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‘Mission impossible’ escapism about high-stakes wartime sabotage looks at an authentic, dramatic episode of WW2 — the onslaught of futuristic V-Weapons on London — and then veers into fictional fantasy (think big explosions). George Peppard toughs it out to get free of his MGM contract. Lili Palmer and Barbara Rütting do the heavy lifting, while Sophia Loren is in as a glamorous sidebar. Weirdly, the movie all but lionizes the Germans that develop, test and fire the V-Weapon rockets at England … exaggerating their scientific progress and giving them a strange kind of ‘Right Stuff.’

Operation Crossbow

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1965 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 116 min. / Street Date November 12, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Sophia Loren, George Peppard, Trevor Howard, John Mills, Richard Johnson, Tom Courtenay, Jeremy Kemp, Anthony Quayle, Lilli Palmer, Barbara Rütting (Rueting), Paul Henreid, Helmut Dantine, Richard Todd, Sylvia Sims, John Fraser, Maurice Denham, Patrick Wymark, Richard Wattis, Allan Cuthbertson, Karel Stepanek,...

Powerhouse Indicator continues its series of exotic attractions from the house of Hammer with four more titles, three of which are front-rank winners. Once again, the company’s extras make all the difference. We’re’ given alternate versions, censor comparisons, and for one reel, an entire roll of outtakes and stage waits featuring Peter Cushing.

Hammer Volume Four Faces of Fear

Region Free Blu-ray

The Revenge of Frankenstein, The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll, Taste of Fear, The Damned (These Are the Damned)

Powerhouse Indicator

1958-1962 / Color & B&w / 1:66, 2:35 widescreen / / Street Date November 25, 2019 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £42.99

Directed by Terence Fisher (2), Seth Holt, Joseph Losey

Powerhouse Indicator’s fourth collection of Hammer attractions shows no sign of compromise — three out of four titles here are superb tales of fright and science fiction. Thanks to the company policy of leaving no gravestone unturned, the exclusive special extras never stop.

What ought to be appreciated as one of the most prescient of 1950s suspense films holds a place among the best science fiction movies ever — and it formed a style template for a thousand paranoid spy thrillers to follow. Val Guest pares Nigel Kneale’s fantastic storyline down to its essentials, making his scientist-hero the perfect secret agent to confront a sinister techno-political conspiracy… from outer space.

Quatermass 2

Blu-ray

Scream Factory

1957 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 85 min. / Street Date July 30, 2019 / 29.95

Starring: Brian Donlevy, John Longdon, Sidney James, Bryan Forbes, William Franklyn, Vera Day, Charles Lloyd Pack, Tom Chatto, John Van Eyssen, Percy Herbert, Michael Ripper, John Rae, Michael Balfour.

Cinematography: Gerald Gibbs

Film Editor: James Needs

Makeup: Philip Leakey

Art Direction: Bernard Robinson

Original Music: James Bernard

Written by Val Guest, Nigel Kneale from his teleplay

Produced by Anthony Hinds

Directed by Val Guest

Here’s yet another fine 2019 Blu-ray release...

This moody, unsettling whodunnit benefits from sensitive cinematography, fine direction and a perfectly-cast group of players. Stephen Boyd gets a worthwhile starring role, backed by some good names and a nice debut from Judi Dench. What I don’t understand is why Pamela Franklin, possibly the most talented and versatile young English player ever, didn’t become a major star. She’s more than half the picture here.

The Third Secret

Region B Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1964 / B&W / 2:35 / 103 min. / / Street Date February 25, 2019 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £17.77

Starring: Stephen Boyd, Pamela Franklin, Diane Cilento, Richard Attenborough, Jack Hawkins, Paul Rogers, Alan Webb, Rachel Kempson, Freda Jackson, Judi Dench, Peter Copley, Nigel Davenport, Charles Lloyd Pack, Barbara Hicks.

Cinematography: Douglas Slocombe

Film Editor: Frederick Wilson

Original Music: Richard Arnell

Written and Produced by Robert L. Joseph

Directed by Charles Crichton

Trying to keep up a production schedule during the cash-flow crisis of Cleopatra,...

Ray Harryhausen eases up for his second color Dynamation feature, restricting the stop-motion and instead utilizing traveling mattes to make a more juvenile adventure movie for smaller kiddies. The big draw is the beautiful music score by fantasy favorite Bernard Herrmann.

The 3 Worlds of Gulliver

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1960 / Color / 1:66 & 1:78 widescreen / 99 min. / Street Date December 13, 2016 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95

Starring Kerwin Matthews, Jo Morrow, June Thorburn, Sherry Alberoni, Lee Patterson, Gregoire Aslan, Basil Sydney, Peter Bull, Charles Lloyd Pack, Martin Benson, Alec Mango, Doris Lloyd, Joan Hickson, Noel Purcell.

Cinematography Wilkie Cooper

Original Music Bernard Herrmann

Creator of Special Visual Effects Ray Harryhausen

Written by Arthur Ross, Jack Sher based on the book by Jonathan Swift

Produced by Charles H. Schneer

Directed by Jack Sher

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

In The 3 Worlds of Gulliver Ray Harryhausen, Charles H. Schneer and Dynamation go tame — unlike...

Stage and screen actor best known for his roles in Only Fools and Horses, The Vicar of Dibley and Harry Potter

The talented and idiosyncratic character actor Roger Lloyd Pack, who has died of pancreatic cancer aged 69, achieved national recognition, and huge popularity, as Colin "Trigger" Ball, the lugubrious Peckham road sweeper in John Sullivan's brilliantly acted comedy series Only Fools and Horses. He appeared alongside David Jason's Del Boy and Nicholas Lyndhurst's "plonker" Rodney from 1981 for 10 years, with many a seasonal "special" for another decade.

This success cemented a career in which, up to that point, he had played important roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and the Almeida theatre in north London – he was a notably anguished Rosmer in Ibsen's Rosmersholm at the National in 1987, opposite Suzanne Bertish – without recognition any wider than usually appreciative reviews.

His enhanced status led to another...

Only Fools and Horses star Roger Lloyd-Pack has died at the age of 69.

The actor was born in Islington, North London on February 8, 1944. His father Charles Lloyd-Pack was known for several appearances in Hammer horror films.

At a young age he performed glove puppet shows, before his Hampshire school Bedales allowed him to take part in small theatre productions.

He began concentrating on acting during his studies, inspired by his drama teacher Rachel Carey-Field. Having achieved three A-levels, he successfully enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (Rada).

Lloyd-Pack made his stage debut in a Northampton production of The Shoemaker's Holiday by Thomas Dekker. After a number of stage productions across the UK, he made his screen debut in the 1968 film The Magus.

For the next three decades he played several small roles in films including The Go-Between, 1984 and Vanity Fair.

He finally had his breakthrough in 1981, when...

Roger Lloyd-Pack, the British actor best known for his role in classic sitcom Only Fools And Horses, has died. He passed away at home on Wednesday night, suffering from pancreatic cancer, his agent told the UK press. He was 69. Lloyd-Pack played the slow-witted road sweeper Colin “Trigger” Ball on long-running BBC One sitcom Only Fools And Horses. He also played farmer Owen Newitt in the Richard Curtis-created BBC series The Vicar Of Dibley. The actor’s feature career included turns in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, in which he took on the part of Bartemius “Barty” Crouch, Sr, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Born in North London in 1944, Lloyd was the son of Charles Lloyd-Pack who appeared in several Hammer horror films. He was also the father of actress Emily Lloyd. Lloyd-Pack studied at the Royal Academy of...

Tragic actress Emily Lloyd has received another setback in her bid to make a movie comeback. Emily, 29, who made her name in the hit film Wish You Were Here (1987) is the daughter of the celebrated British television actor Roger Lloyd Pack and the granddaughter of British film actor Charles Lloyd Pack. Recently, Emily travelled to Los Angeles, California, America, in a bid to re-establish herself. Sadly, on one of her first days back, she was stopped by the police and charged for driving without a licence and not wearing her seatbelt. To add to her woes, since she didn't have a valid licence, the cops confiscated her borrowed Jeep Cherokee.