Classics

Soul II Soul's Club Classics Vol 1 from 1989 was their debut album and was certified triple platinum for sales in excess of 900,000 copies. The London collective's landmark release brought them international acclaim. With a mix of different musical styles, Club Classics Vol. 1 reflected the eclectic British club culture and stayed true to the band's motto: "A happy face, a thumpin' bass, for a lovin' race!"

REBELLION! The political and cultural tumult of the early 1960s shook Japan as it did the rest of the world. Japanese filmmakers responded to the changing times by disguising themes of dissent in the traditional form of the swordplay film, or chanbara. Previously populated by heroic samurai, self-sacrificing ronin, and historical figures who exemplified noble Japanese virtues, the genre began embracing a new kind of hero, or antihero: the lone outcast, distrustful of authority but maintaining a personal code of honor. These four classic films, from four masters of Japanese cinema, turn a genre upside down, redefining for a modern generation the meaning of loyalty and honor, as embodied by the iconic figure of the samurai.

Welcome back for another three-ring circus of animated comedy from the legendary leader of cartoon fun – director Tex Avery. In the first ring, Avery serves up some of his finest one-shot creations: cartoons featuring cats who hate people, wacky cuckoo clocks, kooky cavemen and lovelorn French fleas. We also meet up again with Avery's attractive Red Riding Hood, a pair of amorous wolves and his durable all-around fall guy, Spike. The second ring is a showcase for Avery's ironically deadpan "Happy Hound": Droopy. This time, Droopy appears in a number of guises – each one funnier than the last. As bandleader "John Pettybone," he leads his jazz-playing fleas to the heights of canine stardom. Out West, as a homesteader and a sheepherder, he has his final showdowns with the Wolf. The third ring offers a whimsical glimpse into the future – or at least a future from the POV of the mid-20th century – with a plethora of zany postwar inventions. While none of the cartoons "of tomorrow" foresaw smartphones or Blu-ray players, these far-fetched contraptions, gadgets, houses and farms, televisions, and various modes of transportation could only come from the madcap mind of Avery and his MGM crew. Uncut, restored and remastered in High Definition for the first time, Tex Avery Screwball Classics Collection Volume 2 is another must-own collection from the master of hand-drawn mayhem.

Welcome back for another three-ring circus of animated comedy from the legendary leader of cartoon fun – director Tex Avery. In the first ring, Avery serves up some of his finest one-shot creations: cartoons featuring cats who hate people, wacky cuckoo clocks, kooky cavemen and lovelorn French fleas. We also meet up again with Avery's attractive Red Riding Hood, a pair of amorous wolves and his durable all-around fall guy, Spike. The second ring is a showcase for Avery's ironically deadpan "Happy Hound": Droopy. This time, Droopy appears in a number of guises – each one funnier than the last. As bandleader "John Pettybone," he leads his jazz-playing fleas to the heights of canine stardom. Out West, as a homesteader and a sheepherder, he has his final showdowns with the Wolf. The third ring offers a whimsical glimpse into the future – or at least a future from the POV of the mid-20th century – with a plethora of zany postwar inventions. While none of the cartoons "of tomorrow" foresaw smartphones or Blu-ray players, these far-fetched contraptions, gadgets, houses and farms, televisions, and various modes of transportation could only come from the madcap mind of Avery and his MGM crew. Uncut, restored and remastered in High Definition for the first time, Tex Avery Screwball Classics Collection Volume 2 is another must-own collection from the master of hand-drawn mayhem.

Welcome back for another three-ring circus of animated comedy from the legendary leader of cartoon fun – director Tex Avery. In the first ring, Avery serves up some of his finest one-shot creations: cartoons featuring cats who hate people, wacky cuckoo clocks, kooky cavemen and lovelorn French fleas. We also meet up again with Avery's attractive Red Riding Hood, a pair of amorous wolves and his durable all-around fall guy, Spike. The second ring is a showcase for Avery's ironically deadpan "Happy Hound": Droopy. This time, Droopy appears in a number of guises – each one funnier than the last. As bandleader "John Pettybone," he leads his jazz-playing fleas to the heights of canine stardom. Out West, as a homesteader and a sheepherder, he has his final showdowns with the Wolf. The third ring offers a whimsical glimpse into the future – or at least a future from the POV of the mid-20th century – with a plethora of zany postwar inventions. While none of the cartoons "of tomorrow" foresaw smartphones or Blu-ray players, these far-fetched contraptions, gadgets, houses and farms, televisions, and various modes of transportation could only come from the madcap mind of Avery and his MGM crew. Uncut, restored and remastered in High Definition for the first time, Tex Avery Screwball Classics Collection Volume 2 is another must-own collection from the master of hand-drawn mayhem.

Controversial, witty, irreverent – Britain's best known screenwriter, Andrew Davies, has created some of the most iconic small-screen dramas of the past 50 years. At the age of 82 he is following his smash hit adaptation of War and Peace with another global epic, Victor Hugo's Les Misérables. As he watches the production come to life during 2018, he looks back at the influence of his childhood in Cardiff. And he explores how he boils down and spices up his dramas – transforming our best-loved novels into prime-time television. Contributors include Sarah Waters, Helen Fielding and Dominic West.

One of the three big staples of American sexploitation clichés (the other two being cheerleaders and stewardesses), the nurse movies of the 1970s proved popular enough that exploitation king Roger Corman did big box office with four of his entries all made in the first half of the decade (for some reason the first one, 1970's drive-in hit Student Nurses, has not been included). Shout! Factory, in their ongoing efforts to release the finest of Corman's films in excellent special edition DVD releases, wrangles up those four films for this new two-disc set, aptly titled Roger Corman Cult Classics - The Nurses Collection.

Val Lewton produced a handful of low-budget horror movies in the 1940s that had a revolutionary impact on the genre. From 1942-1946, he ran RKO’s horror department, employing a method that has now become a staple of contemporary horror films. Lewton preferred psychological terror over monsters and gore. His films were a mix of mood and atmosphere, fueled by shadowy camera work, moral anxiety, tight pacing, and the suggestion of fear over shock value.

As well as their famous Frankenstein and Dracula series of films, Universal also shot a number of one-off horror titles during the height of their horror sucesses in the 1930s and 1940s, this set brings together five of those starring their unique and distinctive leading man, Bela Lugosi. In four of the films he is also joined by frequent screen sparring partner, Boris Karloff.
The films range from the original and exciting Invisible Ray (1936) to the missed opportunities of Horror/Gangster fusion in Black Friday (1940). The Edgar Allan Poe based stories range from decent Black Cat (1934) to the average Raven (1935) and the dull Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932).