Movies4Men (stylized as movies4men) was a

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the FTA Receiver, appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring ...

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

channel Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to: Geography * Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water. Australia * Channel Country, region of outback Austral ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. It was available on

Freeview Freeview may refer to: * Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia * Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), ...

Freesat Freesat is a British free-to-air satellite television service, first formed as a joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc and now owned by Digital UK. The service was formed as a memorandum in 2007 and has been marketed since 6 May 2008. Free ...

and

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...

. The channel was aimed at the middle to

old age Old age refers to ages nearing or surpassing the life expectancy of human beings, and is thus the end of the human life cycle. Terms and euphemisms for people at this age include old people, the elderly (worldwide usage), OAPs (British usage ...

d male viewer, with a look at the classics in cinema history, focusing mainly on

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

and

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

film genre A film genre is a stylistic or thematic category for motion pictures based on similarities either in the narrative elements, aesthetic approach, or the emotional response to the film. Drawing heavily from the theories of literary-genre cri ...

s. The channel closed on 10 September 2019 and was replaced with

Sony Movies Action Great! Movies Action (stylized as GREAT! movies action) is a British free-to-air TV channel owned by Narrative Entertainment UK Limited which launched as Sony Movies Action on 10 September 2019 on Freeview, Freesat, Sky and Virgin. Sony Movies Ac ...

Availability and transmission history

Between May 2011 and January 2012, Movies4Men was also available on

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

, Movies4Men +1 had also been made available from November 2011 but closed at the same time. On 19 September 2012, both channels returned to Freeview in the area, and launched nationwide on Freeview on 1 April 2014. Dolphin Broadcast Services Ltd acquired the daytime matinee movies service from

sit-up Ltd Sit-Up Ltd., traded as Bid Shopping, was an English broadcaster which launched in 2000. It operated a portfolio of falling price shopping television channels to over 12 million homes in the UK. History On 1 April 2009, it was announced that S ...

, which was re-branded as the 24-hour Movies4Men on 1 February 2006. On 19 January 2012 Dolphin Broadcast Services Ltd was itself purchased by

Sony Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television Inc. (abbreviated as SPT) is an American television production and distribution studio. Based at the Sony Pictures Studios complex in Culver City, it is a division of Sony Entertainment's unit Sony Pictures Entertainm ...

and merged into Sony Pictures Television’s existing UK networks business. Sony Pictures Television also took a majority stake in Dolphin’s advertising sales business. Movies4Men was joined by its sister channel

Movies4Men 2 Movies4Men2 was a satellite television film channel in the United Kingdom and Ireland, available as a free-to-air service on Freesat, Sky and as in the basic package on Smallworld Cable. Prior to 9 October 2006, Movies4Men2 was previously know ...

on 9 October 2006, which transmitted other types of cinematic genres until it closed on 2 May 2012. As of September 2008, the channels transmit films in 16:9 widescreen where available. On 25 February 2008, Movies4Men +1 launched on Sky 326 as a

timeshift channel A timeshift channel (sometimes referred to as a +1 channel) is a television channel carrying time-delayed reruns of its "parent" channel's programming. This channel runs alongside their parent: the term "timeshift" does not refer to a network br ...

, showing all Movies4Men films one hour later. On 24 July 2019, it was announced that the channel would be closed and will be replaced by

from 10 September 2019.

Film screenings

The channel screened mainly western, war and action films, but also film noir. Most of the films were from the

Golden Hollywood Classical Hollywood cinema is a term used in film criticism to describe both a narrative and visual style of filmmaking which became characteristic of American cinema between the 1910s (rapidly after World War I) and the 1960s. It eventually b ...

and

New Hollywood The New Hollywood, also known as American New Wave or Hollywood Renaissance, was a movement in American film history from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, when a new generation of young filmmakers came to prominence. They influenced the types o ...

era. It often screened films together during one day, morning or evening as part of a theme, of which included the theme and the "4Men" in the title, such as "Westerns4Men" or "War4Men", mostly commonly. The channel also occasionally screened successive films from a typically masculine actor, such as

Dolph Lundgren Hans Lundgren (, ; born 3 November 1957), better known as Dolph Lundgren, is a Swedish actor, filmmaker and martial artist. His breakthrough came in 1985, when he starred in ''Rocky IV'' as the imposing Soviet boxer Ivan Drago. Since then, Lu ...

Robert Mitchum Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor. He rose to prominence with an Academy Award nomination for the Best Supporting Actor for ''The Story of G.I. Joe'' (1945), followed by his starring in ...

. On 27 February 2017 the channel featured a "Mitchum on Monday" theme, screening film noir films of his such as ''

Build My Gallows High ''Out of the Past'' (billed in the United Kingdom as ''Build My Gallows High'') is a 1947 film noir directed by Jacques Tourneur and starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, and Kirk Douglas. The film was adapted by Daniel Mainwaring (using the pseu ...

'' (''Out of the Past'') (1947), '' The Racket'' (1951), ''

The Locket The Locket may refer to: *The Locket (1946 film) ''The Locket'' is a 1946 American psychological thriller with noirish undertones directed by John Brahm, starring Laraine Day, Brian Aherne, Robert Mitchum, and Gene Raymond, and released by RKO ...

'' (1946) and '' Second Chance'' (1953) in the morning. Other examples of films shown on the channel include '' A.W.O.L.'', '' A Bullet for the General'', '' Django'', ''

Gregory's Girl ''Gregory's Girl'' is a 1980 Scottish coming-of-age romantic comedy film written and directed by Bill Forsyth and starring John Gordon Sinclair, Dee Hepburn and Clare Grogan. The film is set in and around a state secondary school in the Abronhil ...

'', ''

Saints and Soldiers ''Saints and Soldiers'' is a 2003 war drama film directed by Ryan Little and produced by Little and Adam Abel. It is loosely based on events that took place after the Malmedy massacre during the Battle of the Bulge. The film stars Corbin Allred, ...

'', ''

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon ''She Wore a Yellow Ribbon'' is a 1949 American Technicolor Western film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne. It is the second film in Ford's "Cavalry Trilogy", along with '' Fort Apache'' (1948) and ''Rio Grande'' (1950). With a budg ...

'', ''

Shout at the Devil ''Shout at the Devil'' is the second studio album by American heavy metal band Mötley Crüe, released on September 26, 1983. It was the band's breakthrough album, establishing Mötley Crüe as one of the top selling heavy metal acts of the 19 ...

'', '' The Bunker'' and ''

Tunes of Glory ''Tunes of Glory'' is a 1960 British drama film directed by Ronald Neame, based on the 1956 novel and screenplay by James Kennaway. The film is a "dark psychological drama" focusing on events in a wintry Scottish Highland regimental barracks i ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Movies4men CSC Media Group English-language television stations in the United Kingdom Men's interest channels Movie channels in the United Kingdom Sony Pictures Television Television channels and stations established in 2006 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2019