Adapted from Arthur Pinero's relentlessly popular stage farce The Magistrate Those Were the Days was a perfect early vehicle for the comedic brilliance of Will Hay. Hay's feature-length debut is a typically entertaining study of the upstanding but ineffectual magistrate Mr Poskett while a youthful John Mills is the 20-year-old stepson who must pretend to be 15 to preserve the secret of his mother's falsified age; Angela Baddeley and veteran character-comedians Claude Allister H.F. Maltby and George Graves are among an impressive supporting cast. Presented in a brand-new digital transfer from the original film elements this rare cinematic gem - directed by former variety star Thomas Bentley - notably includes a wonderful evocation of the atmosphere of a 1890s music hall with Lily Morris and Harry Bedford among a number of leading acts featured. Special Features: Image Gallery Original Script PDF
George Winter a self-made businessman and MP lets nothing get in the way of his climb to the top. Certain in his belief in the corruptible and foolish nature of others whenever Winter meets a competitor who can't be bought he destroys the man through methods both legal and underhanded. Then he meets his 'tenth man': a victim who refuses to be silenced by threat or bribery with the power to bring Winter's house of cards crashing down around him... Brian Desmond Hurst directs this masterly adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's play which features a brilliant central performance by John Lodge as the ruthless investment broker who will stop at nothing to shore up his social and financial position with Antoinette Cellier as the woman he refuses to release from a loveless marriage. The Tenth Man is featured here in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio.
It would be easy to pass by this movie, based on Anna Sewell's famous novel Black Beauty, on the assumption that it's dated and twee. Well, perhaps it is a little, but the sheer quality of the whole enterprise places it in the front rank of children's cinema classics. Screenwriter Wolf Mankowitz's ability to harness both literary and popular techniques in the same work (also true of his written fiction) remains unsurpassed in this captivating tale of Beauty's eventful life, from being raised as a foal by the devoted Joe (Lester), then passing through the hands of various owners before being purchased by, supposedly, Miss Sewell herself, to be once more cared for by a now-adult Joe who is in her employ. Along the way, Beauty passes through the hands of gypsies, a circus owner, a family of aristocrats and is even ridden into war, with each episode being expertly cast (Mower is in particularly fine form as a mad, bad and dangerous army officer) and produced to the highest cinematic standards--even the exterior lighting is perfect. Absolutely recommended. The 4:3 DVD is a transfer of exceptionally high quality and includes the cinema trailer, an image gallery of stills and collector-enthusing promotional ephemera (presented in a thumb-saving slideshow format) and, rather incongruously, a trailer for Help! I'm a Fish!--Roger Thomas
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