"Director: Lewis Milestone"

• Les Miserables Double Pack | DVD | (17/12/2012) from £4.68   |  Saving you £5.31 (113.46%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Les Miserables 1935Victor Hugo's most acclaimed novel comes brilliantly to life in this impeccably performed, magnificently filmed screen adaptation. Fredric March stars as Valjean, the ex-convict who rises against all odds from galley slave to mayor. Charles Laughton is Javert, the fanatical police inspector who dedicates his life to recapturing Valjean. A vivid depiction of the appalling poverty and social strife of 19th-century France, this version of Les Miserables does splendid justice to the original novel. Les Miserables 1952Michael Rennie, fresh from his success in the sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still, cuts a very handsome figure as Jean Valjean, and Debra Paget, who would later reteam with Rennie in four more films, makes for a stunning Cosette in this powerful retelling of the classic epic. Costars include Robert Newton (Treasure Island), Edmund Gwenn (Miracle on 34th Street), Cameron Mitchell (How to Marry a Millionaire), Sylvia Sidney (Mars Attacks!) and Elsa Lanchester (The Bride of Frankenstein)!

• The Rat Pack Collection - 3 Disc Box Set | DVD | (21/11/2005) from £9.98   |  Saving you £-2.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.97

  Titles Comprise: Oceans 11: Danny Ocean (Sinatra) gets his old army unit back together to help him pull off a daring raid robbing several Vegas casinos at once undercover of a blackout. The first Rat Pack film with a host of famous faces and some classic old school Vegas landscapes. Robin And The 7 Hoods: The Rat Pack retell the Robin Hood story in the form of Chicago gangsters with Sinatra as Robin and the Merry Men played by the usual gang of faces. The boys take on the evil racketeers in a bid to help save a local orphanage and become local heroes whilst their at it. This time round the gang are joined by the ultimate crooner of them all Bing Crosby. Four For Texas: Frank and Dean head out West in this action packed cowboy adventure that sees the two of them join up to start a casino. Along the way the guys get up to their usual tricks of fighting and womanising in this comedy Western from the powerhouse director Robert Aldrich. Watch out for Western legend Jack Elam in a small but great part.

• All Quiet On The Western Front | DVD | (12/05/2014) from £5.23   |  Saving you £1.76 (33.65%)   |  RRP £6.99

  Now stunningly repackaged 50p from the sale of this DVD will be paid to Royal British Legion Trading Limited which gives its taxable profits to The Royal British Legion (Charity no. 219279) and Poppy Scotland (Scottish Charity No. SC014096). A sensitive German youth plunges excitedly into World War I and learns of its terror and degradation.

• Ocean's 11 | Blu Ray | (07/05/2018) from £18.00   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Eleven friends who know each other from World War II service plan to rob five of the biggest casinos in Las Vegas in one night. They develop a master plan but after the whole thing is over, something goes wrong...

• Ocean's 11 | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £6.49   |  Saving you £11.50 (177.20%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Leave it to the Chairman of the Board to rope in a great director for the first Rat Pack movie, Ocean's Eleven. Lewis Milestone (All Quiet on the Western Front) did indeed direct this 1960 caper movie starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop; but the results now seem like more of a historical artefact than a good piece of entertainment. The tone of the film is curiously serious--much more so than Steven Soderbergh's fluffy 2002 remake--one somehow expected that the Rat Pack would have made a more buoyant first picture. But it is something to see these guys together, if only for reasons of nostalgia.--Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

• They Who Dare | DVD | (29/01/2007) from £8.49   |  Saving you £4.50 (53.00%)   |  RRP £12.99

  During World War II a British Commando raiding party who are despatched to Rhodes to destroy German airfields in a mission fraught with danger...

• All Quiet on the Western Front | Blu Ray | (10/09/2012) from £7.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (87.61%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Unlike most message films which date themselves almost immediately, Lewis Milestone's low-key unpolished and deeply-felt screen adaptation of the Erich Maria Remarque anti-war novel has lost little of its original impact. Years after its release it was still being banned in countries mobilising for war. The plot follows a group of young German recruits in World War I through their passage from idealism to disillusionment. As the central character Paul Baumer (Lew Ayres) declares, We live in the trenches and we fight. We try not to be killed - that's all. All Quiet On The Western Front is an anthology of now famous scenes: Ayres trapped in a shell crater with a man he has killed; the first meeting of the recruits and the veterans; infantrymen being mowed down to machine-gun visual rhythms; a moonlight swim with French farm girls; Ayres' pacifist speech to his astonished schoolmates; and the final shot of the soldier's hand reaching for the butterfly.

• All Quiet On The Western Front | DVD | (05/05/2008) from £8.65   |  Saving you £1.34 (15.49%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A devastating story of war and a generation destroyed. In 1914 a group of German schoolboys idealistic and inflamed with youthful patriotism set off to fight in the ""glorious"" war. During their brutal basic training disenchantment begins. Then boarding a train for the front they see the wounded being rushed back to the hospitals and they begin to grasp the grim reality of war. On their first night in action they come under heavy attack. In the trenches they begin to fall. Thei

• War Box Set 3 | DVD | (06/11/2006) from £9.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (100.10%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Film comprise: 1. The Wooden Horse (Dir. Jack Lee 1950) 2. They Who Dare (Dir. Lewis Milestone 1954) 3. Cross Of Iron (Dir. Sam Peckinpah 1977)

• Pork Chop Hill | DVD | (05/04/2004) from £6.20   |  Saving you £6.79 (109.52%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Lt. Joe Clemons has been given the order: take Pork Chop Hill. If it's taken by the Chinese US negotiators at the Panmunjom peace conference would lose face with their Communist adversaries - an unthinkable outcome. And so Clemons leads his troops into combat to fight for an objective that they know to be strategically pointless. But they also know that an order is an order. They must take Pork Chop Hill or die trying...

• The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers | DVD | (29/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  This dark melodrama based on the John Patrick story 'Love Lies Bleeding' stars Barbara Stanwyck as the wonderfully wicked Martha Ivers a wealthy and domineering woman who controls a small town after inheriting a large family fortune. She lives with her weakling husband a district attorney running for mayor played by Kirk Douglas in his feature film debut - a role that's an unusual departure from his later work. What no one in the town knows however is that Stanwyck and Douglas are bound by a dark secret involving murder. Gripping and suspenseful this film noir classic also stars Van Heflin as Martha's old love who returns to town after an 18-year absence whom Douglas thinks is there for one reason: blackmail.

• They Who Dare | DVD | (18/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  During World War II a British Commando raiding party are despatched to Rhodes to destroy German airfields in a mission fraught with danger...

• The Halls Of Montezuma | DVD | (03/05/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Once again returning to the genre to which he was perhaps best-suited, director Lewis Milestone traces the fate of a Marine platoon during WWII. The film stars Richard Widmark as the no-nonsense Lt. Carl Anderson, an officer charged with the responibility of leading his unit on a scouting mission to capture prisoners from an experimental rocket-launching facility and bring them back for interrogation. Among his platoon are veterans Pidgeon Lane (Jack Palance), Doc (Karl Malden), and Sgt. Zelenko (Neville Brand), as well as raw recruits Coffman (Robert Wagner) and Cpl. Stuart Conroy (Richard Hylton). Anderson is skilled at subtly motivating the varied group of characters, while suffering himself from crushing headaches. The platoon attacks the island, taking losses on the heavily defended beach. When they try to take a strategic ridge, they're pinned down by rocket fire whose source is impossible to locate. In desperation, Anderson is ordered to take a hand-picked patrol behind enemy lines to bring back prisoners. After some painful losses, they finally return with prisoners. Despite occasional war movie cliches, this is a solid, exceptionally well acted effort, which gives full weight to the terrible human cost of war. The film is also notable for great performances by Malden, Palance, Widmark, Webb, and the very young Wagner.

• Of Mice And Men | DVD | (24/09/2007) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-5.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Set in the U.S.A in 1930's California Of Mice and Men paints a bold vivid picture of life in the depression era and tells the tragic tale of George (Burgess Meredith) and Lenny (Lon Chaney Jr.) two itinerant farm hands searching for a safe haven from the cruelties of the world. Nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award in 1939 ""Of Mice and Men"" features a moving Oscar-nominated score from legendary composer Aaron Copland.

• The Halls of Montezuma | DVD | (05/11/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Once again returning to the genre to which he was perhaps best-suited, director Lewis Milestone traces the fate of a Marine platoon in the Pacific theater during WWII. The film stars Richard Widmark as the no-nonsense Lt. Carl Anderson, an officer charged with the responibility of leading his unit on a scouting mission to capture prisoners from an experimental rocket-launching facility and bring them back for interrogation. Among his platoon are veterans Pidgeon Lane (Jack Palance), Doc (Karl...

• The Complete War Collection (12 Discs) | DVD | (06/11/2006) from £59.99   |  Saving you £20.00 (33.34%)   |  RRP £79.99

  A complete collection of the best of British war movies! Films comprise: 1. The Colditz Story (Dir. Guy Hamilton 1955) 2. The Cruel Sea (Dir. Charles Frend 1953) 3. The Dam Busters (Dir. Michael Anderson 1954) 4. I Was Monty's Double (Dir. John Guillermin 1958) 5. Ice Cold In Alex (Dir. J. Lee Thompson 1958) 6. Went The Day Well? (Dir. Alberto Cavalcanti 1942) 7. The Wooden Horse (Dir. Jack Lee 1950) 8. They Who Dare (Dir. Lewis Milestone 1954) 9. Cross Of Iron (Dir. Sam Peckinpah 1977) 10. The Way Ahead (Dir. Carol Reed 1944) 11. In Which We Serve (Dir. Noel Coward/David Lean 1942) 12. The Battle Of The River Plate (Dir. Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger 1956)

• Mutiny On The Bounty | DVD | (05/07/2013) from £15.41   |  Saving you £2.58 (16.74%)   |  RRP £17.99

  1787. HMS Bounty sets out on a journey that will take it through perilous seas to a tropical paradise... and into history as one of the most ill-fated vessels ever to sail for King and country. Lewis Milestone (All Quiet On The Western Front) directed this color-drenched spectacular which was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture. Filmed before in 1935 and again in 1984's The Bounty the gripping story centers on two men. Marlon Brando plays first officer Fletcher Christian as a dandy transformed into a man of action. Trevor Howard is Capt. Bligh uncompromising in his command or his cruelty. ""Fear is [my] best weapon "" Bligh proclaims. But it's also the most costly driving men to desperation and mutiny. Richard Harris Hugh Griffith and Richard Haydn also star in this epic adventure.

• All Quiet on the Western Front (Limited Edition Blu-ray Digibook) | Blu Ray | (13/02/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  This 1930 film, No 54 on the AFI's Top 100 list, still holds up as a surprisingly forceful and honest antiwar drama. Indeed, the modern sensibility is almost as startling as the sometime stagy acting of Lew Ayres, which can be excused by the fact that, three years after the introduction of sound, actors were still applying stage techniques to talking pictures. Ayres plays a German college student during World War I, who is brainwashed into enlisting in the Army (along with the rest of his class) by a zealously inspirational college professor. Once in uniform and on the front lines, however, he quickly discovers that the glory of the Fatherland is of little concern to a soldier dodging bullets and explosions, whose comrades are dying in his arms. As powerful in its way as Platoon almost 60 years later, All Quiet on the Western Front remains a classic tale of young soldiers' confrontations with the possibility of imminent and arbitrary death. Director Lewis Milestone shows a surprising range of techniques in this film from the formative years of moviemaking with sound. --Marshall Fine

• The Purple Heart | DVD | (13/03/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Now it can be told! You'll burn with rage! And thrill with pride! Dana Andrews and Farley Granger star respectively as Capt. Harvey Ross and Sgt. Howard Clinton in this clearly propagandistic film. They are among a group of eight airmen who as part of Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle's raid on Tokyo have been shot down by the Japanese and are being held in prison awaiting execution. However for propaganda value the Japanese have decided to try their prisoners as war criminals b

• Halls Of Montezuma | Blu Ray | (31/12/2019) from £14.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Although Lewis Milestone had been American cinema's premier maker of war films for three decades, 1951's The Halls of Montezuma is one of his more marginal pictures. Milestone had already won an Academy Award for the single most honoured film about WWI, All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), and made one of the most distinctive contemporaneous films of WWII, A Walk in the Sun (1945)--a notable influence on Saving Private Ryan, by the way--but by the time of Montezuma the hallmarks of his directorial style--such as his syncopated tracking shots--were becoming mannerisms, and the screenplay's rhythms of personal crises set against the bigger picture of the military campaign are pretty mechanical. That still leaves room to accord the picture a marginal recommendation: it's well-cast, competently made, and free of "Hollywood heroics". Richard Widmark stars as a Marine platoon leader who, having brought only seven of his men through Guadalcanal, is determined to see them safely through the next island conquest. The lieutenant was a schoolteacher in civilian life--as we see in flashbacks--and one member of his command is a former student (Richard Hylton) he helped overcome fear. Other platoon members include ex-boxer Jack Palance, trigger-happy bad boy Skip Homeier, hardcase veterans Neville Brand and Bert Freed, and Karl Malden as a philosophical corpsman. However, the most arresting performance is given by Milestone discovery Richard Boone, making his screen debut as a sympathetic colonel stuck with fighting the Japanese and fighting off a miserable cold at the same time. --Richard T Jameson, Amazon.com