CD-Charts Position 1
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Rosemary's Baby [1968]

starring: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans
directed by: Roman Polanski

Release Date November 05, 2001
'Rosemary's Baby' is without doubt Roman Polanski's best movie.
Still after fourty years this film scares me. Not in the kind of gruesome (torture-porn) kind of way that the Saw franchise do, but in a deeply psychological way, in the spirit of all the great twentieth century horror films. Rosemary (Mia Farrow) is the young married woman who's just moving into an upstate New York appartment block with her husband, actor Guy (John Cassavetes). The pair soon get to know their neighbours (mainly) Minnie Castevet & her husband Roman Castevet (Sidney Blackmer).
Rosemary's baby is a very scary film, not gruesome (sometimes mildly explicit) but it has that claustrophobic eery feeling & after the first half of the film the feeling ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 2
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Planet Of The Apes [1968]

starring: Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, James Whitmore
directed by: Franklin J. Schaffner

Release Date October 08, 2001
Astronauts are sent to a distant plane and crash. They find a barren wasteland and look for a place to survive. They fond more than the bargain for when the tables are turned and Apes rule the day.
Will they make friends or be sliced and diced?
Can the ever get back?
What would you do?

Now after that radical statement I know different media calls for different handling of the story. And most movies do not live up to the book. However some exceed the book. Surprise this is the "don't live up to the book" one. If you thought that the movie was insightful, surprising and shocking the first time you saw it. Then you defiantly have lower expectations than the reader does. Especially with such a botched ending; the ending ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
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The War Lord

starring: Charlton Heston, Richard Boone, Rosemary Forsyth, Maurice Evans, Guy Stockwell
directed by: Franklin J. Schaffner

Release Date January 25, 2008
A really fine and resonant film. Brilliant historical detail and great acting by Heston, Guy Stockwell and Richard Boone. Rosemary Forsyth is lovely and plays a rather undeveloped part well. Set design, costume and action scenes are first class, script is a bit heavy-handed but a tremendously entertaining and rewarding film.

CD-Charts Position 4
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Countess Dracula: Special Edition [1970] [1971]

starring: Ingrid Pitt, Nigel Green, Sandor Elès, Maurice Denham, Patience Collier
directed by: Peter Sasdy

Release Date September 11, 2006
This is a decent Hammer film which will maintain your interest for its relatively short length. The fact that it really has nothing to do with Dracula doesn't matter. Its reasonably well written and acted, although occasionally there were a few wooden moments.

Whats most interesting is the levels of violence and sex in the film. Originally this would have been an X certificate for its nudity (several topless women). However in terms of violence there is virtually none, apart from one scene where we see the result of violence (a man who has been hanged). By todays standards its very tame indeed.

However, thats not a bad thing, the story is sufficiently interesting that there doesn't need to be heads rolling all the time. Its an enjoyable ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 5
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Planet of the Apes -- 35th Anniversary Special Edition (2 discs) [1968]

starring: Charlton Heston, Linda Harrison, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans
directed by: Franklin J. Schaffner

Release Date April 26, 2004
In recent years sci-fi have been filled with flashing lights, high-budget CGI effects and ridiculous stunts like in THE MATRIX and I, ROBOT. If you don't like one sci-fi film, you're unlikely to like any as they're all the same. However, my dad took down PLANET OF THE APES from our video shelf. Unlike most sci-fi films, it was made in a time that had to deal without CGI and relied completely on the break through movie make-up as well as providing what people have voted time and time again "The Greatest Film Ending". PLANET OF THE APES has a cast of the greatest, easy storyline and it keeps your attention even as the credits are rolling at the end. Based on Pierre Boulle's lesser novel (La Planète des singes AKA Monkey Planet) tells of an astronaut landing on a distant ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
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The Giant Behemoth [1959] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

starring: Gene Evans, André Morell, John Turner, Leigh Madison, Jack MacGowran
directed by: Douglas Hickox, Eugène Lourié

Release Date June 26, 2007
I finally have finally viewed this hard-to-find item [at least in the UK] and it is a mixed bag of routine melodrama and effective suspense.

The first part of the movie entails a too-large cast of unknown curio actors, sombrely relaying the proceedings with stoney-faced conviction.

It's the BEHEMOTH we shelled out to see, however, and when he finally appears, he is an effective, memorable addition to the annals of ANIMATED MODELDOM. Working exceptionally well in extreme close-up, the hyper-detailed model exudes slimy menace, and is enhanced with several cuts that blend in live-action stampeding from the human victims within the same frame.

Good use is made of partial-miniature sets and even cut-out background photos of buildings, [a far cry from ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 7
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Rosemary's Baby - Paramount Originals (includes Limited Edition reproduction film poster) [1968]

starring: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans
directed by: Roman Polanski

Release Date July 23, 2007
Roman Polanski,s first American film released in 1968 is generally viewed as a horror film though if it is it's a horror film its one with no traditional horror elements in it. There is no blood , or bogeyman (Satan makes a blurry cameo appearance in that famous rape scene) or chases down corridors or really any of the machinations associated with horror. However it does deal explicitly with the horror of alienation , paranoia , fear and sheer hopelessness. In many ways these are ephemeral horrors more conducive to most of our life's than we would like to admit and therefore much more relevant.
This DVD is part of a slew of re-issues fronted by Paramount (All with accompanying posters) and might just be the best of the bunch -though I am sure others would disagree virulently ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 8
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Scrooge [1935]

starring: Oscar Asche, Donald Calthrop, Charles Carson, Robert Cochran, Maurice Evans
directed by: Henry Edwards

Release Date October 26, 2004
Roman Polanski,s first American film released in 1968 is generally viewed as a horror film though if it is it's a horror film its one with no traditional horror elements in it. There is no blood , or bogeyman (Satan makes a blurry cameo appearance in that famous rape scene) or chases down corridors or really any of the machinations associated with horror. However it does deal explicitly with the horror of alienation , paranoia , fear and sheer hopelessness. In many ways these are ephemeral horrors more conducive to most of our life's than we would like to admit and therefore much more relevant.
This DVD is part of a slew of re-issues fronted by Paramount (All with accompanying posters) and might just be the best of the bunch -though I am sure others would disagree virulently ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
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Roman Polanski Collection [1968]

starring: Mia Farrow, Roman Polanski, Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston
directed by: Roman Polanski

Release Date August 16, 2004
This Roman Polanski box set is fantastic. It covers a period of time when Polanski, as well as film-making in general, was experiencing a bit of a renaissance. Rosemary's Baby is a subtley terrifying account of the occult in Manhattan. The Tenant is a deeply sinister tale of an outsider's paranoid waking-nightmare. Chinatown is a haunting and ambiguous crime thriller. All three films benefit from being given great quality widescreen prints. There's not much in the way of extras but, of note, is an old documentary about Rosemary's Baby where Mia Farrow sounds out of her head.

CD-Charts Position 10
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Beneath The Planet Of The Apes [1970]

starring: James Franciscus, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, Linda Harrison, Paul Richards
directed by: Ted Post

Release Date August 22, 2005
"Beneath The Planet of the Apes" is an unusual and often strange sequel to the classic original. This film sees another time travelling astronaut from Earth called Brent crash land on the planet and suffer a similar ordeal to Charlton Heston's Taylor, namely getting captured by the apes and managing to escape from them into the Forbidden Zone. The apes in "Beneath" invade the Zone in an attempt to root out any surviving humans and to extend their control. Brent and the apes eventually encounter a bizarre mutated band of humans in a subterranean hide out who worship a primed atomic bomb. Will it explode, will the apes succeed with their invasion or will Brent,Taylor and Nova calmly ride off into the sunset ? "Beneath" is an adequate sequel to a seminal science fiction film and I found it to be watchable ... Read More: