"Director: Bob Fosse"

• Cabaret - 30th Anniversary Special Edition | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £16.99   |  Saving you £-12.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Cabaret is one of those film musicals whose cultural and stylistic influence extend well beyond the cinema. It confirmed Bob Fosse's status as one of the boldest choreographers of the 20th century and gave Liza Minnelli an early peak in a film career which would never scale such heights again. Minnelli is both the film's strength--on its own merits her performance is an Oscar-winning tour de force--and weakness. The real Sally Bowles was a third-rate performer and just one of a rich gallery of characters; here, the constant allowances for Minnelli's star turns and mannerisms ultimately throw the story off balance. But the source material is impeccable: Kander and Ebb's stage show, based on the autobiographical stories of Christopher Isherwood, has long since been acknowledged a classic. The songs, augmented by some new numbers in the film, are ageless. Joel Grey from the original Broadway production is the Emcee, the master of ceremonies who, with his Kit Kat Klub girls, provides a depraved Greek chorus satirising the rise of the Nazi regime and the lazy complacency of the 1930s Berlin cabaret-goers. The "divine decadence" tag is only part of the story, though. Cabaret still works a sinister, uncomfortable magic which sets it apart as a uniquely powerful film musical. On the DVD: Cabaret's 30th Anniversary Special Edition is packed with extras which include a scratchy "making of" documentary from 1972 and a retrospective from 1997, the latter featuring reminiscences from the cast. There’s also the original theatrical trailer, though in the absence of the late director Fosse the lack of some kind of commentary is a disappointment. The picture itself, presented in widescreen 16:9 letterbox format with a Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack, gleams as sharply, visually and aurally, as it did on its first release. --Piers Ford

• Sweet Charity | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £4.25   |  Saving you £5.74 (135.06%)   |  RRP £9.99

  After several years as the hottest musical director on Broadway, Bob Fosse made his film directorial debut with this movie version of his Broadway hit, which was based on Fellini's Nights of Cabiria. Shirley MacLaine is terrific as the proverbial hooker with the heart of gold, one who is convinced that she will find the right man if she just turns enough tricks. The Cy Coleman score is a solid one; the film is at its best when Fosse lets his cast of singer-dancers (which includes Chita Rivera, Paula Kelly, and Sammy Davis Jr) unleash his leggy brand of choreography. While the film suffers from stylistic excesses of the period, you can see the seeds being planted for Fosse's future musical film forays in Cabaret and All That Jazz. --Marshall Fine

• All That Jazz | DVD | (30/06/2003) from £8.10   |  Saving you £-2.11 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Choreographer-turned-director Bob Fosse turns the camera on himself in All That Jazz, a nervy, sometimes unnerving 1979 feature, a nakedly autobiographical piece that veers from gritty drama to razzle-dazzle musical, allegory to satire. It's an indication of his bravura, and possibly his self-absorption, that Fosse (who also co-wrote the script) literally opens alter ego Joe Gideon's heart in a key scene--an unflinching glimpse of cardiac surgery, shot during an actual open-heart procedure. Roy Scheider makes a brave and largely successful leap out of his usual romantic lead roles to step into Gideon's dancing pumps and supplies a plausible sketch of an extravagant, self-destructive, self-loathing creative dynamo, while Jessica Lange serves as a largely allegorical Muse, one of the various women that the philandering Gideon pursues (and usually abandons). Gideon's other romantic partners include Fosse's own protégé (and a major keeper of his choreographic style since his death) Ann Reinking, whose leggy grace is seductive both "onstage" and off. Fosse/Gideon's collision course with mortality, as well as his priapic obsession with the opposite sex, may offer insights into the libidinal core of the choreographer's dynamic, sexualised style of dance, but musical aficionados will be forgiven for fast-forwarding to cut out the self-analysis and focus on the music, period. At its best--as in the knockout opening, scored to George Benson's strutting version of "On Broadway", which fuses music, dance and dazzling camera work into a paean to Fosse's hoofer nation--All That Jazz offers a sequence of classic Fosse numbers--hard-edged, caustic and joyously physical. --Sam Sutherland

• Cabaret | DVD | (04/10/2004) from £16.08   |  Saving you £-10.09 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

• Lenny | DVD | (23/06/2003) from £8.98   |  Saving you £7.00 (116.86%)   |  RRP £12.99

  From his first gig as a nervous Catskills comedian it's obvious that Lenny Bruce (Dustin Hoffman) is a force to be reckoned with. Armed with a shocking routine and a stripper as his muse (Valerie Perrine) Lenny turns comedy and America on its ear with his abrasive and often offensive humour. But life in the smoke-filled bars of the comedy curcuit begins to take its toll. The drugs and arrests for his subject matter wear heavily on this maverick crusader but don't stop him from goi

• Liza With A Z | DVD | (02/10/2006) from £15.79   |  Saving you £1.20 (7.60%)   |  RRP £16.99

  In 1972 Liza Minnelli and Broadway legend Bob Fosse took the Oscars by storm for Cabaret. That same year the two paired up once again to create this spectacular musical special - carting home four Emmys in the process. Now Liza and the Executive Producers of the Oscar-winning Chicago bring the glamour and glitter to DVD for the very first time in Dolby Digital 5.1!

• Cabaret | DVD | (26/11/2007) from £28.49   |  Saving you £-22.50 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Cabaret brings 1931 Berlin to life inside and outside the Kit Kat Klub. There, starry eyed American Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) and an impish emee (Joel Grey) sound the call for decadent fun, while in the street the Nazi party is beginning to grow into a brutal political force. Into this heady world arrives British language teacher Brian Robert (Michael York) who falls for Sally's charm and soon, the two of them find themselves embroiled in the turmoil and decadence of the era.

• Musicals Collection - Xanadu/Sweet Charity/Thoroughly Modern Millie | DVD | (07/05/2007) from £12.13   |  Saving you £2.86 (19.10%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Xanadu: A look at the future and a loving remembrance of the way things were in the heyday of Hollywood. Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly star in this dazzling musical with score including the hit songs 'Magic' 'I'm Alive' 'All Over The World' 'Suddenly' and the title song 'Xanadu'. Sweet Charity: New York dance hall hostess Charity (Maclaine) who dreams of old-fashioned romance but gives her heart to one undeserving man after another; will she find true love after all? Bob Fosse's dazzling musical based on Neil Simon's smash Broadway hit. Thoroughly Modern Millie: Julie Andrews stars as Millie an innocent country girl who comes to the big city in search of a husband. Along the way she becomes the secretary of the rich and famous Trevor Graydon (John Gavin) befriends the sweet Miss Dorothy (Mary Tyler Moore) fights off white slaver Mrs. Meers (Beatrice Lillie) and hooks up with a lively paper clip salesman Jimmy (James Fox). In the end it takes a rich and nutty jazz baby like Muzzy (Carol Channing) to unravel all these complications give a great party and match up lovers!

• All That Jazz | DVD | (31/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Part tragic part comic this outrageous look at life in the fast lane is the Academy Award-winning musical about Bob Fosse's excessive life in show business (here played by an Oscar-nominated Roy Scheider). Dazzlingly presented this electrifying story about the perils of pushing yourself too hard is filled with Fosse's legendary song-and-dance choreography. Bonus CD Tracklisting: 1. Main Title (Instrumental) 2. On Broadway (George Benson) 3. Michelle 4. Take Off With Us 5. Vivaldi Concert In G (Instrumental) 6. Ponte Vecchio (Instrumental) 7. Everything Old Is New Again 8. South MT Sinai Parade (Instrumental) 9. After You've Gone (Leland Palmer) 10. There Will Be Some Changes Made (Ann Reinking) 11. Who's Sorry Now? 12. Some Of These Days 13. Going Home Now (Instrumental) 14. Bye Bye Love (Ben Vereen & Ray Scheider)

• All That Jazz | DVD | (23/04/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Part tragic part comic this outrageous look at life in the fast lane is the Academy Award-winning musical about Bob Fosse's excessive life in show business (here played by an Oscar-nominated Roy Scheider). Dazzlingly presented this electrifying story about the perils of pushing yourself too hard is filled with Fosse's legendary song-and-dance choreography.

• Cabaret | Blu Ray | (09/09/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99