Blu-ray & DVD: Erik the Conqueror (1961) It would be crude to the point of offence to call renowned Rabid director Mario Bava the Asylum of his day, but his 1961 foray into the historical adventure genre, Erik the Conqueror, is – in essence – a schlocky, low-budget, copyright-swerving unofficial remake of 1958 Kirk Douglas […]
DVD: Betjeman – The Collection Betjeman: The Collection features three of Britain’s former Poet Laureate’s BBC documentaries: A Passion for Churches (1974), A Bird’s Eye View (1969-71), and Four with Betjeman: Victorian Architects and Architecture. Regular listeners to our podcast will know of my love of documentaries, and these BBC productions certainly don’t disappoint. A […]
DVD: The Vietnam War (2017) I have a degree in History. I spent three very happy years immersing myself in, mainly British History, but my love of the subject extends worldwide, and especially to America. Having said that, I know next to nothing about The Vietnam War. However, I am familiar with Ken Burns and […]
Blu-ray: White Palace (1990) Max Baron (James Spader) is a 27 year old business man attempting to ‘get over’ the tragic death of his wife. Nora Baker (Susan Sarandon) is a ‘rough around the edges’ hard drinking, untidy 44 year old waitress who ends up being the object of his lust. White Palace is a […]
DVD: The Mystery of Edwin Drood (2012) Charles Dickens died in the middle of writing this his last (obviously!) novel and since then there has been enormous speculation about how he would have finished it. No one really knows, but writer Gwyneth Hughes went back to original sources, such as accounts of conversations Dickens had […]
Blu-ray: Torture Garden (1967) Amicus Productions made many fantastic movies between 1962 and 1977, though they are widely regarded for their horror anthologies of which Torture Garden was their 2nd. Torture Garden’s 4 short stories are framed by a group of people visiting Dr. Diablo’s fairground haunted house attraction. Dr. Diablo (Burgess Meredith) invites them […]
DVD: The Peter Sellers Movie Collection Another great boxset from Fabulous Films has 4 Peter Sellers movies that fall into a 10 year period between 1969-79. The Magic Christian (1969) Sir Guy Grand (Peter Sellers) is an ostentatious, filthy rich man who adopts the homeless Youngman (Ringo Starr) and together they set out to mock […]
DVD: The Brothers (1972) I love old TV series, I own nearly every single thing Oliver Tobias was in during the 1970s. I have the box sets of all kinds of crap you’ve probably never heard of. The good (I, Claudius, Luke’s Kingdom), the bad (By the Sword Divided) and the absolutely ESSENTIAL (original Poldark, […]
Blu-ray: Ben (1972) “They’re eating us alive down there!” While Second Sight’s Willard restoration is a 4K scan of the original camera negative, they are very open in their press release that their upgrade of 1972’s rat horror sequel is instead a new HD transfer, restored using the best-surviving archive print. Ben’s picture quality is […]
Blu-ray & DVD: George Romero – Between Night and Dawn George Romero; a name synonymous with slow moving zombies and his classic ‘Dead Trilogy’ (there were of course more, but it is the first 3, especially for me, which always warrant repeat viewings every now and again). There was much more to George Romero though […]