With the English Civil War raging, Witchfinder Matthew Hopkins uses the fear and confusion caused by the conflict to enact his forms of cruelty and extortion on a small rural community. He and his sadistic assistant John Stearne exploit the uneducated villagers for cash and gold, laying waste to transgressors with their reign of torture and execution. But one man, a young soldier arrives to go after the pair in a fit of bloody revenge.Simply one of the most brutal British films of the late 60s, this Tigon-produced Michael Reeves (The Sorcerers) film featuring American horror star Vincent Price and Ian Ogilvy, offers up a maliciously violent polemic about the dangers of baying mobs and propaganda-fuelled cynical opportunists.Product FeaturesBrand new 4K Remaster from the Original NegativesHigh Definition (1080p) Blu-ray in 1.85:1 Aspect RatioLPCM 2.0 English MonoOptional English SubtitlesAudio Commentary by Kim Newman and Sean HoganBack on the Horse - Ian Ogilvy on Witchfinder GeneralWhich Witch is Which? - Adam Scovell on Witchfinder GeneralAlternate Nude ScenesAlternate US Conqueror Worm Opening and Closing TitlesUK Theatrical TrailerUSA Conqueror Worm Trailer
With the English Civil War raging, Witchfinder Matthew Hopkins uses the fear and confusion caused by the conflict to enact his forms of cruelty and extortion on a small rural community. He and his sadistic assistant John Stearne exploit the uneducated villagers for cash and gold, laying waste to transgressors with their reign of torture and execution. But one man, a young soldier arrives to go after the pair in a fit of bloody revenge.Simply one of the most brutal British films of the late 60s, this Tigon-produced Michael Reeves (The Sorcerers) film featuring American horror star Vincent Price and Ian Ogilvy, offers up a maliciously violent polemic about the dangers of baying mobs and propaganda-fuelled cynical opportunists.Product FeaturesBrand new 4K Remaster from the Original Negatives presented in Ultra High Definition (2160p) in 1.85:1 Aspect RatioPresented in Dolby Vision High Dynamic Range (HDR10 Compatible)High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray in 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio Also IncludedLPCM 2.0 English MonoOptional English SubtitlesAudio Commentary by Kim Newman and Sean HoganBack on the Horse - Ian Ogilvy on Witchfinder GeneralWhich Witch is Which? - Adam Scovell on Witchfinder GeneralAlternate Nude Scenes (UHD)Alternate US Conqueror Worm Opening and Closing Titles (UHD)UK Theatrical Trailer (UHD)USA Conqueror Worm Trailer
Sergei Bondarchuk directs this 1970s drama starring Rod Steiger and Christopher Plummer. After his abdication Napoleon Bonaparte (Steiger) is exiled to the island of Elba. However, he escapes to be reunited with his generals and troops and mounts a last desperate bid for power at the Battle of Waterloo. He has, however, reckoned without the British forces led by Arthur Welsley the Duke of Wellington (Plummer), who has just returned from a successful campaign in Spain.
Witchfinder General is one of those cult British films that, like The Wicker Man, seemed to herald a renaissance in the fortunes of the British film industry in the late 1960s and early 70s. With only his third film, director Michael Reeves displayed an assured grasp of technique and a confident ability to mix and match genres that marked him out as a homegrown wunderkind to rival the Spielbergs and Coppolas who were just graduating from film school across the Atlantic. Sadly, this promise remained unfulfilled as Reeves died suddenly, soon after completing the film, from a lethal cocktail of prescription drugs; Witchfinder General remains his only significant work Veteran Vincent Price is wonderfully cast as the titular witchfinder, Matthew Hopkins, whose bloody and usually sexually motivated persecutions across civil war-torn East Anglia are carried out with much relish, graphic fake blood and lots of screaming. Ian Ogilvy, an old school pal of the director's, is the upright new model soldier who swears vengeance against Hopkins for the rape of his betrothed (Hilary Dwyer, who in true Hammer Horror fashion gets to take her top off and scream a lot). Lascivious depictions of burning witches and gratuitous sex aside, what draws the viewer into the film is the setting as Reeves' camera roams lovingly across the East Anglian countryside. The opening-hanging scene, for example, depends strongly on location for its effect, and Ogilvy's quest for revenge takes on a John Ford-style Western aura in the director's hands. Perhaps not quite the masterpiece some seem to think it is, Witchfinder General remains a sturdy piece of distinctively British filmmaking. On the DVD: This disc allows the viewer to select the slightly extended "Export cut" of the movie, which has a little more graphic blood than the censored UK release, although the restored sequences are of markedly inferior quality. The anamorphic picture and mono sound are decent, even if too many murky nighttime scenes and badly dubbed actors' voices betray the film's restrictively low budget. The major extra is a documentary about the life and short career of Michael Reeves, while other fill-ups include text notes from critic Kim Newman, a music video, trailer, filmographies and stills. All in all, it's a welcome restoration of a genre classic. --Mark Walker
When retired East End villain CHARLIE ARCHER is murdered by a feral street gang his brother RITCHIE returns to London from Spain to investigate. With the police investigation drawing blank after blank Ritchie decides to take the law into his own hands and bring his old school justice back to the streets of East London. Rounding up his old firm he leads a vigilante crusade against the vicious young criminals using every grizzly method at his disposal to find and punish his brother’s killers. They’re outgunned and outnumbered but this firm has never been outclassed yet!
If Robert Zemeckis's mega-hit Forrest Gump was too sweet for your taste, you may enjoy the undiluted bitterness of his previous movie, a cynical black comedy that was ahead of its time. Death Becomes Her, an outlandish parable about America's obsession with youth and vanity, exposes the corrosive side of Zemeckis's comic sensibility, the sort of scathing satirical edge he gleefully flourished in his overlooked 1980 Used Cars, which has developed a cult following. Meryl Streep has a ball as the deliciously vicious Madeline Ashton, a flamboyantly mannered actress who makes Bette Davis's formidable Margo Channing in All About Eve look like a wallflower. Goldie Hawn is also in razor-sharp comedic form as Madeline's long-time "best friend," Helen. Sensing a bargain she just can't resist, Madeline steals Helen's meek, plastic-surgeon husband Ernest (Bruce Willis) for her own convenience, and the two women become sworn enemies. But the real complications arise when the two are introduced to a secret anti-aging formula by a mysterious and exotic woman (Isabella Rossellini, delightfully ridiculous) that not only smoothes away wrinkles but actually guarantees immortality. As their undying bodies are twisted and mutilated by violent attacks on each other, both women grow increasingly dependent on Ernest for cosmetic repair. The pioneering digital effects inflicted on Streep and Hawn are as grotesque as they are imaginative and hilarious. Like James Cameron (The Abyss, Titanic), Zemeckis loves a technical challenge, and the new visual tools developed for this movie made his later work (in Forrest Gump and Contact) possible. The digital video disc includes a short feature on the movie's production. --Jim Emerson, Amazon.com
A film that will never be equalled for its spectacle and dramatic power" says the stirring trailer on this otherwise sparsely featured DVD. Taking the story of the Napoleonic Wars to Bonapartes final defeat, Waterloo is an unofficial continuation to director Sergei Bondarchuks own 70mm super-epic War and Peace (1968). The climactic battle of Waterloo is shown in the second half of the film and re-enacted with such stunning realism by a cast of around 20,000 extras that it looks like documentary footage from history itself (some 20 years later, Gettysburg, 1993, did the same for the American Civil War). Those who hailed the groundbreaking impact of Saving Private Ryan should see Bondarchuks films, as for sheer scale and intensity--if not bloodiness--they make Spielbergs hit look like an amateur video. Without ever attempting a French accent, Rod Steiger makes a commanding Napoleon, Christopher Plummer a worthy adversary as Wellington, while the supporting cast led by Orson Welles, Jack Hawkins and Virginia McKenna is excellent. The DVD transfer is richly detailed and clear, though the print itself could have done with just a little restoration. Though dated, Abel Glances Napoleon (1928) remains definitive for many, perhaps explaining why Stanley Kubrick eventually abandoned his planned Napoleon film, instead making the 18th Century period epic Barry Lyndon (1974). --Gary S.Dalkin
First time on Blu-Ray in the UK. Waterloo is the 1970 epic period war film directed by Sergei Bondarchuk and produced by legendary producer Dino De Laurentis. It depicts the story of the preliminary events and the Battle of Waterloo and is famous for its lavish battle scenes. Starring Rod Steiger as Napoleon Bonaparte and Christopher Plummer as the Duke of Wellington with a cameo by Orson Welles as Louis XVIII of France, and Jack Hawkins all contribute fine portraits of great men against a magnificent backdrop of battle and bloodshed.
When retired East End villain CHARLIE ARCHER is murdered by a feral street gang his brother RITCHIE returns to London from Spain to investigate. With the police investigation drawing blank after blank Ritchie decides to take the law into his own hands and bring his old school justice back to the streets of East London. Rounding up his old firm he leads a vigilante crusade against the vicious young criminals using every grizzly method at his disposal to find and punish his brother’s killers. They’re outgunned and outnumbered but this firm has never been outclassed yet!
The explosive follow-up to We Still Kill The Old Way. Regarded as the best in the business, The Archer Gang an aging criminal outfit carry out a daring robbery but are caught mid-heist and sentenced to do time in Britain's toughest prison.Once inside, they encounter their old nemesis Slick' Vic Farrow (Billy Murray - Rise of the Footsoldier) who is intent on murdering the gang.The old-school criminals need to use all their wits to stage a daring escape, while dodging Slick Vic, setting in motion a chain of events which leads to an explosive prison riot.
The explosive follow-up to We Still Kill The Old Way. Regarded as the best in the business, The Archer Gang an aging criminal outfit carry out a daring robbery but are caught mid-heist and sentenced to do time in Britain's toughest prison.Once inside, they encounter their old nemesis Slick' Vic Farrow (Billy Murray - Rise of the Footsoldier) who is intent on murdering the gang.The old-school criminals need to use all their wits to stage a daring escape, while dodging Slick Vic, setting in motion a chain of events which leads to an explosive prison riot.
When aging medical hypnotist Dr. Marcus Monserrat and his wife Estelle decide they want to live beyond their years by mentally controlling the body of a younger specimen, they embroil twenty-something Mike Roscoe into their plans. But things start to go array when Estelle's experiments' take on a more murderous tone. Featuring horror legend Boris Karloff; and Ian Ogilvy (Witchfinder General), this second feature from critically acclaimed director Michael Reeves serves up a strange science fiction scare-fest, guaranteed to send creeps down the spine.
As the Saint was one of the most successful TV series throughout the sixties it is no surprise they reinvented it with this sequel: 'Return of the Saint'. The sixties Moore and his Volvo 1800 are replaced by Ian Ogilvy a Jaguar XJS and some groovy seventies fashions. In this sequel the Saint is still stealing from wealthy criminals dodging the police and still all the while helping to put the 'real' criminals behind bars... Episodes Comprise: 1. The Judas Game 2. The Nightmare Man 3. Duel In Venice 4. One Black September 5. The Village That Sold Its Soul 6. Assault Force 7. Yesterday's Hero 8. The Poppy Chain 9. The Arrangement 10. The Armageddon Alternative 11. The Imprudent Professor 12. Signal Stop 13. The Roman Touch 14. Tower Bridge Is Falling Down 15. The Debt Collectors 16. Collision Course: The Brave Goose 17. Collision Course: The Sixth Man 18. Hot Run 19. The Murder Cartel 20. The Obono Affair 21. Vicious Circle 22. Dragonseed 23. Appointment In Florence 24. The Diplomat's Daughter
TBC
A truly epic saga of dynastic conflict at the heart of Imperial Rome, I Claudius was the landmark BBC drama series of the 1970s. Originally transmitted as 13 50-minute episodes, the series dramatises the human face of ancient Rome as interpreted by Robert Graves in his two enormously complex novels, I, Claudius and Claudius The God. Derek Jacobi gives one of the greatest television performances ever as Claudius, the appalled chronicler of the decadence, corruption, intrigue and carnage which comes with the absolute power of his ruling family. Augustus (Brian Blessed) is Emperor and Livia (Sian Phillips) his scheming, ambitious wife, Claudius's aunt. By virtue of his stammer and uncontrollable twitches, Claudius passes for a fool, thus escaping the poisonous machinations of Livia, all the while recording the comings and goings of the Imperial household. Events become increasingly frenzied as Caligula (John Hurt playing the tyrant with psychotic fury) bloodily slaughters his way to power, making a senator of his favourite horse along the way. Claudius eventually becomes Emperor himself, and Jacobi is simply magnificent in the intensely moving finale, which is not to overlook the rest of a fine cast, including: George Baker; Ian Ogilvy; Christopher Guard; Stratford Johns; John Rhys-Davies; Bernard Hepton and Patrick Stewart as the murderous Praetorian Guard Captain Sejanus. Inevitably lacking the visual scale of cinematic features such as Ben-Hur, and today looking more studio-bound than ever, I, Claudius remains a television masterpiece of intelligently written and rivetingly intense character drama. --Gary S Dalkin
A young British couple, Philip (Ian Ogilvy, Death Becomes Her) and Veronica (Barbara Steele, Black Sunday), are honeymooning in the remote village of Vaubrac, Transylvania. After reluctantly booking into a sleazy guesthouse, the couple encounter Von Helsing (John Karlsen, Slaughter Hotel), a direct descendant of the legendary vampire-hunter, who tells them the town was placed under a curse over 200 years ago, following the brutal execution of Vardella, a grotesque figure accused of witchcraft. Dismissing his story, the couple plan to leave the next morning but a mysterious car accident is the catalyst for the return of Vardella and a murderous rampage of revenge Revenge of the Blood Beast (aka The She Beast) is the directorial debut from one of British horror's most important figures, Michael Reeves (The Sorcerers, Witchfinder General), and was written and directed when he was just 23 years old. Combining comedy and gruesome horror, Revenge of the Blood Beast is an outrageously entertaining slice of B-movie Eurohorror.
England is in civil war as the Royalists battle Oliver Cromwell's Roundheads for control. This conflict distracts people from rational thought and allows unscrupulous men to gain power by exploiting village superstitions. One of these men is Matthew Hopkins (Vincent Price), who tours the land offering his services as a persecutor of witches. Aided by his sadistic accomplice John Stearne (Robert Russell), he travels from town to town and wrenches confessions from witches in order to line his pockets.
Haunting passionate and unforgettable this beautiful version of Emily Bronte's timeless masterpiece stars Anna Calder-Marshall and Timothy Dalton as Cathy and Heathcliff star crossed lovers destined for a doomed romance.....
Witchfinder General is one of those cult British films that, like The Wicker Man, seemed to herald a renaissance in the fortunes of the British film industry in the late 1960s and early 70s. With only his third film, director Michael Reeves displayed an assured grasp of technique and a confident ability to mix and match genres that marked him out as a homegrown wunderkind to rival the Spielbergs and Coppolas who were just graduating from film school across the Atlantic. Sadly, this promise remained unfulfilled as Reeves died suddenly, soon after completing the film, from a lethal cocktail of prescription drugs; Witchfinder General remains his only significant work Veteran Vincent Price is wonderfully cast as the titular witchfinder, Matthew Hopkins, whose bloody and usually sexually motivated persecutions across civil war-torn East Anglia are carried out with much relish, graphic fake blood and lots of screaming. Ian Ogilvy, an old school pal of the director's, is the upright new model soldier who swears vengeance against Hopkins for the rape of his betrothed (Hilary Dwyer, who in true Hammer Horror fashion gets to take her top off and scream a lot). Lascivious depictions of burning witches and gratuitous sex aside, what draws the viewer into the film is the setting as Reeves' camera roams lovingly across the East Anglian countryside. The opening-hanging scene, for example, depends strongly on location for its effect, and Ogilvy's quest for revenge takes on a John Ford-style Western aura in the director's hands. Perhaps not quite the masterpiece some seem to think it is, Witchfinder General remains a sturdy piece of distinctively British filmmaking. On the DVD: This disc allows the viewer to select the slightly extended "Export cut" of the movie, which has a little more graphic blood than the censored UK release, although the restored sequences are of markedly inferior quality. The anamorphic picture and mono sound are decent, even if too many murky nighttime scenes and badly dubbed actors' voices betray the film's restrictively low budget. The major extra is a documentary about the life and short career of Michael Reeves, while other fill-ups include text notes from critic Kim Newman, a music video, trailer, filmographies and stills. All in all, it's a welcome restoration of a genre classic. --Mark Walker
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