"Actor: James Newman"

• The Hitchcock Collection, Volume 2 | DVD | (06/03/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  A welcome second volume of classics from the Master of Suspense, this seven-disc Hitchcock Collection box-set consists of the following: The Birds: Based on a Daphne Du Maurier short story, The Birds (1963) is Hitchcock at his most terrifying, as the residents of a small town are attacked by thousands of apparently homicidal birds. Marnie: Tippi Hedren and newly Bonded Sean Connery star in this excellent 1964 thriller, which finds a calculating thief who robs her employers pursued by a her new boss, who is desperate to unlock her secrets Torn Curtain: This 1966 spy thriller, pairing Paul Newman and Julie Andrews, finds Newman as a world-famous physicist intent on defecting to East Berlin in order to obtain funding for his latest project. Topaz: Based on the Leon Uris novel, Hitch's 51st film, made in 1969, concerns a CIA agent who learns of Russian missiles in Cuba. With the aid of a French agent, they negotiate a plethora of corruption and murder. Frenzy: This critically acclaimed 1972 film was Hitch's first British-made film for more than 20 years. A classic Hitch story of an innocent man accused of being the "necktie murderer"--a vicious sex criminal terrorising London--he eludes the authorities and seeks the real killer. Family Plot: Hitchcock's final film, made in 1976, is a blackly funny mix of murder, theft and kidnapping as a cab-driver and a psychic team up to find a dead man--not actually dead--in exchange for a $10,000 reward. Bonus Disc--Vertigo: An irreducible masterpiece, this 1958 double-identity thriller finds Hitch serving aces, as Jimmy Stewart's detective is drawn in to a complex plot when the girl he loves apparently falls to her death. On the DVD: Like the first volume, this is an equally impressive package that will satisfy the rotund fright-master's fans. Along with the standard selection of trailers, production notes and picture galleries, each disc houses an impressive "making of" documentary, each expertly detailing Hitch's meticulous work. The Birds features Tippi Hedren's screen test and--in storyboard form--deleted scenes and the alternative ending. Topaz has no less that three alternative endings, while Torn Curtain includes scenes scored by composer Bernard Herrmann before his music was rejected by Hitch. The Vertigo disc features an excellent group commentary from producer Herbert Coleman and restoration experts Robert A Harris and James Katz, as well as a documentary, "Obsessed with Vertigo". Housed in attractive fold-out packaging, this is an excellent opportunity to obtain a rich slice of Hitchcock's dark magic.--Danny Graydon

• Mapp And Lucia - The Complete First Series | DVD | (05/08/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Miss Emmeline Lucas known universally to her friends as Lucia is a dreadful snob but in Miss Elizabeth Mapp of Mallards Lucia meets her match. On the surface they are the most genteel of society ladies but beneath the veneer of politeness and etiquette lies a bitter and seething malice. There is no plan too devious no plot too cunning no depths to which they would not sink in order to win the battle for social supremacy. Using their deadly weapons of garden parties bridge evenings and charming teas the two combatants strive to outcharm each other as the vie for the position of toast of the town. The Village Fete: Still mourning the death of her husband nine months previously Lucia decides to get away from the village where she lives for a while and rent a place in another part of England. Taking her best friend Georgie along with her and they both fall in love with the place. They decide that they will both rent there for the summer and return to home to participate in the village fete before moving out... Battle Stations: Lucia and Georgie move to their rented homes in Tilling and it is not long before Lucia and Miss Mapp are competing against each other in games of oneupmanship. The Italian Connection: Lucia holds her garden party in Mapp's garden and it is a success. Her happiness is soon brought back to earth when Mapp gleefully tells her that the Contessa Faraglione is coming to visit Tilling and that the two of them will be able to talk Italian to each other. Lobster Pots: A party at Lucia's new home leads to Mapp trying anything she can to get hold of Lucia's recipe for lobster. This leads to the two of them finding themselves stuck in the house during a raging flood. The Owl And The Pussycat: After months lost at sea Mapp and Lucia return to Tilling much to the surprise of all the residents who had thought that they had died. They both plan evenings where they will tell their memoirs of their adventure versions that differ quite dramatically from each other...

• Brown's Requiem | DVD | (05/04/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A man whose career as a police officer is finished because of a drinking problem takes a job as a private detective. A new case involves freeing a teenager from the clutches of a gangster. Based on the novel by James Ellroy.

• Seance On A Wet Afternoon | DVD | (26/01/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  An intensely claustrophobic nail-biter to rival prime Hitchcock, 1964's Séance on a Wet Afternoon is a classic British thriller written and directed by Bryan Forbes. Set largely in an imposing Gothic house in north London, the film stars Richard Attenborough as Bill Savage, a man struggling to maintain his marriage to his increasingly unbalanced wife, Myra, played in an Oscar-nominated performance by the little-known but brilliant Broadway actress Kim Stanley. Myra, who believes she is a medium, plans a scheme that will make her famous, involving kidnapping then "psychically" locating a little girl. Attenborough (who won a BAFTA) and Stanley are both superb in what is part riveting battle of wills, part nerve-wracking kidnap thriller with, just possibly, a touch of the supernatural. Gerry Turpin's precise b/w cinematography and John Barry's chilling score add significantly to the atmosphere of dread, and if the plot has one or two gaping holes, Forbes's direction covers them deftly. Forbes explored female delusion again in The Whispers (1967) and The Mad Woman of Chaillot (1969); the film also marked a major entry in his long-term collaboration with John Barry and with his wife, the actress Nanette Newman. Séance clearly had an influence on Attenborough's own directorial contribution to the genre, the highly unsettling Anthony Hopkins vehicle, Magic (1978). On the DVD: Séance on a Wet Afternoon is presented in an excellent 16:9 transfer, anamorphically enhanced for widescreen televisions, that effectively captures the brooding look of Gerry Tupin's BAFTA-nominated cinematography. Unfortunately the print used, though generally very good, does show some damage, including some instances that appear to run through the best part of a reel. Though noticeable and sometimes distracting, they barely mar this gripping film. The mono soundtrack is fine, though there is the very occasional touch of distortion. The disc comes with optional English subtitles, the excellent original trailer and a new and first-rate 33-minute interview with Bryan Forbes in which he engagingly explains every aspect of the making of the film. --Gary S Dalkin

• The Cool And The Crazy | DVD | (29/11/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A cult 50's B-movie about a rebellious youth fresh from reform school who hooks up with the bad influence pusher who got him put away to form a local marijuana ring. They deal the demon weed to the local small town high school kids in the hope of getting them hooked. Before long these youngsters are hopelessly addicted rampaging through the town with crime insanity and death the inevitable results.

• Everything Everywhere All at Once | DVD | (05/07/2022) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A