"Actor: Tucker Smith"

• West Side Story | DVD | (29/07/2005) from £5.90   |  Saving you £10.09 (171.02%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The winner of 10 Academy Awards, this 1961 musical by choreographer Jerome Robbins and director Robert Wise (The Sound of Music) remains irresistible. Based on a smash Broadway play updating Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to the 1950s era of juvenile delinquency, West Side Story stars Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer as the star-crossed lovers from different neighbourhoods--and ethnicities. The film's real selling points, however, are the highly charged and inventive song-and-dance numbers, the passionate ballads, the moody sets, colourful support from Rita Moreno, and the sheer accomplishment of Hollywood talent and technology producing a film so stirring. Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim wrote the score. --Tom Keogh

• West Side Story Collector's Edition Boxset | DVD | (10/11/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  West Side Story marked a small revolution in the history of the Hollywood musical when it was released in 1961. Enriched by Leonard Bernsteins marvellously brassy, challenging score--as redolent of the place as anything Gershwin ever wrote--the location shooting and aerial views of the Manhattan grid made New York a gritty backdrop to this modern interpretation of Romeo and Juliet. The film rightly became an instant classic which won ten Oscars and brought some of the greatest numbers in the era of the modern musical to a global audience. Everything gels, from Jerome Robbins superlative choreography (he retains a directors credit with Robert Wise, although anxious studio bosses removed him from the film when costs started to mount), to Ernest Lehmans taught screenplay, some of Sondheims most accessible early lyrics, and passionate, raw performances from the gang members and the lovers. For many of the cast, including Richard Beymer as Tony and Natalie Wood as Maria, the film represents a creative climax which wouldnt be surpassed during the remainder of their distinguished careers. Rita Moreno is an outstanding Anita, even with her songs disappointingly dubbed, and George Chakiris sinewy, arrogant Bernardo is magnetic. The whole thing still thrums with a youthful, dramatic energy that even a modern equivalent like Moulin Rouge cant match. On the DVD: West Side Story thoroughly merits the attention to detail in this handsome Collectors Edition. The anamorphic (16:9) widescreen format reproduces the original cinema presentation, brilliantly serving the city panoramas and balletic fight scenes, as well as the softness of the love duets, while a newly processed Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track brings Bernsteins score up as if the notes were still drying on the page. Extras abound. A "Remembering" documentary features significant contributions from director Robert Wise, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn and Rita Moreno. Die-hard fans will lap up the various galleries, comparisons, the original intermission music and even a complete copy of Ernest Lehmans screenplay. --Piers Ford

• Peter Cushing - The Peter Cushing Collection | DVD | (13/03/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  This terrific box set features a profusion of Peter Cushing-led horror films. The Abominable Snowman (Dir. Val Guest 1957): The final film collaboration between director Val Guest and writer Nigel Kneale. Starring Forrest Tucker and Peter Cushing The Abominable Snowman tells of an expedition to the Himalayas to track down the mythical Yeti. A wonderfully atmospheric chiller from the heyday of the Hammer Studios. Island of Terror (Dir. Terence Fisher 1966): When oh when will scientists learn to stop playing with radiation? Island of Terror takes place on a remote island off the coast of Ireland. No phones no regular transport to and from the mainland but there is a well-equipped cancer research center where the well intentioned - but foolish! - scientists are irradiating lumps of tissue. The local constable finds a body with no bones in it ('No bones?' 'No bones!') and soon a team from London led by the ever-game Peter Cushing arrives to investigate. Let's hope that darned generator doesn't give out... Island of Terror isn't going to keep you awake at night but it is a lot of silly fun. Be warned though - whatever the evil menace is it can climb trees! The Blood Beast Terror (Dir. Vernon Sewell 1968): A Victorian English entomologist whose daughter happens to be a giant moth moves with her to a quiet village where he can begin work on an insect mate for her. His family problems worsen when his winged daughter starts killing people and drinking their blood. Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (Dir. Terence Fisher 1974): Doctor Helder (Briant) is sent to an asylum for experimenting on cadavers. There he is rescued by Doctor Carl Victor (Cushing) the original Doctor Frankenstein now living under a new identity who learns that a new monster is set to walk the earth...