CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

A Christmas Carol (2 versions: Colorized & Original Black and White)

starring: Alastair Sim, Kathleen Harrison, Mervyn Johns, Hermione Baddeley, Michael Hordern
directed by: Brian Desmond Hurst

Release Date October 28, 1998
Very good adaptation on film for of this classic book written by Ch. Dickens but I think there are more adaptations much better as release.

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

Geordie

starring: Jameson Clark, Francis de Wolff, Doris Goddard, Norah Gorsen, Raymond Huntley

Release Date September 30, 2008
Very good adaptation on film for of this classic book written by Ch. Dickens but I think there are more adaptations much better as release.

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

Stage Fright

starring: Alfie Bass, Ballard Berkeley, Cyril Chamberlain, Marlene Dietrich, Helen Goss

Release Date September 07, 2004
Jonathan Cooper (Richard Todd) is in trouble. The police think he murdered the husband of famous actress Charlotte Inwood (Marlene Dietrich). And so he does the only thing he can think to do, run to Eve Gill (Jane Wyman) for help. Eve has a bit of a crush on Jonathan, so she quickly spirits him out of town and puts him in hiding.

Befriending Detective Inspector Wilfred Smith (Michael Wilding), Eve learns that the police aren't even looking for another suspect, so she goes undercover as Charlotte's new maid to try to prove the actress killed her own husband. Can she keep up her undercover identity without being discovered? Can she prove that Charlotte really killed her husband?

This lesser known Hitchcock film is still ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

A Christmas Carol (Original B&W Version)

starring: Alastair Sim, Kathleen Harrison, Mervyn Johns, Hermione Baddeley, Michael Hordern
directed by: Brian Desmond Hurst

Release Date November 02, 1999
Very good adaptation on film for of this classic book written by Ch. Dickens but I think there are more adaptations much better as release.

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

Handel - Messiah / Cleobury, Dawson, Summers, Brandenburg Consort

starring: Lynne Dawson, Hilary Summers, John Mark Ainsley, Alastair Miles, Stephen Cleobury

Release Date October 31, 2000
I have watched this video inumerable times and every watching has been an absolute delight. The production is successful on every level and in some respects, quite outstanding.

Video is not always kind to contraltos - many seem like a floribunda rose a week past its prime - and their singing performance often can stand apart from the rest of the ensemble but Hillary Summers, here taking the alto part, is superlative in every sense and occasionally reminds me of Ferrier. I can offer praise no higher than that!

There is plenty of material here about which to become rhapsodic; I shall resist the temptation and offer only two criticisms which arise from small but nevertheless profoundly irritating (to me, at least) matters. Such explanatory ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

Verdi - Don Carlos

starring: Ramon Vargas, Iano Tamar, Nadja Michael, Alastair Miles, Bo Skovhus
directed by: Peter Konwitschny

Release Date October 30, 2007
A history of a French Don Carlos mirrors the failure of France to provide singers whose career is based on that language. The DVD under consideration reflects that deterioration in that not one singer can claim it as their first language. The Don is Mexican, Posa a Dane, Elizabeth a Georgian, Philip an Englishman,Eboli, a German. As a result we really don't anything resembling French production although Vargas, Miles and Skovhus are better at it than Tamar and Michael. Tamar, howeve, has a beautiful lyrico spinto voice and Michael are somewhat careless. Even with these criticisms I am thrilled that it is a complete text and unlikely to be challenged in the next few years.

What can be challenged and should be is the Konswitschy staging. It is not as grotesque ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 7
Average Rating:

A Christmas Carol (50th Anniversary Edition)

starring: Alastair Sim, Kathleen Harrison, Mervyn Johns, Hermione Baddeley, Michael Hordern
directed by: Brian Desmond Hurst

Release Date November 06, 2001
Very good adaptation on film for of this classic book written by Ch. Dickens but I think there are more adaptations much better as release.

CD-Charts Position 8
Average Rating:

Verdi - Simon Boccanegra / Elder, Sidhom, Borowski, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

starring: London Philharmonic Orchestra, David Rendall, Elena Prokina, Peter Sidhom, Daniel Borowski
directed by: Peter Hall

Release Date June 29, 2004
Anyone familiar with the works of Verdi knows that Simon Boccanegra was one of the final steps to what experts call the composer's "mature period." It is an opera with one of the most complicated (not to mention daring) plots he employed, and requires a full fledged cast of virtuoso singers in the lead roles (baritone, three bassi, soprano, tenor), and numerous other small roles. Thus, it requires an imaginative and talented opera company, orchestra, and list of talented musicians.

This Glyndebourne Festival production of Simon Boccanegra tries to impress with their usual grandiose sets and idealistic interpretations, but to me, it didn't amount to much and, more importantly, didn't compensate for the lack of presence from the leads. Giancarlo Pasquetto as Boccanegra should ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
Average Rating:

Stage Fright [1950] [Remastered]

starring: Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich, Michael Wilding, Richard Todd, Alastair Sim

Release Date November 10, 2008
Stage Fright is defiantly one of my favorite Hitchcock Movies of all time. It has Everything it takes from a great cast to an amazing storyline. It has a suspense theme with a little classical Hitchcock humor thrown into it which keeps you watching until the very end, which has a twist that you would never see coming. I give it 5 stars because Hitchcock couldn't have done it any better then this.

CD-Charts Position 10
Average Rating:

A Christmas Carol [Region 2]

starring: Alastair Sim, Kathleen Harrison, Mervyn Johns, Hermione Baddeley, Michael Hordern
directed by: Brian Desmond Hurst

Release Date
Very good adaptation on film for of this classic book written by Ch. Dickens but I think there are more adaptations much better as release.