"Actor: Marvin Hayes"

• Cliff Richard DVD Collection - The Young Ones / Summer Holiday / Wonderful Life | DVD | (05/08/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The three nostalgic British musicals in the Cliff Richard DVD Collection are a good reminder that, thanks to a few short years in the 1960s, Sir Cliff can legitimately include "film star" on his already exceptional show business CV. The Young Ones (1961), Summer Holiday (1963) and Wonderful Life (1964) would make tame fare for a teen audience today, but they retain a polished and honest charm which might surprise the sharpest of cynics. First and foremost, of course, they were Cliff Richard vehicles: designed to showcase his all-round talents and capitalise on his first, heady wave of pop chart success. They are also unashamed homages to the heyday of the MGM B-musical with familiar themes: let's put on a show/save the youth club/make a film. But with up-and-coming directors Sidney Furie and Peter Yates making imaginative and sophisticated use of wide-angle camera work and fresh, snappy choreography by Herbert Ross and Gillian Lynne, they also have plenty of assets other than Cliff's wholesome appeal. There are some fine set pieces and surreal flashes, notably the history of cinema in Wonderful Life and the extraordinary mime sequence in Summer Holiday. They also tap into the very British energy of a group of young actors and dancers including Una Stubbs, Susan Hampshire, Melvyn Hayes and Richard O'Sullivan, as well as Cliff's band at the time, The Shadows. For sheer verve, they deserve to be seen on their own merits. On the DVD: The Cliff Richard DVD Collection has been pristinely restored; the colours and clarity, not to mention the use of Cinemascope, leap off the screen (aspect ratio 2.35:1). The mono soundtrack recreates the authentic bandbox sound of the 1960s. Aside from theatrical trailers, the most notable extras are directors' commentaries: actually Furie and Yates in occasionally long-winded conversation with film and music writers. Both men give fascinating insight into the film-making climate in Britain in the early 1960s.--Piers Ford

• Carmen Jones | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £5.32   |  Saving you £14.67 (275.75%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Few actresses have dominated the camera as powerfully as Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones. Her polished beauty plays in irresistible contrast to her title character's leonine sexuality and fluid emotions; a man can't decide from moment to moment if he wants to save her from doom, build her a castle, or never let her out of bed. Of course, that's the problem with the boys in this semi-experimental adaptation of Bizet's opera, Carmen. Straight-arrow Joe (a strapping Harry Belafonte), an obedient corporal on a southern military base during World War II, is all set to go to flight school and marry his hometown sweetie, Cindy Lou (Olga James), when his troublemaking sergeant orders him to accompany Carmen to a civilian court. In short order, Joe is swept up in Carmen's carnal anarchy and her craving for release from lousy options in life. An impulsive act of violence ensures that Joe's future is gone forever, putting Carmen in the difficult position of destroying their relationship to save him. Oscar Hammerstein II took Bizet's music in 1943 and rewrote the book and lyrics. The result is largely a smashing success with a few missteps (the bullfighter in Bizet's piece becomes a heavyweight boxer here, which breaks up a certain grace in the story) and a couple of perfect stretches (the long prelude to Carmen and Joe's first embrace, set on Carmen's hoodoo-ish home turf). Despite the fact that both Dandridge and Belafonte were singers, their vocal performances were dubbed by LeVern Hutcherson and Marilyn Horne. (Yes, it is a little disconcerting to hear another voice coming out of the more familiar Belafonte's mouth.) Otto Preminger directed with his usual eye on economy of action and production, as the numerous musical numbers tend to be shot in lengthy, single, carefully choreographed takes. The result can be a little visually static at times, but the passion behind the singing pulls everything through.--Tom Keogh