This CinemaScope treatment of Frank Loesser's hit Broadway musical Guys and Dolls is a deeply rewarding visual and musical experience. Frank Sinatra turns in one of his best screen performances running a close second to Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons, looking adorable and singing sweetly. In essence this is a piece of photographed theatre mounted on a handsome scale. The striking set designs and a brilliantly executed soundtrack are courtesy of two Broadway craftsmen Oliver Smith and conductor Jay Blackton. Photographer Harry Stradling brings a meticulous eye for detail when his camera stationed on the auditorium side of the frame, peers into Miss Adelaide's bathroom cupboard as she views the lines of medicine bottles in her celebrated "lament". Sinatra, in his vocal prime, sings a new number to Adelaide (Vivian Blaine)--arranged by Nelson Riddle--and Brando and Simmons strike chords in all their scenes from their opening duet "I'll Know" through to their evening out at a Havana bistro where she gets pie-eyed on a Bacardi milk-shake, tipsily wondering "If I were a Bell". Stubby Kaye also from the Broadway cast recreates the show-stopping "Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat". Michael Kidd's choreography for "Luck Be a Lady" is razor-sharp and superbly captured in the CinemaScope format, though the formalised staging of the opening ought to have been rethought for this medium. The biggest pity is that Loesser amended some of his lyrics and replaced several tunes from his original score with inferior material. On the DVD: The DVD trailer hosted by Ed Sullivan makes much of the $1,000,000 cheque producer Samuel Goldwyn paid for the rights and the previews of the picture he obtained for his weekly television show. There's no denying that the remastered stereophonic soundtrack captures the Broadway sound to thrilling effect without it being overglamorised. The picture looks splendid too--never settle for the compromise version we've endured all these years on television! --Adrian Edwards
Build Your Own Doctor Who Archive With The Ultimate Collectors' Set! Battlefield Ghost Light The Curse Of Fenric Survival Special Features Rare Extended Vhs Versions Of Battlefield And The Curse Of Fenric Ghost Light Extended Workprint Brand New And Exclusive To Blu-ray Buried Treasure: 30 Years Of Fenric A Brand New One-hour Making-of Documentary With Sylvester Mccoy, Sophie Aldred, Tomek Bork, Nicholas Parsons, Cory Pulman, Ian Briggs, Andrew Cartmel, Mark Ayres, Marek Anton, Stephen Mansfield And Ian Collins In Conversation Matthew Sweet Chats To Sophie Aldred Showman The Life Of John Nathan-turner A Feature-length Look At The Life Of Doctor Who's Longest-serving Producer The Writers' Room Ben Aaronovitch, Marc Platt, Ian Briggs, Rona Munro And Andrew Cartmel Discuss Season 26 Behind The Sofa New Episodes With Sylvester Mccoy & Sophie Aldred, Companions Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton & Anneke Wills, And Thirteenth Doctor Writers Pete Mctighe & Joy Wilkinson Becoming The Destroyer Learn How Cast And Crew Brought This Fearsome Monster To Life Rare Archive Discoveries Including Previously Unseen Studio And Location Footage Blu-ray Trailer: The Promise Ace Returns! Sophie Aldred Back In Character For The First Time Since 1989. Immersive 5.1 Surround Sound On Every Version Of Every Episode! Pdf Written Archive Scripts & Rare Archival Material. This Set Also Features Extensive Special Features Previously Released On Dvd Including: Making-of Documentaries, Special Editions, Featurettes, Deleted Scenes, Isolated Music Scores, Audio Commentaries, Info Text And Much More. Starring Sylvester Mccoy And Sophie Aldred
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 story involves a rock drummer who accidentally kills a man and is drawn into a web of murder by a masked assassin who appears to have a vendetta against him.The first ever Blu-ray release of this cult giallo from Italy's Master of the Macabre, Dario Argento.
A precocious teenage daughter writes a steamy bestseller featuring fictionalised versions of her family and friends, turning their quiet suburban life upside down in the process when their neighbours believe that the book's contents are true! Ted Ray, Jean Kent, Leslie Phillips and Joan Sims star in this hilarious comedy from the quintessential Carry On team of writer Norman Hudis, producer Peter Rogers and Director Gerald Thomas. Based on the hit West End comedy Book of the Month, Please Turn Over is featured here as a High Definition remaster from original film elements in its theatrically exhibited aspect ratio.
David Lean's masterpiece based on Charles Dickins' timeless novel about Pip, a blacksmith's apprentice who suddenly comes into great fortunes.
Jules Dassin's 1954 film 'Rififi' was an instant success. Based on the novel of the same title 'Du Rififi Chez Les Hommes' by Auguste le Breton the film's use of hard-boiled slang and the gangster garb of trench coats top hats and a cigarette dangling from one corner of the mouth went on to become the emblems of Humphrey Bogart-style noir classics. Jean Servais is Tony le Stephanois a master thief with a battered face and a tubercular cough souvenirs of a recent stint in the pe
Helene Hanff (Anne Bancroft) and Frank Doel (Anthony Hopkins) are lifelong friends who never meet in 84 Charing Cross Road, a unique comedy-drama based on a true story. Hanff and Doel are separated by 3,000 miles of ocean and joined by a passion for old books. Their relationship begins when New- Yorker Hanff orders a copy of Pepys' diary. Doel, as polite and soft-spoken as Hanff is loud and overbearing, fields the request from the titular book shop in London. For the next two decades they correspond without ever actually sitting down for tea and crumpets. Director David Jones (Betrayal) does a reasonably good job of goosing a movie about something as un-cinematic as letter-writing, and the stars have fun chewing scenery on both sides of the Atlantic. The model for this kind of bittersweet relationship is David Lean's Brief Encounter, which, not coincidentally, is glimpsed here when Hanff steps out for a rainy-day matinee. --Glenn Lovell, Amazon.com
A French animated tale about Madame Souza, and her chubby young grandson Champion, who seems uninterested in all hobbies until he develops a passion for cycling and becomes so good he enters the Tour de France.
Welcome to Holmfirth, a breathtakingly beautiful village in the heart of the Holme Valley, home to our favourite idiosyncratic retired gentlemen. As they amble about the countryside, these unlikely lads are now enjoying a mischievous second childhood, devising and executing a multitude of (grey) hare-brained schemes. Which is just what you'd expect from Britain's oldest, if not wisest adolescents, and their equally eccentric fellow townspeople. Helped by a supporting band of formidable wives, hen-pecked husbands, sexually-charged mistresses, inventors, pigeon fanciers and balding lotharios, our three heroes are never far from one adventure or another. It'll end in trouble - especially when the formidable Nora Batty finds out.
Bresson achieves the pinnacle of his art in the tale of a gentle creature's journey through a cruel world. A profound masterpiece from one of the most revered filmmakers in the history of cinema, Au hasard Balthazar, directed by Robert Bresson (Pickpocket), follows the donkey Balthazar as he is passed from owner to owner, some kind and some cruel but all with motivations outside of his understanding. Balthazar, whose life parallels that of his first keeper, Marie, is truly a beast of burden, suffering the sins of humankind. But despite his powerlessness, he accepts his fate nobly. Through Bresson's unconventional approach to composition, sound, and narrative, this simple story becomes a moving parable about purity and transcendence. Special Edition Features: New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack Interview from 2005 with film scholar Donald Richie Un metteur en ordre: Robert Bresson, a 1966 French television programme about the film, featuring Bresson, filmmakers JeanLuc Godard and Louis Malle, and members of Balthazar's cast and crew Original theatrical trailer Plus: An essay by film scholar James Quandt
Enzo (Jean Reno L''on The Da Vinci Code) and Jacques (Jean-Marc Barr Breaking the Waves Dogville) have known each other for a long time. Their friendship started in their childhood days in the Mediterranean where they shared a love for diving. After Jacques' father dies in a diving accident the two lose contact. Now an adult Enzo is living in Sicily where for six years he has been the uncontested free diving world champion. He sends for Jacques who is living in the Peruvian Andes and insists that he competes for the title. Jacques comes to Sicily and easily beats Enzo. The competition mounts as each man dive at increasingly life-threatening depths. But when Jacques' girlfriend Johana (Rosanna Arquette After Hours Crash) arrives from New York and pleads for the risk-taking to stop events takes an unexpected turn leading to an unforgettably dark mysterious and torturously beautiful conclusion...
On June 6 1944 the Allied Invasion of France marked the beginning of the end of Nazi domination over Europe. The attack involved 3 000 000 men 11 000 planes and 4 000 ships comprising the largest armada the world has ever seen. Presented in its original black & white version 'The Longest Day' is a vivid hour-by-hour re-creation of this historic event. Featuring a stellar international cast and told from the perspectives of both sides it is a fascinating look at the massive
Disney's direct-to-video sequel to their 1995 hit places the Native American princess Pocahontas in harm's way in London, where she is almost tossed into jail and has some other mishaps. She's not alone, however: a cute racoon named Meeko does a nice job as the obligatory funny animal. The songs are about as memorable as those in the first film, but the art and animation maintain far higher standards than most animated sequels dumped onto tape. If you don't drive yourself nuts thinking about the appalling historical revisionism at work here, this is passable family entertainment. --Tom Keogh
Collection of 80 episodes from Britain's longest-running television soap covering the whole of the 1970s with eight landmark episodes selected from each year featuring favourite characters such as Elsie Tanner (Pat Phoenix) Ena Sharples (Violet Carson) Bet Lynch (Julie Goodyear) Hilda Ogden (Jean Alexander) Ken Barlow (William Roache) Mike Baldwin (Johnny Briggs) Deirdre (Anne Kirkbride) and Vera Duckworth (Elizabeth Dawn).
Though this film is a relatively minor one in the massive canon of Peter Sellers, it has moments of absolute hilarity. Written and directed by Blake Edwards, one of Sellers' most fertile collaborators, the film stars Sellers as a would-be actor from India (let them try to get away with that today) who is a walking disaster area. After ruining a day's shooting as an extra on a film, he finds himself unintentionally invited to a big Hollywood party. That's pretty much it as far as plot goes, but Edwards and Sellers know how to milk a simple idea for an unending string of slapstick gags. The result is a film that is episodic and sketchy but also frequently loony in an inspired way. --Marshall Fine
Acclaimed star Richard Dreyfuss gives the performance of a lifetime in this uplifting hit cheered by audiences everywhere! Glenn Holland is a passionate musician who dreams of composing one truly memorable piece of music. But reality intrudes when he reluctantly accepts a ""day job"" as a high school music teacher to support his family. In time however Mr. Holland realizes that his real passion is teaching and his legacy is the generations of young people he inspires. You're sure to
A film about society's attitude to sexuality, with a lighthearted dig at political correctness gone mad, The Closet is French farce in the tradition of Moliere: a man pretends to be something he's not, people begin treating him differently, his lie escalates out of all proportion, and comedy ensues. Francois Pignon (Daniel Auteuil) is a dull, divorced accountant in a French rubber-processing factory whose primary product is condoms. The morning of the company photograph he overhears he is going to be fired. After half-heartedly trying to kill himself, he meets his new next-door neighbour who suggests a plot that will keep him from losing his job: he should pretend he's gay, and the neighbour will doctor the photographs and send them to his boss to prove it. The comedy springs from people's reactions to Pignon's alleged homosexuality. The managing director puts him on a Gay Pride parade float with a condom on his head, his estranged son suddenly thinks he's cool, his female boss catches on to the scam and begins to think that Pignon is not as banal as she first thought, and the homophobic, macho personnel director--a great performance from Gerard Depardieu--discovers his sensitive side. It's well directed by Francis Veber (writer of the original Three Fugitives), who moves the gentle action along masterfully, providing some laugh-out-loud moments and getting some great performances from his ensemble cast. Overall, it's an uplifting comedy about prejudice and how a Mr Nobody becomes a somebody. --Kristen Bowditch
An HBO limited series focused on family and community, Mare of Easttown stars Kate Winslet as Mare Sheehan, a respected small-town Pennsylvania detective investigating a brutal local murder while also balancing her own personal life, which is rapidly falling apart around her.Considered a local hero for a game-clinching jump shot on her high school basketball team, Mare is the sole detective on her police force, which spends most of its time handling drug-related offenses. Behind the scenes, Mare is dealing with the unaddressed loss of her son, running a busy household filled with her mother, teenage daughter, and grandson, and an ex-husband who lives a stone's throw away with his new fiance.As pressure mounts to solve a missing person's case growing increasingly cold, the murder of a teen girl finds Mare obsessed with bringing the killer to justice in a town where everyone is a potential suspect.
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