"Actor: Percy Herbert"

• The Bridge On The River Kwai | DVD | (04/12/2000) from £4.65   |  Saving you £18.34 (394.41%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Based on the true story of the building of a bridge on the Burma railway by British prisoners-of-war held under a savage Japanese regime in World War II, The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) is one of the greatest war films ever made. The film received seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Director, Performance (Alex Guinness), for Sir Malcolm Arnold's superb music, and for the screenplay from the novel by Pierre Boulle (who also wrote Monkey Planet, the inspiration for Planet of the Apes). The story does take considerable liberties with history, including the addition of an American saboteur played by William Holden, and an entirely fictitious but superbly constructed and thrilling finale. Made on a vast scale, the film reinvented the war movie as something truly epic, establishing the cinematic beachhead for The Longest Day (1962), Patton (1970) and A Bridge Too Far (1977). It also proved a turning-point in director David Lean's career. Before he made such classic but conventionally scaled films as In Which We Serve (1942) and Hobson's Choice (1953). Afterwards there would only be four more films, but their names are Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Dr Zhivago (1965), Ryan's Daughter (1970) and A Passage to India (1984). On the DVD: Too often the best extras come attached to films that don't really warrant them. Not so here, where a truly great film has been given the attention it deserves. The first disc presents the film in the original extra-wide CinemaScope ratio of 2.55:1, in an anamorphically enhanced transfer which does maximum justice to the film's superb cinematography. The sound has been transferred from the original six-track magnetic elements into 5.1 Dolby Digital and far surpasses what many would expect from a 1950s' feature. The main bonus on the first disc is an isolated presentation of Malcolm Arnold's great Oscar-winning music score, in addition to which there is a trivia game, and maps and historical information linked to appropriate clips. The second disc contains a new, specially produced 53-minute "making of" documentary featuring many of those involved in the production of the movie. This gives a rich insight into the physical problems of making such a complex epic on location in Ceylon. Also included are the original trailer and two short promotional films from the time of release, one of which is narrated by star William Holden. Finally there is an "appreciation" by director John Milius, an extensive archive of movie posters and artwork, and a booklet that reproduces the text of the film's original 1957 brochure. --Gary S Dalkin

• One Million Years BC | DVD | (13/11/2006) from £10.35   |  Saving you £2.64 (25.51%)   |  RRP £12.99

  This is the way it was.... Caveman Tumak is banished from his savage tribe. He finds a brief home among a group of gentle seacoast dwelling cave people until his unstable nature forces his banishment from them as well. Missing him one of their women Loana (Welch) leaves with him and the couple must survive the onslaught of giant reptiles before their love can be fulfilled...

• Sea Of Sand | DVD | (13/04/2015) from £5.96   |  Saving you £7.03 (117.95%)   |  RRP £12.99

  War drama starring Richard Attenborough, John Gregson and Michael Craig. Captain Williams (Gregson) is a martinet mine expert who undertakes to whip the hitherto lackadaisacal British Long Range Desert Group patrol into shape. This brings him into conflict with patrol leader Captain Cotton (Craig), but earns him the respect of hard-bitten trooper Brody (Attenborough). The wisdom of Williams' no-nonsense approach is demonstrated when the patrol is besieged by the highly-disciplined members of the German Afrika Korps.

• Doomwatch (Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (20/06/2016) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The mysterious island village of Balfe is experiencing unexplainable phenomena...from grossly oversized sea life to half-buried bodies in the dark woods to strange Neanderthal-like men suffering from a rare disfiguring disease. Is this town afflicted by radioactive waste contaminating their water? Is there a vengeful mutant monster lurking in the woods? Or worse, are the townsfolk being punished by an act of God for their past sins? It is up to Dr. Del Shaw and the dedicated scientists at Doomwatch headquarters to discover the cause of these horrific mutations. Infuriating local villagers who cling to their secluded island's survival, Dr. Shaw (Ian Bannen) and local school teacher Victoria Brown (Judy Geeson) risk their lives to uncover the truth behind the strange happenings, no matter how frightening or dangerous it may be. Based on the British television series of the same name, DOOMWATCH is a haunting telltale film that just might be hazardous to your health!

• The Worker | DVD | (28/05/2007) from £25.00   |  Saving you £14.99 (59.96%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Charlie (Charlie Drake) is keen to work for his living but unfortunately he's completely accident-prone. He's been visiting his local Labour Exchange regularly for over 20 years and has had nearly 1000 jobs. He managed to get himself sacked from every one of them within hours of starting. Episodes Comprise: 1. The Machinery Of Organisation 2. Out Of The Mouths Of Casual Labourers 3. The Mechanics Of Piecework 4. No Automation Without Representation 5. A Democratic Democratism 6. And Never The Twine Shall Meet 7. A Host Of Golden Casual Labourers 8. Eight And Thrupence 9. Little Tom 10. A Punting We Will Go 11. Through A Glass Darkly 12. The Man Who Moved His Head 13. I Just Don't Want To Get Involved 14. Hello Cobbler 15. You Have Enjoyed The Sweets Now You Must Suffer The Sours 16. The Siege Of Kidney Street 17. Now Is The Time For All Left Legs 18. When Adam Delved And Eve Span 19. A Change Is As Good As A Rest 20. Breed For Speed Breed Out For Stamina 21. Cough 22. The Saucerer's Apprentice 23. Ma Chandelle Est Morte 24. I Babble Babble As I Flow To Join The Brimming River 25. No Room At The Inn For The Odd Couple Up The Staircase

• Mysterious Island | DVD | (02/12/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Notable neither for its director nor its stars, Mysterious Island has been given the widescreen DVD treatment rather because of its special-effects man, the legendary Ray Harryhausen. And though his input here is minimal compared with other movies, his stop-motion contributions add zest to a cracking good yarn. A gang of American Civil War soldiers hijack a hot-air balloon and escape from the frying-pan of a military prison to the fire of a deserted tropical island. When a couple of English girls are washed ashore and a legendary nautical figure resurfaces, the scene is set for a ripping survival adventure, taking in weighty theories of political democracy, equality and cowardice, and still managing to add a healthy dollop of stirring music, dodgy accents, old-fashioned sexism, pirates, giant bees, a giant crab and a fearsome, err, giant chicken. Harryhausen's eighth feature contains all the elements that make his movies great, and the pacey script, based on the Jules Verne novel, has you gripped from the off. One of his more modern-feeling early films, the colour film stock, the exotic settings and wider stable of stars (black and English actors feature alongside a pre-Clouseau Herbert Lom) move it forward an era from his dated black-and-white schlock-fests. Gripping, erudite and easily on a par with the more well-known Sinbad and Argonauts movies, this is one to be marooned with. On the DVD: Mysterious Island's colour picture is bright, clean and crisp in this anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen transfer, and the Dolby digital mono soundtrack is clear enough. The theatrical trailer will please the kitsch fans, as will the featurette "This Is Dynamation" produced at the same time as the first Sinbad movie. The real corker here though is the generously lengthy documentary "The Harryhausen Chronicles". Narrated by Leonard Nimoy, it features a stellar cast of devotees (George Lucas among them) waxing lyrical about the influence of Harryhausen's films, and allows the man himself to ramble fascinatingly over clips of his filmic canon. If you're a fan, it's Harryhausen heaven. --Paul Eisinger

• Lee Van Cleef Super Box Set | DVD | (18/03/2002) from £33.73   |  Saving you £-1.74 (N/A%)   |  RRP £31.99

  Titles Featured: 'Bad Man's River' 'Blood Money' and 'Captain Apache'.

• One Million Years B.C. | Blu Ray | (24/10/2016) from £10.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  This spectacular prehistoric adventure was promoted as Hammer's 100th production and gave the world the iconic image of star Raquel Welch in a fur-lined bikini. The highlight of the movie was the stop-motion dinosaurs that were subsequently added by legendary special effects animator Ray Harryhausen. The result was Hammer's biggest commercial success, the most famous dinosaur epic until the release of Jurassic Park 26 years later.

• Alec Guinness - The Screen Icons Collection | DVD | (01/10/2007) from £24.89   |  Saving you £10.10 (40.58%)   |  RRP £34.99

  This box set contains the following films: The Last Holiday (Dir: Henry Cass) (1950): Alec Guinness plays a salesman of agricultural machinery who finds out that he hasn't long to live. He decides to enjoy his last months to the fullest. Kind Hearts And Coronets (Dir: Robert Hamer) (1949): Dennis Price plays Louis D'Ascoyne the would-be Duke of Chalfont whose mother was spurned by her noble family for marrying an Italian singer for love. Louis resolves to avenge his mother by murdering the relatives ahead of him in line for the dukedom all of whom are played by Alec Guinness! The Man In The White Suite (Dir: Alexander Mackendrick) (1951): Sidney Stratton (Alec Guinness) invents a new strong fibre which repels dirt and never wears out! He uses this material to make a brilliant white suit and attempts to sell his product to the textile industry. However all is not as it seems when those in the industry realise that Stratton's new fibre could mean the end of their livelihood - the race is on to catch Stratton! Captain's Paradise (Dir: Anthony Kimmins) (1953): Henry St. James is the Captain of an international ferry. He enjoys his life at Sea especially as he has a loving English wife waiting for him in Gibraltar and another in Tangiers! A perfect life - so long as neither woman decide to travel with him! Barnacle Bill (1957) A British Naval Captain who is plagued by incurable seasickness retires from service and buys a decrepit amusement pier in a small coastal town. After discovering the local commissioners seek to condemn and seize his pier Captain Ambrose must do all in his power to save his pier.

• Carry On Cowboy | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Made in the "classic" period of the series, 1966's Carry On Cowboy is a spoof Western set in Stodge City, about to suffer the arrival of black-hatted outlaw The Rumpo Kid, played by the less-than-youthful Sid James. Kenneth Williams is the aptly named Judge Burke, who appeals to Washington for help to combat this gunslinger and his henchmen. Assistance arrives in the form of Jim Dale's Marshall P Knutt, a drainage, sanitation and garbage expert from England, with a reference from Lady Pushing for doing a "good job on her main sludge channel", whose Christian name provokes a predictable misunderstanding. Fortunately, he's accompanied by Annie Oakley. As ever, much fun is to be had cheering/groaning along to double-entendres about "big ones", but never mind the script, feel the characters. Joan Sims does a good Mae West impression; Syd James "Ha hwa-ha-ha!"s his way through his part with his usual aplomb; the underrated Peter Butterworth is excellent as an inept Doctor; while Bernard Bresslaw adds to his impressively multi-ethnic CV, playing a Native American, with Charles Hawtrey as his incorrigible firewater-loving Chief. On the DVD: No extras, sadly, other than scene selection but Alan Hume's splendidly authentic colour lensing is suitably refurbished here. --David Stubbs

• Too Late The Hero | DVD | (08/04/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Set on a Pacific island in 1942, Too Late the Hero is a hard-as-nails "men on a mission" war movie: a group of British soldiers have to traverse the New Hebrides to destroy a Japanese radio transmitter, then get back to safety while being hunted all the way. Inevitably everything goes wrong, but director Robert (The Dirty Dozen) Aldrich turns the book of WWII movie clichés on its head and springs some unnerving surprises. Even the token American star, Cliff Robertson--echoing William Holden's grafted-on role in The Bridge on the River Kwai--proves less than obviously heroic, while an outstanding Michael Caine brings considerable depth to his usual cynical cockney. Henry Fonda gets heavily billed for a brief guest appearance, but there are star performances such fine British character actors as Denholm Elliot, Ian Bannen, Ronald Fraser and Lance Percival. This portrait of battle-worn men offers greater complexity than Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, while the jungle trek was more recently paralleled in Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line. Only the attitudes--more 1970 than 1942--detract from Aldrich's tellingly realistic vision, which with a thoughtfully ironic script and a succession of tense set pieces and brutal firefights, builds to a harrowing climax. On the DVD: The picture is presented at approximately 1.7:1, reformatted from the original 2.2:1 70mm theatrical presentation. Despite approximately 25 per cent of the original image being missing, this loss is only really noticeable in a few scenes. Apart from the occasional fleck, the print is in superb condition, and despite the lack of anamorphic enhancement the picture is sharp, detailed and has excellent colour. The surround sound (not mono as listed on the packaging) is highly effective, with the tension being increased by a considerable amount of the music coming from the rear speakers. The special features are simply a few static pages of biographical and production notes. --Gary S. Dalkin

• The Bridge On The River Kwai | Blu Ray | (04/12/2017) from £19.99   |  Saving you £3.00 (15.01%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Based on the true story of the building of a bridge on the Burma railway by British prisoners-of-war held under a savage Japanese regime in World War II, The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) is one of the greatest war films ever made. The film received seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Director, Performance (Alex Guinness), for Sir Malcolm Arnold's superb music, and for the screenplay from the novel by Pierre Boulle (who also wrote Monkey Planet, the inspiration for Planet of the Apes). The story does take considerable liberties with history, including the addition of an American saboteur played by William Holden, and an entirely fictitious but superbly constructed and thrilling finale. Made on a vast scale, the film reinvented the war movie as something truly epic, establishing the cinematic beachhead for The Longest Day (1962), Patton (1970) and A Bridge Too Far (1977). It also proved a turning-point in director David Lean's career. Before he made such classic but conventionally scaled films as In Which We Serve (1942) and Hobson's Choice (1953). Afterwards there would only be four more films, but their names are Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Dr Zhivago (1965), Ryan's Daughter (1970) and A Passage to India (1984). On the DVD: Too often the best extras come attached to films that don't really warrant them. Not so here, where a truly great film has been given the attention it deserves. The first disc presents the film in the original extra-wide CinemaScope ratio of 2.55:1, in an anamorphically enhanced transfer which does maximum justice to the film's superb cinematography. The sound has been transferred from the original six-track magnetic elements into 5.1 Dolby Digital and far surpasses what many would expect from a 1950s' feature. The main bonus on the first disc is an isolated presentation of Malcolm Arnold's great Oscar-winning music score, in addition to which there is a trivia game, and maps and historical information linked to appropriate clips. The second disc contains a new, specially produced 53-minute "making of" documentary featuring many of those involved in the production of the movie. This gives a rich insight into the physical problems of making such a complex epic on location in Ceylon. Also included are the original trailer and two short promotional films from the time of release, one of which is narrated by star William Holden. Finally there is an "appreciation" by director John Milius, an extensive archive of movie posters and artwork, and a booklet that reproduces the text of the film's original 1957 brochure. --Gary S Dalkin

• One Million Years BC | DVD | (29/07/2002) from £17.98   |  Saving you £-1.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  One Million Years B.C. might be about as palaeontologically accurate as The Flintstones, but it's still a lasting kitsch masterpiece, as much for Raquel Welch’s Amazonian presence in an abbreviated fur bikini as for Ray Harryhausen’s wonderful stop-motion dinosaurs. A rare big-budget venture from Hammer Films, this 1966 version of the 1940 Victor Mature classic One Million B.C. is set in a fantasised prehistory where Caucasian cavemen coexist with dinosaurs. Loana (Welch) of the Shell People teaches Tumak (John Richardson) of the Rock Tribe that harmonious cooperation on the beach is a better way of life than rule-of-the-mightiest savagery in caves. Every quarter of an hour, the gibberish-spouting ("Akita akita"), skin-wearing, remarkably clean cave folk are inconvenienced by special effects: a giant sea turtle, a hungry Allosaur, a Triceratops/Iguanodon battle, a Pterodactyl that wants to feed Raquel to its chicks, a major volcanic upheaval. Poster icon Welch gets stiff competition from a lithe Martine Beswick in a cat fight, and the camp goings-on are given real screen presence by gorgeous, primitive Canary Isles locations and an epic score from Mario Nascimbene. On the DVD: One Million Years B.C. arrives on DVD with minimal extras: a wonderfully ballyhoo-intensive trailer, plus nice little retrospective chats with Welch and Harryhausen. The picture is an anamorphic print of the original 1.85:1 ratio, and sound is Dolby mono.--Kim Newman

• Down the Gate | DVD | (08/07/2013) from £9.07   |  Saving you £3.92 (43.22%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The bustle and banter of London's iconic Billingsgate fish market provided the backdrop for Reg Varney's first sitcom following his phenomenal success in On the Buses. In the mid-Seventies, Billingsgate was Europe's premier fish market, its turnover running into the hundreds of tons: a muddle of boxes and barrows, merchants and white-smocked porters with their fish boxes perched precariously on their heads. East Ender Varney plays porter Reg Furnell, whose misadventures Down the 'Gate and be...

• Sea of Sand | DVD | (08/02/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Richard Attenborough John Gregson and Michael Craig star in this action packed British War Movie.A lone patrol from the British Long Range Desert Group are despatched on a vital mission behind enemy lines in North Africa. Their task - to destroy one of Rommel's fuel dumps and to bring back vital intelligence information.As they press home their attack the elite British unit encounters an unexpected force of Afrika Korps battle armour. They are faced with stark choice - to stand and fight against an overwhelmingly superior number of German Panzers or attempt to traverse a deadly minefield where every footstep could mean death.

• The Will Hay Collection | DVD | (11/08/2003) from £31.99   |  Saving you £18.00 (56.27%)   |  RRP £49.99

  The Will Hay Collection is a nine-disc box containing the following films: Ask a Policeman / Boys Will Be Boys Oh, Mr Porter! / Convict 99 Old Bones of the River / Where There's a Will Good Morning Boys / Hey! Hey! USA! Windbag the Sailor (exclusive to this box set): dating from 1936 this is the first film to unite Will Hay, Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt. The hapless trio find themselves as the crew of a decrepit ship.

• Fallen Angel | DVD | (29/03/2004) from £17.99   |  Saving you £2.00 (11.12%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Down on his luck Eric meets the wealthy June and formulates a plan to marry her then divorce her and steal her fortune that will enable him to live in comfort with Stella with whom he is in love. However when Stella is mysteriously murdered things start to go very wrong indeed...

• Doomwatch - Digitally Remastered | DVD | (20/06/2016) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Feature fi lm of the BBC TV series in which Dr Del Shaw (Ian Bannen) of Doomwatch - the British government's environmental monitoring organisation - travels to the island of Balfe to investigate pollution. A year earlier, an oil tanker's cargo contaminated the local waters - but has there been any adverse long-term effects - such as the villager menfolk transforming into near-neanderthals? Judy Geeson, Percy Herbert and George Sanders co-star.

• Quatermass 2 | DVD | (31/03/2003) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-4.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Quatermass is intrigued by strange images on his radar. Thinking them to be meteorites he follows them to a village which on his arrival he finds has been completely destroyed...

• Carry On Jack | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £4.50   |  Saving you £11.49 (255.33%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Carry On Jack was the 1963 offering from a team which had, by then, become a repertory company with special guests dropping in for a dose of innuendo. "What's all this jigging in the rigging?" demands Kenneth Williams, this time playing a ship's captain, and the scene is set for 90 minutes of ribaldry involving cross-dressing, press-ganging and plank walking. The plot scarcely matters. It's set after the Battle of Trafalgar and the sea is awash with Spanish galleons and pirates as the British navy sets about defending its shores with as much incompetence as possible. Sally, a barmaid at the Dirty Duck (Juliet Mills in feisty principal boy mode), knocks Bernard Cribbins on the head and steals his uniform so that she can go in search of her childhood sweetheart. He is promptly press-ganged and they end up on the same ship. Williams, on the brink of his ascendancy as a star turn, just about keeps the mannerisms under control enough to build the character of the naïve and neurotic captain. Familiar Carry On faces on top form include Charles Hawtrey and Jim Dale, while Peter Gilmore--in his pre-Onedin Line days--appears as a pirate. Peter Rodgers' script is not quite vintage Carry On but the jokes keep coming and it's all good, clean fun. On the DVD: This was one of the first Carry On films to be made in colour. The print is in reasonable condition. The picture quality, apart from a couple of scratchy scenes of sailing ships that were probably drafted in from stock footage, is fair, as is the sound. But apart from the scene index there are no extras on the disc. Given the cult status of the Carry On films, and the wealth of documentary material which has been made about them and their stars, you'd think something extra could have been offered with the DVD releases to make them a more worthwhile alternative to the video. --Piers Ford