Lowe, Arthur

If... (Criterion Collection)

Lindsay Anderson?s If.? is a daringly anarchic vision of British society set in a boarding school in late-sixties England. Before Kubrick made his mischief iconic in A Clockwork Orange Malcolm McDowell made a hell of an impression as the insouciant Mick Travis who along with his school chums trumps authority at every turn finally emerging as violent savior against the draconian games of one-upmanship played by both students and the powers that be. Mixing color and black and white as audaciously as it mixes fantasy and reality If?. remains one of cinema?s most unforgettable rebel yells.System Requirements:Running Time: 112 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: NR UPC: 715515024426 Manufacturer No: CC1699DVD

Kind Hearts and Coronets

Set in Victorian England, Robert Hamer's 1949 masterpiece Kind Hearts and Coronets remains the most gracefully mordant of the Ealing comedies. Dennis Price plays Louis D'Ascoyne, the would-be Duke of Chalfont whose mother was spurned by her noble family for marrying an Italian singer for love. Louis resolves to avenge his mother by murdering the relatives ahead of him in line for the dukedom, all of whom are played by Alec Guinness. Guinness's virtuoso performances have been justly celebrated, ranging from a youthful D'Ascoyne with a priggish wife to a brace of doomed uncles and one aunt. Miles Malleson is a splendid doggerel-spouting hangman, while Valerie Hobson and Joan Greenwood take advantage of unusually strong female roles. But the great joy of Kind Hearts and Coronets is the way in which its appallingly black subject matter (considered beyond the pale by many critics at the time) is conveyed in such elegantly ironic turns of phrase by Price's narrator/antihero. Serial murder has never been conducted with such exquisite manners and discreet charm. --David Stubbs

C.S. Lewis': The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

This animated feature is based on the first tale in C.S. Lewis' classic "The Chronicles of Narnia." Two brothers and two sisters travel through a magical closet into a land of talking animals and mythical creatures.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: CHILDREN/FAMILY Rating: UNRATED UPC: 084296409228 Manufacturer No: 40922

The Ruling Class - Criterion Collection

Peter O'Toole gives a tour-de-force performance as Jack, a man "cured" of believing he's God-only to become Jack the Ripper incarnate. Based on Peter Barnes' irreverent play, this darkly comic indictment of Britain's class system peers behind the closed doors of English aristocracy. Insanity, sadistic sarcasm, and black comedy-with just a touch of the Hollywood musical-are all featured in this beloved cult classic directed by Peter Medak.

Theater Of Blood/MadHouse (Midnite Movies Double Feature)

Theater of BloodVincent Price delivers a thrilling tour-de-force (Variety) performance as a small-time actor plotting big-time revenge in inventively Shakespearean ways! Boasting a topnotch supporting cast this dramatically delicious concoction (New York) delivers an equal mixture of horror comedy and Shakepeare [that ll] please just about everyone critics included (Boxoffice) and proves that all the world really is a stage for MURDER!Running Time 91 MinMadhouseMasters of macabre Vincent Price Peter Cushing and Robert Quarry give performances to die for in this diverting little chiller (Boxoffice)! When horror star Paul Toombes fianc e is brutally killed he loses more than this job he loses his mind. But twelve years later when he returns to TV only to discover a fresh batch of corpses Paul finally begins to understand that melodrama can be murder on your career!Running Time 104 MinSystem Requirements: Running Time 195 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR UPC: 027616910868 Manufacturer No: 1006945

If your sense of humor is even moderately twisted, you'll savor Theatre of Blood, a tasty course of well-cooked ham. Directed with delectable British wit by Douglas Hickox, the comedy is decidedly dark when Vincent Price--as effete has-been thespian Richard Lionheart--wreaks poetic justice upon the snobby critics who panned his performances and drove him to a failed attempt at suicide. Reciting his poor reviews and staging murders inspired by Shakespearean tragedies, the actor and his Dickensian coterie of accomplices (including Diane Rigg, sexy as ever) dispatch their victims with shocking ingenuity, and by the time Lionheart reenacts Titus Andronicus by gorging one dog-loving critic (the hilariously poofy Robert Morley) on toy-poodle stew, Theatre of Blood reaches giddy heights of outrageous vengeance. It's all in good fun, of course, and the film's esteemed British cast plays it to the hilt, none better than Price in one of his most entertaining roles. --Jeff Shannon

Madhouse doesn't skimp on the horror-movie trimmings: Vincent Price in his campy post-Poe era, a crazy woman kept in the basement, the murder of an ex-porn star, and… Peter Cushing. All of which turns out to be barely tolerable as drive-in fodder, for this is the least of Price's run of revenge movies in the early Seventies. He plays an actor identified with his horror-movie roles (famed for playing "Dr. Death"), who attempts a comeback after a long layoff. Alas, his instability affects the production--or something does, not that you'll likely care about the explanation. Cushing has a collection of Price's old AIP movies to sit around and watch, and Adrienne Corri is the lady in the basement. Ham-handedly directed and confusingly plotted, this one's for diehard Price fans only. And their reward comes at the end, when the actor can be heard crooning "When Day Is Done" over the end credits. --Robert Horton

Vincent Price: MGM Scream Legends Collection (The Abominable Dr. Phibes / Tales of Terror / Theater of Blood / Madhouse / Witchfinder General / Dr. Phibes Rises Again / Twice Told Tales)

This five-disc set contains the fan favorites THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN THEATER OF BLOOD MADHOUSE TALES OF TERROR TWICE-TOLD TALES and WITCHFINDER GENERAL.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 027616087805 Manufacturer No: M108780

The high baroque period of Vincent Price's career is well represented with this box, which offers seven horror-minded feature films and some supporting extras. If there were ever any doubt that Price was in on the joke, this collection would dispel it: in most of these movies he's having a ball, cheerfully sending up his own image--although the set also boasts perhaps his finest straight performance.

Thanks to the previous likes of House of Wax and The Fly, Price had his horror cred well established, which is perhaps why he's already winking at the idea in the earliest movie here, 1962's Tales of Terror. The movie certainly has an impeccable horror pedigree: three stories by Edgar Allan Poe, adapted by Richard Matheson, and directed by Roger Corman. Price stars in all three, making a slow start with "Morella," then clicking into gear with Peter Lorre in a broadly comic "The Black Cat," and winding up with great liquefying make-up (and Basil Rathbone) in "The Case of M. Valdemar." The 1963 Twice Told Tales borrows Corman's triptych set-up with three Nathaniel Hawthorne stories, but the results are fairly dull. The best of the trio is the first story, in which Price and Sebastian Cabot sip a youth potion, with regrettable results.

Witchfinder General (re-edited and known for years in the U.S. as The Conqueror Worm) is the gem of the collection, a truly harrowing film for which Price eschewed any hint of camp. He plays a 17th-century witchfinder, and the film pulls no punches in pointing out the sadism of his job (and the way religious paranoia is linked to misogyny). It's the best and final work by the promising director Michael Reeves, who died in 1969 from a drug overdose; he was only 24 when he made this film.

From there, the set skips into Price's 1970s silly season. The Abominable Dr. Phibes was a surprise hit in 1971, and it's easy to see the appeal: Price goes over the top in his portrayal of a Phantom of the Opera type who exacts revenge by invoking the Old Testament plagues. Joseph Cotten and Terry-Thomas are in the cast. Dr. Phibes Rises Again isn't quite as madly focused--this time the doctor is in Egypt, looking for a way to revive his late wife--but the tongue-in-cheek spirit prevails.

Those films paved the way for a similar but more inspired outing, and a movie Price spoke of as a personal favorite: Theater of Blood, a deliciously wicked thing about a ham actor who murders his critics. Not only does Price have a high old time reciting Shakespeare, he gets to knock off some wonderful victims: Robert Morley, Jack Hawkins, and Price's future wife Coral Browne among them. Diana Rigg is a welcome bonus. Madhouse rounds out the disc, an actively bad movie along the same lines; Price plays a horror-movie actor whose personal instability mirrors his film persona. The picture is ham-handed in every way, though it's good to see Peter Cushing toe-to-toe with Price. Also in the set: a Disc of Horrors, with an hour's worth of featurettes on the man. --Robert Horton

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

Dad's Army - Collection

Theater of Blood

If your sense of humor is even moderately twisted, you'll savor this tasty course of well-cooked ham. Directed with delectable British wit by Douglas Hickox, the comedy is decidedly dark when Vincent Price--as effete has-been thespian Richard Lionheart--wreaks poetic justice upon the snobby critics who panned his performances and drove him to a failed attempt at suicide. Reciting his poor reviews and staging murders inspired by Shakespearean tragedies, the actor and his Dickensian coterie of accomplices (including Diane Rigg, sexy as ever) dispatch their victims with shocking ingenuity, and by the time Lionheart reenacts Titus Andronicus by gorging one dog-loving critic (the hilariously poofy Robert Morley) on toy-poodle stew, Theatre of Blood reaches giddy heights of outrageous vengeance. It's all in good fun, of course, and the film's esteemed British cast plays it to the hilt, none better than Price in one of his most entertaining roles. --Jeff Shannon

John Cleese - The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It

John Cleese is hilarious as the descendant of Sherlock Holmes in this modern detective drama of international power politics and intrigue. Unlike his illustrious grandfather however, this Sherlock Holmes only succeeds in bungling every job he organizes. Also stars Arthur Lowe as the "bionic" grandson of Dr. Watson, Stratford Johns as the Commissioner of Police, and Connie Booth as Mrs. Hudson.