"Actor: William Hopper"

• Sunset Boulevard | DVD | (07/04/2003) from £5.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (166.94%)   |  RRP £15.99

  More than half a century after its release in 1950, Sunset Boulevard is still the most pungently unflattering portrait of Hollywood ever committed to celluloid. Billy Wilder, unequalled at combining a literate, sulphurous script with taut direction, hits his target relentlessly. The humour--and the film is rich in this, Wilder's most abundant commodity--is black indeed. Sunset Boulevard is viciously and endlessly clever. William Holden's opportunistic scriptwriter Joe Gillis, whose sellout proves fatal, is from the top drawer of film noir. Gloria Swanson's monstrously deluded Norma Desmond, the benchmark for washed-up divas, transcends parody. And her literal descent down the staircase to madness is one of the all-time great silver-screen moments. Sunset Boulevard isn't without pathos, most notably in Erich von Stroheim's protective butler who wants only to shield his mistress from the stark truths that are massing against her. But its view of human beings at work in a ruthlessly cannibalistic industry is bleak indeed. Nobody, not even Nancy Olson's sparkily ambitious writer Betty Schaefer, is untainted. And neither are we, "those wonderful people out there in the dark". Norma might be ready for her close-up, but it's really Hollywood that's in the frame. No wonder Wilder incurred the charge of treachery from his peers. It's cinematic perfection. On the DVD: Sunset Boulevard lends itself effortlessly to a collector's edition of this quality. The film itself is presented in full-frame aspect ratio from an excellent print and the quality of the mono soundtrack is faultless: the silver screen comes to life in your living room. The extras are superb, including a commentary from film historian Ed Sikov and a making-of documentary which includes the memories of Nancy Olson. Interactive features such as the Hollywood location map add to the fun. --Piers Ford

• Rebel Without A Cause | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £7.19   |  Saving you £11.80 (164.12%)   |  RRP £18.99

  When people think of James Dean, they probably think first of the troubled teen from Rebel Without a Cause: nervous, volatile, soulful, a kid lost in a world that does not understand him. Made between his only other starring roles, in East of Eden and Giant, Rebel sums up the jangly, alienated image of Dean, but also happens to be one of the key films of the 1950s. Director Nicholas Ray takes a strikingly sympathetic look at the teenagers standing outside the white-picket-fence 50s dream of America: juvenile delinquent (that's what they called them then) Jim Stark (Dean), fast-girl Judy (Natalie Wood), lost-boy Plato (Sal Mineo), slick hot-rodder Buzz (Corey Allen). At the time, it was unusual for a movie to endorse the point of view of teenagers, but Ray and screenwriter Stewart Stern captured the youthful angst that was erupting at the same time in rock 'n' roll. Dean is heartbreaking, following the method-acting style of Marlon Brando but staking out a nakedly emotional honesty of his own. Going too fast, in every way, he was killed in a car crash on September 30, 1955, a month before Rebel opened. He was no longer an actor, but an icon, and Rebel is a lasting monument. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com

• I Feel Pretty | DVD | (10/09/2018) from £10.98   |  Saving you £-2.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £6.99

  In I FEEL PRETTY a woman who struggles with feelings of insecurity and inadequacy on a daily basis wakes from a fall believing she is suddenly the most beautiful and capable woman on the planet. With this newfound confidence she is empowered to live her life fearlessly and flawlessly, but what will happen when she realizes her appearance never changed?

• 20 Million Miles to Earth (Standard Edition) | Blu Ray | (22/03/2021) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A US rocket returning from Venus crash lands off the Italian coast, bringing back with it a strange creature that quickly begins to grow to terrifying proportions Clearly indebted to King Kong, and employing that film's empathetic approach to its 'monster' (a trope that Harryhausen would continue to employ throughout his career), 20 Million Miles to Earth is a terrific slice of fifties sci-fi. It boasts some of Harryhausen's finest work of the period, as well one of his most beloved and enduring creature creations. Extras High Definition remasters of the original black & white and authorised alternative colour versions Original mono audio Alternative 5.1 surround soundtrack Audio commentary with Ray Harryhausen, visual effects artists Dennis Muren and Phil Tippett, and documentary producer Arnold Kunert Finding Harryhausen (2017, 12 mins): a new interview with SFX maestro Dennis Muren Remembering ˜20 Million Miles to Earth' (2007, 27 mins): a look at the making of the film Interview with actor Joan Taylor (2007, 18 mins) Film Music's Unsung Hero (2007, 23 mins): film music expert David Schecter on composer Mischa Bakaleinikoff The Colourisation Process (2007, 11 mins): Harryhausen expert Arnold Kunert details the press and advertising materials produced to market Harryhausen's films 20 Million Miles More: sample pages from the comic book inspired by the film Super 8 version Theatrical trailer Image gallery: extensive promotional and on-set photography, poster art and archive materials New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing

• I Feel Pretty | Blu Ray | (10/09/2018) from £7.00   |  Saving you £2.59 (27.00%)   |  RRP £9.59

  In I FEEL PRETTY a woman who struggles with feelings of insecurity and inadequacy on a daily basis wakes from a fall believing she is suddenly the most beautiful and capable woman on the planet. With this newfound confidence she is empowered to live her life fearlessly and flawlessly, but what will happen when she realizes her appearance never changed? Features:

• Ray Harryhausen Collection - 20 Million Miles To Earth/Earth Vs The Flying Saucers/It Came From Beneath The Sea | DVD | (03/03/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Titles Comprise: 20 Million Miles To Earth (1957): A US army rocket ship returning from an exploratory flight to Venus crashes into the sea of Sicily freeing a small native Venusian creature called the Ymir. Eventually growing to enormous size it threatens the city of Rome. Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers (1956): Aliens travel to Earth to seek help for their dying planet. However when they arrive at a U.S Army base the Army mistakenly greet them with gunfire... It Came From Beneath The Sea (1955): Submarine commander Pete Mathews (Kenneth Tobey) and scientists Lesley Joyce (Faith Domergue) and John Carter (Donald Curtis) battle an angry sea monster driven from the depths of the ocean by an H-bomb explosion. In search of non-contaminated food this tentacled tyrant counts among its victims a fishing trawler and its passengers a family sunning at the beach several San Francisco skyscrapers and even the Golden Gate Bridge!

• Perry Mason - Series 1 | DVD | (18/08/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Raymond Burr stars as the defense attorney who never lost a case in the landmark series Perry Mason. In every episode Mason matches wits with his courtroom adversary D.A. Hamilton Burger (William Talman). Every time Mason - aided by devoted secretary Della Street (Barbara Hale) and loyal private eye Paul Drake (William Hopper) - uncovers evidence that clears his client of murder.

• 20 Million Miles To Earth | DVD | (24/06/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Notable neither for its director nor its stars, 20 Million Miles to Earth has been given the widescreen spit 'n' polish treatment because of its special-effects man, the legendary Ray Harryhausen. And it's his work here that makes this daft slice of hokum so watchable. When a group of Italian boat fishermen investigate a crash-landed space rocket returned from a trip to Venus, they find one surviving all-American hero and an alien in aspic: the Emere, a tiny homunculus hungry for sulphur and growing faster than a teenager on steroids. Cue man-vs-alien mayhem, screenfuls of avuncular patriarchs and the gratuitous destruction of Rome. A by-numbers B-movie, Harryhausen's sixth feature isn't a patch on his later Technicolor masterpieces, but the unusual Italian setting ("I wanted a trip to Europe") adds an exotic quality and his effects are as solid and convincing as ever. The film only really begins to crackle when his stop-motion creation is onscreen. Like a scaly King Kong, he's as likely to engender sympathy as fear: surely anyone who's been bombed, blasted, burnt, electrocuted, shot at by trigger-happy squaddies and involved in a punch-up with a pachyderm is entitled to lose their rag a little. And fans will enjoy spotting in the Emere the flowerings of Harryhausen's later and greater creations, Sinbad's Cyclops and The Titans' Calibos and Kraken. The denouement, with the creature atop the Colosseum, is as effective as that of Kong's. It wasn't beauty who killed the beast here, however, it was bombs. On the DVD: 20 Million Miles to Earth's black and white picture is clean and crisp in this anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen transfer, and the Dolby digital mono soundtrack is clear enough. The theatrical trailer will please fans of kitsch, as will the featurette "This Is Dynamation" produced at the same time as the first Sinbad movie. The real corker here, though, is the generously lengthed documentary "The Harryhausen Chronicles". Narrated by Leonard Nimoy, this features a stellar cast of devotees (George Lucas among them) waxing lyrical about the influence of Harryhausen's films, and allows the man himself to ramble fascinatingly over clips of his filmic canon. The claw-slash menu marker is a nice touch, too. If you're a fan, this disc is Harryhausen heaven. --Paul Eisinger

• Perry Mason - Series 2 | DVD | (14/09/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Raymond Burr stars as the defense attorney who never lost a case in the landmark series Perry Mason. In every episode Mason matches wits with his courtroom adversary D.A. Hamilton Burger (William Talman). Every time Mason - aided by devoted secretary Della Street (Barbara Hale) and loyal private eye Paul Drake (William Hopper) - uncovers evidence that clears his client of murder.

• Conquest of Space (Imprint Limited Edition) | Blu Ray | (08/04/2022) from £30.85   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Rebel Without A Cause (2 Disc Special Edition) | DVD | (07/08/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £6.99

  Jim Stark... a kid from a 'good' family - what makes him tick... like a bomb? In one of cinemas most influential and gripping roles James Dean plays Jim Stark the new kid in town whose loneliness frustration and anger mirrored those of most postwar teens - and reverberates more than 40 years later. Natalie Wood (as Jim's girlfriend Judy) and Sal Mineo (in his screen debut as Jim's tag-along pal Plato) were Academy Award nominees for their achingly true performances. Director Nicholas Ray was also an Oscar nominee for this landmark film chosen as one of the Top-100 American Films by the American Film Institute.

• Rebel Without A Cause (Special Edition) | DVD | (07/08/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Jim Stark... a kid from a 'good' family - what makes him tick... like a bomb? In one of cinemas most influential and gripping roles James Dean plays Jim Stark the new kid in town whose loneliness frustration and anger mirrored those of most postwar teens - and reverberates more than 40 years later. Natalie Wood (as Jim's girlfriend Judy) and Sal Mineo (in his screen debut as Jim's tag-along pal Plato) were Academy Award nominees for their achingly true performances. Dir

• The Twilight Zone - Die komplette Serie | DVD | (10/11/2016) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A