Young farm boy Luke Skywalker is thrust into a galaxy of adventure when he intercepts a distress call from the captive Princess Leia. The event launches him on a daring mission to rescue her from the clutches of Darth Vader and the Evil Empire
From the acclaimed director of Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and The Bridge on the River Kwai, A Passage To India was Sir David Lean's last ever feature film and a winner of two Oscars®.
Ronald Neame directs this perceptive comic study of the struggle of artistic creation, based on the novel by Joyce Cary. Starring Alec Guinness, who also wrote the screenplay, the film tells the story of Gulley Jimson (Guinness), an ageing and impoverished London painter who is rude, uncouth, eccentric and obsessed with his work to the point where nothing and nobody can come between him and his artistic passion.
THE LADYKILLERS is quintessential Ealing. Director Alexander Mackendrick’s film centres on a criminal gang planning their next job who find themselves boarding with an innocent old lady who thinks they are musicians. When the gang set out to kill Mrs. Wilberforce they run into one problem after another and get what they deserve. Mackendrick’s last film as director before his move to Hollywood THE LADYKILLERS remains one of the best British comedies ever made.
Set in the stately Edwardian era, Kind Hearts And Coronets is black comedy at is best, with the most articulate and literate of all Ealing screenplays.Sir Alec Guinness gives a virtuoso performance in his Ealing comedy debut, playing all eight victims standing between a mass-murderer and his family fortune. Considered by some to be Ealing's most perfect achievement of all the Ealing films.
A charming and ambitious young man finds many ways to raise himself through the ranks in business and social standing- some honest some not quite so. If he can just manage to avoid a certain very predatory woman...
Episode IV - A New Hope Luke Skywalker a young farm boy from Tatooine is thrust into the struggle of the rebel alliance when he meets Obi-Wan Kenobi who has lived for years in seclusion on the desert planet. Obi-Wan begins Luke's Jedi training as Luke joins him on a daring mission to rescue the beautiful rebel leader Princess Leia from the clutches of the evil Empire. Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back Three years later Imperial forces continue to pursue the rebels. After the rebellion's defeat on the ice planet Hoth Luke journeys to the planet Dagobah to train with Jedi Master Yoda who has lived in hiding since the fall of the Republic. In an attempt to convert Luke to the Dark Side Darth Vader lures young Skywalker into a trap in the Cloud City of Bespin... Episode VI - Return Of The Jedi In the epic conclusion of the saga the Empire prepares to crush the rebellion with a more powerful Death Star while the rebel fleet mounts a massive attack on the space station.
A gentle, Oscar-nominated comedy featuring a memorably charming performance from Alec Guinness, The Card co-stars Valerie Hobson, Glynis Johns and Petula Clark in an early performance. Stylishly directed by Ronald Neame, it is featured here as a brand-new High Definition transfer from original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio. A precocious child who has grown into a cheeky charmer, ambitious Denry Machin relishes the challenge of surmounting social and other barriers with his amiably affectionate personality. He soon becomes the youngest ever mayor of his home town, but he soon meets his match when it comes to women! SPECIAL FEATURES: Theatrical Trailer Image Gallery
Set in the stately Edwardian era Kind Hearts And Coronets is black comedy at is best with the most articulate and literate of all Ealing screenplays. Sir Alec Guinness gives a virtuoso performance in his Ealing comedy debut playing all eight victims standing between a mass-murderer and his family fortune. Considered by some to be Ealing's most perfect achievement of all the Ealing films.
The second and last of Anthony Mann's historical epics is a smart, handsome spectacle of the decadence, corruption, and intrigue that tore apart the greatest empire the world has seen. The sprawling story spreads itself thin over a number of characters and stories. At the centre are handsome but stiff Stephen Boyd as Livius, the loyal soldier and symbolic son of the ageing emperor Marcus Aurelius(Alec Guinness), and Christopher Plummer as Commodus, the corrupt heir to the throne. They are boyhood friends turned enemies when the latter accedes to the throne and sells out the values of his father for greed and hedonistic pleasures. The three-hour running time is filled out with the tales of Sophia Loren (as the beautiful Lucilla in love with Livius but coveted by greedy Commodus) and a gallery of heroes and villains that includes James Mason, Mel Ferrer, Anthony Quayle, John Ireland, Omar Sharif, and Eric Porter. The film is highlighted with spectacular scenes--a grandiose funeral fit for an emperor, brutal battles in the provinces as the barbarians threaten the empire, and a climactic duel to decide the destiny of Rome--which Mann weaves into the shadowy intrigue of the halls of power. Like his previous epic El Cid, The Fall of the Roman Empire remains one of the best of the 1960s epics: well written (and historically accurate up to a point) with strong performances and a consistently elegant style, It lacks a central core and the magnetic hero of its superior predecessor. Ridley Scott's Gladiator (2000) tackles the same story with an updated action-adventure slant. --Sean Axmaker
Barnacle Bill
In Celebration of Charles Dickens' Bi-Centenary, this box set brings together some of the finest ever adaptations of his classic novels: Great Expectations, Oliver Twist and A Tale Of Two Cities Great Expectations:David Lean's adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic tale of an orphan boy, Pip, who aspires to be a gentleman, won Oscars(r) for Best Art Direction and Cinematography and was nominated for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Writing. Great Expectations stars John Mills as Pip, Martita Hunt as Miss Havisham, Jean Simmons, Finlay Currie and Alec Guinness. Oliver Twist:David Lean's lavish adaptation of Oliver Twist, one of Charles Dickens enduringly popular tales, fully restored. Alec Guinness provides a masterly performance as arch villain Fagin. Also stars Anthony Newley, John Howard Davies, Robert Newton, Kay Walsh and Diana Dors.A Tale Of Two Cities:Highly Acclaimed and digitally remastered adaptation of Charles Dickens' powerful story of love and redemption during the French Revolution, starring Dirk Bogarde as Sidney Carton, a disillusioned lawyer, whose world is turned upside down when events in France encroach on his decadent London life. Dorothy Tutin stars as Lucie Manette.
WINNER OF FOUR BAFTAS, INCLUDING BEST ACTOR AND BEST ACTRESS. FULL RESTORATION FROM ORIGINAL FILM TO BLU-RAY FOR THE FIRST TIME. Smiley and Karla in the final confrontation. The acclaimed BBC production of John Le Carré's espionage classic. The bespectacled spymaster is once more called from retirement to come to the aid of the Circus' - and he returns with a vengeance. The murder of an émigré Soviet General, who was also a British agent, sends him digging into the past on a twisted trail across Europe that moves, inexorably, towards a final showdown with his old adversary, Karla of Moscow Centre. Special Features: Includes Collectors' Booklet with production notes. Interview footage with John Le Carré and John Irvin Restoration Featurette Original transmission 20th September 1982 to 25th October 1982.
In 1962 Lawrence of Arabia scooped another seven Oscars for David Lean and crew after his previous epic, The Bridge on the River Kwai, had performed exactly the same feat a few years earlier. Supported in this Great War desert adventure by a superb cast including Alex Guinness, Jack Hawkins and Omar Sharif, Peter O'Toole gives a complex, star-making performance as the enigmatic TE Lawrence. The magnificent action and vast desert panoramas were captured in luminous 70mm by Cinematographer Freddie Young, here beginning a partnership with Lean that continued through Dr Zhivago (1965) and Ryan's Daughter (1970). Yet what made the film truly outstanding was Robert (A Man For All Seasons) Bolt's literate screenplay, marking the beginning of yet another ongoing collaboration with Lean. The final partnership established was between director and French composer Maurice Jarre, who won one of the Oscars and scored all Lean's remaining films, up to and including A Passage to India in 1984. Fully restored in 1989, this complete version of Lean's masterpiece remains one of cinema's all-time classic visions. --Gary S Dalkin On the DVD: This vast movie is spread leisurely across two discs, with Maurice Jarre's overture standing in as intermission music for the first track of disc two. But the clarity of the anamorphic widescreen picture and Dolby 5.1 soundtrack justify the decision not to cram the whole thing onto one side of a disc. The movie has never looked nor sounded better than here: the desert landscapes are incredibly detailed, with the tiny nomadic figures in the far distance clearly visible on the small screen; the remastered soundtrack, too, is a joy. Thanks are due to Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg who supervised (and financed) the restoration of the picture in 1989; on disc two Spielberg chats about why David Lean is his favourite director, and why Lawrence had such a profound influence on him both as a child and as a filmmaker (he regularly re-watches the movie before starting any new project). Other features include an excellent and exhaustive "making-of" documentary with contributions from surviving cast and crew (an avuncular Omar Sharif is particularly entertaining as he reminisces about meeting the hawk-like Lean for the first time), some contemporary featurettes designed to promote the movie and a DVD-ROM facility. The extra features are good--especially the documentary--but the breathtaking quality of both anamorphic picture and digital sound are what make this DVD package a triumph. --Mark Walker
The classic BBC drama series is available on Blu-ray and in true HD for the very first time. In BAFTA-winner Sir Alec Guinness's first major TV role he plays George Smiley, a retired agent who is secretly brought into the Circus' (the code name for British Secret Intelligence Service) to root out a top-level mole. Gradually piecing together the story, the weary but determined Smiley trawls through the murky waters of Cold War espionage and his own past. Extras: The Secret Centre
A collection of classic films from famed British director David Lean. Bridge On The River Kwai (1957): When British P.O.W.s build a vital railway bridge in enemy occupied Burma Allied commandos are assigned to destroy it in David Lean's epic World War II adventure The Bridge on the River Kwai. Spectacularly produced The Bridge on the River Kwai captured the imagination of the public and won seven 1957 Academy Awards including Best Picture Be
The story of a friendship between a Catholic priest and a Communist Mayor. Together they travel from their remote village to Madrid and back exploring their friendship the demands of belief and constancy of faith. This lavish production filmed entirely on location captures the wit warmth and vitality that make the original novel by Graham Greene a unique work of literature.
Ealing Studio output from the 1940s and the 1950s helped define what was arguably the golden age for British cinema. This Blu-ray collection brings together three much loved comedy classics directed by Ealing stalwarts Robert Hamer Charles Crichton and Alexander Mackendrick and starring the great Sir Alec Guinness in some of his most memorable roles.
George Segal gives a bravura performance as an unorthodox secret agent on the run from a neo-Nazi organisation in this stylish espionage thriller directed in West Berlin by Michael Anderson. Tautly scripted by Harold Pinter, this multiple BAFTA-nominated film also features Alec Guinness, Max von Sydow and Senta Berger. The Quiller Memorandum is featured here in a High Definition transfer made from original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio. Quiller is assigned.
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