"Actor: Gus"

• The 39 Steps | DVD | (19/06/2007) from £4.45   |  Saving you £11.54 (259.33%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A high point of Hitchcock's pre-Hollywood career, 1935's The Thirty-Nine Steps is the first and best of three film versions of John Buchan's rather stiff novel. Robert Donat plays Richard Hannay, who becomes embroiled in a plot to steal military secrets. He finds himself on the run; falsely accused of murder, while also pursuing the dastardly web of spies alluded to in the title. With a plot whose twists and turns match the hilly Scottish terrain in which much of the film is set, The Thirty-Nine Steps combines a breezy suavity with a palpable psychological tension. Hitchcock was already a master at conveying such tension through his cinematic methods, rather than relying just on situation or dialogue. Sometimes his ways of bringing the best out of his actors brought the worst out in himself. If the scene in which Donat is handcuffed to co-star Madeline Carroll has a certain edge, for instance, that's perhaps because the director mischievously cuffed them together in a rehearsal, then left them attached for a whole afternoon, pretending to have lost the key. The movie also introduces Hitchcock's favoured plot device, the "McGuffin" (here, the military secret), the unexplained device or "non-point" on which the movie turns. --David Stubbs

• You Were Never Lovelier | DVD | (24/05/2004) from £9.98   |  Saving you £5.00 (62.58%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In this lavish Hollywood musical the headstrong daughter (Hayworth) of a powerful Argentine hotelier has to contend with her father's attempts to get her to marry...

• Harlequin | DVD | (06/12/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £1.99

  An enigmatic stranger with uncanny magical prowess and miraculous psychic abilities mysteriously comes to 'visit' a powerful politician and quickly gains a spell-binding hold over the senator and his family... Magic Murder Mystery.... Nothing is as it appears to be....

• The Story of Film: An Odyssey | DVD | (07/05/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  The Story of Film: An Odyssey, written and directed by award-winning film-maker Mark Cousins, is the story of international cinema told through the history of cinematic innovation.Five years in the making, The Story of Film: An Odyssey covers six continents and 12 decades, showing how film-makers are influenced both by the historical events of their times, and by each other. It provides a worldwide guided tour of the greatest movies ever made; an epic tale that starts in nickelodeons and ends as a multi-billion-dollar globalised digital industry.Described as a love letter to the movies, Cousins visits the key sites in the history of cinema; from Hollywood to Mumbai; from Hitchcock s London to the village where Pather Panchali was shot, and features interviews with legendary filmmakers and actors including Stanley Donen, Kyoko Kagawa, Gus van Sant, Lars Von Trier, Claire Denis, Bernardo Bertolucci, Robert Towne, Jane Campion and Claudia Cardinale.

• Brain Of Blood | DVD | (14/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  In the late 1960s and early 70s, a bizarre alliance between the Filippino movie company Hemisphere and the American exploitation outfit Independent International yielded a series of weirdly interconnected horror movies, most of which work the word Blood into the title. The Filippino items are strangely fascinating vampire and mad scientist pictures with oddball colour effects and a mix of naive serial-style thrills and extreme-for-the-era sex and gore; the American efforts, from director Al Adamson, are shoddier, thrown together from offcuts of previous pictures, and are lead-paced but nevertheless curiously appealing. Gaze in awe at mutant killer trees, slobbering hunchbacked servants, faded matinee idols, stripper-turned-actress heroines with concrete blonde hairdos, evil dwarves, John Carradine or Lon Chaney, footage cut in from completely different films, Dracula and Frankenstein meeting hippies and bikers, red filters when the vampires attack, chanting natives! Plus lots of exclamation marks! Plus lurid trailers! "A blood-dripping brain transplant turns a maniac into a monster!". Brain of Blood does exactly what it says on the tin. It was made in Hollywood when a Filippino blood movie fell through and the distributor needed a substitute. --Kim Newman

• Fred Astaire - Screen Legends | DVD | (05/06/2006) from £19.41   |  Saving you £5.58 (28.75%)   |  RRP £24.99

  One of the greatest music and dance stars in the history of motion pictures Fred rose from a fairly inauspicious start where a studio exec remarked: ""Can't sing. Can't act. Slightly balding. Can dance a little."" Well his career and achievements speak for themselves. A remarkable talent this box set features 4 of his most-loved films. You'll Never Get Rich (Dir. Sidney Lanfield 1941): After his wife discovers a telltale diamond bracelet impresario Martin Cortland tries to

• Citizen Kane: 80th Anniversary Collectors Edition | Blu Ray | (13/12/2021) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Hailed by critics and fans alike as one of the greatest films ever made, Citizen Kane continues to influence filmmakers and astound viewers 80 years later. Nominated for nine 1941 Academy Awards, with a win for Best Original Screenplay, Orson Welles' controversial masterpiece uses innovative flashbacks and ground-breaking cinematography to follow the epic rise and fall of wealthy newspaper magnate. For any fan of films, this is an essential viewing experience. 4k Ultra HD Collector's Edition Includes: Feature Film on 4k and Blu-ray 48-Page Book 20-Page Souvenir Programme Reprint of Press Release Excerpts Two-Sided Poster 5 Collectable Art Cards 3 Photo Stills Special Features on Blu-ray: Separate Commentaries by Roger Ebert and Peter Bogdanovich Interviews with Ruth Warrick and Robert Wise Opening: World Premiere of Citizen Kane Still Photography with Commentary by Roger Ebert and More

• The Lady From Shanghai | DVD | (18/08/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Legend has it that Orson Welles more or less conned studio boss Harry Cohn over the phone into making The Lady from Shanghai by grabbing the title from a nearby paperback. In any case, this is one of Welles's most fascinating works, a bizarre tale of an Irish sailor (Welles) who accompanies a beautiful woman (Rita Hayworth) and her handicapped husband (Everett Sloane) on a cruise and becomes involved in a murder plot. But never mind all that (the aforementioned legend also claims that Cohn offered a reward to anyone who could explain the plot to him). The film is really a dream of Welles's driving preoccupations both on and off-screen at the time: the elusiveness of identity, the mystique of things lost, and most of all the director's faltering marriage to Hayworth. In the tradition of male filmmakers who indirectly tell the story of their love affairs with leading ladies, Welles tells his own, photographing Hayworth as a deconstructed star, an obvious cinematic creation, thus reflecting, perhaps, a never-satisfied yearning that leads us back to the mystery of Citizen Kane. --Tom Keogh

• The Blue Lagoon | DVD | (13/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  In 1980, Randal Kleiser's remake of The Blue Lagoon had its critics well and truly divided. On the one hand adolescent nudity, however tasteful, was enough to give the censors the vapours. On the other, the story--essentially a reworking of Robinson Crusoe based on Stacpoole's Edwardian adventure novel with two young children as the castaways growing up on a desert island--seemed just too removed from reality. Kleiser set out to make "the ultimate South Seas film", and indeed the location shooting is a richly beautiful complement to the intimate tale of two young people coming to terms with their own adulthood. He teases out touching performances from Brooke Shields (Emmeline) and Christopher Atkins (Richard) as the marooned pair, and a nicely ambivalent cameo from Leo McKern as Paddy, the ship's cook who gets them set up on the island before rum gets the better of him. A stilted script helps none of them. But the moments of awkward self-discovery and dawning sexuality are handled with a tenderness which ultimately triumphs over some of the more implausible elements: Shields' perpetually manicured nails, for example, or the fact that she unexpectedly gives birth without breaking sweat. To say nothing of the pair's extraordinary home-building skills, which would have been beyond the remit of the average Edwardian governess to teach. Today, for all its efforts to be taken seriously as a tale of preserved innocence and discovery, it succeeds best as a good old-fashioned adventure. On the DVD: This widescreen presentation positively bulges with extras. A choice of director's commentaries means that you can hear Randal Kaiser (who had previously directed Grease) reminiscing in fine detail with writer Douglas Day Stewart, and both Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins. Some might think this overkill for a non-landmark film, but the discussions are genuinely interesting. The film was clearly a formative experience in Shields' adolescent career --she has also provided an album of personal snapshots as another extra--and it is fascinating to hear her talk about it from her current position as a star of sophisticated television sitcom. The crystal-clear digital remastering and anamorphic stereo picture and sound quality of the main film don't extend to this scratchy, sometimes inaudible documentary. --Piers Ford

• The Story of Film: An Odyssey | Blu Ray | (26/07/2021) from £41.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Five years in the making, The Story of Film: An Odyssey covers six continents and 12 decades, showing how film-makers are influenced both by the historical events of their times, and by each other. It provides a worldwide guided tour of the greatest movies ever made; an epic tale that starts in nickelodeons and ends as a multi-billion dollar globalised digital industry. Described as a 'love letter' to the movies, Cousins visits the key sites in the history of cinema; from Hollywood to Mumbai; from Hitchcock's London to the village where Pather Panchali was shot, and features interviews with legendary filmmakers and actors including Stanley Donen, Kyoko Kagawa, Gus van Sant, Lars Von Trier, Claire Denis, Bernardo Bertolucci, Robert Towne, Jane Campion and Claudia Cardinale.

• 30 Years Of One Man And His Dog | DVD | (04/09/2006) from £9.99   |  Saving you £15.00 (150.15%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Two celebratory programmes '2005 Christmas Special' 'Best of 30 Years' are brought together on this fantastic double disc feature. One Man and His Dog first appeared on our television screens in 1976 and achieved audiences of over 2 and a half million viewers. It was so successful that it ran for a further 29 years. Capturing the skills of the sheep dog and the amazing levels of communication between the dog and handler One Man And His Dog illustrates beautifully the time honoured traditions of sheep dog trialling.

• Trouble Brewing | DVD | (27/04/2009) from £12.98   |  Saving you £6.00 (60.06%)   |  RRP £15.99

  George Formby plays a newspaper compositor with dreams of becoming a detective. He unmasks a gang of counterfeiters after a big win on the horses unfortunately he is paid off in counterfeit bills. To avoid the long arm of the law Formby sets about collaring the crooks himself whose leader also happens to be the newspapers editor.

• Keep Fit | Blu Ray | (16/03/2020) from £15.00   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  One of the successful run of pre-war Ealing comedies that secured George Formby's enduring popularity with the British public, Keep Fit sees everyone's favourite gawp trying, once again, to win the girl of his dreams! It is presented here as a brand-new High Definition remaster from original film elements in its original theatrical aspect ratio. Gormless George, a feeble department store barber's assistant, has a thing for attractive manicurist Joan. Hector, his rival for Joan's attention, is a handsome, moustache-sporting man-about-town who is no stranger to playing dirty tricks. When scrawny George becomes mistakenly involved in a local fitness campaign, he finds himself competing against the caddish Hector for his true love's affections! Special Feature: Extensive image gallery

• The Blue Lagoon | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In 1980, Randal Kleiser's remake of The Blue Lagoon had its critics well and truly divided. On the one hand adolescent nudity, however tasteful, was enough to give the censors the vapours. On the other, the story--essentially a reworking of Robinson Crusoe based on Stacpoole's Edwardian adventure novel with two young children as the castaways growing up on a desert island--seemed just too removed from reality. Kleiser set out to make "the ultimate South Seas film", and indeed the location shooting is a richly beautiful complement to the intimate tale of two young people coming to terms with their own adulthood. He teases out touching performances from Brooke Shields (Emmeline) and Christopher Atkins (Richard) as the marooned pair, and a nicely ambivalent cameo from Leo McKern as Paddy, the ship's cook who gets them set up on the island before rum gets the better of him. A stilted script helps none of them. But the moments of awkward self-discovery and dawning sexuality are handled with a tenderness which ultimately triumphs over some of the more implausible elements: Shields' perpetually manicured nails, for example, or the fact that she unexpectedly gives birth without breaking sweat. To say nothing of the pair's extraordinary home-building skills, which would have been beyond the remit of the average Edwardian governess to teach. Today, for all its efforts to be taken seriously as a tale of preserved innocence and discovery, it succeeds best as a good old-fashioned adventure. On the DVD: This widescreen presentation positively bulges with extras. A choice of director's commentaries means that you can hear Randal Kaiser (who had previously directed Grease) reminiscing in fine detail with writer Douglas Day Stewart, and both Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins. Some might think this overkill for a non-landmark film, but the discussions are genuinely interesting. The film was clearly a formative experience in Shields' adolescent career --she has also provided an album of personal snapshots as another extra--and it is fascinating to hear her talk about it from her current position as a star of sophisticated television sitcom. The crystal-clear digital remastering and anamorphic stereo picture and sound quality of the main film don't extend to this scratchy, sometimes inaudible documentary. --Piers Ford

• Keep Your Seats, Please | DVD | (22/06/2009) from £10.35   |  Saving you £5.64 (54.49%)   |  RRP £15.99

  An eccentric old lady decides the best way to pass on her fortune to her idiot nephew and keep it safe from her rapacious relatives is to hide it in a chair and get the nephew to buy it at auction. How could such a simple plan go wrong?

• Asylum | DVD | (30/01/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A woman becomes very curious about one of her psychiatrist husband's inmates, a man who was found guilty in the murder and disfigurement of his former wife.

• Lucky Girl | DVD | (13/10/2014) from £7.98   |  Saving you £4.00 (66.78%)   |  RRP £9.99

  This jaunty musical comedy marked another success for former stage star Gene Gerrard playing here opposite Molly Lamont – his frequent screen partner during the early 1930s who enjoyed a flourishing career in Hollywood during the later half of the decade. Co-directed by Gerrard Lucky Girl is featured here in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio. Gerrard plays Stephan Gregorovitch the unwilling king of a bankrupt Ruritanian country who along with his chancellor is accused of stealing jewels at a party held by Duke Hugo. It is the delightful Lady Moira who comes to their aid… Special Features: Image Gallery

• Trouble Brewing | Blu Ray | (19/10/2020) from £8.05   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  One of the successful run of pre-war Ealing comedies that secured George Formby's enduring popularity with the British public, Trouble Brewing sees everyone's favourite gawp turn amateur detective when he's swindled out of his racing winnings! Co-starring Googie Withers, Gus McNaughton, Martita Hunt and Ronald Shiner, it is presented here as a High Definition remaster from original film elements in its original theatrical aspect ratio. Feeble George, a newspaper compositor with delusions of being a detective, wins big at the races. But when he changes his three tenners down to more manageable fivers he's slipped counterfeit notes. Suitably annoyed, George puts his sleuthing skills to the test and goes undercover!

• Celtic Pride | DVD | (20/07/2004) from £5.38   |  Saving you £9.61 (64.10%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Here's the outrageously funny comedy about two sports fans so desperate to see their team win the championship game they'll do anything to ensure the victory! Jimmy (Dan Aykroyd - Ghostbusters) and his best friend Mike (Daniel Stern - Home Alone) are to obsessed with their hometown basketball team the Boston Celtics that they kidnap the opposing team's star player (Damon Wayans - The Last Boy Scout) the night before the championship game. From there the chaos escalates into an ir

• Willard | DVD | (06/09/2004) from £7.86   |  Saving you £12.13 (154.33%)   |  RRP £19.99

  As accomplished as it is superfluous, Willard is a stylish horror film with plenty of style but precious little horror. Genre buffs will appreciate it as a visually superior sequel/remake of its popular 1971 predecessor, giving Crispin Glover a title role perfectly suited to his uniquely odd persona, in the same league as Psycho's Norman Bates. This time, Willard's the psychotically lonely son of the original film's now-deceased protagonist: a milquetoast introvert who befriends an army of obedient rats--lethal allies when Willard's pushed to his emotional breaking point by his abusive boss (R. Lee Ermey). In keeping with his memorably macabre episodes of X-Files, writer-director Glen Morgan excels with dreary atmosphere and mischievously morbid humor (including an ill-fated cat named Scully), and Glover gives his best performance since River's Edge. But even the furry villain Ben--an oversized rat with attitude--is more funny than frightful. With some justification, Glover's fans will appreciate the open door to a sequel. --Jeff Shannon