"Actor: Sandy Descher"

• Them | DVD | (05/07/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  An early entry in the 1950s cycle of creature-feature pictures, Them! is the one about hordes of ants mutated to a giant size by the first A-bomb test. An exciting, persuasive exercise in paranoid science fiction, it exhibits an interesting tension between cautious warning about irresponsible tampering with the atom and a Cold War vision of the authorities taking on extraordinary powers to combat a threat to the country. It begins as an eerie desert mystery, with New Mexico cop James Whitmore investigating disappearances and deaths: a mobile-home and a general store are crushed as if tanks have rolled over them, a shopkeeper is found dead of a huge injection of formic acid, quantities of sugar have been stolen (the film's sole straight-faced joke) and a catatonic little girl is shocked into shrieking "them, them!". FBI agent James Arness takes charge and a plaster-cast of a strange imprint summons a father and daughter investigative team from the Department of Agriculture, cherubic Edmond Gwenn and smart-suited Joan Taylor. Law-enforcement, military and scientific experts deduce the nature of the problem and take swift, decisive action to counteract the danger. Director Gordon Douglas stages several great monster-suspense scenes: a first encounter in a sandstorm, a venture into a poisoned nest, a glimpse of horror at sea, and a finale in the Los Angeles storm drains. On the DVD: Them! has the wonderful scarlet-lettered, shrieking title on an otherwise sharp-looking black and white print. An amusing newspaper-style menu uses original artwork from the lurid poster to showcase some interesting snippets of test or outtake footage of the big puppet ants in action, and there's a wonderfully overblown terror-trailer.--Kim Newman

• The Last Time I Saw Paris | DVD | (07/03/2005) from £4.67   |  Saving you £-0.68 (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  This tragic love story is brought to life with vitality and verve in this no expense spared lavish production. Van Johnson stars as a G.I. with literary ambitions who relocates to Paris after World War 2 and meets a wealthy American girl. They fall in love and settle down as he attempts to write his first novel. His work is not well received and he hits the bottle. The story follows Johnson to America and then back to Paris as the tragic tale of these two star-crossed lovers unfolds. Elizabeth Taylor was never more beautiful and both she and Van Johnson turn in superb performances.

• The Last Time I Saw Paris | DVD | (01/09/2003) from £8.20   |  Saving you £-1.22 (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

• The Last Time I Saw Paris | DVD | (12/01/2004) from £5.38   |  Saving you £-3.39 (N/A%)   |  RRP £1.99

  Based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald story this romantic epic stars Elizabeth Taylor and Van Johnson as two strangers who meet fall in love and marry in post-war Paris. Taylor represents the Ellswirth family: eccentric and free spending but seemingly always on the brink of bankruptcy. When she is unable to change her ways when married life becomes more difficult...

• The Last Time I Saw Paris | DVD | (17/05/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  This tragic love story is brought to life with vitality and verve in this no expense spared lavish production. Van Johnson stars as a G.I. with literary ambitions who relocates to Paris after World War 2 and meets a wealthy American girl. They fall in love and settle down as he attempts to write his first novel. His work is not well received and he hits the bottle. The story follows Johnson to America and then back to Paris as the tragic tale of these two star-crossed lovers unfolds.