For fans of vintage Hollywood and British movies, Odeon Entertainment is a great place to hunt down old favourites and undiscovered gems.
The Hollywood Studio Collection is bursting at the seams with classics from the 1940s and 1950s, including Robert Mitchum dramas such as His Kind of Woman, starring the late, great Jane Russell, and Otto Preminger’s Angel Face (released on 11 July); and the famous Saint series starring the debonair George Sanders. For fans of film noir, Robert Wise's knockout BAFTA-nominated 1949 classic The Set-Up, starring Robert Ryan, gets its UK release on 8 August.
Being a huge fan of old horror stars such as Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre and Lon Chaney Jr, I was inspired to track down some of their lesser known films to complete my collection. And there’s some real surprises, including Lorre’s Stranger on the Third Floor (the first true film noir of the period) and Karloff's Bedlam (one of his most underrated films). But the real catch, by far, was unearthing the camp 1944 masterpiece Cobra Woman, starring Maria Montez and Sabu.
In the Best of British collection, there's a staggering amount of classic 1940s titles on offer, from vintage comedies, including 1949's Don't Ever Leave Me, with a very young Petula Clark, and 1953's It's a Grand Life, starring Music Hall legend Frank Randle and Diana Dors. There also some great old-time wartime melodramas, like They Met in the Dark (1943) with James Mason, and vintage suspense thrillers, including 1946's I See a Dark Stranger, starring Deborah Kerr and Trevor Howard, and the 1935 Faye Wray/Claude Rains thriller The Clairvoyant.
It's not all golden oldies, however, as Odeon Entertainment also boasts some must-have British cult and exploitation titles, inluding the new Blu-ray release of the Vincent Price 1968 horror masterpiece Witchfinder General, featuring never before released extras; and digitally remastered versions of the 1970s cult classics Goodbye Gemini and Blood on Satan’s Claw.
Full more information, check out Odeon Entertainment’s website. And if your dad's of a certain age, or just has a kink for vintage cinema, then this might just be the place to find that perfect gift - after all, today is Father's Day.
