"Actor: Al Brown"

• Alice In Wonderland Special Edition DVD | DVD | (30/03/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Edward G. Robinson - Scarlet Street / The Stranger | DVD | (18/03/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In a way, Scarlet Street is a remake. It's taken from a French novel, La Chienne (literally, "The Bitch") that was first filmed by Jean Renoir in 1931. Renoir brought to the sordid tale all the colour and vitality of Montmartre; Fritz Lang's version shows us a far harsher and bleaker world. The film replays the triangle set-up from Lang's previous picture, The Woman in the Window, with the same three actors. Once again, Edward G Robinson plays a respectable middle-aged citizen snared by the charms of Joan Bennett's streetwalker, with Dan Duryea as her low-life pimp. The plot closes around the three of them like a steel trap. This is Lang at his most dispassionate. Scarlet Street is a tour de force of noir filmmaking, brilliant but ice-cold. The Stranger, according to Orson Welles, "is the worst of my films. There is nothing of me in that picture". But even on autopilot Welles still leaves most filmmakers standing. A war crimes investigator, played by Edward G Robinson, tracks down a senior Nazi to a sleepy New England town where he's living in concealment as a respected college professor. Welles wanted Agnes Moorehead as the investigator and Robinson as the Nazi Franz Kindler, but his producer, Sam Spiegel, wouldn't wear it. So Welles himself plays the supposedly cautious and self-effacing fugitive--and if there was one thing Welles could never play, it was unobtrusive. Still, the film's far from a write-off. Welles' eye for stunning visuals rarely deserted him and, aided by Russell Metty's skewed, shadowy photography, The Stranger builds to a doomy grand guignol climax in a clocktower that Hitchcock must surely have recalled when he made Vertigo. And Robinson, dogged in pursuit, is as quietly excellent as ever. On the DVD: sparse pickings. Both films have a full-length commentary by Russell Cawthorne which adds the occasional insight, but is repetitive and not always reliable. The box claims both print have been "fully restored and digitally remastered", but you'd never guess. --Philip Kemp

• Giant From The Unknown (1958) | Blu Ray | (19/01/2021) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Home Town Story | DVD | (12/01/2004) from £3.57   |  Saving you £1.42 (39.78%)   |  RRP £4.99

  One of Marilyn Monroe's earliest starring roles (of her ten previous films she had been uncredited in four of them) finds her playing the newspaper office receptionist Iris. The paper is run by Blake Washburn who has just been defeated in a bid for re-election to the state senate and uses the paper to ruffle big business.

• Courageous Legacy (aka Courageous) | Blu Ray | (08/03/2022) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Bring Me The Head Of Mavis Davis | DVD | (23/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Times have changed and Marla's stardom is beginning to fade. Marty is behind on alimony payments to his ex-wife his house has been repossessed his prized Jaguar car has been blown up and his life is being threatened by Mob boss Rathbone (Aiello) whose talentless son Marty is being forced to promote. Listening to an old Elvis record Marty stumbles across a macabre idea as he recalls some of the countless former pop stars whose untimely deaths resulted in posthumous success. Believing that Marla's passing could make her a legend thereby reviving her ""career"" and his fortunes Marty begins plotting her tragic demise...

• White Ghost | DVD | (18/01/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  July '72. Vietnam. Lt. Steve Shepard missing in action. Presumed dead...15 years later he's still there. He may be a phantom of the past, but he's not dead yet.

• Crooked E: The Unshredded Truth About Enron | DVD | (20/07/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A documentary charting the rise and fall of the Enron company from the perspective of employee Brian Cruver.

• Dancehall Queen | DVD | (28/02/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Set in the slums of Kingston, Jamaica, Dancehall Queen is a hugely enjoyable melodrama featuring a resourceful heroine, spectacularly slimy villains and a lot of very loud music. Street vendor Marcia (Audrey Reid) is under pressure from all directions--family friend Larry has made her dependent on his good will before putting sexual pressure on her teenage daughter while street thug Priest has killed a friend for minding her patch and is now trying to push his way into her bed. What is attractive about this film is that Marcia wins by playing to her strengths: she goes back to the wild-child dirty dancing she loved before having her children and becomes Mystery Lady, a contender for cash prizes in competition. Most of the film's occasional touches of wild comedy come from her attempts to keep this from her rather staid daughter and the ease with which, from behind silver foil fringes and jewelled nose-chains, she can take revenge on the men who mess with her quieter persona. This is a surprisingly classy little movie, whose rawness comes across as urgency: e en those of us who miss half the patois dialogue can't help but respond to its fizzy energy. On the DVD The DVD has digitally re-mastered music, the usual chapter index, a Web link and what is called "Hyperactive DVDROM" content which means it is very, very flashy and very, very loud. --Roz Kaveney

• Closer | DVD | (06/06/2005) from £9.99   |  Saving you £5.00 (50.05%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Are humans meant to mate for life - What drives someone in a perfectly good relationship to cheat and risk losing the one that they love and that loves them - Is it possible to love more than one person at the same time - How well does anyone really know the one that they love. Directed by Mike Nichols (THE GRADUATE, BIRDCAGE, WORKING GIRL), CLOSER questions the nature of relationships and fidelity as it follows the tangled web created by Dan (Jude Law), Alice (Natalie Portman), Anna (Julia Roberts), and Larry (Clive Owen). Dan, a British writer of obituaries, and Alice, a young American stripper, meet in the film's opening scene when a London cab runs her down. Cut to a year later: Dan and Alice are now a couple, but he is suddenly smitten with Anna, a beautiful American photographer. In an ironic twist of fate, Anna meets Larry, a British doctor, and they are soon a couple, despite Dan's continuing obsession. But the entanglements don't end there, and ultimately, someone is sure to get hurt. The four players do justice to a script that is humorous, raw and disarmingly honest about adult relationships.

• Alison Brown Quartet with Joe Craven: Live At Blair | DVD | (22/11/2010) from £14.55   |  Saving you £0.44 (3.02%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Tracklist: 1. The Sound Of Summer Running 2. The Magnificent Seven 3. Under The (Five) Wire 4. Deep Gap 5. My Favorite Marsha 6. Hungaria 7. Crazy Ivan 8. The St. Brendan Story 9. The Wonderful Sea Voyage (Of Holy St. Brendan) 10. (I'm Naked And I'm) Goin' To Glasgow

• Silent Night Bloody Night | DVD | (26/09/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Maniacs have taken over the asylum! The new owner of a mansion discovers it was once a mental home. When he visits his inheritance he sets about investigating some old crimes that took place at the mansion scaring the local populance in the process.

• 50 First Dates | UMD | (08/05/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

• The Desert Trail | DVD | (11/08/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A rodeo star joins his gambling friend in a few adventures including being unjustly accused of robbery. They fight to prove their innocence by travelling to Poker City to uncover the truth.

• Bullitt (Deluxe Series) | DVD | (12/08/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  San Francisco has been the setting of a lot of exciting movie car chases over the years, but this 1968 police thriller is still the one to beat when it comes to high-octane action on the steep hills of the city by the Bay. The outstanding car chase earned an Oscar for best editing, but the rest of the movie is pretty good, too. Bullitt is a perfect star vehicle for cool guy Steve McQueen, who stars as a tenacious detective (is there any other kind?) determined to track down the killers of the star witness in an important trial. Director Peter Yates (Breaking Away) approached the story with an emphasis on absolute authenticity, using a variety of San Francisco locations. Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Duvall appear in early roles, and Robert Vaughn plays the criminal kingpin who pulls the deadly strings of the tightly wound plot. --Jeff Shannon

• The Brit Flick Box Set | DVD | (12/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Box set containing the following films: Buster: Buster is a small time crook who pulls a big time job. When he finds that the police will not let the case drop he flees to Mexico but finds that he must choose between his family and his freedom. Five Seconds To Spare: A young musician travels to London in pursuit of his dreams but winds up the sole witness to a bizarre murder. Christy Malry's Own Double Entry: Nick Moran uses the principles of double-entry bo

• Malcolm Motocross And More | DVD | (06/09/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Clouds of dust and the roar of engines accompany man and machine racing against the track each other and the very essence of speed itself. Filmmakers Bruce Brown and his son Dana have revisited Malcolm Smith and the other great Motocross riders from 'On Any Sunday' to create a unique new film which allows the viewer to meet the sport's stars then and now and look back on the movie that forever changed their lives forever.

• The Stranger | DVD | (18/10/1999) from £4.99   |  Saving you £8.00 (160.32%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The legendary story that hovers over Orson Welles' The Stranger is that he wanted Agnes Moorehead to star as the dogged Nazi hunter who trails a war criminal to a sleepy New England town. The part went to Edward G. Robinson, who is marvellous, but it points out how many compromises Welles made on the film in an attempt to show Hollywood he could make a film on time, on budget and on their own terms. He accomplished all three, turning out a stylish if unambitious film noir thriller, his only Hollywood film to turn a profit on its original release. Welles stars as unreformed fascist Franz Kindler, hiding as a schoolteacher in a New England prep school for boys and newly married to the headmaster's lovely if naive daughter (Loretta Young). Welles, the director, is in fine form for the opening sequences, casting a moody tension as agents shadow a twitchy low-level Nazi official skulking through South American ports and building up to dramatic crescendo as Kindler murders this little man, the lovely woods becoming a maelstrom of swirling leaves that expose the body he furiously tries to bury. The rest of the film is a well designed but conventional cat-and-mouse game featuring an eye-rolling performance by Welles and a thrilling conclusion played out in the dark clock tower that looms over the little village. --Sean Axmaker

• Headhunter | DVD | (02/04/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £2.99

  Spoiled teenager Kevin is given a boat for his birthday and loads it up with beer to take his friends out on the open water. When Kevin is brutally eaten by a shark the rest of the stoner crew find themselves lost far out at sea. As tense rivalries threaten to tear the gang apart they soon come to experience a series of inexplicable paranormal events that slowly reveal the horrifying truth of the boat's history.

• Marilyn Monroe - Memories And Mysteries | DVD | (22/04/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Marilyn Monroe: Memories & Mysteries