Classic Films

• Battlestar Galactica | Blu Ray | (05/11/2013) from £21.95   |  Saving you £-6.96 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  In the deepest reaches of space the fight to save all human life from extinction has begun in this science fiction adventure that launched the Battlestar Galactica phenomenon! Hopeful for lasting peace following centuries of intense warfare the Twelve Colonies gather to sign a treaty with their dreaded enemies the Cylons. But after an act of treachery on the eve of the ceremony the Cylons launch a devastating surprise attack destroying the Colonies' home planets and most of their military strength. A lone flagship battlestar the Galactica remains to aid the surviving colonists on their epic journey for a new home to a far-off legendary planet - Earth. They must survive the pursuing Cylons in a series of epic battles that will determine the fate of the human race in this non-stop action-packed classic filled with cutting-edge special effects by John Dykstra (Star Wars Spider-Man).

• Edvard Munch (1974) (Masters of Cinema) (Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (13/06/2016) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Described by Ingmar Bergman as a work of genius, Peter Watkins' multi-faceted masterwork is more than just a biopic of the iconic Norwegian Expressionist painter; it is one of the best films ever made about the artistic process. Focusing initially on Munch's formative years in late 19th century Kristiania (now Oslo), Watkins uses his trademark vérité style to create a vivid picture of the emotional, political, and social upheavals that would have such an effect on his art. The young artist (Geir Westby) has an affair with Mrs. Heiberg (Gro Fraas), a devastating experience that will haunt him for the rest of his life. His work is viciously attacked by critics and public alike and he is forced to leave his home country for Berlin, where, along with the notorious Swedish playwright August Strindberg, he becomes part of the cultural storm that is to sweep Europe. There have been countless film biographies of famous artists, but only a handful can be considered major works in their own right. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Watkins' extended 221-minute version, in a new Blu-ray presentation. Special Features: Director-approved high-definition restoration of the long version Optional SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing 80-PAGE BOOK with a Peter Watkins self-interview, writing by Joseph Gomez, a Munch timeline, and numerous artworks

• A Farewell to Arms | DVD | (05/11/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  This dense adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's novel features Rock Hudson as American soldier Lt. Henry and his ill-fated love affair with British Nurse Catherine, portrayed by Jennifer Jones, during World War I. The two lovers will stop at nothing to be together but Lt. Henry's internal struggles ultimately threaten the relationship. Hemingway's theme of questioning the nature of war and fighting is fully recognised under Charles Vidor's direction.

• The Sound Of Music - 2 disc Special Edition | DVD | (09/04/2001) from £12.82   |  Saving you £7.17 (55.93%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The most widely seen movie produced by a Hollywood studio, The Sound of Music grows fresher with each viewing. Though it was planned meticulously in pre-production (save for the scene where Maria and the children take a dipping in an Austrian lake that nearly cost a life), on each viewing one is struck anew by the spontaneous almost improvisatory air of the acting, notably of Julie Andrews under Robert Wise's direction. There are also the little human touches he brings to, for instance, the scene where Maria leads the children to the hills, over bridges and along tow paths where the smallest boy trips up and momentarily gets left behind: it creates a feeling that most of us have encountered. From the opening pre-credit sequence of muted excitement as the camera roves over the Austrian Alps (photographed in magnificent colour), where little phrases from the wind instruments on the soundtrack are flung as if on the breeze, foreshadowing the title song to follow, the production never puts a foot wrong. On the DVD: On the first disc the film itself has never looked or sounded better since its original presentation in Todd AO (prints of which are said to have disappeared forever). The disc also contains a separate audio guide that takes the viewer through the film sequence by sequence, with director Robert Wise commenting on the weather, the production design by Boris Leven, the sequences filmed on location and in Hollywood (like the interiors of the Von Trapp villa), and the naming of other actors who were eager for the lead roles, notably Doris Day and Yul Brynner. On the second disc there are the documentaries. "Salzburg Sight and Sound" was Charmian Carr's own record of her time on location in the summer of 1964, playing Liesl, the eldest Von Trapp daughter. "From Fact to Fiction", running two hours, begins with the birth of Maria in 1905 who inspired the film, charts her subsequent marriage to Captain Von Trapp, their escape from Nazi Germany not across the Alps but via a train across the Italian boarder, their home in Vermont and thence to the German film of the family that was brought to the attention of Rodgers and Hammerstein as an ideal vehicle for a stage musical. A second group of documentaries covers previews, television and radio commercials and a 1973 interview with Wise and Andrews. Overall, this is a marathon package but in its way is as compelling as the film itself. --Adrian Edwards

• All About Eve | DVD | (23/07/2012) from £9.15   |  Saving you £0.84 (9.18%)   |  RRP £9.99

  An ingenue insinuates herself in to the company of an established but aging stage actress and her circle of theater friends.

• The Likely Lads | DVD | (01/04/2019) from £11.85   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Spinning off from the incredibly popular 1960s sitcom and its BAFTA-winning 1970s sequel, James Bolam and Rodney Bewes star as Terry Collier and Bob Ferris, two life-long friends with vastly different outlooks on life! Written by comedy legends Dick Clement and Ian la Frenais - who would go on to further success with series like Porridge and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet - The Likely Lads is presented here as a brand-new transfer from the original film elements in its original theatrical aspect ratio. Thelma's continued annoyance at her husband Bob's disruptive friend shows no sign of abating. But when Terry lands himself a new girlfriend Thelma sees her chance to finally get Terry married off and out of her and Bob's life forever! Her solution of touring the north of England in a caravan, however, leaves a lot to be desired...

• Double Indemnity | Blu Ray | (25/06/2012) from £17.25   |  Saving you £4.00 (25.02%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Director Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard) and writer Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep) adapted James M. Cain's hard-boiled novel into this wildly thrilling story of insurance man Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), who schemes the perfect murder with the beautiful dame Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck: kill Dietrichson's husband and make off with the insurance money. But, of course, in these plots things never quite go as planned, and Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) is the wily insurance investigator who must sort things out. From the opening scene you know Neff is doomed, as the story is told in flashback; yet, to the film's credit, this doesn't diminish any of the tension of the movie. This early film noir flick is wonderfully campy by today's standards, and the dialogue is snappy ("I thought you were smarter than the rest, Walter. But I was wrong. You're not smarter, just a little taller"), filled with lots of "dame"s and "baby"s. Stanwyck is the ultimate femme fatale, and MacMurray, despite a career largely defined by roles as a softy (notably in the TV series My Three Sons and the movie The Shaggy Dog), is convincingly cast against type as the hapless, love-struck sap. --Jenny Brown

• Escape from Alcatraz | Blu Ray | (03/06/2013) from £7.99   |  Saving you £12.00 (150.19%)   |  RRP £19.99

  One of Clint Eastwood's two most important filmmaking mentors was Don Siegel (the other was Sergio Leone), who directed Eastwood in Dirty Harry, Coogan's Bluff, Two Mules for Sister Sara and this enigmatic, 1979 drama based on a true story about an escape from the island prison of Alcatraz. Eastwood plays a new convict who enters into a kind of mind game with the chilly warden (Patrick McGoohan) and organises a break leading into the treacherous waters off San Francisco. As jailbird movies go, this isn't just a grotty, unpleasant experience but a character-driven work with some haunting twists. --Tom Keogh

• L'Avventura | Blu Ray | (30/05/2016) from £17.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (55.59%)   |  RRP £27.99

  MICHELANGELO ANTONIONI (La notte) invented a new film grammar with this masterwork. An iconic piece of challenging 1960s cinema and a gripping narrative in its own right, L'avventura concerns the enigmatic disappearance of a young woman during a yachting trip off the coast of Sicily, and the search taken up by her disaffected lover (Once Upon a Time in the West's GABRIELE FERZETTI) and best friend (L'eclisse's MONICA VITTI, in her breakout role). Antonioni's controversial international sensation is a gorgeously shot tale of modern ennui and spiritual isolation. Special Features: New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack Audio commentary featuring film historian Gene Youngblood Selected-scene commentary by filmmaker Olivier Assayas Antonioni: Documents and Testimonials, a fifty-eight minute 1966 documentary by Gianfranco Mingozzi Writings by director Michelangelo Antonioni, read by actor Jack Nicholson, plus Nicholson's personal recollections of the director New English subtitle translation Trailer PLUS: An essay by critic Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, along with the statement Antonioni made about the film and the letter that circulated in support of it after its 1960 Cannes premiere Click Images to Enlarge

• The Jerk | Blu Ray | (05/08/2013) from £9.89   |  Saving you £5.10 (51.57%)   |  RRP £14.99

  That wild and crazy guy Steve Martin makes his film-starring debut in the wacky comedy hit The Jerk. Steve plays Navin Johnson the adopted son of a poor black sharecropper family whose crazy inventions lead him from rags to riches... right back to rags. Steve propels Navin through a string of misadventures becoming smitten with a lady motorcycle racer surviving a series of screwball attacks by a deranged killer and becoming a millionaire by inventing the Opti-grab handle for eyeglasses–and shows why he’s one of the hottest comic performers in the world.

• Quo Vadis | Blu Ray | (02/02/2009) from £7.99   |  Saving you £12.00 (150.19%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Before 300... Before Gladiator... Before Ben-Hur... There Was Quo Vadis. Rome burns. Nero fiddles. Christianity rises. And moviegoers turned out in throngs for this years-in-the-making film colossus boasting eight Oscar nominations (including Best Picture) and featuring 110 speaking parts 30 000 participants and a filmed-on-location panoply of marching legions magisterial pageantry and massive spectacle that includes the martyrdom of Christians thrown to the lions before cheering Coliseum throngs. Robert Taylor plays the Legion commander whose love for a Christian slave girl (Deborah Kerr) crosses the divide between Empire and a sect with a higher loyalty. Presiding over all is Nero (Peter Ustinov). He is Caesar madman murderer - an imperial ruler of the spectacular and spectacularly doomed glory that was Rome.

• Magical Mystery Tour | DVD | (08/10/2012) from £10.39   |  Saving you £2.07 (19.92%)   |  RRP £12.46

  Songs you'll never forget, the film you've never seen and a story that's never been heard. In 1967, in the wake of the extraordinary impact of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album and the Our World satellite broadcast of All You Need Is Love, The Beatles devised, wrote and directed their third film, Magical Mystery Tour, a dreamlike story of a coach day trip to the seaside. Apple Films have fully restored the long out-of-print, classic feature film for October 8th release worldwide...

• The Goose Steps Out - 75th Anniversary (Digitally Restored) | Blu Ray | (15/05/2017) from £11.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Comedy legend Will Hay stars as William Potts, a hapless, clumsy schoolteacher, who just happens to be an identical body double for a notorious German Nazi general. When the army is made aware of this uncanny resemblance to the German, who they are currently holding prisoner; they decide to drop the reluctant Mr Potts behind enemy lines. His deadly mission is to find and retrieve information on a secret weapon that the Germans are planning to use. But whilst impersonating the Nazi general, William Potts manages to infiltrate the college of Hitler Youth. He also manages to make a big impression on the students who are being trained as spies and are learning how to fit into British society. Luckily Mr Potts is at hand to give them lots of handy hints in honour of the war effort! Extras: Interview with Graham Rinaldi Go to Blazes Will Hay short BBC Radio 3 The Essay: British Film Comedians Will Hay Audio Featurette by Simon Heffer

• The Swimmer (Standard Edition) | Blu Ray | (25/03/2024) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  One of the few bona fide counter-cultural films to be produced by a major studio, The Swimmer is a sun-scorched and surreal suburban satire that boasts a fine performance from Burt Lancaster (Castle Keep, Buffalo Bill and the Indians) as Ned Merrill, the all-American man who one day determines to swim home to his Connecticut mansion via a series of pools in his neighbourhood. Directed by Frank Perry (Diary of a Mad Housewife) imbues Eleanor Perry's (David and Lisa, Ladybug Ladybug) adaptation of John Cheever's short story with stunning expressionistic flourishes, creating a true masterpiece of cinema. Product Features 2014 restoration from a 4K scan of the original negative Original mono audio Audio commentary with Frank Perry biographer Justin Bozung (2022) Marge Champion on 'The Swimmer' (2013, 18 mins): onstage interview with the actor, conducted by filmmaker Allison Anders at the Turner Classic Movies Film Festival, TCL Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, after a screening of The Swimmer Against the Tide (2022, 11 mins): actor, comedian and filmmaker Richard Ayoade discusses the unique genius of the Perrys' film 'The Swimmer' Read by John Cheever (2004, 26 mins): the original New Yorker short story read by the author Title sequence outtakes Isolated music & effects track Original theatrical trailer Illeana Douglas trailer commentary (2019, 6 mins) TV spots Image galleries: storyboards, deleted scenes, promotional and publicity material New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• Train Of Events | DVD | (02/02/2009) from £8.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (77.86%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Four different perspectives of a train disaster are told through a quartet of short stories.

• 13 Ghosts | DVD | (03/11/2016) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Pick-up Alley | Blu Ray | (04/11/2019) from £9.39   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Stylishly directed by genre film journeyman John Gilling (Plague of the Zombies), Pickup Alley is a long-unseen crime film gem, set amongst the seedy milieu of the international narcotics trade. Spurred on by the murder of his drug-addicted sister by ruthless crime boss Frank McNally (Trevor Howard, Brief Encounter), US agent Charles Sturgis (Victor Mature, Cry of the City) launches a transnational woman-hunt for McNally's shapely associate, Gina Broger (Anita Ekberg, Killer Nun, La dolce vita). His investigation takes him on a thrill-ride from New York to London, Lisbon, Rome, Naples and finally Athens... A globe-trotting adventure boasting a top-tier international cast, Pickup Alley affords the viewer shockingly frank portrayals of drug addiction; a glamourous travelogue of exotic locations, and intriguing depictions of sleazy villains. Produced by Irving Allen and Cubby Broccoli's Warwick Films, this British cult classic now makes a welcome return in High Definition with a heavy dose of new extras. SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS: High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation transferred from original film elements Uncompressed Mono 1.0 PCM audio soundtrack Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing The Warwick Way, writer and curator Josephine Botting on the prolific and successful production company, Warwick Films Original 1957 US theatrical release prologue by Congressman Hale Boggs, Chairman of the US Senate Committee of Narcotics Original theatrical trailer and TV spot Image gallery Reversible sleeve featuring two original artwork options FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Fully Illustrated booklet with a newly commissioned essay by British cinema scholar Robert Murphy

• The Thomas Crown Affair | Blu Ray | (02/09/2013) from £6.79   |  Saving you £6.20 (91.31%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Millionaire businessman Thomas Crown (Steve McQueen) is also a high-stakes thief; his latest caper is an elaborate heist at a Boston bank. Why does he do it? For the same reason he flies gliders, bets on golf strokes and races dune buggies: he needs the thrill to feel alive. Insurance investigator Vicky Anderson (Faye Dunaway) gets her own thrills by busting crooks, and she's got Crown in her cross hairs. Naturally, these two will get it on, because they have a lot in common: they're not people, they're walking clothes racks. (McQueen looks like he'd rather be in jeans than Crown's natty three-piece suits.) The Thomas Crown Affair is a catalogue of 60s conventions, from its clipped editing style to its photographic trickery (the inventive Haskell Wexler behind the camera) to its mod design. You can almost sense director Norman Jewison deciding to "tell his story visually," like those newfangled European films; this would explain the long passages of Michel Legrand's lounge jazz ladled over endless montages of the pretty Dunaway and McQueen at play. (The opening-credits song, "Windmills of Your Mind," won an Oscar.) It's like a "What Kind of Man Reads Playboy?" ad come to life, and much more interesting as a cultural snapshot than a piece of storytelling. --Robert Horton

• Flaming Star | DVD | (06/08/2012) from £17.01   |  Saving you £-7.02 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  In the years following the Civil War, Western Texas has become an uneasy meeting ground of two cultures; one white, the other Native American. Elvis stars as Pacer Burton, the son of a white rancher andihis beautiful Kiowan wife (Dolores Del Rio). When fighting breaks out between the settlers and natives, despite his peacemaking efforts, Pacer is pulled into the deadly violence.

• On The Waterfront | Blu Ray | (11/08/2014) from £9.59   |  Saving you £3.40 (35.45%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Marlon Brando is the longshoreman who finds himself increasingly isolated when he challenges the might and power of the tough New York City dockers' Union. Rod Steiger is his elder brother torn between loyalty to union and love of family. Lee J. Cobb is the powerful union boss while Eva Marie Saint is the girl with whom Brando falls in love. Winner of 8 Oscars including Best Picture Best Actor Best Support Actress Best Director and Best Screenplay this devastating film has since its first screening become one of the movie greats.