An explosive love story of two women who lead a reclusive professor (Lancaster) into a complex web of sexual intrigue...
Classic comedy whodunnit directed by John Huston ('The Maltese Falcon').
French New Wave director Louis Malle made two pieces of memorable Americana in mid-career, Atlantic City (1980) and Pretty Baby (1978). Atlantic City stars Burt Lancaster in one of his greatest screen performances: as an ageing crook now working the numbers racket from a seedy apartment in the casino town of Atlantic City. Susan Sarandon is a waitress whose brother is on the run from the mob, having stolen a cache of drugs. She and Lancaster form an odd but engaging couple and hatch a plot to beat the odds stacked against them. Atmospheric, bittersweet, with lots of character and some neat action: it all adds up to a pretty classy offering. On the DVD: Unfortunately, the picture and sound quality on the DVD are only average. The image is 14:9 ratio and has been taken from a print of variable quality in which some reels are barely adequate. There are no additional features. --Ed Buscombe
An all new Steve Martin DVD gifting set. The set features 4 DVDs in a slipcase and includes his 1982 black and white comedy crime mystery Dead Men Don t Wear Plaid , the 1989 Ron Howard directed smash hit Parenthood , the 1996 film version of the classic Phil Silver s series Sgt. Bilko also starring Dan Aykroyd and the wonderful 1999 Frank Oz directed comedy about a low budget film director Bowfinger also starring Eddie Murphy.
An all new Steve Martin Blu-ray gifting set. The set features 4 Blu-rays in a slipcase and includes his 1982 black and white comedy crime mystery Dead Men Don t Wear Plaid , the 1989 Ron Howard directed smash hit Parenthood , the 1996 film version of the classic Phil Silver s series Sgt. Bilko also starring Dan Aykroyd and the wonderful 1999 Frank Oz directed comedy about a low budget film director Bowfinger also starring Eddie Murphy.
Dr. Moreau Braddock (Michael York) a decent young Englishman is miraculously saved by the mysterious Dr. Montgomery (Nigel Davenport) after being thrown overboard a ship sailing in a remote area of the Pacific. Dr. Montgomery is accompanying a cargo of animals destined for a tropical island. At first an 'honoured guest' on the island he finds his contact with the natives increasingly disturbing for they are unlike any men he has ever seen. After it transpires that these men are the result of experiments of the sinister scientist Dr. Moreau (Burt Lancaster) Braddock feels that he is in grave danger: from both these strange creatures and from Dr. Moreau himself. Unable to escape the confines of the island on his own Braddock knows not what to do or whom to turn to...
Vengeance Valley: An unusual Western for its time Vengeance Valley gave Burt Lancaster his first Western role. His athletic prowess made him perfect for the genre and he'd go on to make Gunfight At O.K. Corral Apache and The Unforgiven among others. Vengeance Valley emphasises character development and the solid cast meets the challenge. Robert Walker plays Burt's foster brother. Joanne Dru John Ireland Ted de Corsia Hugh O'Brien and Glenn Strange lend support. One o
Academy Award-winner Burt Lancaster delivers one of the finest performances of his career as a hard-boiled major in command of a grubby Vietnam outpost in this classic film of wartime confrontation. The war was still a ""conflict"" and American soldiers were merely ""advisors "" yet the ambushes the betrayals and the brutality were all very real. While the riveting action concentrates on a single obscure incident this excellent understated and sharply intelligent film illuminates the vast landscape of an era.
Vera Cruz was only director Robert Aldrich's second Western (his first, made a few months earlier, was the revisionist, pro-Native-American Apache), but it's such an assured, stylish affair that he might have been roaming the sagebrush for decades. In the aftermath of the American Civil War two lone adventurers make their way south of the border, where Mexico is fighting a civil war of its own to rid the country of the French-imposed Emperor Maximilian. Neither the dour Benjamin Trane (Gary Cooper) nor the grinning, devil-may-care Joe Erin (Burt Lancaster) has much in the way of idealism, but Trane still retains a thin bitter edge of integrity, a quality quite alien to the cheerfully amoral Erin. In uneasy alliance, constantly looking to outwit or double-cross each other, the two find themselves escorting a beautiful French countess (Denise Darcel) and a shipment of gold across country. Cooper and Lancaster create a superb double-act, using their contrasted screen personas to point up the humour and the cynicism of the two mercenaries' relationship. Darcel makes less than she might of the femme fatale role, but there are relishable cameos from Cesar Romero as a suavely duplicitous aristo and Ernest Borgnine as another gringo with an exceptionally vicious streak. The script, according to Aldrich, was written on the run, "always finished about five minutes before we shot it", but you wouldn't guess it from the laconic wit of the dialogue. It looks great, too--Ernest Laszlo's widescreen photography makes the most of the handsome Mexican locations. With its irreverent take on the accepted moral conventions of the genre, Vera Cruz ushered in a new kind of Western, and its central love-hate relationship would be replayed in Sam Peckinpah's Ride the High Country (1962) and Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). On the DVD: Not much in the way of extras but the mono sound has been expertly remastered to the benefit of Hugo Friedhofer's spirited score. Above all, the film's presented in its full Superscope ratio (16:9), a blessed relief after all those years when it showed up panned-and-scanned on BBC1. If ever a movie needed widescreen, it's this one--if only to fit in all Burt's teeth. You can see why they called him "Crockery Joe". --Philip Kemp
Buffalo Bill (Paul Newman) plans to put on his own Wild West sideshow and Chief Sitting Bull has agreed to appear in it. However Sitting Bull has his own hidden agenda involving the President and General Custer...
Gilda (Dir. Charles Vidor): The legendary Rita Hayworth sizzles with sensuality and magnetism as she sings ""Put the blame on Mame"" and delivers a dazzling performance as the enticing temptress Gilda. In the story of Gilda Johnny Farrell (Glenn Ford) goes to work for Ballin Mundson (George MacReady) the proprietor of an illegal gambling casino in a South American city and quickly rises to become Mundson's ""main man"". All is well until Mundson returns from a trip with his new bride Gilda - a woman from Johnny's past. Mundson unaware of the previous love affair assigns Farrell the job of ensuring Gilda is a faithful wife. Fraught with hatred Gilda does her best to antagonize intimidate and instill jealousy in Farrell - until circumstances allow him to get even. In A Lonely Place (Dir. Nicholas Ray): A screenwriter is in need of an alibi after being charged with murder. Laurel Gray a neighbour comes to the rescue and provides an alibi but their closeness casts doubt on his innocence... The Killers (Dir. Robert Siodmak): Two professional killers invade a small town and kill a gas station attendant ""the Swede "" who's expecting them. Insurance investigator Reardon pursues the case against the orders of his boss who considers it trivial. Weaving together threads of the Swede's life Reardon uncovers a complex tale of treachery and crime all linked with gorgeous mysterious Kitty Collins. Double Indemnity (Dir. Billy Wilder): Director Billy Wilder and writer Raymond Chandler ('The Big Sleep') adapted James M. Cain's hard-boiled novel into this wildly thrilling story of insurance man Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) who schemes the perfect murder with the beautiful dame Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck): kill Dietrichson's husband and make off with the insurance money. But of course in these plots things never quite go as planned and Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) is the wily insurance investigator who has a feeling that not all is as it seems...
Drama starring Burt Lancaster and Judy Garland. Psychologist Dr Matthew Clark (Lancaster) runs a controversial boarding school for children with learning difficulties known for its no-nonsense, tough love approach. When Clark recruits former concert pianist Jean Hansen (Garland) as the school's new music teacher despite her complete lack of teaching or nursing experience, she quickly forms a bond with one of the children, the severely autistic Reuben (Bruce Ritchey), much to Clark's concern.
The Bridge On The River Kwai (1 Disc Edition): Set in Burma during World War II the story tells of British P.O.Ws who are forced to build a large bridge for the Japanese while a British Commando team is sent to destroy it. Winner of seven Academy Awards. Guns Of Navarone: Exciting war film based on a novel by Alistair Maclean which tells of the attempts of a British raiding team to sabotage two giant German guns on a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. From Here To Eternity: Fred Zinnemann's 1953 Oscar-winning film is a powerful portrait of a peacetime military camp stationed in Hawaii just before the attack on Pearl Harbour. Montgomery Clift is superlative in the major role of Robert Prewitt while Frank Sinatra delivers an electrifying Academy Award-winning (1953 Best Supporting Actor) performance as Clift's buddy. Deborah Kerr's love scene in the Hawaiian surf with Burt Lancaster is enshrined as one of the most famous moments in cinema history.
From film noir master Jules Dassin comes subversive prison epic Brute Force starring Burt Lancaster as hardened inmate Joe Collins and Hume Cronyn as cruel Captain Munsey. On realising his opportunity to be made Warden Munsey plans to abuse the inmates into a revolt which he can take control of and prove his credentials as Captain. However standing in his way to promotion is Collins who co-ordinates the revolt with intelligence and soon has the inmates taking over the prison.
When a man is shipwrecked he manages to make his way to the closest island. But when he explores he discovers the results of a scientist's experiment gone horribly wrong.
The Outlaw (Dir. Howard Hughes 1943): Jane Russell plays a busty siren who steals the heart of Billy the Kid in this Howard Hughes/Howard Hawks-directed story which centres on the rivalrous tentative friendships between Billy Doc Holiday and Pat Garrett. Vengeance Valley (Dir. Richard Thorpe 1941): An unusually adult Western for its time Vengeance Valley (1951) gave Burt Lancaster his first Western role. His athletic prowess made him perfect for the genre and he'd
I PAGLIACCI: Prologue (Leoncavallo) Sherrill MilnesUP IN CENTRAL PARK: Close as Pages in a Book (Romberg/Fields) Julia Migenes and Sherrill Milnes.COSI FAN TUTTE: Un'aura amorosa (Mozart) Peter Schreier.O TOD WIE BITTER BIST DU: (Brahms) Sherrill Milnes with Jon Spong piano.LA TRAVIATA: Pura siccome un angelo (Verdi) Mirella Freni and Sherrill Milnes.DON CARLO: Dio che nell'alma infondere (Verdi) Placido Domingo and Sherrill Milnes.OTELLO: Credo in un Dio crudel (Verdi) Sherrill Milnes.
The Professionals (Dir. Richard Brooks): Four soldiers of fortune are hired by a wealthy Texan oil baron to rescue his kidnapped wife (Cardinale) who's been spirited across the Mexican border by a band of mercenaries led by Jesus Raza (Palance). The four rugged professionals each regarded as a specialist in his selected field - an expert marksman and tracker (Strode) the explosives master (Lancaster) horse handler (Ryan) and one skilled in tactics and weaponry (Marvin) - make their way across the treacherous landscape to retrieve the beautiful kidappee but discover all is not what it seems... High Plains Drifter (Dir. Clint Eastwood): Eastwood portrays a mysterious stranger who emerges out of the heat waves of the desert and rides into the guilt-ridden town of Lago. After committing three murders and one rape in the first 20 minutes The Stranger is hired by the town to protect it from three gunmen just out of jail. The Stranger then paints the entire town bright red renames it ""Hell "" and supplies Divine retribution in a fiery climax. Tall In The Saddle (Dir. Edwin L. Marin): When a stranger arrives in a western town he finds that the rancher who sent for him has been murdered. Further most of the townsfolk seem to be at each other's throats and the newcomer has soon run contrariwise to most of them... Shenandoah (Dir. Andrew V. McLaglen): James Stewart stars as a Virginia farmer during the Civil War. He refuses to support the Confederacy because he is opposed to slavery yet he will not support the Union because he is deeply opposedito war. When his son is taken prisoner Stewart goes to search for the boy. Seeing first-hand the horrors of war he is at last forced to take his stand...
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