"Actor: Charles"

• Charlie Chaplin - Circus | DVD | (22/09/2003) from £19.22   |  Saving you £-5.23 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Made in 1928 while he was in the middle of a painful divorce case, Charlie Chaplin's The Circus was so associated with bad memories for its maker that he refused even to mention it in his 1964 autobiography. Consequently, it has enjoyed less of a reputation than films such as The Gold Rush (1925) and City Lights (1931). However, while it's not quite in their league, The Circus undoubtedly deserves to be rescued from relative obscurity. Here, Chaplin's Tramp is taken on as a clown at the circus, having been chased into the big tent by a policeman wrongly suspected of theft and wowing the audience with his pratfalls. He falls in love with the ill-treated ringmaster's daughter (Merna Kennedy) but is swiftly rivalled by a new addition to the circus, a handsome tightrope walker. To try to win back her affections the Tramp attempts the same act, culminating in the best sequence of the film, when he is assailed by monkeys as he totters amateurishly and precariously along a rope suspended high in the tent. Although The Circus is marred by the rather hackneyed and (even in 1928) stale melodramatic device of the cruel father and imploring daughter, it scores high on its slapstick content, with routines involving a hall of mirrors and a mishap with a magician's equipment demonstrating Chaplin's dazzling ability to choreograph apparently improvised mayhem. On the DVD: The Circus features a generous trove of extras on this two-disc set, including extracts from Lord Mountbatten's home movies of Chaplin, a deleted scene involving a prankster prize-fighter, as well as original footage showing how the perfectionist Chaplin would shoot and reshoot scenes. An introduction from David Robinson explains the adverse circumstances which held up the shooting of The Circus, including a fire and gales, which destroyed the set, while a further documentary delves into Chaplin's earliest work to provide context for the film. On the first disc, the film itself is an excellent transfer. --David Stubbs

• Reap The Wild Wind | DVD | (21/02/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  In this turbulent swashbuckler Cecil B. DeMille presents a tale of daring piracy and hot-blooded love! 1840s Key West is filled with salvage businesses thriving on the cargo of wrecked ships. Ship owner Loxi Claiborne suspects salvager King Cutler of foul play since he's always first on the scene at a wreck. Meanwhile Loxi's suitor Captain Jack Stuart is another suspect - at least to jealous lawyer Steve Tolliver. Who will be found guilty - and how - hinges on some amazing developments. Along with the star-studded cast (including Robert Preston and Susan Hayward) this glorious sea spectacle has stars of another kind. There are huge clipper ships gliding in the mist storms splintering them on the rocks and a giant squid in a memorable underwater battle. With Given DeMille's robust direction it all adds up to an Oscar for Special Effects

• The Thief Of Bagdad | DVD | (26/04/2004) from £4.98   |  Saving you £14.00 (468.23%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Fantasy adventure made in the 1920's and is just as entertaining in the 21st century. Ahmed the thief takes anything he wants until he meets the Princess. So besotted does he become that he is prepared to make himself worthy of her outrivalling even the challenge of the Mongol Prince. He has a variety of adventures with fantastic special effects.

• The Song Of Bernadette | DVD | (18/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In 1858 Lourdes resident Bernadette Sobrirous a poverty-stricken peasant girl witness a vision of a 'beautiful lady'. However news of the 'miracle' polarises opinion in the town: adoration suspicion and greed among the simple townspeople stubborn scepticism from the local doctor and charges of insanity from the town prosecutor... Winner of four Oscars.

• Charlie Chaplin - The Kid | DVD | (22/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  The Tramp cares for an abandoned child but events put that relationship in jeopardy. 'The Kid' was director Charlie Chaplin's first full-length film and is considered one of his best. Co-starring five-year-old Jackie Coogan whom Chaplin discovered on a Los Angeles vaudeville stage The Kid is the story of a child abandoned in a limousine by his unwed mother. When The Little Tramp finds him he tries unsuccessfully to find a home for the boy. Obliged to keep him The Little Tramp tea

• Love Is A Many Splendored Thing | DVD | (30/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  William Holden and Jennifer Jones star in one of drama's most endearing and intelligent love stories. Nominated for eight Academy Awards this timeless classic follows the passionate affair of an American correspondent and a Eurasian doctor whose love for each other must overcome racial prejudice and the outbreak of war in Korea.

• My Favourite Brunette | DVD | (01/07/2002) from £9.96   |  Saving you £10.02 (143.76%)   |  RRP £16.99

  In My Favorite Brunette we witness Bob Hope's own unique brand of film comedy as he teams up with the great screen beauty Dorothy Lamour (who later co-starred with him in many of the classic Road To... movies along with Bing Crosby). Co-starring Peter Lorre and Lon Chaney Jr. Hope romps through this yarn playing a bumbling photographer turned private eye and finds himself involved with a spy caper the mob and a dangerous brunette.

• Will Hay - Boys Will Be Boys | DVD | (03/12/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Prison teacher Dr. Smart-Alec (Will Hay) steps up the career ladder to become headmaster of Narkover public school but his innate stupidity soon begins to create havoc. Will Hay dons a mortarboard on screen for the first time in the bumbling headmaster role that was to become his trademark.

• Halloween II | DVD | (30/09/2002) from £4.89   |  Saving you £1.10 (22.49%)   |  RRP £5.99

  You can't kill the boogeyman", explained John Carpenter in the original, and to prove it Michael Myers returns in the handsome but grisly sequel Halloween 2. Jamie Lee Curtis reprises her role as Laurie Strode but spends most of her time cowering in a hospital gown, and Donald Pleasance runs around like a maniac as the panicky doctor desperate to hunt down Myers before he kills again. Carpenter writes and produces with partner Debra Hill and together they replace the mystery and uncertainty of the original with an exponentially bigger body count, some strange tales about the Druids and Pagan ceremonies, and the now-familiar family ties between Michael and Laurie. First-time director Rick Rosenthal (Bad Boys) paces the film at a brisk jog and directs it with a clean, crisp style, taking the murders out of the dark to display them in all their nasty detail. --Sean Axmaker

• Chaplin Mutuals, Vol. 2 | DVD | (19/11/1997) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.16

• The Privileged Planet - The Search For Purpose In The Universe | DVD | (05/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.75

• Three Men In A Boat | DVD | (23/08/2004) from £7.97   |  Saving you £5.02 (62.99%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Typically British comedy with three London gentlemen taking holiday rowing down the Thames encountering various mishaps and misadventures along the way.

• Brain From Planet Arous, The / Teenage Monster / Space Cadet | DVD | (01/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  You have to credit the folks who put this double bill together. The Brain from Planet Arous, a low-budget alien invasion 1958 film, is one of those programmes that lingers in the memory as much for its title and impressively ludicrous giant-staring-transparent-brain monster as for its poverty row dramatics, in which the usually stiff John Agar grins evilly and flashes contact lenses when possessed by the creature and a good guy brain shows up to take over his dog to thwart the renegade cerebrum's plan for world domination. For this release, Brain is teamed with its original co-feature, a movie so bad you wouldn't buy it on its own but whose presence here is a pleasing extra. Whereas Brain from Planet Arous delivers exactly what its title promises, Teenage Monster is a cheat: rather than feature a mutant 1950s delinquent in a leather jacket, it's a melodramatic Western in which prospector's widow Anne Gwynne keeps her hulking caveman-like son (who seems to be well into middle-age) hidden, only for a scheming waitress to use the goon in her murder schemes. Brain is snappily directed, even when staging disasters well beyond its budget, while Teenage Monster drags and chatters and moans until its flat finale. On the DVD: The Brain from Planet Arous/Teenage Monster double bill disc is a solid showing for such marginal items, featuring not only the trailers for these attractions but a clutch of other 1950s sci-fi pictures (Phantom from Space, Invaders from Mars, etc.) and a bonus episode ("The Runaway Asteroid") from a studio-bound, live-broadcast juvenile space opera of the early 50s (Tom Corbett, Space Cadet) in which hysterical types in a capsule break off from the space programme to deliver ringing endorsements of gruesome-looking breakfast foods. --Kim Newman

• Will Hay - Good Morning Boys | DVD | (03/12/2001) from £6.06   |  Saving you £5.19 (108.12%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The headmaster of St Michael's school Dr Benjamin Twist (Will Hay) finds himself in hot water after a government inspection. He is asked to resign unless he can prove that his educational methods work and so when he comes into possession of the French paper he does not need much coaxing before showing it to his students. The boys pass with honours but a congratulatory trip to Paris goes awry when they and Twist inadvertently help to steal the Mona Lisa.

• Blood Of A Poet / Testament Of Orpheus | DVD | (04/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

• Assault On Precinct 13 | DVD | (17/01/2005) from £17.23   |  Saving you £-4.25 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Isolated cut off inside an abandoned police station a handful of cops and some convicts on their way to Death Row must join forces and defend themselves against the gang called Street Thunder who have taken a blood oath to destroy. From the director of Halloween and The Thing Assault On Precinct 13 combines elements of the classic western and modern thriller to create a cult favorite.

• Obsession | DVD | (18/05/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Obsession

• Red Surf/Corrupt/Riot/Justice | DVD | (14/01/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £18.99

  Red Surf (Fullscreen 4:3 / English - Dolby (2.0) Stereo / Cert. 18); When pro surfer Remar (Clooney) turns to drug dealing to support himself and his girlfriend, he struggles to change his ways before becoming a victim of the streets...; ; Corrupt (Fullscreen 4:3 / English - Dolby (2.0) Stereo / Cert. 18); Detective Fred O'Connor (Keitel) lives the high life, financed by illicit drug dealing. However, his life is shattered when his partner (Lydon) confesses to a series of murder...

• Pinocchio Play.com BD specific Ltd 1K | Blu Ray | (09/03/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Celebrate the 70th anniversary of Walt Disney's Pinocchio! The legendary masterpiece that inspired millions to believe in their dreams has reawakened with an all-new, state-of-the-art digital restoration that shines brilliantly on 2-disc DVD. Now, for the first time ever, the richly detailed animation, unforgettable award-winning music ('When You Wish Upon A Star') and heartwarming adventure-filled story comes to life like never before. Plus, all-new dazzling bonus features transport y...

• Lost World/Call of the Wild/Dollar for the Dead/Treasure Isl | DVD | (02/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  4 great films on one disc