Enrol at the wacky College of Lifemanship where a senior host of great British comedians teach a completely uproarious course on how to come out tops in any social situation! Study with Alistair Sim and learn his valuable hints on the art of comic One-upmanship. Follow his expert advice to victimised Ian Carmichael about romance fully equipped to cope with life's hilarious humiliations without really cheating. Based on the books by Stephen Potter.
Titles Comprise: Gunfight At The O.K Corral: Acclaimed actors Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas team up to rid Tombstone Arizona of the murderous Clanton gang in this all-star action-packed classic. When lawman Wyatt Earp (Lancaster) and gunfighter ""Doc"" Holiday (Douglas) ride into town they find themselves pitted against one of the biggest foes ever encountered in the form of Ike Clanton (Lyle Bettger) and his ruthless gang. It isn't long before the confrontation explodes into a survival-at-all-costs battle with Rhonda Fleming Jo Van Fleet John Ireland Dennis Hopper Deforest Kelley Martin Milner and Lee Van Cleef among those swept into the drama and excitement of one of the Wild West's most legendary events! Hud: Paul Newman is Hud a man at odds with his father tradition and himself. Hud's only interests are fighting drinking hot-rodding his Cadillac and womanising. Melvyn Douglas is the father an old-line cattle rancher and Patricia Neal is the understanding and appealing housekeeper. Academy Awards went to Patricia Neal Melvyn Douglas and James Wong Howe's brilliant cinematography. Once Upon A Time In The West: Sergio Leone's monumental epic 'Once Upon A Time In The West' ranks among the five or six all-time Western masterpieces. The picture itself is as big as its Monument Valley locations as grand as its fine distinguished cast. Henry Fonda plays the blackest character of his long career. He's Frank the ruthless murderous psychopath who suffers conscience pangs after annihilating an entire family. Jason Robards is the half-breed falsely accused of the terrible slaughter. Charles Bronson plays the harmonica playing man who remembers how his brother was savagely tortured. Brilliantly directed by Leone and accompanied by one of Ennio Morriconne's greatest scores this glorious picture helped re-establish the Western's significance. Watch out for that lengthy opening titles sequence...
In his penultimate film Gordon Harker heads a strong cast in a charming comedy charting the battle between the staff of a none-too-prosperous hotel and a supervisor eager to make some unpopular changes. Co-starring Marie Lohr John Loder and Billie Whitelaw Small Hotel is featured here in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements. The dining room of the Jolly Fiddler has long been presided over by Albert an aged but very shrewd waiter. A past master of the gentle art of fiddling he extracts the maximum profit from his job while managing to endear himself to both the customers and staff. Then there's a visit from Mr Finch. He thinks it's time Albert was replaced... Features: Original Theatrical Trailer
Brothers and sisters, can we get a witness for Elmer Gantry, a woeful tale of saints and sinners? Burt Lancaster earned his only Oscar as the wide-smiling, glad-handing, soul-saving charlatan Gantry, a salesman who turns his gift for preaching into a career at the pulpit. Climbing on board the barnstorming evangelical tour of revivalist Sister Sharon Falconer (Jean Simmons), Gantry declaims, invokes, and sermonises his way to the top, until a former flame-turned-prostitute (Shirley Jones in an Oscar-winning performance) threatens to reveal his dark past as a womaniser and con man. Lancaster harnesses all his physical vigour and natural charisma for this role, literally throwing himself into his preaching with the suppleness of an acrobat and the sing-song delivery of a gospel singer--he even brays like a hound to show the Holy Spirit within him. Gantry is a showman, pure and simple, and while he doesn't fool true-believer Sister Sharon, he gives her a few object lessons in playing the crowd. Director Richard Brooks, who also took home an Oscar for his screenplay (adapted from the Sinclair Lewis novel), creates a rousing drama both on and off the pulpit, and provides fine roles for an excellent supporting cast, including Arthur Kennedy, Dean Jagger, John McIntire, and singer Patti Page. --Sean Axmaker
John Huston (The Maltese Falcon) directed this smart thriller about a gangster (Edward G. Robinson) who holds a number of people hostage in a hotel on the Florida keys during a tropical storm. Humphrey Bogart is the returning war veteran who takes on the villains, and Lauren Bacall is on hand as one of the people on the wrong end of Robinson's gun. Somewhat similar in tone to Howard Hawks's To Have and Have Not (which also featured Bogart and Bacall), Key Largo is a moody movie which captures a certain despair offset by the bond between individuals united by common purpose. Claire Trevor won an Academy Award for her part as Robinson's alcoholic girlfriend. --Tom Keogh
Sandra Bullock is an FBI agent who goes undercover as Miss New Jersey at a national beauty pageant after a terrorist group threatens to bomb the event.
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.
John Simm and Jim Broadbent give compelling performances in this Paul Abbott-created Danny Brocklehurst-written claustrophobic drama about father-son relationships and many other things. The marvellous Olivia Colman provides fine support proving she does drama as brilliantly as comedy.
Herbie is back in gear - revved up and ready for more madcap comedy adventure in this sidesplitting sequel to Disney's smash hit The Love Bug. This time Herbie's leading lady is Helen Hayes. Aided by co-stars Ken Berry and Stephanie Powers she's out to save her beloved Victorian firehouse home from the wrecking ball of greedy real estate tycoon Keenan Wynn! It's up to Herbie and his bug battalion to save the day...
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
20 000 Leagues Under The Sea (Dir. Richard Fleischer 1955): An adventure based on Jules Verne's prophetic novel.... Climb aboard the Nautilus and into a strange undersea world of spellbinding adventure! Kirk Douglas Paul Lukas and Peter Lorre star as shipwrecked survivors taken captive by the mysterious Captain Nemo brilliantly portrayed by James Mason. Wavering between genius and madness Nemo has launched a deadly crusade across the seven seas. But can the captive crew expose his evil plan before he destroys the world? Disney's brilliant Academy Award-winning (1955) adaptation of Jules Verne's gripping tale makes 20 000 Leagues Under The Sea a truly mesmerizing masterpiece! Swiss Family Robinson (Dir. Ken Annakin 1960): A family fleeing from the despotic regime of Napoleon is chased off course by a band of pirates. They are then shipwrecked on a tropical island where they begin a new and adventurous life. Based on the book by Johann Wyss. One Of Our Dinosaurs (Dir. Robert Stevenson 1975): It's Nanny Hettie to the rescue when British Intelligence Agent Lord Southmere is captured by Chinese agent Hnup Wan. Hettie is the only one who knows Southmere's secret: he has stolen a piece of top-secret microfilm from a Chinese warlord and hidden it in the skeleton of a dinosaur in a London museum. Aided by a small army of fellow nannies Hettie saves the day by foiling Wan and his gang.
The West's most violent story... The West's most valiant hour! John Ford's criminally overlooked western (the first collaboration between Ford and James Stewart) finally makes its way to DVD for the first time! A group of children are held captive by the Indians. A Lieutenant enlists the help of a Texas Marshall in a rescue attempt. Based on the novel by Will Cook.
When John Travolta first opens his mouth during the opening credits of The General's Daughter and speaks in a terrible Southern cracker drawl, one briefly hopes the movie will turn out to be just as hilariously bad. Unfortunately, the accent is soon revealed to be part of a disguise, and the movie is just as quickly unveiled as a clumsy, run-of-the-mill potboiler, too mediocre to be truly hysterical fun. A female officer is discovered strangled and tied to the ground; she's the title character, and because of the general's political ambitions, the mystery of who did it and why has to be wrapped up in 36 hours by Travolta and fellow CID officer Madeleine Stowe (Last of the Mohicans, 12 Monkeys). Sexual violence and lurid S&M have been thrown in to shore up the incomprehensible plot, but that only adds to the queasy atmosphere. The supporting actors--an impressive collection including James Woods (Salvador), Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People), and James Cromwell (Babe, L.A. Confidential)--don't embarrass themselves, but even they can't make sense of their blustering, macho dialogue. It's amazing that, screenwriter William Goldman (who wrote such great and genuinely thrilling films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Marathon Man, All the President's Men and Misery) left his name attached to this script; there's no sign of his usual skill and intelligence. Madeleine Stowe, a graceful presence in any film, is equally wasted. It was directed with a lot of empty flash by Simon West (Con Air). --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com
Henry Fonda is the strict new commander of a frontier fort (Henry Fonda) who soon clashes with his more experienced second in command (John Wayne), jepordising the fragile peace with the native americans.
James Stewart and Walter Brennan are a loner and his sidekick who figure to get rich quick by selling a herd of cattle at a fancy price in this tale set in the wild gold rush days of Dawson Yukon Territory. They are soon caught up in a conflict with the local self-appointed lawman John McIntire and his claim-jumping henchmen. When Brennan is killed Stewart is forced to put an end to rampant lawlessness in a guns-blazing climax. Ruth Roman plays a saloonkeeper who falls for Stewart. Also stars Steve Brodie Jack Elam Jay C. Flippen Kathleen Freeman Chubby Johnson Henry Morgan and Robert Wilke. Anthony Mann directed the film which was shot on location in Jasper National Park Alberta Canada.
One of the greatest music and dance stars in the history of motion pictures Fred rose from a fairly inauspicious start where a studio exec remarked: ""Can't sing. Can't act. Slightly balding. Can dance a little."" Well his career and achievements speak for themselves. A remarkable talent this box set features 4 of his most-loved films. You'll Never Get Rich (Dir. Sidney Lanfield 1941): After his wife discovers a telltale diamond bracelet impresario Martin Cortland tries to
One of the all time classic Westerns - considered by many to be the movie that propelled John Wayne to stardom back in 1939. The film is set against the impressive backdrop of Monument Valley in Utah and tells the story of a mixed group of travellers who are making their way across country to Arizona. They are endangered by an Indian War Party and this along with their various characters results in difficulties for the party...
Two of the most popular stars in screen history are brought together for the first time in the follow up to True Grit. The film returns John Wayne to the role of the rapscallion eye patched whiskey guzzling Deputy Marshall that won him an Academy Award. Katharine Hepburn is prim Eula Goodnight a Bible thumping missionary who teams up with the gun fighter to avenge the death of her father. While in pursuit of the outlaws a warm rapport develops between the rough n' tumble lawman and the flirty reverend's daughter.
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
The war is over. Nobody won. Only the inhabitants of Australia and the men of the U.S. submarine Sawfish have escaped the nuclear destruction. Captain Dwight Towers (Gregory Peck) takes the Sawfish on a mission to see if an approaching radiation cloud has weakened but returns with grim news: the cloud is lethal. With the days and hours dwindling each person confronts the grim situation in his or her own way as the final chapter of human history is coming to a close...
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