Coming soon: London DVD boxset

We've just got a list of DVD releases and reissues for the next months - and the London boxset has certainly caught out eye.

Apparently coinciding with the GLA festival celebrating The Story of London, the box will feature movies that offer 'diverse post-War London locations from the 50s and 60s and which explore quintessentially London themes' - think the London docks, Soho and the Underground.

So what's on it? Well, two films we've seen and review before (The London Nobody knows/Les Bicyclettes de Belsize) and three gems from the 50s and 60s never before released on DVD - The Yellow Balloon, Pool of London and the much-anticipated The Small World of Sammy Lee (pictured above and which you can read about here). Release date is 1st June 2009 - we'll be reviewing well before then.

More on The Small World of Sammy Lee

Win retro radios and limited edition vinyl boxsets with The Boat That Rocked

(c) 2009 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved

To celebrate the release of Richard Curtis' new comedy The Boat That Rocked (in cinemas April 1st), we are offering five lucky people the chance to get their hands on a retro radio and 7-inch Collectors Box Set of the movie soundtrack!

Directed by Richard Curtis and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Nick Frost, Rhys Ifans and Gemma Arterton, The Boat That Rocked is a comedy set on the high seas in the 1960s, when pirate radio DJs play pop music illegally to a huge teen audience of around 25 million, much to the anguish of the authorities and the government.

If you want to find out more about the movie, check out the official website here. And if you want to enter the competition to win the radio and the limited edition soundtrack (including the likes of  The Who, The Kinks, Jimi Hendrix, and David Bowie), it's hosted over on Modculture. Just follow the link below to get your name in the draw.

Enter The Boat That Rocked competition at Modculture

House of Mortal Sin (1976)

Cinedelica loves cult British movies and maverick directors, so it's no surprise to see the name Pete Walker crop up here on numerous occasions, both for his sexploitation flicks (like Cool It Carol) or his cult horrors from the 70s (ranging from The Flesh and Blood Show through to The Comeback). But between those latter two movies, Walker produced some of his finest moments, including House of Mortal Sin.

House of Mortal Sin is probably entry-level Pete Walker, less sex, less gruesome horror and death (although it does have its moments), but with a more considered storyline that doesn't quite go the way you expect from the first minute to the last. Things kick off with the suicide of a pregnant teenager - after confessing her sins to the local Roman Catholic priest, Father Xavier Meldrum (Anthony Sharp). Are these two incidents related? read on.

Cult Clip: Cry of the Banshee trailer (1970)

Well, we've reviewed the movie, so we might as well feature the trailer of Cry of the Banshee. Enjoy it below...

DVD Review: Cry of the Banshee (1970)

I always like to think of myself as an expert on pitchfork-waving horrors of the 60s and 70s, but Cry of the Banshee has always passed me by - probably because the common opinion is that the movie just isn't very good. Anyway, I've bitten the bullet and finally gone in - and you know what? It ain't bad at all.

Ok, it's no classic and anyone expecting another Witchfinder General will be sorely disappointed - Gordon Hessler's take on witchcraft in the middle ages isn't a patch on Michael Reeves' masterpiece. But it certainly has its moments.

Vincent Price is on-hand again to offer up some menace, this time as local landlord and magistrate Lord Edward Whitman. He likes to arrest and torture witches (as you'd expect) and generally put himself about as a nasty piece of work, aided by his equally-nasty son and a couple of thugs.