"Actor: William"

• The Mikado | DVD | (07/02/2005) from £5.05   |  Saving you £10.94 (216.63%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A lavish 1982 production of the Gilbert and Sullivan opera in which Nanki-Poo the son of the Mikado escaping a distasteful marriage arrives in the town of Titipu disguised as a musician...

• Mr & Mrs Smith | DVD | (21/04/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Before Hollywood had entirely typecast Alfred Hitchcock as the master of suspense, with Mr & Mrs Smith he was allowed to fashion an elegant romantic trifle starring Robert Montgomery and Carole Lombard. It probably won't replace Rear Window or Psycho in your affections, but the film is more than a curious footnote to the director's career. The two leads play David and Ann Smith, a devoted but endlessly squabbling couple who discover their three-year marriage isn't legal. When he unexpectedly hesitates to arrange a second wedding, she storms out in a huff and soon begins dating his solid, dependable business partner Jeff (Gene Raymond). The rest follows the formula laid down by such previous screwball comedies as The Awful Truth (1937) and Bringing Up Baby (1938): David employs fair means or foul to win back Ann's heart, causes all sorts of complicated mischief, then... well, three guesses what happens in the end. The intriguing thing about the movie is how Hitchcock takes Norman Krasna's paper-thin script and adds sly undercurrents of menace. You may note, for instance, that the ostensibly happy Smiths treat each other with subtle sadism right from the start, and that David's tactical pursuit of his ex-wife (spying on her and deliberately offending Jeff's parents) involves them both in humiliations that are really quite sinister and ugly. Violence seems about to erupt in the recurring scenes where Ann shaves her husband (suggestively holding a razor up to his throat)--and make what you will of our hero's symbolic nosebleeds. There's a touch of Vertigo in one scary moment when a jammed amusement park ride leaves two characters dangling helplessly high above the ground--and a touch of shall we say relief for Hitchcock's well-known love of toilet humour in another oddball sequence. Montgomery and Lombard keep the mood acceptably frivolous, while indicating the flawed nature of the marital relationship. From the evidence of this one-off, Hitchcock might have been among the best comedy directors in the business, had he so wished. --Peter Matthews

• Wages Of Fear | DVD | (21/01/2002) from £18.88   |  Saving you £1.11 (5.88%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In 1953, before any American studio exec used the phrase "high concept", Henri-George Clouzot's The Wages of Fear boasted a premise so literally explosive that audiences were excited before they got into the theatres. With an oil-fire burning out of control deep in the South American jungle, two lorryloads of highly unstable nitro-glycerin have to be driven through miles of unstable terrain littered with dangerous turns, crumbling planks, falling rocks and mediocre hardtop. One good jolt will vaporise truck, nitro, drivers and a substantial swathe of the countryside, so the company recruits desperate souls among the loser tramps who loiter around the nowhere town of Las Piedras, begging for any kind of work. On the road, Clouzot stages a string of unforgettable sequences: one stretch of badly paved track can only be crossed by driving at under six miles an hour or over 40; a mountain turn requires that the trucks back out onto a rickety, rotten wooden structure; a 50-ton boulder has fallen into the road, and one of the drivers calmly drains a litre of nitro into his thermos to blow it up, only remembering when the fuse is lit that this will rain pebbles all over the countryside and a few good hits on the cargo will set it off. This is perhaps as great a mix of action-adventure and contest as The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and still a textbook example of sustained suspense. On the DVD: The print is in great shape, though the image is a little soft; the menu has a clever explosive aspect and uses the same vintage artwork as the sleeve cannily combined with a snippet. There are trailers for both Wages and Clozuot's other masterpiece, Les Diaboliques, as well as biographies of the principal cast, eight stills and three posters.--Kim Newman

• No Mercy | DVD | (22/09/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Richard Gere and Kim Basinger sizzle in a searing action thriller of passion and murder - No Mercy. Gere stars as Eddie Jillette a tough uncompromising cop whose vow to avenge his partner's death draws him into a torrid affair with the only witness the murderer's girlfriend. Basinger is the sultry Cajun beauty Michel caught in the war between Gere and vicious crimelord Losado the man who possesses her. Jillette's vendetta takes him from the streets of Chicago to the violent underworld of New Orleans where he abducts Michel to flush out Losado. He escapes into the treacherous bayou with his unwilling captive but as their pursuers close in and the danger mounts so does their lust for each other. Out of time and out of luck Jillette confronts Losado in an explosive climax where there can be no mercy...

• Rawhide: The Complete Series | DVD | (11/08/2020) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Blood Bath Blu-Ray | Blu Ray | (30/05/2016) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.00

  The films of Roger Corman are often as well-known for their behind-the-scenes stories as they are the ones unfolding on the screen. He famously made Little Shop of Horrors in just two days using sets left over from A Bucket of Blood and shot The Terror over a long weekend because bad weather prevented him from playing tennis. But none of these tales is quite so complex, or quite so extraordinary, as the making of Blood Bath. The saga began when Corman invested in a Yugoslavian Krimi-like picture entitled Operation Titian just prior to it going into production. Insisting it be filmed in English, he sent actors William Campbell and Patrick Magee, and uncredited story editor Francis Ford Coppola (all fresh from Dementia 13), to Dubrovnik to make a US-friendly movie but wasn't satisfied with the end results. First it was re-cut and re-scored to create Portrait in Terror, a film more in line with drive-in tastes, then it was handed over to Jack Hill (Spider Baby), followed by Stephanie Rothman (Terminal Island), each undertaking reshoots that resulted in a vampire picture by the name of Blood Bath. One final twist was provided when a TV version was required, chopping scenes and adding others to create Track of the Vampire. For this release Arrow Video has searched through the vaults to bring you all four versions of Blood Bath, newly restored from the best materials available to provide a definitive release of one of Corman's craziest ventures.

• 24: Series 1-4 | DVD | (08/08/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £119.99

  Series 1: The first episode begins at midnight on the day of the California Presidential Primary. Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) heads up the government's Counter-Terrorist Unit. He discovers that there's going to be an assassination attempt on Senator Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) an African-American presidential candidate. Bauer faces a battle against the clock to avert disaster. The series follows several characters as they live through a day that none of them will forget. For Kimberly (Elisha Cuthbert) a night on the town takes an unexpected turn. Teri (Leslie Hope) sets out to find Kimberly and encounters more danger than she ever imagined possible. Senator Palmer unaware there's going to be an attempt on his life faces the threat of a long buried scandal resurfacing. Meanwhile Jack with help from his Chief-of-Staff Nina Myers (Sarah Clarke) is charged with the responsibility of stopping the assassination. But who can he trust when it appears a rogue element inside the Agency is in on the hit? And all the time the clock keeps ticking... Series 2: Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) and the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) race to prevent a nuclear bomb being detonated by terrorists in Los Angeles in the second season of 24. Series 3: When the head of a Mexican drug cartel is imprisoned by Jack Bauer (Sutherland) a plot ensues to blackmail the US Government with the threat of a released bio-weapon that will kill millions to ensure his release. With Palmer seeking re-election to a second term will Jack survive this day? Series 4: 18 months after day 3 CTU has a new leader Erin Driscoll a steely government agent who made firing Jack one of her first priorities. After the explosion of a commuter train Jack who is now working for Secretary of Defense James Heller and also is romantically involved with Heller's married daughter Audrey Raines suddenly finds himself heading back to CTU for a meeting with Driscoll. Jack believes that the train explosion is a prelude for bigger things to come...

• Hell Drivers | DVD | (26/01/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Hell Drivers sees James Bond (Sean Connery), Doctor Who (William Hartnell), one of the men from UNCLE (David McCallum), the Prisoner (Patrick McGoohan) and a Professional (Gordon Jackson), all supporting Stanley Baker in this hard-as-nails British action picture realistically set in a bleak late-1950s England. Baker plays Tom Yately, an ex-con who takes the only job he can get--truck driving at breakneck speeds for a corrupt manager (Hartnell) and brutal foreman (McGoohan). The constant short runs and competition between the drivers makes for an intense atmosphere which inevitably explodes into violence. Baker's only friend is an Italian ex-POW played sensitively by Herbert Lom, while Peggy Cummings is a remarkably free-spirited heroine for a British film of the time. Baker himself is superb, quietly tough, and broodingly charismatic, McGoohan is compellingly malevolent and Hartnell simply chilling. The film is consistently engrossing and often exciting, even when the plot spirals into melodrama towards the finale. One has to wonder where the police are during all this mayhem, but the fact that the screenplay, by John Kruse and Cy Endfield, received a BAFTA nomination suggests the scenario was at least reasonably realistic. Endfield also directed this, the second of six films he would helm for Baker, the most famous of which would be the all-time classic, Zulu (1964). On the DVD: Hell Drivers is presented in an anamorphically enhanced ratio of 1.77:1. This means a little of the original 1.96:1 VistaVision (70mm) image is cropped at the sides, which is just noticeable in a few shots. The print used is excellent, with only very minor damage, and the mono sound is fine. The disc also includes Look in on Hell Drivers, a 1957 TV programme that offers interviews with Stanley Baker, Cy Endfield and Alfie Bass, as well as comments from genuine truck drivers confirming the realism of the story, and a contemporary 15-minute television interview with Baker, which focuses on Hell Drivers, Sea Fury(1958) (also directed by Cy Endfield) and Violent Playground (1958). The original trailer rounds out an excellent package. --Gary S Dalkin

• The X Files: Season 6 | DVD | (27/12/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Mulder and Scully return from Antarctica to discover they've been reassigned and are no longer a part of The X-Files. Their frustration turns to fear when Cassandra Spender a woman who claims to have been abducted the same night as Mulder's sister reappears with claims of an alien threat. But it is an extraterrestrial artefact found off the coast of Africa which may hold the key to the very origins of life on Earth and which has an unexplained and deadly effect on Mulder. Episod

• The Jazz Singer | Blu Ray | (19/03/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• The Tall Man | DVD | (18/03/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Mystery thriller written and directed by Pascal Laugier. The small town of Cold Rock has long suffered since the mines which used to supply jobs and prosperity have closed down. With not much hope for the community of Cold Rock anyway matters are only made worse by the disappearance of local children at the hands of local legend 'The Tall Man'. Jessica Biel plays young nurse Julia Dunning whose child is the latest to be abducted and while in pursuit of the 'Tall Man' she brings a host of shocking truths to the fore.

• Waitress | DVD | (26/08/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  How many times have you been in a restaurant and instead of a waitress you get an actress? Carol Bever Jim Harris and Carol Drake (along with special appearances by Chris Noth (of Law and Order and Sex In The City) and David Letterman's 'Bud Melman') Star in this raunchy comedy about a would-be actress a teen magazine reporter and a pre pubescent prep-school girl. Picture three waitress in a crazy restaurant where there is chaos among the customers an exploding k

• Young Guns II | Blu Ray | (15/11/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Welcome to Collinwood | DVD | (29/09/2003) from £5.37   |  Saving you £8.62 (160.52%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Five hapless inner-city low-lifes unsuccessfully attempt to burgle a pawnbroker's safe, but wind up gaining more than they lose.

• A Carol Christmas | DVD | (30/11/2009) from £19.85   |  Saving you £-4.86 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  A modern remake of the Charles Dickens classic a Christas Carol with a female talk show host Carol Cummings playing the Scrooge. Carol is a fabulously wealthy and a enormously successful TV talk show host caring for nothing other than the money and fame that her job entails. Carol mercilessly bullies and harangues everyone with whom she works from her producer Jimmy to her long suffering assistant - a single mother who dares not risk losing her job.

• The Morecambe And Wise Movie Collection | DVD | (20/05/2002) from £24.95   |  Saving you £0.04 (0.16%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The Morecambe & Wise Collection brings together the total cinematic oeuvre of Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise: The Intelligence Men (1965), That Riviera Touch (1966) and The Magnificent Two (1967). Though intermittently amusing, they serve mostly to confirm that Morecambe & Wise did the smart thing in devoting the majority of their career to television sketch show. Their comedy was most potent in small doses. The Intelligence Men is an obvious but likeable parody of the early Bond films and sets the pattern for all three films: Eric and Ernie as two well-meaning blunderers cast into an unfamiliar milieu (in this case, international espionage) and forced to survive armed with little more than a repertoire of wince-inducing puns. That Riviera Touch is an obvious but likeable parody of the heist genre. Again, Eric and Ernie are cast as hapless ingénues, in this case a pair of traffic wardens whose holiday in France intersects with the plottings of a gang of jewel thieves. If anything, it’s even more contrived than that sounds, but the scenes in which Eric cleans out the casino by accident are wonderfully understated, and a reminder of a peerless comic actor. The Magnificent Two, the final and by some distance the least funny of the three, is an updated though rather laboured subversion of the Spaghetti Western, relying rather too much on the notion that anything and everything to do with foreigners is inherently hilarious. On the DVD: The Morecambe & Wise Collection has English subtitles for all three discs and all include the original cinematic trailer. That Riviera Touch is presented in 4:3 format, the remaining two in 16:9. As special features go, these are annoyingly desultory for a release that will certainly only be purchased by die-hard fans. It wouldn’t have killed the producers to commission some liner notes at the very least.--Andrew Mueller

• Prison Break: The Complete Series - Seasons 1-5 | Blu Ray | (03/07/2017) from £34.99   |  Saving you £7.68 (21.95%)   |  RRP £42.67

  Go into lockdown with all five exhilarating seasons of this acclaimed series filled with explosive action and white-knuckle plot twists! After Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) breaks out of a maximum-security prison with his wrongly accused death row inmate brother (Dominic Purcell), the two flee the U.S. with a band of dangerous fugitives. But tragically, Michael then lands inside a hellish Panamanian prison, from which the only escape seems to be death. Meanwhile, the brothers must outwit an assassin and uncover the secrets of a sinister organisation known as The Company. Lives are shattered and shocking truths learned as the intriguing, adrenaline-fueled series careens toward its stunning conclusion!

• Urban Warfare | DVD | (13/02/2012) from £6.25   |  Saving you £9.74 (155.84%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Utilising his military experience in undercover espionage, reconnaissance and anti-terrorism, Seattle cop Elijah Kane (Steven Seagal) is head of the city's toughest crime fighters; The Special Investigations Unit. Serial killers, diamond smugglers, warring gangs and a group of deadly assassins out for revenge are all in a day's work for Kane and his crew. When chaos hits the streets its Kane's job to investigate and terminate.

• Star Trek 7: Generations (remastered) | DVD | (22/03/2010) from £5.98   |  Saving you £2.01 (33.61%)   |  RRP £7.99

  Two captains. One destiny. Stardate: the 23rd Century. Retired Starfleet officers James T. Kirk Montgomery Scott and Pavel Chekov are guests of honor aboard the newly christened Enterprise-B. A test run takes an unexpected turn however when the starship encounters two vessels trapped inside the Nexus a mysterious energy ribbon. During a perilous rescue attempt Kirk is swept out into space. Seven decades later Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of Enterprise-D rescue an El Aurian physicist named Soran. Unbeknownst to Picard Soran harbors a deadly plan that includes the destruction of the Enterprise and millions of lives. Now Picard's only hope for a future rests within in the Nexus...and a legendary captain from the past.

• Leprechaun's Revenge | DVD | (20/04/2015) from £5.19   |  Saving you £7.80 (150.29%)   |  RRP £12.99

  On St Patrick's Day sixty six years ago the town of Irish Channel in Louisiana was the site of a bloody massacre! Some blame a deadly storm that swept through the town but those that were there know the horrifying truth. Since that day St Patrick's Day celebrations have been banned but now the new mayor wants to bring them back but by doing so he will be risking the lives of everyone in the town as an evil force will be unleashed.