"Actor: Carol Jones"

• Never Let Go | DVD | (07/10/2002) from £11.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Remembered dimly as Peter Sellers' only venture into "serious" acting, Never Let Go has a lot of other things to recommend it, mostly because it manages to include a lot of the lurid elements that gained it an X certificate in 1960. It has a near-demented melodrama plot, as two desperate obsessives collide in a bizarre feud. Richard Todd, doing meek and put-upon, is a sales rep for smug Peter Jones' cosmetics firm whose life is turned upside-down when his Ford Anglia, bought on hire purchase and uninsured, is stolen by teddy boy Adam Faith. Looking like an inhabitant of Royston Vasey in The League of Gentlemen, Sellers plays a grinning, jumped-up spiv who runs a legitimate garage which is a front for the car thieves and is sugar daddy to teenage tartlet Carol White. Typical of Sellers' demonic rottenness is a scene in which he breaks down-and-out Melvyn Johns' heart by stamping on his beloved terrapin. "Peanut" Todd's crusade to get back his motor (catchphrase "what about my car?") brings trouble too: he gets repeatedly beaten up, abandoned by his wife (Elizabeth Sellars) and dragged to the edge of madness for a final punch-up in a garage. With a delightfully sleazy, jazzy John Barry score, lots of local colour in the caffs and gaffs of criminal London circa 1960 and a parade of welcome character actors (John le Mesurier, David Lodge, Noel Willman, Nigel Stock), this has its soapy spells, but it's a fascinating relic. On the DVD: Never Let Go's menu plays under Faith's theme song ("When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again--Oh Yeah Oh Yeah!"). The print is slightly letterboxed but looks a few generations away from the master with some careless transfer work that greys shadows and overexposes some scenes. --Kim Newman

• Eaten Alive | Blu Ray | (21/09/2015) from £23.98   |  Saving you £3.00 (13.64%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Meet The Maniac & his friend. Nearly a decade before he donned Freddy Kruger’s famous red and green sweater horror icon Robert Englund delivered a supremely sleazy performance in Eaten Alive – another essay in taut Southern terror from Tobe Hooper director of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Deep in the Louisiana bayou sits the ramshackle Starlight Hotel destination of choice for those who like to check in but not check out! Presided over by the bumbling mumbling Judd (and his pet croc which he keeps in a large pond out front) the patron of this particular establishment may seem like a good-natured ol’ Southern gent – but he has a mean temper on him and a mighty large scythe to boot… Oozing atmosphere from its every pore (the entire film was shot on a sound-stage at the famous Raleigh Studios which lends it a queasy claustrophobic feel) Eaten Alive matches The Texas Chain Saw Massacre for sheer insanity – and even draughts in Chain Saw star Marilyn Burns as the terrorised woman-in-peril alongside William Finley and Mel Ferrer. Bonus Features: Brand new 2K transfer from the original camera negative High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing Audio commentary with co-writer and producer Mardi Rustam make-up artist Craig Reardon and stars Roberta Collins William Finley and Kyle Richards New introduction to the film by director Tobe Hooper Brand new interview with Hooper My Name is Buck: Star Robert Englund discusses his acting career The Butcher of Elmendorf: The Legend of Joe Ball – The story of the South Texas bar owner on whom Eaten Alive is loosely based 5ive Minutes with Marilyn Burns – The star of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre talks about working on Eaten Alive The Gator Creator: archival interview with Hooper Original theatrical trailers for the film under its various titles Eaten Alive Death Trap Starlight Slaughter and Horror Hotel US TV and Radio Spots Alternate credits sequence Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gary Pullin Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film illustrated with original archive stills and posters

• The Flamingo Kid | DVD | (08/04/2002) from £14.98   |  Saving you £-8.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  As The Flamingo Kid amply demonstrates, there's always room for one more rites of passage film if it's made with care and affection. Garry Marshall's 1984 study of a young Brooklyn poker player who thinks the grass is greener at a Long Island beach club, nails the bad guy, realises he got it wrong and returns to the bosom of his "humble" family certainly satisfies on both counts. It also has a strong cast: Matt Dillon as Jeffrey, whose niggling aspirations create the inevitable barrier between himself and his parents; Richard Crenna as his prospective role model who turns out to have feet of clay; and Hector Elizondo as his bemused father. But Jessica Walter (Clint Eastwood's stalker from hell in Play Misty for Me) almost steals the show as an acid-tongued beach-club wife. If the whole thing lacks the depth and warmth of, say, Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs, it succeeds on its own merits as an homage to a more innocent time when a young man didn't need to stray far from his own tenement block in order to find himself, with the help of a suitably nostalgic early-1960s soundtrack of course. On the DVD: As far as extras go, this is a budget offering. There are detailed actor biographies but precious little on the film itself, apart from the snippet that Richard Crenna earned a Golden Globe award nomination. There is an adequate scene index and, for those who want to study Dillon in detail, a reasonable stills gallery. The picture is presented in standard format, and hardly distinguishable from ordinary VHS or telecast quality, but the stereo audio certainly helps pump out the period soundtrack. --Piers Ford

• Eaten Alive | Blu Ray | (13/11/2017) from £14.84   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Meet The Maniac & His Freind. Nearly a decade before he donned Freddy Krueger's famous red and green sweater, horror icon Robert Englund delivered a supremely sleazy performance in Eaten Alive another essay in taut Southern terror from Tobe Hooper, director of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Deep in the Louisiana bayou sits the ramshackle Starlight Hotel, destination of choice for those who like to check in but not check out! Bumbling Judd, the patron of this particular establishment, may seem like a good-natured ol' Southern gent but he has a mean temper on him, and a mighty large scythe to boot Oozing atmosphere from its every pore (the entire film was shot on a sound-stage which lends it a queasy, claustrophobic feel), Eaten Alive matches The Texas Chain Saw Massacre for sheer insanity helped in no small part by some marvellous histrionics from Chain Saw star Marilyn Burns and William Finley (Phantom of the Paradise).

• War of the Worlds: Special Edition (1954) | DVD | (14/11/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Producer George Pal and director Byron Haskins' landmark adaptation of the H.G. Wells classic novel that focuses on the invasion of the earth by Martian war machines. It's a work of frightening imagination with its manta-ray spaceships armed with cobra-like probes that shoot a white-hot disintegration ray. As formations of alien ships continue to wreak destruction around the globe the military is helpless to stop this enemy while scientists race to find an effective weapon. It fi

• A Hole In The Head | DVD | (05/07/2004) from £9.43   |  Saving you £3.56 (27.40%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Meet Tony (Sinatra) a wannabe big shot who's constantly broke. While the carefree widower may not have money he is rich in one respect; he's got the unconditional love of his adoring young son Ally (Eddie Hodges). However when Tony asks his wealthy brother Mario (Robinson) for a loan Mario who disapproves of Tony's lifestyle agrees to back his brother on one condition: settle down or give him custody of Ally! Tony may be desperate but he'd have to have a hole in the head to ag

• The Addams Family - Volume 1 | DVD | (09/04/2007) from £11.99   |  Saving you £18.00 (60.00%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Join Gomez Morticia Pugsley Wednesday Uncle Fester and the clan for the complete first season of The Addams Family! Episodes comprise: 1. The Addams Family Goes to School 2. Morticia and the Psychiatrist 3. Fester's Punctured Romance 4. Gomez the Politician 5. The Addams Family Tree 6. Morticia Joins the Ladies League 7. Halloween with the Addams Family 8. Green-Eyed Gomez 9. The New Neighbours Meet the Addams Family 10. Wednesday Leaves Home 11. The Addams Family Meet the V.I.P.'s 12. Morticia the Matchmaker 13. Lurch Learns to Dance 14. Art and the Addams Family 15. The Addams Family Meets a Beatnik 16. The Addams Family Meets the Undercover Man 17. Mother Lurch Visits the Addams Family 18. Uncle Fester's Illness 19. The Addams Family Splurges 20. Cousin Itt Visits the Addams Family 21. The Addams Family in Court 22. Amnesia in the Addams Family 23. Thing is Missing 24. Crisis in the Addams Family 25. Lurch and His Harpsichord 26. Morticia the Breadwinner 27. The Addams Family and the Spacemen 28. My Son the Chimp 29. Morticia's Favourite Charity 30. Progress and the Addams Family 31. Uncle Fester's Toupee 32. Cousin Itt and the Vocational Counselor 33. Lurch the Teenage Idol 34. The Winning of Morticia Addams

• Bo Selecta | DVD | (16/06/2003) from £5.78   |  Saving you £17.20 (616.49%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Featuring Avid Merrion as the Scandinavian stalker/host and sketches in which he plays the parts of pop stars like Craig David and Britney Spears in lurid, latex masks, Bo' Selecta! is a brilliantly surreal take on celebrity culture. This first series (originally broadcast in 2002) features a number of cameos and guest appearances from minor celebs: Boyzone's Keith Duffy, Davina McCall, Vanessa Feltz and the hapless Christine Hamilton, one of numerous guests to be interviewed by a puppet bear played by Merrion whose feverish line of questioning invariably results in him sprouting a little erection. Another character is hauled up in a neckbrace (following an altercation with Lisa Tarbuck), but Merrion's innocent broken English can't conceal the fact that he's a psychotic sex maniac who explicitly lusts after celebs who "make me do a sex wee", keeps Craig from Big Brother locked in a cupboard and his dead mother in a wardrobe. Merrion's pop spoofs are also masterly: rather than mimic the stars, he reinvents them--Mel B and Britney Spears--as farting, hairy-chested Northerners, slobbing out on fry-up breakfasts washed down with lager and, most improbably, Michael Jackson as a cussing, jive-talking black dude à la Huggy Bear. Bo' Selecta! doesn't so much satirise celebrities as debase them, exposing their humiliating none-dimensionality by drawing them into a vortex of vulgar absurdity, not unlike Vic Reeves' Shooting Stars. Of course, they play along--they're on television. Although initially off-putting to some, once you get into Bo' Selecta! there is, as for Big Brother's Craig, no escape. On the DVD: Bo' Selecta! on disc features numerous extras, including a behind the scenes feature in which the production team discuss making the show ("like directing a squirrel on roller-skates"), deleted scenes including Gareth Gates as a Tourette's victim, which was deemed a little beyond the pale, some unfunny bloopers and a feature on the life story of "Craig David" with Kate Thornton, including an unmissable nativity scene in which the infant Craig plays Jesus. There's also a commentary, with Merrion as his stalker self watching himself with consternation (It's strange seeing yourself on TV"). It's a pity we don't get to hear from the "real" Merrion. --David Stubbs

• Wonder Woman - Vol. 1 | DVD | (09/06/2003) from £5.52   |  Saving you £8.47 (153.44%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Taken from a long-running DC Comics strip, Wonder Woman was made into a popular television series between 1978 and 1981, starring former Miss America Lynda Carter. Capturing the hearts of TV audiences with her sexy outfit as much as her superheroine abilities, Wonder Woman quickly became a kitsch icon, battling the forces of evil with the unforgettably camp "garb of justice", including bullet-proof bangles, a golden lasso and the belt of strength built into her corset. She had an invisible plane, too. Originally Princess Diana of Paradise Island (an uncharted land of Amazon women in the Bermuda Triangle), Wonder Woman is sent as an emissary to the outside world to protect the human race from the forces of evil. And so she becomes Diana Prince, the geeky, bespectacled assistant to Steve Trevor of the Inter Agency Defense Command in Washington, whose father she assisted against the Nazis in the 1940s. In the 70-minute pilot, "The Return of Wonder Woman", our gal is sent in to prevent the nefarious Dr Solano from capturing a nuclear generating plant the Americans are flying into Latin America as a new source of energy. In "Anschluss 77", Steve and Diana are sent to investigate a former Gestapo agent now living in Latin America and have to battle a Nazi force that includes a cloned Adolf Hitler. Finally, in "The Man Who Could Move the World", Wonder Woman's adversary is a Japanese ex-intern from World War II who has developed telekinetic powers. Carter plays the role commendably straight, but just one listen to the theme tune ("in your satin tights, fighting for our rights") makes it clear this isn't meant to be taken seriously. Who else could save us from evil so stylishly? On the DVD: Wonder Woman, Volume 1 includes a gallery of memorabilia, a pretty extensive biography of Lynda Carter and the rest of the cast, and finally a short photo gallery for all you die-hard Wonder Woman fetishists. --Laura Bushell

• Monty Python And The Holy Grail | UMD | (31/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

• Monty Python's The Meaning of Life | DVD | (04/09/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Returning to the sketch-show format of their earlier days, Monty Python' s The Meaning of Life was always going to feel less ambitious and less coherent than their cinematic masterpiece, The Life of Brian. And inevitably given the format, some sketches are better than others. But, for a movie that has been much-maligned, The Meaning of Life actually features some of the Pythons' most memorable set-pieces: the exploding Mr Creosote has to be the most wonderfully grotesque creation of a team whose speciality was the grotesque; while the sublime "Sperm Song" mixes satire and lavish visual humour in a musical skit of breathtaking audacity. Elsewhere, Eric Idle produces another musical gem with "The Universe Song" ("Pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space / 'Cause there's bugger all down here on earth!"), while the Grim Reaper's appearance at an achingly tedious dinner party is the Pythons doing what they do best: mocking their own middle-class origins. Best of all, perhaps, is Terry Gilliam's modest introductory feature, "The Crimson Permanent Assurance", a 20-minute epic tale of the little men rebelling against the corporate system, a theme and a visual style that foreshadows his own masterwork, Brazil. Admittedly too many sketches sacrifice subtlety for shock tactics (the organ donation scene in particular requires a strong stomach), but when this film works it's nothing less than vintage Python. --Mark Walker

• The Addams Family - Vol. 2 | DVD | (02/07/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  They're creepy and they're kooky mysterious and spooky and now for the first time they're on DVD! The Addams Family America's first family of ghastly giddiness are here in all of their ghoulish glory in the original TV series based on the delightfully demented imagination of Charles Addams. Tarantulas torture racks and tombstones have never been so much fun! Join Gomez Morticia Uncle Fester Lurch Cousin Itt and the rest of the gang for a fiendishly funny and altogether kooky experience!

• Eaten Alive | DVD | (13/11/2017) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Meet The Maniac & His Freinds. Nearly a decade before he donned Freddy Krueger's famous red and green sweater, horror icon Robert Englund delivered a supremely sleazy performance in Eaten Alive another essay in taut Southern terror from Tobe Hooper, director of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Deep in the Louisiana bayou sits the ramshackle Starlight Hotel, destination of choice for those who like to check in but not check out! Bumbling Judd, the patron of this particular establishment, may seem like a good-natured ol' Southern gent but he has a mean temper on him, and a mighty large scythe to boot Oozing atmosphere from its every pore (the entire film was shot on a sound-stage which lends it a queasy, claustrophobic feel), Eaten Alive matches The Texas Chain Saw Massacre for sheer insanity helped in no small part by some marvellous histrionics from Chain Saw star Marilyn Burns and William Finley (Phantom of the Paradise).

• Year of the Dragon | DVD | (17/06/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Using unprecedented degrees of violence young Joey Tai becomes the head of Chinese mafia in New York and undisputed leader of Chinese community. Stanley White the most decorated cop in New York who hates Asian people since his service in Vietnam is put in charge of Chinatown. Both men are prone to breaking long-established rules and both men are unlikely to make compromises with each other which leads to unavoidable and bloody conflict.

• The Slayer | DVD | (13/10/2003) from £6.02   |  Saving you £-0.03 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

• Bo Selecta - Series 1 And 2 | DVD | (17/11/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Aided by ""The Bear"" and rubber masked celebrities obsessive fan Avid Merrion hosts two full series of Bo' Selecta! from the squalor of his bedroom guiding us through an eclectic mix of celebrity stories interviews and gossip.

• Helter Skelter | DVD | (11/04/2011) from £4.99   |  Saving you £8.00 (160.32%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A detective gets involved with a wealthy socialite who can't seem to stop hiccupping.

• The Addams Family - Vol. 3 | DVD | (29/10/2007) from £17.53   |  Saving you £12.46 (71.08%)   |  RRP £29.99

  They really are a scream. Brace yourself for more macabre mayhem and monstrous madness - it's time once again to pay a call on the Addams Family television's creepiest clan as they wreak hilarious havoc on their unsuspecting victims. This time love is in the air and it seems that everyone - Pugsley Ophelia Uncle Fester and even Lurch - is being bitten by the bug! Gomez meanwhile is burglarizing houses in his sleep and it's curtains for the new neighbors when Morticia tries her hand at decorating. Now complete your collection and prepare for a scare with the frightfully funny final volume of The Addams Family. It's drop-dead hilarious.

• Last Train From Gun Hill | Blu Ray | (07/01/2022) from £30.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn headline this suspenseful western which follows U.S. Marshal Matt Morgan (Douglas) on the trail of his wife's killer. Adding a dark twist to the tale-the suspect's father is Morgan's long-time friend, cattle baron Craig Beldon (Quinn). Morgan is determined to capture the killer and take him away by the 9:00 train, against all odds. Directed by John Sturges (Gunfight at the O.K. Corral), one of the greatest filmmakers of the Western genre.

• Death Trap | DVD | (13/10/2003) from £10.57   |  Saving you £-4.58 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  VIPCO proudly presents Tobe Hooper's much-villified follow up to his wildly successful 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre'. 'Death Trap' tells the story of a deranged madman who uses the guests of his rundown hotel not only to be victims for his demented thirst for blood but also as food for the crocodile he keeps under the hotel... Whilst 'Texas Chaisaw Massacre' was almost gore free and relied on music atmosphere etc. 'Death Trap' goes straight for the jugular and delivers the goods