"Actor: Sydney"

• War Box Set 1 | DVD | (06/11/2006) from £8.74   |  Saving you £11.25 (128.72%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Films comprise: 1. The Colditz Story (Dir. Guy Hamilton 1955) 2. The Cruel Sea (Dir. Charles Frend 1953) 3. The Dam Busters (Dir. Michael Anderson 1954)

• Around The World In 80 Days | DVD | (05/07/2004) from £11.28   |  Saving you £1.71 (15.16%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Along with a glittering star-studded cast follow Phileas Fogg on his journey around the world. Phileas wagers that he can circumnavigate the world in a mere 80 days - and vows to leave that very night taking only some necessary cash in a carpet bag and his newly hired manservant Jean Passepartout. Adding to the excitement an English detective relentlessly pursues them throughout the journey that takes our hero to the World's most exotic locations by land sea and air.

• The Player | DVD | (30/04/2001) from £24.99   |  Saving you £-12.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Robert Altman's a biting satire on the Hollywood industry, The Player, has always been acknowledged by insiders as too close to the truth for comfort. Opening with a self-referential nine-minute tracking shot around the studio lot where producer Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) works, the story's intrigue begins with the first of several postcard death threats from a writer he's angered. After accidentally killing the wrong man, Mill moves from one star-studded lunch table to another. All the while he's hounded by the real writer and an obsession with "Ice Queen" artist June Gudmundsdotter (Greta Scacchi) who'd been the deceased's girlfriend. Altman's tradition of improvised dialogue makes each of the dozens of cameos a fascinating treat for movie fans. Blink and you'll miss Angelica Houston, John Cusack, Rod Steiger, or Bruce Willis and Julia Roberts who appear in the hilarious movie-within-a-movie finale. There's an endless list of terrific support from the likes of dry-witted Fred Ward, fly-swatting Lyle Lovett, or tampon-twirling Whoopi Goldberg. Aside from the star-spotting and a script that crackles with sharp dialogue, this also warrants acknowledgement for being the movie to set off an explosion of independent film in the Nineties. On the DVD: there's a commentary track (which leaves the film's soundtrack playing a little too loud) from director Altman who talks at length about the poor state of today's industry, and writer Michael Tolkin who contributes about ten minutes of veiled displeasure about the treatment of a writer's work. There are five grainy deleted scenes featuring lost cameos from Tim Curry, Jeff Daniels, and Patrick Swayze. Then in a 16-minute featurette a lot of the deleted footage is repeated around an interview with Altman. A trailer rounds out the package. --Paul Tonks

• Assassin for Hire | DVD | (02/03/2015) from £8.05   |  Saving you £1.94 (24.10%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A taut, noir-ish crime thriller produced by Primetime Emmy nominee and future Avengers lynchpin Julian Wintle, Assassin for Hire stars Sydney Tafler as a hitman who nurtures his younger brother's musical talent with blood money; Ronald Howard is the Scotland Yard inspector who doggedly pursues him using any means at his disposal. This early-fifties 'B'-movie gem is featured here in a brandnew transfer from the original film elements, in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio.Antonio Riccardi, a rare stamp dealer who is secretly a hired killer, pays for the violin lessons of his gifted brother Giuseppe. To meet the expenses of Giuseppe's concert debut he accepts a further job, but his decision to do so provides Detective Inspector Carson, who has long hoped to ensnare Tony, with an opportunity hat might now enable him to bring about his downfall...SPECIAL FEATURE:Original Press Release PDF

• The Counterfeit Plan | DVD | (15/02/2016) from £12.98   |  Saving you £-1.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A classic high-tension thriller directed by Montgomery Tully, this rarely seen gem features an exceptional transatlantic cast including Zachary Scott (on magnificently sinister form as a brutal master-criminal), Mervyn Johns, noir heroine Peggie Castle, fan favourite Lee Patterson and British screen spiv Sydney Tafler. The Counterfeit Plan is featured here in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements, in its original theatrical aspect ratio.With the aid of his accomplices, convicted murderer Max Brandt escapes whilst being escorted to a French prison and flees across the Channel. Arriving in England he seeks out a wartime acquaintance, Louie. An expert forger, Louie has now turned his back on his criminal career but Brandt is determined to blackmail him into putting his formidable skills to use once more...SPECIAL FEATURES:Alternative Titles (mute)Original Theatrical TrailersImage GalleryOriginal Synopsis PDF

• Night Patrol | DVD | (19/04/2004) from £22.47   |  Saving you £-16.48 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Melvin has a problem. As a rookie cop he ranks among the best... of the worst. Inept hapless and shy his daily routine takes him from misadventure to misadventure. but by night the normally bungling bobby transforms into ;The Unknown Comic'. Disguised only with a paper bag over his head Melvin has audiences eating out of his hand if only the same were true of the voluptuous lady in the front row. A loony psychiatrist a police captain who is a pathalogical liar a playboy partner

• Wolfblood Series 4 (BBC) | DVD | (20/06/2016) from £10.98   |  Saving you £11.00 (122.36%)   |  RRP £19.99

  All 12 episodes from the fourth series of the teenage fantasy drama. The programme follows a group of young wolfbloods as they come to terms with their transformation and try their utmost to protect the woldblood secret. In this series, former wild wolfblood Jana has moved to Newcastle where she works for Segolia. There, she rescues oprhaned wolfblood siblings Matei and Emilia Jack Brett Anderson and and forms a new pack. The episodes are: 'Captivity', 'A Long Way from Home', 'Wolfblood Ultimatum', 'Morwal', 'The Quiet Hero', 'She-Wolf', 'Sheep's Clothing', 'Where Wolf', 'Into the Wild', 'The Wild at Heart', 'Viral' and 'Protocol 5'.

• Stanley Kubrick | DVD | (10/09/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £99.99

  This superb nine-disc Stanley Kubrick Box Set contains all the late director's work from 1962's Lolita to Kubrick's final film, the highly controversial Eyes Wide Shut (1999). There's also the excellent and highly informative two-hour documentary: Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures, narrated (a little drably) by Tom Cruise. It isn't exactly a warts-and-all portrait of Stan the Man, which is not surprising, really, given that it's directed and produced by Kubrick's brother-in-law Jan Harlan, and that Kubrick's widow Christine was closely involved in the making of it. But it does give a detailed and revealing portrait of a brilliant, demanding and often infuriating man, airing rare footage that goes right back to his earliest years as a brash youngster in the Bronx, already playing to camera with a frightening degree of self-awareness. Six of the eight movies (all but Dr Strangelove and Eyes Wide Shut) have been digitally restored and remastered, and almost all (barring Strangelove again and Lolita) now boast Dolby Digital 5.1 stereo sound remixes. For some bizarre reason, Kubrick insisted on mono sound for the 1999 set, which he approved shortly before his death. Visually the improvement over the often grainy, scratchy prints previously on offer--The Shining (1980) was notoriously messy--is immense. All the features are presented in their original ratios, which in the case of Strangelove means the changing ratios in which it was originally shot, and for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) the full glorious 2.21:1 expanse of the Cinerama screen.So what don't you get? Essentially, the early Kubrick--the work of the young, hungry director before he moved to England and started to gather all the controlling strings into his own hand: most notably the tough, taut thriller The Killing (1956) and the icily furious war film Paths of Glory (1957). Too bad Warners couldn't have negotiated the rights for those too. But what we have here is the culminating phase of Kubrick's filmmaking career--the final 27 years of one of the great masters of cinema. On the DVDs: Besides the visual and sonic improvements mentioned above, each of the eight features includes the original theatrical trailer and multiple-language subtitles. The DVD of Dr Strangelove also gives us filmographies of the principal players, plus theatrical posters and a photo gallery, while Eyes Wide Shut includes interviews (taped after Kubrick's death) with Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and Steven Spielberg, plus a couple of 30-second TV spots. And with The Shining we get a fascinating 34-minute documentary made by Kubrick's then 17-year-old daughter Vivian, plus--just to add a further layer--Vivian's present-day voice-over commentary on her film. --Philip Kemp

• The Snow Queen | DVD | (05/12/2005) from £4.52   |  Saving you £0.47 (10.40%)   |  RRP £4.99

  The dark and complex tale of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen is brought to life in this stunning and magical mix of music and song animation and 'live' drama. The tale of how innocence and love in the shape of the heroine Gerda can overcome the evil power of their nemesis The Snow Queen takes us on a journey through the Enchanted Flower Garden on a flight through the Northern Lights and into the palace of the Snow Queen herself - a figure po

• The Sea Shall Not Have Them (Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (15/05/2017) from £10.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A stirring British war film depicting the boat crews whose job it was to rescue downed RAF pilots. After the Normandy D-Day landings, a dangerous attempt is made to rescue the survivors of a WWII British Hudson bomber, crashed at sea. On board is an Air Commodore who has secret plans that could stop enemy air raids on London. Produced by Daniel M. Angel. Written by Lewis Gilbert and Vernon Harris from the novel by John Harris.

• Verdi: Il Trovatore -- Opera Australia | DVD | (05/06/2002) from £22.89   |  Saving you £2.10 (9.17%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Il Trovatore, Verdi's 1853 maelstrom of passion, infanticide, double-crossing and revenge, would be a mightily gamy affair if it didn't contain some of his finest arias, a cracker of a tenor's role and one of opera's most powerfully-written characters in the old gypsy woman, Azucena. Although Joan Sutherland, who plays the self-sacrificing lady-in-waiting Leonora in this 1983 Australia Opera production at Sydney Opera House, is the headline star, in truth the supreme assets of this recording are mezzo-soprano Lauris Elms' Azucena, a beautifully sung performance of haunted, wild-eyed sadness; and Sydney Nolan's wonderfully infernal sets, all purple and burnt ochre with suggestions of distorted faces. Sutherland came late to a part which allowed her to sing up a storm without taxing her rather stolid acting style. Her husband and musical director Richard Bonynge gives her the space to unleash some of Verdi's most fluidly opulent melodies--"D'amor sull'ali rosee" is a case in point--whose beauty is often at odds with the underlying horrors of the tale, based on a rather dodgy Spanish melodrama by Gutierrez. Sutherland has strong support from tenor Kenneth Collins as the doomed Manrico and Jonathan Summers as the vengeful Count. On the DVD: Il Trovatore on disc offers the inevitable shortcomings of a filmed for television performance: to the detriment of Nolan's designs (and the hard-pressed make-up team), the lighting doesn't translate well to video. Presented in 4:3 picture format, the quality is frequently murky. The PCM Stereo soundtrack also has its flat and fuzzy moments, particularly during chorus scenes ("Vedi! Le fosche notturne spoglie") when the orchestra drowns out the singing. But on the whole Sutherland et al sound great.--Piers Ford

• The Three Worlds Of Gulliver | DVD | (22/04/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The 1960 children's feature The Three Worlds of Gulliver brings to life the first two sections of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels in a version which, while sanitised for youngsters, retains some of the satire and intelligence of the original. It also boasts excellent-for-the-time special effects by Ray Harryhausen, though the effects wizard keeps his trademark stop-motion animation to a minimum, featuring it only when Gulliver (Kerwin Mathews from 1958's The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad), has problems with an outsized crocodile and a foraging squirrel. Instead, Harryhausen concentrates on portraying the miniature Lilliputians and the giant Brobdingnagians, and the results still impress over 40 years on. This is a colourful, witty, charming film, though it is also heavily Americanised, the dialogue anachronistic and some of the accents decidedly trans-Atlantic. Mathews is a little stiff in the role of a British doctor, but English actress June Thorburn makes a spirited and beautiful Elizabeth, Gulliver's fiancée who in this version comes along for the journey. While the 1996 TV mini-series Gulliver's Travels comes much closer to Swift's intentions Harryhausen's version will delight younger viewers and has the advantage of a beguiling score from the great Bernard Herrmann. Some viewers may be startled to learn that in the 17th century there were Spanish mountains just outside London, and that Wapping was just a minute's walk from the beach. On the DVD: The Three Worlds of Gulliver on disc has good mono sound while the picture, which is anamorphically enhanced and presented at 1.77:1, is of variable quality. There are very distracting fleck marks where the emulsion has been damaged on the print in many shots featuring Gulliver against a bright blue sky. These really should have been restored before transfer to DVD. Although the packaging refers to "The Ray Harryhausen Chronicles" featurette, this is actually the same superb 57-minute TV documentary which has appeared on other Harryhausen titles. Everyone should have it in their collection once. "This is Dynamation" is a three-minute special effects promo for The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. Also included is a five-minute original "making of" featurette and trailers for The Three Worlds of Gulliver (1.70:1 letterboxed), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (4:3) and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1.77:1 anamorphic), as well as basic filmographies of Jack Sher, Arthur Ross, Ray Harryhausen and Kerwin Mathews. --Gary S Dalkin

• Carry On Regardless | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £6.66   |  Saving you £-0.67 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  It's non stop romps as the Carry On team deliver the goods in one of the rudest and funniest of the Carry On films. The cast are all on top form as a bunch of no-hoppers who join an agency in the search for a job. The anarchy mounts as they do a series of odd jobs including a chimps tea party trying to stay sober at a wine tasting and demolishing a house.

• Ealing Studios Boxset 1 | DVD | (16/10/2006) from £27.99   |  Saving you £2.00 (7.15%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Kind Hearts and Coronets (Dir. Robert Hamer 1949): Sir Alec Guinness became an international star with his extraordinary performance as eight different characters in this 1949 Ealing Studios classic. Dennis Price (I'm All Right Jack Private Progress) co-stars as Edwardian gentleman Louis Mazzini who plots to avenge his mother's death by seizing the dukedom of the aristocratic d'Ascoyne family. But to gain this inheritance Mazzini must first murder the line of eccentric relatives who stand between him and the title including General d'Ascoyne Admiral d'Ascoyne The Duke of Chalfont Lady Agatha d'Ascoyne and four more all brillantly portrayed by Guinness and leading to one of the most delicious final twists in comedy history. Passport To Pimlico (Dir. Henry Cornelius 1949): An ancient document reveals that London's Pimlico district really belongs to France. And the Pimlico community eager to abandon post-War constraints quickly establish their independence as a ration-free state with hilarious results. Nicholas Nickleby (Dir. Alberto Cavalcanti 1947): The classic Charles Dicken's tale of 'Nicholas Nickleby ' a man who is deprived of his inheritance and travels to seek his fortune with a group of gypsies. Went The Day Well? (Dir. Alberto Cavalcanti 1942): The residents of a British village during WWII welcome a platoon of soldiers only to discover that they're actually Germans!

• Spring Meeting | DVD | (15/02/2016) from £7.98   |  Saving you £4.00 (66.78%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Hitchcock heroine Nova Pilbeam demonstrates her considerable flair for comedy in this incredibly popular wartime adaptation of the hit play by Irish author Molly Keane (a.k.a. M.J. Farrell) and John Perry. Co-starring Michael Wilding, Basil Sydney and Margaret Rutherford, Spring Meeting released in America as Three Wise Brides is featured here in a brand-new transfer from original film elements, in its original aspect ratio.Tiny Fox-Collier and her son, Tony, are broke. A cheery and handsome young man about town, Tony knows he can rely on his mother for a brainwave to save them from utter destitution. This she has: a visit is scheduled to the Irish country estate of her old flame Sir Richard Furze, now a wealthy widower with two daughters. But while Tiny is determined to see her son marry the beautiful but haughty Joan, it seems Tony only has eyes for Joan's spirited younger sister, Baby...SPECIAL FEATURES:Image galleryOriginal script PDFOriginal theatre programme PDF

• The Maltese Falcon | DVD | (05/02/2007) from £13.49   |  Saving you £2.50 (18.53%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A gallery of high-living lowlifes will stop at nothing to get their sweaty hands on a jewel-encrusted falcon. Detective Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) wants to find out why - and who's gonna take the fall. This third screen version of Dashiell Hammett's novel is a film of firsts: John Huston's directorial debut rotund 62-year-old Sydney Greenstreet's screen debut film history's first film noir and Bogart's breakthrough role after years as a Warner contract player. When George Raft refused to work with a first-time director Bogart took on the role of Spade - and launched the most acclaimed period of his career. An all-star cast (including Greenstreet Mary Astor Peter Lorre and Elisha Cook Jr.) join Bogart in this crisply written sizzler that placed in the top quarter of the American Film Institute's 100 Greatest American Films list. Many say it's the best detective drama ever. Each time you see it you'll find it hard to disagree.

• Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Season Six (5 disc box set) | DVD | (02/11/2015) from £21.98   |  Saving you £11.00 (57.93%)   |  RRP £29.99

• Eyes Wide Shut | Blu Ray | (03/03/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  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.

• A Ghost Waits | Blu Ray | (03/05/2021) from £17.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  YOU ARE NOT ALONE. An ingeniously unique and unpredictable combo of horror, humour and heart, A Ghost Waits is a DIY labour of love years in the making from first-time writer/director Adam Stovall and producer/star MacLeod Andrews. Tasked with renovating a neglected rental home, handyman Jack (MacLeod Andrews, They Look Like People, Doctor Sleep) quickly finds out why the tenants keep leaving in droves - this house is haunted. The ghost in question is Muriel (Natalie Walker), herself employed from beyond the veil to keep the home vacant. Against the odds, Jack and Muriel find they have a lot in common... pulse notwithstanding. Having found a kindred spirit in an otherwise lonely existence, they must fight for their newfound affection as pressure mounts for them each to fulfil their cross-purposes . From its opening spectral assault to its achingly poignant conclusion - as well as a witty depiction of afterlife bureaucracy in the vein of Beetlejuice and A Matter of Life and Death - A Ghost Waits has shocked and surprised audiences around the world, and now makes its home video debut stacked with insightful bonus features that take you inside the process of creating this phantasmagorical monochrome marvel. Special Features High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation Original uncompressed stereo audio Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing Audio commentary by writer/director Adam Stovall Audio commentary by Adam Stovall and MacLeod Andrews Audio commentary by the cast and crew Humanity and the Afterlife in 'A Ghost Waits', a new video essay by Isabel Custodio exploring the film's themes and cinematic forebears Eight interviews with cast and crew moderated by critic and programmer tt stern-enzi Interview and post-film Q&A with Adam Stovall moderated by Alan Jones at Frightfest Glasgow 2020 Outtakes Easter eggs Theatrical trailer Image gallery Reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork by Sister Hyde and original artwork by Julie Hill FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collectors' booklet featuring new writing by Craig Ian Mann

• Square Peg, The / Follow A Star | DVD | (12/05/2003) from £7.99   |  Saving you £5.00 (62.58%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In The Square Peg Norman Wisdom plays one of a pair of council workmen who, while repairing the road outside an army base, come to illustrate the oxymoronic nature of the phrase "military intelligence". Finding themselves drafted, the workmen are sent to repair the roads ahead of the Allied advance through war-torn Europe by the sergeant they previously embarrassed. Norman finds himself behind the German lines, joins up with French Resistance, gets captured then sets out to rescue British prisoners from a German military HQ by impersonating General Schreiber. Of course Wisdom plays Schreiber too. The Square Peg is the film that introduced Norman Wisdom's famous catch-phrase, "Mr. Grimsdale!". Also here Hattie Jacques gets to sing a remarkable duet with Wisdom, and a pre-Goldfinger Honor Blackman provides the love interest. Following his rising star was just what Norman Wisdom's audience had been doing all through the 1950s and, by 1959, and after six films with director John Paddy Carstairs, it was time for a change. Hence Robert Asher made his directorial debut with Follow a Star. The plot is a comedy version of A Star is Born (1954), with Norman yet again playing a dreaming shop worker, this time aspiring to singing stardom. Vernon Carew (played by Wisdom regular Jerry Desmonde) is the fading singer who schemes to use Wisdom's talent to sustain his own rapidly failing career, while the girl is overlooked starlette June Laverick. Norman is surrounded by a particularly strong supporting cast, with Hattie Jacques returning from The Square Peg (1958), Richard Wattis, John Le Mesurier, Fenella Fielding, Ron Moody and, uncredited, future Bond villain Charles Grey. --Gary S Dalkin