The Ox-Bow Incident

The Ox-Bow Incident [DVD] [1943]
From Elevation Sales

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£9.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery. Details

Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #27348 in DVD
* Released on: 2010-08-02
* Rating: Parental Guidance
* Formats: Black & White, PAL
* Original language: English
* Number of discs: 1
* Running time: 72 minutes

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To Hell and Back [DVD] [1955]
Directed by Jesse Hibbs

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£9.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery. Details

Audie Murphy stars as himself in the true-life account of his incredible courage and heroism that made him the most decorated soldier of World War Two. Joining the Army at just 18, he was modest and self-effacing but also a natural leader and he quickly rose through the ranks as the US military fought in Africa and then advances through Italy, France and into Germany. In his greatest act of valour, for which he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, he ordered his men to withdraw to safety as six German tanks and waves of infantry attacked. Having directed artillery fire by telephone he then climbed on to one of his own burning tanks to employ its machinegun, refusing to give an inch of ground and saving his company.

Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #12989 in DVD
* Released on: 2009-11-30
* Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
* Formats: Colour, PAL
* Original language: English
* Number of discs: 1
* Running time: 102 minutes

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Sparrows Can't Sing

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13753 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-08-17
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 88 minutes

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Editorial Reviews

Synopsis
Returning home after two years at sea, an East End sailor searches for his wife and learns she has moved in with another man. Panic sweeps Stepney when he swears vengeance on her lover in a bawdy and boisterous picture of Cockney life.

Sparrows Can't Sing [DVD] [1962]
Directed by Joan Littlewood

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£7.93 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery. Details

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Frankenstein [DVD]

Frankenstein [DVD] [1931]
Directed by James Whale

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£3.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery. Details

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
"It's alive! Alive!" shouts Colin Clive's triumphant Dr. Frankenstein as electricity buzzes over the hulking body of a revived corpse. "In the name of God now I know what it's like to be God!" For years unheard, this line has been restored, along with the legendary scene of the childlike monster tossing a little girl into a lake, in James Whale's Frankenstein, one of the most famous and influential horror movies ever made. Coming off the tremendous success of Dracula, Universal assigned sophomore director Whale to helm an adaptation of Mary Shelley's famous novel with Bela Lugosi as the monster. When Lugosi declined the role, Whale cast the largely unknown character actor Boris Karloff and together with makeup designer Jack Pierce they created the most memorable monster in movie history: a towering, lumbering creature with sunken eyes, a flat head, and a jagged scar running down his forehead. Whale and Karloff made this mute, misunderstood brute, who has the brain of a madman (the most obvious of the many liberties taken with Shelley's story), the most pitiable freak of nature to stumble across the screen. Clive's Dr. Frankenstein is intense and twitchy and Dwight Frye set the standard for mad-scientist sidekicks as the wild-eyed hunchback assistant. Whale's later films, notably the spooky spoof The Old Dark House and the deliriously stylised sequel The Bride of Frankenstein, display a surer cinematic hand than seen here and add a subversive twist of black comedy, but given the restraints of early sound films, Whale breaks the film free from static stillness and adorns it with striking design and expressionist flourishes. --Sean Axmaker

Special Features
English
Region 2

Synopsis
Frankenstein is James Whale's first stylish, expressionist film (Invisible Man, Bride of Frankenstein) to grace the Universal horror cycle of the 1930s and 1940s (Dracula, The Mummy). Scientist Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) and his hunchbacked assistant, Fritz (Dwight Frye), embark on an unholy mission by stealing a body from a graveyard and a human brain from a medical college. Unbeknownst to Frankenstein, however, Fritz takes a violent and murderous abnormal brain. Henry's strange letters about his experiments worry his fiancee, Elizabeth (Mae Clark), and friends Victor (John Boles) and Dr. Waldman (Edward Van Sloan). They arrive at Frankenstein's laboratory to find the spectacular scene of creation under way and Frankenstein intoxicated with his own godlike power. Frankenstein is in many ways the original horror classic, virtually creating the genre itself, leading to numerous sequels and myriad imitators. Whale's ability to give humanity to the Monster is one of the film's most stunning successes.

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Frankenstein [DVD]

Frankenstein [DVD] [1931]
Directed by James Whale

Price:

£3.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery. Details

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
"It's alive! Alive!" shouts Colin Clive's triumphant Dr. Frankenstein as electricity buzzes over the hulking body of a revived corpse. "In the name of God now I know what it's like to be God!" For years unheard, this line has been restored, along with the legendary scene of the childlike monster tossing a little girl into a lake, in James Whale's Frankenstein, one of the most famous and influential horror movies ever made. Coming off the tremendous success of Dracula, Universal assigned sophomore director Whale to helm an adaptation of Mary Shelley's famous novel with Bela Lugosi as the monster. When Lugosi declined the role, Whale cast the largely unknown character actor Boris Karloff and together with makeup designer Jack Pierce they created the most memorable monster in movie history: a towering, lumbering creature with sunken eyes, a flat head, and a jagged scar running down his forehead. Whale and Karloff made this mute, misunderstood brute, who has the brain of a madman (the most obvious of the many liberties taken with Shelley's story), the most pitiable freak of nature to stumble across the screen. Clive's Dr. Frankenstein is intense and twitchy and Dwight Frye set the standard for mad-scientist sidekicks as the wild-eyed hunchback assistant. Whale's later films, notably the spooky spoof The Old Dark House and the deliriously stylised sequel The Bride of Frankenstein, display a surer cinematic hand than seen here and add a subversive twist of black comedy, but given the restraints of early sound films, Whale breaks the film free from static stillness and adorns it with striking design and expressionist flourishes. --Sean Axmaker

Special Features
English
Region 2

Synopsis
Frankenstein is James Whale's first stylish, expressionist film (Invisible Man, Bride of Frankenstein) to grace the Universal horror cycle of the 1930s and 1940s (Dracula, The Mummy). Scientist Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) and his hunchbacked assistant, Fritz (Dwight Frye), embark on an unholy mission by stealing a body from a graveyard and a human brain from a medical college. Unbeknownst to Frankenstein, however, Fritz takes a violent and murderous abnormal brain. Henry's strange letters about his experiments worry his fiancee, Elizabeth (Mae Clark), and friends Victor (John Boles) and Dr. Waldman (Edward Van Sloan). They arrive at Frankenstein's laboratory to find the spectacular scene of creation under way and Frankenstein intoxicated with his own godlike power. Frankenstein is in many ways the original horror classic, virtually creating the genre itself, leading to numerous sequels and myriad imitators. Whale's ability to give humanity to the Monster is one of the film's most stunning successes.

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Shanghai Express [DVD]

Shanghai Express [DVD] [1932]
Directed by Josef Von Sternberg

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£5.93 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery. Details

Customer Reviews

It took more than one man to name her "Shanghai Lily"5
Shanghai Express is a gorgeous film. If you like films of the 1930s, this one is a must-have. The actors and the locales are beautiful and exotic. The lead actors have real chemistry and the cast of supporting characters,played by the greatest character star actors of the '30s, is wonderful. All are interesting, engaging and fun to watch. The beautiful lighting is of major importance in creating the ambiance all through the film. The costumes, of their period, are lovely. The setting is wartime in China and the director, Joseph von Sternberg, while concentrating on the romance, still manages to convey wartime atmosphere without putting much overt blood and violence on the screen. Aside from the reunion and rekindling of the romance between Dietrich and handsome Clive Brook, there are sensitively told stories of the role racism played in the lives of two of the characters played by Anna May Wong and Warner Oland. The only aspect of the film which might be problematic for 21st century viewers is the very stagy acting. But I love it. Shanghai Express is one of my all-time favorite films. In the US and Canada you must have an all-region DVD player to watch this. I bought one to watch this and other great films only available in non-North American formats.

Shanghai Express5
This DVD is one of the best films Marlene ever did.Her acting is first class, it's only a shame that the leading man is so wooden.However the film does not suffer too much from that , and overall it is what you expect from Dietrich. The transfer to DVD is very good consiering the year it was made,and the end result is very good value for money.

This is not a review5
The 2 reviews shown for this film are for the wrong Shanghai Express!

To the best of my knowledge Marlene Dietrich didn't star in too many martial arts films. I'm planning to watch the film (the right one) in the next week or three, and maybe I'll write a review when I get some time again.

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Green For Danger

Green For Danger [DVD]
Directed by Sidney Gilliat

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£6.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery. Details

Customer Reviews

sim-ply marvellous!5
Another tour-de-force from the wonderful Alistair Sim and an object lesson in comic timing and delivery of a terrific script from a master. I hesitate to call it his finest hour as he had so many! The plot is splendid and the supporting cast - a who's who of British 1940s cinema - is first rate. I do agree that the quality of the DVD could have been better though.

SPOILER IN A REVIEW BELOW5
Mr DeRiemer below offers a lengthy review which will ruin any chance of enjoying the ending by revealing the plot. I haven't seen the film so this is hardly a review but I might save others from this man's musings. I have asked Amazon to consider removing it.

Brilliant film, indifferent DVD3
They say you get what you pay for. This is a superior crime thriller notable for the intricacy of its plot, the acid wit of the script and above all the superb moonlit black and white cinematography.

Potential buyers of this cheap Network DVD version should note that the picture, though acceptable, is not as sharp as it might be and the sound is generally poor. There appears to have have been minimal, if any, effort at restoration. Happily, there is at the time of writing a Criterion version soon to be released. I for one will upgrade.

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The Longest Day [Blu-ray]

The Longest Day [Blu-ray] [1962]
From Blu-ray Action & Adventure

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£8.15 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery. Details

Editorial Reviews

Synopsis
An all-star cast has been enlisted for this epic recreation of the Allied invasion of Normandy that took place on June 6, 1944. This spectacular film noisily dramatises the viewpoints of the French, English, German, and American soldiers. Featuring Oscar winning special effects and cinematography, THE LONGEST DAY is an historic tour de force of spectacular sound and vision. This moment by moment account of the climactic battle of the second World War, fought on land, sea and in the air, is loaded with top class acting from John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda, Richard Burton, Sean Connery, Rod Steiger, Roddy MacDowall and many many more, almost as many as the 3 million men deeply involved on that historic summer day 1944.

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Night And The City [1950]

Night And The City [1950] [DVD]
Directed by Jules Dassin

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£4.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery. Details

Editorial Reviews

Synopsis
In NIGHT AND THE CITY, director Jules Dassin brilliantly fuses two styles of filmmaking, crossing the expressionist lighting and framing of film noir with the almost documentary location shooting he used for THE NAKED CITY (1948). Dassin treats NIGHT AND THE CITY’s central London locations as strange exotic places. As the movie opens, it is night time and small-time hood Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark) is running from almost unseen pursuers. Harry crosses in front of St. Paul's Cathedral, and Dassin shows this familiar tourist sight from a very high angle, then immediately juxtaposes a shot of Harry escaping through bombed-out ruins. While Dassin and director of photography Max Greene shoot exteriors from high angles or from cramped doorways, they shoot interiors from low angles catching their actors against heavily contrasted backgrounds. The result is a movie full of diamond-sharp, angst-ridden visuals.

NIGHT AND THE CITY is built round the dynamic febrile performance of Richard Widmark as the constantly scheming, ever-overreaching Harry. Herbert Lom is brilliant as the Greek who ruthlessly controls wrestling in London. Francis L. Sullivan, huge and slow moving, exudes menace as nightclub owner Phil Nosseross. And Googie Withers is very striking as Nosseross's smart but desperate wife.

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Ikiru [DVD]

Ikiru [DVD] [1942]
Directed by Akira Kurosawa

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£7.93 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery. Details

Editorial Reviews

Synopsis
IKIRU tells the tale of a lowly clerk who is diagnosed with a terminal illness and is spirited away from his dull, unfulfilled existence into a more rewarding way of life. He experiences deep self-pity when he first hears of the news, folowed by a bout of pure hedonism, but his real vocation lies in his construction of a children's playground.

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