"Actor: Max Ernst"

• The Odessa File | DVD | (08/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Originally released in 1974, The Odessa File is set in Hamburg a decade earlier. Its starting-point is the Nazi support network Odessa, and its involvement with Egyptian plans to destroy Israel. Peter Miller is a freelance journalist whose interest appears initially to be a professional one, before a personal dimension finally becomes apparent in his confrontation with SS Captain Roschmann. Kenneth Ross adapts a well-honed screenplay from Frederick Forsyth's bestseller, and director Ronald Neame captures a typically Cold War sense of individuals and organisations playing out a scenario of political right and wrong. John Voight, long before he became a cameo star, makes a sympathetic lead, able to judge between the moral and material aspects of his profession. Mary Tamm is photogenic, if uninvolving, as his girlfriend, while Maximillian Schell is a convincing Nazi stereotype. Andrew Lloyd-Weber contributes a serviceable score, centred on the catchy "Christmas Dream" sung by Perry Como. Not a classic suspense thriller, but an enjoyable and thoughtful one. On the DVD: the letterbox widescreen format preserves the 2.35:1 aspect ratio of the cinema release with decent if not exceptional clarity, with optional 16:9 TV enhancement. There are French, German, Italian and Spanish overdubs, and subtitles in 21 languages. Detailed filmographies for Neame, Voight and Schell are included and the theatrical trailer is to the point in a way they so rarely are these days. --Richard Whitehouse

• L'Age d'Or | Blu Ray | (30/05/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  More than 80 years on this masterpiece of cinematic surrealism remains as brilliantly witty and shocking as ever. Uniting the genius of Luis Buuel and Salvador Dal L'Age d'Or (1930) is a uniquely savage blend of visual poetry and social commentary. A sinister yet poignant chronicle of a couple's struggle to consummate their desire - the film was banned and vilified for many years for its subversive eroticism and furious dissection of 'civilised' values. Also includes Bunuel and Dali's surrealist masterpiece Un Chien Andalou (1928 16min) and A Propsito de Buuel (2000 103 mins) a documentary on the life and work of Luis Buuel by Jos Luis Lpez-Linares and Javier Rioyo.

• The Quiller Memorandum | DVD | (11/08/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  In West Berlin secret agent Quiller (Segal) is assigned to unmask the leaders of a suspected Neo-Nazi organisation. The last two men given this job have already been killed and the agent soon realises that he can trust no-one not even the people on his own side...