"Actor: Charles Newton"

• Jamaica Inn Dual Format | Blu Ray | (07/11/2016) from £16.39   |  Saving you £3.60 (21.96%)   |  RRP £19.99

  It's generally acknowledged that the Master of Suspense disliked costume dramas, and Jamaica Inn--a rip-roaring melodrama drawn from a Daphne du Maurier pot-boiler, set in 1820s Cornwall--is about as costumed as they come. So what was he doing directing it? Killing time, essentially. In 1939 Hitchcock was due to quit Britain for Hollywood, but delays Stateside left him with time on his hands. Never one to sit idle, he agreed to make one picture for Mayflower Productions, a new outfit formed by actor Charles Laughton and émigré German producer Erich Pommer. An innocent young orphan (the 19-year-old Maureen O'Hara in her first starring role) arrives at her uncle's remote Cornish inn to find it a den of reprobates given to smuggling, wrecking and gross overacting. They're all out-hammed, though, by Laughton at his most corseted and outrageously self-indulgent as the local squire to whom Maureen runs for help. Since his star was also the co-producer, Hitch couldn't do much with the temperamental actor. He contented himself with adding a few characteristic touches--including a spot of bondage (always a Hitchcock favourite), and the chief villain's final spectacular plunge from a high place--and slyly sending up the melodramatic absurdities of the plot. Jamaica Inn hardly stands high in the Master's canon, but it trundles along divertingly enough. Hitchcock fanatics will have fun comparing it with his two subsequent--and far more accomplished--du Maurier adaptations, Rebecca and The Birds.--Philip Kemp

• David Lean Box Set | DVD | (20/11/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  A collection of David Lean's finest films. Include: 1. The Sound Barrier (1952) 2. Hobsons Choice (1954) 3. Blithe Spirit (1945) 4. Brief Encounter (1945) 5. Great Expectations (1946) 6. Oliver Twist (1948) 7. Madeleine (1950) 8. The Passionate Friends (1949) 9. This Happy Breed (1944)

• A Midsummer Night's Dream - Pacific Northwest Ballet | DVD | (26/06/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  This performance of George Balanchine's ballet A Midsummer Night's Dream was filmed live at Sadler's Wells Theatre, London, in February 1999 and won the award for "Best Television Realisation of a Stage Production" at IMZ Dance Screen. The music is from Mendelssohn's youthful overture plus later theatre music, and five other pieces by the composer all selected by the great Russian choreographer Balanchine in 1962. In a fine ensemble cast, Paul Gibson as Oberon and Patricia Barker as Titania are suitably aloof, at least until the latter dances with the ass Bottom (Timothy Lynch) in a highlight of touching comedy. After all the quarrelsome entanglements of the first act, the finale ensures celebration and richly deserved happy endings all round. The simple sets have a picturesque charm, the costumes a fairytale glamour and the large cast, including many children, dance with flair and enthusiasm; this is clearly one production where everyone was having a fine time. In fact it is rather more enjoyable than Hollywood's A Midsummer Night's Dream of the same year. Ballet aficionados may also want to explore the BBC's wonderful Coppélia (2000). On the DVD: There are no special features on the disc, but the 12-page booklet is entirely in English and is well presented, offering track and cast lists, a synopsis and notes on Balanchine, Mendelssohn and the creative talents and directors of the Pacific Northwest Ballet. The sound is atmospheric--Dolby Digital 5.0--and the anamorphically enhanced 16:9 image is good, though slightly soft, and does occasionally reveal some compression artefacting. In defiance of regional encoding regulations, not only is this DVD region free, but includes the normal PAL UK television system programme material on one side and on the reverse includes the same content in NTSC format, suitable for American playback. Anyone curious to see if one format is better will find that the UK PAL transfer contains just a little more picture detail. --Gary S Dalkin

• Jamaica Inn | DVD | (27/02/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Mary an orphan girl goes to live with her Uncle Joss landlord of the Jamaica Inn. Working as a barmaid at the inn Mary discovers that her uncle is the head of a gang of pirates who prey upon wrecked ships that have foundered in the heavy seas. When she then finds out that the gang lure the ships to their doom in the first place her life is put in danger...