"Actor: Francis Bell"

• To The Devil A Daughter (Doubleplay) | Blu Ray | (29/01/2018) from £15.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Hammer's To the Devil a Daughter was the last film made by the once great studio. Clearly ailing, Hammer again adapted a novel by Dennis Wheatley, the author behind one of their greatest successes, The Devil Rides Out (1967). Unfortunately for the studio, films such as Rosemary's Baby (1968) and The Exorcist (1973) had, in the intervening decade, radically changed horror cinema. With American star Richard Widmark echoing Gregory Peck's role in the far more polished The Omen (1976), the film seemed, rather than setting the pace as Hammer once had, to be very much jumping on the 1970's occult band-wagon. Christopher Lee is the satanic ex-communicated priest whose coven plan to incarnate the ancient demon Ashteroth, while a supernaturally beautiful Nastassja Kinski demonstrates the same willingness to disrobe as in Cat People (1982). Even so, this lacklustre, misogynistic film couldn't compete with Carrie and Suspiria (both also 1976) and Hammer thereafter concentrated on TV productions. Surprisingly, director Peter Sykes' next film, Jesus (1979), as well as being the most seen and internationally distributed film ever (with an audience of over two billion by 2000), is also the most faithful portrayal of Christ yet committed to celluloid. --Gary S. Dalkin

• A Simple Wish | DVD | (02/05/2005) from £3.85   |  Saving you £6.14 (159.48%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Your wish is his command... sort of. 'A Simple Wish' tells the sweet-natured story of Murray a bumbling fairy godfather who has good intentions but not much else. Technically Murray is a fairy godmother--the only male member of the North American Fairy Godmother Association. After barely passing his godmother's exam he is sent to New York City to watch after Anabel a young girl who wishes that her father Oliver will land a part in a Broadway musical so that the family w

• Neighbours: From the Beginning | DVD | (24/09/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Go back to where it all began with the very first 56 episodes of Neighbours. From the very first episode we are launched straight into the lives of the residents of Ramsay Street; introducing for the first time the Ramsays, the Clarkes and the Robinsons. Episodes include: - Danny Ramsay has a bad dream about his brother Shane, in a diving accident. - Des Clarke's wedding doesn't exactly go to plan. - Star-crossed lovers Scott Robinson (Jason Donovan) & Kim Taylor run away from home. - Max Ramsay receives some shocking news about his son Danny. - Paul Robinson (Stefan Dennis) considers a career change. This collection takes us right back to the beginning with 6 discs of the Neighbours we all grew to know and love. With over 22 hours of your favourite Australian suburban drama, this collection is one no Neighbours fan will want to be without.

• Lord Peter Wimsey - Strong Poison | DVD | (11/02/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Edward Petherbridge stars as the aristocratic detective Lord Peter Wimsey in this who-dun-nit from the pen of Dorothy L. Sayers. Mystery writer Harriet Vane is on trial for the murder of her lover. The evidence seems pretty conclusive. Not an hour after leaving her flat Philip Boyles was found dead in the back of a taxi cab - from arsenic posioning. Wimsey attends the trial and becomes beguiled by the writer. He also becomes convinced of her innocence of the crime. When the jury

• The Champions | DVD | (30/08/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  When British jocky Bob Champion is struck down with cancer in the prime of his career his desire to live is determined by a single promise; on successful recovery he will ride jump prospect Aldaniti in the 1981 Grand National... John Hurt gives a truly stunning performance as Bob Champion in this true story of courage dedication and the strength of the human spirit.

• Neighbours: From the Beginning - Volume 2 | DVD | (25/03/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Second volume of early episodes from the long-running soap opera. Created by Reg Watson, the show made its debut on Australian television on the 18th of March 1985 and would go on to earn a worldwide audience, with up to 16 million UK viewers tuning in to watch it at its peak. The initial episodes feature actors including Stefan Dennis, Anne Haddy, Francis Bell, Dasha Blahova and Jason Donovan.

• To The Devil A Daughter | DVD | (11/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  A heretic priest (the legendary Christopher Lee in one of his finest Hammer performances) plots to use a teenage nun (Nastassja Kinski) in a depraved sexual pact with the forces of darkness. But when an American occult novelist uncovers the conspiracy he must battle an international cabal of evil for the body and soul of the Devil's child-bride. Can this black magic marriage be stopped before an innocent girl is defiled as the womb of Satan?

• Neighbours: The Charlene Years | DVD | (08/10/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

• Battle Cry | DVD | (21/07/2003) from £15.99   |  Saving you £-2.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  The most interesting--and entertaining--aspect of Battle Cry, a long, episodic World War II drama, is that it marked the debut of one Justus E McQueen, who subsequently took the name of the good ol' Arkansas boy he played in the movie: LQ Jones. He's only one of eight or nine marine recruits who divide the screen time with commanding officer Van Heflin and James Whitmore as a lifer sergeant named Mac, "just Mac", who ramrods their squad and also delivers the movie's overbearing narration. Unfortunately, the narration is necessary to maintain continuity as the CinemaScope production galumphs its way from rounding up the melting-pot cast to seeing them through basic training and sundry, mostly amatory misadventures in San Diego, to further training in New Zealand and finally to baptism of fire on Guadalcanal. Trouble is, among the recruits only McQueen/Jones (whose job is mostly comic relief) and Aldo Ray (as a brawling lumberjack who's never known family life) have any charisma or acting chops--and that's not forgetting Tab Hunter, whose matinee-idol status at the time does not speak well for the 50s. Battle Cry is also a cardinal example of Hollywood's penchant for buying big, lusty, profane bestsellers (by Leon Uris, in this case) and then bowdlerising all the lustiness and profanity to appease the censors. Raoul Walsh, the poet laureate of lowdown gusto, does what he can in the circumstances, and as one of the first guys ever to direct a widescreen movie (1930's The Big Trail), he makes the battle scenes roar. --Richard T. Jameson

• U.S. Seals | DVD | (15/04/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  When death stalks the high seas...There's only one combat force for the job... Modern-day pirates have taken to the seas crippling the world shipping trade and making the ocean a very dangerous place to be. The U.S. president has no choice but to call on the immediate intervention of the world's most lethal daring combat force: the Navy SEALs. From an oil rig in the icy North Atlantic to the luxurious playground of the French Riviera the SEALs engage the pirates at every turn leading to the fiery climax at the pirate's base in remote Kazahkstan. What stars as an important mission for the SEALs becomes a personal grudge match and finally a life-and-death struggle for control of the seas. In the tradition of Under Siege and Delta Force U.S. Seals is searing white-hot high-caliber action you'll watch again and again.

• I Pierre Riviere | DVD | (24/03/2008) from £17.35   |  Saving you £2.64 (15.22%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Based on documents compiled by leading French philosopher Michel Foucault I Pierre Riviere a unique and original film charts the gruesome events which took place in a Normandy village in 1835 when a young man Pierre Riviere murdered his mother sister and brother before fleeing to the countryside. With a cast made up of real-life villagers from the area where the events took place the detailed re-enactments and careful attention to the gestures of their ancestors serve to create an intense and sometimes disturbing atmosphere of hyper-realism. Details of the crime and of the trial that followed are told from varied perspectives including the written confession of Pierre himself and form a rich and complex narrative that interrogates the concepts of 'truth' and 'history'. Radical bold and uncompromising director Rene Allio's extraordinary work is at one and the same time an ethnographic enquiry an historical reconstruction and an unflinching portrait of psychopathology and its aftermath.