"Actor: Alan Webb"

• The First Great Train Robbery | DVD | (19/03/2001) from £16.80   |  Saving you £-3.81 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A lively, humorous caper film of the first order, The First Great Train Robbery is Michael Crichton's ambitious adaptation of his own novel, which was inspired by the facts of the first known train robbery. Crichton sets this attractive, highly enjoyable film in London in 1855, where Edward Pierce (Sean Connery) and Agar (Donald Sutherland) plot to steal £25,000 in gold that is being transported by train to pay British troops in the Crimean War. Lesley-Anne Down plays Miriam, Pierce's sophisticated paramour and the third partner in the scheme; while Pierce and Agar make copies of four keys for the train's closely guarded safes, she uses her feminine wiles to distract a variety of officials and businessmen with connections to the gold.The film boasts a vividly authentic recreation of mid-Victorian England, all the more remarkable since the production was filmed primarily in Ireland on a budget of $6 million--a miraculously modest sum (even in 1978) for such a lavish-looking film. Credit is due to the splendid cinematography of Geoffrey Unsworth and Jerry Goldsmith's ebullient score, both of which enhance the film's look and feel. Although Crichton's directorial style seems somewhat detached and bloodless, he maintains a vivid respect for place and time, and his three leads are splendid in their charismatic roles. Meticulous attention to details of costuming and production design enhance the breezy fun of the heist, which climaxes with an exciting sequence on the rushing train, with Connery performing his own stunt work. While the later hit Mission: Impossible would take a similar sequence to its high-tech, high -velocity extreme, The First Great Train Robbbery remains an entertaining study of crime in a less hectic age, allowing Crichton to emphasise ingenuity over special effects. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• The Hunchback Of Notre Dame | DVD | (23/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Classic version of Hugo's tragic tale of unrequited love. Quasimodo is the deformed bellringer of Notre Dame taunted and brutalised by the townspeople because of his repellent appearance. Despite his outward appearance however Quasimodo has a tender heart as he demonstrates when he falls in love with beautiful gypsy girl Esmerelda.

• Women In Love | DVD | (02/08/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Before director Ken Russell's name became synonymous with cinematic extravagance and overkill, he actually directed what is one of the most passionate and involving adaptations of DH Lawrence in recent memory. Oliver Reed and Alan Bates star as friends who fall in love with a pair of sisters (Jennie Linden and Glenda Jackson, who won an Oscar for the role). But the relationships take markedly different directions, as Russell explores the nature of commitment and love. Bates and Linden learn to give themselves to each other; the more withdrawn Reed cannot, finally, connect with the demanding and challenging Jackson. Shot with great sensuality, Women in Love was surprisingly frank for its period (1970) and includes one of the most charged scenes in movie history: Bates and Reed as manly men, wrestling nude by firelight. --Marshall Fine

• Entertaining Mr Sloane | Blu Ray | (28/08/2017) from £11.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Adaptation of the risqué play by Joe Orton. Kath (Beryl Reid) and Ed (Harry Andrews) are a lonely middle-aged brother and sister who live together. When Kath meets Mr Sloane (Peter McEnery) in a cemetery and falls for his charms, she invites him to become a lodger. Before long, Ed has fallen for Sloane's charms also and hires him to be his chauffeur, taking an unwholesome interest in Sloane's tight leather uniform. While Kath and Ed rival for Sloane's affections, their invalid father becomes increasingly convinced that he has some connection to an old unsolved murder. Trapped between the three of them, Sloane makes a shocking decision which has unexpected results.

• King Lear | DVD | (06/06/2005) from £16.00   |  Saving you £-10.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  There have been a number of notable cinematic versions of King Lear and Peter Brook's depiction of Shakespeare's epic tragedy is no exception. The majesticl Paul Scofield tackles the role of Lear with such aplomb that it is clear to see why many of his contemporaries consider him to be the finest Shakespearian actor to emerge from the RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company).

• The Taming Of The Shrew | DVD | (19/03/2001) from £14.96   |  Saving you £5.03 (33.62%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The 1967 Franco Zeffirelli film of The Taming of the Shrew had all the ingredients to make it a high point in Shakespearian cinema. In Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor it starred the most bankable couple in Hollywood history as the sparring leads in the Bard's quick-firing comic battle of the sexes; and in Zeffirelli, it had a director with a Shakespearian pedigree second to none. But the reality is that this is Burton's picture all the way. His Petruchio is a weighty performance of such intelligence that the whole film is thrown off-kilter whenever he is on screen and the other performers just can't keep up. Apart from Michael Hordern's wonderfully distracted Baptista, Burton is the only actor in total, effortless command of the language. Taylor's bosomy glamour and fiery spirit are ample compensations for her occasionally murderous treatment of Katharina's verse. Whether or not she is really tamed by the end is another matter: those legendary violet eyes suggest otherwise. Ultimately it's a rich, bawdy and colourful romp, with Burton at the peak of his powers. The DVD includes the theatrical trailer, a "making-of" featurette and filmographies. --Piers Ford

• Women in Love | Blu Ray | (22/08/2016) from £14.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Before director Ken Russell's name became synonymous with cinematic extravagance and overkill, he actually directed what is one of the most passionate and involving adaptations of DH Lawrence in recent memory. Oliver Reed and Alan Bates star as friends who fall in love with a pair of sisters (Jennie Linden and Glenda Jackson, who won an Oscar for the role). But the relationships take markedly different directions, as Russell explores the nature of commitment and love. Bates and Linden learn to give themselves to each other; the more withdrawn Reed cannot, finally, connect with the demanding and challenging Jackson. Shot with great sensuality, Women in Love was surprisingly frank for its period (1970) and includes one of the most charged scenes in movie history: Bates and Reed as manly men, wrestling nude by firelight. --Marshall Fine

• Orson Welles' Macbeth | DVD | (17/07/2000) from £17.46   |  Saving you £2.53 (14.49%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Orson Welles' Macbeth is an expressionist masterpiece about a doomed man of ordinary ambition who believes an evil prophecy that he will become King. The shortest of Shakespeare's tragedies, Welles long considered Macbeth to be the most filmable of the Bard's work. Produced on a slim budget over a mere 32 days, the results are consistently impressive. As depicted by Welles, the title character is not a warrior king or conscience-stricken, poetic soul on a par with Hamlet; rather, he is revealed to be a facile, superstitious man consigned to fate even as the character does not trust to fate. For her part, Lady Macbeth (Jeanette Nolan) is merely obsessed with the unimpeded exercise of her will to power, viewing her husband's life as a tale told by an idiot (she is particularly effective during the "out, damned spot" scene from Act V). Welles has also created some new scenes here, conflating several characters into a "Holy Father" (Alan Napier) while eliciting strong supporting turns from actors such as Dan O'Herlihy (Macduff) and Roddy McDowall (Malcolm). All of this unfolds within a highly disordered state in which nature itself is on the rant ("Fair is foul and foul is fair"). Though the technically poor soundtrack and the occasional indecipherable Scottish brogue make the film seem a trifle compromised at times, each moment feels preternaturally alive. There is an almost Brechtian quality here, with Welles giving us splendid pieces then leaving it to us to fit them into a theatrically coherent puzzle. Refusing to believe that Birnham Wood could ever travel to Dunsinane, Macbeth is finally exposed as a man of insufficient character. As such, some might suggest that this Macbeth is more accurately described as the story of how Malcolm became King. --Kevin Mulhall

• The Canterbury Tales (DVD + Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (05/12/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The second part of Pasolini’s Trilogy of Life is based on the fourteenth-century stories of Geoffrey Chaucer. Plunging with gusto into some of the blackest and bawdiest of the tales, Pasolini celebrates almost every conceivable form of sexual act with a rich, earthy humour. The film’s visual magic is complimented by this new high-definition restoration.Special features Alternative English-language version presented with English-version inserts Original Italian trailer Exclusive new documentary exploring Pasolini’s significance on the Italian genre film Fully illustrated booklet including essays, reviews and biography A particular delight is the use of a largely British cast, including Hugh Griffith, Jenny Runacre and Tom Baker, which Pasolini himself takes the part of Chaucer.

• Boy On A Dolphin | DVD | (12/05/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Phaedra (Sophia Loren in her first Hollywood role) is a poor sponge diver on the lovely Greek isle of Hydra. While deep diving, she discovers an ancient brass and gold statue of a boy riding a dolphin. Anthropologist Jim Calder (Alan Ladd), working in Greece to restore national treasures, wants the artifact but he can't pay for it, and asks Phaedra to donate it to his museum. In the meantime, Phaedra's lazy boyfriend has seized on the opportunity to sell the treasure to an unscrupulous art.

• 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.

• The First Great Train Robbery | DVD | (24/04/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  All aboard for runaway action and suspense in this riveting masterpiece from writer/director Michael Crichton! Starring Sean Connery Donald Sutherland and Lesley-Anne Down it's a spine-tingling and suavely performed adventure based on history's first great train robbery. This ingenious and wonderful crime caper delivers mile-a-minute thrills and breathtaking excitement. Connery is Edward Pierce a master thief who conceives a brilliant plan to steal a fortune in gold bars from a railway payroll car. But to pull off the most daring heist in history Pierce must join forces with a safecracker (Sutherland) and his own beautiful girlfriend (Down) in a series of intricately-plotted thefts that will test all of their nerve camaraderie and larcenous skill.

• Falstaff: Chimes at Midnight | DVD | (30/04/2012) from £11.59   |  Saving you £8.40 (72.48%)   |  RRP £19.99

  On the brink of Civil War, King Henry IV (John Gielgud) attempts to consolidate his reign while fretting with unease over his son’s seeming neglect of his royal duties. Hal (Keith Baxter), the young Prince, openly consorts with Sir John Falstaff (Orson Welles) and his company of “Diana’s foresters, Gentlemen of the shade, Minions of the moon”. Hal’s friendship with the fat knight substitutes for his estrangement from his father. Both Falstaff and the King are old and tired; both rely on Hal for comfort in their final years, while the young Prince, the future Henry V, nurtures his own ambitions. Orson Welles considered Chimes at Midnight his personal favorite of all his films. Perhaps the most radical and groundbreaking of all Shakespeare adaptations, the film condenses the Bard’s Henriad cycle into a single focused narrative. Its international cast comprises of Jeanne Moreau, Fernando Rey, Margaret Rutherford, and Ralph Richardson as the narrator, in addition to Welles and Gielgud. The film’s harrowing war scenes have proven especially influential, cited in Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V as well as Mel Gibson’s Braveheart.

• Shakespeare Complete Collection | DVD | (10/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  A quintet of the finest Shakespeare adaptations in one box set! Featuring 'The Taming Of The Shrew' 'King Lear' 'Macbeth' 'Henry V' and 'Hamlet'. The Taming Of The Shrew: Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton sparkle in Shakespeare's comic look at male chauvinism and women's lib. Petruchio journeys to Padua in search of a wealthy wife encountering the fiery Katharina a self willed shrew who leads Petruchio on a merry chase with Katharina as determined to maintain her indepen

• Entertaining Mr Sloane | DVD | (08/04/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Entertaining Mr. Sloane is a 1970 black comedy directed by Douglas Hickox and based on the 1964 play of the same title by Joe Orton. Keth (Beryl Reid) is a lonely, middle-aged woman living in the London suburbs with her ageing father Kemp (Alan Webb). When she meets the attractive Sloane (Peter McEnery) sunbathing on a tombstone in the cemetery near her home, she invited him to become her lodger. Soon after he accepts her offer, Kath seduces him and despite the age gap, Sloane encourages the flirtations. Kath's successful and closeted brother Ed also falls for the charms of the enigmatic Mr. Sloane and decides to make him his chauffeur, clad in a leather uniform much to Ed's delight. Only Kemp distrusts the mysterious Sloane and accuses him of being involved in an old, unsolved murder. Special Features: Interview with Joe Orton on the Eamonn Andrews show, 1967 Trailer

• Entertaining Mr Sloane | DVD | (20/06/2005) from £11.75   |  Saving you £4.24 (36.09%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Featuring two of Britain's best character actors the late Beryl Reid and the late Harry Andrews this scintillating black comedy is based on Joe Orton's wonderful play of the same name. Reid is marvellous as aging nymphomaniac Kath and Harry Andrews provides a superb foil as her roue brother Ed who both attempt to secure the sexual services of their libidinous lodger Sloane (played by Peter McEnery). Soon both Kath and Ed are competing for his favour but when he starts playing them

• 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

• The Halls Of Montezuma | DVD | (09/05/2005) 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 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) D

• League Cup Final 1972 - Stoke City Vs Chelsea | DVD | (15/11/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £11.99

  All the highlights from the 1972 league cup final! A thirlling game between Stoke FC and Chelsea FC.....

• The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes | DVD | (05/04/2004) from £5.38   |  Saving you £9.61 (64.10%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Before nerds geeks and cyberpunks there was regular-guy Medfield College student Dexter Riley (Kurt Russell) who accidentally turns into a human computer through a shocking lab mishap. As the hype over his instant genius threatens to swell his head he becomes the centre of a winner-take-all tug-of-war between greedy college deans and dangerous gamblers which lands him in big trouble! The ""genius"" Dexter then learns a valuable lesson when the same friends he had earlier turned his