And so, without further ado…

Disc One:

The Frightened Man (1952) - Directed by John Gilling - Writer/director Gilling, the driving force behind several classic Hammer films including The Plague Of The Zombies as well as the wonderful Burke & Hare story The Flesh And The Fiends, offers up an atmospheric, tightly-directed, and well-acted story of greed and grief.  While I cannot say that the movie wholly consumed me (it drags a bit in places), it’s still enjoyable.  Dermot Walsh stars as Julius Roselli, whose father (Charles Victor) has been fronting his education at Oxford by fencing stolen goods.  When Julius’ behavior has him expelled from the school, he teams up with his old man…but the purloined spoils aren’t enough for the hotheaded young man, which leads to his involvement with some big-time racketeers.

Luigi’s Useless Information: Martin Benson, the distinguished character actor from the U.K. who had appeared in Goldfinger, A Shot In The Dark (1964), and in “The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy” (1981), co-stars here in one of his earlier roles.

The Siege Of Sidney Street (1960) - Directed by Robert S. Baker, Monty Berman - Several other key members behind The Flesh And The Fiends, Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman, made many a vehicle in order to compete with Hammer Studios in the 50s and 60s.  This was one of them.  Based on true events, the story depicts the standoff between several Russian radicals and the police in London circa 1911.  Again, much like the previous film, it’s well made, but falls flat on its face about midway through.

Luigi’s Useless Information: Jimmy Sangster, the prolific creator of several classic Hammer (and non-Hammer) horror and science fiction films over the years, wrote the screenplay for this movie.  He also shows up (uncredited) as Winston Churchill toward the end.

Disc Two:

Crimes At The Dark House (1940) - Directed by George King - “So you wanted to be a bride, my dear Jessica, did you? So you shall be!  A bride…of death!”  In this Slaughter vehicle, Tod stars as an imposter who murders and subsequently assumes the identity of the last heir to the Glyde Estate back in Merrie Olde England.  At first, it sounds like the perfect gig for a greedy homicidal sexual predator, but when the charlatan finds out that the estate is bankrupt, he promptly arranges a marriage to a rich woman.  Things take a turn for the worse when the secret wife of the real Glyde shows up and claims this man is a fraud.

Luigi’s Useless Information: Before the likes of Karloff and Price, the icon of British horror was stage actor Tod Slaughter, a man with such an overly developed sense of the theatrical that he could chew up any scene with little to no effort on his part.  His portrayal of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (1936) is hailed as classic by many.

(Sexton Blake And) The Hooded Terror (1938) - Directed by George King - In this Sexton Blade outing, the observational amateur sleuth (George Cruzon) and his young comic-relief assistant (Tony Sympson) are pitted against a stamp-collecting millionaire (Tod Slaughter) who is really the evil criminal mastermind behind a deadly Tong outfit!  Greta Gynt (also in The Dark Eyes Of London with Lugosi) and David Farrar co-star.  Farrar would later star as Blake in a couple of films from the mid-40s.

Luigi’s Useless Information: Sexton Blake was a fictional British detective who was once described as “the poor man’s Sherlock Holmes” by Prof. Jeffrey Richards.  The similarities (especially in this film) are not very subtle: there’s the Watson character (a guy named Tinker!), the not-so-smart Scotland Yard Inspector (Norman Pierce), the old housekeeper (Marie Wright), and they live on Baker Street!

Disc Three:

Treat Softly Stranger (1958) - Directed by Gordon Parry -  This movie stars Britain’s blonde bombshell, Diana Dors…what more do you want me to say?

Luigi’s Useless Information: Diana Dors, the Britain’s equivalent of Marilyn Monroe…only much sexier.  Ruff!

Girl In The News (1940) - Directed by Carol Reed - After being acquitted (rightfully) for the suspicious death of an elderly patient in her care, Anne Graham (Margaret Lockwood) finds herself under the employ of Mrs. Bentley (Margaretta Scott) to look after her wheelchair-bound husband.  What Anne doesn’t know, however, is that Mrs. Bentley is plotting a murder scheme right out of an episode of “Diagnosis Murder”…with Anne as the patsy.

Luigi’s Useless Information: Such a topic may have been shocking back in 1940, but the death-by-neglect our elderly receive at the hands of greedy and careless staff members happens so frequently in our modern assisted living establishments (or assisted dying establishments, take your pick), that such incidents rarely even make the bylines of most newspapers.  Why?  Because we suck, that’s why!

Presentation
It would appear that many or all of the titles included in this 3-Disc set were taken from television vaults and bear either a bumper or stinger revealing such.  Picture-wise, this doesn’t make that big of a difference since they were filmed in a 1.33:1 ratio (The Siege Of Sidney Street was the only scope picture included here that I can tell -- it is presented here in a cropped pan-and-scan print), although some prints are better than others.  None of them are crystal clear.

All six films have a Mono Stereo English soundtrack (none of which are anything to write home about in terms of quality, but at least they’re loud). 

No subtitles.  Sorry.

Extras
Since most of the cast and crew behind these films are long since dead, one can’t expect a lot in the way of Special Features (even the Trailers for some of these movies aren’t a very common find), but VCI has nevertheless assembled a small collection of odds and ends for this release.

Disc One features a Gallery of Poster & Lobby artwork for the American release of The Siege Of Sidney Street and two Trailers for Taming Of Dorothy (1:53) and No Orchids For Miss Blandish (2:04).  The second disc contains two warbled-sounding Trailers for Bachelor In Paris (1:31) and Paper Gallows (1:59), the latter of which is misspelled in the Menu, while the final double-feature offers up two more Previews: The Frightened Bride (1:44) and The Third Man (1:46) with Joseph Cotton and Orson Welles.

The Bottom Line
Six movies for the price of one.  Do the math.