"Director: Basil DEARDEN"

• The League Of Gentlemen Special Edition | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  A former army officer bitter at being made to retire early uses his special access to military personnel files to plot a 1 million bank robbery and sets about gathering an unlikely assortment of accomplices

• The Man Who Haunted Himself Film | Blu Ray | (24/06/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  While driving one evening, Harold Pelham appears possessed and has a car accident. While on the operating table, there even appears to be two heartbeats on the monitor. When he awakes, Pelham finds his life has been turned upside-down: he learns that he now supports a merger that he once opposed, and that he apparently is having an affair. People claim they have seen him in places that he has never been. Does Pelham have a doppelganger - or is he going insane?

• The Ealing Rarities Collection - Volume 3 | DVD | (10/06/2013) from £8.75   |  Saving you £6.24 (71.31%)   |  RRP £14.99

  A global byword for cinematic quality of a quintessentially British nature, Ealing Studios made more than 150 films over a three decade period. A cherished and significant part of British film history, only selected films from both the Ealing and Associated Talking Pictures strands have previously been made available on home video format - with some remaining unseen since their original theatrical release. The Ealing Rarities Collection redresses this imbalance - featuring new transfers from...

• Woman Of Straw | DVD | (06/04/2015) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Sean Connery and Gina Lollobrigida star in this 1960s drama based on the novel by Catherine Arley. When Anthony Richmond (Connery) learns of his wealthy uncle Charles (Ralph Richardson)'s ill-health, he plots a way to get his fortune after his death. Employing attractive young nurse Maria (Lollobrigida) to care for Charles in his final days Anthony encourages his uncle to fall in love with and marry Maria. As Anthony realises that he, too, is falling for Maria, a love triangle emerges and complications arise.

• The Blue Lamp (Digitally Restored) | DVD | (12/12/2016) from £10.35   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Fifty years on, it's hard to appreciate just how shocking one key scene in The Blue Lamp was considered by British audiences. Young delinquent Tom Riley (played with sensuous malevolence by Dirk Bogarde) guns down kindly, benevolent copper, PC Dixon (Jack Warner.) In early 1950s Britain, murdering a policeman was the ultimate taboo. Even the underworld's denizens help the police flush Riley out. Made by Ealing Studios, The Blue Lamp is not a comedy but shares many of the studio's characteristic comic hallmarks, as well as the same writer (TEB Clarke) for their classics Hue And Cry and The Lavender Hill Mob. Consensus and tolerance are the watchwords. Individualism is frowned upon. There are no extravagant displays of emotion, not even from Mrs Dixon (Gladys Henson) when she learns what happened to her husband. The understatement is very moving, although by today's standards the representation of the police seems absurdly idealised. Were they ever the doughty, patient sorts depicted here? It is no surprise to learn that Scotland Yard co-operated in the making of the film but this is much more than just police propaganda. Well-crafted, full of finely judged character performances, it ranks with Ealing's best work. It was made at an intriguing historical moment: before rock and roll and the era of teenage affluence, there was simply no place for young tearaways like Tom Riley. --Geoffrey Macnab

• The Blue Lamp (Digitally Restored) | Blu Ray | (12/12/2016) from £11.88   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Fifty years on, it's hard to appreciate just how shocking one key scene in The Blue Lamp was considered by British audiences. Young delinquent Tom Riley (played with sensuous malevolence by Dirk Bogarde) guns down kindly, benevolent copper, PC Dixon (Jack Warner.) In early 1950s Britain, murdering a policeman was the ultimate taboo. Even the underworld's denizens help the police flush Riley out. Made by Ealing Studios, The Blue Lamp is not a comedy but shares many of the studio's characteristic comic hallmarks, as well as the same writer (TEB Clarke) for their classics Hue And Cry and The Lavender Hill Mob. Consensus and tolerance are the watchwords. Individualism is frowned upon. There are no extravagant displays of emotion, not even from Mrs Dixon (Gladys Henson) when she learns what happened to her husband. The understatement is very moving, although by today's standards the representation of the police seems absurdly idealised. Were they ever the doughty, patient sorts depicted here? It is no surprise to learn that Scotland Yard co-operated in the making of the film but this is much more than just police propaganda. Well-crafted, full of finely judged character performances, it ranks with Ealing's best work. It was made at an intriguing historical moment: before rock and roll and the era of teenage affluence, there was simply no place for young tearaways like Tom Riley. --Geoffrey Macnab

• The Smallest Show on Earth | Blu Ray | (11/03/2019) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Peter Sellers, Margaret Rutherford, Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers star in Basil Dearden's heartwarming comedy The Smallest Show on Earth. This gently whimsical elegy to the golden age of cinema co-stars Bernard Miles, Leslie Phillips and Sid James and is presented here as a brand-new High Definition transfer from the original film elements in its original theatrical aspect ratio. Overjoyed to learn that they've inherited a cinema in the north of England, Matt and Jean Spenser are subsequently shattered to find it's less of a grand picture palace and more of a fleapit (with three equally decrepit employees). Can the couple make a go of it or will they be forced to sell up and watch the Bijou Kinema be redeveloped into a car park? Special Features: Image gallery PDF material

• The Goose Steps Out - 75th Anniversary (Digitally Restored) | Blu Ray | (15/05/2017) from £11.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Comedy legend Will Hay stars as William Potts, a hapless, clumsy schoolteacher, who just happens to be an identical body double for a notorious German Nazi general. When the army is made aware of this uncanny resemblance to the German, who they are currently holding prisoner; they decide to drop the reluctant Mr Potts behind enemy lines. His deadly mission is to find and retrieve information on a secret weapon that the Germans are planning to use. But whilst impersonating the Nazi general, William Potts manages to infiltrate the college of Hitler Youth. He also manages to make a big impression on the students who are being trained as spies and are learning how to fit into British society. Luckily Mr Potts is at hand to give them lots of handy hints in honour of the war effort! Extras: Interview with Graham Rinaldi Go to Blazes Will Hay short BBC Radio 3 The Essay: British Film Comedians Will Hay Audio Featurette by Simon Heffer

• Train Of Events | DVD | (02/02/2009) from £8.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (77.86%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Four different perspectives of a train disaster are told through a quartet of short stories.

• The London Box Set | DVD | (15/06/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £30.00

  Boxset Contains: 1. Pool Of London 2. The Small World Of Sammy Lee 3. The Yellow Balloon 4. The London Nobody Knows / Les Bicyclettes De Bellsize

• Ealing Studios Rarities Collection: Volume 6 | DVD | (16/09/2013) from £9.34   |  Saving you £5.65 (60.49%)   |  RRP £14.99

  A global byword for cinematic quality of a quintessentially British nature, Ealing Studios made more than 150 films over a three decade period. A cherished and significant part of British film history, only selected films from both the Ealing and Associated Talking Pictures strands have previously been made available on home video format - with some remaining unseen since their original theatrical release. The Ealing Rarities Collection redresses this imbalance - featuring new transfers from...

• The Persuaders!: The Complete Series - | DVD | (19/09/2011) from £35.98   |  Saving you £16.00 (47.07%)   |  RRP £49.99

  Nitro and gylcerine... and I light the fuse!Two millionaire playboys - one a peer of the realm, born into money, and the other a self-made man who fought his way out of the New York slums - are conned by a retired judge into righting wrongs in a series that combines action, style, humour and panache in large quantities!Regarded by many as the finest of Lew Grade's ITC film series, The Persuaders! stars Roger Moore and Tony Curtis as the mismatched playboys with an eye for the ladies and a penchant for landing themselves in trouble.

• The Halfway House | DVD | (20/06/2011) from £11.99   |  Saving you £6.00 (60.06%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A group of troubled people gather at the Halfway House Inn in rural Wales. As they stay there the innkeeper Rhys and his daughter Gwyneth come to have a strange effect over them bringing out and offering clarity to their problems. But the group soon comes to realize that there is something very strange about the inn... The Halfway House is one of Ealing's war propaganda films and is an adaptation from a play by Dennis Ogden.

• The Halfway House | Blu Ray | (25/11/2019) from £12.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  From stalwart Ealing director Basil Dearden (The Blue Lamp, Pool of London) comes this enjoyable yet creepy wartime tale of a group of strangers driven to take shelter at a remote Welsh inn during a storm. What they don't know is that the inn was bombed by a German plane a year ago and their hosts were killed in the blast. Starring Mervyn Johns (A Christmas Carol) and real-life daughter Glynis Jones (Mary Poppins), The Halfway House was written by Anghus Mcphail (Whiskey Galore!, It Always Rains on Sunday), Diana Morgan (Went The Day Well?, Pink String and Sealing Wax) and T.E.B. Clarke (Passport to Pimlico, The Titfield Thunderbolt) from the stage play by Dennis Ogden. Extras: Interview with Matthew Sweet, Stills gallery

• The Four Just Men - The Complete Series | DVD | (13/08/2012) from £21.39   |  Saving you £28.60 (133.71%)   |  RRP £49.99

  This ITC crime drama series, loosely based on Edgar Wallace's novel of 1905, assembles an astonishing array of talent: Jack Hawkins (The Cruel Sea), Richard Conte (The Godfather) and Oscar nominees Vittorio de Sica and Dan Dailey star as the four men chosen to pursue justice and defeat tyranny worldwide; their regular co-stars include Avengers heroine Honor Blackman, as glamorous secretary Nicole, Lisa Gastoni, June Thorburn, and Andrew Keir (Quatermass and the Pit). The series' cosmopolitan...

• Dead Of Night (Ealing) - Special Edition | Blu Ray | (24/02/2014) from £12.98   |  Saving you £12.00 (109.19%)   |  RRP £22.99

  A portmanteau work from four of Ealing's best directors, Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden & Robert Hamer. Starring Mervyn Johns, Michael Redgrave and Googie Withers, Dead Of Night represented a departure for Ealing from the classic comedy mode and is instead a spooky psychological thriller made up of five chilling ghost stories.

• The Goose Steps Out - 75th Anniversary (Digitally Restored) | DVD | (15/05/2017) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Comedy legend Will Hay stars as William Potts, a hapless, clumsy schoolteacher, who just happens to be an identical body double for a notorious German Nazi general. When the army is made aware of this uncanny resemblance to the German, who they are currently holding prisoner; they decide to drop the reluctant Mr Potts behind enemy lines. His deadly mission is to find and retrieve information on a secret weapon that the Germans are planning to use. But whilst impersonating the Nazi general, William Potts manages to infiltrate the college of Hitler Youth. He also manages to make a big impression on the students who are being trained as spies and are learning how to fit into British society. Luckily Mr Potts is at hand to give them lots of handy hints in honour of the war effort! Extras: Interview with Graham Rinaldi Go to Blazes Will Hay short BBC Radio 3 The Essay: British Film Comedians Will Hay Audio Featurette by Simon Heffer

• The Green Man | DVD | (30/10/2006) from £10.87   |  Saving you £2.12 (19.50%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Hawkins (Sim) is a timid clockmaker with a part time job; International Assassination Expert. He hasn't been getting too many assignments recently but his latest mission will put him back on the top of his profession. However he stalks the wrong target blowing up a boring politician instead and now he must pay the price for his breezy bungling in this murderously funny black comedy!

• Out Of The Clouds (Ealing) *Digitally Restored | DVD | (13/07/2015) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  From acclaimed director Basil Dearden creator of such classic celebrated British films  such as The Blue Lamp and The League of Gentlemen comes a bedazzling ensemble piece that encapsulates the early days of recreational aviation. Starring Bernard Lee (who later found fame as James Bond’s ‘M’) James Robertson Justice (Doctor In The House) and Carry On star Sid James Out Of The Clouds manages to capture the glamour and excitement of post-war air travel. Out Of The Clouds follows the complex lives of several passengers and members of an airline crew during a typical bustling day at Heathrow airport. A pilot dealing with his gambling addiction a chief duty officer who dreams of becoming a pilot a love struck American engineer and an extremely popular air hostess are just some of the unforgettable characters within the rich tapestry of tales that make Out Of The Clouds such entertaining and compulsive viewing. Extras: Introduction by Film Historian Charles Barr Stills Gallery

• The Persuaders!: The Complete Series | DVD | (14/05/2018) from £43.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Between heroic spells as the Saint and James Bond, Roger Moore was teamed with Tony Curtis in The Persuaders, a derivative but fun series about a couple of millionaire dilettante adventurers who swan around the world competing for the attention of beautiful women and getting involved in perplexing mysteries. Moore is Lord Brett Sinclair, an upper crust Brit of impeccable breeding, while Curtis is Danny Wilde, an up-from-the-streets self-made man whose trademark is a pair of brown gloves. The allegedly tasteful Brett and the crasser Danny both model a succession of garish early 70s fashions while their pursuits of duplicitous crumpet usually wind up with the women getting away and the heroes stuck with each other. Given all that, this may well be the most blatantly homoerotic of all the buddy television pairings (see the eponymous stars of Starsky and Hutch, Regan and Carter in The Sweeney, Bodie and Doyle of The Professionals) that ran ove! r the screen in the 70s, in which the male leads sublimated their feelings for each other by pulling out their guns and shooting at baddies. --Kim Newman