"Actor: William Dix"

• Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas--Special Edition | DVD | (17/11/2003) from £4.25   |  Saving you £7.74 (182.12%)   |  RRP £11.99

  For those who never thought Disney would release a film in which Santa Claus is kidnapped and tortured, well, here it is. The full title is Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, which should give you an idea of the tone of this stop-action animated musical/fantasy/horror/comedy. It is based on characters created by Burton, the former Disney animator best known as the director of Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands and the first two Batman movies. His benignly scary-funny sensibility dominates the story of Halloweentown resident Jack Skellington (voice by Danny Elfman, who also wrote the songs), who stumbles on a bizarre and fascinating alternative universe called ... Christmastown! Directed by Henry Selick (who later made the delightful James and the Giant Peach), this PG-rated picture has a reassuringly light touch. As Roger Ebert noted in his review, "some of the Halloween creatures might be a tad scary for smaller children, but this is the kind of movie older kids will eat up; it has the kind of offbeat, subversive energy that tells them wonderful things are likely to happen." --Jim EmersonOn the DVD:This Special edition is a must for all Burton fans with the biggest gem to be found on a DVD release--"Tim Burtons Early Films" which holds his first two works. Vincent is clear predecessor of Nightmare before Christmas using the same stop-animation style and voiced superbly by Vincent Price himself; and Frankenweenie--a B&W live-action flick--takes you back to early B-movie territory seen through the eyes of a boy. Added to these films is a great special-features menu including a short documentary offering an interview with Burton, which exposes the inspiration for this magical animation and presents the three-year task of making the "Nightmare". On top of this is an in-depth commentary by director Henry Selick and Art director Pete Kozachik and layer upon layer of "character development" offering an insight into the intensity of thought that went into making these animated figures real. You also get a great selection of storyboards along with the sequences they manifest into, deleted storyboards and an animated sequence with a surprise alternative ending. The menu is beautifully animated in keeping with the style of artwork in the film. With a 1.66:1 widescreen format and Dolby digital transfer this charming DVD is perfect for Halloween, Christmas and beyond! --Nikki Disney

• The Blue Dahlia | Blu Ray | (19/09/2016) from £54.99   |  Saving you £-35.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Hollywood legends Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake (The Glass Key, This Gun For Hire) team up for a masterfully told tale of suspense and intrigue in the classic noir tradition. When discharged navy officer Johnny Morrison (Ladd) comes home from war to his old stomping ground in the Hollywood Hills, he is shocked to discover his wife Helen (Doris Dowling) having an affair with the proprietor of the glamorous Blue Dahlia nightclub. But when Helen is murdered and Johnny is fingered as the prime suspect, he is forced to prove his innocence, aided by a woman harbouring a dark secret, the beautiful and enigmatic Joyce (Lake). Directed by George Marshall (Destry Rides Again, How the West Was Won) from a script by acclaimed hard-boiled novelist Raymond Chandler his only produced original screenplay The Blue Dahlia sparkles with wit and old Hollywood glamour, showcasing some of the most celebrated talent of the golden age of the silver screen at their iconic best, making its high definition debut in this feature-packed release from Arrow Academy. SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation Original uncompressed PCM mono audio Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing Selected scene commentary by Frank Krutnik, author of In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity Introduction to the film by Frank Krutnik Rare 1949 half-hour radio dramatization of The Blue Dahlia by The Screen Guild Theater, starring Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd Original theatrical trailer Extensive gallery of vintage stills and promotional materials Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tonci Zonjic

• Lifeboat | Blu Ray | (23/04/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Based on an unpublished novella by John Steinbeck (written on commission expressly to provide treatment material for Hitchcock's screen scenario), Lifeboat found the Master of Suspense navigating a course of maximal tension - in the most minimal of settings - with a consistently inventive, beautifully paced drama that would foreshadow the single-set experiments of Rope and Dial M for Murder. After a Nazi torpedo reduces an ocean liner to wooden splinters and scorched personal effects, the survivors of the attack pull themselves aboard a drifting lifeboat in the hope of eventual rescue. But the motivations of the German submarine captain (played by Walter Slezak) on the eponymous craft might extend beyond mere survival... With a cast including Shadow of a Doubt veteran Hume Cronyn and the extraordinary, irrepressible Tallulah Bankhead, this picture of characters, as Franois Truffaut aptly termed the film, oscillates dazzlingly between comic reparte and white-knuckle suspense - a perfect example of the Hitchcock touch.

• Dark Corner | DVD | (16/01/2006) from £11.28   |  Saving you £1.71 (15.16%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Private investigator Bradford Galt has moved to New York from San Fransisco after serving a jail term on account of his lawyer partner Tony Jardine. When he finds someone is tailing - and possibly trying to kill him Galt believes Jardine is behind it. As he finds there is rather more to it he is increasingly glad to have his attractive new secretary Kathleen around for several reasons...

• The Nightmare Before Christmas (Collector's Edition) | Blu Ray | (06/10/2008) from £7.98   |  Saving you £2.00 (33.39%)   |  RRP £7.99

  Enter an extraordinary world filled with magic and wonder! Jack Skellington the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town decides to spread Christmas joy to the world. But his well-meaning mission unwittingly puts Santa Claus in jeopardy and creates a nightmare for good little boys and girls everywhere! Who will save Christmas? This movie milestone from Tim Burton is a fun fantasy for the whole family!

• The Nightmare Before Christmas (Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (03/10/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Now more astonishing and spectacular than ever, The Nightmare Before Christmas jumps off the screen and into your living room, immersing your family in the jaw-dropping splendor and mind-boggling fun of Disney 3D!Bored with the same old scare-and-scream routine, Pumpkin King Jack Skellington longs to spread the joy of Christmas. But his merry mission puts Santa in jeopardy and creates a nightmare for good little boys and girls everywhere. Experience Tim Burton and Henry Selick's uncanny tale as it comes vividly to life right before your eyes!

• The Nanny | DVD | (15/01/2007) from £9.79   |  Saving you £3.20 (32.69%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A Nanny anxious to remain head of a household will go to any lengths to maintain her station....

• The Blue Dahlia | DVD | (12/02/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  When Johnny Morrison returns home at the end of the war he expects to receive a warm welcome from his wife. However he makes the unpleasant discovery that she's been unfaithful to him with Eddie Harwood the owner of the Blue Dahlia nightclub. After a heated and violent argument he storms out of their house. Later that night she's murdered--and Johnny winds up the prime suspect. Now to prove his innocence Johnny must find the real culprit. Among the suspects are the ruthless nightclub owner and a vicious gangster. Joyce Harwood the estranged wife of the club's proprietor lends Johnny a hand and the two fall in love while tracking down the killer. Two ex-service buddies also come to Johnny's aid: the shell-shocked Buzz Wanchek and George Copeland. Will Johnny solve the mystery before the police find him and charge him with murder? This film noir classic was Raymond Chandler's first original story written directly for the screen.

• Blackbeard the Pirate | DVD | (13/06/2011) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-7.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Splice the main-brace and set sail with one of Hollywood's greatest pirate yarns. Robert Newton (Treasure Island) has the role of a lifetime as Blackbeard holy terror of the high seas. It's set at a time of buccaneers and privateers; plucky Robert Maynard (Keith Andes) infiltrates the ship of notorious pirate Charles Bellamy searching for vital evidence that will convict crooked official Henry Morgan. But Bellamy has been deposed; Blackbeard is captain now and he doesn't trust Maynard. There's treasure to plunder and a fair maiden to rescue but Blackbeard is a dangerous man and will not easily be defeated...

• Bing Crosby Collection - The Emperor Waltz / A Conneticut Yankee | DVD | (08/05/2006) from £7.02   |  Saving you £8.97 (127.78%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The Emperor Waltz (Dir. Billy Wilder 1948): A rare musical comedy for Wilder it stars Bing Crosby as Virgil H. Smith a phonograph salesman plying his wares in turn-of-the-20th-century Vienna. Believing that if he's able to sell a phonograph to Emperor Franz Joseph I the rest of Austria will soon follow his example Virgil attempts to gain access to the man. After he's refused admission to the palace by guards who believe the phonograph to be a bomb he meets Countess Johan

• Marx Brothers Boxset: A Girl in Every Port/The Cocoanuts/Love Happy/Room Service/Animal Crackers/Monkey Business/Horse Feathers/Duck Soup | DVD | (16/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  A fantastic collection of timeless works from the Marx Brothers. Films comprise: A Girl In Every Port (1952): This was Groucho Marx's second solo outing for RKO and his third feature without Chico and Harpo. Groucho and William Bendix play a couple of scheming sailors who spend most of their time in the ship's brig. Bendix receives a small inheritance and decides to spend it on a clapped-out racehorse. When Groucho learns that the animal has a much more successful twin

• George Stevens | DVD | (24/01/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £40.99

  Woman Of The Year: A female politician and a sports journalist marry for the wrong reasons in this battle of the sexes comedy classic. Oscar winner for Best Original Screenplay. Giant - Special Edition: The James Dean legend lives on in 'Giant' George Stevens sweeping Oscar-winning epic about the cataclysmic effect the discovery of oil in Texas has on the lifestyle of the former cattle barons. Dean is Jett Rink a sullen-farm hand who becomes a millionaire overnight. To

• Idol On Parade | DVD | (07/06/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Rare 2012 UK release of this classic film.Anthony Newley found his career taking off after being cast as the singing idol 'Jeep Jackson', the 'King of Rock-A-Boogie', who is called up to National Service in this 1959 British musical comedy. Jeep does his best to fit in as a squaddie - but soon there are hordes of screaming pop fans at the barracks gates, the other recruits think he's after their girls - and the C.O.'s daughter (Anne Aubrey) decides that he is the boy of her dreams! Jeep's devious manager (Sid James) is determined that a little thing like National Service won't spoil his star's career. He smuggles him out of camp at every opportunity to perform pop concerts and to cut new hit records. But Jeep's Sergeant (William Bendix) is getting very suspicious of what's going on after lights out... Idol On Parade features no less than five songs from Anthony Newley, including Idle Rock-A-Boogie, Sat'Day Night Rock-A-Boogie, Won't Get No Promotion, Idle on Parade and I've Waited So Long - two of which were to become smash chart hits.

• My Man Godfrey | DVD | (26/01/2004) from £6.28   |  Saving you £-1.29 (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

• Blue Lamp, The / The Nanny | DVD | (23/06/2003) from £14.99   |  Saving you £1.00 (6.67%)   |  RRP £15.99

  This is a double-feature of two British crime classics, The Blue Lamp (1949) and The Nanny (1965). The Blue Lamp is the film that introduced PC George Dixon, played by Jack Warner, later immortalised in the BBC's long-running Dixon of Dock Green (1955-76). Here Dixon's murder is the catalyst for an exciting London manhunt, shot largely on location in a fast-moving, starkly efficient style showing the influence of The Naked City (1948). The war-damaged East End and the car chases through almost vehicle-free streets offer a documentary-like vision of a London now long gone, and a young Dirk Bogarde makes a serious impact in an early starring role. In contrast, The Nanny has a superstar, the imported Hollywood legend Bette Davis, in the declining years of her career. Just one of three psychological thrillers Hammer produced in 1965 (the others were Frantic and Hysteria), the film capitalises on the popularity of Davis's Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) with a comparable mix of hateful insanity and paranoia. The screenplay skilfully juggles the audience's sympathies between a superb Davis and the dysfunctional family of which she becomes a part, developing a powerful sense of dread which shows such clichéd later fare as The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992) how to do this sort of thing with real class. On the DVD: The Blue Lamp and The Nanny are presented in black and white with adequate mono sound. The Blue Lamp is in its original 4:3 ratio; The Nanny is cropped from its theatrical 1.85:1 to 4:3, though it's only in a few shots that it becomes obvious that information is missing at the sides of the screen. The print of The Blue Lamp is soft and grainy, while The Nanny is grainy with a considerable amount of flicker. There are no extras. --Gary S. Dalkin

• Lifeboat | Blu Ray | (23/04/2012) from £28.33   |  Saving you £-5.34 (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Based on an unpublished novella by John Steinbeck (written on commission expressly to provide treatment material for Hitchcock's screen scenario), Lifeboat found the Master of Suspense navigating a course of maximal tension – in the most minimal of settings – with a consistently inventive, beautifully paced drama that would foreshadow the single-set experiments of Rope and Dial M for Murder.After a Nazi torpedo reduces an ocean liner to wooden splinters and scorched personal effects, the survivors of the attack pull themselves aboard a drifting lifeboat in the hope of eventual rescue. But the motivations of the German submarine captain (played by Walter Slezak) on the eponymous craft might extend beyond mere survival...With a cast including Shadow of a Doubt veteran Hume Cronyn and the extraordinary, irrepressible Tallulah Bankhead, this 'picture of characters', as Franois Truffaut aptly termed the film, oscillates dazzlingly between comic reparte and white-knuckle suspense – a perfect example of 'the Hitchcock touch'.

• The Nightmare Before Christmas (2 Disc Collector's Edition) | DVD | (06/10/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Now digitally restored and remastered with state of the art technology The Nightmare Before Christmas is deeper darker and more brilliant than ever - just as Tim Burton originally envisioned it. Can Christmas be saved? Bored with the same old scare and scream routine Jack Skellington the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town longs to spread the joy of Christmas. But his merry mission puts Santa in jeopardy and creates a nightmare for good little boys and girls everywhere!

• The Big Steal | DVD | (12/02/2007) from £9.83   |  Saving you £0.16 (1.63%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A typically laconic Robert Mitchum stars as Lieutenant Duke Halliday in this terse efficient noir. Framed for the theft of an army payroll he takes off on a chase from Verz Cruz into the heart of Mexico after the real thief Jim Fiske (Patrick Knowles) in an effort to clear himself. Joining him in the search is Fiske's jilted fiance Joan Graham (Jane Greer). Close on the heels of both is police captain Vince Blake (William Bendix) not to mention Mexican inspector Colonel Ortega (Ramon Novarro). Along the way Duke and Joan's breakneck pursuit is strewn with comedic obstacles including a herd of goats an oxcart and an impressively underachieving Mexican road crew.

• Macao | DVD | (26/03/2012) from £17.53   |  Saving you £-4.54 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Lying just off the coast of China, the exotic island of Macao is one of the most dangerous and corrupt places in the world. A haven for gamblers, smugglers, fugitives and killers, it's a place where everything - and everyone - has a price. On a morning like any other morning on Macao, three strangers arrive in port - fugitive drifter Nick Cochran (Robert Mitchum), jaded nightclub singer Julie Benson (Jane Russell) and international salesman Lawrence Trumble (William Bendix). But on Macao no one may be who they say they are.One of the new arrivals is an undercover police officer. Now big time casino owner and racketeer Vincent Halloran (Brad Dexter) must find out who - and fast. He's already killed one cop, a fortune in contraband is missing - and he's beginning to feel the Macao heat...

• Black Caesar | DVD | (07/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Fred Williamson is imposing tough and unflappable as a street kid who muscles his way into the big-time mob racket in this super-slick drama from writer/director Larry Cohen which became a smash hit of the Blaxploitaion genre and spawned a successful sequel (Hell Up In Harlem). Tommy Gibbs (Williamson) has always had it tough. Growing up on the streets without a father and trying to make his mother proud Tommy resorts to running errands for The Man. But when a crooked cop beats h