"Actor: Dick Gordon"

• Cast A Giant Shadow | DVD | (20/05/2002) from £11.42   |  Saving you £1.57 (13.75%)   |  RRP £12.99

  1966’s Cast a Giant Shadow is based on Ted Berkman’s biography of Colonel "Mickey" Marcus, the American soldier who served as an adviser in the fight to establish the state of Israel in 1948. It stars Kirk Douglas as the likeable "stiffneck" and WWII veteran persuaded to take up the cause. Israel back then was depicted as a negligible military force under threat of extinction at the hands of its Arab neighbours, hamstrung by a UN embargo on arms supplies. It takes Douglas at his most square-jawed to see off the Egyptian military and defy a blockade to beat a path through to Jerusalem. This is not cinema verité but Hollywood. Marcus’ dilemma--to settle into peacetime in America or follow his more natural, combative instincts abroad--is symbolised by a love triangle, involving wife Angie Dickinson and Santa Berger as Magda, the soldier whom he falls for in Palestine. Although lavish and spectacular, especially in the war scenes--filmed in the actual Middle Eastern locations in which they occurred--Cast a Giant Shadow is not entirely authentic (for a start, they’re driving 1950s vehicles in the 40s). Moreover, in the light of later troubles in the region, not everyone will be heart warmed by this depiction of plucky little Israel coping against Arab foes who are barely depicted as human throughout the film, merely as tanks and gunfire. Still, it’s an impressive enough relic of epic 1960s cinema, with cameos from Yul Brynner, John Wayne as Marcus’ wartime general, and Frank Sinatra as a pilot scattering the enemy by dropping soda dispensers on them. On the DVD: Cast a Giant Shadow‘s restoration here is visually immaculate. The mono sound, however, is often indistinct, with a good deal of sibilant hiss. Disappointingly, the only extra is the original trailer.--David Stubbs

• Visions Of Light | DVD | (27/03/2006) from £18.75   |  Saving you £1.24 (6.61%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Experience the dazzling story of cinematography as seen through the lenses of the world's greatest filmmakers and captured in classic scenes from over 125 immortal movies. Discover Gordon Willis's secrets of lighting Marlon Brando in The Godfather and Greg Toland's contributions to Citizen Kane. Hear William Fraker on filming Rosemary's Baby; Vittorio Storaro on his use of colour and light in Apocalypse Now; and much much more. From black and white to Te

• Dressed To Kill | DVD | (29/04/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  To condemn Dressed to Kill as a Hitchcock rip-off is to miss the sheer enjoyment of Brian De Palma's delirious thriller. Homages to Hitchcock run rampant through most of De Palma's earlier films, and this one's chock-full of visual quotes, mostly cribbed from Vertigo and Psycho. But De Palma's indulgent depravity transcends simple mimicry to assume a vitality all its own. It's smothered in thickly atmospheric obsessions with sex, dread, paranoia, and voyeurism, not to mention a heavy dose of Psycho-like psychobabble about a wannabe transsexual who is compelled to slash up any attractive female who reminds him--the horror--that he's still very much a man. Angie Dickinson plays the sexually unsatisfied, forty-something wife who's the killer's first target, relaying her sexual fantasies to her psychiatrist (Michael Caine) before actually living one of them out after the film's celebrated cat-and-mouse sequence in a Manhattan art museum. The focus then switches to a murder witness (De Palma's then-girlfriend Nancy Allen) and Dickinson's grieving whiz-kid son (Keith Gordon), who attempt to solve the murder while staying one step ahead (or so they think) of the crude detective (Dennis Franz) assigned to the case. Propelled by Pino Donaggio's lush and stimulating score, De Palma's visuals provide seductive counterpoint to his brashly candid dialogue, and the plot conceals its own implausibility with morbid thrills and intoxicating suspense. If you're not laughing at De Palma's shameless audacity, you're sure to be on the edge of your seat. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Piranha | DVD | (21/10/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  As a producer, Roger Corman has always loved to make low-budget rip-offs of hit movies, and Piranha is his typically cheeky take on Jaws--and, as so often with Corman, in many ways it's funnier and more entertaining than the original. Directed with gusto by schlock-horror specialist Joe Dante and sharply scripted by John Sayles, it replaces one huge underwater toothy monster with dozens of little ones and ups the body count by a factor of 10 or so. Two hapless teenagers, hiking in a remote mountain region, stumble on a secret US military research lab. They don't last long, but their intrusion leads to the release into the local river system of a huge shoal of super-intelligent piranha, originally specially bred for use in Vietnam. Downstream from the virulent little munchers lie a kiddies' holiday camp and a tacky new waterfront theme park. Lunch time, fellas! Sayles, with his staunch left-wing credentials, slips in some mordant political satire at the expense of the military-industrial complex, and authority figures of any kind come off pretty badly, but the satire never gets in the way of the gleeful black humour. The two leads, Bradford Dillman and Heather Menzies, are fairly pallid, but there are ripe cameos from such cult horror-movie icons as Kevin McCarthy, Dick Miller and Barbara Steele. Pino Donaggio's score impudently borrows aspects of John Williams' famous Jaws theme while never quite infringing copyright. The movie was successful enough to spawn a much-inferior sequel, Piranha II: The Spawning (1982), which marked the inauspicious directing debut of one James Cameron. On the DVD: Piranha on disc comes with just the theatrical trailer as an extra. The transfer is a respectable job, reproducing the original's full-screen ratio. --Philip Kemp

• 13 Rue Madeleine | DVD | (03/05/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A group of Allied agents prepare to infiltrate German intelligence in Paris to find the whereabouts of a secret rocket site during World War 2. Their task is made even more hazardous by the fact that one of them is a double agent...

• Station West | DVD | (29/07/2013) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-7.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Out in the Western territories, someone is raiding the gold shipments heading back east. In the last hold up, two soldierswere killed and the army needs answers - fast.Everything seems to point to the beautiful local heiress Charlie (Jane Greer) and her right hand man, Prince (GordonOliver). Charlie owns the local gambling joint. She owns the town stores, the local sawmill - and she owns the law too.Then a mysterious stranger - Haven (Dick Powell) - rides into town. Suddenly, he's asking too many questions, pickingtoo many fights and attracting all kinds of trouble...

• Repeat Performance | Blu Ray | (18/02/2022) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Danielle Steel's Remembrance | DVD | (29/09/2003) from £6.93   |  Saving you £-0.94 (-15.70%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Childhood memories stay with you forever and for Vanessa Fullerton her mother's tragic murder was a nightmare she'll never forget. Now as a grown woman she gains the emotional strength to recount the story of her mother's remarkable life and the events that led to her untimely death. Born into Italian royalty Serena falls in love and leaves everything behind to marry a US Colonel Brad Fullerton. But when her beloved husband dies suddenly and tragically Serena is left heartbroken and destitute struggling to raise her daughter any way she can. She stumbles into the world of modelling and meets Vasili a renowned photographer. Her career takes off along with their relationship putting Serena back on the road to financial and emotional stability. But all is not as it seems and she soon discovers Vasili has a shocking secret. This secret is so dangerous that it leads Serena to her ultimate fate...

• 3 Classic Horrors Of The Silver Screen - Vol. 3 - Little Shop Of Horrors / Bat / Bride Of The Monster | DVD | (06/12/2004) from £3.53   |  Saving you £2.72 (119.82%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Little Shop Of Horrors: The original movie of this classic black comedy/horror about a rather dim-witted young man Seymour (Jonathan Haze) working for $10 a week in Mushnick's flower shop on skid row who develops an intelligent bloodthirsty plant. He names the plant ""Audrey Jr"" and as it grows it demands human meat for sustenance and Seymour is forced to kill in order to feed it. Jack Nicholson has a notable cameo part as an undertaker Wilbur Force who is a masochistic d

• Fort Apache | DVD | (19/02/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  John Ford's 1948 classic stars John Wayne as a cavalry officer used to doing things a certain way out West at Fort Apache. Along comes a rigid, new commanding officer (Henry Fonda) who insists that everything on his watch be done by the book, including dealings with local Indians. The results are mixed: greater discipline at the fort, but increased hostilities with the natives. Ford deliberately leaves judgements about the wisdom of these changes ambiguous, but he also allows plenty of room in this wonderful film for the fullness of life among the soldiers and their families--community rituals, new romances--to blossom. Fonda, in an unusual role for him, is stern and formal as the new man in charge; Wayne is heroic as the rebellious second; Victor McLaglen provides comic relief; and Ward Bond is a paragon of sturdy and sentimental masculinity. All of this is set against the magnificent, poetic topography of Monument Valley. This is easily one of the greatest of American films. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

• Picking Up The Pieces | DVD | (04/02/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

• Lady Of Burlesque | DVD | (01/09/2003) from £8.52   |  Saving you £-1.54 (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99