This box set features three films all directed by Paul Morrissey and produced by Andy Warhol using his 'factory' actors. The films loosely form a trilogy designed to encapsulate the 60's generation. Flesh (1968): Joe 'the hustler' earns money to pay for his girlfriend's abortion. Taking to the streets he meets an artist obsessed with body worship a couple of transvestites an ex-girlfriend working as a topless dancer and a friend whose arm-pits have been torched with a fla
A 15 year-old boy has been killed in cold blood. His classmate a quiet reclusive Sikh boy is on trial for murder. It is a trial that becomes a tinderbox for the justice system and race relations in the country. The decision falls with the jury and hangs on a knife-edge. The twelve jurors find themselves the focus of national attention. They have to cope with intense pressure threats and intimidation as they embark on the biggest soul searching experience of their lives. The Jury is a complex and hard-hitting drama with a difference a highly charged and emotive story following the impact of the case on it's jury members.
This multi-Academy Award winning film masterpiece stars Jon Voight as Joe Buck a charming but hopelessly naive Texas ""cowboy "" who dreams of making his fortune servicing wealthy women in the Big Apple. Instead he's conned into partnering up with small-time hustler Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman). Living together on the tattered edges of society these two outcasts develop an unlikely bond that helps them transcend their cruel existence in this timeless cinema classic directed by the legendary John Schlesinger.
Puccini's trio of mini masterpieces Il Trittico features a melodrama (Il Tabarro) a sentimental piece (Suor Angelica) and finally a comedy (Gianni Schicchi). These three one-act operas feature some of Puccini's most beautiful music. Puccini's passionate and ruggedly realistic opera Il Tabarro is a tale of deception and murder along the banks of the Seine. Suor Angelica is the story of Sister Angelica who was born a princess but had an illegitmate son and so was banished to a co
One of the patients in an institution for the incurably insane was once its director, and a young psychiatrist (Robert Powell) has to figure out which one as they all tell him their stories. What better setting for a horror anthology? It's an inspired framing device, making this one of the better examples of the genre, even if screenwriter Robert Bloch at times resorts to gimmicks rather than invention. The first two stories are less than brilliant (the first is highlighted by dismembered body parts neatly wrapped in butcher paper wriggling back to life for revenge), but Charlotte Rampling and Britt Ekland are marvellous in the third tale, about a mentally unbalanced young woman and her dangerous best friend. Herbert Lom is also excellent in the final story as a scientist who carves an army of dolls he claims he can bring to life by sheer willpower. Director Roy Ward Baker (Quatermas and the Pit) builds momentum with each story until the dark and deliciously bloody climax. This Amicus Studios production looks visually dull compared to Hammer's gothic gloss, but it features a great British cast (including Patrick Magee and Hammer stalwart Peter Cushing), and ultimately Baker makes that gloomy look work for his increasingly creepy production. Amicus produced a series of horror anthologies, including the original 1972 Tales from the Crypt and The Torture Garden (also scripted by Bloch). --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com
Verdi - Falstaff (Solti Wiener PO)
Percival Glyde is murdered in his sleep with a wooden spike that is hammered into his skull. His killer (Tod Slaughter) steals his identity and moves into Glyde's London mansion. The family lawyer who has not seen the real Percival since he was a boy informs the madman of Glyde's arranged marriage to the beautiful heiress Laurie Fairlie. Greed and perversion drive this lunatic to the brutal killing of anyone who attempts to unravel his secret identity...
François Truffaut's second adaptation of a Henri-Pierre Roche novel (the other being 'Jules et Jim') is also about a menage-à-trois although this time set in nineteenth century Wales. Claude (Jean-Pierre Léaud) an aspiring young French writer spends a holiday on the Welsh coast with an English family and falls in love with the two daughters Ann (Kika Markham) and Muriel (Stacey Tendeter).
Languishing in the vaults for decades, during which time it became a semi-legendary show among TV fans of a certain age, Fireball XL5 (1962) was Gerry Anderson's second puppet-animation science fiction series, the direct forerunner of Stingray (1963) and Thunderbirds (1964). This is the show on which Anderson established the formula for his later classics: a pseudo-military organisation engaged in desperate Earth-saving adventures against overwhelming odds; superb model work; puppets with very obvious strings but endearing personalities; iconic music by Barry Gray; and absolutely massive explosions. Colonel Steve Zodiac pilots the coolest spaceship then seen on British TV, the titular Fireball XL5, and is joined by medical officer Venus, a forerunner of Lady Penelope voiced by Sylvia Anderson, and comedy relief Prof Matt Matic (David Graham). Along for the ride is Robert the Robot, a thinner version of Robbie the Robot from Forbidden Planet (1956), a character who would soon turn up in Lost in Space (1965). The plots are ridiculous, with typically Cold War-era aliens routinely bent on planetary destruction for no reason, and there's zero attention to even rudimentary astronomy or anything else approaching actual science. Yet the gadgets, vehicles and puppetry are first-rate and the fast-paced, action-filled episodes are relentlessly entertaining. It's a cult just waiting to be reborn, and essential viewing for all Anderson fans. On the DVD: Fireball XL5 is presented with all 39 episodes (they run 25 minutes each) on five discs. Despite the colourful packaging, the episodes are all black and white, and the 4:3 picture is generally fine, though there are occasional instances of over-compression, which results in artefacting on smooth walls and the like. Some shots look a little soft, but detail is usually strong, making the models and puppets look better than ever. The mono sound is fine, if unremarkable. There are no extras beyond optional subtitles. --Gary S Dalkin
Phantasm (1979): If this one doesn't scare you you're already dead! After their friend is murdered two brothers begin a hunt in search of the killer. Their investigation leads them to the discovery of a startling and hideous secret. As the brothers learn more about what is really going on at Morningside mortuary (involving a floating sphere with razor-sharp protruding daggers which seeks out victims and drains the blood from their heads) they get deeper into trouble but it may be already too late! Phantasm 2 - The Ball Is Back (1988): Armed with his lethal band of flying silver spheres the deadly mortician who was thought to have killed his last victim nine years ago returns more dangerous than ever! Once again young Michael Pearson and his pal Reggie take on the master of the killer orbs as they race against time and risk their lives to thwart his murderous rampage forever... Phantasm 3 - Lord Of The Dead (1994): Thirteen years after the original nightmare began Mike and Reggie reunite with the spirit of Mike's dead brother and are pursued by The Tall Man through warped dimensions of space and time. Who will reign supreme? Prepare to be scared witless as the fine line between the living and the dead snaps with a vengeance! Phantasm 4 - Oblivion (1998): The sequel with balls! The nightmare lives on... but humanity may not! The Phantasm saga reaches its terrifying climax in a horrific explosion of gut-wrenching battles lethal flying spheres and a spine-tingling quest to discover once and for all the secret of the mysterious Tall Man. For years the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) has waged a gruesome war against humanity slowly populating the world with his undead legions. But two determined heroes Mike (A. Michael Baldwin) and Reggie (Reggie Bannister) have pledged to stop the horrifying onslaught - for good! By hurling themselves through a gateway in the time/space continuum they're able to unearth a vital clue from their enemy's past that may put an end to the horror. But the Tall Man not to be so easily defeated is massing his dark army for a blood-curdling final assault in which Michael and Reggie must fight not only for their own lives but future of all mankind. Directed by Phantasm creator Don Coscarelli and including never-before-seen footage excised from the bone-chilling original Phantasm: Oblivion is a nerve-shattering horror thriller charged with astonishing special effects and shocking scenes of pure terror. Brace yourself for a journey beyond your worst nightmares!
Light Heavyweight Championship: Chuck Liddell vs Jeremy Horn Tim Sylvia vs Tra Telligman Randy Couture vs Mike Van Arsdale Diego Sanchez vs Brian Gassaway Frank Trigg vs Georges St. Pierre Matt Lindland vs Joe Doerkson Travis Lutter vs Trevor Prangley James Irvin vs Terry Martin
While much of the world watched the early success of 'Mein Kampf' and the bombing of Pearl Harbour was ten years in the future few were aware of the existence of an oriental 'Hitler' ... Baron Giichi Tankara. But the war had already started in Japan for James Condon American journalist and editor of the Japanese Chronicle whose intuition has led him to believe that major trouble was brewing. The role of Condon man of hard words and harder fists is just the kind of tough guy that first brought James Cagney stardom and in this movie you will not be disappointed as he battles to stay alive long enough to warn the rest of the world against a Japanese militarist plot called the 'Tanaka Plan' that has world domination as its objective. This is one of the first American martial arts movies and features some gripping action with Cagney doing his own stunts for which he trained intensively with Ken Kuniyuki a fifth degree judo master before shooting. This is Cagney at his best.
Neville's Island is an ITV TV film which plays like The Lord of the Flies meets Three Men in a Boat. Except here there are four men, who, when their boat sinks, find themselves stranded on a small island in the middle of the Lake District's Derwent Water with a sausage and an almost defunct mobile phone. Given that our heroes are middle-aged executives on a weekend training exercise, tempers and personalities soon fray. Starting Martin-Men Behaving Badly-Clunes this is essentially a comedy, though the funniest lines go to Timothy Spall as the mercilessly sarcastic Gordon. Jeff Rawle is Neville, the capable team leader, David Bamber the organised Angus, while Clunes has the plum role as Roy, whose mental instability triggers the sometimes-surreal concluding sequences. In a scene paralleling Scream (1996) the rules of the stranded-on-an-island film genre are established, allowing writer Tim Firth to have fun twisting the clichés. He even feints that the film is about to turn into a slasher pic, or the UK's answer to Deliverance (1972). Neville's Island does get a little out of its depth when it ventures into metaphysical waters, but the performances are perfectly judged and the exceptionally sharp dialogue delivers sustained amusement and intermittent belly laughs. On the DVD: There is a basic stills gallery and a list of screen credits for each of the four stars which is misleadingly labelled "biography". Otherwise there are no special features. The sound is effective three channel Dolby Pro logic with the dialogue well presented and Barrington Pheloung's inventive score highlighted. The anamorphically enhanced 1.77:1 ratio picture is occasionally grainy but the DVD clarity does succeed in making a TV film look like a real, albeit low-budget, feature film, with some beautiful daytime cinematography and some imaginative firework shots demonstrating strong contrast and luminosity.--Gary S Dalkin
Lily and Chen move from Hong Kong to London to make their fortune. Enterprising Lily runs her own restaurant but she fails to persuade Chen who prefers the security of a job as a waiter in London's Chinatown. Soho which forms the backdrop of much of the action is Britain's nerve centre for the Chinese Mafia - the Triads. In the back streets and illicit gambling dens the film gives a rare insight to the Machiavellian exchanges between rival Triad gangs. Trying to pay off his father's gambling debts; the innocent Chen accepts money from a Triad member only to find that he is expected to pay for it by doing a heroin run. Terrified he falls in with Lily's plan to move away and start up a business. However back in Soho a high ranking Triad member is planning to overthrow his leader and Chen's unpaid debt could turn him into a pawn in a horrifying violent power struggle.
First broadcast in 1967, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons was the most grown-up of all Gerry Anderson's SuperMarionation adventures. There are gadgets and toy-friendly machines galore, of course--like the Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle, the Angel Aircraft and Cloudbase itself--but, unlike the colourful fantasies of Stingray and Thunderbirds, this series' concern with an implacable, vengeful enemy, conspiracies and double-agents drew its inspiration from James Bond and the Cold War spy dramas of the 1960s. Special effects whiz Derek Meddings imbues the action sequences with a truly Bondian grandeur and, like the sinister Spectre of the Bond films, the Martian Mysterons seem all the more hostile for their unseen presence, their agents infiltrating every organisation dedicated to their destruction just as it seemed the Soviets were doing at the time. The indestructible Captain Scarlet is killed then resurrected every week (though not like South Park's Kenny), and more often than not the unstoppable Mysterons emerge triumphant, and always undefeated. The varied cast of Spectrum agents and their voice characterisations also aim at verisimilitude (Captain Scarlet, voiced by Francis Matt hews, sounds like a grim Cary Grant), while the puppetry is more realistic than ever. Now with newly remastered picture and Dolby 5.1 surround sound, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons still looks and sounds like the epitome of 60s cool. --Mark Walker
A Night In Venice by Johann Strauss, recorded at BUFA, Berlin, 1973.
At a hospice facility nestled in the mountains of Southern California three very different families face the one thing they have in common: One member of each family is in the last stages of a terminal illness.
The legendary creature is half man... half animal... and a cold-blooded killer! Mystery hangs over the Rill Ski Resort in Colorado after a young skier is found dead by an animal. But no ordinary animal. The Town Sheriff (Clint Walker) and Naturalists believe it could be a Yeti - the creature that was seen for years in the Colorado Rockies and North Western America. After many other skiers are found dead Tony Rill (Robert Logan) a good hunter sees a white creature disappearing into the woods. Worried he informs his Grandmother (Silyva Sydney) the ski resort supervisor but in order to keep her business she keeps the Resort open and says creatures are legends. After more attacks 2 ski champions (Bo Svenson and Yvette Minieux) go into pursuit to stop the beast.
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