"Actor: Charles Rea"

• Long Shot (Flipside 034) (DVD + Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (26/06/2017) from £11.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  LONG SHOT (BFI Flipside 034) (DVD + Blu-ray) A film by Maurice Hatton THE FLIPSIDE: rescuing weird and wonderful British films from obscurity and presenting them in new high-quality editions. Rarely seen in the last 40 years our latest Flipside marks the release of this important and funny slice of Scottish cinema. A budding Scottish film producer tries to get his ambitious Aberdeen-set western financed, and while he attracts some major stars and directors to the film, he finds that with their support come more and more script changes... Filmed around the 1977 Edinburgh Film Festival, Long Shot is a deadpan satire about the trials and tribulations of British independent filmmaking, with terrific cameos from Charles Gormley, Wim Wenders, Susannah York, Stephen Frears, Alan Bennett and John Boorman. Extras: Scene Nun, Take One (Maurice Hatton, 1964, 26 mins): short film starring Susannah York and directed by Maurice Hatton Sean Connery's Edinburgh (1982, 28 mins): short film starring the iconic actor. The film was sponsored by the City of Edinburgh District Council and aimed at increasing tourist trade Hooray for Holyrood (Ross Wilson, 1986, 50 mins): Scottish Television short presented by Robbie Coltrane celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Edinburgh Film Festival Booklet with new writing from Bill Forsyth, Vic Pratt and Dylan Cave, plus full film credits

• The François Truffaut Collection | DVD | (08/12/2014) from £11.99   |  Saving you £50.00 (500.50%)   |  RRP £59.99

  Features SHOOT THE PIANIST, JULES ET JIM, THE SOFT SKIN, ANNE & MURIEL, A GORGEOUS GIRL LIKE ME, THE LAST METRO, THE WOMAN NEXT DOOR, FINALLY SUNDAY Extras Audio commentaries Presentations by Serge Toubiana on all titles Deleted scenes Trailers

• Secret Agent | DVD | (07/07/2003) from £14.98   |  Saving you £-7.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £6.99

  One of Alfred Hitchcock's finest pre-Hollywood films, the 1936 Secret Agent stars a young John Gielgud as a British spy whose death is faked by his intelligence superiors. Reinvented with a new identity and outfitted with a wife (Madeleine Carroll), Gielgud's character is sent on assignment with a cold-blooded accomplice (Peter Lorre) to assassinate a German agent. En route, the counterfeit couple keeps company with an affable American (Robert Young), who turns out to be more than he seems after the wrong man is murdered by Gielgud and Lorre. Dense with interwoven ideas about false names and real identities, about appearances as lies and the brutality of the hidden, and about the complicity of those who watch the anarchy that others do, Secret Agent declared that Alfred Hitchcock was well along the road to mastery as a filmmaker and, more importantly, knew what it was he wanted to say for the rest of his career. --Tom Keogh

• Creature from the Black Lagoon: Complete Legacy Collection | DVD | (10/06/2019) from £27.09   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The original Creature from the Black Lagoon is one of the silver screen's most unforgettable characters and, along with the other Universal Classic Monsters, defined the Hollywood horror genre. The Creature from the Black Lagoon: Complete Legacy Collection includes all 3 films from the original legacy including the gripping classic and the sequels that followed. These landmark motion pictures perfectly blended Universal's classic monster heritage with the science-fiction explosion of the 1950s and continue to inspire remakes and adaptations that strengthen the legend of the Creature from the Black Lagoon to this day. Bonus Features: Back to the Black Lagoon Documentary 3 Feature Commentaries Production Photographs Theatrical Trailers

• Gothika | DVD | (09/08/2004) from £3.95   |  Saving you £16.04 (406.08%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Halle Berry stars as a successful criminal psychologist who wakes up to find herself a patient in her own mental institution with no memory of the murder she's apparently committed.

• Delirious | DVD | (12/08/2002) from £13.48   |  Saving you £-0.49 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A 1991 comedy, Delirious stars John Candy as the head writer on a soap opera set in the fictional small town of Ashford Falls, whose naff power dressing and power wrangling is distinctly reminiscent of Dynasty. Candy has a crush on the somewhat imperious and Joan Collins-esque star of the show, played by Emma Samms, although waiting in the wings to be written into the show is the more wholesome and unaffected actress Mariel Hemingway. Delirious takes a turn when Candy is felled in an accident and awakes, supernaturally, to find himself in the very world of his own soap, with Ashford Falls a real town and its fictional characters, including Samms, now real people. Candy discovers, however, that in this world he has the power to "write" situations as they suit him--in this case, by casting himself as a dashing, wealthy and mysterious Wall Street hero, able to sweep Samms off her feet. The film is in some ways a precursor of Pleasantville (in which two teens are sucked into the world of a "Honey, I'm home" black and white 1950s sitcom). However, between them the star, writers and director (Tom Mankiewicz) make a ham fist of Delirious. The parody of soap mores is quite well done but quickly palls in its obviousness; Candy's performance is misjudged, as if trying too hard to make the best of a bad job; while overall, the film feels cheap, tacky and broad, once again raising the question why in the 1980s and 90s America produced such great sitcoms but such poor film comedies. On the DVD: Delirious is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. It's a decent enough edition but looks its age in places, in terms of colour definition in particular. The only extra is the original trailer. --David Stubbs

• 3 Ninjas Knuckle Up | DVD | (08/03/2004) from £14.95   |  Saving you £-8.96 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Rocky Colt and Tum Tum find themselves in action again as they get drawn into a struggle between an American Indian tribe and a ruthless businessman who is dumping toxic waste on their land.

• Rita Hayworth - Screen Goddess Boxset | DVD | (03/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

• Three Smart Girls | DVD | (07/03/2011) from £5.98   |  Saving you £7.01 (54.00%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Three sisters set off from Switzerland with their divorced mother to go to New York in order to stop their father marrying a calculating socialite...

• Rita Hayworth | DVD | (13/03/2006) from £32.43   |  Saving you £17.56 (54.15%)   |  RRP £49.99

  A bumper box set of classic films featuring 'The Love Goddess' herself Rita Hayworth! Gilda (Dir. Charles Vidor 1946): 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 r

• The Big Clock DVD | DVD | (23/08/2010) from £17.53   |  Saving you £-4.54 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  George Stroud (Ray Milland) executive editor at Crimeways magazine is involved with the wrong woman - his boss's. When Earl Janoth (Charles Laughton) his boss kills her in an argument he begins to cover his tracks and frame an innocent man whose identity he doesn't know but was seen outside her home just before the murder. Janoth knows someone saw him but not who . He puts Stroud in charge of finding the unidentified witness but the trouble is that Stroud was the missing man...

• Hunters Walk | DVD | (03/09/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Devised by Dixon of Dock Green creator Ted Willis, Hunters Walk shared several similarities with the classic 1950s police drama - in particular a small-town setting, and storylines encompassing the more human aspects of police work. This release contains all the existing episodes of Hunters Walk that remain in the archive.

• Has Anybody Seen My Gal? | DVD | (05/05/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  In this charming musical comedy Rock Hudson plays a faithful soda jerk who finds his atentions to the lovely Millicent (Piper Laurie) turned down after her family gains a large sum of money.

• Carry On Jack | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £4.50   |  Saving you £11.49 (255.33%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Carry On Jack was the 1963 offering from a team which had, by then, become a repertory company with special guests dropping in for a dose of innuendo. "What's all this jigging in the rigging?" demands Kenneth Williams, this time playing a ship's captain, and the scene is set for 90 minutes of ribaldry involving cross-dressing, press-ganging and plank walking. The plot scarcely matters. It's set after the Battle of Trafalgar and the sea is awash with Spanish galleons and pirates as the British navy sets about defending its shores with as much incompetence as possible. Sally, a barmaid at the Dirty Duck (Juliet Mills in feisty principal boy mode), knocks Bernard Cribbins on the head and steals his uniform so that she can go in search of her childhood sweetheart. He is promptly press-ganged and they end up on the same ship. Williams, on the brink of his ascendancy as a star turn, just about keeps the mannerisms under control enough to build the character of the naïve and neurotic captain. Familiar Carry On faces on top form include Charles Hawtrey and Jim Dale, while Peter Gilmore--in his pre-Onedin Line days--appears as a pirate. Peter Rodgers' script is not quite vintage Carry On but the jokes keep coming and it's all good, clean fun. On the DVD: This was one of the first Carry On films to be made in colour. The print is in reasonable condition. The picture quality, apart from a couple of scratchy scenes of sailing ships that were probably drafted in from stock footage, is fair, as is the sound. But apart from the scene index there are no extras on the disc. Given the cult status of the Carry On films, and the wealth of documentary material which has been made about them and their stars, you'd think something extra could have been offered with the DVD releases to make them a more worthwhile alternative to the video. --Piers Ford

• Airspeed | DVD | (03/09/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £2.99

  A 13-year old girl finds herself in deep trouble when the jet on which she is travelling to meet the father she has never known suffers a freak mid-air accident. With a radio failure adding to the complications life just keeps on getting worse. What will be her fate?

• Great Performers Tom Dowd and the Language Of Music | DVD | (08/10/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Tom Dowd And The Language Of Music profiles the extraordinary life and legendary work of music producer/recording engineer Tom Dowd. Historical footage vintage photographs and interviews with a who's who list of musical giants from the worlds of jazz soul and classic rock shine a spotlight on the brilliance of Tom Dowd whose creative spirit and passion for innovative technology helped shape the course of modern music.Tom Dowd's credits include recording sessions with Aretha Franklin Ray Charles Eric Clapton Otis Redding John Coltrane The Allman Brothers Band Tito Puente Dizzy Gillespie Thelonious Monk Cream Rod Stewart Lynyrd Skynyrd Booker T & the MG's and countless other musical luminaries.

• Like It Is | DVD | (11/09/2000) from £12.70   |  Saving you £2.29 (18.03%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Like It Is is much like watching a train wreck--the very idea of it is repellent and yet you perversely can't avert your eyes. While its urban grittiness and sooty veneer entranced some critics who mistook its violent, netherworld neorealism for art, Like It Is offers little in the way of redemption, positive gay imaging or even particularly good narrative. Paul Oremland directed this venture about a young, gay Blackpool tough named Craig (Steve Bell) who bare-knuckle boxes for money. He ultimately moves to London in search of a better life and falls in with the trendy London gay-club scene, meeting and falling for a handsome record producer named Matt (Ian Rose) and his wealthy boss (played by the Who's lead singer Roger Daltrey). The better life is quickly tainted by disillusion and misery, much as is the viewing experience. Steve Bell is, in real life, a featherweight boxing champion in Britain and therefore brings an urgent and raw vitality to the lead, but the characters as a whole are either irritating or unsympathetic, and it's ultimately difficult to find anyone to care for, or a story worth empathising with. --Paula Nechak, Amazon.com

• Crossworlds | DVD | (07/06/2004) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-14.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Star Wars meets A Wrinkle in Time in this adventure of an intergalactic war where one unassuming young man holds the key to dimensional travel and the legacy of his mysterious adventurer father. Boyish Josh Charles is the lucky Luke Skywalker stand-in, a good-natured underachiever shocked out of his lovelorn moping when gorgeous guerrilla fighter Andrea Roth takes the battle to his bedroom. Rutger Hauer is the coffee-chugging freedom fighter who is roused from retirement to fill out the trio and face dimensional mob boss Stuart Wilson. This obviously low budget picture makes the most of limited special effects and striking settings--notably an elevator ride that turns into a free-floating mind game hanging in space and a knock-down, drag-out finale that sends our hapless hero popping up all over the universe. Hauer makes for a surprisingly charismatic mercenary turned father figure and Charles is modestly charming, once he loses the smart-ass wisecracks. Though it reaches for a scope that's beyond its means, Crossworlds is an entertaining bit of sci-fi fluff. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

• True Identity | DVD | (01/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Miles Pope (Lenny Henry) is a struggling black actor whose life takes a hilarious turn for the worse when he unwittingly discovers a ruthless mobster's most guarded secret. To save his neck Miles enlists the help of an eccentric makeup whiz who concocts a brilliant disguise to conceal his 'true identity'...

• Baryshnikov's The Nutcracker | DVD | (09/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The Nutcracker is Mikhail Baryshnikov's breathtaking and critically acclaimed Emmy-nominated production. Baryshnikov was at the height of his career as a classical dancer in 1977 when he staged this beloved holiday classic for the American Ballet Theatre. Gelsey Kirkland had left the New York City Ballet to dance with the Russian superstar and their partnership was magical. In this Soviet-influenced version Baryshnikov casts himself as the hero who is transformed from a wooden figure to a soaring prince and Kirkland plays an adolescent girl of delicacy and vulnerability. Alexander Minz portrays Drosselmeyer a mysterious wizard who not only conjures the fantasy but aslo dances with the romantic couple. Kenneth Schermerhorn conducts the National Philharmonic in a fast-paced performance of Tchaikovsky's music. Celebrated by critics and public alike Baryshnikov's The Nutcracker delivers a brilliant and sparkling adaptation of the famous E.T.A. Hoffmann tale along with Tchaikovsky's classic score.