"Actor: Strother Martin"

• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £8.25   |  Saving you £3.74 (45.33%)   |  RRP £11.99

  Dating from 1969, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid has never lost its popularity or its unusual appeal as a star-driven Western that tinkers with the genre's conventions and comes up with something both terrifically entertaining and--typical of its period--a tad paranoid. Paul Newman plays the legendary outlaw Butch Cassidy as an eternal optimist and self-styled visionary, conjuring dreams of banks just ripe for the picking all over the world. Robert Redford is his more level-headed partner, the sharp-shooting Sundance Kid. The film, written by William Goldman (The Princess Bride) and directed by George Roy Hill (The Sting), basically begins as a freewheeling story about robbing trains but soon becomes a chase as a relentless posse--always seen at a great distance like some remote authority--forces Butch and Sundance into the hills and, finally, Bolivia. Weakened a little by feel-good inclinations (a scene involving bicycle tricks and the song "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" is sort of Hollywood flower power), the film maintains an interesting tautness, and the chemistry between Redford and Newman is rare. (A factoid: Newman first offered the Sundance part to Jack Lemmon.) --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com On the DVD: This anamorphic widescreen print of the 2.35:1 Panavision original looks marvellously crisp, highlighting the sepia tinting and washed-out, over-exposed look of the film nicely and making the best of the deep focus cinematography. The mono soundtrack sounds clean and clear in Dolby 2.0. The commentary track is hosted by documentary-maker Robert Crawford with contributions from George Roy Hill, cinematographer Conrad Hall, and lyricist Hal David (who chips in during the "Raindrops" sequence). The 40-minute documentary dates from 1968 and is narrated by director Hill, who talks in detail about the making-of process, comments on his relationship with the three principals (Katharine Ross was the difficult one apparently), and adds little nuggets such as how they sprayed the bull's testicles to make him charge at the end of the bicycle scene. Also included are a series of absorbing 1994 interviews with all the main players: Newman, Redford, Ross, writer William Goldman, and composer Burt Bacharach. Trailers, Production Notes and an Alternate Credit Roll complete an attractive package. --Mark Walker

• Cool Hand Luke | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £5.86   |  Saving you £14.13 (241.13%)   |  RRP £19.99

  His crime: nonconformity. His sentence: the chain gang. Now you can own the Director's Cut of the 1967 classic Cool Hand Luke in which Paul Newman plays one of his best-loved roles as the loner who won't or can't conform to the arbitrary rules of his captivity. A cast of fine character actors including George Kennedy in his Academy Award-winning role of Dragline gives Newman solid support as fellow prisoners. And Strother Martin is the Captain who taunts Luke with the famous line '""What we've got here is...failure to communicate."" No failure here. With rich humour and vibrant storytelling power 'Cool Hand Luke' succeeds resoundingly.

• Hard Times (1975) | Blu Ray | (24/04/2017) from £13.25   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Walter Hill's colourful directorial debut has quite a cult following for its toughness and violence, and it may well be his best film. Charles Bronson plays a silent street fighter in 1930s New Orleans, managed by the cool James Coburn. Jill Ireland, Strother Martin, and Michael McGuire co-star in this spare existential Depression dirge. It owes a lot to its noir origins that Hill adores so much, yet there's something very fresh and vital about its subject and approach. That's really what made so many of these films from the '70s so endearing. A bonus is the love and affection displayed by the real-life husband and wife team of Bronson and Ireland. --Bill Desowitz

• Slap Shot | DVD | (22/01/2018) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Reggie Dunlop (Paul Newman) is the veteran player-coach of the Charleston Chiefs, a failing ice hockey team on the verge of being disbanded due to lack of support and finance. Dunlop's response to a long losing streak is to ask his players to throw the rulebook out of the window, and their new violent approach does lead to an upturn in fortunes. However, their Princeton-educated top scorer (Michael Ontkean) disapproves of the roughhouse tactics, resulting in a rift in the camp.

• Cheech And Chong's Up In Smoke | DVD | (06/05/2002) from £21.98   |  Saving you £-5.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  There's nothing straight about this movie. But here's the dope anyway: Cheech and Chong make their film debut in this riotous rock 'n' roll comedy bringing with them the same madness lifestyles and sketches that sold over 10 million records in the early '70s. Cheech and Chong's marijuana-laced humor keeps their spirits high and leads them to an outrageous finale at L.A.'s Roxy Theater where Cheech performs in a pink tutu and Chong dresses as a large red quaalude. It will make you f

• Kiss Me Deadly (1955) | Blu Ray | (05/08/2019) from £17.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  In this atomic adaptation of Mickey Spillane's novel, directed by Robert Aldrich (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, The Dirty Dozen), the good manners of the 1950s are blown to smithereens. Ralph Meeker (Paths of Glory, The Dirty Dozen) stars as snarling private dick Mike Hammer, whose decision one dark, lonely night to pick up a hitchhiking woman sends him down some terrifying byways. Brazen and bleak, Kiss Me Deadly is a film noir masterpiece as well as an essential piece of cold war paranoia, and it features as nervy an ending as has ever been seen in American cinema.

• The Wild Bunch | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £11.99   |  Saving you £3.00 (30.03%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Here's how director Sam Peckinpah described his motivation behind The Wild Bunch at the time of the film's 1969 release: "I was trying to tell a simple story about bad men in changing times. The Wild Bunch is simply what happens when killers go to Mexico. The strange thing is you feel a great sense of loss when these killers reach the end of the line." All of these statements are true, but they don't begin to cover the impact that Peckinpah's film had on the evolution of American movies. Now the film is most widely recognized as a milestone event in the escalation of screen violence, but that's a label of limited perspective. Of course, Peckinpah's bloody climactic gunfight became a masterfully directed, photographed, and edited ballet of graphic violence that transcended the conventional Western and moved into a slow-motion realm of pure cinematic intensity. But the film--surely one of the greatest Westerns ever made--is also a richly thematic tale of, as Peckinpah said, "bad men in changing times." The year is 1913 and the fading band of thieves known as the Wild Bunch (led by William Holden as Pike) decide to pull one last job before retirement. But an ambush foils their plans, and Peckinpah's film becomes an epic yet intimate tale of betrayed loyalties, tenacious rivalry, and the bunch's dogged determination to maintain their fading code of honor among thieves. The 144-minute director's cut enhances the theme of male bonding that recurs in many of Peckinpah's films, restoring deleted scenes to deepen the viewer's understanding of the friendship turned rivalry between Pike and his former friend Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan), who now leads a posse in pursuit of the bunch, a dimension that adds resonance to an already classic American film. The Wild Bunch is a masterpiece that should not be defined strictly in terms of its violence, but as a story of mythic proportion, brimming with rich characters and dialogue and the bittersweet irony of outlaw traditions on the wane. --Jeff Shannon

• Up In Smoke | Blu Ray | (17/04/2023) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  WARNING: This film may have caused uncontrollable laughter, blurry vision, and a strange sense of euphoria. Here's the straight dope: legendary comedians Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong toke up with infamous Director/Producer Lou Adler to deliver high-larious hijinks in their outrageous film debut. Two buds travel from Mexico to Los Angeles, unaware that the van they are driving is made entirely of marijuana. With herb in the air and the police on their trail, it's a joint-effort adventure that sparks laughs, pushes boundaries and crosses borders. For a pipe dream come true, settle down with Up in Smoke. Product Features How Pedro Met the Man: Up in Smoke at 40 (includes interview with Cheech & Chong) Commentary by Cheech Marin & Director Lou Adler Roach Clips (Deleted Scenes) with Optional Commentary Lighting It Up: A Look Back At Up in Smoke Earache My Eye Featuring Alice Bowie: Animated Music Video Cheech & Chong's The Man Song Vintage Radio Spots

• Kiss Me Deadly | DVD | (04/08/2003) from £17.99   |  Saving you £-5.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A terrific film noir full of skewed camera angles and mysterious whose-shoes-are-those shots, Kiss Me Deadly is about as dark and exciting as noir gets. A young woman (Cloris Leachman) in bare feet and a trench coat throws herself into the traffic to flag down help and the car she stops belongs to detective Mike Hammer. Not even 15 minutes into the film and there's already been a murder, a mysterious letter, an attempt to kill Hammer and, of course, a warning to stay out of it. Hammer, tired of lowlife divorce cases, smells something big and can't let it go. Mike Hammer is a detective so cool he can win a fight with nothing more than a box of popcorn as a weapon; he knows his opera singers as well as his amateur prize-fighters and he makes the ladies swoon--but he's far from a conventional hero. In fact, he's emphatically not a nice guy; Hammer happily whores out his secretary-girlfriend Velma to cinch up those divorce cases and has a penchant for slamming other people's fingers in drawers. Even the bad guys know he's a sleazebag ("What's it worth to you to turn your considerable talents back to the gutter you crawled out of?"). Ralph Meeker plays Hammer's ambivalence brilliantly, swinging easily between sexy and just plain mean. --Ali Davis

• True Grit | DVD | (06/06/2005) from £6.99   |  Saving you £6.00 (85.84%)   |  RRP £12.99

  John Wayne hams it up as a one-eyed, broken-down marshal in this 1969 adaptation of Charles Portis's bestselling novel. Kim Darby plays the formal-speaking adolescent who goes to Wayne for help tracking down her father's killer, and singer Glen Campbell straps on his guns to join the quest. Directed by old lion Henry Hathaway (Rawhide), True Grit is largely a showcase for Wayne (who finally won an Oscar), but it is also a decent Western with a particularly stirring final act. --Tom Keogh

• Rooster Cogburn | DVD | (05/06/2006) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Two of the most popular stars in screen history are brought together for the first time in the follow up to True Grit. The film returns John Wayne to the role of the rapscallion eye patched whiskey guzzling Deputy Marshall that won him an Academy Award. Katharine Hepburn is prim Eula Goodnight a Bible thumping missionary who teams up with the gun fighter to avenge the death of her father. While in pursuit of the outlaws a warm rapport develops between the rough n' tumble lawman and the flirty reverend's daughter.

• Slap Shot (Blu Ray) | Blu Ray | (22/01/2018) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Reggie Dunlop (Paul Newman) is the veteran player-coach of the Charleston Chiefs, a failing ice hockey team on the verge of being disbanded due to lack of support and finance. Dunlop's response to a long losing streak is to ask his players to throw the rulebook out of the window, and their new violent approach does lead to an upturn in fortunes. However, their Princeton-educated top scorer (Michael Ontkean) disapproves of the roughhouse tactics, resulting in a rift in the camp.

• Cactus Jack | DVD | (20/05/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In this comedy-western Kirk Douglas plays Cactus Jack Slade the worst badman in the West who has his beady eyes on a gold mine strongbox. Whenever he finds himself faced with a few hurdles he consults a book called 'How To Be A Badman' and he'll need it too to overcome the owner of the strongbox the feisty Charming Jones (Ann-Margret) and her huge helper (Schwarzenegger) known only as Handsome Stranger...

• SSSSSSS (Dual Format) | Blu Ray | (05/06/2017) from £14.95   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A scientist specializing in the study of snakes, believes that human beings will never survive the coming disasters and holocausts he foresees. His solution is to create a composite creature from the DNA of a man and a king cobra that will be better suited for survival.

• The Champ | DVD | (05/05/2015) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid | Blu Ray | (03/06/2013) from £9.09   |  Saving you £6.90 (75.91%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The Sundance Kid is the fastest gun in the West his sidekick Butch is a dreamer always planning that bigger better bank raid. But things are getting tougher and soon the accident-prone anti-heroes decide it's time to head south and disappear into legend. Winner of 4 Oscars including Best Screenplay for William Goldman and Best Song ('Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head') and Best Score for Burt Bacharach.

• Cool Hand Luke | Blu Ray | (15/09/2008) from £8.75   |  Saving you £11.24 (128.46%)   |  RRP £19.99

  His crime: nonconformity. His sentence: the chain gang. In Cool Hand Luke Paul Newman plays one of his best-loved roles as the loner who won't or can't conform to the arbitrary rules of his captivity. A cast of fine character actors including George Kennedy in his Academy Award-winning role of Dragline gives Newman solid support as fellow prisoners. And Strother Martin is the Captain who taunts Luke with the famous line 'What we've got here is...failure to communicate. No failure here. With rich humour and vibrant storytelling power Cool Hand Luke succeeds resoundingly.

• Peckinpah Collection | DVD | (14/08/2006) from £69.99   |  Saving you £-40.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  The Wild Bunch: Nine men who came too late and stayed too long! The year is 1913 just one year short of World War 1. Disguised as U.S. soldiers a gang rides into a Texas border town. Silently they enter and rob the railroad company but an ambush lies in wait. When the gang emerges the company's hired gunmen open fire. Men women and children are caught in the crossfire. The gang escape to their hideout in the desert where they find that the loot they fought so hard is

• Slap Shot | DVD | (03/10/2002) from £16.16   |  Saving you £-6.17 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Paul Newman and his Butch Cassidy director, George Roy Hill, made a very original comedy in this 1977 story of an over-the-hill player/coach (Newman) for a lousy hockey team who gets results when he teaches his players to get dirty. One of the most hilariously profane movies ever to come out of Hollywood, this is the kind of film that makes its own rules as it goes along. Newman is very good, and while Hill goes for the gusto in terms of capturing the violence of this world, his instinct for comedy has never been sharper. Great support from Strother Martin, Paul Dooley, and the rest. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

• The Brotherhood of Satan | Blu Ray | (30/08/2021) from £10.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A small rural town and a family of outsiders, both trapped in the demonic grip of The Brotherhood of Satan! Recently widowed Ben, his glamourous girlfriend Nicky and his small daughter K.T. are on a road trip across the Southwest, which comes to a screeching halt when they witness an accident. Heading to the nearby isolated desert town of Hillsboro to report it to the Sheriff (played by L.Q. Jones), they are met with a hostile reaction from the locals, who are gripped by paranoia and fear due to a series of gruesome deaths, as well as the mysterious disappearance of eleven of the community's children. As the bodies continue to pile up around them, Ben and his family find themselves joining the sheriff, a local priest and the town's enigmatic physician Doc Duncan (Strother Martin, Cool Hand Luke) in the midst of a mystery that points towards a deadly satanic cult... Produced by Alvy Moore and L.Q. Jones, a veteran character actor best known for his work with Sam Peckinpah, The Brotherhood of Satan is an atmospheric and chilling tale of terror that provides a crucial missing link between Rosemary's Baby (1968) and The Devil's Rain (1975) in the cycle of turn-of-the-seventies shockers involving sinister devil-worshipping cults lurking within the dark shadows of modern-day America. Special Features: High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation Original uncompressed mono audio Optional English subtitles Brand new audio commentary by writers Kim Newman and Sean Hogan Satanic Panic: How the 1970s Conjured the Brotherhood of Satan, a brand new visual essay by David Flint The Children of Satan, exclusive new interview with actors Jonathan Erickson Eisley and Alyson Moore Original Trailers and TV and Radio Spots Image Gallery Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Richard Wells FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated booklet featuring new writing by Johnny Mains and Brad Stevens