"Actor: DONALD PLEASENCE"

• Dick Turpin's Greatest Adventure | DVD | (15/08/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Originally broadcast in 1981 this five-part story has Turpin and his highway companion Swiftnick encountering treachery and danger at every turn as they try to help an American lady Jane Harding who is on a mission to depose the corrupt governer of Maryland. Written by the legendary Richard Carpenter Dick Turpin's Greatest Adventure is a fast-paced action story with strong support from a number of guest stars such as: Patrick MacNee Michael Deeks Susan Hampshire Oli

• Wind Of Change/The Traitors | DVD | (24/08/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Set against the Notting Hill race riots of the late 1950's The Wind Of Change is a gripping kitchen-sink drama focusing on the relationship between a father (Donald Pleasence) a world-weary yet liberal man who spends all his spare time looking after his rabbits and his rebellious unemployed son Frank (Johnny Briggs). Frank is bigoted racist who believes the black immigrants are taking all the British jobs though he doesn't seem too concerned in trying to get one himself. When Frank and his gang of teddy boys beat up a black man who later dies of his injuries he must face the consequence of his actions...

• Escape To Witch Mountain | DVD | (22/03/2004) from £17.99   |  Saving you £-2.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The effects are low-tech and no longer special, but Escape to Witch Mountain still has plenty of Disney live-action charm. It's rather quaint by later standards, coming just two years before Star Wars upped the ante on movie magic, but the story's got timeless appeal as a precursor to Harry Potter's more lavish brand of kid-wizardry. Here you've got Tony (Ike Eisenmann) and sister Tia (Kim Richards), orphans unaware of their mysterious past, who are taken in by a nefarious liar (Ray Milland) seeking to exploit their supernatural powers. Populated by '70s stalwarts like Donald Pleasance and Eddie Albert (the latter playing the kids' grown-up accomplice, unwittingly rescuing them from Milland), this lightweight Disney fare is perfect for kids under 10, with such enticements as a clever cat mascot named Winky (because he winks a lot), Tony's magical harmonica... and a Winnebago that flies! With a sci-fi climax, this popular hocus-pocus spawned a 1978 sequel (Return from Witch Mountain) that proved similarly popular with kids. --Jeff Shannon

• Dracula | Blu Ray | (06/10/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Chalk this one up as something that seemed like a good idea at the time. Frank Langella had just taken Broadway by storm in a revival of the play based on Bram Stoker's classic vampire novel. He was tall, elegant, and almost painfully romantic--all qualities that failed to translate to this garish, tarted-up film version. The story remains the same, if told in greater length than in Bela Lugosi's version. The film even offered Laurence Olivier as vampire-hunter Van Helsing (in one of several roles he played during the period that required a middle-European accent) and a young Kate Nelligan as the woman whose love (and blood) Dracula most wants. But director John Badham, working from W.D. Richter's clunky script, makes a hash of most of it, relying on special effects to do the heavy lifting. --Marshall Fine

• Phenomena Limited Edition | Blu Ray | (08/05/2017) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Italian horror maestro Dario Argento made his name by turning homicide into modern art with a cinematic flourish, but with Phenomena he takes his stylish mayhem in new directions. The film opens with the dreamy grace of a fairy tale: a young girl wandering the green meadows of Switzerland and discovering a gingerbread house, wherein lives a monster more modern than mythic, a psychopathic maniac who plunges the picture into a lush nightmare. Jennifer (Jennifer Connelly in her first starring role), a gifted young girl at a Swiss school, has a psychic link to the insect world and develops a connection with the killer through midnight sleepwalks. With the help of a lonely, wheelchair-bound entomologist (genre stalwart Donald Pleasence, who inflects his sonorous tenor with a gentle Scottish burr) she turns telekinetic detective, which only draws her closer to the killer's lair. The densely plotted story becomes muddled at times (this is the busiest film in Argento's oeuvre) but the lyrical cinematography and gorgeous nocturnal imagery--dreamy sleepwalks, nightmarish murders, hideous horrors that emerge in the dark of night--take on a poetic elegance not seen in his previous work, providing the tale with a kind of dream logic. This is a slasher film reborn as an exquisitely grim fantasy: Jennifer in Argentoland. --Sean Axmaker

• Halloween | DVD | (01/01/1998) from £20.71   |  Saving you £-0.73 (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  It was a cold Halloween night in 1963 when six year old Michael Myers brutally murdered his 17-year-old sister. Fifteen years later he escapes from prison and returns home...

• Halloween 5: The Revenge Of Michael Myers | DVD | (11/10/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Starting around Halloween 4, that masked nut Michael Myers stopped chasing his sister (played by Jamie Lee Curtis in the first and second films, as well as Halloween H20) and went after his niece. Now he's chasing her around again in part 5, but it's a lot of other people who die in the process. Donald Pleasence continues his mad-doctor bit from the earlier movies, Danielle Harris is the unfortunate relation, and Donald L. Shanks plays the monster. The film is an improvement on parts 2 and 4 (part 3 having nothing to do with Michael Myers), but it still amounts to routine slaughter with none of John Carpenter's stylistic brilliance from the original movie. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

• Nothing Underneath ( 4k Transfer) | Blu Ray | (30/05/2022) from £15.79   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Mixing the visual style and shocking violence of the classic Italian Giallo with the slick sensuality of 1980s erotic thrillers, Carlo Vanzina's controversial box office hit Nothing Underneath dives into the dark underbelly of Milan's fashion world as American forest ranger Bob Crane inspired by a psychic vision heads to Italy in search of his twin sister, a top model who has mysteriously vanished.He soon finds himself drawn into a sophisticated and sinister world of sex, murder, drugs and intrigue where no one is what they seem and a scissor-wielding assassin stalks the catwalk.Product FeaturesBrand new uncensored 4K transfer from the original negativesItalian and English Stereo Audio OptionsOptional English SubtitlesAudio Commentary with Justin Kerswell of The Hysteria ContinuesAudio Commentary with film historian and critic Rachael NisbetMurders a la Mode an interview with screenwriter Enrico VanzinaMurder He Wrote an interview with screenwriter Franco FerriniHigh Fashion Music an interview with composer Pino DonaggioModels, Murders and Italy an interview with actor Tom SchanleyEnglish theatrical trailersItalian theatrical trailerEnglish insertsItalian opening and end credits

• The Eagle Has Landed | DVD | (07/06/2004) from £8.55   |  Saving you £4.44 (51.93%)   |  RRP £12.99

  This 1976 adventure story set in World War II concerns a Nazi plot to kidnap Churchill from his retreat--or murder him if need be. The Eagle Has Landed has a large, great cast and a director, John Sturges, who's been down this road of ensemble action before (The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape) make this project exciting if not as memorable as Sturges's more famous works. The weak ending doesn't help. -- Tom Keogh

• You Only Live Twice | Blu Ray | (04/02/2013) from £6.89   |  Saving you £13.10 (190.13%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The film boasts the best of the Bond title songs (this one sung on a dreamy track by Nancy Sinatra), but the movie itself is one of the weaker ones of the Sean Connery phase of the 007 franchise. The story concerns an effort by the evil organisation SPECTRE to start a world war, but the not-so-super villain behind the plot is the awfully civilised Donald Pleasence. The thin script is by Roald Dahl (shouldn't we have expected a better Bond nemesis from the creator of mad genius Willy Wonka?), and direction is by British veteran Lewis Gilbert (Alfie). But the movie can't hold a candle to Dr. No, From Russia with Love, or Goldfinger. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.comOn the DVD: This was another troubled production according to the insightful "making of" documentary: director and producers luckily avoided boarding a plane out of Tokyo that crashed and killed everyone on board; the Japanese actresses couldn't speak English and one threatened suicide if she was dropped from the part; and the aerial cameraman filming the helicopter fight had his leg sliced off by a rotor blade. Maurice Binder's evocative main title designs are the subject of the second documentary, "Silhouettes", in which his colleagues voiceboth their admiration of his art and frustration at his chaotic working practices. The commentary is another edited selection of interviews with principal cast and crew. An animated storyboard sequence, trailers, radio spots and a handsome booklet add up to another winning entry in this series. --Mark Walker

• Dracula | DVD | (16/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  This stylish production of the classic gothic horror tale stars Frank Langella repeating his electrifying award-winning stage performance as the bloodthirsty Count with Laurence Olivier as the devout vampire hunter Van Helsing Dracula's nemesis.

• The Commander | DVD | (19/11/2012) from £7.05   |  Saving you £5.94 (84.26%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The third in a triptych of Italian jungle combat adventures that includes Commando Leopard and Code Name: Wild Geese from Euro-trash movie kingpin Antonio Margheriti - The Commander features Lewis Collins (Who Dares Wins) doing what he does best, leading a group of fearless mercenaries into the green hell of a South Asian jungle in order to protect a data disc full of secrets. On hand to lend a touch of class to proceedings are Lee Van Cleef and Donald Pleasence in an 80s Spaghetti War classic where loud explosions and heavy duty combat combine with secret agent double crossing and murderous corruption. Can Collins discover who is out to screw him and his hired band of killers as they struggle to survive in this twisting, turning video store staple, reclaimed by ArrowDrome for a new generation of B-movie lovers? Special Features: Collector's Booklet by David Hayles

• Soldier Blue | Blu Ray | (18/08/2020) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Definitive Edition - The Great Escape | DVD | (05/03/2007) from £11.07   |  Saving you £1.92 (17.34%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The all time classic tale of a massive escape from a World War Two German Prisoner of War camp released as a two disc DVD set with a host of extra features.

• The Devonsville Terror | Blu Ray | (26/12/2016) from £14.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Ulli Lommel co-writes and directs this '80s horror starring Suzanna Love and Donald Pleasence. 300 years after three local women, who were accused of witchcraft and brutally murdered by the local townsfolk, cursed the New England town of Devonsville their modern-day counterparts arrive in the colonial town. The arrival of three socially liberated women causes panic in the town's male-dominated hierarchy, who fear the presence of the women heralds the fulfilment of the curse. One of the women, schoolteacher Jenny Scanlon (Love), seeks help from psychiatrist Dr. Warley (Pleasence) when she begins experiencing horrific dreams, the precursor of events about to unfold that are rooted in her past life.

• Halloween | Blu Ray | (21/10/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Halloween is as pure and undiluted as its title. In the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois, a teenage baby sitter tries to survive a Halloween night of relentless terror, during which a knife-wielding maniac goes after the town's hormonally charged youths. Director John Carpenter takes this simple situation and orchestrates a superbly mounted symphony of horrors. It's a movie much scarier for its dark spaces and ominous camera movements than for its explicit bloodletting (which is actually minimal). Composed by Carpenter himself, the movie's freaky music sets the tone; and his script (cowritten with Debra Hill) is laced with references to other horror pictures, especially Psycho. The baby sitter is played by Jamie Lee Curtis, the real-life daughter of Psycho victim Janet Leigh; and the obsessed policeman played by Donald Pleasence is named Sam Loomis, after John Gavin's character in Psycho. In the end, though, Halloween stands on its own as an uncannily frightening experience--it's one of those movies that had audiences literally jumping out of their seats and shouting at the screen. ("No! Don't drop that knife!") Produced on a low budget, the picture turned a monster profit, and spawned many sequels, none of which approached the 1978 original. Curtis returned for two more instalments: 1981's dismal Halloween II, which picked up the story the day after the unfortunate events, and 1998's occasionally gripping Halloween H20, which proved the former baby sitter was still haunted after 20 years. --Robert Horton

• Halloween 4: The Return Of Michael Myers | DVD | (11/10/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  "You can't kill the bogeyman", the children insist to a terrorised Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) in the original Halloween. How right they are. Laurie is gone, but guess who's back in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers? Acting as if the third entry never existed, this instalment picks up 10 years after the original, with mad maniac Myers in a coma and moved to a new facility. But wouldn't you know it that as soon as a loose-lipped orderly lets slip that Myers has a surviving niece he springs back into action, leaving a bloody trail of corpses on the road to Haddonfield. Donald Pleasance returns as Dr Loomis, scarred and crippled from his last encounter with Myers and seething with a fanatical zeal to stop the freak from repeating his previous rampage. Pleasance is the best thing about the film as an ageing hero seemingly on the verge of madness who drags a bum leg in his manic rush to save little orphan Jamie (Danielle Harris), the 10-year-old waif terrorised by her homicidal uncle. Director Dwight Little has managed a generic if professional slasher picture, rife with improbabilities and dominated by a killer whose superhuman powers reach near-mystical dimensions, but he delivers the goods: shocks, stabs and cold, cruel killings. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

• Henry VIII And His Six Wives | DVD | (21/02/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A powerful portrayal of England's most infamous king. On his deathbed King Henry VIII (Keith Michell) looks back over his eventful life and his six marriages.

• Halloween | Blu Ray | (15/10/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  It was a cold Halloween night in 1963 when six year old Michael Myers brutally murdered his 17-year-old sister. Fifteen years later he escapes from prison and returns home...

• Halloween 4 - The Return Of Michael Myers | DVD | (28/01/2002) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-7.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  John Carpenter's malevolent monster Michael Myers escapes from years of comatose incarnation while being transported from a maximum security institution. Myers carves his way to Haddonfield for Halloween - the original setting of Michael's massacre leaving a bloody trail of carnage and corpses. Only one man knows the true horrors of this mad man - Dr Loomis (Donald Pleasence) who also returns to Haddonfield to do battle once again with the devil incarnate. But Dr Loomis knows only too well it will be almost impossible to outwit the skill and cunning of Michael Myers.