"Actor: Ireland"

• All The King's Men | DVD | (09/07/2001) from £9.54   |  Saving you £10.45 (109.54%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Best Picture Oscar in 1949 went to All the King's Men, a hard-hitting political melodrama that will strike any number of eerily familiar chords with audiences weaned on later American politics: from the Kennedys to Nixon, Bill Clinton and beyond, US politicians obviously haven't changed much in the intervening decades. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, this grittily realistic movie charts the rise and fall of Willie Stark (Broderick Crawford in an Oscar-winning role), a hick lawyer whose ideals are inexorably eroded by his relentless pursuit of power. When we first meet him, Stark is the people's champion, a struggling self-taught advocate who isn't afraid to speak out against "graft". Although inspired by the real-life story of Louisiana Governor Huey Pierce Long, All the King's Men also parallels the much later Primary Colors (1998), which is itself a thinly disguised portrait of Bill Clinton's presidential campaign. Like that movie, this one tells the tale from the point of view of a young idealist (John Ireland) who succumbs to the fledgling politician's charm and joins his campaign team. There he meets cynical aide Sadie Burke (Mercedes McCambridge, in another Oscar-winning role) and together they connive at and excuse every increasingly corrupt move made in the name of political expediency, until matters get dangerously out of hand after the governor's son kills his girlfriend in a drunk-driving incident (a spooky premonition of Chappaquidick?). The performances are all top-notch, as is the fast-paced screenplay and direction from Robert Rossen (later director of The Hustler in 1961). Less idealistic than Capra's Mr Smith Goes to Washington, this is a movie ahead of its time which still has plenty to say about the state of modern politics, American or otherwise. --Mark Walker

• Red River | DVD | (12/06/2000) from £6.01   |  Saving you £6.98 (116.14%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Any short list of the all-time greatest Westerns is bound to include this 1948 Howard Hawks classic about an epic cattle drive. Red River features one of John Wayne's greatest performances. Like his Ethan Edwards in John Ford's 1956 masterpiece The Searchers, the Duke plays an isolated and unsympathetic man who is possessed by bitterness. Wayne is Texas rancher Tom Dunson, who adopts a young boy orphaned in an Indian massacre. That boy, Matthew Garth (played as an adult by Montgomery Clift in his screen debut), becomes Dunson's assistant and heir apparent--until Dunson's temper gets out of control during a long cattle drive and Matt intervenes to stop him. From that moment on, Dunson swears he will kill Matt. Red River has everything a great Western ought to have: a sweeping sense of history, spectacular landscapes, stampedes, gunfights, Indian attacks, and, of course, Walter Brennan as Dunson's crusty old cook and comic sidekick, Nadine Groot. As a special bonus, the film also features the legendary Harry Carey (upon whom Wayne would base some of his gestures in The Searchers) and his son Harry Carey Jr, who became a fixture in Ford and Hawks' Westerns. Red River is essential for anyone who loves Westerns, or movies in general. This one's a real beaut. --Jim Emerson, Amazon.com

• Justified City Primeval (TV) | Blu Ray | (27/01/2025) from £24.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Having left the hollers of Kentucky 15 years ago, Raylan Givens now lives in Miami, a walking anachronism balancing his life as a U.S. Marshal and part-time father of a 15-year-old girl. A chance encounter on a desolate Florida highway sends him to Detroit. There he crosses paths with Clement Mansell, aka The Oklahoma Wildman, a violent, sociopathic desperado who's already slipped through the fingers of Detroit's finest once and aims to do so again. These three characters set out on a collision course in classic Elmore Leonard fashion, to see who makes it out of the City Primeval alive.

• Gunfight at the O.K. Corral 60th Anniversary (BD) | Blu Ray | (29/05/2017) from £5.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas star as larger-than life heroes in this classic Western epic directed by John Sturges. Frontier lawman Wyatt Earp (Lancaster) joins his three brothers in their feud against the villainous Clanton gang, a local clan of cattle thieves in Tombstone, Arizona. When Earp defends the sickly gambler John Doc Holliday (Douglas) and puts a stop to the Clanton's lawlessness, the ruthless outlaws seek revenge and murder one of Earp's brothers. This leads the men into the most devastating showdown in Wild West history! Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is a timeless, cinematic tale of good versus evil.

• Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (Vestron) | Blu Ray | (15/11/2021) from £12.95   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The road to Purgatory is paved with good intentions, and Count Mardulak (David Carradine) wouldn't have it any other way. He's seeking atonement for centuries of human carnage, which is why he's instructed Purgatory's vampire residents to slather on SPF 100 sunblock, pursue daytime activities and drink only synthetic blood. But some vampires don't agree with Mardulak they want the real thing and if that means wooden bullets flying in a vampire civil war, so be it! This wild horror-comedy also stars Bruce Campbell, Maxwell Caulfield, M. Emmet Walsh, and John Ireland. Special Features Audio Commentary with Director Anthony Hickox and Director of Photography Levie Isaacks Isolated Score Selections and Audio Interviews with Music Historian Randall Larson and Producer Jefferson Richard Wild Weird West An Interview with Director Anthony Hickox Bloodsuckers from Purgatory - An Interview with Special Make-up Effects Creator Tony Gardner Memories of Moab An Interview with Actor Bruce Campbell A Vampire Reformed An Interview with Actor David Carradine A True Character An Interview with Actor M. Emmet Walsh Theatrical Trailer Still Gallery

• Robbery Under Arms | DVD | (24/03/2014) from £6.49   |  Saving you £3.50 (53.93%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Following the huge critical and commercial success of A Town Like Alice, this 1957 'Australian Western' reunited Oscar winner Peter Finch and British director Jack Lee. An adaptation of Thomas Alexander Browne's classic novel charting the exploits of notorious nineteenth-century bushranger Captain Starlight, Robbery Under Arms sees Finch heading an impressive cast that includes Jill Ireland, Ronald Lewis and David McCallum. Partly filmed on location in Australia, Robbery Unde...

• The Good Die Young | DVD | (06/09/2004) from £6.49   |  Saving you £6.50 (100.15%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A fallen aristocrat with a mountainous gambling debt enlists three men with similar financial instabilities to assist him in a mail van robbery.

• Cold Sweat | DVD | (06/09/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Mark Cahill is a professional assassin with a real problem. He's so strung up about a job that went wrong he can't figure out whether he's going nuts or if he really is being tormented by forces from beyond the grave.

• Two Thousand Acres Of Sky - The Complete Series Three | DVD | (27/06/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The complete third series of the bittersweet comedy drama first shown on the BBC. Abby's life now seems a million miles away from London but just as she is beginning to feel accepted as by the island community on Ronansay Robbie the children's father turns up. He was a lousy boyfriend and father and is not welcome. Kenny meanwhile has finally accepted that his feelings for Abby will remain unrequited and decides to move on emotionally. Another erring father is Alistair who i

• Hell Drivers | DVD | (26/01/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Hell Drivers sees James Bond (Sean Connery), Doctor Who (William Hartnell), one of the men from UNCLE (David McCallum), the Prisoner (Patrick McGoohan) and a Professional (Gordon Jackson), all supporting Stanley Baker in this hard-as-nails British action picture realistically set in a bleak late-1950s England. Baker plays Tom Yately, an ex-con who takes the only job he can get--truck driving at breakneck speeds for a corrupt manager (Hartnell) and brutal foreman (McGoohan). The constant short runs and competition between the drivers makes for an intense atmosphere which inevitably explodes into violence. Baker's only friend is an Italian ex-POW played sensitively by Herbert Lom, while Peggy Cummings is a remarkably free-spirited heroine for a British film of the time. Baker himself is superb, quietly tough, and broodingly charismatic, McGoohan is compellingly malevolent and Hartnell simply chilling. The film is consistently engrossing and often exciting, even when the plot spirals into melodrama towards the finale. One has to wonder where the police are during all this mayhem, but the fact that the screenplay, by John Kruse and Cy Endfield, received a BAFTA nomination suggests the scenario was at least reasonably realistic. Endfield also directed this, the second of six films he would helm for Baker, the most famous of which would be the all-time classic, Zulu (1964). On the DVD: Hell Drivers is presented in an anamorphically enhanced ratio of 1.77:1. This means a little of the original 1.96:1 VistaVision (70mm) image is cropped at the sides, which is just noticeable in a few shots. The print used is excellent, with only very minor damage, and the mono sound is fine. The disc also includes Look in on Hell Drivers, a 1957 TV programme that offers interviews with Stanley Baker, Cy Endfield and Alfie Bass, as well as comments from genuine truck drivers confirming the realism of the story, and a contemporary 15-minute television interview with Baker, which focuses on Hell Drivers, Sea Fury(1958) (also directed by Cy Endfield) and Violent Playground (1958). The original trailer rounds out an excellent package. --Gary S Dalkin

• Benidorm: The Complete Collection - Series 1 - 4 and Specials | DVD | (14/11/2011) from £6.48   |  Saving you £33.51 (517.13%)   |  RRP £39.99

  This is the complete box set of all four series of the popular hit comedic television show Benidorm, set in Spain, which depicts the lives of working class people on their holidays abroad to this tourist magnet destination, whether they're first timers or regulars, with amusing results.

• Vengeance Valley | DVD | (04/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  An unusual adult Western for its time Vengeance Valley (1951) gave Burt Lancaster his first Western role. His athletic prowess made him perfect for the genre and he'd go on to make Gunfight At O.K. Corral Apache and The Unforgiven among others. Vengeance Valley emphasises character development and the solid cast meets the challenge. Robert Walker plays Burt's foster brother. Joanne Dru John Ireland Ted de Corsia Hugh O'Brien and Glenn Strange lend support. One of the real stars of the picture is the gorgeous three-strip Technicolor photography by George J.Folsey. The West has rarely looked more colorful.

• 55 Days At Peking | Blu Ray | (07/04/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Diplomats soldiers and other representatives of a dozen nations fend off the siege of the International Compound in Peking during the 1900 Boxer Rebellion in China. The disparate interests unite for survival despite competing factions overwhelming odds delayed relief and the support of the Boxers by the Chinese Empress and her generals.

• Rider On The Rain | DVD | (21/09/2009) from £8.99   |  Saving you £4.00 (44.49%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Who will he terrorise... Who will he attack... Who will be his next victim? This nailbiting French/Italian thriller stars Marlene Jobert as 'Mellie' a young woman being stalked in the rain by a mysterious stranger. When her husband is away the stalker breaks in and rapes her. In an act of vengeance she kills her assailant dumping the body into the ocean. When the body is recovered an American military officer Col. Harry Dobbs (Charles Bronson) is called in to investigate not only the murder but the missing US Army money that the rapist had been carrying with him...

• The Assassins | DVD | (03/03/2014) from £9.43   |  Saving you £0.56 (5.94%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Laura Craig (Jill Ireland) is the new First Lady in the White House and secret agent Jay Killian (Charles Bronson) is assigned to protect her, much to her disgust. However, she begins to value his service as it seems that someone wants her dead and the termination orders look as though they are coming from inside the White House.

• Wild In The Country | DVD | (14/02/2005) from £7.76   |  Saving you £2.23 (28.74%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Elvis Presley stars as a rebellious backwoods delinquent gifted with a rare literary talent. Hope Lange is the sympathetic psychiatrist who tries to help him while Tuesday Weld and Millie Perkins round out an all-star cast as his seductive cousin and childhood sweetheart. This is Elvis at his untamed bad-boy best!

• The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: 8-Movie Collection | DVD | (02/11/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Spartacus | DVD | (24/05/2004) from £6.24   |  Saving you £13.75 (220.35%)   |  RRP £19.99

  For a limited time only, Universal Pictures are re-releasing five of their most beloved Cinema Classics in cinemas around the UK. The following films will be released: Spartacus, Blues Brothers, Scar Face, The Thing and Animal House.

• The Danzigger Collector's Edition | DVD | (19/05/2007) from £18.75   |  Saving you £-0.76 (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The Tell-Tale Heart A dark and dramatic adaption of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic story, Laurence Payne stars as Edgar Marsh, a shy and awkward librarianwho becomes obsessed with his new neighbour Betty Clare. Despite Marsh’s infatuation and determination to win her affections, Betty Clare falls for Marsh’s close friend Carl Loomis, a charismatic man of the world. Discovering their affair, Marsh’s obsession turns to murderous rage and he kills Loomis. Consumed with guilt Marsh’s mind begins to crumble as the sound of Loomis’s stillbeating heart haunts his every waking hour. Part-Time Wife Tom is an unsuccessful insurance salesman with only one ray of sunshine in his life, his beautiful new bride Jenny. When Tom looks up his old army buddy Drew in an attempt to sell him some car insurance for the company fleet, Drew hatches a plan to convince his uncle and owner of the company that far from being a playboy crook, he is a happily married man. The only problem is he’s chosen Jenny to be his pretend wife. Drew and Jenny must play the perfect husband and wife until Drew’s uncle returns to America, while Tom must do everything hecan to ensure the plan goes without a hitch in order to secure the biggest insurance deal of his life…and to guarantee the innocence of his wife! The Battleaxe Francis Matthews and Jill Ireland star as Tony Evers and Audrey Page, an engaged couple whose pre-marital bliss is shattered by thefuture bride's domineering mother. Unable to withstand this wicked witch of the Northlands, Matthews tries to weasel out of the marriage by suing for breach of promise: the broken promise being that mother would stop meddling. Joan Haythorne plays the domineering mother in-law Mrs Page who has made it her business to keep the two apart and ensure her daughter doesn’t marrysuch a crooked character. Fate Takes a Hand When a mail bag full of post that was taken in a robbery is discovered fifteen years later, a Post Office employee and local reporterdecide to deliver the letters to their original intended addressees. This solitary incident has profound ramifications on several of therecipients and this film tells the story of how just five of those letters changed peoples lives forever. Two Wives at One Wedding Tom Murray and his new bride’s wedding day takes a turn for the worse when a mysterious woman arrives uninvited with a startling revelation – she claims to be Tom’s wife. Annette is a French woman who Tom had a wartime romance with at the end ofthe Second World War after he was injured near Normandy and she nursed him back to health. It is then that Annette claims themarriage took place, something Tom has no memory of. She is willing to divorce Tom but only with a 10,000 settlement. Blackmailed and with his promising medical career in the balance should the story reach the papers, Tom must hunt down the facts to determine if Annette is really telling the truth.

• Farewell My Lovely | DVD | (10/04/2000) from £26.89   |  Saving you £-19.90 (N/A%)   |  RRP £6.99

  Of all the Philip Marlowes, Robert Mitchum's in Farewell, My Lovely resonates most deeply. That's because this is Marlowe past his prime, and Mitchum imbues Raymond Chandler's legendary private detective with a sense of maturity as well as a melancholy spirit. And yet there is plenty of Mitchum's renowned self-deprecating humour and charismatic charm to remind us of his own iconic presence. As in the previous 1944 film version, Murder, My Sweet, Marlowe searches all over L.A. for the elusive girlfriend of ex-con Moose Malloy, a loveable giant who might as well be King Kong. In typical Chandler fashion, the weary Marlowe uncovers a hotbed of lust, corruption and betrayal. Like Malloy, he's disillusioned by it all, despite his tough exterior, and possesses a tinge of sentimentality for the good old days. About the only current dream he can hold onto is Joe DiMaggio and his fabulous hitting streak. Made in 1975, a year after Chinatown (shot by the same cinematographer, John Alonzo), Farewell, My Lovely is more straightforward and nostalgic, but still possesses a requisite hard-boiled edge, and the best kind of angst the 1970s had to offer. (By the way, you will notice Sylvester Stallone in a rather violent cameo, a year before his Rocky breakthrough.) --Bill Desowitz, Amazon.com