DVD Savant, Glenn Erickson's Review Column at DVD Talk

Savant's new reviews today are:

It's a freewheeling, silly musical comedy variety show from the pre-Code era starring Laurel & Hardy, Jimmy Durante, Lupe Velez and the Three Stooges. Contents include a catchy title tune by Rodgers and Hart, lots of girls, and Mickey Mouse, who drops by with a Technicolor cartoon. This is the movie where Durante plays a Tarzan knockoff called "Schnarzan", and also the one where Lupe Velez can't seem to keep her costume on. Comes with an audio gallery of unused and deleted songs. From The Warner Archive Collection.
1/31/12

Malcolm X

Spike Lee grabbed a 30+ year-old script to make this absorbing, fair and tough-minded biopic about the black man America feared most in the early 1960s ... a former cheap crook who reformed in prison, found Islam and became an incorruptibleb black pride leader with a radical outlook on the racial divide. Denzel Washington and Angela Bassett star. In a fancy book package, with an older feature documentary on a second disc. In Blu-ray from Warner Home Video.
1/31/12

and

The Apartment

Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond's business world romance has been called both a perfect movie and a dirty fairy tale, and it's an emotional experience nobody should pass up. Jack Lemmon is the ambitious corporate clerk who finds that the path to success might be had by loaning the key to his apartment to his philandering superiors; all works great until he discovers that one of his bosses is shacking up with the girl of his dreams, Shirley MacLaine. Also starring Fred MacMurray and a wonderful supporting cast -- Ray Walston, Joan Shawlee, Hope Holiday, Edie Adams. In Blu-ray from MGM / Fox.
1/31/12

Greetings!

No annoying talk or sales pitches today, just a couple of interesting links not necessarily film related:

Generous reader Anna Britton forwards this link to some time-lapse photography of a Solar Storm in Northern Norway. It's apparently the result of the unusual activity on the sun last week. Pretty impressive!

Gary Teetzel connects us to the Weirdest Star Wars Ad Ever. It's apparently real. Olleh!

And jolly ex- fearless leader Mark Bourne blog Open the Pod Bay Doors, HAL has the full story on the cluster-filmmaking new Star Wars Uncut: The Director's Cut , a mini-phenom making the rounds. I'm sure I'm the last to point it out, but that's life at Savant Central.

Ooh, Ooh! Arrow Films UK has announced a Blu-ray of Vittorio De Sica's marvelous Miracle in Milan, a sweet blend of neorealist drama and film blanc fantasy that asks, "What should he poor do?" The Tea Party won't like what writer Cesare Zavattini has to say. The disc is due on the 26th of March. I hope it is region-free, like the recently-reviewed The Tin Drum.

I'll make a bigger book pitch about my Book Signing February 11 next time -- thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are:

Karen Cries on the Bus

A remarkably good Spanish-language drama about a runaway wife. Karen indeed cries on the way to the big city -- Bogotá, Columbia, and undergoes a harrowing adventure trying to establish herself independently from her husband's control. Surprising in all aspects, and by no means a political screed. Starring Ángela Carrizosa, directed by Gabriel Rojas Vera. From Film Movement.
1/28/12

Picnic
Blu-ray

An Americana classic with Kim Novak and William Holden generating some powerful chemistry in William Inge's dissection of lust and pain in the Midwest. With great performances from Betty Field, Susan Strasberg, Rosalind Russell and Cliff Robertson, in his first film. A terrific-looking CinemaScope (2:55) Blu-ray limited edition from Twilight Time.
1/28/12

and

The Tin Drum
Blu-ray

This import disc (which played fine in my ordinary BD player) will be a must-see for fans of the Günter Grass novel and director Volker Schlöndorff: it's 21 minutes longer than anything we've seen, and the added material really fills out the story. On Blu-ray from Arrow Films UK..
1/28/12

Greetings!

I'm treading water ... and enjoying the reviews I'm getting out. I'm also trying to pick up the pace, as the to-write-up list is getting longer. After a slow January, EVERYTHING came in at once.

Here goes, in one breath: Hollywood Party, Geisha Boy, Julia Misbehaves, The Buccaneer, Day of the Evil Gun, Revenge!, Vice Squad, Edward My Son, The Magnetic Monster, The Great Waltz, Boeing Boeing, Black Fury, Office Wife/Party Husband, Gog, Something Wild (1961), Sidelong Glances of a Pigeon Kicker, TCM'S Columbia Film Noir 3: The Mob/My Name is Julia Ross/The Burglar/Tight Spot, The Bed Sitting Room, Hostile Witness.

On Blu-ray: The Moment of Truth, Malcolm X, Tokyo Drifter, A Soldier's Story, On the Bowery, La Jetee/Sans Soleil, Spellbound, Notorious, Annie Hall, The Apartment. And new attractions like Lady and the Tramp are expected at any time. The volume may seem insurmountable but I really like all of these shows and want to do them justice -- hopefully at the rate of 7 or so a week. So with that in mind, I'll cut these remarks short and get back to writing.

Oh, and since I've received so many emails, I'm directing readers to my Criterion Godzilla Review at TCM. It won't show up here at DVD Savant for over a week. What you'll basically read is my usual enthusiastic response to Criterion's deluxe treatment, along with my reaction to the presentation's interpretation of the film and its political context.

And that's it until Tuesday, thank you! Los Angelenos, don't forget the Sci-Fi Savant Book Signing at the Dark Delicacies Book and Gift Store on Magnolia Blvd in Burbank, between 2 and 3 on Saturday, February 11 -- Glenn Erickson

Advertise With Us