"Actor: Sydney"

• The Dam Busters | Blu Ray | (04/06/2018) from £10.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A BRAND NEW RESTORATION COMMEMORATING THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ORIGINAL WWII RAID A much-loved British classic, Michael Anderson's 1955 drama captures the tension and bravery of an audacious raid on the center of Nazi Germany's industrial complex and the quintessentially English combination of inventiveness and dogged determination. Split into two distinct sections, the film deals first with the fraught, but the ultimately successful development of a new bomb, by Dr. Barnes N. Wallis (Michael Redgrave). The second deals with the mission itself during the British raid on the Ruhr Dams, and its associated costs for the enemy and for the British airmen. Adapted by R.C. Sherriff from Paul Brickhill's book Enemy Coast Ahead and featuring superlative special effects photography by Gilbert Taylor (to say nothing of Eric Coates' stirring theme tune), The Dam Busters was Britain's biggest box office the success of 1955

• Madame Web 4K Ultra HD Steelbook | Blu Ray | (27/05/2024) from £21.07   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Madame Web tells the standalone origin story of one of Marvel UK publishing's most enigmatic heroines. The suspense-driven thriller stars Dakota Johnson as Cassandra Webb, a paramedic in Manhattan who may have clairvoyant abilities. Forced to confront revelations about her past, she forges a relationship with three young women destined for powerful futures...if they can all survive a deadly present.Deleted Scenes, Easter Eggs - the Many Threads of Madame Web, Fight Like A Spider, Future Vision, Oracle of the Page

• The Birthday Party | DVD | (02/07/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Harold Pinter's first full-length stage play, The Birthday Party, was 10 years old when William (The Exorcist) Friedkin directed it for the cinema in 1968. In some ways, it was already a period-piece by then, Pinter's use of a combination of silence and excruciatingly banal dialogue to generate precipitous dramatic tension having been absorbed by contemporary theatrical mythology long since. Are the sinister McCann and Goldberg real? Or do they exist only in Stan's head? At the end, we're none the wiser. But Friedkin's claustrophobic direction, with the tormented Stan as its focus, has taken us through a master study in understated horror. The handheld camera, so fashionable in modern television drama, has rarely been used to such hypnotic effect. As Stan, Robert Shaw is mesmerising in his descent to animal-like submission. Sydney Tafler's Goldberg and Patrick Magee 's McCann make a truly terrifying double act. Cult television fans will appreciate an early appearance by Helen Fraser (these days best known as a sadistic prison warder in Bad Girls) as the easily seduced neighbour. Now that Friedkin's film is itself over 30 years old, the scent of mothballs ought to be even more pronounced. Its decrepit seaside boarding house setting and the drabness of the peripheral players are redolent of the distinctly non-swinging side of the 1960s in which it was made. But more than anything, The Birthday Party is about unspecified terror and the sort of inner demons that lurk in all of us. On the DVD: Excellent sound quality helps to make this a compellingly theatrical experience: never has the noise of tearing newspaper been more menacing. And the picture quality retains the grainy authenticity of the original print. Special features include brief backgrounders on the history of the play and Friedkin's career, and a slide show of still s from key scenes. --Piers Ford

• Hamlet | DVD | (10/03/2003) from £6.49   |  Saving you £3.50 (53.93%)   |  RRP £9.99

  In the opening scene of Hamlet, Laurence Olivier describes the play in a voice-over as "the tragedy of a man who couldn't make up his mind". But Olivier's screen adaptation is considerably more thoughtful and complex than this thesis would suggest. The contradictions and ambiguities of the title character, who prowls cavernous sets filled with vast, ancient corridors and winding staircases, emerge as if from a dream. The plethora of tracking shots--precise enough to impress Stanley Kubrick--encircle Olivier and his tightly constructed geometry of demise. Drawing on his experience playing the Prince on stage at Elsinore in 1937, the legendary thesp provides the film with the patina of greatness and shows how the constitution of the formerly cheerful Prince weakens increasingly under the burden of his own thoughts and inability to accept his mother's o'er-hasty marriage to uncle Claudius (Basil Sydney). Indeed, if emotions could possess ghosts, Olivier's Hamlet shows how they would manifest themselves. There is even a dollop of Freud, suggesting that Queen Gertrude (Eileen Herlie) has perhaps loved her offspring too closely--thus providing the fuel for Hamlet's actions. As Ophelia, Jeans Simmons captures the character's early spirit better than her gradual disintegration (Helena Bonham Carter fares better in Franco Zeffirelli's fine 1990 remake). Purists may bemoan the loss of Fortinbras, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, but these choices allow Olivier to focus more squarely on Hamlet's plight. His monologues, many held in secret enclaves, glow with the dramatic markedness of a Dostoevski novel, with all of the master's irony, allusions and witticisms in place. The winner of four Oscars (Best Picture, Actor, Art Direction, and Costumes), this is a Hamlet for the ages. The rest is silence. --Kevin Mulhall

• The Angel With the Trumpet | DVD | (05/10/2015) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A British adaptation of one of post-war Austria's most significant films, The Angel With the Trumpet is the powerful, panoramic story of a family's tribulations from the last decades of the nineteenth century through to the dark days of Nazi rule. Featuring the great dramatic actress Eileen Herlie in her first starring role, this film also stars Basil Sydney, Norman Wooland and Anthony Bushell, who also directed. It is presented here in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio.When Francis Alt, the head of the famous family of Viennese piano makers, decides to marry socialite Henrietta Stein, his family object due to her Jewish heritage and known dalliance with the Crown Prince Rudolph. When the marriage goes ahead despite their objections the Prince commits suicide, leaving Henrietta a note...SPECIAL FEATURES:Image GalleryPromotional Material PDFs

• The Dam Busters | Blu Ray | (14/06/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Dr Barnes Wallis was possessed with a seemingly crazy idea - the creation of a bouncing bomb designed to destroy the Ruhr dams and paralyse the enemy's industrial nerve centre. He fought persistent scepticism and disbelief that such a feat was possible though even with the matchless skill of RAF Wing Commander Guy Gibson and his squadron could such a mission succeed?

• Michael Clayton | Blu Ray | (01/02/2010) from £8.95   |  Saving you £11.04 (123.35%)   |  RRP £19.99

  George Clooney headlines this legal thriller about an in-house "fixer" at law firm in New York who must face his biggest test to date.

• John Grisham's The Rainmaker / The Firm / Changing Lanes | DVD | (11/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Firm Cruise plays Mitch McDeere a brilliant and ambitious Harvard Law grad. Driven by a fierce desire to bury his working class past Mitch joins a small prosperous Memphis firm that affords Mitch and his wife (Jeanne Tripplehorn) an affluent lifestyle beyond their wildest dreams. But when FBI agents confront him with evidence of corruption and murder within the firm Mitch sets out to find the truth in a deadly crossfire between the FBI the Mob and a force that will st

• A Countess From Hong Kong | DVD | (07/03/2005) from £5.38   |  Saving you £4.61 (85.69%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Charlie Chaplin's final film is a delightful romantic comedy filled with the clever touches for which he's famous. Written directed and composed by Chaplin it revolves around Russian migr countess Natascha (Sophia Loren) forced into prostitution in Hong Kong who stows away in wealthy American Ogden's (Marlon Brando's) stateroom to blackmail her way to the States. Since Ogden has a mind of his own and can even resist Natascha's charms what follows is one of the funniest tugs o

• Eyes Wide Shut (Special Edition) | DVD | (03/03/2008) from £43.82   |  Saving you £-26.83 (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Stanley Kubrick's daring last film is many things. It is a compelling psychosexual journey. A haunting dreamscape. A riveting tale of suspense. A major milestone in the careers of stars Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. And a worthy final chapter to a great director's career. Cruise plays Dr William Hartford who plunges into an erotic foray that threatens his marriage - and may even ensnare him in a lurid murder mystery - after his wife's (Kidman) admission of sexual longings. As the story sweeps from doubt and fear to self-discovery and reconciliation Kubrick orchestrates it with masterful flourishes. Graceful tracking shots controlled pacing rich colours startling images: bravura traits that make Kubrick a filmmaker for the ages are here to keep everyone's eyes wide open.

• Carrie (UK import) | DVD | (01/01/2023) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Carry On Cowboy | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Made in the "classic" period of the series, 1966's Carry On Cowboy is a spoof Western set in Stodge City, about to suffer the arrival of black-hatted outlaw The Rumpo Kid, played by the less-than-youthful Sid James. Kenneth Williams is the aptly named Judge Burke, who appeals to Washington for help to combat this gunslinger and his henchmen. Assistance arrives in the form of Jim Dale's Marshall P Knutt, a drainage, sanitation and garbage expert from England, with a reference from Lady Pushing for doing a "good job on her main sludge channel", whose Christian name provokes a predictable misunderstanding. Fortunately, he's accompanied by Annie Oakley. As ever, much fun is to be had cheering/groaning along to double-entendres about "big ones", but never mind the script, feel the characters. Joan Sims does a good Mae West impression; Syd James "Ha hwa-ha-ha!"s his way through his part with his usual aplomb; the underrated Peter Butterworth is excellent as an inept Doctor; while Bernard Bresslaw adds to his impressively multi-ethnic CV, playing a Native American, with Charles Hawtrey as his incorrigible firewater-loving Chief. On the DVD: No extras, sadly, other than scene selection but Alan Hume's splendidly authentic colour lensing is suitably refurbished here. --David Stubbs

• A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge | DVD | (25/06/2001) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-0.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge was a quick follow-up no one was exactly happy with. However this deserves some credit for trying to extend rather than repeat the original storyline. As opposed to the resourceful heroines of all the other Elm Street films, this is the one about the troubled male teenager worried that Freddy is out to possess his body and make his way back to reality. It's shot through with a heavy handed gay subtext, with male bodies ogled and sliced (for a change), stuck with a few truly ridiculous moments (the exploding budgie) and lapses into incoherence, but it opens with a great school bus sequence and makes the most of the infernal boiler room of Freddy's soul. With Clu Gulager and Hope Lange. Directed by Jack Sholder (The Hidden). -- Kim Newman

• Husbands And Wives | DVD | (15/04/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In Husbands and Wives, another typical Woody Allen exploration of relationships between screwed-up New Yorkers, the drama centres on two married couples who have been close friends for years. When Jack and Sally (Sydney Pollack and Judy Davis) announce they're breaking up, it exposes the cracks in the relationship between Gabe and Judy (Allen and Mia Farrow). The shenanigans that result are touching, funny and horribly true to life. Jack finds himself a cliché trophy blonde, Sam--an aerobics instructor--and thinks he's got it made until she expounds the eternal truths of astrology to his friends, humiliating him in the process; Gabe, meanwhile, finds himself increasingly drawn to his precocious student, Rain--beautifully portrayed by Juliette Lewis--while Judy and Sally get involved with the same guy (though not simultaneously), the shy but alluring Michael (Liam Neeson). The touch of genius is to have an off-screen narrator, with whom the main characters share their innermost thoughts, thus drawing the viewer right into the emotional heart of the movie. This is vintage Woody, with gentle but witty observations of human failings. On the DVD: Husbands and Wives is delivered in widescreen with a Dolby Digital soundtrack. The only extra features are trailers for both this and Allen's previous movie, Manhattan Murder Mystery. In addition the audio set-up option is in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and subtitles in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Finnish. --Harriet Smith

• The Dam Busters | DVD | (15/01/2007) from £9.99   |  Saving you £3.00 (30.03%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Dr Barnes Wallis was possessed with a seemingly crazy idea - the creation of a bouncing bomb designed to destroy the Ruhr dams and paralyse the enemy's industrial nerve centre. He fought persistent scepticism and disbelief that such a feat was possible though even with the matchless skill of RAF Wing Commander Guy Gibson and his squadron could such a mission succeed?

• WolfBlood - Series 5 (BBC) | DVD | (29/05/2017) from £4.02   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The wolfblood universe has changed and Kafe is now a trendy hang-out for humans and wolfbloods alike. Fed up with the publicity, Jana is now staying in the den and, with fear of her powers waning, Jana worries that her presence puts her pack in jeopardy. Imara has been forced to downsize, with Matei there now and sharing a bedroom with TJ, while Jeffries has had much success with his best seller books. Katrina has employed ex-Segolia agent Robyn, and at school, the wolfbloods are facing all sorts of new rules.

• Ships With Wings | DVD | (02/02/2009) from £10.35   |  Saving you £5.64 (54.49%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Ships With Wings

• Once A Sinner | DVD | (18/03/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Once A Sinner

• It's That Man Again | DVD | (25/01/2016) from £11.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Can I do you now, sir? Comedian Tommy Handley reprises his best-loved role in this celluloid spin-off from the phenomenally popular BBC radio show ITMA a light-entertainment staple that ran for a decade from 1939 and contributed significantly towards morale by bringing much-needed comic relief to a war-weary British public. Making stars of Jack Train, Dorothy Summers and Sydney Keith, It's That Man Again is presented here in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements, in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio. Tommy, mayor of the small town of Foaming-at-the-Mouth, is trying to balance the civic accounts but constant interruptions by his incompetent assistant Sam Scram and nosey charlady Mrs Mopp are severely hampering the job! His troubles escalate, however, when he's forced to admit that he's invested all the municipal funds in a crumbling London theatre... SPECIAL FEATURES: Image Gallery Merchandise gallery

• Carrie Limited Edition | Blu Ray | (11/12/2017) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  This terrifying adaptation of Stephen King's bestselling horror novel was directed by shock maestro Brian De Palma for maximum, no-holds-barred effect. Sissy Spacek stars as Carrie White, the beleaguered daughter of a religious kook (Piper Laurie) and a social outcast tormented by her cruel, insensitive classmates. When her rage turns into telekinetic powers, however, school's out in every sense of the word. De Palma's horrific climax in a school gym lingers forever in the memory, though the film is also built upon Spacek's remarkable performance and Piper Laurie's outlandishly creepy one. John Travolta has a small part as a thug, De Palma's future wife, Nancy Allen, is his girlfriend, and Amy Irving makes her screen debut as one of the girls giving Carrie a hard time.--Tom Keogh