"Actor: Sidney"

• Carry On Up The Jungle | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Carry On Up the Jungle has worn less well than some of the others in the series, simply because the African exploration genre it parodies--with its cannibals, great white hunters and lost Amazon tribes--is so entirely out of fashion. Still, Frankie Howerd made so comparatively few films that one which has him as an ornithologist searching for rare birds in the company of Joan Sims and Sid James is not going to be entirely without interest; he has few great moments here, but runs through his usual repertoire of groans and horse-faced sorrowful expressions with brio. The idea of Terry Scott playing Tarzan is in itself such a good joke that it hardly matters that most of what follows is him swinging, on ropes, into obstacles. On the DVD: The DVD has no special features whatever. It is presented in 1.77:1 ratio with mono sound. --Roz Kaveney

• In The Heat Of The Night | DVD | (03/02/2003) from £6.48   |  Saving you £9.51 (146.76%)   |  RRP £15.99

  This 1967 film took home lots of Oscars for its fascinating drama about a Philadelphia detective (Sidney Poitier) who assists a redneck Southern sheriff (Rod Steiger) in solving a murder. A study in racism that ebbs a bit through the collective and shared need between a black man and a white man who don't want to be working together, In the Heat of the Night continues to strike a chord today. Steiger is a mass of snarling danger, Poitier a bundle of nerves covered in class. Norman Jewison (Moonstruck) directs with a keen feeling for the cultural and social atmosphere of the setting. --Tom Keogh

• Carry On Loving | DVD | (07/07/2003) from £11.27   |  Saving you £1.72 (15.26%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Setting a Carry On film in a marriage bureau has a certain self-serving obviousness, so it's hardly surprising that Carry On Loving milks the idea for all it's worth. The Wedded Bliss Agency is of course a pretty dubious outfit, being run by Sid (James) and Sophie Bliss (Hattie Jacques), who together are the worst possible example for both marriage and their own profession: they constantly snipe at each other, they aren't actually married and their sophisticated computer matching system is in fact a complete fake. The remainder of the team are mostly cast as hapless clients, with predictable but often very funny situations arising from the various mismatches engineered by the agency, such as the inevitable misunderstanding over one client's interest in modelling. Yes, the humour is about as subtle as a flatulent elephant, but you can't help entering into the spirit of the thing. If there's an outstanding performance it has to be that of Imogen Hassall, who handles her transformation from round-shouldered frump to well-bred love goddess with considerable expertise and a genuine sense of fun. --Roger Thomas

• Dungeons And Dragons - Vol. 1 | DVD | (10/05/2004) from £14.98   |  Saving you £-8.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  After taking a ride of the 'Dungeons And Dragons' attraction at their local theme park a group of kids are thrust into an unusual world and given magical weapons which they must use to try and find their way home ever pursued by the evil villain Venger... Episodes comprise: 1. The Night Of No Tomorrow 2. The Eye Of the Beholder 3. The Hall Of Bones 4. Valley Of The Unicorns 5. In Search Of The Dungeon Master 6. Beauty And The Bogbeast 7. The Prison Without Walls

• Too Many Crooks | DVD | (27/05/2002) from £4.99   |  Saving you £5.00 (100.20%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Too Many Crooks (1958) boasts an intricate plot in which Terry Thomas is being blackmailed for the hoards he's stashed away as a renowned tax dodger. Driving around in a Jaguar XK 150, a desirable sports car of the period, his intricate private life unravels as his put-upon wife, Brenda de Banzie, draws on her expertise as a wartime PT instructress to turn the tables on him by marshalling the support of a band of crooks (George Cole, Sidney James, Bernard Bresslaw and Joe Melia). Look out for the very funny court scene, where TT makes three appearances on separate charges before a bemused magistrate, John Le Mesurier. On the DVD: Too Many Crooks is in 4:3 ratio and has a mono soundtrack. The only extra feature is a trailer. More TT tomfoolery can be found in the three-disc Terry Thomas Collection. --Adrian Edwards

• Carry On Cleo | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £5.99   |  Saving you £11.00 (183.64%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Ninth entry in the Carry On series. Ancient British slaves save Caesar (Kenneth Williams) from assassination in Rome 50 B.C. Meanwhile Mark Antony (Sid James) romances Egyptian Empress Cleopatra (Amanda Barrie). Revolting Britons include Kenneth Connor and Charles Hawtrey while Warren Mitchell plays a partner in the slave-trading firm Markus & Spencius.

• The Jackal | DVD | (03/09/2001) from £16.04   |  Saving you £3.95 (19.80%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Jackal is filmmaking by numbers: take two huge stars, Richard Gere and Bruce Willis, and pit them opposite each other in a plot that's already been audience tested. That director Michael Caton Jones' film is based not on Frederick Forsyth's novel but on the script for the 1973 original starring James Fox is the first clue that something here is amiss. Fred Zinneman's The Day of the Jackal was a genuinely taut and claustrophobic thriller; the remake is like a Rocky & Bullwinkle take on international terrorism disguised as an action movie. Dashing IRA terrorist, Declan Mulqueen (Richard Gere), is sprung from jail to help the FBI Deputy Director Carton Preston (Sidney Poitier) track down The Jackal, an amoral international terrorist who is a master of disguise. The FBI believes he is about to assassinate a US political bigwig and is engaged in a race against time to discover exactly who the target is and where they will be felled. Throughout the film Gere sports an Irish accent as ill-fitting and phoney as the bushy lip-wig that Willis adopts at one point as a disguise. The usually warm-hearted Willis plays the steel-jawed terrorist with a cool reserve, but he doesn't have much character development to work with (apart from a misguided attempt to introduce a gay subtext). At over two hours of running time with plenty of exposition and precious few action sequences, this film is a test of will for the audience as well as the protagonists.On the DVD: The DVD includes a lengthy "making of" featurette, several deleted scenes and an alternate ending with some small dialogue changes. There is also an exceedingly dry director's commentary by Michael Caton Jones which muses on such mind-numbingly dull details as the colour of the subway platform in the film's climactic sequence. The film is presented in a clear print in 2.35:1 anamorphic format with 5.1 Dolby Digital sound. --Chris Campion

• Carry On Up The Jungle | DVD | (07/07/2003) from £4.88   |  Saving you £8.11 (166.19%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Carry On Up the Jungle has worn less well than some of the others in the series, simply because the African exploration genre it parodies--with its cannibals, great white hunters and lost Amazon tribes--is so entirely out of fashion. Still, Frankie Howerd made so comparatively few films that in one which has him as an ornithologist searching for rare birds in the company of Joan Sims and Sid James is not going to be entirely without interest. He has few great moments here, but runs through his usual repertoire of groans and horse-faced sorrowful expressions with brio. The idea of Terry Scott playing Tarzan is in itself such a good joke that it hardly matters that most of what follows is him swinging, on ropes, into obstacles. --Roz Kaveney

• Shirley Temple: The Collection | DVD | (25/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.39

  A collection of classic Shirley Temple films! Heidi (1937) When her aunt tires of caring for her orphan Heidi is taken into the Swiss mountains to live with her gruff grandfather (Jean Hersholt) a hermit who comes to adore her. But the aunt returns to steal Heidi away selling her to a family whose invalid daughter (Marcia Mae Jones) needs a companion. Bullied by an evil governess (Mary Nash) Heidi still charms the entire household and never stops trying to returnito her

• Last Holiday | Blu Ray | (09/03/2020) from £14.95   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  LAST HOLIDAY is a 1950 black comedy starring Alec Guinness in fine form as George Bird, a mild-mannered salesman, who's been told by his Doctor that he only has a short time left to live. Determined not to waste his final days, he decides to go on one last holiday to live the rest of his life to the full. Written by renowned novelist and playwright J.B. Priestley, LAST HOLIDAY is a timeless parable on the notion that life is not just about how long you live, but how well. Extras: NEW: Interview With Cultural Historian Matthew Sweet Personalities: J.B. Priestley (1944) Behind The Scenes Stills Gallery

• Cry, The Beloved Country (Vintage Classics) | Blu Ray | (09/10/2023) from £10.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Cry, the Beloved Country is the BAFTA nominated film of the acclaimed novel by Alan Paton. A black minister, Stephen Kumalo (Canada Lee) lives a quiet life as a parish priest in the back country of South Africa. When his son, Absolom, leaves the small valley where he grew up for the bright lights of the city, he goes missing. After several months of silence, the minister goes to search for him and comes face to face with the squalor and poverty of the Johannesburg slums. Reverend Msimangu (Sidney Poitier) is a young clergyman who joins him in his search, but neither are prepared for what they will discover.

• Three Hats for Lisa | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £5.99   |  Saving you £4.00 (66.78%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Featuring a cast and production crew that reads like a Who's Who of British Sixties talent, Three Hats for Lisa is an exuberant, whimsical and utterly irresistible musical romp set in the heart of Swinging London; Sidney Hayers directs, while Oscar- and Grammy-winning composer Leslie Bricusse supplies the songs. Three Hats for Lisa is available here in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements. French movie pin-up Sophie Hardy is Lisa Milan, a gorgeous Continental film star who's ...

• Guess Who's Coming To Dinner | DVD | (04/03/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Spencer Tracy's last performance was in this well-meaning, handsome film by Stanley Kramer about a pair of white parents (Tracy and Katharine Hepburn) trying to make sense of their daughter's impending marriage to an African American doctor (Sidney Poitier). Guess Who's Coming to Dinner has been knocked over the years for padding conflict and stoking easy liberalism by making Poitier's character in every socioeconomic sense a good catch: but what if Kramer had made this stranger a factory worker? Would the audience still find it as easy to accept a mixed-race relationship? But there's no denying the drawing power of this movie, which gets most of its integrity from the stirring performances of Tracy and Hepburn. When the former (who had been so ill that the production could not get completion insurance) gives a speech toward the end about race, love and much else, it's impossible not to be affected by the last great moment in a great actor's life and career. --Tom Keogh

• Katharine Hepburn | DVD | (13/03/2006) from £9.99   |  Saving you £40.00 (400.40%)   |  RRP £49.99

  A bumper box set of classic films featuring 'The First Lady of Cinema' Katharine Hepburn! State Of The Union (Dir. Frank Capra 1948): The Flamboyant businessman Grant Matthews (Spencer Tracy) is persuaded by his mistress the powerful publishing heiress Kay Thorndyke (Angela Lansbury) to seek the Republican nomination in the forthcoming elections. Mary Matthews (Katharine Hepburn) joins her estranged husband to present a public portrait of a happy family for the voters

• How To Murder Your Wife | DVD | (24/01/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Bachelorhood is bliss for cartoonist Stanley Ford (Lemmon) - complete with an English butler (Terry Thomas) delectable dames and extra-dry martinis. But when he attends a bachelor party and meets an Italian beauty (Lisi) who pops out of a cake his fate is sealed. The next morning he discovers he's married to her even though she can barely speak English - and now the consummate bachelor will go to any lengths to untie the knot!

• Oklahoma! | DVD | (13/11/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  When Mary Rodgers, daughter of the composer Richard Rodgers, was reported as saying she never wanted to see another Oklahoma!, it was her way of paying the highest tribute to Trevor Nunn's production at the Royal National Theatre which was subsequently taken into the studio and filmed. The camera follows the playgoers into the auditorium of the Olivier where in their company we watch the show and applaud the numbers as the real thing. Nunn treats Rodgers and Hammerstein's first collaboration with the utmost seriousness restoring the full text, running to three-and-a-half hours, so that it comes across as a drama indebted to Eugene O'Neill. The documentary, viewed preferably as a preview, with Tim Piggott Smith the penny-plain narrator, allows one to relish in the smallest detail Nunn's scrupulous touch, which according to Maureen Lipman (Aunt Eller) included addressing the cast for two days at rehearsal, an approach that by her account paid off handsomely for the company. Although Oklahoma! unfolds at a leisurely pace, it is extraordinary how one is drawn into the drama under Nunn's direction. There's seldom a wish for true locations as the pace picks up and we move into the claustrophobic company of Judd Fry in his riveting encounter with the cowboy Curly. The close up camera work affords an experience the theatre can't bring and pays handsome dividends too in appreciating Susan Stroman's intricate and lively choreography that was dissipated somewhat on the big apron stage of the Olivier. Her dancers are a fine team, notably Jimmy Johnston who is outstanding as Will Parker leading the Kansas City ensemble. Hugh Jackman as Curly matches him in vocal prowess and looks, and Shuler Hensley sings the tricky role of Judd Fry very well. It's harder to place Peter Polycarpou's Pedlar, a considerably larger role than in the film version, whose accent strays from East End wideboy to the plains of Europe. Maureen Lipman, rightly deemed the lynchpin of the musical by Nunn, is a joy to watch. Laurey and Ado Annie are good but not special. Aside from an abrupt start to Act Two and the occasional voice off microphone, the production sounds good with a larger orchestra present than in the theatre. An Oklahoma! on an epic scale. --Adrian Edwards

• The Smallest Show On Earth | DVD | (08/07/2002) from £20.37   |  Saving you £-7.38 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  An amiable knock-off of the Ealing comedy style, The Smallest Show on Earth starts with aspiring novelist Bill Travers and his "nice gel" wife Virginia McKenna inheriting a cinema from a hitherto unknown uncle and discovering that it isn't the sumptuous modern Grand, which specialises in those "smash 'em in the face, knock 'em over the waterfront" pictures, but the decrepit Bijou, known locally as "the fleapit". The initial plan, set up by lawyer Leslie Phillips, is to sell off the cinema to the owner of the Grand so he can knock it down to make a car park, but our heroes are put off by the arrogant bullying of the rival manager (Francis De Wolff) and succumb to the inept charms of the crazed, aged staff--drunken projectionist Peter Sellers, doddery commissionaire Bernard Miles and dotty ticket lady Margaret Rutherford (who joined the team as a piano accompanist). In the 1950s, there was a run of gentle British comedies in which outmoded and broken-down local institutions (steam trains, tugboats, vintage cars) were saved by collections of committed eccentrics who despised the new-fangled bus services or soulless council bureaucracies and were willing to resort to a little larceny (in this case, arson). The Smallest Show slots in perfectly with the cycle, getting laughs from the Bijou's already outmoded programme of scratchy Westerns and desert dramas (which increase ice cream sales) and sentiment over the staff's midnight screenings of silent movies that remind them of better days. It's likeable rather than hilarious, with Sellers and Miles buried under crepe hair and fake wrinkles competing to out-dodder each other and losing the picture to the inimitable Rutherford, who doesn't have to fake her eccentricity. Pin-up, June Cunningham, is the glamorous usherette and Sid James plays her annoyed Dad. On the DVD: The Smallest Show on Earth is presented in a decent print, but with no extras. The film is also available as part of the four-disc Peter Sellers Collection. --Kim Newman

• Cagney And Lacey - Vol. 1 | DVD | (20/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Episodes from the multi-Emmy award winning TV show in which detectives Mary Beth Lacey and her partner Christine Cagney cop-operate in their personal and professional lives... Episodes Comprise: 1. Witness To An Incident 2. One Of Our Own 3. Beauty Burglars 4. High Steel 5. Hotline 6. Internal Affairs 7. Mr Lonelyhearts 8. Conduct Unbecoming 9. I'll Be Home For Christmas

• Cry The Beloved Country | DVD | (18/01/2010) from £7.99   |  Saving you £8.00 (50.00%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A South-African preacher goes to search for his wayward son who has committed a crime in the big city.

• Incendiary | DVD | (02/03/2009) from £3.68   |  Saving you £13.57 (560.74%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Set against an immediate-future London gripped by terrorist attacks, "Incendiary" sees events on the intimate level of ordinary humans living in extraordinary times.