"Actor: Roger Livesey"

• 3 Powell And Pressburger Films - A Matter Of Life And Death / Life And Death Of Col. Blimp | DVD | (20/10/2003) from £24.28   |  Saving you £-6.29 (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp: Drama about the life of Clive Candy an English soldier who served in three wars (Boer World War I World War II) and had relationships with three women along the way (each played by Deborah Kerr). Despite Candy's tours-of-duty he harbors no ill will towards the Germans instead he believes they have been the pawns of military leaders. Colonel Blimp an old befuddled British military officer reminisces about his past glories in this witty w

• Vice Versa | Blu Ray | (05/09/2022) from £14.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Roger Livesey and a very young Anthony Newley star as a Victorian father and son who accidentally swap bodies after a foolishly casual wish made in the presence of a magical Indian artefact! Written and directed by filmmaker, wit and reconteur Peter Ustinov, Vice Versa is featured here as a brand-new remaster from original film elements in its original theatrical aspect ratio. During a heart-to-heart with his son, pompous businessman Paul Bultitude envies his schoolboy son Dick's youth, while Dick wishes he were grown up. They both get what they wish for when, magically, the son becomes the father (and vice versa) - a situation that soon causes consternation and uproar! Product Features Image gallery The Strange World of Gurney Slade episode one Saturday Spectacular: an Anthony Newley variety show from early 1960 Limited edition booklet by Neil Sinyard

• Life And Death of Colonel Blimp, The / A Matter Of Life And Death | DVD | (17/03/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Two masterpieces of British cinema are paired here--Powell and Pressburger's first Technicolor triumph, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) and their even more ambitious A Matter of Life and Death (1946). Both pictures are transcendent examples of the filmmakers' craft, and remain models of great cinema long after their original wartime propaganda brief has expired. Based on a famously satirical cartoon strip that mocked outmoded attitudes of fair play at a time of "total war", Blimp subsequently became notorious as the film Churchill tried to have banned. Because the War Office objected to the screenplay, they refused to allow P&P's first choice for the role, Laurence Olivier, and the duo cast unknown stage actor Roger Livesey in his place. It is Livesey's sympathetic performance that transforms Clive "Sugar" Candy from an object of satire to one of warm affection, effectively reversing the film's intended message about old-fashioned decency versus wartime pragmatism. Anton Walbrook is a profound presence in a role that mirrored the actor's own plight as a German in Britain, while Deborah Kerr is a living leitmotif in the film, playing no fewer than three distinct but deliberately related roles. Briefed by the Ministry of Information to make a film that would foster Anglo-American relations in the post-war period, the duo, known as "the Archers", came up with A Matter of Life and Death, an extravagant and extraordinary fantasy in which David Niven's downed pilot must justify his continuing existence to a heavenly panel because he has made the mistake of falling in love with an American girl (Kim Hunter) when he really should have been dead. National stereotypes are lampooned as the angelic judges squabble over his fate. In a neat reversal of expectations, the heaven sequences are black and white, while earth is seen in Technicolor. Daring cinematography mixes monochrome and colour, incorporates time-lapse images, and even toys with background "time freezes" 50 years before The Matrix. Roger Livesey and Raymond Massey lead the fine supporting cast. On the DVD: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and A Matter of Life and Death are presented in reasonably sharp 4:3 ratio with good mono sound. Blimp comes with a 25-minute documentary feature that tells us nothing revelatory about making the film, but has good new interviews with cinematographer Jack Cardiff (then an apprentice) and eloquent admirer Stephen Fry. Text biographies and stills are also included. Life and Death has no extras. --Mark Walker

• The Master of Ballentrae | DVD | (23/08/2010) from £20.59   |  Saving you £-7.60 (-58.50%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Errol Flynn the greatest of the swashbuckling stars returns in The Master Of Ballentrae. Flynn stars as Ballantrae Castle's Jamie Durisdeer a herioc highlander-turned-pirate in this version of Robert Louis Stevenson's story. Declare your allegiance....or answer to his blade!

• The League Of Gentlemen | DVD | (26/01/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The League of Gentlemen is a sardonic crime drama in which Jack Hawkins plays an embittered retired army officer who recruits seven fellow ex-soldiers to carry out a bank raid with military precision. The film presents an England between post-war austerity and the more liberated 1960s where traditional moral certainties were rapidly being discarded; a London where ex-officers left on the scrapheap at war's end could justify turning their military experience to armed robbery. Unfortunately the tale is neither particularly amusing or thrilling, with an overlong central detour via an army camp prefacing the exciting heist and a largely anti-climactic ending. Nevertheless Hawkins effectively subverts his heroic officer type from The Cruel Sea (1953) and The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), and there's excellent support from a great cast including Nigel Patrick, Richard Attenborough and Roger Livesey. Bryan Forbes not only wrote the cynical screenplay but costarred with wife Nanette Newman in her first significant screen role. More influential than truly classic, The League of Gentlemen has lent its name to a modern BBC comedy, an "Extraordinary" comic strip-turned-movie, and proved the template for heist films ever since, including both versions of The Italian Job (1969 and 2003). On the DVD:The League of Gentlemen is presented in an anamorphically enhanced 16:9 transfer from an excellent condition print and mostly looks and sounds fine. There's minimal print damage, though sadly Philip Green's ironically patriotic main title music suffers from significant distortion. The only extra is the original trailer, which is now something of a period piece itself. --Gary S Dalkin

• The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp - Restoration Edition Metalpak (Blu-ray + DVD) | Blu Ray | (22/10/2012) from £29.68   |  Saving you £-7.69 (-35.00%)   |  RRP £21.99

  Drama about the life of Clive Candy, an English soldier who served in three wars (Boer, World War I, World War II), and had relationships with three women along the way (each played by Deborah Kerr). Despite Candy's tours-of-duty, he harbors no ill will towards the Germans, instead he believes they have been the pawns of military leaders. Colonel Blimp, an old, befuddled British military officer, reminisces about his past glories in this witty war satire.

• BRITISH COMEDY GREATS Book & DVD Set | DVD | (19/11/2012) from £8.08   |  Saving you £4.91 (37.80%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Follow the era of British Comedy Greats from the silent screen stars Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, to the modern day stand-ups Peter Kay and Michael McIntyre. When it comes to the great icons of comedy, Britain rules the airwaves, screen and stage. No other country in the world can boast such a pedigree of top comic entertainers and their legacy lives on through their recordings and films. From the silent screen stars Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, to the modern day stand-ups Peter Kay ...

• Espionage | DVD | (24/03/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Michael Powell: Espionage (ITC Series)