Based on the best-selling anthologies of Victorian and Edwardian detective fi ction, The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes features the world-famous consulting detective's fictional rivals in the fog-shrouded crime capital of London. Set in the three decades before the Great War, each story dealt with an individual and perplexing case (and a different detective). This top-flight, BAFTA-winning series attracted an incredible array of talent, including John Neville, Robert Stephens, Peter Vaughan, Roy Dotrice, Donald Pleasence, Ronald Hines, Peter Barkworth and Donald Sinden. This set contains the 13 high quality episodes that made up the complete first series
!Broadcast in the dying hours of Christmas Eve, the BBC's A Ghost Story for Christmas series was a fixture of the seasonal schedules throughout the 1970s and spawned a long tradition of chilling tales, which terrified yuletide viewers for decades to come. This much-requested release gives four landmarks of the series their Blu-ray debut, having been newly remastered by the BFI from original film materials. All based on classic short stories by acclaimed writer MR James, his atmospheric settings and creeping unease are eerily realised in these seminal dramas that unleash evil spirits that will haunt and unnerve. The Films: Whistle and I'll Come to You (1968), The Stalls of Barchester (1971), A Warning to the Curious (1972), Lost Hearts (1973) Extras Presented in High Definition (Limited Edition) Whistle and I'll Come to You (2010, 52 min): John Hurt stars in this more recent reinterpretation of MR James' chilling tale Newly recorded commentaries on Whistle and I'll Come to You (1968) and The Stalls of Barchester by Jon Dear Lawrence Gordon Clark introductions (2012, 33 mins): introductions to The Stalls of Barchester, A Warning to the Curious and Lost Hearts previously recorded for the BFI's DVD release Ramsay Campbell on MR James (2001, 16 mins) Jonathan Miller and Christopher Frayling discuss Whistle and I'll Come to You (2012, 3 mins) Neil Brand reads MR James' Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You My Lad (2001, 42 mins, audio only) Ramsey Campbell reads his own MR James-inspired story The Guide (2001, 27 mins) Ghost Stories for Christmas with Christopher Lee: The Stalls of Barchester and A Warning to the Curious (2000, 60 mins total) **LIMITED EDITION ONLY** Illustrated booklet with essays by Reggie Oliver, Jonathan Rigby, Adam Easterbrook and Ramsey Campbell Newly commissioned sleeve art by Matt Needle Other extras TBC
If Franz Kafka had been an animator and film director--oh, and a member of Monty Python's Flying Circus--Brazil is the sort of outrageously dystopian satire one could easily imagine him making. In fact it was made by Terry Gilliam, who is all of the above except, of course, Franz Kafka. Be that as it may, Gilliam captures the paranoid-subversive spirit of Kafka's The Trial (along with his own Python animation) in this bureaucratic nightmare-comedy about a meek government clerk named Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) whose life is destroyed by a simple bug. It's not a software bug but a real bug (no doubt related to Kafka's famous Metamorphosis insect) that gets squashed in a printer and causes a typographical error unjustly identifying an innocent citizen, one Mr Buttle, as suspected terrorist Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro). When Sam becomes enmeshed in unravelling this bureaucratic tangle, he himself winds up labelled as a miscreant. The movie presents such an unrelentingly imaginative and savage vision of 20th-century bureaucracy that it almost became a victim of small-minded studio management itself--until Gilliam surreptitiously screened his cut for the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, who named it the best movie of 1985 and virtually embarrassed Universal into releasing it. --Jim Emerson On the DVD: Brazil comes to DVD in a welcome anamorphic print of the full director's cut--here running some 136 minutes. Disappointingly the only extra feature is the 30-minute making-of documentary "What Is Brazil?", which consists of on-set and behind-the-scenes interviews. There's nothing about the film's controversial release history (covered so comprehensively on the North American Criterion Collection release), nor is Gilliam's illuminating, irreverent directorial commentary anywhere to be found. The only other extra here is the ubiquitous theatrical trailer. A welcome release of a real classic, then, but something of a missed opportunity. --Mark Walker
Episodes: Crocodile Tears Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Abide with Me The Weekend The Hostage The Path of True Love But Is It Art? A Christmas Story Speed's Return Rebel Without a Pause The Tooting Connection Working Class Hero Spanish Fly Right to Work Rock Bottom.
'When you chase war long enough, war eventually chases you'. Shooting Robert King is the astounding story of war photographer Robert King, a nave rookie correspondent hungry for his first war. Filmed over 15 years and across 3 warzones, Robert King's story begins in Bosnia where he comes under sniper fire and mortar attack while moving towards the front line of battle. As the film moves to the theatres of war in Chechnya and Iraq his incredible and horrifying journey is bought shockingly to life through dramatic front line footage, bewildering photography and mesmerising action.
Set in Dublin's violent underworld the multi-award winning Irish series Love/Hate is a hard-hitting and unflinching look at the lives and loves of the young criminals who work in the city's drug gangs - the pressures they are under the dangers they face and the innocent lives they destroy. Featuring outstanding performances from Robert Sheehan (Misfits Red Riding Trilogy) Aidan Gillen (The Wire The Dark Knight Rises) Ruth Negga (Shirley World War Z) and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor (Becoming Jane).
Rivals Of Sherlock Holmes: Series 1 (4 Discs)
All four series of the classic BBC comedy starring Robert Lindsay as revolutionary leader Wolfie Smith of the Tooting Popular Front. Hoping to emulate his icons, Wolfie forms the TPF with a small group of his friends. However, he soon finds himself struggling to get his ambitious plans off the ground due to his laid back attitude and lack of organisation. Series 1 episodes are: 'Pilot', 'Crocodile Tears', 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner', 'Abide With Me', 'The Weekend', 'The Hostage', 'The Path of True Love', 'But Is It Art?' and 'A Story for Christmas'. Series 2 episodes are: 'Speed's Return', 'Rebel Without a Pause', 'The Tooting Connection', 'Working Class Hero' and 'Rock Bottom'. Series 3 episodes are: 'Spanish Fly', 'Don't Look Down', 'Only Fool and Horses...', 'The Big Job', 'Tofkin's Revenge', 'We Shall Not Be Moved', 'The Party's Over' and 'The Glorious Day'. Series 4 episodes are: 'Bigger Than Guy Fawkes', 'Changes', 'The Final Try', 'The Letter of the Law', 'Prisoners', 'Casablanca Was Never Like This', 'Sweet Sorrow' and 'Buon Natale'.
Set in the Second World War when Nazi Germany occupied Italy. This film deals with the Vatican's involvement in the entire movement during the occupation of Rome.
Released to mark the 40th anniversary of her death in 1962, The Diamond Collection brings together all of Marilyn Monroe's films for 20th Century Fox. This handsome box set stands as a salutary reminder of the considerable achievements of an actress who still reigns supreme as the greatest screen goddess of them all. The uninitiated might be surprised at the versatility of someone whose legend is founded so much on her image as a sex symbol. In particular, her touching performance as the abused second-rate bar singer Cherie in Bus Stop (1956) is a rounded study of a woman still capable of dreaming when life has done everything to dull her. The box set as a whole offers plenty of evidence that while she certainly specialised in a unique and complex variation on the blonde bombshell stereotype--embodied in her timeless performances as Lorelei Lee (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes) and short-sighted Pola in How to Marry a Millionaire, both 1953--she could certainly diversify. The documentary, Marilyn Monroe: The Final Days, provides a sympathetic take on the troubles and behaviour which led to her being sacked from her final picture, Something's Got to Give. The presentation of the restored footage from that movie is less successful, though, as the glimpses of Monroe's incandescent screen presence, belying her illness and depression, leave a palpable sadness in their wake. Better by far to focus on her earlier work. Whatever the role, her luminous beauty and statuesque figure, combined with an unselfconsciously joyful sexuality and an on-screen vulnerability, were always at their best under the careful guidance of directors like Billy Wilder and Otto Preminger. These qualities continue to give her an enduring appeal. On the DVD: The Diamond Collection has been digitally restored using, for the most part, the original negatives, making this a sumptuous package for any Monroe fan. Niagara and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes are both presented in standard 4:3 ratio but the rest--filmed in Cinemascope and presented here in letterbox format--are certainly better-served by widescreen viewing. The colours, like Monroe, come alive. The sound quality is crisp and Monroe's singing--she had limited but genuine musical talent--has polished up well. Multiple extras include before-and-after restoration comparisons, trailers from various countries, stills and posters, and newsreel footage. Eleven discs of Marilyn in one box, this is a veritable feast indeed. --Piers Ford
As a Christmas treat in the late 1960s and 70s, the BBC produced adaptations of ghost stories based on the works of MR James, the Cambridge academic and author of some of the most spine-tingling tales in the English language, which were broadcast to terrified viewers in the dead of winter. This was a tradition that was briefly revived by the BBC between 2007 and 2010.These adaptations, which have a subtlety and style all of their own, have been a major influence on many contemporary British horror filmmakers and have come to be some of the most sought after British TV titles of all time by their legions of eager fans.Volume Two of the BFI's BBC Ghost Stories collection includes the DVD premiere release of 1971's The Stalls of Barchester, starring Robin Hardy, and 1972's A Warning to the Curious (previously released on DVD by the BFI), starring Peter Vaughan.
This Hitchcock thriller is mainly famous for its climax, which finds the villain (Norman Lloyd) hanging by his sleeve from the torch on the Statue of Liberty as the seam begins to unravel. Otherwise, it's not one of the director's great pictures, though it's still worth a look. Set during the initial stages of World War II, the story concerns a ring of Nazi fifth columnists who plot to weaken American military defences by blowing up a munitions factory, a dam and a battleship. In an early example of Hitchcock's celebrated "wrong man" theme, the hero Barry Kane (Robert Cummings) gets falsely accused of sabotage and becomes a fugitive, hunted from coast to coast. Eventually, he hooks up with the heroine Pat Martin (Priscilla Lane), a super-patriot who takes some convincing of his innocence and plans to turn him in--until the inevitable chemical reaction occurs. It's a highly episodic tale that may put you in mind of Hitchcock's previous The 39 Steps (1935) and his later North by Northwest (1959).The miscellaneous incidents (a shoot-out at a cinema, a bizarre encounter with the freaks in a circus troupe) are often exciting in themselves. The trouble is they just sort of lie there like so-many scattered marbles, never building into a coherent and satisfying whole. The bland dialogue supplied by novice screenwriter Peter Viertel doesn't help matters much. Neither does the casting of the two stars, square, wholesome types, entirely lacking in the perversity and eccentricity one associates with the Hitchcock universe. (It's tedious to hear Lane endlessly mouthing off about the American way, while Cummings must be counted one of the dullest leading men in Hollywood history.) Still, this half-hearted effort by the pot-bellied master of suspense would probably make the reputation of a dozen lesser directors. --Peter Matthews
Face: At thirty five Ray's learned the tricks and done the time. Now he's a face - a villain to be reckoned with and definitely not to be crossed - ready for the blag the big score that'll really set him and his team up. Although the job goes smooth and sweet the take doesn't scratch the three million the gang had it figured for. And when somebody starts thieving from the thieves and people start getting blown away Ray's got some serious thinking to do before the traitor -
Based freely on the classic novels by C.S. Forester, Hornblower is a series of TV films following the progress of a young officer through the ranks of the British navy during the Napoleonic Wars. The series greatest asset is the handsome and charismatic Ioan Gruffudd in the lead role, surely a major star in the making. For television films the production values are very good, though as Titanic, Waterworld and The Perfect Storm demonstrated, filming an aquatic adventure is a very expensive business, and it is clear that the Hornblower dramas simply make the best of comparatively small budgets. No more faithful to Forester's books than the 1951 Gregory Peck classic Captain Horatio Hornblower, the real inspiration seems to have come from the success of Sharpe, starring Sean Bean, which likewise featured a British hero in the Napoleonic Wars. Nevertheless, while rather more easy going than the real British navy of the time, the Hornblower saga delivers an entertaining adventure, greatly enhanced by the presence of such guest stars as Denis Lawson, Cheri Lunghi, Ronald Pickup and Anthony Sher. "The Frogs and the Lobsters" provides a tough, complex and surprisingly violent drama concerning an attempt to mount a royalist counter-offensive against Revolutionary France.--Gary S Dalkin
There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow between science and superstition and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area we call...The Twilight Zone! Episodes comprise: 1. Two 2. The Arrival 3. The Shelter 4. The Passerby 5. A Game of Pool 6.
Timecop Set in the year 2004 where time travel is a reality and a new breed of crime has emerged. It is now possible to alter history and the Time Enforcement Commission has ruled that no-one goes back in time. But someone has broken the rule and Timecop Max Walker must prevent a change in history - and prevent the murder of his wife... Cyborg 1 When a mysterious package arrives on his doorstep Jack Ryan a former member of the DEA immediately suspects that something is wrong. He discovers that the package contains a plea for help from his brother Phillip on a DEA assignment on the Caribbean Island of St. Keith. Cyborg 2 The new generation of Cyborgs are more lethal powerful dangerous and smarter than the computers that programmed them. So intelligent they are capable of regenerating themselves without human control - a chilling prospect for the civilized world. Cyborg 3 Enter the dark world of sythentic humanoids where ruthless recyclers scavenge cyborg parts and sell them to the highest bidder. Moon 44 The year is 2038. Giant intergalactic corporations have taken control of the universe locked in a ruthless battle for planets where men and robots mine the priceless chemicals that are now Earth's only source of fuel. Space pirates are systematically hijacking the vital space shuttle from the moon 44 mining base which is also the location of an experimental defence programme using highly advanced helicopter gunships. It is undercover investigator Felix Stone's task to hunt down the hijackers. But if Moon 44 base is attacked the orders are to sacrifice the men and save the robots. Apex Black Moon Rising Tommy Lee Jones is Quint a shrewd and tough professional thief working for the government. He has hidden a computer disc containing vital evidence in a sleek fast prototype automobile which is stolen by a sophisticated car theft ring in Los Angeles. Quint the owners of the car and the killers who want the disc back are forced into a high-risk raid on the impenetrable fortress of the car thieves in this taut action-filled suspense adventure. Earth Alien Salena Incident Roswell was just the beginning... During a routing transport exercise a group of prisoners overpower their guards and take them captive. But their well executed escape plan turns into something far more menacing. When they enter the supposedly peaceful town of Salena the prisoners and guards are faced with an alien threat far more powerful than anything imaginable! The Sender
'Save Yourself...No One Can Hear You Scream'. Janet Pendleton arrives at Ravens-croft Reform School to teach Science but discovers macabre goings-on especially to wayward girls. Suffering hallucinations of someone being bricked-up behind a wall she seeks the help of the School Doctor only to discover he was once a patient at the School when it was an asylum...
Shooting Robert King
An intelligence officer working for the United Nations is sent to investigate events surrounding some of the world's leaders. He discovers a plot by former Nazi scientists who are intending replacing the leaders with brainwashed clones in order to return the Third Reich to power.
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