The Buccaneers
by Philip Saville
from BBC Warner
As four young American women find their way through the labyrinthine social world of 1870s England, their fortunes rise--and sometimes, with brutal abruptness, fall. Based on Edith Wharton's unfinished novel, The Buccaneers, this lavish BBC production follows Nan and Virginia St. George (Carla Gugino, Spy Kids, and Alison Elliott, The Spitfire Grill), two American sisters who follow their friend Conchita Closson (Mira Sorvino, Mighty Aphrodite), a Brazilian bad girl who marries a dissolute British lord, to England in search of aristocratic husbands--partly due to the influence of their canny governess, Laura Testvalley (Cherie Lunghi, Excalibur). The Buccaneers has a good dose of the delicious satirical wit to be found in many BBC dramas, but tempered by the presence of the naive American girls, who find themselves trapped by the very things they thought they wanted. Though mocked by some critics for its heaving bosoms and towering hairdos, the five-part series stealthily paints a sometimes devastating portrait of women's lives. When Idina Hatton (Jenny Agutter, Logan's Run), the older lover of the aimless Lord Seadown (Mark Tandy, Shackleton), learns that Seadown is going to marry the young and lovely Virginia, it's a heartbreaking moment, yet one that isn't overdone. The Buccaneers is full of such gracefulness--Wharton observes the fickle turns of life in society with a judicious eye, empathizing with the pain but never losing sight of the hard realities of money and marriage. In a strong cast, Gugino particularly shines; with her round, rosy cheeks and expressive eyes, she makes a smart yet vulnerable heroine. --Bret Fetzer
Deemed nouveau riche and shunned by elitist New York society, sisters Nan and Virginia St. George, along with their friends Lizzy Elmsworth and Conchita Closson (Academy Award winner Mira Sorvino), try their luck in London. The girls' New World spontaneity and impertinence constitute nothing less than a social invasion of Old World society and they soon find themselves courted by a coterie of fascinated admirers. But as the old and new worlds come to clash, something has to give.
Thriller - The Complete Season One
by Bill Hays
from A&E Home Video
An international cult phenomenon from television genius Brian Clemens (The Avengers, Danger Man), now on DVD for the first time, all ten spine-tingling movies from the first season of THRILLER available for your viewing terror.
Positively Hitchcockian, with a liberal dose of the supernatural, nothing is what it seems in each feature length episode of THRILLER. Witches, serial killers, ghosts, con-artists, Satanists and terrorists are just some of the villains involved in the outlandish plots, the unexpected twists and the even more surprising endings. But it's what you can't see--the sinister atmosphere, the almost unbearable tension--that makes this one of television's most terrifyingly enjoyable shows ever. Fear has never been better.
Innovative and boundlessly inventive, THRILLER boasts a galaxy of American and British stars like Donna Mills, Bob Hoskins, Patrick Magee, Helen Mirren, Hayley Mills and Stephen Rea.
Season 1
1. Lady Killer
2. Possession
3. Someone at the Top of the Stairs
4. An Echo of Theresa
5. The Colour of Blood
6. Murder in Mind
7. A Place to Die
8. File it Under Fear
9. The Eyes Have It
10. Spell of Evil
Format: DVD MOVIE
Not to be confused with the 1960s American anthology series with Boris Karloff, this Thriller is a British anthology program that ran from 1973 to 1976 and the brainchild of writer-producer-director Brian Clemens, best known for The Avengers. A cult favorite in its native country (though frustratingly difficult to see for the last two decades), the show aired briefly in United States through the ABC Mystery Movie, which repackaged the episodes with new introductions and titles.
Though A&E's boxed set packaging presents Thriller as a horror classic, the ten stories (each running 65 minutes) presented in the Season One set lean more heavily towards suspense in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents vein, though some stories feature distinct supernatural elements: "Spell of Evil" has Diane Cilento as a witch preying on widowed businessman Edward De Souza, while "Someone at the Top of the Stairs" stars Donna Mills (Knots Landing) and Judy Carne as tourists in a boarding house with a terrible secret, and "A Place to Die" addresses pagan rituals. The rest of the episodes generate their chills from distinctly human subjects: "Lady Killer" pits cold-blooded con men Robert Powell and The Avengers' Linda Thorson against naive Barbara Feldon (Get Smart), while "The Colour of Blood" has an attorney's secretary mistake an escaped serial killer for a client. Uniformly well-acted by a solid cast of British and American talent, Thriller: Season One is a taut ten-pack of television frights, delivered with class and skill by Clemens and a talented group of directors. The four-disc set features interviews with Clemens and directors Shaun O'Riordan and John Cooper; Clemens also provides amusingly morbid introductions to each episode à la Hitchcock. --Paul Gaita
Mosquito Squadron
by Boris Sagal
from MGM (Video & DVD)
World War II aviation buffs may quibble with details in Mosquito Squadron, but they'll love it just the same. It's an average war movie, capably directed by Boris Sagal, who thrived in television before he was tragically killed by a helicopter rotor in 1981. At the peak of his post-Man from U.N.C.L.E. success, David McCallum plays a melancholy RAF ace, leading his squadron of De Havilland "Mosquito" bombers on low-altitude strikes over Nazi strongholds in Germany and France. His ground-based dilemma involves the grieving wife of his best friend, a fellow pilot presumed dead but later discovered alive with other POWs held at a French chalet where the Nazis are developing advanced V-class bombers. The RAF employs bouncing "highballs" capable of penetrating difficult targets, and the rousing climax doubles as a rescue mission and treacherous bombing run. Explosive action compensates for predictable melodrama, and Rocky Horror fans will enjoy seeing Charles ("the Criminologist") Gray as a stuffy RAF Commodore. --Jeff Shannon
David McCallum ("The Man From U.N.C.L.E.") stars in an epic adventure that perfectly captures the explosive action and emotional torment of war. With its astonishing special effects, stark cinematography and brilliantly choreographed aerial combat sequences, Mosquito Squadron catapults the viewer into the searing heat of battle! As Allied forces struggle against the awesome might of the German Luftwaffe, an even greater threat is posed by the destructive V3 rocket nearing completion at a secret testing center. The Royal Air Force's Mosquito Squadron gears up to destroy the site, but its leader, Quint Monroe (McCallum), becomes conflicted when he discovers that the air strikemay kill hundreds of British POWsincluding the squad's former commander!
The Devil Rides Out/Rasputin the Mad Monk
by Terence Fisher
from Starz / Anchor Bay
Morons from Outer Space
by Mike Hodges
from MGM (Video & DVD)
A trio of very dense aliens abandons their equally dimwitted pal Bernard (coscripter Mel Smith) and crashes their rented spacecraft in England, where they become pop media icons under the guiding hand of a disgruntled television employee (coscripter Griff Rhys Jones). Bernard eventually finds his way to America, where his claims of interplanetary pedigree land him in an asylum. This satire of science fiction and societal quirks from British television comics Smith and Jones and director Mike Hodges (Croupier) generates its biggest laughs early, when the hapless trio is pitted against the British and American military (James B. Sikking appears briefly as a trigger-happy Yank officer). The remainder quickly dissipates into generic slapstick and feeble pokes at media hype, though Smith and fellow U.K. performer Jimmy Nail (as beer-guzzling spaceman Dez) have some strong individual moments. Smith later directed such films as Bean (1997) and High Heels and Low Lifes (2001). --Paul Gaita
Sci-fi meets hilarity in this wildly adventurous comedy that goes where no man—or moron—has gone before. We can now safely conclude that there is no intelligent life in space. Four holiday travelers from the planet Blob have somehow lost control of their rented spaceship and crash-landed on Earth. At first, the military and scientific teams assume they are higher life forms. But not for long. Idiocy is hard to hide. The stranded wayfarers are complete morons, content to drink their green beer, sing ear-splitting pop songs and talk to trash cans, which they assume are the planet's leaders. But not until an enterprising journalist decides to market their dazed innocence and turn them into glitzy superstars do they find their true mission to Earth. With amusing parodies of famous film classics like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and warp-speed laughs, this is one screwball comedy that's out of this world.
The Inspector Lynley Mysteries 3 - A Traitor to Memory
by Brian Stirner
from WGBH BOSTON
Rasputin, the Mad Monk
by Don Sharp
from Starz / Anchor Bay
The life of the legendary Russian villain Grigori Rasputin was a natural for the Hammer's Gothic style and lurid edge, and the commanding Christopher Lee is the perfect star for the role. With his deep baritone voice and dark, deep-set eyes, Lee creates an intense figure as the diabolical healer and mesmerist with a thirst for power. The film begins with the unapologetically crude and barbaric Rasputin expelled from his monastery for his hard-drinking hedonism and violent behavior, and before long he sets his sights on the bustling city of St. Petersburg. Within no time he has seduced Sonia (Barbara Shelley), lady-in-waiting to the Queen, with his hypnotic gaze and soon insinuates himself into the Royal Family. Lee's lusty portrayal is the highlight of this modest production, which presents an all-too-brief rise to infamy and disappointingly cuts short his notorious death. But if it's not prime Hammer horror, it remains a moody chamber piece with a mesmerizing performance from Lee (one of his best for the studio) and a very different take from MGM's handsome, classy 1932 production Rasputin and the Empress starring the three Barrymores. --Sean Axmaker
Mosquito Squadron [Region 2]
World War II aviation buffs may quibble with details in Mosquito Squadron, but they'll love it just the same. It's an average war movie, capably directed by Boris Sagal, who thrived in television before he was tragically killed by a helicopter rotor in 1981. At the peak of his post-Man from U.N.C.L.E. success, David McCallum plays a melancholy RAF ace, leading his squadron of De Havilland "Mosquito" bombers on low-altitude strikes over Nazi strongholds in Germany and France. His ground-based dilemma involves the grieving wife of his best friend, a fellow pilot presumed dead but later discovered alive with other POWs held at a French chalet where the Nazis are developing advanced V-class bombers. The RAF employs bouncing "highballs" capable of penetrating difficult targets, and the rousing climax doubles as a rescue mission and treacherous bombing run. Explosive action compensates for predictable melodrama, and Rocky Horror fans will enjoy seeing Charles ("the Criminologist") Gray as a stuffy RAF Commodore. --Jeff Shannon
The League of Gentlemen [Region 2]
The League of Gentlemen is a sardonic crime drama in which Jack Hawkins plays an embittered retired army officer who recruits seven fellow ex-soldiers to carry out a bank raid with military precision. The film presents an England between post-war austerity and the more liberated 1960s where traditional moral certainties were rapidly being discarded; a London where ex-officers left on the scrapheap at war's end could justify turning their military experience to armed robbery. Unfortunately the tale is neither particularly amusing or thrilling, with an overlong central detour via an army camp prefacing the exciting heist and a largely anti-climactic ending. Nevertheless Hawkins effectively subverts his heroic officer type from The Cruel Sea (1953) and The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), and there's excellent support from a great cast including Nigel Patrick, Richard Attenborough and Roger Livesey.
Bryan Forbes not only wrote the cynical screenplay but co-starred with wife Nanette Newman in her first significant screen role. More influential than truly classic, The League of Gentlemen has lent its name to a modern BBC comedy and an "Extraordinary" comic strip-turned-movie, and proved the template for heist films ever since, including both versions of The Italian Job (1969 and 2003). --Gary S. Dalkin
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