"Actor: Erich Von Stroheim"

• Sunset Boulevard 75th Anniversary Collectors Edition | Unknown | (04/08/2025) from £39.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Fame isn't foreverjust ask Norma Desmond. Once a Hollywood legend, now a forgotten relic. When struggling screenwriter Joe Gillis stumbles into her decaying mansion, he becomes trapped in her web of obsession and delusion. What starts as an opportunity soon spirals into something far more dangerous. Widely considered one of the greatest from the golden age of cinema, it's a dark, twisted, and haunting look at Hollywood's cycle where youth is currency, talent fleeting, and the spotlight always fades.This 75th anniversary collectors edition includes the following:4 x Collectible ˜Paramount' original Lobby cards˜Billy Wilder' Director/Trivia cardReproduction of ˜Norma's Note'Capacity wallet designed like the ˜Script'Collectible street sign2 x fold out posters6 x art cardsPhoto BookBlu-ray Special Features:Sunset Boulevard: The BeginningSunset Boulevard: A Look BackThe Noir Side of Sunset BoulevardSunset Boulevard Becomes a ClassicTwo Sides of Ms. SwansonThe City of Sunset BoulevardDeleted Scene The Paramount Don't Want Me BluesGalleriesAnd Much Much More!

• Sunset Boulevard | DVD | (07/04/2003) from £5.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (166.94%)   |  RRP £15.99

  More than half a century after its release in 1950, Sunset Boulevard is still the most pungently unflattering portrait of Hollywood ever committed to celluloid. Billy Wilder, unequalled at combining a literate, sulphurous script with taut direction, hits his target relentlessly. The humour--and the film is rich in this, Wilder's most abundant commodity--is black indeed. Sunset Boulevard is viciously and endlessly clever. William Holden's opportunistic scriptwriter Joe Gillis, whose sellout proves fatal, is from the top drawer of film noir. Gloria Swanson's monstrously deluded Norma Desmond, the benchmark for washed-up divas, transcends parody. And her literal descent down the staircase to madness is one of the all-time great silver-screen moments. Sunset Boulevard isn't without pathos, most notably in Erich von Stroheim's protective butler who wants only to shield his mistress from the stark truths that are massing against her. But its view of human beings at work in a ruthlessly cannibalistic industry is bleak indeed. Nobody, not even Nancy Olson's sparkily ambitious writer Betty Schaefer, is untainted. And neither are we, "those wonderful people out there in the dark". Norma might be ready for her close-up, but it's really Hollywood that's in the frame. No wonder Wilder incurred the charge of treachery from his peers. It's cinematic perfection. On the DVD: Sunset Boulevard lends itself effortlessly to a collector's edition of this quality. The film itself is presented in full-frame aspect ratio from an excellent print and the quality of the mono soundtrack is faultless: the silver screen comes to life in your living room. The extras are superb, including a commentary from film historian Ed Sikov and a making-of documentary which includes the memories of Nancy Olson. Interactive features such as the Hollywood location map add to the fun. --Piers Ford

• La Grande Illusion 75th Anniversary | DVD | (23/04/2012) from £8.99   |  Saving you £11.00 (122.36%)   |  RRP £19.99

  During WWI, three French officers are captured. Captain De Boeldieu is an aristocrat while Lieutenant Marechal was a mechanic in civilian life. They meet other prisoners from various backgrounds, as Rosenthal, son of wealthy Jewish bankers. They are separated from Rosenthal before managing to escape. A few months later, they meet again in a fortress commanded by the aristocrat Van Rauffenstein. De Boeldieu strikes up a friendship with him but Marechal and Rosenthal still want to escape... One of the very first prison escape movies, La Grande Illusion is hailed as one of the greatest films ever made.

• La Grande Illusion | Blu Ray | (25/01/2021) from £14.49   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  One of the most acclaimed films of all time, and a powerful anti-war statement, Jean Renoir's profoundly humanist La Grande Illusion remains as vibrant, exciting, and wise today as it was when it was released in 1937. Set in the German prison camps of WWI, the film stars Jean Gabin as Maréchal, and Marcel Dalio as Rosenthal. Like the charming aristocrat Captain de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay), these two French aviators were shot down and now spend most of their time escaping from German prison camps before inevitably being recaptured. Between escapes, they do what they can to amuse themselves, but after a tunnel they've dug is discovered, the three are sent to Wintersborn, a forbidding fortress of a prison commanded by former ace pilot Von Rauffenstein (Erich Von Stroheim). Von Rauffenstein cannot help but strike up a friendship with Captain de Boeldieu, a kindred spirit from the doomed nobility. Extras: Introduction by Jean Renoir The original negative of La Grande Illusion : An exceptional story Introduction by Professor Ginette Vincendeau Success and Controversy by Olivier Curchod John Truby talks about La Grande Illusion Trailer (1937) Trailer (1958)

• Sunset Boulevard | Blu Ray | (04/02/2013) from £6.99   |  Saving you £13.00 (185.98%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Intense, enthralling, and unforgettable, Sunset Boulevard stars Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, a faded silent-movie star, and William Holden as Joe Gillis, a down-on-his-luck screenwriter whom she enlists to help her make her triumphant return to the screen. Directed and co-written by acclaimed filmmaker Billy Wilder, this mesmerising Hollywood classic won three Academy Awards.

• I Was An Adventuress | DVD | (19/08/2013) from £3.99   |  Saving you £9.00 (225.56%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Posing as the fabulously glamorous Countess Tanya Vronsky, a poor young ballet dancer (Vera Zorina) and her twoaccomplices (Peter Lorre, Erich von Stroheim) are really a team of skilled con artists! They mingle with Europe's highsociety, always looking for the next wealthy victim to fleece with their fake jewellery scam...Then Tanya meets the dashing young Paul Vernay (Richard Greene). At first she wants to rob him. Then she decides shewants to marry him - and to leave her criminal past behind her. Her accomplices agree - but only if she'll join them inone last, big swindle...

• La Grande Illusion 75th Anniversary (Studio Canal Collection) | Blu Ray | (23/04/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  During WWI, three French officers are captured. Captain De Boeldieu is an aristocrat while Lieutenant Marechal was a mechanic in civilian life. They meet other prisoners from various backgrounds, as Rosenthal, son of wealthy Jewish bankers. They are separated from Rosenthal before managing to escape. A few months later, they meet again in a fortress commanded by the aristocrat Van Rauffenstein. De Boeldieu strikes up a friendship with him but Marechal and Rosenthal still want to escape... One of the very first prison escape movies, La Grande Illusion is hailed as one of the greatest films ever made.

• Sunset Boulevard - Paramount Originals (includes Limited Edition reproduction film poster) | DVD | (23/07/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond an ageing silent film queen and William Holden as the struggling writer who is held in thrall by her madness created two of the screen's most memorable characters in Billy Wilder's immortal Sunset Boulevard. The film was winner of three Academy Awards in 1950 - Best Story and Screenplay Black and White Art Direction and score for a Dramatic Picture. Joe Gillis is floating face down in a swimming pool as the homicide squad arrives. Six months