"Actor: Alec Guinness"

• Little Dorrit | DVD | (27/10/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £25.99

  The original 1987 BBC feature film adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic tale Little Dorrit starring Alec Guinness and Derek Jacobi. A story told in two films the life of Arthur Clennam and the life of Amy Dorrit in the London of the 1850's.

• A Foreign Field - BBC | DVD | (07/05/2018) from £9.95   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A heart-warming comedy/drama about old comrades reuniting through love and bittersweet memories. Originally shown as a part of the BBC One's series of plays for Screen One in 1993. Two veterans of the D-Day landings, Cyril (Leo McKern) and Amos (Alec Guinness) return to Normandy for the first time in 50 years. Amos, who took some shrapnel in the skull during the battle of Normandy, has been mentally scarred ever since. Cyril has brought Amos to visit the grave of their wartime buddy, Briggsy, but is also keen to catch up on another wartime friend, Waldo (John Randolph). Reminiscing about Angelique (Jeanne Moreau), a French woman they were both enamored with in their soldiering days, Cyril & Waldo decide to try and track her down, and fight for her affections once again, but where is Angelique, their former French sweetheart? And who exactly is Lisa (Lauren Bacall) the sorrowful American staying at the same hotel, and what is the guilty secret she appears to be nursing? Secrets will be revealed, rivalries stoked, and memories evoked at the Normandy cemeteries as the parties converge to pay their respects.

• Lawrence Of Arabia | DVD | (08/09/2003) from £16.80   |  Saving you £-2.55 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  ""A Miracle of a Film"" - Steven Spielberg This remarkable film follows the struggles of T.E. Lawrence (played by Peter O'Toole - My Favourite Year The Last Emperor) in uniting the hostile Arab factions during the First World War and leading them to victory over the ruling Turkish Empire. The film was released originally in 1962 to huge critical acclaim winning 7 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director for David Lean.

• The Lavender Hill Mob (60th Anniversary Edition) | Blu Ray | (01/08/2011) from £11.99   |  Saving you £10.99 (122.11%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Directed by Charles Crichton, who would much later direct John Cleese in A Fish Called Wanda (1988), 1951's The Lavender Hill Mob is the most ruefully thrilling of the Ealing Comedies. Alec Guinness plays a bowler-hatted escort of bullion to the refineries. His seeming timidity, weak 'r's and punctiliousness mask a typically Guinness-like patient cunning. "I was aware I was widiculed but that was pwecisely the effect I was stwiving to achieve". He's actually plotting a heist. With more conventionally cockney villains Sid James and Alfie Bass in tow, as well as the respectable but ruined Stanley Holloway, Guinness' perfect criminal plan works in exquisite detail, then unravels just as exquisitely, culminating in a nail-biting police car chase in which you can't help rooting for the villains. The Lavender Hill Mob depicts a London still up to its knees in rubble from World War II, a world of new hope but continued austerity, a budding new order in which everything seems up for grabs; as such it could be regarded as a lighter hearted cinematic cousin to Carol Reed's 1949 masterpiece The Third Man. The Lavender Hill Mob also sees the first, fleeting on-screen appearance of Audrey Hepburn in the opening sequence. --David Stubbs

• The Prisoner | Blu Ray | (11/03/2019) from £16.39   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Banned from the Cannes and Venice Films Festivals for being anti-Communist and excoriated elsewhere as pro-Soviet propaganda, Peter Glenville s The Prisoner stoked controversy at the time of its original release and remains a complex, challenging and multifaceted exploration of faith and power. In an unnamed Eastern European capital, an iron-willed Cardinal (Academy Award®-winner Alec Guinness, The Ladykillers) is arrested by state police on charges of treason. Tasked with securing a confession from him by any means necessary is a former comrade-in-arms from the anti-Nazi resistance (Jack Hawkins, The Bridge on the River Kwai). Knowing the Cardinal will never fold under physical torture, the Interrogator instead sets out to destroy him mentally, breaking his spirit rather than his body. Adapted by acclaimed playwright Bridget Boland (Gaslight) from her own stage-play and showcasing powerhouse performances by two actors at the height of their game, The Prisoner is a tense, thought-provoking and disturbing drama about the endurance of the human spirit. SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS: High Definition Blu-rayTM (1080p) presentation Original lossless mono audio Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing Interrogating Guinness, a new video appreciation of the film by author and academic Neil Sinyard Select scene commentary by author and critic Philip Kemp Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Peter Strain FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Mark Cunliffe

• H.M.S. Defiant | DVD | (18/03/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Set in 1797 at the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars, HMS Defiant is an enthralling British naval drama made to capitalise upon MGM's epic remake of Mutiny on the Bounty, also released in 1962. Based on the novel Mutiny by Frank Tilsey and starring Alex Guinness as a fair-minded captain locked in psychological conflict with Dirk Bogarde, his manipulative, coldly malicious first officer, the parallels with the famous true story are clear. However there were many naval mutinies at this period and this large-scale saga, which includes some spectacularly staged widescreen naval battles, offers a realistic depiction of life in the British navy at the time--from the press gangs and floggings, to the appalling food and living conditions. Director Lewis Gilbert--who previously helmed Sink the Bismarck! (1960)--strikes a good balance between the personal drama and sweeping maritime adventure. Guinness successfully varies his firm-but-fair officer from The Bridge on the River Kwai, Bogarde is chillingly hateful and Anthony Quayle gives strong support. ITV's recent Hornblower cumulatively offers a more detailed portrait of the British navy during the Napoleonic Wars, though the TV series cannot match the visual scale of this big-screen production. On the DVD: HMS Defiant is presented anamorphically enhanced at 2.35:1, though a little of the original CinemaScope frame is still cropped at the sides. The image is generally very good, though a handful of scenes near the end show considerable print damage and there is an inconstancy of colour grading between some shots. Grain is variable, but not generally a problem, though some unattractive "ringing" from edge enhancement is noticeable, particularly around Alex Guinness when he stands against a bright sky. The sound is in very clear mono with just occasional distortion on the music score. The disc offers the option of watching with dubbed French, German, Italian or Spanish soundtracks. The original trailer is included--under the American title of Damn the Defiant!--as are trailers for three other classic war films. The only other extra features are a small gallery of original publicity materials and three very basic filmographies. --Gary S Dalkin

• Alec Guinness - The Screen Icons Collection | DVD | (01/10/2007) from £24.89   |  Saving you £10.10 (40.58%)   |  RRP £34.99

  This box set contains the following films: The Last Holiday (Dir: Henry Cass) (1950): Alec Guinness plays a salesman of agricultural machinery who finds out that he hasn't long to live. He decides to enjoy his last months to the fullest. Kind Hearts And Coronets (Dir: Robert Hamer) (1949): Dennis Price plays Louis D'Ascoyne the would-be Duke of Chalfont whose mother was spurned by her noble family for marrying an Italian singer for love. Louis resolves to avenge his mother by murdering the relatives ahead of him in line for the dukedom all of whom are played by Alec Guinness! The Man In The White Suite (Dir: Alexander Mackendrick) (1951): Sidney Stratton (Alec Guinness) invents a new strong fibre which repels dirt and never wears out! He uses this material to make a brilliant white suit and attempts to sell his product to the textile industry. However all is not as it seems when those in the industry realise that Stratton's new fibre could mean the end of their livelihood - the race is on to catch Stratton! Captain's Paradise (Dir: Anthony Kimmins) (1953): Henry St. James is the Captain of an international ferry. He enjoys his life at Sea especially as he has a loving English wife waiting for him in Gibraltar and another in Tangiers! A perfect life - so long as neither woman decide to travel with him! Barnacle Bill (1957) A British Naval Captain who is plagued by incurable seasickness retires from service and buys a decrepit amusement pier in a small coastal town. After discovering the local commissioners seek to condemn and seize his pier Captain Ambrose must do all in his power to save his pier.

• The Ladykillers | DVD | (13/11/2006) from £8.46   |  Saving you £4.53 (53.55%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The Ladykillers director Alexander Mackendrick's third Ealing farce is the final comedy produced by the famous British studio and one of its most celebrated. Like the equally applauded Kind Hearts And Coronets the film is more sophisticated and blacker in tone than typically lighthearted Ealing fare (such as Mackendrick's Whiskey Galore!). Alec Guinness stars as the superbly shifty toothily threatening Professor Marcus the leader of a crime ring planning a he

• The Man In The White Suit | DVD | (21/06/2004) from £6.47   |  Saving you £7.52 (116.23%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Ealing Comedy--cosy, gentle and whimsical, right? In this case, think again. Alexander Mackendrick was always the most politically aware of the Ealing directors, and in The Man in the White Suit he takes the studio's favourite theme of the little man up against the system and gives it a sharp satirical twist. Sidney Stratton (Alec Guinness at his most unworldly), a maverick scientist working in a Northern textile mill, invents a fabric that never gets dirty and never wears out. He's hailed as a genius--until management and unions alike realise what his brainwave implies. Mackendrick's humour is exact and pointed, and the satire turns savage as a lynch mob of bosses and workers hunt Sidney down through dark narrow streets. Mackendrick's disenchanted view of hidebound, class-ridden British society still rings horribly true, and he draws note-perfect performances from the cream of British character actors: Cecil Parker as the liberal mill-owner (based it's said, on Ealing boss Michael Balcon); Ernest Thesiger as the evil old godfather of the industry; and, wittily sensual as Sidney's confidante, the ever-wonderful Joan Greenwood. Plus, listen out for the "voice" of Sidney's bizarre apparatus, the funniest and most unforgettable sound effect ever devised. --Philip Kemp

• Tunes Of Glory | DVD | (23/07/2007) from £13.92   |  Saving you £2.07 (14.87%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Major Jock Sinclair has been in this Highland regiment since he joined as a boy piper. During the Second World War as Second-in-Command he was made acting Commanding Officer. Now the regiment has returned to Scotland and a new commanding officer is to be appointed. Jock's own cleverness is pitted against his new CO his daughter his girlfriend and the other officers in the Mess.

• Lawrence of Arabia (Restored Version) | Blu Ray | (19/10/2015) from £22.68   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Limited edition steelbook

• The Lavender Hill Mob (60th Anniversary Edition) | DVD | (01/08/2011) from £7.99   |  Saving you £8.00 (100.13%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Directed by Charles Crichton, who would much later direct John Cleese in A Fish Called Wanda (1988), 1951's The Lavender Hill Mob is the most ruefully thrilling of the Ealing Comedies. Alec Guinness plays a bowler-hatted escort of bullion to the refineries. His seeming timidity, weak 'r's and punctiliousness mask a typically Guinness-like patient cunning. "I was aware I was widiculed but that was pwecisely the effect I was stwiving to achieve". He's actually plotting a heist. With more conventionally cockney villains Sid James and Alfie Bass in tow, as well as the respectable but ruined Stanley Holloway, Guinness' perfect criminal plan works in exquisite detail, then unravels just as exquisitely, culminating in a nail-biting police car chase in which you can't help rooting for the villains. The Lavender Hill Mob depicts a London still up to its knees in rubble from World War II, a world of new hope but continued austerity, a budding new order in which everything seems up for grabs; as such it could be regarded as a lighter hearted cinematic cousin to Carol Reed's 1949 masterpiece The Third Man. The Lavender Hill Mob also sees the first, fleeting on-screen appearance of Audrey Hepburn in the opening sequence. --David Stubbs

• Vintage Classics Ealing Comedy Collection | DVD | (23/10/2017) from £29.39   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Collection of five classic British comedies. In 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' (1949) an embittered aristocrat sets out to murder the eight heirs that stand between him and succession to the family title. Louis Mazzini (Dennis Price) holds no love for the family he counts as relations, the D'Ascoynes. The D'Ascoynes cast his mother out when she decided to marry a commoner, Louis's father, and on her death refused to allow her to be buried in the family vault. An outraged Louis vows revenge and begins working his way into the trust of the family to provide him with the opportunity to bump off the male heirs (all played by Alec Guinness) one by one. However, complications arise when he becomes romantically entangled with one of the widows of his victims, Edith D'Ascoyne (Valerie Hobson). Will Louis be able to stay the course and murder his way to a dukedom? In 'Passport to Pimlico' (1949) an unexploded bomb goes off in Pimlico, uncovering documents which reveal that this part of London in fact belongs to Burgundy in France. An autonomous state is set up in a spirit of optimism, but the petty squabbles of everyday life soon shatter the utopian vision of a non-restrictive nation. In 'Whisky Galore!' (1949), set during the Second World War, the inhabitants of a small Hebridean island are wilting under a chronic shortage of whisky. When a ship is wrecked on the shore, it is discovered to contain 50,000 cases of malt, which are promptly appropriated by the men of the island. All is well until an English Home Guard commander - determined to see the whisky restored to its rightful owners - calls in Her Majesty's Customs, and the islanders make frantic attempts to hide their treasured alcoholic booty! In 'The Man in the White Suite' (1951) Sidney Stratton (Guinness) is a laboratory cleaner in a textile factory who invents a material that will neither wear out nor become dirty. Initially hailed as a great discovery, Sidney's astonishing invention is suffocated by the management when they realise that if it never wears out, people will only ever have to purchase one suit of clothing. Finally, in 'The Ladykillers' (1955) a group of bank robbers struggle to silence the eccentric old lady who discovers their crime. Mrs Wilberforce (Katie Johnson) lives alone in King's Cross with her parrots. She has been led to believe that the group of men renting rooms from her, Professor Marcus (Guinness), the Major (Cecil Parker), Louis (Herbert Lom), Harry (Peter Sellers) and One-Round (Danny Green), are classical musicians. However, when one of the group's cases gets caught in the door and opens to reveal, not a musical instrument, but a plethora of banknotes, the virtuous Mrs Wilberforce vows to go to the police with the identities of the men. The criminals agree that the old lady has to be killed to silence her, but will this be as straightforward as it sounds?

• Star Wars : A New Hope | Blu Ray | (09/11/2015) from £24.99   |  Saving you £4.00 (16.01%)   |  RRP £28.99

  Limited Edition Steelbook with Emboss on front Title Treatment Nearly two decades after the rise of the Empire, young farmer Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) meets Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness), who has lived for years in seclusion on the desert planet of Tatooine. Obi-Wan begins Luke’s Jedi training, telling him of the Rebels’ battle against the Empire and the power known as the Force. Soon Luke, Obi-Wan, and a charismatic mercenary named Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and his Wookiee sidekick Chewbacca, join forces to rescue Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) from the Empire’s massive warship, the Death Star, controlled by Darth Vader. Click Images to Enlarge

• Last Holiday | Blu Ray | (09/03/2020) from £14.95   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  LAST HOLIDAY is a 1950 black comedy starring Alec Guinness in fine form as George Bird, a mild-mannered salesman, who's been told by his Doctor that he only has a short time left to live. Determined not to waste his final days, he decides to go on one last holiday to live the rest of his life to the full. Written by renowned novelist and playwright J.B. Priestley, LAST HOLIDAY is a timeless parable on the notion that life is not just about how long you live, but how well. Extras: NEW: Interview With Cultural Historian Matthew Sweet Personalities: J.B. Priestley (1944) Behind The Scenes Stills Gallery

• Classic Films Triple - Great Expectations/Oliver Twist/A Tale Of Two Cities | DVD | (06/10/2008) from £12.13   |  Saving you £0.86 (7.09%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Great Expectations (1946) - David Lean directed this stylish film presentation of Charles Dickens' heart warming story of a young man befriending an escaped convict who becomes his unknown benefactor and of the consequences for the young man as he establishes himself in the world. A Tale Of Two Cities - Dickens' epic tale set during the French Revolution follows the fortunes of a disillusioned English lawyer Sidney Carton (Dirk Bogarde) whose solace is drink and who bears an uncanny resemblance to a young French aristocrat named Darnay. Carton defends Darnay but ends up falling in love with Darnay's fiancee Lucy. When Darnay is imprisoned by the revolutionary mob Carton is given the chance to redeem himself as he leaves for Paris for Darnay's aid. A truly gripping tale incomparably told and flawlessly performed. Oliver Twist - Oliver Twist (John Howard Davies) orphaned at birth and raised in the workhouse is expelled for daring to ask the Beadle (Francis L. Sullivan) for more food. Unhappily apprenticed to an Undertaker Oliver escaped to London where he meets the cheeky Artful Dodger (Anthony Newly) the villainous Fagin (Alec Guiness) the aggressive Bill Sykes (Robert Newton) and the kindly but doomed Nancy (Kay Walsh). Torn constantly between the forces of good and evil Oliver eventually seals his fate by picking the pocket of a rich gentleman (Henry Stephenson).

• The Quiller Memorandum | DVD | (11/08/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  In West Berlin secret agent Quiller (Segal) is assigned to unmask the leaders of a suspected Neo-Nazi organisation. The last two men given this job have already been killed and the agent soon realises that he can trust no-one not even the people on his own side...

• The Card | DVD | (27/04/2020) from £16.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  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 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

• Tunes Of Glory | DVD | (17/03/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A gripping military drama starring Alec Guinness as Major Jock Sinclair. During World War 2 Sinclair was promoted to Acting CO of his Highland Regiment but now it has returned to Scotland a new CO (John Mills) is to be appointed; leading Jock to pit his wits against the new CO and the other officers in the Mess.

• Oliver Twist / Great Expectations | DVD | (17/03/2008) from £17.53   |  Saving you £-4.54 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  An astonishingly good David Lean double-bill featuring his two Dickensian adaptations, Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948), this is a reminder that cinema does not necessarily have to debase its literary sources, sometimes it can enhance them. Lean's painterly eye for evocative locations--be they windswept marshes or bustling London streets--provides the backdrop, but his focus on smaller details--the ominous tree in the graveyard with its almost human face, the reaction of Bill Sikes' dog to Nancy's murder--adds the vital ingredient that brings both place and character to life. Starring a youthful John Mills as Pip, Lean's Great Expectations is an unadulterated delight, a serendipitous gelling of screenplay, direction, cinematography and acting that produces an almost perfect film. The cast is exemplary, with Alec Guinness in his first (official) role as Pip's loyal pal Herbert Pocket; Martita Hunt is a cadaverous Miss Havisham; Finlay Currie transforms himself from truly threatening to entirely sympathetic as Magwitch; while the young Jean Simmons makes more of an impact as the girl Estella than Valerie Hobson does as the older incarnation. Perhaps best of all, though, is Francis Sullivan as the pragmatic but kindly attorney Jaggers. The cinematography alone (courtesy of Guy Green) would qualify Oliver Twist as a classic: the opening sequence of a lone woman struggling through the storm is an indelible cinematic image. Fortunately, Lean's film has many more aces up its sleeve thereafter, notably Alec Guinness' grotesque Fagin--a caricature certainly, but a three-dimensional one--and Robert Newton's utterly pitiless Bill Sikes. The skewed angles and unsettling chiaroscuro lighting transform London itself into another threatening character. --Mark Walker