Classic Films

• Maria Callas - Live In Concert Hamburg 1959 And 1962 (1959/62) | DVD | (18/09/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  From 15th May, 1965 Featuring:La Vestale “Tu che invoco con orrore (Atto II)”, by Spontini, Macbeth “Nel di della vittoria io le incontrai… Vieni, t’affretta (Atto I)” by Verdi, Il Barbiere di Siviglia “Una voce poco fa (Atto I)” by Rossini, Don Carlo “Tu che le vanita (Atto IV)” by Verdi and Il Pirata “Oh! S’io potessi dissipar le nubi (Atto II)” by Bellini.From 16th March 1962 Featuring:Le Cid “De cet affreaux combat… Pleurez, mes yeux (Acte III)” by Massenet, Mireille “Overture” by Gounod, Carmen “”Prelude, Habanera (Acte I), Entr’acte (Acte III) and Seguidille (Acte I)” by Bizet, La Forza del Destino “Overture” and Ernani “Surta e la notre, Ernani, involami (Atto I)” by Verdi, La Cenerentola “Nacqui all’affanno e al pianto… Non piu mesta (Atto II)” by Rossinni and Don Carlo “O don fatale, o don crudel (Atto III)” by Verdi.

• 2000 Maniacs | DVD | (28/10/2002) from £12.98   |  Saving you £0.01 (0.08%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Available "fully uncut" for the first time in the UK, Two Thousand Maniacs! is the second of director HG Lewis' "blood" trilogy. Though the "once-in-a-lifetime" title makes a promise no film could keep--only about 30 maniacs show up--and the level of gore is a notch or so down from Blood Feast--only four deaths--this is perhaps the director's most watchable film. The Brigadoon-derived plot nugget concerns a Deep South town (variously suggested to be in Georgia or Arkansas, but actually Florida) wiped out by Union raiders during the Civil War, which reappears once every 100 years to wreak "blood vengeance". For the centennial celebrations, Pleasant Valley lures Yankee tourists off the road and subjects them to gruesome fairground games--a cannibal BBQ, a "horse-race", a "barrel roll" and "teetering rock". The ideas are nasty, and Lewis even attempts subtlety by keeping the quartering and the spiked barrel inside mostly off screen, but the creepiest touch is the "aw-shucks" good humour with which the ghostly Confederate maniacs--led by a mayor who is the spitting image of Sergeant Bilko's Colonel Hall--treat their horrible sport. It has the usual Lewis drawbacks--mostly inept staging, acting that veers between the wooden ("Playmate" Connie Mason) and the amateurishly hammy (one of the worst child actors in film history), clumsy editing, community theatre production values--but his fans wouldn't have it any other way and the hayseed music is great! On the DVD: The full-screen image is as good as this ever will look, considering Lewis' primitive understanding of lighting cinematography, with rich scarlet blood, vividly ugly 1963 leisurewear and very few print imperfections. The features offer an imaginative "Welcome to Pleasant Valley Centennial" menu, with buttons like the target you have to hit to drop the "teetering rock" on the Yankee; lurid original trailer ("Two thousand maniacs crazed for carnage started bathing a whole town in pulsing, human blood ... brutal, evil, ghastly beyond belief"); filmographies for Lewis, Friedman and star William Kerwin (aka Thomas Wood); promotional art gallery; notes by aptly-monickered expert Billy Chainsaw, highlighting the connections with John Waters and Brigadoon; a teaser trailer for "the Herschell Gordon Lewis Collection"; a mass of trailers for other "Tartan terror" titles. The Lewis-Friedman commentary and mind-numbing outtakes reel available on the Region 1 DVD are sadly absent, but that release doesn't have this one's major bonus addition--the entire soundtrack album, with compositions by Lewis himself (including the immortal "Yee-Hah, the South's Gonna Rise Again") and Flatt and Scruggs (of Bonnie and Clyde fame). --Kim Newman

• The Beatles - Red Album | DVD | (27/08/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The Red Album remains one of the finest showcases for the early Beatles work available and here the best of the music from the early days is reviewed by a leading team of critics and contemporaries of the band. Fantastic archive performance footage is combined with insights from Bill Harry and three of the best Beatles book authors to set pen to paper!

• The Joseph Losey Collection | DVD | (20/10/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  The Go Between: Summer 1900: Queen Victoria's last and the summer Leo turns 13. He's the guest of Marcus a wealthy classmate at a grand home in rural Norfolk. Leo is befriended by Marian Marcus's twenty-something sister a beauty about to be engaged to Hugh a viscount and good fellow. Marian buys Leo a forest-green suit takes him on walks and asks him to carry messages to and from their neighbor Ted Burgess a bit of a rake. Leo is soon dissembling realizes he's betraying Hugh but continues as the go-between nonetheless asking adults naive questions about the attractions of men and women. Can an affair between neighbours stay secret for long? And how does innocence end? The Servant: In this landmark drama of class struggle and moral decay a pampered playboy (James Fox) acquires an elegant townhouse complete with a dedicated man servant (Dirk Bogarde). But when the young man's fiance (Wendy Craig) becomes suspicious of the servant's intentions he and his 'sister' (Sarah Miles) thrust the household into a sinister game where seduction is corruption and power becomes the most shocking desire of all. Accident: When an accident kills one of his student and Oxford professor (Dirk Bogarde) recounts the circumstances of their meeting. But as these turbulent memories unfold they reveal a series of shocking relationships betrayed by adultery obsession and self-destruction in which nothing is what it seems and everything has its cost. The Criminal: Stanley Baker (Hell Is A City Zulu) stars as underworld kingpin Johnny Bannion sprung from prison by his best friend Mike Carter to mastermind a daring racetrack heist. But when Johnny is sent back to jail shortly after hiding the stolen loot he must survive and ordeal of brutality and betrayal at the hands of his fellow convicts and former accomplices in this gritty drama that was originally advertised as The Toughest Film Ever Made In Britain! Eva: Welsh writer Tyvian Jones (Stanley Baker) seems to have it all Sixties style -- an international best seller an apartment in Rome a gorgeous fianc''e in Virna Lisi - but he's bitter anyway. He meets his existential match in ennui in the mod seductress Eve played by Jeanne Moreau who was never more cynical or iconic. Decked out in pointy pumps and heavy eyeliner listening to Billie Holiday on scratchy LPs as she counts the lire and smokes endless packs of cigarettes in strangers' bedrooms she is the epitome of frayed glamour. An emotional tyrant Eve's casual maneuvering forces Baker to confront his past - and his weaknesses - as a man and an artist. Mr. Klein: As Jews flee Paris Mr. Klein exploits them preying on their desperation by buying their valuables at a fraction of their worth... until he finds his name is shared by a Jewish member of the anti-Nazi resistance. Klein reports this to the authorities only find that he is uncontrollably sinking into the quicksand of mistaken identity. The Sleeping Tiger: An intriguing psychological drama starring Dirk Bogarde as a petty crook who is sheltered by a psychiatrist planning to use him as a guinea pig until Bogarde seduces his wife. The Big Night: After his adored father is savagely beaten by sports writer Al Judge 17 year-old George goes on a mission of revenge. In a twisted coming of age tale George explores the seedy side of his town and in his inability to understand the savage attack gets more than he bargained for.

• The Dick Van Dyke Show - The Complete Season Two | DVD | (21/05/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  The Dick Van Dyke Show which ran from 1961 to 1966 on the CBS Network ushered in the golden age of the situation comedy poised as it was on the threshold between the comedy-variety star vehicles of the 1950s and the neorealist socio-comedies of the early 1970s. The Dick Van Dyke Show truly found it's niche in its second season. Millions tuned in weekly for the fun with comedy writer Rob Petrie (Dick Van Dyke) on the job with his wisecracking co-workers (Morey Amsterdam Rose Maria) and at home with his lovely wife Laura (Mary Tyler Moore). Now enjoy all 32 of the season's hilarious episodes each digitally remastered to its original full-length version. Episodes Comprise: 1. Never Name a Duck 2. The Two Faces of Rob 3. The Attempted Marriage 4. Bank Book 6565696 5. Hustling the Hustler 6. My Husband Is Not a Drunk 7. What's in a Middle Name? 8. Like a Sister 9. The Night the Roof Fell In 10. The Secret Life of Buddy and Sally 11. A Bird in the Head Hurts 12. Gesundheit Darling 13. A Man's Teeth Are Not His Own 14. Somebody Has to Play Cleopatra 15. The Cat Burglar 16. The Foul Weather Girl 17. Will You Two Be My Wife? 18. Ray Murdock's X-Ray 19. I Was a Teenage Head Writer 20. It May Look Like a Walnut! 21. My Husband Is a Check-Grabber 22. Don't Trip Over That Mountain 23. Give Me Your Walls! 24. The Sam Pomerantz Scandals 25. The Square Triangle 26. I'm No Henry Walden! 27. Racy Tracy Rattigan 28. Divorce 29. It's a Shame She Married Me 30. A Surprise Surprise Is a Surprise 31. Jilting the Jilter 32. When a Bowling Pin Talks Listen

• Female Jungle | DVD | (28/06/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £10.99

  A blonde actress is murdered across the road from a bar. An off duty cop has been getting drunk at the bar but becomes worried about his innocence when he is told he was seen leaving the establishment with the blonde but doesn't remember. As he investigates he interviews a columnist who was dating the actress a caricaturist who drew the victim the caricaturist's wife who works at the bar and the caricaturist's lover and slowly begins to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

• The Dick Van Dyke Show Series 1 - Complete | DVD | (05/03/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Remember when Laura got her toestuck in a hotel bathtub? When Rob dreamed about ever-presentwalnuts and an alien with no thumbs that looked like Danny Thomas? Trip into the living room of comedy writer Rob Petrie (Dick Van Dyke) along with his lovely wife Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) wisecracking co-workers and nutty neighbors. Consistently ranked among the top TV comedies of all time and renowed for its top-notch cast and stellar writing.

• The Seventh Seal | DVD | (28/01/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  As the Black Death continues to wipe out the population of Europe Knight Antonius Block (Max Von Sydow) returns from the crusades. Disillusioned and worn he encounters Death and makes a bargain - his fate will be determined by a game of chess. Taking a troupe of travelling players and a deaf girl under his protection the knight plays the game with Death who as the pieces fall exacts his toll. All the while the villages and towns about them fall into ruin and religion takes a stranglehold. This beautifully restored edition is presented here with previously unseen on-set footage shot during the film's production in late 1956 and is complimented by Bergman's powerful and evocative short film Karin's Face.

• The Bed Sitting Room | DVD | (25/05/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Directed by Richard Lester (A Hard Day's Night Superman II & III The Four Musketeers Robin and Marian The Knack) The Bed Sitting Room is based on a play by Spike Milligan and John Antrobus. Set in a post-apocalyptic London nine months after World War III (the Nuclear Misunderstanding) which lasted two minutes and twenty eight seconds - including the signing of the peace treaty. Nucelar fallout is producing strange mutations in people; the title refers to the character Lord Fortnum who finds himself transforming into a bed sitting room. The plot concerns the fate of the first child to be born after the war. The film can be compared to Milligan's work with The Goons but with a savage cynical and more surreal edge. This was probably the first time that Milligan let his creative dark side out into the light. The bizarre set design has been an influence on filmmakers such as Terry Gilliam and Jeunet and Caro (Delicatessen). The cast list includes the cream of British comedic and acting talent from the late 1960's: Rita Tushingham Ralph Richardson Peter Cook Harry Secombe Dudley Moore Spike Milligan Michael Horden Roy Kinnear Arthur Lowe Dandy Nichols and Marty Feldman. Lots of people talk about 'lost classics' but The Bed Sitting Room is a film that truly deserves that description. It was not particularly well received at the box office but that may be due to the profound strangeness of the film. However it's reputation has grown over the years and VHS copies taped from a BBC broadcast 25 years ago have been selling for ridiculous prices online. It beggars belief that such a startling piece of British cinema has remained in the vaults for so long. Over an hour of extras will include interviews from 1967 with Richard Lester Spike Milligan and Peter Cook.

• CHARLIE CHAN COLLECTION-1 - MO | DVD | (21/09/2018) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Things to Come | DVD | (07/09/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  Things To Come

• The Hollywood Collection - Audrey Hepburn Remembered | DVD | (14/02/2011) from £6.73   |  Saving you £3.26 (48.44%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Audrey Hepburn was blessed with beauty talent an elegant sophistication and an enduring aura of youthful innocence. As Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF she spoke for the world's suffering children and families admiration that only increased with news of her untimely death. From the star herself we learn of her career and the family and friendships that were her priority. Directors Billy Wilder Blake Edwards and Stanley Donen composer Henry Mancini actors Gregory Peck Mel Ferrer George Peppard and Roger Moore fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy and others join Rob Wolders and Sean Ferrer to help complete this loving portrait. With clips from Roman Holiday Sabrina War And Peace Funny Face Breakfast At Tiffany's Charade My Fair Lady Two For the Road Robin And Marian and more.

• How to Play Blues Guitar 2 | DVD | (04/12/2006) from £29.14   |  Saving you £-2.15 (-8.00%)   |  RRP £26.99

• A Swedish Midsummer Sex Comedy | DVD | (31/01/2011) from £7.07   |  Saving you £8.92 (126.17%)   |  RRP £15.99

  This warm ensemble comedy that delivers all the charm and surprise of Swedish Midsummer! The wonderful Swedish-American cast includes Luke Perry (Beverley Hills 90210) Lisa Werlinder (Munich The Inheritance) and Olle Sarri (The Ape Together). Sumptuous food steaming saunas and midnight skinny dipping are the tradition on Swedish Midsummer a day when the sun never sets. This year friends have gathered at the country house of Emil and Susanne the perfect Swedish couple. In attendance are Eva who is looking for something (someone) to take her mind off of her recent split with Patrick. Anders and Maria the nude hipsters who are trying for their first child Micke and Katrina who are about to have their first any day and finally Sam the American friend who engages the proceedings with a twinkle and a smile. Expectations are exceeded when Emil's big planned surprise goes awry - leaving them all turned around for good!

• Love's A Luxury - What A Carry On | DVD | (26/03/2007) from £6.95   |  Saving you £6.04 (86.91%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Love's A Luxury is a lighthearted comedy in which a group of provincial actors unite and aim to teach their boss' jealous wife a lesson! The troupe assume a variety of bizarre disguises and allow the jealous woman to assume the worst; the actors then have ever so much fun proving her wrong! What A Carry On! is one of the Northern Comedy greats! Jimmy Jewel and Ben Warriss decide to enlist in the army!

• The Film Noir Collection - Trapped | DVD | (06/04/2009) from £6.92   |  Saving you £3.07 (44.36%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Convicted counterfeiter Tris Stewart (Lloyd Bridges) is offered early release from prison in return for helping the US Treasury Agents track down his former partners-in-crime. Unwilling to cooperate Stewart manages to escape unwittingly playing straight into the T-Men's hands. Directed with style and a documentary feel by Richard Fleischer no-one is quite what they seem. Trapped is superbly lit with crisp intelligent dialogue - a top notch Film Noir with an explosive ending.

• Audrey Hepburn | DVD | (05/11/2001) from £13.95   |  Saving you £6.04 (43.30%)   |  RRP £19.99

  For almost 20 years Audrey Hepburn's pixie-like features lit up Hollywood's silver screens with hit after hit and she became not only a screen icon, but also a style icon (with a little help from Givenchy), and still features high in polls of the world's most beautiful women. It's perhaps no surprise, then, that Paramount have chosen to honour her with a box set of some of her best-known films. However, this is only "some of", with the absence of her dazzling performances in Roman Holiday and My Fair Lady, leaving three out of the four films included here lacking in comparison. Breakfast at Tiffany's is the strongest and certainly the best-loved Hepburn film in this collection, offering beautifully comic performances by both Hepburn and her leading man, George Peppard. Funny Face also makes a welcome entry, if only for the wonderful performance by Fred Astaire; Hepburn, though, was not a strong enough dancer to hold her own against Astaire's brilliance. Sabrina holds its own as the Cinderella story of a chauffeur's daughter who turns into a beautiful society girl, but it was clearly a quick and easy vehicle for Paramount to produce in the wake of Hepburn's success in Roman Holiday. The mysterious entry of the collection is Paris When It Sizzles, probably one of Hepburn's least-known and most quirky films, with two parallel love stories played out on the screen. Although not an obvious hit and hard work in places it offers an interesting screwball performance by Hepburn, even if the sparks did not fly with her screen partner William Holden. On the DVD: The Audrey Hepburn Collection offers a nice clean widescreen transfer for three of its movies, but Sabrina is a full-frame transfer that lacks something in comparison. All but Breakfast at Tiffany's (which has a 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack) are mono sound transfers, which is only a real disappointment in Funny Face because of George and Ira Gershwin's score. The special features are also lacking, with only a trailer offered on two of the films and a mildly interesting documentary on Sabrina. The best is the featurette on Funny Face, which charts the success of Paramount in the 1950s, but offers nothing a film fan would not have known already. All in all this is an attractive box set, but perhaps one for the die-hard Hepburn fan only. --Nikki Disney

• Al Capone (Import) (Dvd) (2013) Rod Steiger; Fay Spain; James Gregory; Martin Ba | DVD | (21/12/2010) from £19.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Carnegie Hall (1947 Feature Film) | DVD | (17/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The only version with all the musical selections.A feature film shot in Carnegie Hall in 1947.The basic plot: A Carnegie Hall employee played by Marsha Hunt wants her son to be a musician and raises him in the hall. They attend performances by many of the greats of the day.

• Ugetsu Monogatari | Blu Ray | (23/04/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Mizoguchi's Ugetsu Monogatari [Tales of the Rain and Moon, aka Ugetsu] is a highly acclaimed masterwork of Japanese cinema. Based on a pair of 18th century ghost stories by Ueda Akinari, the film's release continued Mizoguchi's introduction to the West, where it was nominated for an Oscar and won the the Venice Film Festival's Silver Lion award (for Best Direction). In 16th century Japan, amidst the pandemonium of civil war, potter Genjuro (Mori Masayuki) and samurai-aspirant Tobei (Ozawa Sakae) set out with their wives in search of wealth and military glory respectively. Two parallel tales ensue when the men are lured from their wives: Genjuro by the ghostly charm of Lady Wakasa (Kyo Machiko); Tobei by the dream of military glory. Famed for its meticulously orchestrated long takes and its subtle blending of realistic period reconstruction and lyrical supernaturalism, Ugetsu Monogatari is an intensely poetic tragedy that consistently features on polls of the best films ever made.