Classic Films

• Funny Girl / Funny Lady | DVD | (04/03/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Like giant monuments to good old-fashioned star quality, Funny Girl (1968) and Funny Lady (1975) hark back to the golden days of American vaudeville, while essentially celebrating one of the great, egotistical show-business talents of all time. Viewed end to end, these two films, which tell the story of Ziegfeld comedienne Fanny Brice, run for almost five hours. That's a lot of biopic. But with the greatest of respect to Brice, undoubtedly a formidable star of her time, the talent really in the spotlight here belongs to Barbra Streisand. Streisand created the role of Fanny Brice in the 1964 Broadway stage musical and her performance for the big screen is a tour de force, fully deserving the Best Actress Oscar which she received. As a biopic, Funny Girl is superior fare, full of sumptuous production numbers. Brice's glory days are explored against the background of her turbulent private life with her flawed playboy husband Nicky Arnstein (a sympathetic performance from Omar Sharif) with considerable attention to the details of her inner turmoil. More rambling and less cohesive, Funny Lady finds Fanny divorced but still in love with Arnstein (Sharif also revisiting his role), drifting into marriage number two with uncouth songwriter and impresario Billy Rose (the excellent James Caan), her successful career again juxtaposed with a less than happy personal life. Combined, both films measure Streisand's rise to greatness. In Funny Girl, the bravura of the performance as a whole masks occasional gaucheness, while if Funny Lady is the less impressive picture overall, it still marks how far she has developed as a screen actress. The rough edges are gone, replaced by a sophisticated poise and the sense of a talent that has come to terms with itself. And of course throughout she is superb in the musical numbers, which include her theme song "People" and the classic belter "Don't Rain on my Parade", as well as Brice's classic torch song, "My Man". On the DVD: this package of tremendous, old-fashioned entertainment takes the viewer back to pre-multiplex days when going to the cinema was an event you might dress up for. Funny Lady's soundtrack includes a pre-picture "Overture" to give you time to unwrap the chocolates. You really need some plush velvet curtains to swing back across the television screen. Then, guaranteeing a twinge of nostalgia, there's an intermission break. Both films are presented in their original widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Dolby Digital 5.0 (Funny Girl) and LCR (Funny Lady) soundtracks do justice to Streisand's lung power. The first disc offers the most interesting extras, including a couple of featurettes about Streisand. Both discs provide standard filmographies and song highlights so Streisand addicts can skip between numbers to their hearts' content.--Piers Ford

• Take a Girl Like You (Standard Edition) | Blu Ray | (29/05/2023) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Jonathan Miller's film of Kingsley Amis' comic novel (adapted for the screen by George Melly), casts Hayley Mills (Whistle Down the Wind, Twisted Nerve) as a naïve young girl who moves from the North of England to teach in a London school and finds herself fending off the advances of a number of lusty suitors, including Oliver Reed, John Bird and Noel Harrison. As much a document of its time as a satire on the sexual mores (and confusions) of the period, Miller's still remarkably fresh debut feature is buoyed by its terrific cast and a typically excellent Stanley Myers score. Product Features High Definition remaster Original mono audio A New Era Revisited (2019, 15 mins): in-depth interview with celebrated actor Hayley Mills Now and Then: Jonathan Miller (1967, 42 mins): archival interview featuring the polymath director in conversation with broadcaster Bernard Braden Make a Film Like You (2019, 8 mins): production manager Denis Johnson Jnr and assistant director Joe Marks recalls the making of Take a Girl Like You Isolated music & effects track Original theatrical trailers Image gallery: on-set and promotional photography New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• Nicholas Nickleby | DVD | (13/11/2006) from £10.98   |  Saving you £2.01 (15.50%)   |  RRP £12.99

  When Nicholas Nickleby's father dies and leaves his family destitute his uncle the greedy moneylender Ralph Nickleby finds Nicholas a job teaching in a repulsive school in Yorkshire. Nicholas flees the school taking with him one of the persecuted boys Smike and they join a troop of actors. Nicholas then has to protect Smike while trying to stop his Uncle Ralph taking advantage of his sister Kate and later his sweetheart Madeline Bray whose father is in debtor's prison.... A glorious Ealing Studios adaptation of Charles Dickens' celebrated novel!

• The Titfield Thunderbolt | DVD | (13/11/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  When an antiquated railway line is threatened with closure the villagers decide to run it themselves and enter into frenzied competition with the local bus route with hilarious consequences! Director Charles Crichton and writer Tibby Clarke team up again for the first Ealing comedy to be produced in Technicolor. The defiance of authority by local inhabitants was a favourite topic in the 40's and 50's and embellishes the characteristic Ealing theme - 'small is beautiful and big is bad'.

• The Misfits | DVD | (18/09/2023) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• On The Beach | Blu Ray | (16/10/2015) from £18.75   |  Saving you £1.24 (6.61%)   |  RRP £19.99

  After World War III is over, all life in the northern hemisphere is wiped out. Only the inhabitants of Australia, along with the crew of the US submarine Sawfish, survive. But when the Sawfish goes on an exploratory journey to assess the atmosphere, it soon becomes apparent that the end is near for everyone. Acclaimed Hollywood film-maker Stanley Kramer (Inherit the Wind, Judgement at Nuremberg) directs an all-star cast which includes Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner and Fred Astaire, along with Anthony Perkins and Donna Anderson as the young parents who must make a terrible decision, in one the most powerful films of all time.

• Hobson's Choice / The Sound Barrier | DVD | (14/04/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Hobson's Choice (1953) and The Sound Barrier (1952) is a double bill of cleverly juxtaposed films from David Lean's early canon, demonstrating that even without the landmark epics to come, British cinema would have been an infinitely poorer place without his tremendous contribution. Both films reflect his endlessly penetrating view of human behaviour and its perseverance through obstacles great and small. And both are effectively prisms that reflect all the aspects of that view, keeping the audience's sympathies constantly on the move. Hobson's Choice, based on Harold Brighouse's eternally popular 1916 comedy, boasts fine turns from Charles Laughton--at his brilliant, physical best--as the boot-shop owner with three troublesome daughters, and John Mills as the lowly boot maker, elevated and improved by the eldest daughter Maggie in a neat inversion of the Pygmalion fable. But both are kept in their place by Brenda de Banzie's portrayal of Maggie, a performance that glows with intelligence, truth and increasing warmth. The Sound Barrier is a drama about the race for a supersonic aeroplane. Superficially, its setting is quintessential post-World War II Britain: stiff upper lips, twin beds and clipped Rattigan dialogue. But it's prescient stuff. Ralph Richardson's aircraft manufacturer, sinister in his obsession, is an ominously skilful film performance. And Lean's take on the unthinkable cost of human achievement, interwoven with some spectacular cinematography, absorbs and unsettles. It's especially poignant now that the supersonic age has been summarily ended by Concorde's retirement. On the DVD: Hobson's Choice and The Sound Barrier are both black-and-white films presented in 4:3 picture format, from reasonable prints, and with a mono soundtrack of suitably robust quality for Malcolm Arnold's inventive scores. There are no extras, apart from scene indexes. --Piers Ford

• Farewell My Lovely | DVD | (12/02/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  They say crime doesn't pay. Private detective Phillip Marlowe knows better. The fat wad of folding money warming his breast pocket is the kind of thing that keeps him going through thick and thicker as he wades chin deep into a mystery involving a missing necklace and a missing hoodlum's moll named Velma. Sharply directed by Edward Dymytrk Murder My Sweet is film at its most noir creating a moody sense of a world that never plays on the level. Casting against type Dick Powell puts sunny crooner roles behind him dishing hardboiled patter and wearing five-going-on-six-o'clock stubble so well that source author Raymond Chandler called Powell his favorite screen Marlowe. ""I'm just a small businessman in a very messy business "" the PI observes. With wit and trendsetting style to burn it's never business as usual.

• The Story Of The 1966 World Cup | DVD | (16/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  This is the story of the most triumphant moment in English sport the success of the 1966 England football team. Featuring interviews with the surviving members of that great team take a nostalgic look back at how England with the added benefit of playing on home soil progressed through the competition to that memorable final against West Germany.

• The Sting | Blu Ray | (10/09/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  In 1930s Illinois, young hustler Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) vows revenge after his older partner (Robert Earl Jones) is murdered at the behest of kingpin Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw) in retribution for a con pulled on one of his runners. Travelling to Chicago, Hooker teams up with old hand Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman), and together they plan the ultimate 'sting' against Donnegan. This re-teaming of Robert Redford and Paul Newman, following the success of 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid', won seven Oscars and helped repopularize the music of Scott Joplin, which features heavily on Marvin Hamlisch's soundtrack.

• Shaft 1-3: Shaft/Shaft's Big Score!/Shaft in Africa | DVD | (27/07/2020) from £16.65   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  When Harlem P.I John Shaft first appeared on the movie scene, he was a 'shut your mouth' detective to reckon with, a fact underscored by Isaac Hayes' Oscar - winning Best Original Song (1971). Richard Roundtree plays the hard-hitting, street- smart title role, hunting for a kidnap victim in Shaft (1971) and seeking a friend's murderer in Shaft's Big Score! - mixing it up with mob thugs each time. Finally, there's Shaft in Africa, with our hero bringing down a slavery cartel. Shaft's the name. Excitement's the game! Special Features: Thatrical Trailers Featurette

• Little Caesar | DVD | (19/06/2006) from £19.90   |  Saving you £-1.91 (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Edward G. Robinson stars as Enrico Bandelli in the role that made him a household name. Bandelli moves to the big city with partner in crime Joe Massara (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) and becomes a member of Sam Vettori's Mafia gang. In spite of the urgings of pretty girl Olga Strassoff (Glenda Farell) to quit the mob Rico quickly becomes the head of the Vettori gang and with a couple of quick kills scares mob boss Arnie Lorch back to Detroit. Bandelli dubbed Little Caesar by the press is known as a boss in his own right but what goes up must come down...

• Voices (Standard Edition) | Blu Ray | (22/04/2024) from £13.79   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Real-life husband and wife David Hemmings (Blowup, Deep Red) and Gayle Hunnicutt (Eye of the Cat, Fragment of Fear) star in this tense British shocker from director Kevin Billington (The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer). After a tragic family accident, Claire (Hunnicutt) suffers a mental breakdown. In an effort to help her recovery, Robert (Hemmings), her husband, takes her to convalesce in a grand country house, but her already fragile sanity is soon threatened by ghostly apparitions and terrifying visions. Product Features New restoration from a 4K scan of the original separation masters by Powerhouse Films Authentic presentation of this unique mixed-media production, which combines film-shot and video-captured material Original mono audio Audio commentary with writers and film experts Barry Forshaw and Kim Newman (2022) Wide Boys (2022, 18 mins): film historian Vic Pratt charts the ups and downs of John Daly and David Hemmings' production company, Hemdale Mon Brave! (2022, 8 mins): filmmaker Peter Crane recalls his personal and professional relationship with Hemmings Voices from the Past (2022, 4 mins): a look at the challenges of restoring Voices Image gallery: promotional and publicity material New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• Trottie True | DVD | (03/05/2021) from £10.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• The Master Of Bankdam | DVD | (20/08/2007) from £17.53   |  Saving you £-4.54 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  An epic film drama on the lives of three generations of Yorkshire mill-owners during Britain's turbulent Industrial Revolution. Simeon Crowther (Tom Walls) decides to hand over the family textile mill of Bankdam to his two sons Joshua (Dennis Price) and Zebediah (Stephen Murray). But Zebediah's reckless attitude endangers the whole survival of the family business and as catastrophe strikes the mill and they clash with the emerging trade union movement; who will save the mill and earn the title of The Master of Bankdam? First ever DVD release of this period Northern drama set amongst the dark satanic mills of Yorkshire. Renowned for coining the phrase 'there's trouble at t'mill.' An all-star cast with many small first-time appearances from stars such as Nicolas Parsons Part of the Odeon series 'Best of British' which showcases lost or unreleased films from the heyday of British cinema.

• Stanley Kubrick | DVD | (10/09/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £99.99

  This superb nine-disc Stanley Kubrick Box Set contains all the late director's work from 1962's Lolita to Kubrick's final film, the highly controversial Eyes Wide Shut (1999). There's also the excellent and highly informative two-hour documentary: Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures, narrated (a little drably) by Tom Cruise. It isn't exactly a warts-and-all portrait of Stan the Man, which is not surprising, really, given that it's directed and produced by Kubrick's brother-in-law Jan Harlan, and that Kubrick's widow Christine was closely involved in the making of it. But it does give a detailed and revealing portrait of a brilliant, demanding and often infuriating man, airing rare footage that goes right back to his earliest years as a brash youngster in the Bronx, already playing to camera with a frightening degree of self-awareness. Six of the eight movies (all but Dr Strangelove and Eyes Wide Shut) have been digitally restored and remastered, and almost all (barring Strangelove again and Lolita) now boast Dolby Digital 5.1 stereo sound remixes. For some bizarre reason, Kubrick insisted on mono sound for the 1999 set, which he approved shortly before his death. Visually the improvement over the often grainy, scratchy prints previously on offer--The Shining (1980) was notoriously messy--is immense. All the features are presented in their original ratios, which in the case of Strangelove means the changing ratios in which it was originally shot, and for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) the full glorious 2.21:1 expanse of the Cinerama screen.So what don't you get? Essentially, the early Kubrick--the work of the young, hungry director before he moved to England and started to gather all the controlling strings into his own hand: most notably the tough, taut thriller The Killing (1956) and the icily furious war film Paths of Glory (1957). Too bad Warners couldn't have negotiated the rights for those too. But what we have here is the culminating phase of Kubrick's filmmaking career--the final 27 years of one of the great masters of cinema. On the DVDs: Besides the visual and sonic improvements mentioned above, each of the eight features includes the original theatrical trailer and multiple-language subtitles. The DVD of Dr Strangelove also gives us filmographies of the principal players, plus theatrical posters and a photo gallery, while Eyes Wide Shut includes interviews (taped after Kubrick's death) with Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and Steven Spielberg, plus a couple of 30-second TV spots. And with The Shining we get a fascinating 34-minute documentary made by Kubrick's then 17-year-old daughter Vivian, plus--just to add a further layer--Vivian's present-day voice-over commentary on her film. --Philip Kemp

• Zulu | Blu Ray | (03/11/2008) from £14.44   |  Saving you £5.55 (38.43%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The year: 1879. The place: Natal Africa. One British garrison has already fallen to a huge army of Zulu tribesmen. The fearless native warriors are now heading for the isolated colonial outpost of Rorke's Drift which is manned by no more than a hundred South Wales Borderers. A stirring tale of courage under fire Zulu boasts fine performances from Michael Caine and Stanley Baker as conflicting British officers and an unforgettable rendition of Men of Harlech.

• The Thin Man | DVD | (28/06/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  An explosives manufacturer suspects a young man is out to kill him. He calls in Nick and Nora (with new baby) to sort things out.

• Tony Hancock: The Rebel / The Punch And Judy Man | DVD | (14/04/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The Rebel (1961) and The Punch and Judy Man (1963) are the only two feature films made expressly as star vehicles for the great television comic Tony Hancock. The Rebel is by far the more ambitious, being in colour with Parisian locations, a large cast, and not least a supporting role for international star George Sanders. The opening rebellion against office life surely inspired The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, while references follow to Look Back in Anger (1958) and Billy Wilder's The Apartment (1960) and Some Like It Hot (1959). Hancock goes to Paris to follow his artistic muse and as he rises through the art world his naivety is taken for genius, allowing for some very funny moments and spot-on satire, which are just as relevant today as 40 years ago. Filmed in black-and-white in Bognor Regis, The Punch and Judy Man is a more modest yet evocative portrait of life in a small coastal resort. Hancock is the titular beach entertainer who is happy to live from day to day with the affable companionship of John Le Mesurier and Hugh Lloyd. The problem is he's burdened with a socially ambitious wife, Sylvia Syms. Gentle humour comes from Hancock's frustrations as a proto-Basil Fawlty, and the film, packed with familiar British character actors, has an old-fashioned charm. It makes for an enjoyable supporting feature to The Rebel, which is undoubtedly a minor classic. On the DVD: Tony Hancock Double Feature presents both films at 4:3 ratio. The earlier film looks decidedly cropped in several scenes, though the latter survives the reformatting largely unscathed. The Rebel's colour is faded and the image grainy, while The Punch and Judy Man generally has a much stronger black and white image. Even so, there is some flickering and print damage. The music is distorted in The Rebel but the mono sound is fine during The Punch and Judy Man. There are no extras. --Gary S Dalkin

• Carry On Screaming | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £9.35   |  Saving you £6.64 (71.02%)   |  RRP £15.99

  One of the funniest Carry Ons ever! Who is stealing virgins and turning them into shop-window mannequins? What is the meaning of the gigantic hairy finger found at the scene of the latest crime? What clues can the mad professor or his deathly pale and impossibly buxom sister provide to the hopeless Detective Bung?