"Actor: Edward H"

• The Stranger | DVD | (18/03/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  The Stranger, according to Orson Welles, "is the worst of my films. There is nothing of me in that picture. I did it to prove that I could put out a movie as well as anyone else." True, set beside Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil, or even The Trial, The Stranger is as close to production-line stuff as the great Orson ever came. But even on autopilot Welles still leaves most filmmakers standing. The shadow of the Second World War hangs heavy over the plot. A war crimes investigator, played by Edward G Robinson, tracks down a senior Nazi, Franz Kindler, to a sleepy New England town where he's living in concealment as a respected college professor. The script, credited to Anthony Veiller but with uncredited input from Welles and John Huston, is riddled with implausibilities: we're asked to believe, for a start, that there'd be no extant photos of a top Nazi leader. The casting's badly skewed, too. Welles wanted Agnes Moorehead as the investigator and Robinson as Kindler, but his producer, Sam Spiegel, wouldn't wear it. So Welles himself plays the supposedly cautious and self-effacing fugitive--and if there was one thing Welles could never play, it was unobtrusive. What's more, Spiegel chopped out most of the two opening reels set in South America, in Welles' view, "the best stuff in the picture". Still, the film's far from a write-off. Welles' eye for stunning visuals rarely deserted him and, aided by Russell Metty's skewed, shadowy photography, The Stranger builds to a doomy grand guignol climax in a clock tower that Hitchcock must surely have recalled when he made Vertigo. And Robinson, dogged in pursuit, is as quietly excellent as ever. On the DVD: not much in the way of extras, except a waffly full-length commentary from Russell Cawthorne that tells us about the history of clock-making and where Edward G was buried, but precious little about the making of the film. Print and sound are acceptable, but though remastering is claimed, there's little evidence of it. --Philip Kemp

• Verdi: Stiffelio | DVD | (29/10/2001) from £9.98   |  Saving you £22.01 (220.54%)   |  RRP £31.99

  A performance of Verdi's three-act opera recorded live at The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. Celebrated tenor Carreras performs the title role as Verdi's cuckolded minister confronting his wife's adultery.

• Down (aka The Shaft) (Limited Edition Combo) | Blu Ray | (31/10/2017) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Reservoir Dogs Limited Edition DVD Box Set | DVD | (20/11/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Quentin Tarantino came out of nowhere (i.e. a video store in Manhattan Beach, California) and turned Hollywood on its ear in 1992 with his explosive first feature, Reservoir Dogs. Like Tarantino's mainstream breakthrough Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs has an unconventional structure, cleverly shuffling back and forth in time to reveal details about the characters, experienced criminals who know next to nothing about each other. Joe (Lawrence Tierney) has assembled them to pull off a simple heist, and has gruffly assigned them colour-coded aliases (Mr Orange, Mr Pink, Mr White) to conceal their identities even from each other. But something has gone wrong, and the plan has blown up in their faces. One by one, the surviving robbers find their way back to their prearranged warehouse hideout. There, they try to piece together the chronology of this bloody fiasco--and to identify the traitor among them who tipped off the police. Pressure mounts, blood flows, accusations and bullets fly. In the combustible atmosphere these men are forced to confront life-and-death questions of trust, loyalty, professionalism, deception and betrayal.As many critics have observed, it is a movie about "honor among thieves" (just as Pulp Fiction is about redemption, and Jackie Brown is about survival). Along with everything else, the movie provides a showcase for a terrific ensemble of actors: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, Michael Madsen, Christopher Penn and Tarantino himself, offering a fervent dissection of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" over breakfast. Reservoir Dogs is violent (though the violence is implied rather than explicit), clever, gabby, harrowing, funny, suspenseful and even--in the end--unexpectedly moving. (Don't forget that "Super Sounds of the Seventies" soundtrack, either.) Reservoir Dogs deserves just as much acclaim and attention as its follow-up, Pulp Fiction, would receive two years later. --Jim Emerson

• Better Living | DVD | (04/03/2002) from £2.99   |  Saving you £1.00 (33.44%)   |  RRP £3.99

  Fearless Tiger: After his brother dies of a drug overdose Lyle heads to Hong Kong and becomes a Kung Fu expert. Using his newfound martial arts skills Lyle seeks revenge on the Chinese gang that supplied the deadly drug. Dragon Fighter: After having his hands smashed young Kang becomes determined to develop the 'Heaven Legs' kung fu technique in an effort to gain revenge.

• My Boyfriend's Back | DVD | (10/02/2006) from £63.94   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  DVD My Boyfriend's Back

• Battlestar Galactica: Season 4 (2004) | Blu Ray | (25/08/2014) from £55.33   |  Saving you £-15.34 (-38.40%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Last season Starbuck returned. As did the President's Cancer. Baltar was freed but not forgiven. Four Cylons were revealed. One remains unknown. Relive the events in all 10 episodes of Season Four of Battlestar Galactica with this 3 disc Blu-Ray box set in 5.1 Surround Sound. It includes the feature length Razor deleted scenes and a sneak peek into the Final Season. Watch as humanity's last survivors struggle to be free as the end of the race to find earth is drawing ever closer. Special Features: The Look of Battlestar Galactica My Favorite Episodes So Far David Eick's Video Blogs The Journey Cylons: The Twelve Season 4.5 The Untold Story - Untold The Music of Battlestar Galactica Audio Commentaries Deleted Scenes Battlestar Razor bonus: minisodes

• Pecker/Hairspray (1988)/A Dirty Shame | DVD | (24/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Pecker (1998): Pecker, a sandwich shop clerk, takes photos of his rather odd family and friends and nobody thinks anything of them until one day a New York art dealer discovers his work and makes him famous. Is this what Pecker really wants? Another quirky entry from cult director John Waters. Hairspray (1987): It's 1962 and Tracy Turnblad has the largest bouffant on the block. She also has all the right moves to be on the local dance show and win the crown of Miss Auto Show, a...

• Dead Awake | DVD | (15/04/2002) from £6.77   |  Saving you £-2.78 (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  Evil Never Sleeps. He's a sleepwalker in a deadly dreamland a murder witness turned suspect a man without an alibi. Stephen Baldwin (The Usual Suspects) is brilliant marketing executive Desmond Caine a tortured soul stricken with bizarre insomnia that keeps him walking the city's dangerous streets at all hours of the night. During one of his hallucinogenic journeys he witnesses a brutal murder. Upon finding the victim's watch he goes to the police and quickly becomes the main suspect in a twisted tale of cruel corruption big money and cold-blooded killing. How can you stop the nightmare when you're already awake?

• The Wicker Man (Classic Collection) | DVD | (02/12/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £44.99

  It must be stressed that despite the fact that it was produced in 1973 and stars both Christopher Lee and Britt Ekland, The Wicker Man is not a Hammer Horror film. There is no blood, very little gore and the titular Wicker Man is not a monster made out of sticks that runs around killing people by weaving them into raffia work. Edward Woodward plays Sergeant Howie, a virginal, Christian policeman sent from the Scottish mainland to investigate the disappearance of young girl on the remote island of Summer Isle. The intelligent script by Anthony Schaffer, who also wrote the detective mystery Sleuth (a film with which The Wicker Man shares many traits), derives its horror from the increasing isolation, confusion and humiliation experienced by the naïve Howie as he encounters the island community's hostility and sexual pagan rituals, manifested most immediately in the enthusiastic advances of local landlord's daughter Willow (Britt Ekland). Howie's intriguing search, made all the more authentic by the film's atmospheric locations and folkish soundtrack, gradually takes us deeper and deeper into the bizarre pagan community living under the guidance of the charming Laird of Summer Isle (Lee, minus fangs) as the film builds to a terrifying climax with a twist to rival that of The Sixth Sense or Fight Club. --Paul Philpott

• Talent For The Game | DVD | (01/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Some men are born with a gift; some are born to discover it... A baseball scout for the Californian Angels travels America for new talent only to find that the new team owner has decided to do away with his job!

• The Last Line Of Defense 2 | DVD | (27/05/2002) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-12.01 (-150.30%)   |  RRP £7.99

  Decorated Lieutenant and Navy SEAL John Kennedy Brascoe is a broken man having been stripped of his position within the mighty US military machine. While operating undercover during a botched mission for the CIA his partner Cody has named him as a traitor and thief. Thrown out of the military and faced with the insurmountable medical fees for the care of his sick young son John is reunited with an ex-navy SEAL buddy Sparks (Michael Madsen). Together they embark on the mission of a lifetime: to penetrate the fortress home of a multi-billionaire.

• You Did What | DVD | (14/07/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  When his free-spirited brother proposes to a woman hes known less than 24 hours marriage-phobic Charlie Porter tries anything to avoid popping the question to his girlfriend of two years. Starring Jason Winston George A.J. Buckley Ed Kerr and Ian Gomez.

• Fight Club | DVD | (31/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Every weekend in the basements and car parks of bars across the country, young men with good white-collar jobs and absent fathers take off their shoes and shirts and fight each other barehanded just as long as they have to.

• Stepping Razor - Red X | DVD | (26/08/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A profile on reggae artist Peter Tosh who died in 1987. This tragic documentary tells the tale of the all too short life of one of the greatest country men in the world Peter Tosh. Told through interviews with his mother father and friends it charts the meteoric rise to fame of Peter from The Wailing Wailer to The Wailers his disillusionment with Bob Marley and the pro Christian stance that Marley took in his music to his solo career and his fights with various record labels.

• Jolly Boys Last Stand | DVD | (13/02/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  When ""El Presidente"" of the Jolly Boys Spider (Serkis) gets engaged his oldest friend confirmed bachelor and appointed best man Des (Twomey) sees the end of the legendary drinking club. Des decides to film the run up to the wedding as a gift to the betrothed - hoping the on-screen carnage will de-rail the marriage. Instead he learns about true love and friendship - but maybe too late to repair the damage he's done! His wedding video is the Jolly Boys Last Stand from proposal to

• Peter Cushing - The Peter Cushing Collection | DVD | (13/03/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  This terrific box set features a profusion of Peter Cushing-led horror films. The Abominable Snowman (Dir. Val Guest 1957): The final film collaboration between director Val Guest and writer Nigel Kneale. Starring Forrest Tucker and Peter Cushing The Abominable Snowman tells of an expedition to the Himalayas to track down the mythical Yeti. A wonderfully atmospheric chiller from the heyday of the Hammer Studios. Island of Terror (Dir. Terence Fisher 1966): When oh when will scientists learn to stop playing with radiation? Island of Terror takes place on a remote island off the coast of Ireland. No phones no regular transport to and from the mainland but there is a well-equipped cancer research center where the well intentioned - but foolish! - scientists are irradiating lumps of tissue. The local constable finds a body with no bones in it ('No bones?' 'No bones!') and soon a team from London led by the ever-game Peter Cushing arrives to investigate. Let's hope that darned generator doesn't give out... Island of Terror isn't going to keep you awake at night but it is a lot of silly fun. Be warned though - whatever the evil menace is it can climb trees! The Blood Beast Terror (Dir. Vernon Sewell 1968): A Victorian English entomologist whose daughter happens to be a giant moth moves with her to a quiet village where he can begin work on an insect mate for her. His family problems worsen when his winged daughter starts killing people and drinking their blood. Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (Dir. Terence Fisher 1974): Doctor Helder (Briant) is sent to an asylum for experimenting on cadavers. There he is rescued by Doctor Carl Victor (Cushing) the original Doctor Frankenstein now living under a new identity who learns that a new monster is set to walk the earth...

• Great Guy | DVD | (24/09/2007) from £13.48   |  Saving you £-0.49 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Cinema Legends - James Cagney In Great Guy, Quantum Leap

• Charlie Chan - On Broadway | DVD | (19/12/2005) from £16.18   |  Saving you £-2.19 (-15.70%)   |  RRP £13.99

  A New York nightclub singer plans to reveal gangsters named in her private diary. However the diary disappears and the singer is murdered. Charlie Chan is called into to investigate and finds himself in an underworld inhabited by gangsters blackmailers and murderers.

• A History of Violence/American History X | DVD | (01/10/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This box set features the following films: A History of Violence (Dir. David Cronenberg) (2005): Tom Stall is a loving family man and a well respected citizen of a small Indiana town. But when two savage criminals show up at his diner Tom is forced to take action and thwart the robbery attempt. Suddenly heralded as a hero who took the courage to stand up to crime people look up to Tom as a man of high moral regard. But all that media attention has the likes of mobsters showing up at his doorstep charging that Tom is someone else they've been looking for. Is it a case of mistaken identity or does Tom have a history of violence that no one knows about? American History X (Dir. Tony Kaye) (1998): Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton) the charismatic leader of a group of young white supremacists lands in prison for a brutal hate-driven murder. Upon his release ashamed of his past and pledging to reform Derek realises he must save his younger brother Danny (Edward Furlong) from a similar fate. Running Scared (Dir. Wayne Kramer) (2006): Joey Gazelle (Paul Walker) is a low-level mafia thug who finds himself in the middle of a drug-deal gone wrong in which a hail of gunfire and some dead undercover cops are the net results. Fleeing from the scene Joey is charged with dispensing one of the steel revolvers used to kill the cops. Instead he stashes the gun in his own basement just in case he ever needs insurance against his own gang. Unfortunately Joey's 10-year old son Nicky (Alex Neuberger) and his best friend Oleg (Cameron Bright) see where the weapon is hidden. Oleg whose Russian mob-connected step-father is physically abusive towards him and his mother steals the gun to exact revenge. This forces Joey to embark on a nightmarish 18 hour journey to locate Oleg and the gun before his own gang the Russian mafia or bad cop Detective Rydell (Chazz Palminteri) finds them or the true link between the gun and the crimes....