Hell Drivers sees James Bond (Sean Connery), Doctor Who (William Hartnell), one of the men from UNCLE (David McCallum), the Prisoner (Patrick McGoohan) and a Professional (Gordon Jackson), all supporting Stanley Baker in this hard-as-nails British action picture realistically set in a bleak late-1950s England. Baker plays Tom Yately, an ex-con who takes the only job he can get--truck driving at breakneck speeds for a corrupt manager (Hartnell) and brutal foreman (McGoohan). The constant short runs and competition between the drivers makes for an intense atmosphere which inevitably explodes into violence. Baker's only friend is an Italian ex-POW played sensitively by Herbert Lom, while Peggy Cummings is a remarkably free-spirited heroine for a British film of the time. Baker himself is superb, quietly tough, and broodingly charismatic, McGoohan is compellingly malevolent and Hartnell simply chilling.

The film is consistently engrossing and often exciting, even when the plot spirals into melodrama towards the finale. One has to wonder where the police are during all this mayhem, but the fact that the screenplay, by John Kruse and Cy Endfield, received a BAFTA nomination suggests the scenario was at least reasonably realistic. Endfield also directed this, the second of six films he would helm for Baker, the most famous of which would be the all-time classic, Zulu (1964).

On the DVD: Hell Drivers is presented in an anamorphically enhanced ratio of 1.77:1. This means a little of the original 1.96:1 VistaVision (70mm) image is cropped at the sides, which is just noticeable in a few shots. The print used is excellent, with only very minor damage, and the mono sound is fine. The disc also includes Look in on Hell Drivers, a 1957 TV programme that offers interviews with Stanley Baker, Cy Endfield and Alfie Bass, as well as comments from genuine truck drivers confirming the realism of the story, and a contemporary 15-minute television interview with Baker, which focuses on Hell Drivers, Sea Fury(1958) (also directed by Cy Endfield) and Violent Playground (1958). The original trailer rounds out an excellent package. --Gary S Dalkin

Hell Night, a horror film originally made in 1981, is not remotely frightening unless, that is, you are plagued with a pathological aversion to leaden scripts, rampant overacting and cheap special effects; but it is just about knowing enough to be charming, and retains a (very) slight kitsch appeal.

The plot--in the loose sense of the word--sees a group of picturesque young college kids compelled, for some reason or other, to spend a night in a haunted house (you can just picture the high fives at the script meeting when some genius came up with that one). Some other college kids try to scare them by way of a prank, but it turns out that something evil really is loose on the premises, and events unfold with entrancing predictability.

On the DVD: Hell Night is presented in widescreen, and has been digitally remastered. Special features include brief biographies of actor Linda Blair, director Tom De Simone and producers Irwin Yablans and Bruce Cohn Curtis, as well as the option to watch the film with commentary provided by the four. The original cinema and television trailers for Hell Night are also included.--Andrew Mueller