"Actor: Barbara O"

• 20th Century Epics: Ben Hur / Gone With The Wind / Doctor Zhivago | DVD | (05/11/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Three of the 20th century's greatest cinematic spectacles, 1939's Gone with the Wind, 1959's Ben-Hur and 1965's Doctor Zhivago, are collected here in one irresistible box set. Long before computers turned every crowd scene and every grandiose backdrop into a pixellated virtual construct, these movies did it all for real. Nothing can substitute for their authentic sense of what really makes an epic: strong characters, emotionally involving storytelling and the grandest, most romantic sense of large-scale moviemaking. All three contain sequences and images that are indelibly burned into popular consciousness. Just recall Vivien Leigh's walk through the wounded of Atlanta, or her pledge never to be hungry again silhouetted against an achingly vivid sunset. Remember Charlton Heston rowing the Roman galley, or charging round the arena in his chariot. Or the enigmatic beauty of Julie Christie, the train ride to the Urals and the charge into No Man's Land. On the DVDs: These priceless treasures from the MGM archives have been preserved and restored so marvellously that all three almost look like they were made last year, not decades ago. The vivid colours and detail of Gone with the Wind look astoundingly fresh in this anamorphic 1.33:1 print (just let your eyes drink in those burnished skies). Both Ben-Hur and Zhivago, too, benefit from anamorphic widescreen presentations that reveal every last gorgeous detail. All three discs also contain the full music scores, complete with Overtures and Intermission music: Max Steiner's immortal "Tara Theme" sounds as good as ever on the rich mono soundtrack; Miklos Rozsa's magnificent music for Ben-Hur is deservedly regarded as one of cinema's finest, while Maurice Jarre's famous "Lara's Theme" can even be heard in a separate music-only track on Zhivago. There are no extras on the Gone with the Wind disc, but the other two contain commentaries (from Charlton Heston and Omar Sharif respectively) and new, in-depth making-of documentaries. Zhivago also comes with a second bonus disc that has several contemporary behind-the-scenes pieces. The only moan is the infamous Warner packaging, which consists of their notorious cardboard sleeves that are easily damaged when trying to cram them into the thin cardboard slipcases. --Mark Walker

• Carry On Matron | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £11.50   |  Saving you £1.48 (17.39%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Hattie Jacques finally got to the play the title role in 1972 when Carry On Matron immortalised the character she had developed during several previous outings, most notably in Carry On Doctor. And she seized it with gusto. This is no one-dimensional performance, but a very human portrait of a woman doing her best to retain her authority in the face of mounting chaos--a raid planned by Sid James to steal the hospital's supply of contraceptive pills. Certainly, she's obsessed with regular bowel movements--this wouldn't be a Carry On film otherwise--but she remains a majestic figure of dignity with a touch of human warmth. Occasionally, too, a real hint of irony peeks through the slapstick and the innuendo. Surely scriptwriter Talbot Rothwell had his tongue lodged firmly in his cheek when he gave Barbara Windsor--then married to Ronnie Knight--a the line, "I don't fancy being a gangster's moll!" Terry Scott makes a guest appearance and Sid James is at his most conniving and lecherous. Theatre impresario Bill Kenwright has a cameo role and there's an early appearance from Wendy Richard as a prototype Pauline Fowler. But it's the female stalwarts who shine. Joan Sims and Hattie Jacques truly were comic actresses of the highest order. On the DVD: Presented like most of the other Carry On DVD releases in 4:3 picture format and mono soundtrack, this release has all the comfy quality of a lazy Saturday afternoon in front of the television. But where are the extras? It's one thing to launch a highly popular series of films as classic entertainment, but they deserve more than the budget treatment. As always, a cast list, some sort of documentary extra and biographies of at least the key players would really do them justice. --Piers Ford

• The Rag Trade Boxset - Series 1&2 | DVD | (23/10/2017) from £28.49   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Featuring a fantastic all-star cast, including the series' workforce being made up of Barbara Windsor (EastEnders), BAFTA-nominee Sheila Hancock (The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas), Carry-On staple Esma Cannon, Miriam Karlin (A Clockwork Orange), Reg Varney (On the Buses), and the shop run by Peter Jones (Mr. Digby Darling). Penny-pinching Harold Fenner (Peter Jones) runs Fenner Fashions, a small garment factory in London that makes high quality clothing. Things rarely run smoothly as militant shop steward Paddy Fleming (Miriam Karlin), who leads the female workforce, constantly disrupts the daily routine. She's always on the lookout for any excuse to take Fenner on and lead the women out on strike, ordering Everybody out!. The exasperated workforce includes Carole (Sheila Hancock), Little Lil (Esma Cannon), Shirley (Wanda Ventham) and Gloria (Barbara Windsor). Stuck in the middle of the regular disputes is poor downtrodden foreman Reg (Reg Varney). He tries to keep the peace between his boss and his colleagues and fails miserably!

• Man nannte ihn Hombre | Blu Ray | (25/04/2019) from £10.06   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Keep The Aspidistra Flying | DVD | (12/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  In this wonderfully witty adaptation of George Orwell's novel Gordon (Grant) and Rosemary (Bonham Carter) may be a middle class 1930s couple but they've got some very modern ideas. Eccentric Gordon whose budding poetry skills have led him into thinking he might just be a literary genius decides to give up his nice job as an advertising copy writer in a bid to embrace poverty and his art. However long-suffering girlfriend Rosemary has to work hard to keep her career (and their unco

• From Beyond | DVD | (25/02/2013) from £9.05   |  Saving you £6.94 (76.69%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Obsessive scientist Dr. Pretorious and his assistant Crawford Tillinghast have invented 'The Resonator'. A device intended to stimulate the brain's Pineal gland and expand the powers of the mind. The machine gives them more than they bargained for however when a parallel universe inhibited by slimy creatures ready to prey on humans reveals itself. Pretorious meets a sticky end and returns as a grotesque, deformed being and all manner of depravity ensues. Special Features: Stuart Gordon on From Beyond. Gothic Adaptation: An Interview with writer Dennis Paoli. The Doctors is in: An Interview with Barbara Crampton. Monsters and Slime: The FX of From Beyond. Directors Perspective. The Editing room: Lost and Found. An Interview with the Composer. Commentary with Stuart Gordon, Brian Yuzna and Jeffrey Combs. A Photo montage. Storyboard to film comparison.

• Valley Of The Dolls / Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls | DVD | (05/01/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Valley Of The Dolls: An adaptation of Jacqueline Susann's trashy novel telling the story of three remarkable women whose lives are affected by show-business celebrity. Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls: An uninhibited all-girl rock trio and their manager arrive in Hollywood to claim an inheritance due to one of the group. They meet Ronnie Barzell a strange personality but a gifted promoter who soon has the combo headed for the big time. During their ascent the girls beco

• Ballet Shoes - The Complete Series (BBC) | DVD | (09/10/2017) from £8.03   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Every Child's Dream Can Come True! Sylvia Brown is guardian to three young girls, Pauline, Petrova, and Posy Fossil. Money is tight for Sylvia, who opens her home to provide board to three others; a retired English professor, a garage owner, and a dance teacher. The later, Theo Dane, has the girls accepted into her school by the formidable Madame and the children help to raise some money through a stage show. All 6 episodes from The classic BBC series starring Angela Thorne, Jane Slaughter, Elizabeth Morgan, Sarah Prince, Barbara Lott, and Terence Skelton. Includes subtitles for the hard of hearing.

• Evil Under The Sun | DVD | (23/10/2017) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A star-studded cast heads this Agatha Christie story of one man's efforts to fathom the mysterious death at a resort hotel in the Mediterranean. Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot. Also stars Jane Birkin, Diana Rigg and Maggie Smith. EXTRAS: Making Of Interview with costume designer Anthony Powell Interview with writer Barry Sandler Interview with producer Richard Goodwin Behind the scenes stills gallery Costume designs stills gallery

• Re-Animator: Limited Edition 2 Disc Steelbook | Blu Ray | (02/06/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  One of the most celebrated outrageous and original horror films of all time Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator is a darkly comic tale that 'upped the 80's gore ante at a time when blood was already flowing freely' (Total Film). Brilliant if somewhat deranged medical student Herbert West arrives at Miskatonic Medical school and immediately sneers at his professor's outdated views of death. West has his own outlandish theories and has concocted a serum that will bring the dead back to life. Roping in fellow student Dan Cain their shocking experiments work all too well with horrific and very messy results. Special Features: The 'Unrated' Version - Brand New 4K Restoration The 'Integral' Version (Exclusive to Blu-Ray) Audio Commentary with Director Stuart Gordon Audio Commentary with Producer Brian Yuzna and actors Jeffrey Combs Robert Sampson Barbara Crampton and Bruce Abbott Re-Animator Resurrectus Documentary Interviews with Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna Writer Dennis Paoli Composer Richard Band and Fangoria Editor Tony Timpone Extended Scenes Deleted Scenes Trailers Gallery  

• The Shadow of the Cat (Standard Edition) | Blu Ray | (26/02/2024) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Starring Andre Morell (Cash on Demand) and Barbara Shelley (The Camp on Blood Island), The Shadow of the Cat is an atmospheric old dark house tale of feline revenge. When the wealthy Ella Venable (Catherine Lacey) is murdered at the behest of her husband, Walter (Morell), the only witness is her beloved cat, Tabitha. As Ella's niece Beth (Shelley) attempts to uncover the truth, Walter and his accomplices fall foul of a series of cat-related accidents Directed by John Gilling (The Scarlet Blade) and with cinematography by Arthur Grant (The Phantom of the Opera), The Shadow of the Cat is a classic Gothic chiller from Hammer.

• All in Good Faith - The Complete Series 1 | DVD | (21/10/2013) from £6.28   |  Saving you £6.71 (106.85%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In his first comedy for ITV, Richard Briers stars as a beleaguered vicar who abandons the comforts of his affluent Oxfordshire parish for the more challenging climes of a run-down Midlands town. Also starring Pam Ferris and Nigel Humphreys, this hugely engaging sitcom was penned by noted screenwriter John Kane, and directed by multi-award winner John Howard Davies. When doubts begin to assail the Rev. Philip Lambe, he feels the problems of an urban parish might help renew his faith in himsel...

• Deadly Record | DVD | (29/06/2015) from £5.84   |  Saving you £4.15 (71.06%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Hammer icon Barbara Shelley stars alongside cult actor Lee Patterson in a brilliantly taut and compelling thriller from the late '50s. Deadly Record is featured here in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements, in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio.When pilot Trevor Hamilton touches down at London Airport, his wife Jenny is not there to meet him. Their marriage is on the point of collapse, and when Jenny is found dead, Hamilton becomes Suspect Number One. With the police searching for enough evidence to arrest him, Hamilton desperately interviews everyone in Jenny's social circle to find the real murderer!SPECIAL FEATURE: Original Theatrical Trailer

• Crooks In Cloisters | DVD | (09/07/2012) from £8.00   |  Saving you £7.99 (99.88%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Crooks In Cloisters is a 1964 British comedy starring Bernard Cribbins and Barbara Windsor. A gang of hardboiled rogues exchange their London gear for the brown robes of a religious order. Make no mistake, they are no undergoing a change of heart, just hiding out until the heat cools off a little and they can return to their criminal activities in the big smoke!

• Frenzy | DVD | (17/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  By the time Alfred Hitchcock's second-to-last picture came out in 1972, the censorship restrictions under which he had laboured during his long career had eased up. Now he could give full sway to his lurid fantasies, and that may explain why Frenzy is the director's most violent movie by far--outstripping even Psycho for sheer brutality. Adapted by playwright Anthony Shaffer, the story concerns a series of rape-murders committed by suave fruit-merchant Bob Rusk (Barry Foster), who gets his kicks from throttling women with a necktie. This being a Hitchcock thriller, suspicion naturally falls on the wrong man--ill-tempered publican Richard Blaney (Jon Finch). Enter Inspector Oxford from New Scotland Yard (Alex McCowan), who thrashes out the finer points of the case with his wife (Vivian Merchant), whose tireless enthusiasm for indigestible delicacies like quail with grapes supplies a classic running gag.Frenzy was the first film Hitchcock had shot entirely in his native Britain since Jamaica Inn (1939), and many contemporary critics used that fact to account for what seemed to them a glorious return to form after a string of Hollywood duds (Marnie, Torn Curtain, Topaz). Hitchcock specialists are often less wild about it, judging the detective plot mechanical and the oh-so-English tone insufferable. But at least three sequences rank among the most skin-crawling the maestro ever put on celluloid. There is an astonishing moment when the camera backs away from a room in which a murder is occurring, down the stairs, through the front door and then across the street to join the crowd milling indifferently on the pavement. There is also the killer's nerve-wracking attempt to retrieve his tiepin from a corpse stuffed into a sack of potatoes. Finally, there is one act of strangulation so prolonged and gruesome it verges on the pornographic. Was the veteran film-maker a rampant misogynist as feminist observers have frequently charged? Sit through this appalling scene if you dare and decide for yourself. --Peter Matthews

• Insidious: 1-3 | DVD | (12/10/2015) from £9.99   |  Saving you £-2.99 (-42.70%)   |  RRP £7.00

  Josh (Patrick Wilson) and Renai (Rose Byrne) are a happily married couple with three young children who have moved into their idyllic new suburban home. When tragedy strikes their young son, Josh and Renai begin to experience things in the house that are beyond explanation. Insidious 2 After the traumatic events that plagued their family, the Lambert family move into their grandmother's home. However all is not well as Josh (Patrick Wilson) and Renai (Rose Byrne) continue to experience the demonic forces that are set on turning their lives to chaos. Insidious 3 Set before the haunting of the Lambert family, Insidious 3 reveals how gifted psychic Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) reluctantly agrees to use her ability to contact the dead in order to help a teenage girl (Stefanie Scott) who has been targeted by a dangerous supernatural entity.

• The Forsyte Saga - Complete First & Second Series | DVD | (12/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  The Forsyte Saga is an immense drama of sex power and money. It chronicles the lives of three generations of a powerful Victorian family. Superior arrogant and confident on the surface beneath the imposing veneer lies a festering core of unhappy and brutal relationships riddled with jealousies and tensions. At the heart of the Saga is Soames Forsyte (Damian Lewis) a rich and successful partner in the family law firm and a staunch upholder of the old moral code. But his fiery tormented relationship with his beautiful wife Irene (Gina McKee) upsets his complacency and as Irene embarks on a passionate affair the Forsyte Family is cruelly ripped apart in a bitter feud. A classic of English literature The Forsyte Saga paints a fascinating picture of early twentieth century London life charting the progress of a great dynasty from the height of the Victorian era through the turbulent transition into the modern age. The Forsyte Saga is a compelling drama of love adultery obsession and deceit providing an enticing glimpse into a passionate and flamboyant existence.

• From Beyond | Blu Ray | (17/04/2019) from £15.99   |  Saving you £6.00 (42.89%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Obsessive scientist Dr. Pretorious and his assistant Crawford Tillinghast have invented 'The Resonator'. A device intended to stimulate the brain's Pineal gland and expand the powers of the mind. The machine gives them more than they bargained for however when a parallel universe inhibited by slimy creatures ready to prey on humans reveals itself. Pretorious meets a sticky end and returns as a grotesque, deformed being and all manner of depravity ensues. Special Features: Stuart Gordon on From Beyond. Gothic Adaptation: An Interview with writer Dennis Paoli. The Doctors is in: An Interview with Barbara Crampton. Monsters and Slime: The FX of From Beyond. Directors Perspective. The Editing room: Lost and Found. An Interview with the Composer. Commentary with Stuart Gordon, Brian Yuzna and Jeffrey Combs. A Photo montage. Storyboard to film comparison.

• Lords Of Discipline | DVD | (20/06/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Will (David Keith) arrives for his last year at a Military Academy in the Deep South USA in the 1960's where a black student has been accepted for the first time. Will is forced to help the new student from the attentions of racists but is he prepared to risk his own career to do so? Based on the novel by Pat Conroy.

• Space: 1999: Super Space Theater | Blu Ray | (12/08/2024) from £25.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Space: 1999: Super Space Theater Blu-Ray:Capitalising on the success of the first two Space:1999 movies (episodes edited together as cinema features in the wake of Star Wars) ITC created what would ultimately become thirteen full-length movies for cable and home video under the banner Super Space Theater. Four of these were made from episodes of Space:1999, though they included new music in places and (for Alien Attack) additional scenes. Each of these four movies has been rebuilt from the High-Definition restorations created for the series episodes - they are presented here in their original 4:3 full screen aspect ratio alongside new 16:9 widescreen special editions, with both Alien Attack and Destination Moonbase-Alpha featuring enhanced special effects. All four special editions have been re-edited, restoring scenes and adding material not in the original presentation. Also included in this set is a rebuild of the Italian theatrical movie Spazio:1999 - debuting several months before TV transmissions began and featuring an idiosyncratic score from the legendary Ennio Morricone, it was the first time Space:1999 was seen anywhere in the world.