has never given up hope of being reunited with Beauty, and is determined to find the great love of his childhood days once more...

• Treasure Island | DVD | (01/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

• This Land Of Mine | DVD | (02/07/2007) from £9.43   |  Saving you £3.56 (27.40%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Albert Lory is a teacher at a school in German-occupied France. He is a coward but he is drawn into the actions of the resistance. Arrested by the Germans because of a murder the German officers promise him freedom if he is willing to collaborate with them against France.

• Treasure Island | DVD | (18/08/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Oscar Winning great Orson Welles gives an outstanding performance as the iconic Long John Silver in this wonderful adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel. This tall tale of piracy on the high seas begins with the arrival of a hardy sea captain Billy Bones at The Benbow Inn run by the inimitable Mrs. Hawkins and her son Jim. With his health deteriorating Captain Bones entrusts a priceless map of Treasure Island to Jim but warns him whatever he does he must beware the one legged man. Map in hand it is not long before Jim is embarking on his voyage of discovery. But strangely amongst the crew is a mysterious one-legged man. And so the adventure begins!

• Comedy Greats | DVD | (03/02/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A "two-plus-one" package from Siren, Comedy Greats features classics from the two greatest silent-screen comics, Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, plus a rather dreary effort from Danny Kaye. Never the most scintillating of comedians, Kaye's personable talents are thinly spread in 1949's The Inspector General. Distantly(!) based on a short story by Russian satirist Nikolay Gogol, this tale of mistaken identity enables Kaye to indulge in obvious wisecracks and not-so-smart dialogue. Sylvia Fine's songs are mildly amusing, and Henry Koster draws capable support from Walter Slezak and Elsa Lanchester, but it's a long haul. When he made Tilli's Punctured Romance in 1914, Charles Chaplin had yet to perfect the "little man" routine which made him the most popular 1920s screen star. His loveable rogue is well displayed opposite Marie Dressler's formidable country maid, whose unexpected windfall becomes the real object of his desire. Mabel Normand contributes an attractively period chic, and if, in the hands of Mack Sennett, the humour tends to fall back on music-hall slapstick, the historical significance of the film is undoubted. Yet it's Buster Keaton's 1928 classic Steamboat Bill Jr which comes out on top here. Keaton is perfectly cast as the put upon student, whose bravery saves both his father and his steamboat-owning rival, and wins the hand of the latter's daughter. Solid support comes from Ernest Torrence and the winsome Marion Byron, with Charles Riesner getting maximum drama from the cyclone sequence, but it's Keaton's soulful expression and breathtaking stuntwork which are the most potent reminders of a talent only later to receive its due. On the DVD: Comedy Greats is acceptably remastered, with 1.33:1 aspect ratio and 12 chapter headings per film, and decently packaged, this is worth acquiring--even though Keaton's film is the only one you're likely return to often. --Richard Whitehouse

• The Inspector General | DVD | (23/06/2003) from £9.35   |  Saving you £7.64 (81.71%)   |  RRP £16.99

  In this delightful period farce set in Russia in the 1800's Danny Kaye plays and illiterate buffoon who is mistaken by the villagers for their feared Inspector General. Hilarious situations ensue as Danny is caught up in court intrigue without having a clue of what is going on.

• Black Beauty | DVD | (01/09/2003) from £14.25   |  Saving you £-8.26 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  It would be easy to pass by this movie, based on Anna Sewell's famous novel Black Beauty, on the assumption that it's dated and twee. Well, perhaps it is a little, but the sheer quality of the whole enterprise places it in the front rank of children's cinema classics. Screenwriter Wolf Mankowitz's ability to harness both literary and popular techniques in the same work (also true of his written fiction) remains unsurpassed in this captivating tale of Beauty's eventful life, from being raised as a foal by the devoted Joe (Lester), then passing through the hands of various owners before being purchased by, supposedly, Miss Sewell herself, to be once more cared for by a now-adult Joe who is in her employ. Along the way, Beauty passes through the hands of gypsies, a circus owner, a family of aristocrats and is even ridden into war, with each episode being expertly cast (Mower is in particularly fine form as a mad, bad and dangerous army officer) and produced to the highest cinematic standards--even the exterior lighting is perfect. Absolutely recommended. The 4:3 DVD is a transfer of exceptionally high quality and includes the cinema trailer, an image gallery of stills and collector-enthusing promotional ephemera (presented in a thumb-saving slideshow format) and, rather incongruously, a trailer for Help! I'm a Fish!--Roger Thomas

• Lifeboat | DVD | (27/03/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Six men and three women. Against the sea. Against each other. Nine survivors of a torpedoed ship awaiting a rescue that may never arrive find themselves in the same boat with one of the perpetrators... Alfred Hitchock's nail-biting guessing game thriller was nominated for 3 Oscars.

• Cliff Richard's Film Collection - The Young Ones / Summer Holiday / Wonderful Life / Take Me High | DVD | (16/07/2021) from £27.90   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A