"Actor: Ronald Squire"

• The Thirty Nine Steps | DVD | (15/01/2001) from £4.99   |  Saving you £5.00 (100.20%)   |  RRP £9.99

  It's not the 1935 Hitchcock classic, but this sturdy 1978 adaptation of John Buchan's The Thirty Nine Steps is still a rollicking good adventure. In keeping with the Boys' Own derring-do of the story (set in Edwardian London and the Scottish Highlands), the movie maintains a brisk pace that's interrupted only for tea or cocktails. Robert Powell is Richard Hannay, the man who unwittingly becomes embroiled in a dastardly Prussian plot to assassinate the Greek Prime Minister. Framed for murder, Hannay must flee to Scotland and attempt to clear his name whilst outwitting the prune-faced Prussian agents. Among all the deftly choreographed action sequences and careful period settings there's a strong vein of humour in the film, and if it wasn't for the numerous murders there would be little reason for PG certification. The grand dénouement comes with the realisation that the predicted time for the assassination is linked to Big Ben; unlike the earlier movie this version climaxes memorably with Powell hanging from the clock's minute hand. It might not be Hitchcock behind the lens, but it's still jolly good fun. --Joan Byrne

• Anastasia/Inn of the Sixth Happiness double pack | DVD | (02/06/2003) from £9.43   |  Saving you £5.56 (58.96%)   |  RRP £14.99

  An Ingrid Bergman double-bill comes to DVD with the classy pairing of Anastasia (1956) and The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958). In Anastasia Bergman gives one of her memorable, haunting and haunted performances as an amnesiac chosen by a White Russian general (Yul Brynner) in 1928 to play the part of the long-rumoured but missing survivor of the Bolsheviks' murderous attack on the Czar's family. The twist is that Bergman's mystery woman seems to know more about the lost Anastasia than she is told. Based on the play by Marcelle Maurette and Guy Bolton, this film--directed by Anatole Litvak (Out of the Fog)--really does get under one's skin, not least of all because of its intriguing story but more so as a result of the strong chemistry between Bergman and Brynner. --Tom Keogh The Inn of the Sixth Happiness is an epic and extraordinary true story--or, at least, an extraordinary story based on a novel (Alan Burgess's The Small Woman) based on a true story. Gladys Aylward (an improbably mesmerising Ingrid Bergman) is a British would-be missionary with an obsession about China. As she has no experience, the Missionary Society won't let her go, but she goes anyway, alone, to a remote northern province. She is hated, then loved; finally she becomes both a significant political figure and the heroine of a miraculous escape in which she shepherds 100 children to safety across the mountains just ahead of a Japanese invasion. Curt Jurgens is suitably stony as Lin Nan, the half-Dutch, half-Chinese military officer who falls in love with her, and a visibly ailing Robert Donat (who died before this, his final film, was released) is the wily local mandarin who sees and makes use of her extraordinary abilities. Directed by Mark Robson, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness is a sweeping, stirring tear-jerker, a big tale told in a big landscape with acres of orchestrated strings by Malcolm Arnold. It's a beautiful and beautifully made film that's a classic of the "everyone said I couldn't but I did it anyway" genre.--Richard Farr

• Dusty Ermine | DVD | (28/11/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Master forger Jim Kent (Ronald Squire), returning home from Wormwood Scrubs, finds his equally crooked nephew Gilbert (Arthur Macrae) has been inveigled into committing the same crime. Kent appoints himself the task of protecting his nephew from the Alpine international counterfeiting gang, but the undertaking is made more complicated when his niece Linda (Jane Baxter) falls in love with the young detective, Det. Insp. Forsythe (Anthony Bushell), in charge of investigations.

• Inn Of The Sixth Happiness | DVD | (18/04/2005) from £6.89   |  Saving you £6.10 (88.53%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Inspired by her dream to be a missionary an English parlour maid journeys to China and opens an inn for tired hungry mule drivers crossing desolate mountain trails. Gradually overcoming the natives hostility she wins the heart of an Eurasian colonel and converts a powerful Mandarin to Christianity. But her greatest feat is achieved during the Japanese invasion of China when she leads one hundred homeless children to safety across enemy-held terrain. Based on the life story of G

• Laxdale Hall / The Glen is Ours | DVD | (05/04/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Laxdale Hall a rarely seen British comedy receiving its first release to home entertainment is a 1952 film directed by John Eldridge and starring Ronald Squire Kathleen Ryan Raymond Huntley Prunella Scales Fulton Mackay Roddy McMillan Jameson Clark and Jean Colin with Rikki Fulton as a poacher in his first film role. The few residents of Laxdale who own cars are refusing to pay their road fund licence because of the poor state of the only road which links them to the rest of Scotland. A parliamentary delegation including Samuel Pettigrew M.P. (Raymond Huntley) and Andrew Flett (Fulton Mackay) is dispatched to the Scottish Highlands to quell the rebellion! Along the way they encounter resistance from school teacher Morag McLeod (Prunella Scales in her first film) and her roguish dad Roderick McLeod (Jameson Clark). With a brief appearance by Rikki Fulton in his film debut as a salmon poacher there's plenty of action and laughter. Filmed amongst the beautiful scenery of Applecross Laxdale Hall is not to be missed. Also features The Glen Is Ours (1946) a timeless parable of politicians at odds with the will of their electorate. Recently de-mobbed Hector Andrews takes to the hustings to stop Cadisburn Glen being sold and converted from a beauty spot into an amusement park. With Ealing stalwarts Edie Martin and Anthony Baird and Sheila Latimer recently seen in BBC Scotland's Still Game.

• Million Pound Note - Gregory Peck | DVD | (20/10/2008) from £10.91   |  Saving you £2.07 (26.14%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Two old, bored and fabulously wealthy brothers, Roderick and Oliver Montpelier, strike up a cruel wager. They draw up a currency note worth £1 million. Roderick believes it would be quite useless for any poor but honest man to use. Oliver however believes that - just by possessing the note and never cashing it - any man could live like a lord. To find out who is right, the two old millionaires pick on Henry Adams (Gregory Peck), a young and impoverished American hopelessly adrift in London. Will the £1 million pound note change his life for the better or the worse? This classic, sparkling comedy - an updated version of the riotous short story by Mark Twain - sees Gregory Peck giving one of his finest performances aided and abetted by a distinguished cast which includes Joyce Grenfell and Wilfrid Hyde White.

• Always a Bride | DVD | (07/01/2013) from £2.65   |  Saving you £10.34 (390.19%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Classic comedy directed by Ralph Smart. A close family bond allows Victor Hemsley (Ronald Squire) and his daughter, Clare (Peggy Cummins), to pose as husband and wife. Using this to their advantage, the pair perform an elaborate scam to yield money from other guests living in hotels throughout the Riviera. But when Clare meets British Treasury worker Terence Winch (Terence Morgan) her outlook changes. Seeking a life away from the scamming and scheming, Clare sees Terence as a way out, but before leaving for good she agrees to stage one more scam with her father. However, when their latest plan goes wrong and the pair then flee to Italy, Terence begins pursuing Clare for different reasons altogether.