Pete's Dragon [1977]

starring: Helen Reddy, Jim Dale, Mickey Rooney, Red Buttons, Shelley Winters
directed by: Don Chaffey

November 12, 2001
Pete (Sean Marshall) is a poor orphan. He's been adopted by the mean Gogan family run by the matriarch Lena (Shelley Winters). The Gogans make him work from morning til night and beat him for the slightest thing.

So, naturally, he runs away. Only this time he has help in the form of Elliot. Elliot is a dragon. And while he doesn't always think about what he's doing, he means well. And he really wants to help Pete.

Pete and Elliot happen to find the town of Passamaquoddy ... Read More:

Used Price: £4.68

The Night Of The Hunter [1955]

starring: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, James Gleason, Evelyn Varden
directed by: Charles Laughton

March 19, 2001
One of the most written and talked about films in history, as it seems to be telling a story in deeply symbolic images. That was its exact intention. I am amazed so many people still appear to take this film literally, as a story about a demented serial killer who will stop at nothing to get his hands on the money left to children by a condemned man he meets in prison. It was made so that it would work well as a conventional thriller, if that's how you want to view it, but Laughton so clearly wants his audience ... Read More:

Used Price: £2.99

Lolita [1962]

starring: James Mason, Shelley Winters, Sue Lyon, Gary Cockrell, Jerry Stovin
directed by: Stanley Kubrick

June 01, 2006
Regardless of the hidden (or even obvious) peversion of James Mason's character, I felt this film was brilliantly acted and beautifully shot. Sue Lyon's portrayal of the teenage Lolita is spot on, whilst Shelley Wintar's manical and irritating mother role is painfully real. Peter Sellar's does his usual good job of injecting a little humour into the otherwise unpleasant storyline and of course James Mason is as always perfect in his role. Whether it is an insult to say he is perfect for the part I do not know, but he certainly ... Read More:

Used Price: £4.89

Portrait Of A Lady [1997]

starring: Nicole Kidman, John Malkovich, Barbara Hershey, Mary-Louise Parker, Martin Donovan (II)
directed by: Jane Campion

June 25, 2001
We rented this film because we were so impressed by many of its good reviews. However, we felt let down when we saw it. Much of the filming was done in very poor light (presumably deliberately), and even when the sun shone outside, it seemed that the camera preferrred to stay in the shadows. Despiute the fact that some reviewers loved this film, we found its pace achingly slow, focussing upon a lead character with whom we had no empathy. After half an hour or so we were so bored we abandoned watching this film.

Used Price: £3.30

A Place In The Sun [1951]

starring: Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters, Anne Revere, Keefe Brasselle
directed by: George Stevens

November 18, 2002
Unfortunately, the hero in this movie makes THREE.

Montgomery Clift, as the poor boy trying to make good, makes the initial mistake of falling in love with a rich and beautiful girl, who would normally be unobtainable. If that was it, it would simply allow us to wile away 110 mins in the company of Monty's tortured soul and face-and, boy, no one ever did it better than him! Get I Confess-despite being the most unlikely Catholic priest you could imagine,Monty is superb in that with tortured secrets etc.

And in this film, ... Read More:

Used Price:

The Scalphunters [1968]

starring: Burt Lancaster, Shelley Winters, Telly Savalas, Ossie Davis, Dabney Coleman
directed by: Sydney Pollack

July 05, 2004
Once quietly groundbreaking for its racial politics - OssieDavies' escaped slave is by far smarter than any of the film's white characters, quite a bold move for a mainstream movie even in 1967 - seen today The Scalphunters is one of those films that's enjoyable but never quite as good as it could be. Former IRA gunrunner turned screenwriter William Norton's almost Dickensian dialogue in the first third of the movie is so good that it's a shame that the plot separates Burt Lancaster and Ossie Davies for so long and while it makes some smart points about ... Read More:

Used Price: £9.57

Alfie [1965]

starring: Michael Caine, Shelley Winters, Millicent Martin, Julia Foster, Jane Asher
directed by: Lewis Gilbert (II)

August 26, 2002
Alfie is simply a walking penis. He thinks with it, eats with it and dies with it - he thinks with his head not his head. He has no notion of the pain and suffering he causes. This men like many simply does his thing. End of.

But he is not the only one at 'fault'. These women are not children. They know what sex and pregnancy mean, etc. Alfie does not rape them. They partake in his fantasy. Maybe humdrum lives are the reason.

This is simply a life mixing up the gene pool. I like too the song sung excellently by Cilla Black and ... Read More:

Used Price: £0.49

Missing In Action/Missing In Action 2 - The Beginning/The Delta Force

starring: Chuck Norris, M. Emmet Walsh, Lenore Kasdorf, James Hong, Soon-Teck Oh
directed by: Joseph Zito, Lance Hool, Menahem Golan

February 05, 2007
What can i say about this set? Chuck Norris is no actor (and never has been) but there is so much to enjoy in these three films. The production values are poor in a way that only the legendary Cannon studios could be, yet what makes these films watchable is the fact that some effort has gone into making them. Chuck Norris was the Steven Seagal of the 1980's, churning out some ridiculous but fun movies that appealed to guys like me who were schoolkids in the mid 1980s. MIA 1 & 2 are drama/action movies about American POW's who were still captive years after ... Read More:

Used Price: £5.37

Winchester '73 [1950]

starring: James Stewart, Rock Hudson, Jay C. Flippen, Shelley Winters, Dan Duryea
directed by: Anthony Mann

June 04, 2007
Winchester `73 was the film that moved director Anthony Mann from the b-movies to the big league, rescuing James Stewart's floundering post-war career in the process by casting him as a conflicted hero (although since he inherited the project from Fritz Lang, maybe Lang deserves the credit for that). Both men would go to much darker places - Mann already had with the remarkably bleak Devil's Doorway, which remained shelved by MGM until the success of Broken Arrow convinced them to release it - but a movie about a man hunting down his own brother as the rifle of ... Read More:

Used Price: £4.79

The Diary Of Anne Frank [1959]

starring: Millie Perkins, Joseph Schildkraut, Shelley Winters, Richard Beymer, Lou Jacobi
directed by: George Stevens

July 04, 2005
Winchester `73 was the film that moved director Anthony Mann from the b-movies to the big league, rescuing James Stewart's floundering post-war career in the process by casting him as a conflicted hero (although since he inherited the project from Fritz Lang, maybe Lang deserves the credit for that). Both men would go to much darker places - Mann already had with the remarkably bleak Devil's Doorway, which remained shelved by MGM until the success of Broken Arrow convinced them to release it - but a movie about a man hunting down his own brother as the rifle of ... Read More:

Used Price: £2.53