Classic Films

• Peeping Tom - Special Edition | DVD | (26/03/2007) from £14.95   |  Saving you £3.04 (20.33%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Enter the insane mind of a psycho-killer obsessed with recording on film the most intense fear as it registers on the faces of desirable women. His camera tripod is fitted with a long blade designed to penetrate victims through the neck. And while they watch their own deaths reflected in a mirror attachment he captures their last gasps on celluloid for his evil home movie collection.

• The Lost Weekend | Blu Ray | (25/06/2012) from £31.98   |  Saving you £-7.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  "I'm not a drinker--I'm a drunk." These words, and the serious message behind them, were still potent enough in 1945 to shock audiences flocking to The Lost Weekend. The speaker is Don Birnam (Ray Milland), a handsome, talented, articulate alcoholic. The writing team of producer Charles Brackett and director Billy Wilder pull no punches in their depiction of Birnam's massive weekend bender, a tailspin that finds him reeling from his favorite watering hole to Bellevue Hospital. Location shooting in New York helps the street-level atmosphere, especially a sequence in which Birnam, a budding writer, tries to hock his typewriter for booze money. He desperately staggers past shuttered storefronts--it's Yom Kippur, and the pawnshops are closed. Milland, previously known as a lightweight leading man (he'd starred in Wilder's hilarious The Major and the Minor three years earlier), burrows convincingly under the skin of the character, whether waxing poetic about the escape of drinking or screaming his lungs out in the D.T.'s sequence. Wilder, having just made the ultra-noir Double Indemnity, brought a new kind of frankness and darkness to Hollywood's treatment of a social problem. At first the film may have seemed too bold; Paramount Pictures nearly killed the release of the picture after it tested poorly with preview audiences. But once in release, The Lost Weekend became a substantial hit, and won four Oscars: for picture, director, screenplay, and actor. --Robert Horton

• A French Mistress | DVD | (02/02/2009) from £8.00   |  Saving you £7.99 (99.88%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A French Mistress

• The Black Pirate | DVD | (18/04/2011) from £14.98   |  Saving you £1.01 (6.74%)   |  RRP £15.99

  This 1926 silent tale of great adventure on the high seas stars Douglas Fairbanks - 'The King of Hollywood' - in one of his signature swashbuckling roles. Fairbanks plays an aristocrat who joins a pirate crew in order to avenge the death of his father. Along the way he rescues a beautiful princess discovered onboard the ship. This was the first major film to be made entirely in Technicolor and contains one of the silent screen's most spectacular stunts. This DVD edition features a restored version of the film.

• The Last Rampage (DVD) | DVD | (03/06/2019) from £5.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  NOTICE: Polish Release, cover may contain Polish text/markings. The disk has English audio.

• Metropolis | Blu Ray | (19/01/2015) from £31.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  If you think you know Fritz Lang's Metropolis backwards, this special edition will come as a revelation. Shortly after its premiere, the expensive epic--originally well over two hours--was pulled from distribution and re-edited against Lang's wishes, and this truncated, simplified form is what we have known ever since 1926. Though not quite as fully restored as the strapline claims, this 118-minute version is the closest we are likely to get to Lang's original vision, complete with tactful linking titles to fill in the scenes that are irretrievably missing. Not only does this version add many scenes unseen for decades, but it restores their order in the original version. Until now, Metropolis has usually been rated as a spectacular but simplistic science fiction film, but this version reveals that the futuristic setting is not so much prophetic as mythical, with elements of 1920s architecture, industry, design and politics mingled with the mediaeval and the Biblical to produce images of striking strangeness: a futuristic robot burned at the stake, a steel-handed mad scientist who is also a 15th Century alchemist, the trudging workers of a vast factory plodding into the jaws of a machine that is also the ancient God Moloch. Gustav Frohlich's performance as the hero who represents the heart is still wildly overdone, but Rudolf Klein-Rogge's engineer Rotwang, Alfred Abel's Master of Metropolis and, especially, Brigitte Helm in the dual role of saintly saviour and metal femme fatale are astonishing. By restoring a great deal of story delving into the mixed motivations of the characters, the wild plot now makes more sense, and we can see that it is as much a twisted family drama as epic of repression, revolution and reconciliation. A masterpiece, and an essential purchase. On the DVD: Metropolis has been saddled with all manner of scores over the years, ranging from jazz through electronica to prog-rock, but here it is sensibly accompanied by the orchestral music Gottfried Huppertz wrote for it in the first place. An enormous amount of work has been done with damaged or incomplete elements to spruce the image up digitally, and so even the scenes that were in the film all along shine with a wealth of new detail and afford a far greater appreciation for the brilliance of art direction, special effects and Helm's clockwork sexbomb. A commentary written but not delivered by historian Ennio Patalas covers the symbolism of the film and annotates its images, but the production information is left to a measured but unchallenging 45-minute documentary on the second disc (little is made of the astounding parallel between the screen story in which Klein-Rogge's character tries to destroy the city because the Master stole his wife and the fact that Lang married the actor's wife Thea von Harbou, authoress of the Metropolis novel and screenplay!). There are galleries of production photographs and sketches; biographies of all the principals; and an illustrated lecture on the restoration process which uses before and after clips to reveal just how huge a task has been accomplished in this important work. --Kim Newman

• First of the Few | DVD | (02/04/2007) from £19.99   |  Saving you £-14.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  This classic 1942 war movie tells the true story of how two of the most remarkable men in aviation history - Spitfire designer R.J. Mitchell and his test pilot Jeffrey Quill - developed the aeroplane whose technological superiority helped Britain to win the vital battle of the skies. It features two of Britain's best-loved stars: Leslie Howard (who also directs and who tragically went missing in action shortly after the film was made) as Mitchell and David Niven as Quill. Scripted by two other great names from British cinema Miles Malleson and Anatole de Grunwald The First Of The Few also features a stirring score by William Walton.

• Young At Heart | DVD | (08/03/2004) from £11.51   |  Saving you £6.48 (56.30%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Barney Sloan (Frank Sinatra) is a cynical down-on-his-luck musician who reluctantly agrees to help his composer friend Alex Burke (Gig Young) with a new comedy he is working on. However Barney gains a new perspective on life and love when he meets Alex's irrepressibly perky fiancee Laurie (Doris Day) - and promptly falls in love with her! A musical remake of the 1938 film 'Four Daughters' with Sinatra offering definitively gloomy renditions of 'Someone to Watch Over Me' and 'One More for My Baby' before Day manages to put a smile on his face featuring a superb score written by Cole Porter and George and Ira Gershwin.

• The Ghost Of Frankenstein | DVD | (05/05/2008) from £11.16   |  Saving you £0.09 (0.91%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Two scientists - one good one evil - vie with each other to endow the Monster with a brain. Will it be sane? Hardwicke and Atwill have fun finding out.

• Circus Of Horrors | DVD | (30/04/2007) from £8.99   |  Saving you £1.00 (11.12%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A deranged plastic surgeon (Anton Diffring) takes over a traveling circus then transforms horribly disfigured young women into ravishing beauties and forces them to perform in his three-ring extravaganza. But when the re-sculpted lovelies try to escape the clutches of the obsessed doctor they begin to meet with sudden and horrific 'accidents.' Now the trapeze is swinging the knives are flying the wild animals are loose - and 'The Grisliest Show On Earth' is about to begin! Donald Pleasence (Halloween) Yvonne Monlaur (Brides Of Dracula) and Erika Remberg (The Lickerish Quartet) co-star in this notorious 1960 British cult classic from writer George Baxt (Horror Hotel) and director Sidney Hayers (Burn Witch Burn!) that shocked audiences worldwide with its disturbing scenes of sexual perversity sadism and violence.

• 1940s Great British Movies | DVD | (22/09/2014) from £12.48   |  Saving you £7.51 (60.18%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Boxset of four classic films from the 1940s. 'Sleeping Car to Trieste' (1948) stars Jean Kent and Albert Lieven. Set on board the Orient Express the film follows the story of a man named Charles Poole (Alan Wheatley) who has stolen an important political diary and is being pursued by two different people who want it back. 'It's Not Cricket' (1949) stars Basil Radford as Major Bright and Naunton Wayne as Captain Early - detectives who have recently been thrown out of the army for their failure to capture a notoriously evil Nazi Otto Fisch (Maurice Denham). The detectives are invited to a weekend of cricket by their old friend Gerald Lawson (Nigel Buchanan) but what Gerald doesn't realise is that the ball he has purchased for the match contains the famous Rothstein diamond, stolen by Fisch, who will stop at nothing to get it back. 'All Over the Town' (1949) is a British comedy drama starring Norman Wooland as a Royal Air Force pilot who returns to work as a newspaper reporter. After fighting in the Second World War, Nat Hearn (Wooland) resumes his former position at the Tormouth Clarion and finds himself working with Sally Thorpe (Sarah Churchill), the woman who was given his job when he left. When Nat is promoted to editor of the paper, he decides to use his new status to make changes within the publication that will benefit the town but in the process he angers powerful figures within the community. 'Once a Jolly Swagman' (1949) is a British drama about speedway racer Bill Fox (Dirk Bogarde). Factory worker Fox is bored of his daily life and decides to quit his job to become a motorbike racer. Success goes to his head as he leaves his wife (Sandra Dorne) for socialite Pat (Renee Asherson), but when tragedy strikes on the track he returns to his wife and joins a union to fight for riders' rights.

• Beethoven String Quartets (Julliard String Quartet) | DVD | (26/05/2008) from £10.49   |  Saving you £12.50 (119.16%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Beethoven:String 4Tets Ops 18/59/131

• The Honey Pot | Blu Ray | (30/11/2015) from £14.99   |  Saving you £5.00 (33.36%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Millionaire Cecil Fox (Harrison) feigns terminal illness in an attempt to trick three of his former mistresses and find out which of them really cares for him rather his money. The women soon come to his bedside, but what was intended as a wily scheme soon becomes serious as one of his former lovers attempts to give nature a helping hand... Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Joseph L. Mankiewicz (All about Eve), this comedy re-working of 'Volpone' stars the great Rex Harrison (My Fair Lady), Susan Hayward (Valley of the Dolls) and Cliff Robertson (Obsession).

• Aretha Franklin - Live at the Concertgebouw Concert | DVD | (28/07/2014) from £15.18   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Franklin achieved commercial acclaim and success with songs such as Respect (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman and Think. These hits and more helped her to gain the title The Queen of Soul achieving a number of top 10 hits in the UK charts.

• I'll Be Seeing You | DVD | (31/03/2008) from £6.73   |  Saving you £-1.74 (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Oscar winner Ginger Rogers and Joseph Cotten top a stellar cast in this tender wartime love story about two troubled strangers who meet by chance and try to crowd a lifetime of love and laughter into eight days. After serving half of a prison sentence for accidental manslaughter Mary Marshall (Rogers) is allowed a holiday furlough to visit her family. Keeping her history a secret she falls in love with a kindhearted G.I. (Cotten) who's struggling to overcome shell shock. Both long for a normal life. But can they have it if he learns the truth about her?

• West Side Story / Guys And Dolls / De-Lovely | DVD | (03/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  West Side Story: Garnering a total of ten Academy Awards - including Best Picture of 1961 - West Side Story set a brilliant standard for movie musicals that remains unsurpassed to this day. Directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins from Ernest Lehman's spectacular screenplay the film combines the unforgettable score of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim with Robbins' exuberant choreography to create a transcendent fusion of realism and fantasy that will forever be a feast for the eye the ear and ultimately the heart. A triumph on every level this electrifying musical sets the ageless tragedy of Romeo and Juliet against a backdrop of gang warfare in the slums of 1950's New York. Guys & Dolls: Based on the Broadway show from the Damon Runyon short story and filled to the brim with Frank Loesser tunes such as Luck Be a Lady and Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat this outrageously comic film featuring Marlon Brando's bold musical debut is a colorful tale about gamblers a feisty Salvation Army lass and a dance-hall girl with a pining heart. Veteran gambler Sky Masterson (Brando) takes a bet from Nathan Detroit (Frank Sinatra) that he can win the affection of a soldier (Jean Simmons) in the Salvation Army setting himself up to lose both his money and his heart. Romance is the last thing the gambler and the missionary expect and they fight against their attraction for all they're worth in glowing singing and dancing numbers. Love proves to be contagious as spicy dancer Miss Adelaide in a role re-created for the screen from Broadway by showstopper Vivian Blaine is determined to get her fiance Nathan to the altar one way or another. Stubby Kaye and B.S. Pully also reprise their stage roles in this glorious Cinemascope film that earned four Academy Award nominations. Guys And Dolls consistently ranks among the most popular film musicals of all time. De-Lovely: Directed by Irwin Winkler De-Lovely depicts the life of the great American composer Cole Porter (Kevin Kline). Despite his sexual preference for men Porter found inspiration and virtually unconditional love with Linda Lee (Ashley Judd). Told in flashback as Porter is near death the film follows the Porters' fabulous unconventional relationship from their meeting in Paris to their subsequent moves to Venice New York Hollywood and Williamstown as well as the many stops along the way. Kline perfectly captures the Porters' zest for life and seemingly inexhaustible need for love. Classic tunes such as Let's Do It Let's Fall in Love Let's Misbehave and Anything Goes take on whole new meanings when considered in the context of Porter and Lee's life together. Contemporary musical performers including Alanis Morissette Natalie Cole Robbie Williams Elvis Costello and Sheryl Crow appear in the film singing Porter standards.

• The Maltese Falcon | DVD | (05/02/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A gallery of high-living lowlifes will stop at nothing to get their sweaty hands on a jewel-encrusted falcon. Detective Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) wants to find out why - and who's gonna take the fall. This third screen version of Dashiell Hammett's novel is a film of firsts: John Huston's directorial debut rotund 62-year-old Sydney Greenstreet's screen debut film history's first film noir and Bogart's breakthrough role after years as a Warner contract player. When George Raft refused to work with a first-time director Bogart took on the role of Spade - and launched the most acclaimed period of his career. An all-star cast (including Greenstreet Mary Astor Peter Lorre and Elisha Cook Jr.) join Bogart in this crisply written sizzler that placed in the top quarter of the American Film Institute's 100 Greatest American Films list. Many say it's the best detective drama ever. Each time you see it you'll find it hard to disagree.

• Pool Of London | DVD | (17/08/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Pool Of London

• She Wore a Yellow Ribbon Blu-ray | Blu Ray | (07/06/2016) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Expresso Bongo | DVD | (10/10/2005) from £5.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Express Bongo