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Retail dvd (eureka video, full screen)

The Wonderful Horrible Life Of Leni Riefenstahl

Made in 1993 and directed by Ray Müller, this three-hour documentary features extensive interviews with Hitler's favourite director (then a sprightly 90), responsible for such brilliant but pernicious propaganda as 1934's Triumph Of The Will. Wonderful, horrible stuff, especially watching her squirm at Müller's inquisitions regarding her enthusiasm for Nazism.

Dr Mabuse: The Gambler

Fritz Lang's seminal 1922 thriller unleashed cinema's first modern criminal, Mabuse, a shadowy underworld figure with a thousand faces. Combining technological genius with an almost occult ability to terrify, Lang's Mabuse is a sinister, manipulative mastermind. The 1933 sequel, The Testament Of Dr Mabuse, is even better, with Mabuse as a demonic Hitler figure. Everything from Bond to Blue Velvet starts here.

The Testament Of Dr Mabuse

Eleven years after his original expressionist classic, Dr Mabuse The Gambler, this 1933 sequel from Fritz Lang, banned by the Nazis for its political undertones (Mabuse/Hitler parallels), follows the titular crime lord's activities from beyond the grave, and features the original Lynchian'creepy velvet curtain' scene, plus one of cinema's first breakneck POV car chases.

Sunrise

Up there with Citizen Kane as a standard bearer for the medium, and still utterly compulsive. FW Murnau's first US movie, dating from 1927, deploys a battery of impressive camera techniques in telling the story of a steadfast family man seduced by Margaret Livingston's femme fatale.

M

An immaculate digital restoration job, including muffle-free audio, silky silver monochrome and original 'pillarbox' framing, adds an unnerving contemporary kick to Fritz Lang's 1931 masterpiece. Detailing the slavering hunt for bug-eyed child murderer Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre) through a dark and hostile, shadow-filled Berlin, this is the original, if not the best, serial killer flick.

Metropolis

Lovingly restored version of Fritz Lang's silent sci-fi classic with another 20 minutes' worth of footage, plus the original music score, so even if you know the movie well you're in for treats and surprises. If you don't, you'll discover incredible visuals, the sexiest robot ever made and a core message—capitalism without compassion sucks—that's as fresh now as in 1926.

The Little Shop Of Horrors

The celebrated 1960 black comedy/horror that inspired the hit Broadway musical. Dim-witted flower shop assistant Seymour (Jonathan Haze) develops an intelligent plant who demands and receives human flesh for sustenance. Directed by Roger Corman in just two days, it's enjoyably trashy with a notable Jack Nicholson cameo.
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