"Actor: Vivien Merchant"

• Alfie (1966) | DVD | (01/11/2021) from £6.91   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Alfie is not really a bad sort. It's just that he has this overwhelming desire for the opposite sex. You might say that birds' are irresistible to him, sort of second nature. With Michael Caine in the title role, Alfie is a ribald and wild comedy, filled with sex and sin. For those who want to be entertained, Alfie is charming, delightful and quick moving. For those who want more, there is, beneath the surface, a lingering tragedy, simply and poignantly told about the taker and the taken. Extras:Theatrical Trailer

• Alfie | DVD | (26/08/2002) from £5.15   |  Saving you £10.84 (210.49%)   |  RRP £15.99

  What's it all about, Alfie?" asked the hit Burt Bacharach/Hal David title song, to which the less philosophical answer might be: an amoral young man comically seducing a succession of beautiful women in swinging-sixties London. Michael Caine was the titular anti-hero, here consolidating his new star status from Zulu (1964) and The Ipcress File (1965), his conquests including Shelley Winters, Jane Asher and Shirley Ann Field. Alfie was a huge success, bringing a new frankness about changing sexual attitudes to the screen, in which respect it was almost the male companion to Julie Christie's then shocking, Oscar-winning performance in Darling (1965). It was also a sort-of contemporary Tom Jones, which had swept the Oscars for 1963, however, Alfie was not only better made, but in Michael Caine's guilelessly amoral asides to camera, offered a groundbreaking illustration of a newly self-conscious cinema. It is a technique Caine would reprise as the middle-aged philanderer in Blame It On Rio (1983). With Blow Up also released in 1966, and Ken Russell's Women In Love following in 1969, British film-making was truly in the midst of a sexual revolution. Michael Caine would reunite with director Lewis Gilbert and meet his female match in Educating Rita (1983). --Gary S. Dalkin

• Under Milk Wood | DVD | (20/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Hollywood icons Richard Burton Elizabeth Taylor and Peter O'Toole star in the screen adaptation of Dylan Thomas's classic play. A celebration of life and death the film follows the people and events in a small Welsh harbour village from one spring to the next. Captain Cat the blind sea captain awake or asleep yearns for Rosie Probert the greatest passion of his youth. Burton plays the key role of the first voice an all-seeing compassionate narrator.

• Frenzy | DVD | (17/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  By the time Alfred Hitchcock's second-to-last picture came out in 1972, the censorship restrictions under which he had laboured during his long career had eased up. Now he could give full sway to his lurid fantasies, and that may explain why Frenzy is the director's most violent movie by far--outstripping even Psycho for sheer brutality. Adapted by playwright Anthony Shaffer, the story concerns a series of rape-murders committed by suave fruit-merchant Bob Rusk (Barry Foster), who gets his kicks from throttling women with a necktie. This being a Hitchcock thriller, suspicion naturally falls on the wrong man--ill-tempered publican Richard Blaney (Jon Finch). Enter Inspector Oxford from New Scotland Yard (Alex McCowan), who thrashes out the finer points of the case with his wife (Vivian Merchant), whose tireless enthusiasm for indigestible delicacies like quail with grapes supplies a classic running gag.Frenzy was the first film Hitchcock had shot entirely in his native Britain since Jamaica Inn (1939), and many contemporary critics used that fact to account for what seemed to them a glorious return to form after a string of Hollywood duds (Marnie, Torn Curtain, Topaz). Hitchcock specialists are often less wild about it, judging the detective plot mechanical and the oh-so-English tone insufferable. But at least three sequences rank among the most skin-crawling the maestro ever put on celluloid. There is an astonishing moment when the camera backs away from a room in which a murder is occurring, down the stairs, through the front door and then across the street to join the crowd milling indifferently on the pavement. There is also the killer's nerve-wracking attempt to retrieve his tiepin from a corpse stuffed into a sack of potatoes. Finally, there is one act of strangulation so prolonged and gruesome it verges on the pornographic. Was the veteran film-maker a rampant misogynist as feminist observers have frequently charged? Sit through this appalling scene if you dare and decide for yourself. --Peter Matthews

• Alfie - Paramount Originals (includes Limited Edition reproduction film poster) | DVD | (23/07/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Alfie is not really a bad sort. It's just that he has this overwhelming desire for the opposite sex. You might say that ""birds"" are irresistible to him sort of second nature. With Michael Caine in the title role Alfie is a ribald and wild comedy filled with sex and sin. For those who want to be entertained Alfie is charming delightful and quick-moving. For those who want more there is beneath the surface a lingering tragedy simply and poignantly told about the taker and the t

• The Offence | DVD | (20/10/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The Offence

• Under Milk Wood | DVD | (27/10/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Under Milk Wood is the Dylan Thomas' magnum opus which carries the double legacy of the author's extensive work for radio - a medium for which he had an almost intuitive grasp - and his skill and ability as a poet. The play describes the thoughts of a stranger (Richard Burton) who whilst wandering through a small Welsh village seems to know the intimate details of the life of a selection of the town inhabitants. Described in poetic terms we learn that most of the inhabitants are very strange people indeed - we are told about their innermost desires and thoughts. Under Milk Wood is a sensitive often comic examination of Welsh life in which the people are viewed as being particularly blessed. This is a must have DVD for any Dylan Thomas fan and lover of great literature.

• Pinter's Progress & The Homecoming | DVD | (01/11/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Feature film and documentary. The Homecoming: This is a superlative piece of 20th century drama transferred to the screen with great skill. The screenplay differs little from the original play but Peter Hall uses the camera to create new imagery and symbolism. It is clear that Hall and his cast were completely in tune with this piece as the acting is superb. Paul Rogers is the clan 's malevolent patriarch and Ian Holm is the amusing but insidious Lenny while Vivien Merchant 's Ruth is both hypnotic and captivating. This is Harold Pinter 's masterpiece perfectly brought to the big screen by Sir Peter Hall. Pinter's Progress: A personal take on working with Harold Pinter from intimate conversations with actors directors and writers on their experiences of the man and his work. One of the truly great modern playwrights Harold Pinter passed away on Christmas Eve 2008 leaving behind a great legacy of work in theatre and film.

• Accident / The Family Way | DVD | (23/06/2003) from £14.98   |  Saving you £2.01 (13.42%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Accident: (WS 1.66:1) Following their destructive foray into English class hatreds in 'The Servant' director Joseph Losey and screen writer Harold Pinter turn their attention to the Dons of Oxford. Pinter examines the motivations of several men in a brusque study of love and jealousy centred around one woman. The 'Accidental' death of one of them springs a trap of guilt remorse and thwarted sexual ambition on all concerned. Each scene brings more prickly revelations in a complex and thought provoking masterpiece. The Family Way: (FS 4:3) Based on Bill Naughton's warm hearted play 'The Family Way' is a thought-provoking exploration of the emotional impact of the 1960s sexual revolution. Hayley Mills stars in her first 'X' rated film with Hywel Bennett as two sensitive youngsters who fail to consummate their marriage following the vulgar ribaldry of their typically working class Lancashire wedding.

• Michael Caine Box Set: Alfie/The Italian Job/Zulu | DVD | (07/06/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Zulu The year: 1879. The place: Natal Africa. One British garrison has already fallen to a huge army of Zulu tribesmen. The fearless native warriors are now heading for the isolated colonial outpost of Rorke's Drift which is manned by no more than a hundred South Wales Borderers. Alfie Alfie is a good-looking charmer who finds that the Swinging Sixties are a great time to be around in. He's always able to sweet-talk women into bed and he just doesn't care about t

• Under Milk Wood | DVD | (28/05/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

• The Man In The Iron Mask | DVD | (28/07/2003) from £15.22   |  Saving you £-9.23 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Alexandre Dumas' classic tale of fraternal squabbling makes a more than satisfactory transition to celluloid with this 1976 made-for-television swashbuckler. Viewers familiar with the more recent Leonardo DiCaprio version may be stymied at first by the non-MTV pace and the rather unhip presence of Richard Chamberlain in the lead role(s). This well-lensed action film overcomes a somewhat poky first half to emerge as a terrific adventure, complete with plenty of derring-do, some sharply pointed dialogue, and a wonderful performance by the incomparably malevolent Patrick McGoohan. Rousing fun for burgeoning rapscallions of all ages. Director Mike Newell would later find success in a different genre with Four Weddings and a Funeral. Ian Holm, Louis Jordan, and Ralph Richardson round out the embarrassingly rich supporting cast. --Andrew Wright

• The Offence | DVD | (04/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Detective Sergeant Johnson (CONNERY) has been with the British police force for 20 years. In that time the countless murders rapes and other serious crimes he has had to investigate has left a terrible mark on him. His anger and aggression that had been suppressed for years finally surfaces when interviewing a suspect Baxter whom Johnson is convinced is the man that has been carrying out a series of brutal attacks on young girls. An amazing look at the human psyche THE OFFENCE

• The Homecoming | DVD | (05/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  When Teddy (Jayston) brings his wife Ruth (Marchant) home to meet his family for the first time murky secrets are revealed and old wounds are reopened... The American Film Theatre production of Harold Pinter's play features direction from Peter Hall and showcases Ian Holm giving one of the finest performances of his career as vicious thug Lenny.

• The Maids | DVD | (20/09/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In this filmed version of Jean Genet's acclaimed play two maids Solange (Jackson) and Claire (York) hate their employers and while they are out take turns at dressing up as Madame and insulting her which leads to some severe consequences...