"Actor: Hale"

• Charlie Chaplin - Gold Rush | DVD | (22/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Chaplin's personal favourite among his own films, The Gold Rush embodies all the trademarks of his mix of slapstick, satire, social commentary and sentiment--a perfect showcase for his ever-popular Little Tramp. Set during the Klondike Gold Rush in 1898, the film features a comic reworking of the gruesome Donner Party story, where a group of snowbound immigrants resorted to eating their clothes and then each other to stay alive. It opens with a grand shot of gold prospectors snaking up the side of a mountain. We then see the Tramp, typically estranged from the rest of the group, making his own way across the snow. Seeking shelter in a blizzard, he finds the cabin of the dangerous criminal Black Larson (Tom Murray) and when another prospector, Big Jim McKay (Mack Swain), comes along, the two of them take charge of the cabin and eventually drive him out. Starving on Thanksgiving, the pair decide to dine in style when the Tramp cooks one of his shoes, famously acting as if he's cooking a fine piece of meat; twirling the laces up like spaghetti and savouring every last nibble. When he finally escapes, the Tramp ends up in a local town and falls in love, only to be rebuffed on New Year's Eve. When a chance meeting reunites him with Big Jim, the two go back in search of gold hidden near the cabin. Despite its unlikely origins, the story is shaped into a classic comedy containing many famous set-pieces, including the cabin teetering on the edge of a cliff and the Tramp morphing into a chicken before the starving Big Jim. Ultimately it's Chaplin's endearing and amusing persona that makes this material genuinely enduring. On the DVD The Gold Rush comes to DVD in a decent transfer with good mono sound and the option of Dolby Digital 5.1. The second disc of bonus features opens with an introduction by David Robinson, who chronicles Chaplin's work on the film, which was interrupted when his clandestine affair with his 15-year-old leading lady meant that, due to her becoming pregnant, the filming had to close for a few months while a new female lead was found. The original 1925 version of the film, before Chaplin updated it with the addition of sound in 1942, appears in full. The Chaplin Today documentary illustrates the influence of the film on director Idrissa Ouedraogo from Burkina Faso, whose own work follows similar themes, as well as going behind the scenes on the original production. Trailers, posters and stills round off this worthy addition to the Chaplin Collection. --Laura Bushell

• Strangers On A Train | DVD | (01/11/2004) from £6.59   |  Saving you £9.40 (142.64%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Two strangers making idle chitchat on a train agree that ""some people are better off dead"" and hypothetically speculate that if they swapped murders they could commit the perfect motiveless crime. Only later does one of the men realise that the other was serious about his murderous intentions... This first-class thriller from Alfred Hitchcock the 'Master of Suspense' is based on a Patricia Highsmith novel and was co-scripted by Raymond Chandler. Robert Burks received an Oscar

• Santa Fe Trail | DVD | (26/10/1999) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £6.36

• Bringing Up Baby | DVD | (10/01/2005) from £13.34   |  Saving you £2.65 (19.87%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A dog belonging to an eccentric heiress (Hepburn) steals a dinosaur bone from David (Grant) an absent-minded Zoology professor. David follows the heiress to her home and all hell breaks loose when he loses his pet leopard known as 'Baby'. Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn give fantastic performances in one of Hollywood's finest screwball comedies superbly directed by Howard Hawks.

• 3 Leading Ladies Of The Silver Screen - Vol. 2 - Of Human Bondage / Behave Yourself / Home Town Story | DVD | (01/11/2004) from £3.93   |  Saving you £1.06 (26.97%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Of Human Bondage: The love that lifted a man to paradise and hurled him back to earth again! This film is based on W. Somerset Maugham's classic novel of a young medical student's strange infatuation with a cheap and vulgar cockney waitress (Bette Davis). The infatuation turns into a mutually destructive affair. This is the film that brought Bette Davis to fame and secured her future roles as a tough domineering woman. Fine acting by the entire cast with Davis an absolu

• Hometown Story/Hollywood Remembers Marilyn | DVD | (24/07/1999) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.30

• Marilyn Monroe - Home Town Story / The Marilyn Monroe Story | DVD | (09/09/2002) from £12.99   |  Saving you £4.00 (30.79%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Home Town Story: Jeffrey Lynn plays an ex-politician who blames big business for his failure to get re-elected. To expose big business as an evil monster he joins his uncle's newspaper. When his little sister is caught in a cave-in the town's largest company comes to her aid and he must now reconsider. The Marilyn Monroe Story: The private and public life of one of Hollywood's great legends. From her small town roots to glittering stardom in Tinseltown from her meteoric rise to fame to her tragic death by her own hands you witness the life of one of America's true sex godesses like never seen before.