"Actor: Gladys Hulette"

• Silent Shakespeare | DVD | (25/10/2004) from £8.95   |  Saving you £11.04 (123.35%)   |  RRP £19.99

  At the turn of the 20th century the film industry sought to elevate its lowbrow status by imitating the theatre. While cinemas decked themselves out like theatres filmmakers signed up stage stars and turned to the classics. Shakespeare provided the greatest challenge especially since many of the films made before the First World War were only one or two reels long.

• The Iron Horse | DVD | (24/06/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Iron Horse was John Ford's 50th film and remains his most celebrated of the silent era. Its theme of enterprise and achievement its open-air locations and setting in a vigorous and pioneering past proved just the subject to stimulate the young director's talent. The sheer scale of the film surpassed all other Westerns of the silent era and established Ford as one of the leading directors in the industry. The film combines a conventional tale of double-dealing vengeance and romance with a poetic sense of history and an epic theme - uniting a nation by building a transcontinental railroad and a great man's dream realised by the courage skill and labour of ordinary folk. This restored version features a new score composed and conducted by John Lanchbery performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic.