"Actor: Inia Te Wiata"

• The Seekers | DVD | (15/08/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Famous for being the first ever colour film to be made in New Zealand this Rank 1954 feature is overflowing with beautiful scenery colour and set pieces. It is 1821 and adventuring seafarer Philip Wayne (Jack Hawkins) and Paddy Clarke (Noel Purcell) have set ashore to explore the Bay of Plenty. Stumbling upon a Mori burial cave they are captured and sentenced to death by the Mori for desecrating the resting place of their ancestors. Wayne's prowess impresses the Mori chief Hongi Tepe (Inia Te Wiata) and he offers Wayne a chance to save his life by enduring a trial by challenge. When Wayne succeeds the chief adopts him as his honorary son but Wayne has to return to his ship and back to England. When skullduggery breaks out on board ship Wayne finds himself at the mercy of the British authorities and decides to return to the Pacific with his new wife Marion (Glynis Johns) and a crew that includes the sexually charged Wishart (Kenneth Williams). With a tense standoff emerging between the indigenous Moris and the colonial British the situation rises to boiling point when the beautiful Mori girl Maona (Laya Raki) rejects the advances of Wishart.

• Man Of The Moment | DVD | (12/11/2001) from £8.13   |  Saving you £1.86 (22.88%)   |  RRP £9.99

  After an uncredited cameo alongside a gallery of comedy stars in As Long As They're Happy (1955), Norman Wisdom's third hit was the appropriately titled Man of the Moment. Indeed, by 1955 Wisdom was firmly established as Britain's favourite movie comedian, his shy, helpful and good-natured "gump" character forever unintentionally causing catastrophe in the great tradition of Charlie Chaplin's "Little Tramp". However, while Chaplin ventured into politics in Modern Times (1936) for satirical purposes, when Norman's minor civil servant here accidentally becomes the UK delegate at a conference in Geneva the emphasis is on farce and pratfalls. The plot sees Norman sticking up for the rights of the fictional kingdom of Tawaki against less-than-honest government interests, while his new-found status brings the attention of the ladies, including the return of his Trouble in Store (1953) costar Lana Morris. Continuing his collaboration with veteran director John Paddy Carstairs, the film is a polished laughter machine that continues to entertain. The following year cinema audiences continued to see Norman go Up In the World, while fans of that other British comedy institution, the Carry On series, will be pleased to spot Charles Hawtrey in a supporting role. --Gary S Dalkin