COI Collection Vol 4: Stop! Look! Listen! heads to DVD

The BFI has been releasing volumes of classic footage from the Central Office of Information (COI), previously taking in the military, the police and classic design films. Now it's the turn of the much-loved public information film in COI Collection Vol 4: Stop! Look! Listen!

Released on 15th November, the DVD includes Mind How You Go (1973), with green cross code advice courtesy of Valerie Singleton; Drive Carefully Darling (1975), starring Frank Bough and a cast of ‘numskulls’; Apaches (1977), massacre on the farm from John MacKenzie, director of The Long Good Friday; Betcher! (1971), in which a young Keith Chegwin takes on a cycling challenge; Never Go With Strangers (1971), sinister stranger danger advice for children and Twenty Times More Likely (1979), where Gillian Taylforth’s first love ends tragically. You'll also find people like Michael Palin, John Challis, Colin Baker, Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits, Dick Emery and Reg Varney in there too.
 
This 2-disc set is accompanied by an illustrated booklet containing an introductory essay and comprehensive film notes and is available to pre-order now, priced at £11.99. See over the page for a full breakdown on content.

Find out more about the DVD at the Amazon website

BMC - watch B-movie Classics for free online

Online movies? That usually involves a monthly fee doesn't it? Not with BMC - aka B-Movie Classics.

The service, from AMC, offers up a pretty decent selection of old school, action, comedy, horror and sci-fi - everything from high-speed 50s flicks like Dragstrip Girls and Motorcycle gang through to top-notch 70s Amicus horrors like the wonderful Asylum.

All are free, all can be viewed in full screen and they can even be embedded into websites. Look - we've embedded Asylum above for our viewing pleasure! If you want more, check out the site.

Find out more at the BMC website

The Flipside Presents Naughty Boys - Cosh Boy (1953) and Seven Green Bottles (1975)

We had a clip of Cosh Boy on the site once, but lost it when it was removed from YouTube. Never mind, you can see it on the big screen later this month, along with Seven Green Bottles, collectively called Naughty Boys.

Yes, another Flipside presentation, taking place on Thursday 21st January at the BFI Southbank. Cosh Boy, dating from '53, focuses on Roy - making his way in the world by bullying his friends and stealing handbags using the 'cosh'. Nothing phases him until he meets Rene (a young Joan Collins) and his doting mother threatens remarriage - it's then a struggle to keep it together. First Brit flick to get an X-certificate would you believe.

Supporting is Seven Green Bottles (1975), made for schools to discourage crime, it looks at the escalating exploits of seven young lads - from truancy to home-invasion and robbery. It's the slippery slope! Admission is £9, tickets are on sale now.
 
Find out more at the BFI website

BBC Four does film noir

Lovers of film noir will be spoiled for choice this weekend as BBC Four serves up six classic films and a new documentary The Rules of Film Noir (Saturday 22nd, 9pm. Repeated 12.50am and Sunday 23rd, 10.35pm).

Matthew Sweet presents a celebration of the hard-boiled world of noir movie, exploring this classic genre from its earliest days around 1940, through its heyday in the bleak, cynical postwar era, to the dying days of the 1950s, when American audiences wanted a bit more certainty with their entertainment. Writers and academics such as Paul (Taxi Driver) Schrader and The Wire's George Pelecanos outline the rules to which film noir adhered, with clips aplenty from every noir you know (and a few you might not). Want to know about the movies? See over the turn.

Richard Burton season at the BFI

Richard Burton certainly lived his life to the full. Born in the small mining village of Port Talbot in Wales, he went on to become one of the most famous actors of his era, throwing in plenty for the gossip columns too with five marriages (including two with Elizabeth Taylor). And to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of his death, the BFI is offering up a long-overdue retrospective with highlights from his entire career.

That means everything from his debut in the late 40s in The Last Days of Dolwyn through his famous roles in the likes of Cleopatra (1963) and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), along with his cult roles in movies like the superb Villain (1971).

See over the page for the full schedule, with the season kicking off on 6th August 2009.

BFI website