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June 2014
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June 2014 MovieMail Film Catalogue
MovieMail News
I
n terms of cinema tickets sold, what do you think is the most popular British film of all time? The Third Man? A Matter of Life and Death? The Full Monty? Skyfall? The answer is none of the above. The accolade is instead held by Herbert Wilcox’s 1948 ‘upstairsdownstairs’ romance starring Anna Neagle and Michael Wilding, Spring in Park Lane. I mention this not just because it arrives on DVD this month (see page 8) but also because it says a lot about changing patterns of film-watching. Over 20 million tickets were sold for Spring in Park Lane. Two years before, 1946 was the peak year for British cinema admissions, with 1.64 billion. By contrast, 2013 saw
Contributors
Contents Film of the Month 5 The Grand Budapest Hotel
Classic Movies
6
Forever Amber Captain Clegg
Gay and Lesbian 13 just a tenth of that number. Of course, back in the 1940s cinema was essentially people’s sole source of visual entertainment whereas now that’s far from the case. DVD may be declining in fashion, but it stands clear as the greatest medium we’ve ever had to explore the richness of our cinematic heritage. Enjoy your films
A: Marvin from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Emma Simmonds (The Crites from the Critters movies) Emma is a freelance film critic. She’s Film Editor at theartsdesk.com and has contributed to The List, Little White Lies, Total Film, Time Out and The Observer. She’s mad about French cinema, screwball comedy and crime films and her desert island movies would be Vertigo, His Girl Friday, The Godfather, Volver and Paris, Texas. Michael Brooke (The Baseball Alien from John Carpenter’s Dark Star) is a freelance writer and DVD producer
Mike McCahill (ALF) writes on film for The Guardian and also pens MovieMail’s cinema blog
Angie Errigo (Starman in John Carpenter’s Starman) is a contributing editor for Empire magazine
James Oliver (The Daleks) is a freelance writer on film
Gareth Evans (Thomas Jerome Newton in The Man Who Fell to Earth) curates film at Whitechapel Gallery
David Parkinson (Roger from American Dad) is a film critic and historian whose books on film include Thams & Hudson’s History of Film
Barry Forshaw (Kal-El) is an author whose latest book is British Gothic Cinema
Nick Riddle (Zunar-J-5, aka Jake, from The Cat From Outer Space) is an editor at Bristol University
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Stage
13
Richard II
World Cinema
14
The Lunchbox Alain Robbe-Grillet
Contemporary
20
Under the Skin
Television
24
The Count of Monte Cristo
Animation
27
Documentaries
28
Metro-Land
From the Cheap Seats
30
Order Form
31
Special Offers Otto Preminger
9
British Film Sale
11
Will Hay
12
‘70s TV, Part II 16-17 European Crime
19
Transport Films
25
Revenge 29 Page 3
Information
Current Top 10 Chart
Bonus Points
1 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
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Key to MovieMail Recommended Recommended by MovieMail is a collection of the very best DVDs. Visit www.moviemail.com/ recommended for the full archive
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The intensely moving debut feature from Elia Kazan, relating the trials and tribulations of a turn of the century Brooklyn tenement family. A coming-of-age drama of unmatched poignancy, it remains a beguiling film for the ages. Item# 74426 USA | 1945 | 125 | U | £12.99
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2 12 Years a Slave
Steve McQueen’s essential, Oscar-winning slave-narrative drama, based on the story of Solomon Northup, a free born black man kidnapped and sold into slavery. Storytelling nous combines with an artist’s eye to make a truly great film. Item# 74190 USA | 2013 | 134 | 15 | £19.99
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3 Nashville (Masters of Cinema)
Robert Altman spins together plot strands involving two dozen people over the course of a busy weekend in music city in this masterpiece of subtle irony, biting satire and human drama. Without question, one of the finest movies of the 70s. Item# 73959 USA | 1975 | 160 | 15 | £17.99
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4 Generation War
An expertly crafted and compulsively plotted TV drama, described as a German Band of Brothers, which depicts the lives of five German friends during WWII. A groundbreaking German series which sparked a national debate. Item# 74540 Germany | 2013 | 270 | subt | £19.99
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5 Under the Skin
8 Metro-Land
By the Lake 6 Stranger
9 Davis
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7 Budapest Hotel The Grand
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Inside Llewyn DVD: £12.99 Save £7
10
Il Postino DVD: £9.99 Save £5
Reader Feedback A little while ago, Cordelia Meister wrote us a letter wondering if we could unearth the title of a film for her. She wrote, ‘I would be so pleased if you could discover the title of a delightful French film I saw many years ago and which I have never forgotten. A shop-worker (?) in the city is left a country house by a distant relative. He invites his fellow workers to see it. They drive through country lanes thick with spring blossom and on arrival, the magic of the old place causes them to relax and change in various ways.’ She adds that she wishes she could supply more details but it was a long time ago! If the description triggers any memories, please do get in touch. Just email feedback@moviemail.com or send us a postcard.
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Names of the Month: Joss Ackland, Anna Neagle, Scarlett Johansson
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June 2014 MovieMail Film Catalogue
MovieMail’s Film of the Month
The Grand Budapest Hotel Recommended Director: Wes Anderson Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Harvey Keitel, Jeff Goldblum, Tilda Swinton, Willem Dafoe, F. Murray Abraham Released: 7th July Extras: Featurette; Trailer Item# 74485 | USA | 2014 | FOX | 100 | Cert 15
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See Also Trouble in Paradise
Ernst Lubitsch
Item# 69216 1932 | B&W | U | £16.99
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The Royal Tenenbaums Wes Anderson
Item# 60717 USA | 105 | 15 | £17.99
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vivacious caper that’s radiant with stars, Wes Anderson’s exuberantly humorous eighth feature is a film whose energy makes for a wonderful contrast to its meticulous production design. If The Grand Budapest Hotel seems like quintessential Anderson it’s also, as ever, an expert amalgamation of influences: from the work of the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig and painter Gustav Klimt to Hollywood’s screwball comedies of the 1930s. Set in the fictional Eastern European country of Zubrowka and shot in Görlitz in Germany, The Grand Budapest Hotel tells the story of Gustave H, a concierge par excellence and an energetic seducer of wealthy senior citizens. He’s played by Ralph Fiennes in a show-stopping and rare comedic turn. Fiennes, liberated from the shackles of solemnity, inhabits Gustave’s contradictions with visible relish – in many ways the concierge is the picture of elegance, decency and professionalism but he’s also shifty, spectacularly foul-mouthed and possessed of a deep sadness. When one of Gustave’s elderly lovers, Madame D (a sporting,
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Wes Anderson’s latest is pure cinema – surrender to its magic near-unrecognisable Tilda Swinton), dies in suspicious circumstances he finds himself framed for the crime and hot-foots it out of there with his loyal lobby boy Zero Moustafa. They are pursued by an earnest policeman (Edward Norton) alongside Madame D’s dastardly son Dmitri (Adrien Brody) and his Nosferatu-esque henchman (Willem Dafoe). The Grand Budapest Hotel is an unabashed indulgence, a feast of superior whimsy that is absolutely magical. This is pure cinema: a film whose shifting aspect ratios, attention to detail, adoption of both cutting-edge and classic filmmaking techniques and cine-literacy tell of Anderson and his expert collaborators’ love for the artform. How sad that you can’t check into the hotel in question – but you can spend 100 blissfully escapist minutes surrendering to the film’s bountiful charms. Emma Simmonds Page 5
Classic Movies English Language Films, 1930 - 1969
Flame of Love
New Releases
Richard Eichberg One of five British films featuring Anna May Wong, made during her stay in London in the 1930s, this is set in the exotic surroundings of pre-WWI Russia and tells the tragic story of the doomed love between a young Chinese dancing girl and the adjutant to a Grand Duke.
Charley Moon Guy Hamilton
Max Bygraves heads an accomplished cast in this 1956 musical drama which charts the rocky road to success for a young comedy hopeful who, with his partner (Dennis Price), gains experience in the tattiest of theatres before trying his luck in London. UK | 1956 | NWORK | 89 | Cert PG Item# 73978 | RRP £9.99 | 30th June
The Complete Dr. Phibes Robert Fuest
A double dose of macabre comedies: The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) and Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972). Vincent Price plays the man who sets about knocking off the medical staff who left his wife for dead in murders based 2 discs; Limited edition on biblical plagues. box set; 100-page booklet; Many extras; Both films also available on DVD for £7.99 each. UK | 1971-72 | ARROW | 180 | Cert 15 Item# 74654 | RRP £34.99 | 9th June
Blu-ray: £26.49 DVD: £7.99 each
Don’t Bother to Knock Cyril Frankel
Dambusters legend Richard Todd turned his talents to comedy to play a philandering travel agent with too many girlfriends for his own safety in this delightful romantic romp from 1961. Also stars Elke Sommer, June Thorburn and John Le Mesurier. UK | 1961 | NWORK | 86 | Cert PG Item# 74009 | RRP £9.99 | 23rd June
The Extra Day
William Fairchild Richard Basehart, Simone Simon, Sid James and Beryl Reid are among the stars of this engaging 1956 portmanteau feature that takes a comical look at the usually obscure but oddly complicated lives of a group of film extras. UK | 1956 | NWORK | 80 | Cert PG Item# 73997 | RRP £9.99 | 16th June
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Justine
George Cukor
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UK / Germany | 1930 | NWORK | 80 | Cert U Item# 73991 | RRP £9.99 | 2nd June
Anouk Aimée, Michael York and Dirk Bogarde star in this adaptation of the first novel in Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet, which sees a young Irish schoolmaster arriving in Egypt and finding himself in a society dominated by the enchantingly beautiful, mysterious Justine. USA | 1969 | SIMP | 110 | Cert 15 Item# 74441 | RRP £12.99 | Out Now
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Law and Disorder Charles Crichton
Michael Redgrave and Robert Morley head the cast in this comedy of skulduggery and deception from Ealing Studios lynchpin Charles Crichton and screenwriter T.E.B. Clarke (Passport to Pimlico, The Lavender Hill Mob). A young man believes his father is a clergyman; in fact he is a confidence trickster, whose frequent spells ‘inside’ are explained away as missionary trips abroad... UK | 1958 | NWORK | 73 | Cert U Item# 74005 | RRP £9.99 | 2nd June
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The Left Hand of God Edward Dmytryk
Humphrey Bogart stars as a fighter pilot turned adventurer in 1947 China. To escape the wrath of a warlord (Lee J. Cobb), he masquerades as a man of God. While hiding out in a remote Catholic mission, he finds he is comfortable posing as a priest – but then he falls in love with a nurse (Gene Tierney).
Ealing Studios Rarities Vol 13 Recommended Contains: Autumn Crocus (Dean, 1934), It Happened in Paris (Wyler, 1935), The Dictator (Saville, 1935), Secret Lives (Gréville, 1937) Starring: Madeleine Carroll, Ivor Novello, John Loder, Clive Brook, Brigitte Horney, Fay Compton Released: Out Now Extras: 2 discs. Item# 74003 UK | 1937 | NWORK | 300 | B&W | Cert PG
Thwarted love threads through the four films in this latest volume of rarities from the Ealing archives. There’s the fresh and mischievous It Happened in Paris, with John Loder enjoying himself as a rich American out for a taste of la vie de Bohème. The girl across the street becomes his model, but leaves him on learning of his wealth. Happily, here at least, love lost beomes love refound. Sound commonsense wins out over fairytale longing in Tyrolean romantic fantasy Autumn Crocus, in which a Manchester schoolteacher falls for a lederhosen clad Ivor Novello while on her summer holiday. The set’s highlight, Secret Lives, considers the high price of freedom in wartime, with Brigitte Horney playing the French-born German national who is set to work as a honey-trap, while The Dictator uses the same source material as A Royal Affair (2012), with Clive Brook taking the role of the physician who inveigles himself into the Danish court and Queen’s bedchamber. GH
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USA | 1955 | SIMP | 83 | Cert PG Item# 74445 | RRP £12.99 | Out Now
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June 2014 MovieMail Film Catalogue
Forever Amber Recommended Director: Otto Preminger Starring: Linda Darnell, Cornel Wilde, George Sanders, Jessica Tandy, Richard Greene, Leo G. Carroll Released: Out Now Item# 74436 | USA | 1947 | SIMP | 133 | Cert U
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See Also Blackbeard the Pirate Raoul Walsh
Item# 65489 USA | 1952 | 94 | U | £12.99
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The Princess of Montpensier Bertrand Tavernier
Item# 66438 France / Germany | 2010 | 139 | subt | 15 | £17.99
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The Wicked Lady Leslie Arliss
Item# 16745 UK | 1945 | 99 | B&W | PG | £9.99
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N
obody buying a ticket for Otto Preminger’s 17th century romp expected it to be as racy as Kathleen Winsor’s bestselling 972-page novel. But much hoo-ha surrounded the fact that screenwriters Philip Dunne and Ring Lardner, Jr. had cut all the saucy sequences. This sweeping appreciation is unfair, as Preminger produced an innuendo-packed saga that bore comparison with the bodice-rippers being produced in Blighty around the same time by Gainsborough Pictures. The velvet-clad George Sanders makes a splendidly louche Charles II, while Cornel Wilde is every bit as dashingly caddish as James Mason. But Linda Darnell steals the show as the foundling whose unrequited passion for a penurious adventurer leaves her pregnant and in prison. Escaping, she rises, via an assortment of men, to the position of King’s mistress - but will she get the man who has always held her heart? The script was actually a rewrite, as Preminger had junked the original, along with British leading lady Peggy Cummins and the 39 days of footage that John M. Stahl had directed. He apparently drove Linda Darnell so hard that she collapsed on set and was ordered to rest for 10 days. Given that she also nearly perished
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A lavish bodice-ripper starring Linda Darnell and George Sanders while shooting the Great Fire of London sequence, her performance is highly commendable. That said, the finest acting took place in the office of 20th Century Fox’s Spyros Skouras, who wept openly and pounded the floor in a bid to persuade three priests from the Catholic Legion of Decency to pass the picture for release. Preminger hated it. But he does himself a disservice, as he proves himself to be a master of mise-en-scène, with the contrasts between the austerity of Amber’s Puritan home and the faux glamour of the theatre and the court being painterly and precise. He also brought the best out of Darnell, who was always beautiful, but rarely demonstrative. Admittedly, she is magnificently served by costumier René Hubert and cinematographer Leon Shamroy, who lavishes more Technicolor care upon her décolletage close-ups than he does on Lyle Wheeler’s sumptuous sets. This is Hollywood camp par excellence. David Parkinson Page 7
Classic Movies Play Dirty
The Mad Ghoul James Hogan
André De Toth
A stylish thriller from the golden age of Universal horror, featuring graverobbing, murder, corpse desecration and madness. David Bruce plays the title character and George Zucco the scientist whose curious experiments produce decomposing zombies. The film also features 1940s ‘Scream Queen’ Evelyn Ankers.
behind German lines.
USA | 1943 | ODEON | 64 | Cert PG Item# 74492 | RRP £12.99 | 16th June
USA | 1969 | 101 | 118 | Cert 15 Item# 74678 / 74680 | RRP £12.99 | 14th July
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Sons of the Sea
The Man Who Loved Redheads
Maurice Elvey
One of only two Britishmade feature films to be filmed in the Dufaycolour process (the other being Radio Parade of 1935), this 1939 drama stars Leslie Banks as the naval Captain trying to get to the bottom of who killed his predecessor at the Dartmouth Naval College. Foreign intelligence Digitally remastered. agents are suspected.
Harold French
Moira Shearer stars in this ravishing romantic musical comedy with exquisitely choreographed dance sequences. Adapted by Terence Rattigan from his stage play Who is Sylvia?, the film co-stars John Justin. Kenneth More narrates. UK | 1955 | NWORK | 86 | Cert PG Item# 74590 | RRP £9.99 | 7th July
UK | 1939 | RENOWN | 76 | Cert PG Item# 74661 | RRP £12.99 | 16th June
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Night of the Big Heat
Spring in Park Lane
Terence Fisher
The final collaboration between Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Terence Fisher. A freak heatwave sends the temperature soaring on the remote island of Fara while mainland Britain shivers. The boys at the Met station have no more idea what is going on than the regulars at the Swan, but a stand-offish visting scientist (Lee) suspects aliens. UK | 1967 | ODEON | 91 | Cert 15 Item# 74489 / 74490 | RRP £12.99 | 9th June
UK | 1948 | NWORK | 87 | Cert U Item# 74583 | RRP £9.99 | 30th June
Harry Keller
Clive Donner
Black humour and biting satire combine in this 1963 drama which stars Alan Bates as an ambitious real-estate clerk who is determined to crawl his way to the top of the social pile. Denholm Elliott plays the disreputable aristocrat who teaches him all he needs to know.
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One of several features pairing British screen sweetheart Anna Neagle and Michael Wilding, this jaunty ‘upstairs-downstairs’ romantic comedy was the most successful British film of 1948, with its fairytale scenes and witty reversal of social roles offering cinemagoers a welcome antidote to postwar austerity.
The Unguarded Moment
Nothing But the Best
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Herbert Wilcox
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UK | 1964 | NWORK | 110 | Cert PG Item# 74606 | RRP £9.99 | 30th June
Michael Caine, Harry Andrews, Nigel Davenport and Nigel Green star in this cynical WWII actioner about a Dirty Dozen-type unit operating in North Africa. Caine plays the British Petroleum executive who finds himself part of a sabotage crew working 400 miles
In a rare dramatic role, Esther Williams stars as a high school teacher stalked by a peeping tom who might be the same homicidal sex fiend who is wanted by the police. Based on a story by actress Rosalind Russell, this moody melodrama co-stars John Saxon in a first major role. USA | 1956 | ODEON | 91 | Cert 12 Item# 74494 | RRP £12.99 | 9th June
Captain Clegg Recommended Director: Peter Graham Scott Starring: Peter Cushing, Yvonne Romain, Oliver Reed, Patrick Allen, Michael Ripper Released: 23rd June Extras: Making-of; George Mossman’s carriage collection; Stills Gallery. Item# 74481 UK | 1962 | FCE | 78 | Cert 12
A tale of smugglers, Excise men and strange nocturnal ‘appenings, Captain Clegg is the sort of film that made you glad you never grew up. Loosely based on Russell Thorndike’s Dr. Syn stories, it stars Peter Cushing as the Reverent Dr. Blyss, a mildmannered clergyman on the Kent coast. But kindly Dr. Blyss has a secret: in younger days, he was the infamous pirate Captain Clegg, and he keeps his hand in with a spot of brandy smuggling. The authorities aren’t best pleased, and the bullying Captain Collier (Patrick Allen) means to put a stop to the racket. Although there are spooky goingson (Clegg’s gang keep away noseyparkers by dressing up as phantoms), Captain Clegg is more rumbustious than Hammer’s usual Gothic fare. Cushing is on top form as pirate and parson (scenes with his congregation are a treat), while Peter Graham Scott knows exactly how to handle such a romp: it gallops along with tremendous style. It’s one of the best pictures produced by Hammer Films and certainly the most fun. JO
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June 2014 MovieMail Film Catalogue
The films of
Otto Preminger Tales of Manhattan Recommended Director: Julien Duvivier Starring: Charles Boyer, Rita Hayworth, Ginger Rogers, Paul Robeson, Edward G. Robinson, Henry Fonda, Charles Laughton, Cesar Romero Released: Out Now Item# 74453 USA | 1942 | SIMP | 120 | B&W | Cert PG
Featuring a stellar cast (Edward G. Robinson, Henry Fonda, Rita Hayworth, Charles Laughton, Paul Robeson, Ginger Rogers...), the 1942 portmanteau film Tales of Manhattan relays five episodes in the life of a black formal tailcoat as it goes from owner to owner. The garment is made for an actor who is part of a romantic triangle, from whence it makes its way – via a struggling musician, a disbarred lawyer and a thief – to an impoverished southern farming community. It’s fascinating to note how wartime Hollywood was still prepared to highlight the social divisions left by the Depression and how the studios still hadn’t managed to find a way of depicting African-Americans in a non-patronising manner. What most intrigues are the shifts in tone that Duvivier achieves between pathos and comedy and how he wisely avoids making any grand unifying moral statements. Though the film has its sentimental moments, Duvivier directs it with some finesse, uniting its sections into an uplifting whole. DP
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Famous for his stylish film noirs and confidence in tackling taboo subjects, Preminger attracted much critical and popular acclaim over his five-decade career. With his Forever Amber finally coming to DVD (page 7), we present some of his best work.
Bunny Lake is Missing
Where the Sidewalk Ends
A classic psychological thriller in which a young girl vanishes without trace in seedy 1960s London, with the police sure that she was just a figment of her mother’s imagination. Stars Laurence Olivier.
A gritty noir thriller shot on the rain-slicked, low-rent New York streets. Dana Andrews plays the corrupt and brutal cop who accidentally kills a suspect and tries to cover up his actions.
Item# 56127 UK | 1965 | 115 | B&W | 12 | £9.99
Item# 17301 USA | 1950 | 91 | B&W | 12 | £19.99
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Anatomy of a Murder
Fallen Angel
James Stewart plays the lawyer who defends a soldier accused of murdering the man who raped his wife. Perhaps Preminger’s best.
Dana Andrews stars in this stylish murder mystery which sees a golddigging, down-on-his-luck press agent wooing two women.
Item# 8021 USA | 1959 | 161 | B&W | 15 | £19.99
Item# 17299 USA | 1945 | 98 | B&W | PG | £19.99
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Angel Face
Laura
Robert Mitchum plays an ambulance driver who becomes ensnared by the sensuous but dangerous Diane Tremayne (Jean Simmons).
One of the indisputable classics of film noir, this is a delicious murder mystery with a superb script. Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews star.
Item# 65626 USA | 1952 | 91 | B&W | PG | £12.99
Item# 68811 USA | 1944 | 84 | B&W | PG | £9.99
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Bonjour Tristesse
River of No Return
Jean Seberg plays the spoiled 17 year-old daughter of David Niven’s playboy widower in this drama set in the south of France.
A western set during the Gold Rush. Marilyn Monroe plays the saloon singer who falls into the capable arms of Robert Mitchum.
Item# 23257 USA | 1958 | 91 | PG | £12.99
Item# 68775 USA | 1954 | 87 | PG | £9.99
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Carmen Jones
Rosebud
Dorothy Dandridge – earning the first Oscar nomination for a black actress – stars in this ‘Scope version of Bizet’s opera played by a black cast.
Peter O’Toole plays the CIA agent who embarks on a mission to track down Palestinian terrorists who kidnap a millionaire’s daughters.
Item# 17227 USA | 1954 | 105 | U | £19.99
Item# 56863 USA | 1975 | 121 | 15 | £15.99
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Exodus
Whirlpool
Newman leads an exceptional cast in this film about the founding of modern Israel, adapted by Dalton Trumbo from Leon Uris’s novel.
An intriguing blend of noir and melodrama in which a rich sophisticate is arrested for shoplifting but is saved from scandal by a sinister hypnotist.
Item# 16565 USA | 1960 | 199 | PG | £15.99
Item# 17303 USA | 1945 | 93 | B&W | PG | £19.99
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HIGH DRAMA! (also out as a DVD)
Blu-rays & DVDs from The British Film this June
Details on these and our other releases in the Moviemail catalogue and website networkdistributing
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British Film Sale
Immerse yourself in the joys of vintage cinema with our sale from Network. Lovers of British film will already be well acquainted with Network’s The British Film series, which rescues a good handful of titles each month from the archives to publish on DVD and occasionally Blu-ray. Almost one year in and they’ve published a huge number of films – including many unmissable discoveries. Here we’ve rounded up some of our favourites so far and organised low prices so you can explore British cinema’s rich heritage for less.
Ealing Studios Rarities: Vols 1-11
The Ringer
John Llewellyn Moxey Classic 60s thriller starring Christopher Lee as mysterious masked lion tamer, one of the members of a sinister travelling circus suspected of murder by Leo Genn’s Scotland Yard detective.
The first eleven volumes of long unseen films from the Ealing archives, with wonderful discoveries to be made in every one. Each volume contains four films from the 1930s-50s. 2 discs.
This classy adaptation of Edgar Wallace’s mystery thriller features a peerless cast – Herbert Lom, Denholm Elliott, William Hartnell, Mai Zetterling – and was the feature debut of Bond director Guy Hamilton.
Item# 72065 UK | 1966 | 88 | £9.99
Item# Various UK | 1930-54 | 360 | B&W | PG | £14.99
Item# 73277 UK | 1952 | 75 | B&W | U | £9.99
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All Neat in Black Stockings
Edgar Wallace Anthology
Elizabeth of Ladymead
Dir: Christopher Morahan. Bawdy romp meets tender love story; Victor Henry and Susan George star.
47 British 60s thrillers, in a box set or seven separate volumes. 21 discs
Dir: Herbert Wilcox. Four generations of men return from war to find a much-changed wife (Anna Neagle).
Item# 73317 UK | 1969 | 95 | 12 | £9.99
Complete Box Set: £49.99 Save £80 Vols 1-6: £11.99 each Vol 7: £10.99
Item# 73288 UK | 1948 | 94 | PG | £9.99
Eight O’Clock Walk
Perfect Friday
Dir: Lance Comfort. Richard Attenborough portrays an innocent man on trial for his life in this sympathetic courtroom drama.
Dir: Peter Hall. A crime caper starring Stanley Baker as a bank manager who teams up with a glamorous couple to pull off an inside job.
Item# 72691 UK | 1953 | 87 | B&W | PG | £9.99
Item# 71083 UK | 1970 | 97 | 12 | £19.99
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British Musicals of the 1930s Contains Music Hath Charms, The Song You Gave Me, Over She Goes and Harmony Heaven. 2 discs. Item# 72647 UK | 1930-38 | 301 | B&W | PG | £14.99
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Item# 69294 1960s | B&W | 12 | £129.99
Guy Hamilton
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Bang! You’re Dead DVD £5.99
Coast of Skeletons DVD £5.99
Death at Broadcasting House £5.99
Five Golden Dragons DVD £5.99
Guns of Darkness DVD £5.99
Life is a Circus DVD £5.99
Murder Without Crime DVD £5.99
Play It Cool! DVD £5.99
Spanish Fly DVD £5.99
The Elstree Story DVD £5.99
The Final Programme £5.99
The Good Companions £5.99
House in Nightmare Park DVD £5.99
The House in the Woods DVD £5.99
The Man from Morocco DVD £5.99
The Man Who Finally Died £5.99
The Night We Got the Bird DVD £5.99
The Terror DVD £5.99
Order now from MovieMail
Offer ends 28th July or while stocks last
Circus of Fear
Classic Movies Up Jumped a Swagman Christopher Miles
An entertaining, tonguein-cheek musical romp starring Frank Ifield as a talented young Australian singer who moves to London in search of his big break. While there he tries to woo a top model (Suzy Kendall) while overlooking the publican’s daughter who loves him. UK | 1965 | NWORK | 85 | Cert U Item# 74574 | RRP £9.99 | 30th June
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Michael Carreras
Joe Brown stars as a likeable young dreamer who finds himself with a hit on his hands in this endearing 1963 musical drama, which features songs from Joe and his Bruvvers, Marty Wilde and Freddie and the Dreamers.
Frankie Vaughan stars as Carmello, a young fisherman who, unable to earn enough from fishing to marry his tempestuous fiancée in Gibraltar, sets off for England to seek his fortune. A humorous romance set to music which also gave an early role to Austrian-born actress Jocelyn (Jackie) Lane, this was one of a series of light comedies starring Vaughan on which director Herbert Wilcox collaborated with wife Anna Neagle between 1949-59. UK | 1958 | NWORK | 82 | Cert PG Item# 74596 | RRP £9.99 | 30th June
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Dandy Dick Dir: William Beaudine. A 1935 film farce that was an early showcase for the comedic brilliance of Hay, who here plays a gambling vicar. Item# 72305 UK | 1935 | 70 | B&W | U | £9.99
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The Ghost of St Michael’s Dir: Marcel Varnel. Hay’s schoolmaster takes his boys to a haunted castle on the outbreak of war. Item# 64210 UK | 1941 | 78 | B&W | U | £15.99
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My Learned Friend
World War I Collection
Dir: Basil Dearden. This polished comedy thriller sees Hay play a lawyer targeted for revenge by an escaped convict. One of his best.
Michael Powell
Page 12
Will Hay made his feature debut in this boisterous adaptation of Sir Arthur Wing Pinero’s 1885 farce, The Magistrate. He’s on fine form, as the pompous pillar of society suspecting that his wife has been lying about her age because her tearaway stepson (John Mills) simply cannot be 15. However, it takes a brouhaha at the music-hall and a session in Hay’s courtroom for the truth to emerge. Overlooking the essential chauvinism of the scenario, this affords Hay plentiful opportunity to display the blustering stuffiness that made his school and station masters so memorable. He is ably supported by the scampish Mills and by Iris Hoey, whose efforts at the music-hall to prevent an old acquaintance from blowing her cover land her and her sister (Angela Baddeley) in the dock. A variety veteran like Hay, director Thomas Bentley can’t resist showcasing Harry Bedford and Lily Morris, whose respective contributions, ‘A Little Bit Off the Top’ and ‘My Old Man (Said Follow the Van)’, capture the spirit of a once hugely popular form of entertainment. DP
Item# 50625 UK | 1935-42 | 242 | U | £19.99
Herbert Wilcox
Our DVD Price: £11.99
Item# 55703 UK | 1935-38 | 735 | B&W | | £49.99
Three films starring the great comedian: Radio Parade of 1935, The Ghost of St Michael’s and The Black Sheep of Whitehall.
Wonderful Things!
Item# 57900 UK | 1943 | 70 | B&W | PG | £15.99
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Oh Mr Porter! / Convict 99 3 discs.
Recommended Director: Thomas Bentley
Comic Icons: Will Hay
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Those Were the Days
Nine of Hay’s 1930s films: Boys Will be Boys, Where There’s a Will, Windbag the Sailor, Good Morning Boys, Oh, Mr Porter!, Old Bones of The River, Convict 99, Ask a Policeman and Hey! Hey! USA. 9 discs. DVD: £22.99 Save £27
UK | 1963 | NWORK | 84 | Cert 12 Item# 73979 | RRP £9.99 | 9th June
UK | 1933-87 | SpiritStrawberry | 270 | Cert 12 Item# 74652 | RRP £14.99 | 2nd June
With his feature debut Those Were the Days released this month, we celebrate the idiosyncratic genius of comedian Will Hay, best known for his vivid portrayals of inept authority figures.
Will Hay Collection
What a Crazy World
A collection of three films set during the 1914-18 war. Contains 1914 All Out (David Green, 1987), the atmospheric spy thriller The Spy in Black (Michael Powell, 1939) – starring Conrad Veidt and Valerie Hobson, and I Was a Spy (Victor Saville, 1933), starring Madeleine Carroll.
Will Hay Film Sale
Dir: Marcel Varnel. Hay plays a stationmaster and a prison governor in this pairing of favourites.
Starring: Will Hay, John Mills, Iris Hoey Released: 9th June Extras: Brand-new digital transfer from original film elements; Image Gallery; Original Script PDF Item# 74007 UK | 1933 | NWORK | 77 | B&W | Cert U
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Item# 13996 UK | 1937, 1936 | 165 | B&W | U | £12.99
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June 2014 MovieMail Film Catalogue
Gay & Lesbian Stage
The Boulting Brothers Sale
New Releases Girls on Film: The First Date
An exciting new series of award winning lesbian short films from the originators of the Boys on Film collections. Contains AWOL, Hold On Tight, James Dean, Air Balloon, Fresh Air Therapy 2, The First Date, Social Butterfly, What’s Your Sign? and Dream Date.
Identical twins John and Roy Boulting worked together as producer and director wherever possible. Creators of many notable films, they were an integral part of the British film industry.
Fame is the Spur Michael Redgrave stars as the Labour politican whose beliefs become more conservative after his rise to power in this prestigious biopic, believed to be based on the career of the Labour Party politician Ramsay MacDonald.
USA | 2014 | PECCA | 91 | Cert 18 Item# 74276 | RRP £15.99 | 14th July
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Hawaii
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The Family Way
Argentina | 2013 | TLAUK | 101 | subt | Cert 15 Item# 74286 | RRP £15.99 | 23rd June
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Brothers in Law A satirical, funny jibe at the British legal system in which a newly qualified barrister comes up against a succession of cantankerous judges. Item# 33392 UK | 1957 | 94 | B&W | U | £12.99
Dir: Roy Boulting. A tender comedy of a young couple whose attempts at conjugal bliss are thwarted by having to live in his parents’ house.
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Love or Whatever Rosser Goodman
A fresh and funny gay comedy. Corey had it all – a successful career, bags of charm and, most of all, a bright future with his boyfriend. But, when his other half commits the ultimate betrayal and dumps him for a woman, he embarks upon a wild journey of self-discovery.
Item# 33104 UK | 1966 | 115 | 15 | £12.99
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Sailor of the King A fine WWII adventure adapted from CS Forester’s novel in which a lone escaped Canadian PoW tries to pin down a German warship. Item# 70273 UK / USA | 1953 | 79 | B&W | PG | £12.99
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Seven Days to Noon
USA | 2012 | TLAUK | 84 | Cert 18 Item# 71343 | RRP £15.99 | 23rd June
Dir: Boulting Brothers. A scientist steals a bomb and threatens to blow up London unless the Government ends research into atomic weapons.
Our DVD Price: £11.99
Item# 61120 UK | 1950 | 94 | B&W | | £12.99
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Also available on DVD: A French Mistress – £9.99 Josephine and Men – £7.99 Run for the Sun – £8.99 Suspect – £8.99 Three Silent Men / Inquest – £7.99 Twisted Nerve – £8.99 Thunder Rock – £9.99
Recommended Director: Gregory Doran
Marco Berger Funded by Kickstarter, Hawaii (Berger’s third film after Plan B and Absent) tells the story of a man who is reunited with a childhood friend, triggering a game of power and desire, and a relationship that cannot flourish because of the social differences between them.
Item# 74045 UK | 1946 | 113 | B&W | U | £12.99
Richard II: Royal Shakespare Company
My Last Round JJ Arriagada
Octavio is a prize-winning boxer living in the south of Chile who eventually succumbs to the flirtatious young Hugo. When their relationship starts to bloom, they move to Santiago, where Hugo is seduced by the temptations of the big city, and Octavio makes a new attempt at what he does best, boxing. Chile / Argentina | 2011 | PECCA | 88 | subt | Cert 15 Item# 74289 | RRP £14.99 | 9th June
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Starring: David Tennant, Michael Pennington Released: Out Now Extras: Interview; Director’s commentary Item# 74385 UK | 2013 | OPUS | 162 | Cert E
After their superb Hamlet, David Tennant and director Gregory Doran tackle a Shakespeare play whose central character embodies the last gasp of the Divine Right of Kings. A more conventional staging than the studio-shot Hamlet, Richard II’s appeal is performance-driven, and there’s some powerhouse acting. Michael Pennington as John of Gaunt kicks the opening scenes into gear with his ‘This sceptred isle’ speech – which, one tends to forget, is actually a deathbed lament for an England now ruined by Richard’s profligacy and corruption. Nigel Lindsay’s Bolingbroke exudes a genuine sense of threat, and Oliver Ford Davies is a marvellously conflicted Duke of York. He shares with Tennant a facility for finding the comic in their flawed characters. Tennant himself is outstanding as a highly-strung monarch, and from his imperious, preening entrance to his ignominious end in a dungeon, presents Richard as, after all, a character deserving of our sympathy. NR
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Page 13
World Cinema Films in a Foreign Language
In Bloom
New Releases
An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker Danis Tanovic
An outstanding Bosnian docu-drama from the Oscar-winning director of No Man’s Land, which follows the true story of a Roma scrap merchant forced to try and stump up more money than he has so a hospital will treat his gravely ill wife. Bosnia and Herzegovina | 2013 | NW | 74 | subt | Cert 12 Item# 74495 | RRP £15.99 | 14th July
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Nana Ekvtimishvili A distinctive coming-ofage drama set in 1990s Georgia. Lika Babluani and Mariam Bokeria star as the two 14 year-olds whose childhood is coming to an end against the background of civil war. Natia has an alcoholic father, while Eka rebels against her mother and sister, leading the friends to try to find peace outside their families as they face an uncertain future. Georgia / Germany / France | 2013 | ART-E | 102 | subt | Cert 15 Item# 74497 | RRP £15.99 | 14th July
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Gagarin
Pavel Parkhomenko A Russian biographical drama detailing the achievements of the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, who blasted off into orbit on April 12 1961, not knowing what fate awaited him. Gagarin tells the story of one of modern history’s great pioneers, and of the Russian team whose untiring efforts and determination led to the first steps into space.
Cannibal
Manuel Martín Cuenca A carefully crafted study of a psychopath in which Antonio de la Torre plays a prestigious Spanish tailor with the taste for human flesh. He feels no remorse and no guilt until Nina appears in his life. Love awakens, but this is a demon’s love story.
Russia | 2013 | E1 | 108 | subt | Cert 12 Item# 74373 | RRP £12.99 | 23rd June
Spain | 2013 | SC | 116 | subt | 18 Item# 74754 | RRP £19.99 | 23rd June
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Deodato: Cinema of Death Ruggero Deodato
Nude For Satan Luigi Batzella
Italian gothic cinema at its most demented, with lashings of 1970s-style sex, whippings, satanism, lesbianism, nudity, dubious haircuts – and a lust-crazed arachnid with a taste for sadomasochism and women in stockings.
Three notorious exploitation shockers from the Italian director Ruggero Deodato: Cannibal Holocaust (1980), The House on the Edge of the Park (1980) and Phantom of Death 3 discs. (1988). Italy | 1980-88 | SHAME | 300 | 18 Item# 74619 | RRP £19.99 | 16th June
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Dracula’s Daughter Jess Franco
Jess Franco pays homage to classic Universal horrors with this lesbian vampire tale, loosely based on Sheridan le Fanu’s short story Carmilla and starring Britt Nichols as the young woman who visits her grandmother, Baroness Karlstein, on her deathbed, where she discovers the family’s vampiric curse. France | 1972 | SALV | 95 | subt | Cert 18 Item# 74488 | RRP £12.99 | 23rd June
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Page 14
ITALY | 1974 | SALV | 80 | subt | 18 Item# 74491 | RRP £12.99 | 16th June
Our DVD Price: £9.99
Schoolgirl Hitchhikers Jean Rollin
Two lesbian schoolgirls get mixed up with a gang of jewel thieves in the first of a number of pure sexploitation films from Jean Rollin who, spurred on by the popularity of sex scenes in his horror films, produced a series of softcore films under the pseudonym of Michel Gentil. France | 1973 | SALV | 74 | subt | Cert 18 Item# 74501 | RRP £12.99 | 16th June
Alain RobbeGrillet: Six Films 1963-1974 Recommended
Contains: The Immortal One (1964), TransEurop Express (1967), The Man Who Lies (1968), Eden and After (1970), N. Rolls the Dice (1971) and Successive Slidings Into Pleasure (1974) Starring: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Marie-France Pisier, Michael Lonsdale, Olga Georges-Picot Released: 23rd June Extras: 5 discs; Remastered; introductions by Catherine Robbe-Grillet; Filmed interviews with Alain Robbe-Grillet; Commentaries; Booklet. Item# 73970 France | 1963-1974 | BFI | 576 | subt | Cert 18
Alain Robbe-Grillet’s moment as director – death notwithstanding, and for UK audiences – seems to have come. An acclaimed novelist, he is also a cinephile legend, having written Last Year at Marienbad, but this ambitious six feature package (with extremely helpful contextualising extras) will operate from a standing start for most viewers. For decades, his films have been the preserve of the festival circuit since success for his most well-known titles, The Immortal One and Trans-EuropExpress. This last – mystery, thriller, erotic fantasy, set on the eponymous train – features the great Jean-Louis Trintignant, star of a further four films collected here. Sexually provocative, playing with psychological expectations and genre, Robbe-Grillet’s films distilled the preoccupations of their times in striking, often unexpected ways. GE
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June 2014 MovieMail Film Catalogue
The Lunchbox Recommended Director: Ritesh Batra Starring: Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur Released: 14th July Extras: TBC Item# 74505 | India | 2013 | ART-E | 105 | subt | Cert PG
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Also on Blu-ray The Lunchbox Item# 74506 £19.99
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See Also The Satyajit Ray Collection Vol 1 Contains: The Big City, The Lonely Wife, The Hero.
Item# 53725 India | 1963-66 | subt | B&W | PG | £29.99
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Like Water For Chocolate Alfonso Arau
Item# 23321 Mexico | subt | 15 | £19.99
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The Scent of Green Papaya Tran Anh Hung
Item# 17271 Vietnam | 1993 | 100 | subt | U | £19.99
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T
hink of Indian cinema, and if you’re not automatically led towards Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak, you’ll likely end up mulling those all-singing, all-dancing Bollywood extravaganzas. Some nuanced middle ground exists between these tendencies, however, and it’s currently being explored by filmmakers such as Anurag Kashyap: director of 2012’s intricate crime opus Gangs of Wasseypur and now producer of the romantic drama The Lunchbox. That Ritesh Batra’s film is striving for something more modulated is immediately apparent from the quiet, rapt attention it plays to the details of one man’s lunchtime routine. The man is Saajan Fernandes (Irrfan Khan), a widowed office clerk who, as the film opens, doesn’t realise he’s actually been consuming the wrong food – dispatched via a bungling Mumbai courier service by a bored housewife (Nimrat Kaur) cooking to regain her overworked hubby’s attentions. As the mistake recurs, the lunchbox itself becomes a go-between – rather like the young boy in the British film of that name – and a written correspondence starts up between these lonely souls, exchanging notes on life and their own flickering
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A delightfully tasty treat from the new Indian cinema appetites: she laying out her regrets and fears between hot naans, he chewing all of the above over before refilling the emptied container with advice drawn from his many years of marriage. Seasoned viewers may be reminded of Jun Ichikawa’s 2004 fable Tony Takitani, which similarly sought to elevate a functionary to romantic-lead status. For much of the film, Batra is working within the constraints of Saajan’s modest existence: cramped commutes shuttle him from piled office paperwork to the stack of VHS tapes in his front room, relics through which he communes with his late wife. Gradually, Batra teases out this tale’s wider implications, obliging us to consider the passing of time in our frenetic world, and what we might lose in the rush to get back to the office. The Lunchbox’s gentle slightness is ready made for post-prandial matinees, and Batra has a real boon in Irrfan Khan (Life of Pi): here’s an actor who’s never played a false emotion in his life. Mike McCahill Page 15
TV Sale from t
Following the great interest in last month’s sale, we present an even bigger selection of mem dramas (Hard Times, The Collection), comedy (Clochemerle), cult series (Jason King, The Ne Tape) and much more, you’ll find many hours of entertainment here, as stimulating, intriguing Armchair Thriller
Clochemerle
David Copperfield
With its memorably unsettling opening credits (the seated shadow!), razor-sharp cliff hangers and iconic theme tune, this is a gripping, haunting anthology. The complete Thames TV series, running over 23 hours.
Michael Mills
Joan Craft
An outstanding comic series, scripted by Galton and Simpson, about the goings-on in a small Beaujolais town. Peter Ustinov narrates, and Cyril Cusack and Wendy Hiller lead a fine cast. 2 discs.
BBC’s first-rate adaptation of Dickens’ novel from 1974, with Arthur Lowe and Martin Jarvis excelling as Mr Micawber and Uriah Heap respectively. 2 discs.
Item# 72052 UK / Germany | 1972 | 254 | 12 | £19.99
Item# 23728 UK | 1974 | 325 | PG | £15.99
DVD: £10.99 Save £9
DVD: £9.99 Save £6
Battlestar Galactica
Dad’s Army
Relentlessly pursued by Cyclons, a fugitive band of survivors heads for freedom aboard the Battlestar Galactica. All 24 episodes.
All the surviving episodes from the long-running comedy based around the antics of the Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard. 14 discs.
Doctor Who: U.N.I.T Files
Item# 16499 USA | 1978 | 999 | PG | £49.99
Item# 51462 UK | 1968-77 | PG | £45.95
DVD: £18.99 Save £31
DVD: £26.99 Save £18.96
The Brontës of Haworth
Danger UXB
Hard Times
A highly-rated series starring Anthony Andrews as a young Lieutenant assigned to a hastily formed UXB unit in the early days of WWII. 4 discs.
Dir: John Irvin. Granada’s 1977 BAFTA-winning adaptation, directed and dramatised by the team behind BBC’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
11 discs.
Item# 56103 UK | 1978-80 | 1400 | £99.99
DVD: £46.99 Save £53
A meticulously researched series which brings the members of the Brontë family vividly to life. 2 discs
Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974, Jon Pertwee) and The Android Invasion (1975, Tom Baker). 3 discs. Item# 67368 UK | 1974-75 | 240 | PG | £29.99
DVD: £12.99 Save £17
Item# 28591 UK | 1979 | 650 | 12 | £29.99
Item# 57526 UK | 1977 | 200 | PG | £14.99
DVD: £10.99 Save £9
DVD: £17.99 Save £12
DVD: £7.99 Save £7
The Collection
Dangerous Knowledge
Haunted
Item# 71058 UK | 1973 | 345 | 12 | £19.99
Dir: Michael Apted. Four lives are shaken by the suggestion of infidelity in this drama starring Alan Bates, Helen Mirren and Laurence Olivier. Item# 57575 UK | 1976 | 64 | PG | £9.99
DVD: £7.99 Save £2
John Gregson plays the Intelligence man who finds himself shadowed by agents in this Southern TV spy thriller. Item# 59728 UK | 1976 | 150 | 12 | £12.99
A double bill of made-for-TV horror features: The Ferryman (Irvin, 1974), starring Jeremy Brett, and Poor Girl (Michael Apted, 1974). Item# 69283 UK | 1974 | 100 | £12.99
DVD: £8.99 Save £4
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The Comedy of Errors
Dickens of London
Out
Dir: Philip Casson. A wonderful RSC cast (Mike Gwilym, Michael Williams, Nickolas Grace, Judi Dench) star in this Shakespeare adaptation.
The classic biopic of author Charles Dickens. Roy Dotrice takes the lead roles of Charles and also his storytelling father, John. 4 discs.
Tom Bell excels as the released prisoner who is determined to track down the man who grassed him up in this Thames TV series. 2 discs.
Item# 67786 UK | 1978 | 130 | PG | £12.99
Item# 33891 UK | 1976 | 656 | PG | £19.99
Item# 32291 UK | 1978 | 300 | 12 | £19.99
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DVD: £13.99 Save £6
DVD: £9.99 Save £10
Count Dracula
Doctor Who: The Key to Time
Jason King
Dir: Philip Saville. Louis Jourdan dons the vampire’s cloak in BBC’s 1977 adaptation of Bram Stoker’s tale. Susan Penhaligon plays Lucy. Item# 50335 UK | 1977 | 151 | 15 | £15.99
DVD: £5.99 Save £10
The entire 16th series of Doctor Who, in which Tom Baker goes on an intergalactic treasure hunt. 7 discs. Item# 60449 UK | 1978-1979 | 650 | | £69.99
DVD: £19.99 Save £50
The moustachioed Peter Wyngarde stars as the flamboyant author and bon vivant in this jaw-dropping 1970s spy spoof. 8 discs. Item# 61043 UK | 1972 | 1300 | PG | £59.99
DVD: £26.99 Save £33
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Pa rt I
the 1970s
I
morable series from the 1970s. Showcasing fine ew Avengers), horror (Supernatural, The Stone g and captivating as it was 40 years ago. John Betjeman: A Passion for Churches Edward Mirzoeff Poet Laureate John Betjeman offers a wryly affectionate scrutiny of the churches, clergy and parishioners of Norfolk in this 1974 BBC documentary.
The New Avengers
Supernatural
Joanna Lumley (Purdey) and Gareth Hunt (Mike Gambit) join Patrick Macnee’s John Steed for this rebooted 1970s espionage fantasy series which finds them fighting evil plots on all sides. Great fun. The complete series.
Werewolves, vampires and ghosts haunt the living in this much sought-after BBC horror series originally broadcast in 1977. Stars include Gordon Jackson, Denholm Elliott, Billie Whitelaw and Jeremy Brett. 2 discs.
5 discs.
Item# 30652 UK | 1976-7 | 999 | 12 | £59.99
Item# 72581 UK | 1977 | 400 | 15 | £24.99
DVD: £24.99 Save £35
DVD: £15.99 Save £9
Just William
Plays for Britain
Survivors
LWT’s definitive production of Richmal Crompton’s stories of the scruffy, crafty, likeable schoolboy, William Brown. 4 discs.
Six plays by writers at early stages in their careers, including Stephen Poliakoff, Roger McGough, Howard Brenton and Brian Glover. 2 discs
The complete 1970s series, based on Terry Nation’s novel, in which 95% of the population has been wiped out by plague. 12 discs.
Item# 59869 UK | 1978 | 690 | PG | £29.99
Item# 72078 UK | 1976 | 325 | 15 | £19.99
Item# 57185 UK | 1975-77 | 1995 | £79.99
DVD: £17.99 Save £12
DVD: £8.99 Save £11
DVD: £24.99 Save £55
The Lotus Eaters: Series 1
Raid on Entebbe
Tales of the Unexpected
Item# 66902 UK | 1974 | 155 | E | £12.99
DVD: £7.99 Save £5
Ian Hendry and Wanda Ventham star in this engrossing BBC drama about 3 discs. ex-pats on Crete. Item# 60628 UK | 1972 | 450 | PG | £15.99
Charles Bronson stars in this TV drama based on a real military operation carried out by Israeli commandos in the summer of 1976. Item# 67621 USA | 1976 | 139 | PG | £15.99
All 112 episodes from all nine series of Roald Dahl’s deliciously twisted 19 discs. drama series. Item# 56074 UK | 1979-88 | 2825 | 12 | £99.99
DVD: £9.99 Save £6
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Madame Bovary
Rising Damp
Dir: Rodney Bennett. Francesca Annis stars as the Frenchwoman dreaming of escape from her dull provincial existence.
The complete classic TV comedy series, plus the 1980 movie, starring Leonard Rossiter as lecherous landlord Rupert Rigsby. 5 discs.
Item# 23724 UK | 1975 | 211 | PG | £15.99
Item# 55694 UK | 1974-78 | 771 | | £19.99
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DVD: £15.99 Save £4
The Merchant of Venice
Schalcken the Painter
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Dir: John Sichel. A lavish stage production starring Laurence Oivier in the lead role of the moneylender.
Dir: Leslie Megahey. A brilliant drama exploring the dark relationship between art, commerce and desire.
Dir: John Irvin. Le Carré’s spy thriller turned into enthralling TV drama. Alec Guinness is Smiley. 2 discs.
Item# 65676 UK | 1973 | 128 | 15 | £12.99
Item# 72582 UK | 1979 | 70 | 12 | £19.99
Item# 13837 UK | 1979 | 315 | PG | £9.99
DVD: £7.99 Save £5
DVD+Blu-ray: £9.99 Save £10
DVD: £6.99 Save £3
The Pallisers
The Stone Tape
Warhol
Dir: Hugh David. The classic 1970s BBC drama series based on the novels by Anthony Trollope. Susan Hampshire stars. 8 discs.
Dir: Peter Sasdy. Nigel Kneale’s atmospheric ghost story which updates a haunting to the technological era. Michael Bryant stars.
Photographer David Bailey helms a candid ATV documentary on Pop Art legend Andy Warhol. Bailey on Beaton and Bailey on Visconti.
Item# 21661 UK | 1974 | 999 | PG | £59.99
Item# 70145 UK | 1972 | 90 | PG | £19.99
Item# 60709 UK | 1973 | 50 | E | £12.99
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Those Crackerjack Silents Twelve classic silent shorts from the children’s comedy variety show, starring Don Maclean and Peter Glaze. Item# 73229 UK | 1974 | 61 | U | £14.99
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World Cinema Stalingrad
Fedor Bondarchuk
One of the biggest home grown Russian hits since the end of the Soviet era, Stalingrad is an epic look at the battle that turned the tide of World War II. In it, Russian soldiers fight to hold a strategic building in their devastated city against a ruthless German army, and become deeply connected to two Russian women living there. USSR | 2013 | COL-T | 131 | subt | Cert 15 Item# 74367 | RRP £12.99 | 23rd June
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Director: Gaspar Noé
The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears Cattet & Forzani
A dreamlike Belgian thriller from the directors of Amer, which follows a man on a twisted trail of discovery through the labyrinthine halls of his apartment building after his wife disappears. Cryptic messages from his neighbours entangle him in a hellish nightmare as he unlocks their strange fantasies of sensuality and bloodshed. Belgium / France / Luxembourg | 2013 | MET-D | 98 | subt | 18 Item# 74631 | RRP £17.99 | 23rd June
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The Year and the Vineyard Jonathan Cenzual Burley
During the Spanish civil war, a Sicilian member of the International Brigades falls trough a hole in time and lands in a small village in present day Spain, where he befriends the village teacher, has to contend with an overenthusiastic priest and the choice of staying in a time where he does not belong or going back to the horrors of war – and the woman he loves. Spain | 2013 | MATCH | 82 | subt | Cert 15 Item# 74083 | RRP £15.99 | 14th July
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Pre-ordering from MovieMail If you see a title listed here due for release in the future you’re welcome to pre-order it from us. Your card will only be charged when it’s despatched and you’ll receive the title on or close to its release date. Page 18
Irreversible Starring: Vincent Cassel, Monica Bellucci Released: 16th June Item# 74520 France | 2002 | ALT | 97 | subt | Cert 18
The premiere of Gaspar Noë’s Irreversible in Cannes in 2002 caused a considerable furore, and twelve years on, it remains an innovative, visceral and brutal cinematic experience. An indelible saga of revenge and misguided retribution, it features blistering performances by then-husband and wife team Vincent Cassel (star of the similarly brutal La Haine) and Monica Bellucci (charismatic in The Matrix Reloaded). Opening with uncompromising scenes of murder and rape (the killing in a gay S&M club is the most realistic – and grim – you will ever see) and ending in a setting of relaxed domestic intimacy, the film moves events backwards to examine the issues that led to these horrendous acts. This is a deeply unsettling experience (not least for the vertiginous camerawork, which makes similarly queasy cinematography in Woody Allen’s Husbands and Wives look positively sedate), and those with fragile sensibilities should steer clear. But for those prepared to undertake a gruelling rite of passage, Gaspar Noë, as ever, is the man to take you into new areas. BF
Birds, Orphans and Fools Recommended Director: Juraj Jakubisko Starring: Philippe Avron, Magda Vásáryová Released: 23rd June Extras: Booklet. Item# 74389 Czech | 1969 | 2RUN | 77 | subt | Cert 15
Second Run’s second Slovak classic could hardly be more different from last year’s The Sun in a Net: it becomes obvious in seconds why director Juraj Jakubisko is known as ‘the Slovak Fellini’ and has also attracted comparisons with Peter Greenaway, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Emir Kusturica and Sergo Parajanov. Inspired by a folk saying, ‘God takes care of birds, orphans and fools,’ all three are much in evidence: the birds might be actual birds or the souls of the recently departed, the ‘fools’ range from mentally disabled children to people retreating into possibly feigned madness to escape the insanity of the real world, and the ‘orphans’ are Andrzej, Yorick and Marta (Marketa Lazarová’s star Magda Vášáryová), who take up residence in a derelict building, their complex relationships echoing French New Wave classics like Jules et Jim and Bande à Part. Filled with dazzling, hallucinatory images but suppressed until the Velvet Revolution unlocked the vaults, this is another dazzling rediscovery of Slovak cinema. MB
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European Crime Film Sale Few things in cinema are as engaging as a great crime film, and Europe is the home of many of the finest examples. From the seminal French gangster films of the ‘50s and ‘60s through to modern thrillers from Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, this arresting selection of films will have you pinned to your seat.
Classe Tous Risques
The Hunters
Rififi
Kjell Sundvall
Jules Dassin
Claude Sautet
A highly recommended Swedish thriller in which a Stockholm policeman returns to his home village, only to isolate himself when he sets about solving a case concerning the slaughter of local reindeer.
A brilliant, influential Gallic film noir famous for its silent half-hour robbery sequence. A gang’s daring jewel heist goes perfectly to plan – but then a rival gangster learns of the haul after one of the gang makes a single slip.
Item# 69742 Sweden | 1996 | 113 | subt | 18 | £12.99
Item# 65114 France | 1955 | 117 | subt | 12 | £24.99
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And Then There Were None
The Jean-Pierre Melville Collection
Read My Lips
Dir: Peter Collinson. An adaptation of Agatha Christie’s detective mystery with an all-star European cast.
Army of Shadows, Le Doulos, Léon Morin, Prêtre, Le Cercle Rouge, Bob le Flambeur and Un Flic. 6 discs.
Item# 56927 France / Spain | 1974 | 95 | U | £15.99
Item# 57277 France | 1961-72 | subt | PG | £44.99
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La Balance
Les Diaboliques
See How They Fall
Dir: Bob Swaim. This tough, exciting police thriller set in the underworld of Marseilles was a huge success with critics and audiences alike.
Dir: Henri-Georges Clouzot. A man’s mistress and downtrodden wife join forces to get rid of him in this brilliant French thriller with a twist.
Dir: Jacques Audiard. A dark study of obsession and survival starring JeanLouis Trintignant and Matthieu Kassovitz. ‘A French Reservoir Dogs.’
Item# 19222 France | 1983 | 98 | subt | 18 | £19.99
Item# 64010 France | 1954 | 117 | subt | B&W | 12 | £24.99
Item# 62045 France | 1993 | 99 | subt | 18 | £15.99
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La Bête Humaine
The Man from London
The Silence
Jean Renoir’s masterly adaptation from Émile Zola sees Jean Gabin play the tormented train driver who falls in love with a murderer.
Dir: Béla Tarr. A brooding mystery drama, based on a Georges Simenon novel and characterised by stunning, fluid monochrome photography.
Dir: Baran bo Odar. An atmospheric and suspenseful German murder mystery. One of the finest examples of the new European crime wave.
Item# 52518 France | 1938 | 97 | subt | B&W | PG | £17.99
Item# 57732 France | 2007 | 132 | subt | B&W | 12 | £15.99
Item# 67150 Germany | 2010 | 119 | subt | 15 | £17.99
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Casque d’Or
The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes
State Affairs
Item# 73440 France | 1960 | 108 | subt | B&W | 12 | £19.99
Dir: Jacques Becker. Simone Signoret plays the girlfriend of a minor gangster who falls in love with another man. A truly great film. Item# 50592 France | 1952 | 94 | subt | B&W | 15 | £17.99
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The Consequences of Love Dir: Paolo Sorrentino. A gripping Italian thriller in which a loner (Toni Servillo) lives with a dark secret. Item# 24395 Italy / UK | 2005 | 100 | subt | 15 | £19.99
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Dir: Karl Hartl. Hans Albers and Heinz Rühmann play the two tricksters disguised as Holmes and Watson. Item# 67405 Germany | 1937 | 107 | subt | | £12.99
Dir: Jacques Audiard. A deaf woman helps a charming small time hood to rob a nightclub in this twisting thriller starring Vincent Cassel. Item# 62459 France | 2001 | 113 | subt | 15 | £15.99
Dir: Eric Valette. An action-packed French political thriller in which a corrupt politician, his henchman and a hard-boiled female cop cross paths Item# 71826 France | 2009 | 99 | subt | 15 | £12.99
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Nightwatching
Super Bitch
Dir: Peter Greenaway. A drama exploring the mystery behind Rembrandt’s ‘The Night Watch’. 2 discs; Rembrandt’s J’Accuse (2008).
Dir: Massimo Dallamano. Blue movie blackmail, sleaze and depravity are at the heart of this softcore crime classic. starring Stephanie Beacham.
Item# 60954 Netherlands / UK | 2007 | 136 | 18 | £15.99
Item# 69393 Italy / UK | 1973 | 94 | subt | 18 | £15.99
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One of the greatest of all French gangster movies, rated by Melville and Bresson, starring Lino Ventura as a gangster weary of exile and Jean-Paul Belmondo as his escort.
Contemporary Film English Language Films, 1970 – present Exhibition
New Releases As I Lay Dying James Franco
Adapted from William Faulkner’s great novel, As I Lay Dying chronicles the story of the Bundren family as they traverse the Mississippi countryside to take their mother’s body to her home town for burial. James Franco, who also directed, and Tim Blake Nelson star. USA | 2013 | LGATE | 105 | Cert 15 Item# 74144 / 74145 | RRP £15.99 | 23rd June
An adaptation of Marcus Zusak’s novel, starring Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson as the working class German couple whose adopted daughter, Liesel, steals books for the story-loving Jewish refugee to whom they give shelter as war looms.
USA | 1971 | EUREK | 91 | Cert 15 Item# 73958 | RRP £17.99 | 14th July
USA | 2014 | FOX | 131 | Cert 12 Item# 74513 / 74512 | RRP £19.99 | 7th July
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Memoirs of a Survivor David Gladwell
Cat and Mouse Daniel Petrie
Giving a performance which is both chilling and intensely sympathetic, Kirk Douglas stars as a disturbed man whose attempt to recover a sense of self-worth takes him to the limits of despair and revenge. A critically acclaimed thriller from 1974 which also stars Breathless icon Jean Seberg.
Frank Nesbitt An earthy, sympathetic adaptation of HE Bates’ novel, starring Carol White (Cathy Come Home) as a young woman trying to escape a life of rural poverty. John Mills is the lonely farmer with whom she finds work and the promise of easy money. UK | 1971 | NWORK | 95 | Cert 15 Item# 74601 | RRP £9.99 | 7th July
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Page 20
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Harold is a deathobsessed 20 year-old, Maude is the lively septuagenarian he meets at a funeral who introduces a little zest into his life. A charmingly eccentric cult classic which openly explores themes of suicide, love and death from a fresh Restored; Booklet. Also perspective. available on DVD for £5.99.
Brian Percival
Dulcima
UK | 2013 | ART-E | 105 | Cert 15 Item# 74311 / 74776 | RRP £15.99 | 23rd June
Hal Ashby
The Book Thief
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This latest study in bourgeois ennui and unease from Joanna Hogg (Archipelago, Unrelated) finds two artists (Viv Albertine and Liam Gillick) trapped in a modernist house that has become the third person in their marriage. A stark, challenging and layered film, shot through with penetrative insight.
Harold and Maude (MoC)
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USA | 1974 | NWORK | 85 | Cert 15 Item# 73975 | RRP £9.99 | 30th June
Joanna Hogg
Julie Christie stars in an award-winning adaptation of Doris Lessing’s famous dystopian novel. A haunting science-fiction feature, Memoirs of a Survivor is set in Britain in the near-future and tells the story of ‘D’, a housewife trying to carry on after a cataclysmic war that has left society in a state of collapse. UK | 1981 | NWORK | 111 | Cert 18 Item# 73980 | RRP £9.99 | 23rd June
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S*P*Y*S
Irvin Kershner Capitalising on the huge success of their pairing in M*A*S*H, this 1974 spy spoof reunited Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould, who play a couple of bungling Paris-based secret agents. Co-stars Joss Ackland and (in her English-language debut), French icon Zouzou (Love in the Afternoon). USA | 1974 | NWORK | 99 | Cert PG Item# 74588 | RRP £9.99 | 14th July
The Invisible Woman Recommended Director: Ralph Fiennes Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Felicity Jones, Kristin Scott Thomas, Tom Hollander, Perdita Weeks Released: 16th June Extras: Interviews with cast and crew Item# 74299 UK | 2013 | LGATE | 111 | Cert 12
Ralph Fiennes has continued his intriguing directorial career with another film that views the modern curse of celebrity through a periodclassical lens. 2011’s Coriolanus rearranged Shakespeare’s play around a Roman general caught in a media storm and a leadership crisis; now The Invisible Woman, adapted from Claire Tomalin’s biography, picks over Charles Dickens’ scandalising extra-marital affair with the teenage actress Nelly Ternan. Right from its measured, receding establishing shots, Fiennes’ film is couched as a slow reveal, aiming to open up a wider historical angle. The passion in the central relationship has, to a degree, been sublimated into the film’s attention to detail, rightly reflected in BAFTA and Oscar costume nods, and the director-star’s thoughtful and intelligent approach. Indeed, the film posits that the only truly dignified way to address the hoopla around Dickens – as much a literary superstar then as Salman Rushdie or JK Rowling is today – is with stillness and quiet restraint. MM
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June 2014 MovieMail Film Catalogue
Under the Skin Recommended Director: Jonathan Glazer Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Paul Brannigan Released: 14th July Extras: Behind-the-Scenes interviews Item# 74523 | UK | 2013 | STUDC | 108 | Cert 15
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See Also Birth
Jonathan Glazer
Item# 21130 USA | 2004 | 97 | 15 | £19.99
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Don’t Look Now Nicolas Roeg
Item# 66460 UK | 1973 | 105 | 15 | £15.99
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The Man Who Fell to Earth (Restored) Nicolas Roeg
Item# 66418 USA | 1976 | 134 | 18 | £15.99
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onathan Glazer’s arresting, sexy, creepy sci-fi thriller/road movie is spare, downbeat and hypnotic. It’s also oddly touching, and utterly dependant on Scarlett Johansson’s brave, unexpected, remarkable performance. We are aware from the off that she’s an alien being in human skin, although whether she has been specifically constructed or voluntarily transformed there is no telling. She is wordlessly supervised, assisted, checked and surveilled by male bikers but when ready sets off, solo, with a singleminded mission to move among us unsuspecting terrestrials. Silently and with curiosity she negotiates a shopping centre, acquiring clothes and make-up, then gets down to her only business, picking up men — preferably the kind who will not be missed by anyone — and taking them ‘home’, where a procession of them go from a ‘can’t believe their luck’ euphoria into a sort of trance and a startlingly eerie experience beyond description. Johansson’s encounters with the men she chats up, dancers she moves through in a club or passers-by in the streets of Glasgow have a cinéma vérité quality. And supposedly many of them are for real, the unrecognised star and her point of view captured on small hidden cameras.
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Scarlett Johansson stars in a hypnotic sexy sci-fi thriller What she sees slowly intrigues her, bewilders her, troubles her, and eventually, apparently, moves her to question who she is and what she is doing. This is much more elliptical and opaque than Michael Faber’s darkly satirical novel, adapted by Glazer and Walter Campbell to keep us off balance and wondering. To what end the alien is nabbing men is just one of many things left unexplained. From Johansson of the husky voice and superb figure you expect sensuality, and a sexual magnetism that would unquestionably prove irresistible to the very mortal men on whom she bestows her comehither attentions. Her commitment and intelligence really shine, though, in the eloquent, extremely subtle expressiveness with which her face flickers between alertness, inquisitiveness, revulsion and longing. Just when you sense she’s becoming the most vulnerable, human creature in the film it reaches an unconventional, unresolved ending that is strangely haunting. Angie Errigo Page 21
Contemporary Stage Fright
Bullets Over Broadway
Michele Soavi
Woody Allen
A cult 1980s horror in which an escaped mental patient arrives at a local theatre where the cast are rehearsing Jack the Ripper. Feeling right at home, he puts on a chicken head, joins the cast on stage and gets in 2 discs. on the action. Italy | 1986 | EXP-C | 86 | Cert 18 Item# 73922 | RRP £25.99 | 14th July
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Director: Spike Jonze
David Mackenzie
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson
A British drama in which troubled teenager Eric (Jack O’Connell), taken into care after the death of his mother and the sentencing of his father (Ben Mendelsohn), is sent to prison himself, where he attempts to reconnect with his father by demonstrating his toughness.
Released: 23rd June Item# 74312 USA | 2013 | EV | 126 | Cert 15
UK | 2013 | FOX | 106 | Cert 18 Item# 74648 / 74647 | RRP £19.99 | 14th July
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Swallows and Amazons (40th Anniversary Edition) Claude Whatham
1974 children’s adventure based on the Arthur Ransome book which recounts the holiday adventures of the Walker children in the Lake District in the 1920s. They call themselves the Swallows, after their boat, and meet two piratical sisters, the Amazons, who have already claimed the waters for themselves! Cast interviews: Locations documentary. UK | 1974 | STUDC | 88 | Cert U Item# 74719 / 74720 | RRP £17.99 | 14th July
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Thunderbolt and Lightfoot Michael Cimino
Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges star in this thrilling crime caper about an unlikely partnership between a retired thief, Thunderbolt (Eastwood), and a drifter (Bridges), who team up to keep a stash of recovered loot safe from the grasping hands of Thunderbolt’s accomplices. Also available on DVD for £7.99
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Page 22
Her Recommended
Starred Up
USA | 1974 | 2ND | 115 | Cert 18 Item# 74518 | RRP £19.99 | 23rd June
Jim Broadbent and John Cusack star in this comedy set in 1920s New York, where a playwright struggling for a backer for his latest project hooks up with a mobster who sees his play as the ideal vehicle for his dizzy, shrillvoiced mistress (Jennifer Tilly). Features some great actors as their stars were ascending.
Spike Jonze’s Her – a semi-critical update of Steve Barron’s Electric Dreams (1984) – nudges us ahead a few years and several dozen product upgrades to show us a man falling in love with his own voicemail. The man is Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix), a lovelorn sadsack reeling from a marital break-up, stuck in a job faking handwritten letters that speak to our need to connect. The product is a sexy piece of software called Samantha, an in-phone voice recognition system that both feeds and exacerbates Theodore’s melancholy. ‘She’ is smart, available, and ever-responsive; what’s more, she whispers in the user’s ear in the breathy tones of Scarlett Johansson. Who could resist? Soon, they are off roaming shopping malls together, making up backstories for people as if they were Woody Allen and Diane Keaton in Annie Hall. If it’s not quite as beady-eyed in its own examination of romantic expectation-versus-reality as Allen’s film, Her – which won Jonze the Best Original Screenplay Oscar – is still a compelling examination of our ongoing relationship with new technology. MM
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USA | 1994 | KALHE | 98 | Cert 15 Item# 74740 | RRP £14.99 | 7th July
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Celebrity
Woody Allen Allen takes a critical look at the world of celebrity in this comedy starring Kenneth Branagh as a journalist on an odyssey into the world of the rich and famous. His rendition of classic Woody tics and mannerisms is a career highlight, and Judy Davis’s performance as his scorned but resilient wife is alone worth the price of the film. USA | 1998 | KALHE | 113 | Cert 18 Item# 74727 | RRP £14.99 | 7th July
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Also Released... Absentia
Mike Flanagan
Item# 74544 USA | 2011 | 87 | 15 | £15.99
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Non-Stop
Jaume Collet-Serra
Item# 74446 USA | 2013 | 106 | 15 | £19.99
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Blu-rays Black Beauty
Caroline Thompson
Item# 74425 UK | 1994 | 84 | U | £17.99
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Blazing Saddles (40th Anniversary Edition) Mel Brooks
Item# 74438 USA | 1974 | 93 | 15 | £17.99
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Hands of the Ripper Peter Sasdy
Item# 74112 UK | 1971 | 81 | 15 | £14.99
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Revenge in Cinema Sale The Girl ... Trilogy
Hamlet
Obsession
Niels Arden Oplev
Kenneth Branagh
Edward Dmytryk
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. All three parts of the satisfying Swedish thriller based on Stieg Larsson’s Millenium Trilogy.
Filmed in glorious 70mm, the gripping, insightful performances from the star-filled cast are complemented by breathtaking sets, and make for a powerful interpretation of the Bard’s play.
A dark and sinister film about a possessed doctor (Robert Newton) humiliated by his faithless wife’s love for a younger man and meticulously plotting a devilish revenge.
Item# Various Sweden | 2009 | 152 | subt | 18 | £17.99
Item# 50999 UK | 1996 | 242 | PG | £16.99
Item# 19793 UK | 1949 | 91 | B&W | PG | £14.99
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An Actor’s Revenge
Katalin Varga
The Page Turner
Dir: Kon Ichikawa. Beautiful set pieces and heart-stopping action characterise this tale of a kabuki actor’s wish for vengeance.
Dir: Peter Strickland. A powerful, dark and haunting drama set in Romania and based on a traditional Transylvanian revenge ballad.
Dir: Denis Dercourt. A precise, subtle thriller in which a thwarted musician becomes a page turner for the woman who ruined her career.
Item# 12542 Japan | 1962 | 108 | subt | PG | £19.99
Item# 60471 Romania / UK | 2009 | 82 | subt | 15 | £15.99
Item# 32248 France | 2006 | 97 | subt | 15 | £19.99
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The Bad Sleep Well
Lady Vengeance
Revanche
Dir: Akira Kurosawa. An exposé of corruption in Japanese business, this adaptation of an Ed McBain novel has distinct overtones of Hamlet.
Dir: Chan-Wook Park. This intense, inventive concluding part of Park’s revenge trilogy is both striking and ghoulishly entertaining.
Dir: Götz Spielmann. A gripping thriller that moves from gritty urban character study to a softer portrait of the possibilities of rural redemption.
Item# 23071 Japan | 1960 | 144 | subt | B&W | PG | £19.99
Item# 28150 South Korea | 2005 | 112 | subt | 18 | £14.99
Item# 62207 Austria | 2008 | 121 | subt | 15 | £15.99
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The Big Heat
Leon
Straw Dogs
Dir: Fritz Lang. Lang’s landmark thriller is a violent tale of corruption, vengeance and loss. Glenn Ford plays the unscrupulous cop.
Dir: Luc Besson. A young girl (Natalie Portman) teams up with Jean Reno’s hitman to deal with Gary Oldman’s psychotic police officer.
Dir: Sam Peckinpah. An unflinching study of primal brutality in which Dustin Hoffman plays the quiet man who decides to fight back.
Item# 26697 USA | 1953 | 89 | B&W | 15 | £12.99
Item# 59066 France | 1995 | 127 | 15 | £15.99
Item# 66259 USA | 1971 | 113 | 18 | £9.99
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Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
One Deadly Summer
Titus
Dir: Jean Becker. Isabelle Adjani plays a moody 19 year-old who returns to a Provençal village bent on justice for a crime as old as she is.
Dir: Julie Taymor. A dazzling infusion of theatre and cinema, modelled on Taymor’s 1994 off-Broadway production of Titus Andronicus.
Dir: Sam Peckinpah. An intense, tequila-fuelled trek for a man who seduced a land baron’s daughter.
Item# 71683 France | 1983 | 128 | subt | 18 | £14.99
Item# 21451 UK | 1999 | 155 | 18 | £15.99
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Carrie
Only God Forgives
The Virgin Spring
Dir: Brian De Palma. A psycho-sexual horror yarn in which a gawky, unloved teenager’s despair manifests itself in fiery telekinetic retribution.
Dir: Nicolas Winding Refn. A superb, neon-drenched, Thai-set revenge thriller starring Ryan Gosling and Kristin Scott Thomas.
Dir: Ingmar Bergman. A brooding tale set in 14th century Sweden, in which parents exact their revenge on the herders who murder their daughter.
Item# 70344 / 70345 USA | 1976 | 94 | 18 | £9.99
Item# 72636 / 72637 USA / Thai | 2013 | 90 | 18 | £19.99
Item# 11838 Sweden | 1960 | 85 | subt | B&W | 15 | £19.99
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Item# 22526 USA | 1974 | 108 | 18 | £15.99
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[noun] To exact punishment for a wrong, especially in a resentful or vindictive spirit. Revenge is one of the few key themes of drama and as far as character motivation goes it’s nigh-on unbeatable. With an excellent adaptation of Dumas’ seminal tale of revenge The Count of Monte Cristo out this month (see page 21), we present a sale of driven characters who will just not be stopped.
Television Programmes Originally Broadcast
Five Children and It
New Releases
Marilyn Fox
An enchanting six-part adaptation, made for the BBC in 1991, of Edith Nesbit’s novel in which five children discover a sand fairy, the Psammead, in a local gravel pit. The creature grants them a number of wishes which lead them into all sorts of adventures and scrapes.
37 Days: The Countdown to World War I Justin Hardy
With scripts crafted from primary source research and featuring a stellar cast led by Ian McDiarmid and Tim Piggott-Smith, 37 Days follows the chain of events that led from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on 28th June 1914 to the declaration of war between Britain and Germany on 4th August. UK / Germany | 2014 | DAZZL | 180 | Cert PG Item# 74772 / 74773 | RRP £19.99 | 9th June
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Boss: Season 2
The complete second season of the US political drama that follows the machinations of combative Chicago Mayor Tom Kane (Kelsey Grammer), who doses his degenerative neurological disorder with delusioninducing levels of 3 discs; medication. Also available: 5 disc seasons 1 & 2 box set. USA | 2012 | LGATE | 560 | Cert 15 Item# 74610 / 74611 | RRP £24.99 | 30th June
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Colin’s Sandwich
Mel Smith plays an aspiring writer who toils late into the night to realise his dreams, but by day is stuck in a souldestroying day job at the British Rail Passenger Relations Office in this fondly remembered 1980s sitcom. Contains both 2 discs. series.
UK | 1988 | SIMP | 360 | Cert 12 Item# 74707 | RRP £29.99 | 9th June
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Dr Willoughby
UK | 1991 | DAZZL | 137 | Cert U Item# 74084 | RRP £19.99 | 7th July
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Father Brown: Series 2
Mark Williams, Hugo Speer, Sorcha Cusack. All ten episodes from series two of the BBC’s new take on the stories by GK Chesterton. Set in the 1950s in the fictional village of Kembleford, the series follows Roman Catholic priest Father Brown who has an uncanny knack for solving crimes. Mark 3 discs. Williams takes the lead role. UK | 2014 | DAZZL | 450 | | Cert 12 Item# 74474 | RRP £29.99 | 9th June
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From There to Here James Strong
An excellent Manchesterset three-part BBC drama, spanning four years from the bombing of the Arndale Centre in 1996 – a day on which Daniel (Philip Glenister) has brought together his adoptive brother (Steven Mackintosh) and father (Bernard Hill) in the hope of healing a family rift. UK | 2014 | ACORN | 180 | Cert 15 Item# 74602 | RRP £17.99 | 9th June
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Grayson Perry: Why Men Wear Frocks / Spare Time Neil Crombie
Joanna Lumley stars as a brittle, scheming soap diva whose saintly screen persona for the daytime medical drama in which she appears is completely at odds with the monstrous megalomania she exhibits as soon as the cameras stop rolling.
Two acclaimed Channel 4 documentaries – Why Men Wear Frocks (2005) in which the Turner Prizewinning artist investigates transvestism and the difficulties of being a man in the 21st century, and Spare Time (2004), about how we spend our free time.
UK | 1999 | NWORK | 150 | Cert 15 Item# 74011 | RRP £12.99 | 9th June
UK | 2004-05 | SIMP | 100 | Cert E Item# 74532 | RRP £13.99 | Out Now
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Page 24
House of Cards: Season 2 Recommended Starring: Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright Released: 16th June Extras: 4 discs; Politics for the Sake of Politics; Breaking the 4th Wall; Two Houses: The difference between the new show and the original British show; Table Read for episodes 12 & 13. Item# 74374 USA | 2014 | COL-T | 636 | Cert 18
So distinctive was Ian Richardson’s oleaginous performance as the murderous, Machiavellian politician Francis Urquhart in the British series of Michael Dobbs’ House of Cards that the notion of an American remake was first met with some degree of scepticism – how could the series undergo a remake without its essence being diluted? But the news that Kevin Spacey would be playing the ruthless central character (now called Underwood) allayed fears, and the remake was to prove highly successful, pleasing both audiences and its creator. This second season is notably darker than its predecessor, with the already powerful cast finessed by the addition of new characters. Thankfully, the protagonist’s utter lack of moral scruples has been retained – any softening of a man who goes to any ends to achieve his objectives would have been fatal, something Spacey and his directors knew. BF
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June 2014 MovieMail Film Catalogue
The Count of Monte Cristo Recommended Director: Peter Hammond Starring: Alan Badel, Michael Gough, Natasha Parry, Rosalie Crutchley, Edward de Souza, Anna Palk Released: 26th May Extras: 2 discs Item# 74613 | UK | 1964 | SIMP | 300 | B&W | Cert U
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See Also The Count of Monte Cristo Josee Dayan
Item# 55243 France | 1998 | 360 | PG | £19.99
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D’Artagnan’s Daughter
Bertrand Tavernier
Item# 62966 France | 1994 | 125 | subt | 15 | £19.99
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The Musketeers BBC
Item# 73841 UK | 2014 | 550 | 12 | £24.99
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hile there can be no doubt about the excellence of much modern television, today’s best programmes have some way to go before they can justify some of the more excitable claims made on their behalf. The only true judge of quality is time, how a show looks as the years pass. If a programme holds up after a decade, then it’s safe to call it a classic. But what if it remains compelling after a half-century? That would place it amongst the best television ever, wouldn’t it? Originally broadcast by the BBC in 1964, The Count of Monte Cristo is certainly something special. It’s an adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ yarn in which decent Edmond Dantès gets fitted up by his jealous rivals. He’s thrown into solitary confinement but manages to escape, with revenge somewhere near the top of his list of priorities. Television conventions have, of course, changed in fifty years and technical limitations are occasionally evident (with few opportunities for re-takes, some lines are fluffed). But what’s impressive is how few indulgences need to be made for its age, and how remarkably gripping it still is. Granted, some credit for the propulsive narrative must go to Monsieur Dumas but
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A throughly gripping adaptation of Dumas’ classic tale of revenge Anthony Steven’s exemplary adaptation is a masterpiece, not just of distillation but of structured storytelling: the week-long wait between episodes must have been unbearable in the pre-binge-watching days of 1964. His scripts are marvellously served by Peter Hammond’s lissom, often powerfully visual, direction; anyone who thinks early TV drama was just radio-withpictures will think again after seeing this. The production’s chief asset, though, is its Count. Alan Badel was an actor who rarely had the screen time his talent deserved, so it’s a genuine pleasure to watch him embrace an opportunity to flex his muscles. He is utterly magnetic throughout, as Dantès turns from trusting dupe to dark-eyed avenger. Frankly, it is hard to imagine this adaption being bettered, no matter how much production value was brought to bear. More than most programmes, it deserves its status as a ‘classic’. Far more importantly, though, it remains terrific entertainment. James Oliver Page 25
Television Happy Valley
A six-part ratings-topping BBC drama, set around the Hebden Bridge area of West Yorkshire and written by Sally Wainwright (Last Tango in Halifax). Sarah Lancashire stars as the Yorkshire police sergeant who comes face to face with the man who destroyed her family after a kidnap spirals out of control. 2 discs. UK | 2014 | 2ENT | 360 | Cert 15 Item# 74637 | RRP £19.99 | 16th June
Four feature-length Italian crime dramas – Carte Blanche, Unauthorized Investigation, The Damned Season and Via Della Oche – based on the mystery novels by Carlo Lucarelli. Set in Bologna and on the Adriatic coast between 1938-48, the series follows Chief Detective Achille De Luca (Alessandro Preziosi) as he solves criminal cases. However, his unconventional working methods often cause 2 discs. problems with his superiors. Italy | 2008 | Arrow E1 | 420 | subt | Cert 15 Item# 74402 | RRP £19.99 | Out Now
UK | 1974 | SIMP | 99 | Cert 12 Item# 74745 | RRP £12.99 | 16th June
Robert B. Weide Sky Atlantic’s romantic comedy set in Watford in 1969 and starring Nick Frost as the unemployed Jeremy Sloane, whose wife (Olivia Colman), has left to ‘find herself’. Might a chance encounter with a free-spirited young American woman (Ophelia Lovibond) help him to get his life back on track? UK | 2014 | 2ENT | 150 | Cert 15 Item# 74539 | RRP £19.99 | 30th June
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The Protectors: ABC Series
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Inspector Montalbano: Complete Collection
All 26 feature-length episodes, spanning 19992013, of the Italian detective series based on the main character of the bestselling novels by Andrea Camilleri. Filmed in Sicily, the series is rich in good food, sea and sun, and stars the strikingly handsome Luca Zingaretti 13 discs. as the Inspector in question. Italy | 1999-2013 | ACORN | 2600 | subt | Cert 15 Item# 74605 | RRP £99.99 | 2nd June
This classic ABC adventure series – originally screened in 1964, predating its ITC namesake by eight years – stars Andrew Faulds, Michael Atkinson and Ann Morrish as the Protectors, a high-powered private investigation team operating in the twilight between the underworld and the policeman’s 4 discs. beat. The complete series. UK | 1964 | NWORK | 700 | Cert 12 Item# 73990 | RRP £39.99 | 16th June
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Restless
Edward Hall
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The Irwin Allen Collection
A box set containing three classic series from ‘master of disaster’ Irwin Allen: Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (196568), Land of the Giants (1968-70) and The Time Tunnel (1967) – cult sci-fi series that are as popular today as they were when they began airing 50 years ago. 54 discs; Many extras.
Page 26
Janet Suzman takes the lead in Southern TV’s 1974 production, scripted by John Bowen (Robin Redbreast), about the life, background, motivation and struggles of nurse Florence Nightingale. The cast also features Robert Flemyng, Joss Ackland and Nigel Hawthorne.
Mr Sloane
Inspector De Luca
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David Reid
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USA | 1965-70 | REVEL | 9300 | Cert PG Item# 73885 | RRP £119.99 | 16th June
Miss Nightingale
A tale of love, duplicity and betrayal, adapted by William Boyd from his own spy thriller and starring Hayley Atwell and Rufus Sewell. It begins with Ruth Gilmartin (Michelle Dockery) discovering that her mother (Charlotte Rampling) is not Sally Gilmartin but in fact Eva Delectorskaya, a spy for the British Secret Service who has been on the run for 30 years.
Hinterland: Season 1 Recommended Starring: Richard Harrington, Mali Harries, Hannah Daniel, Alex Harries, Aneirin Hughes Released: 26th May Extras: Locations; Characters; Interviews. Item# 74554 UK | 2013 | Arrow E1 | 383 | Cert 15
Word-of-mouth caught on very quickly concerning the high quality of this mesmerising Welsh crime series, and Swansea-born playwright Ed Thomas’s debut detective drama (set in and around the coastal town of Aberystwyth) was widely perceived as being influenced by the wave of Scandinavian crime drama. However, the writer himself claimed that he was only familiar with the Swedish Wallander and wanted to create four separate films with a powerfully evoked sense of locale, focusing on a troubled detective. The series was made both in Welsh and in English (the version included here), but viewers on BBC4 were instantly persuaded by the extremely atmospheric setting. The star of the show, actor Richard Harrington, created something subtly new in the long line of alienated detectives, but it really is the individual writing and directing of this series – focusing very much on the dark psyche of its central character – that has created an audience for the show, an audience that might normally steer clear of such defiantly Welsh material. It really is a remarkable series. BF
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June 2014 MovieMail Film Catalogue
The Secret Garden Dorothea Brooking
War and Peace Robert Dornhelm
BBC’s 1975 dramatisation of Francis Hodgson Burnett’s enchanting children’s story, set in Victorian Yorkshire, about an orphaned girl who goes to live with her gloomy and secretive old uncle. The girl soon makes friends with a young boy and together they play behind the locked gates of the secret walled garden, with unexpected consequences.
Clémence Poésy (Birdsong) stars as Natasha in this European dramatisation of Tolstoy’s epic novel. Set in Russia in the first decades of the 19th century, the drama follows the mixed fortunes of Pierre Bezuhov (Alexander Beyer), the illegitimate son of a wealthy count, who becomes caught up in the 2 discs. Napoleonic Wars.
UK | 1975 | DAZZL | 106 | Cert U Item# 74479 | RRP £19.99 | 16th June
Italy / France / Germany / Russia | 2007 | ACORN | 408 | Cert 12 Item# 74567 | RRP £19.99 | 2nd June
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Shetland: Series 1 & 2
All eight episodes from the first two series of the Scottish crime drama based on the novels by Ann Cleeves. Set in the Shetland Islands, the programme follows Detective Inspector Perez (Douglas Henshall) as, assisted by DS Alison ‘Tosh’ Macintosh (Alison O’Donnell) and DC Sandy Wilson (Steven Robertson), he works to solve a 2 discs. number of murder mysteries. UK | 2013 | G-VEN | 480 | Cert 15 Item# 74255 | RRP £14.99 | Out Now
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Unit One: Season 4
All 8 full-length episodes from the fourth series of the Danish crime series produced by the team behind The Killing and starring Charlotte Fich and Mads Mikkelsen as members of an elite mobile police task force whose cases are based upon true-life incidents, such as murders, kidnappings, sex-trafficking 3 discs. and child pornography. Denmark | 2004 | NORDN | 400 | subt | Cert 15 Item# 72185 | RRP £24.99 | 7th July
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Wallander: Films 27-32 The final six feature-length episodes – The Troubled Man, Missing, The Betrayal, The Loss, The Arsonist and The Sad Bird – from the Swedish crime drama based on Henning Mankel’s novels. Krister Henriksson stars as the jaded detective, Kurt 3 discs. Wallander.
Weir’s Way: The Essential Collection 52 episodes of the TV series which follows Scottish author and broadcaster Tom Weir as he travels around Scotland exploring its landscape and natural history and delving into the life and times of its 12 discs. local people.
UK | 2014 | DELTA | 1154 | Cert E Item# 74414 | RRP £34.99 | 16th June
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Animation Moomin and Midsummer Madness Maria Lindberg
Final Cut Entertainment DVD Sale Resurrecting vintage horror and sci-fi from the depths of the archives (plus some Henry Miller for good measure) this new sale will delight genre fans.
Kiss of the Vampire Don Sharp Despite the lack of top-name stars, this is a definitive Hammer horror, in which a couple’s car breaks down in the shadow of an imposing chateau, whose Count’s hospitality they unwisely accept. Item# 67781 UK | 1963 | 84 | 12 | £15.99
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The Earth Dies Screaming Dir: Terence Fisher. A cult classic with zombie robots in Surrey and haunting music from Elisabeth Lutyens. Item# 66200 UK | 1964 | 62 | B&W | PG | £14.99
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The House of the Long Shadows Dir: Pete Walker. Lee, Cushing and Price star in this gothic horror set in a deserted Welsh mansion. Item# 67647 UK | 1983 | 90 | 15 | £17.99
An adorable animated children’s movie based on the lives of Tove Janssen’s Moomins, who here find their calm summer’s day disrupted by a volcano. In trying to find shelter, they stumble into an old theatre, where they write a play to fill their time. Finland | 2008 | Axiom | 88 | Cert U Item# 74102 | RRP £12.99 | 23rd June
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Sleeping Beauty W Reitherman
Disney’s classic version of the Brothers Grimm fairytale in which, thanks to a curse visited upon her by an evil fairy, a Princess falls into a deep sleep from which she can only be woken by a Prince’s kiss.
Sweden | 2013 | Arrow E1 | 540 | subt | Cert 15 Item# 74695 | RRP £29.99 | 23rd June
USA | 1958 | WDHV | 72 | Cert U Item# 74580 / 74581 | RRP £17.99 | 2nd June
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The Man with X-Ray Eyes Dir: Roger Corman. A lurid slice of sci-fi pulp starring Ray Milland as a doctor who gives himself X-ray vision. Item# 68078 USA | 1963 | 76 | PG | £14.99
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Quiet Days in Clichy Dir: Jens Jørgen Thorsen. The orgiastic Paris of Henry Miller comes alive in this good-humoured, explicit adaptation of his novel. Item# 67976 Denmark | 1969 | 91 | B&W | 18 | £14.99
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Tales from the Crypt Dir: Freddie Francis. 1972 British horror anthology comprising five short films. Joan Collins, Peter Cushing and Patrick Magee star. Item# 62041 | 1972 | 92 | 15 | £14.99
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Page 27
Documentaries “The Creative Interpretation of Actuality”
New Releases Dylan Thomas: Return Journey Anthony Hopkins
Towards the end of his life, Dylan Thomas toured America, performing his works before sell-out audiences. This one-man production, directed by Anthony Hopkins, offers an interpretation of those legendary performances with Bob Kingdom starring as Dylan Thomas. UK | 1990 | GRILA | 60 | Cert E Item# 32310 | RRP £12.99 | 7th July
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Hugh Hefner
Chris Marker Collection Recommended Contains: Sunday in Peking (1956), Letter to Siberia (1958), Description of a Struggle (1960), The Sixth Side of the Pentagon (1968), The Embassy (1973), Theory of Sets (1991), Three Video Haikus (1994), Blue Helmet (1996), E-CLIPSE (1999), The Case of the Grinning Cat (2004).
Tony Palmer
Released: 2nd June
The 1973 film about the founder and editor of ‘Playboy’, Hugh Hefner. ‘Blatantly flouted TV’s legal obligation not to offend against good taste and decency,’ said Mary Whitehouse; ‘distasteful’, said The Daily Express.
Extras: 3 discs (2 DVD + 1 Blu-ray). All the titles appear on the DVDs while the Blu-ray contains Sunday in Peking and Letter to Siberia in HD. Item# 74480 France | 1956-2004 | Soda | 360 | subt | 15
USA | 1973 | TONYP | Cert E Item# 74597 | RRP £13.99 | 2nd June
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The Royal Navy in the Forties: The Postwar Years
In addition to many homecoming ceremonies when ships returned to base after the cessation of hostilities, the postwar years were characterised by Home Fleet exercises, goodwill tours, the launch of new ships and the scrapping of expired ones. A three-hour compilation of films made between 1946-49. UK | 1946-49 | C-RED | 180 | Cert E Item# 74472 | RRP £19.99 | 26th May
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Tim’s Vermeer Teller
An intriguing documentary which follows the quest of Texan inventor Tim Jenison to uncover the methods behind the photo-realistic effects which characterise 17th century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer’s art. USA | 2013 | COL-T | 80 | Cert 12 Item# 73829 | RRP £19.99 | 26th May
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Page 28
It is perhaps only with his death (at the computer on his 91st birthday in 2012) that the full importance and magnitude of the hugely prolific and influential French artist Chris Marker’s achievement becomes apparent. He was a novelist, critic, publisher, graphic designer, animator, cartoonist, photographer, internet and new media innovator, installationist … and filmmaker. His essential oeuvre is inexhaustibly rich, various and pioneering. Best known for his masterpieces Sans Soleil (1983) and the definitive time-travel sci-fi La Jetée (1962), Marker shaped the documentary essay form, fusing photography and film in ways that reflected his ceaseless fascination with the world and its infinite images. This outstanding five hour collection of eleven rare titles drawn from six decades of work – ranging from engaged ‘travelogues’ and political essays to playful mixed-media pieces – offers a superb introduction. GE
Metro-Land Recommended Director: Edward Mirzoeff Starring: John Betjeman Released: 30th June Extras: The 1945 Northwood crash; The Metropolitan Line Centenary Parade at Neasden (1963); The Last Working Steam Train on the Line (1971); Centenary of the Uxbridge Branch (2004); The Metropolitan Line extension to Stanmore (1932); Steam on the Met 1999 & 2000; Booklet. Item# 74259 UK | 1973 | UPFRT | 50 | Cert E
‘This is a good parcel of English soil in which to build home and strike root, inhabited from old … the new settlement of Metro-land proceeds apace, the new colonists thrive amain.’ Thus the Metropolitan Railway promoted ‘Metro-land’ – the term coined by its publicity department for the outer reaches of its lines to the north-west of London – in the late 1920s, and here, in a celebrated film made for the BBC in 1972, ‘poet and hack’ John Betjeman delves into the spirit of the place. Betjeman often referenced the area in his poetry (‘Harrow-on-the-Hill’, ‘Middlesex’, ‘The Metropolitan Railway’), and here pays reflective tribute to the ‘mild home county acres,’ appraising both the oddities and the normality of the place. When first shown, Metro-Land was pronounced an ‘instant classic’, with Clive James predicting it would still be shown come the Millenium. It still is being shown and rightly so; it’s as endearingly eccentric as Betjeman himself. GH
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Transport Films Sale From cinema’s earliest days, the experience of travel has offered an engaging experience, whether the focus is on mode or scenery. This selection provides plenty of variety for the armchair traveller, from the BFI’s definitive collections of British Transport Films to the ultimate in travel films, a journey into space with For All Mankind. Wherever you go, enjoy your trip.
A selection of films looking at the new services offered by British Transport in the postwar period. Highlights include Future Works (1969) and Partners in Prosperity (1982).
For All Mankind
London Orbital
Al Reinhart
Petit & Sinclair
An extraordinary compendium of footage from the 1968-72 Apollo lunar missions, assembled from hundreds of hours of astronauts’ footage. The soundtrack is made up of their memories and score by Brian Eno.
Quite literally, a road movie, in which Chris Petit and Iain Sinclair uncover the hidden histories of the M25. Features covert arms deals, Essex gangsters and Thatcher and Pinochet as vampire-lovers.
Item# 59651 USA | 1989 | 80 | E | £15.99
Item# 18476 UK | 2002 | 100 | E | £19.99
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Black Five: The Last Days of Steam
British Transport Films: Vols 1-11
The Lost World of Friese-Greene
Dir: Paul Barnes. Three evocative films: Black Five, The Painter and the Engines and King George V.
Vol 1: On and Off the Rails, Vol 2: See Britain by Train, Vol 3: Running a Railway, Vol 4: Reshaping British Railways, Vol 5: Off the Beaten Track, Vol 6: The Art of Travel, Vol 7: The Age of the Train, Vol 8: Points and Aspects, Vol 9: Just the Ticket, Vol 10: London on the Move and Vol 11: Experiment Under London – eleven volumes of the very best British Transport films from the archives. A must for transport enthusiasts, social historians and documentary aficionados alike. 2 discs each.
Dan Cruickshank presents the astonishing 1920s colour footage of a car journey across Britain.
Item# Various UK | 1951-80 | 261 | E | £19.99
Item# 57509 UK | 1936 | 116 | B&W | E | £12.99
Item# 73431 UK | 1982 | 196 | E | £19.99
Item# 54493 UK | 1968 | 53 | E | £12.99
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Britain’s Railways: The Home Front Archive-led documentaries about the railway’s role in the war effort. Two volumes: 1939-41 and 1941-43. Item# 71007 / 72228 1939-41 | 145 | B&W | E | £19.99
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British Buses: The Golden Years A celebration of British buses of the 1950s-60s, featuring rare archive footage from the BTF archives. Item# 21801 UK | 1950s-60s | 65 | E | £12.99
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Gavin Stamp’s Orient Express Architectural historian and writer Gavin Stamp travels across Europe on an extended train journey. Item# 52602 UK | | 202 | E | £16.99
Item# 28680 UK | 2006 | 177 | E | £19.99
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Night Mail (Restored) Dir: Basil Wright / Harry Watt. The most justly famed of all the GPO films, about the nightly postal special from London to Scotland. DVD: £8.99 Save £4
The Royal Air Force in the 1950s An extensive collection of official RAF archive films from the 1950s, many previously unreleased. 2 discs. Item# 71658 UK | 1950-59 | B&W | E | £19.99
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British Train Disasters 1914-1975
The GPO Film Unit Collection: Vols 1-3
Tales from the Shipyard
A compilation of newsreel reports of train disasters from the British Movietone News archive.
Addressing the Nation (1933-35), We Live in Two Worlds (1936-38) and If War Should Come (1939-41).
Over five hours of material that portrays the nation’s shipbuilding heritage. 2 discs.
Item# 71008 UK | 1914-75 | 145 | E | £14.99
Item# Various UK | 1933-35 | 300 | PG | £24.99
Item# 64030 UK | 2011 | 314 | E | £24.99
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Humphrey Jennings Vol 1: The First Days
Land of Promise
The West Highland Railway
Jennings’ early films, including Post Haste (1934), Locomotives (1934), and The Story of the Wheel (1934). Item# 65810 UK | 1934-40 | 211 | B&W | E | £19.99
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A major retrospective of the British documentary film movement during its period of greatest influence, 19301950. 4 discs; Extensive booklet. Item# 63627 UK | 1930-1951 | 720 | B&W | E | £29.99
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A comprehensive look at the wild and beautiful West Highland Line, in archive film and rare home movies. Item# 56361 UK | | 90 | E | £12.99
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British Transport Films: Volume 12 The Driving Force
James Oliver’s From the Cheap Seats
All manner of Hammers
Poster image from Caption Clegg
A
lthough they are best remembered for their Gothic horrors – for Dracula (and its sequels), for The Curse of Frankenstein (and its sequels) – there was always more to Hammer than dark and stormy nights. Horror was only one of the genres they dabbled in; they produced science fiction (Quatermass and the the Pit), crime (Hell is a City) – even historical drama (if you count Rasputin the Mad Monk as ‘historical drama’, which I do because I like it). This month sees the release of Captain Clegg, part of Hammer’s ongoing excavation of their archives. This entirely laudable project has already brought us wonderful combined DVD / Blu-ray editions of more celebrated titles like The Reptile, The Plague of the Zombies and The Witches, not to mention Dracula and Frankenstein in all manner of iterations. As exciting as all those are – and they surely are: these films have never been treated so well – Captain Clegg’s arrival (see page 8) is cause for especial celebration. It’s a prime example of another of the genres at which Hammer excelled – the swashbuckler. It’s often forgotten that, once upon a time (in the 1950s and 60s if you want to be specific), British film produced rather a lot of swashbucklers and the best of them were produced by Hammer. Take Sword of Sherwood Forest, for instance: as the name suggests, it’s a Robin Hood picture, and a tremendously good one to boot. Richard Greene reprises his TV role as the outlaw, squaring off against Peter Cushing’s Sheriff of Nottingham. Or The Scarlet Blade, which essentially relocates The Scarlet Pimpernel to the Civil War, with our hero saving Royalists from the Roundheads. Hammer even turned their hands to
There was always more to Hammer Films than dark and stormy nights Pirate films, with two splendid examples of the form – The Pirates of Blood River (it has Christopher Lee wearing an eye-patch and affecting a thick French accent. Can one ask for more?), and The Devil Ship Pirates, which to 10 year-old eyes looked like the best film ever. Indeed, Hammer’s adventure films (and you can fold things like The Stranglers of Bombay and – oh yes – Terror of the Tongs into the mix, if you can get past the imperialist politics) are, for me, the studio’s most consistent achievement: unfussy, foursquare entertainments made with skill, commitment and not a little charm. Watching them today, however, can be a bittersweet experience. Even more than Hammer’s Gothic output, they represent a style that has simply died out. Oh yes, there are still films with sword fighting and sundry derring-do but all of them are suffused by an irony that’s entirely lacking from Hammer’s efforts. It’s utterly inconceivable that any modern film
would be made with the sheer sincerity that the Hammer team brought to their pictures. I remain uncertain how much of my affection for Hammer’s product is simple nostalgia: rewatching films I once had fond memories of has resulted in many bitter disappointments. And so, I must acknowledge that my enthusiasm for the studio’s adventure fare might be an attempt to recapture how I felt upon first viewing (seeing The Devil Ship Pirates with 10 year-old eyes leaves quite an impression, I’m telling you). But hey – who cares about being objective? Films can be enjoyed for many different reasons. And these films make me very happy indeed.
Related Films Captain Clegg
Peter Graham Scott
Item# 74481 UK | 1962 | 78 | 12 | £14.99
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Sword of Sherwood... Terence Fisher
Item# 58130 UK | 1960 | 76 | PG | £5.99
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Terror of the Tongs Anthony Bushell
Item# 71517 UK | 1961 | 90 | TBC | £12.99
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New on the MovieMail Website This Month’s Highlights • British Film Round-up – With more British films coming to DVD than ever before, James Oliver provides an essential guide to its many areas. First off, Edgar Wallace on screen. • Crash Courses – David Parkinson helps you out with the lowdown on the Agatha Christie, Football in Cinema and Neo-realism • Top 10s, with clips – Explore Hammer Films and Weird World Cinema • The Essentials: 21st Century Directors You Need To Know About – Mike McCahill profiles the key filmmakers of our time • World Tour – David Parkinson’s World Tour goes to China for a multi-part look at its rich cinematic history • The A-Z of Forgotten British Film – Julian Upton continues his series, highlighting neglected British movies • Cinema reviews – T.S. Spivet, Of Horses And Men, Camille Claudel 1915, Spring In A Small Town, A Hard Day’s Night and more
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The Lunchbox
A huge hit in India, this is a tender and beautifully prepared romance – full review on page 15
The Lunchbox Ritesh Batra A good old-fashioned romance that has charmed cinema audiences worldwide, The Lunchbox sees a mistaken delivery in Mumbai’s usually efficient lunchbox system connect a young and lonely housewife with an older man whose appreciation of her cooking makes a welcome change from her thankless husband. The two begin exchanging notes and reveal ever more to each other through their correspondence. A delightfully tasty treat from the new Indian cinema. Item# 74505 India | 2013 | 105 | subt | PG | £15.99
DVD: £10.99 Save £5 Blu-ray: £13.99 Save £6