Villiers, James

The Scarlet Pimpernel

It's tough trying to beat the 1934 version of the popular adventure-romance story, starring Leslie Howard as the 18th-century British hero who poses as a fop in London society but runs a secret mission to rescue the doomed in Robespierre's Paris. But this 1982 television version, starring Anthony Andrews (Under the Volcano) as the Pimpernel and Jane Seymour as his beloved but estranged wife, is quite a treat. Andrews and Seymour expertly capture the essence of a relationship suffering from misunderstandings and elusive passion, and there is plenty of crackle to the action sequences. Clive Donner (What's New, Pussycat?) brings some strong cinematic qualities to this television presentation. --Tom Keogh

The swashbuckling classic comes to rip-roaring life in this lavish production, filled with breathless romance and derring-do! In the eyes of high society, Sir Percy Blakeney (Brideshead Revisited's Anthony Andrews) is a typical fop, surrounded by adoring ladies and clueless gentry. However, he is also a master of disguise and bears an infamous secret identity: the Scarlet Pimpernel, dashing and fearless rescuer of victims of the French Revolution! Sir Percy also falls head over heels for the beautiful Marguerite (Somewhere in Time's Jane Seymour), who is also wooed by the villainous Paul Chauvelin (The Lord of the Rings' Sir Ian McKellan), Robespierre's Chief Agent for the Committee of National Security. Suave, stylish, and utterly irresistible, this dazzling adventure is sure to capture your heart!

Uncovered

Based on a Novel by the author of "The Ninth Gate" comes a chilling murder mysterystarring Kate Beckinsale! While restoring an old painting showing a woman and twomen playing chess young beautiful art expert Julia (Beckinsale) discovers the text"who killed the knight" underneath the paint. The owner of the painting tells her thatone of his forefathers was killed the painting might identify the murderer. WhenJulia's friend is killed she understands that there is more to it. She consults Domeneca chess genius who reconstructs the game from the painting. With any piece he takessomebody dies. The game becomes reality and her next move.. . could be her last!System Requirements: Running Time 112 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: MYSTERY/SUSPENSE Rating: NR UPC: 012236151074 Manufacturer No: 15107

Repulsion

Roman Polanski was still a newcomer to the world of cinema when he unleashed this unforgettable exercise in skin-crawling terror. Repulsion was the Polish director's first film in English, but that hardly mattered: much of the movie is as wordless (and as weird) as the silent Nosferatu. The young Catherine Deneuve plays a Belgian girl stranded in '60s London, a shy beauty with no social skills. When her sister leaves their shared flat, Deneuve goes gradually, quietly, completely mad. Her world becomes Polanski's paintbox, as the devilish director distorts reality via a series of surrealistic touches (grasping hands that protrude from elastic walls) and out-and-out murderous horror. Very few films cast the kind of eerie spell that this 1965 classic achieves, and it clearly points the way toward Polanski's Rosemary's Baby. As with most of the director's work, what is unsettling is not the overt violence, but the terrifying sense of emptiness and isolation, and the boiling unease inside one's own mind. --Robert Horton

Fortunes of War

"Wherever we are, that will always be the center of things." So professor Guy Pringle reassures his new wife, Harriet. Unfortunately, where they are is Bucharest in 1939, with the Nazis gathering on the border, and fascism casting longer, darker shadows. Thus begins this epic 1987 miniseries based on Olivia Manning's Balkan and Levant trilogies that was originally broadcast in the United States on Masterpiece Theatre. For most Americans, it was an auspicious first look at England's glamorous former First Thespian couple, Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson, who, as one character notes of Harriet, "lightens the darkness." Fortunes of War suggests what Casablanca might have been like had it followed Victor and Ilsa instead of Rick, who famously didn't want to stick his neck out for anybody. Not Guy. "I want to do something more dramatic than lecturing," he proclaims. "It is our duty to shine a little light to hope someone notices." His activities are enough to put him on a Nazi death list, forcing Guy and Harriet to Greece and Egypt. "It isn't a lark," Guy tells Harriet early on, "but it is an adventure." Fortunes of War is populated by colorful characters, most notably the pitiable and decidedly untrustworthy Prince Yakimov (Ronald Pickup), and the dashing young soldier Simon Boulderstone (Rupert Graves of The Forsythe Saga and A Room with a View). There is plenty of intrigue, betrayals, domestic melodrama, and emotional separations and reunions to propel this nearly seven-hour production to its powerful conclusion. Readers of Manning's books and Branagh and Thompson fans will find the release of War good fortune indeed. --Donald Liebenson

The Baltics 1939. British professor Guy Pringle (Kenneth Branagh) arrives in Romania with his new bride Harriet (Emma Thompson) and becomes enmeshed in the politics of anti-fascism. Despite Harriet's serious misgivings Guy's social circle soon includes members of the British Secret Service who want to involve him in dangerous missions and a downtrodden prince who zeroes in on Guy's generous nature and winds up living with the Pringles. Thus the stage is set for this mesmerizing story of marriage tested by accidental betrayal callous insensitivity and a world in upheaval. Based upon the autobiographical novels of best-selling author Olivia Manning and set in places as far-flung as Bucharest Athens andCairo Fortunes of War is majestic in both its scope and its vision.Running Time: 407 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 794051219329

For Your Eyes Only

After a ship sunk off the coast of Albania, the world's superpowers begin a feverish search for its valuable lost cargo: the powerful ATAC system, which will give its bearer unlimited control over Polaris nuclear submarines. As Bond joins the search, he suspects the suave Kristatos (Julian Glover) of seizing the device. The competition between nations grows more deadly by the moment, but Bond finds an ally in the beautiful Melina Havelock (Caroline Bouquet), who blames Kristatos for the death of her parents. The non-stop action includes automobile chases, thrilling underwater battles, and even a breathtaking tour over razor-sharp coral reefs. But all of this is merely a prelude to 007's cliffhanging assault of a magnificent mountaintop fortress. -- Robert Lynch

James Bond is thrust into one of his most riveting adventures in this jam-packed free-for-all of outrageous stunts passionate encounters and exciting confrontations. Roger Moore portrays Agent 007 with lethal determination in a plot that finds him racing against time to find a stolen device capable of controlling a fleet of nuclear submarines. As Bond teams with beautiful Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet) and infiltrates the Greek underworld the stage is set for nonstop action including automobile chases thrilling underwater battles and a cliffhanging assault on a magnificent mountaintop fortress!System Requirements:Running Time: 128 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: PG UPC: 027616066596 Manufacturer No: M106659

The Millionairess

Though Bernard Shaw's The Millionairess may rank among his lesser works, it is given a top-drawer staging in this 1972 BBC production. Maggie Smith (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, California Suite) is priceless as Epifania Ognisanti di Parerga Fitzfassenden, a woman every bit as impossible as her name. Epifania, "a woman brought up on seven figures" is, as her amused lawyer observes, "a comic figure in her misery." Her feckless husband has taken up with a more affectionate younger woman. Epifania's own "Sunday wife" (Charles Gray from Rocky Horror Picture Show) is an equally worthless chap. But she meets her match in a principled and idealistic English doctor (Tom Baker of Dr. Who fame) who challenges her to transform 35 shillings into her own fortune. The play's farcical first act is best, with the assorted couples and companions descending on the lawyer's office. Things bog down a bit with the introduction of the good doctor, but to watch the incomparable Smith tackle this most juicy of roles as "the most interesting woman in England," for whom money means power, security, and freedom, is "legitimate bliss." --Donald Liebenson

Epifania (Maggie Smith) is glamorous clever...and also the richest woman in the world. After yet another row with her spendthrift husband Epifania meets an intriguing Egyptian doctor (Tom Baker). But she faces the challenge her money-mad father imposed on her before his death: She can only consider for marriage a man who can convert 150 pounds into 50000 pounds within six months. Coincidentally the good doctor has a similar challenge from his mother and can only consider for a wife a woman who can make her own living for six months with only 35 pence to start. Will Epifania be able to prove her profitability? And is the good doctor even interested in the challenge of a woman used to getting whatever she wants?Running Time: 115 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 794051253828 Manufacturer No: E2538

The Nanny

Accused of drowning his little sister in the bath 10-year old Joey (William Dix) is sent away to an institution for therapy even though he claims the Nanny (Davis) is responsible. When he returns home suspicion is quickly aroused again as his mother (Wendy Craig) is poisoned and his aunt suddenly dies. But Joey continues to insist the Nanny is responsible turning life into a deft cat-and-mouse game between the equally shady woman and her young charge.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR/CLASSICS Rating: NR UPC: 024543507222 Manufacturer No: 2250722

Half a Sixpence

When orphaned shop clerk Arthur Kipps inherits a fortune, his future seems assured--but money doesn't buy happiness, as the gawky lad learns when he mixes with the swells. The splashy musical Half a Sixpence was adapted from H.G. Wells's novel, Kipps, and it saw considerable success as a stage vehicle for the exuberant Tommy Steele. The film version gets caught in that mid-1960s mode of the lumbering super-production (the kind that helped kill the movie musical). Lavishly mounted by old pro director George Sidney, and boasting some echt-sixties photography by the great Geoffrey Unsworth, Half a Sixpence offers its share of eye candy. The blowhard presence of Cyril Ritchard and the spectacular dancing of Grover Dale help. Then there's Tommy Steele, whose stage-scaled performance is all teeth and hair; he attacks the razzmatazz numbers with ferocity--maybe more ferocity than charm. Songs by David Heneker. --Robert Horton

Mountains of the Moon

How did Bob Rafelson, the director of small-scale American studies such as Five Easy Pieces and The King of Marvin Gardens, find himself helming an old-fashioned adventure story such as Mountains of the Moon? Whatever the reasons, Rafelson invested this 1990 epic with passion and professionalism. The hero is one of the greatest British explorers of the 19th century, Sir Richard Burton (played by Patrick Bergin), a fascinating figure and a man out of time: a modern in the Victorian era. Mountains of the Moon is primarily concerned with Burton's trek into East Africa to discover the source of the Nile, accompanied by fellow adventurer John Hanning Speke (Iain Glen). Rafelson is at least as interested in the tricky psychological jockeying between the two men, as he is in the grueling conventions of the adventure movie, but he delivers well on both counts. The brawny Bergin is sensational in a role that should have made him a star, but didn't (though he had a shot, menacing Julia Roberts in Sleeping with the Enemy); the film disappeared quickly. Perhaps audiences were put off by the lack of marquee names and confused by the title, which refers to a piece of African landscape. Providing solid support are Fiona Shaw (another should-have-been star), Richard E. Grant, and Delroy Lindo, as an African warrior. A very satisfying excursion into the National Geographic pith-helmet genre. --Robert Horton

In the 1850's two British officers Capt. Richard Burton (Patrick Bergen) and Lt. John Speke (Iain Glen) set out on a spectacular adventure to discover the source of the Nile. They are warned that great dangers await them but against all odds they push on deeper and deeper into the magnificent untamed African wilderness where no western man had ever gone. As the difficult journey takes its toll Burton and Speke forge a strong bond. A bond that one will eventually betray. But history will be the judge as the two intrepid explorers venture into realms perilous to both body and soul in their quest for the secret of the Nile.System Requirements: Running Time 140 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 012236125303 Manufacturer No: 12530

King Ralph

David Ward made his reputation on his original screenplay to The Sting, but his career as a director has been built on lightweight comedies filled with generous spirit and slight aspirations. King Ralph delivers on that level. After a freak accident kills every immediate member of the British royal family, a search of the royal bloodline uncovers an unlikely candidate: portly Vegas lounge singer John Goodman. How will this gauche, exuberant, red-blooded American mix with the haughty aristocratic bluebloods? Blustery, big-hearted Goodman brings the common touch to the palace with the enthusiastic spirit of a beer-guzzling, burger-eating American everyman who hammers out a mean rock & roll piano--even at official functions. John Hurt plays his conniving rival, an overlooked lord who plots his demise, while Peter O'Toole brings quiet dignity to his role as the King's private secretary and unofficial guide through the maze of etiquette and diplomacy. Ward brings a distinctly American sensibility to the British setting-- this is definitely slapstick over satire and Goodman is a veritable bull in the royal china shop. It's a modest underdog comedy in which white hats and black hats are pretty rigidly defined, but Goodman brings a working-class dignity to the role. Watch for Joely Richardson in a hilarious turn as a throaty foreign princess who puts the moves on Goodman. --Sean Axmaker