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May 16, 2008

Savant's new reviews today are

The Thief of Bagdad
Criterion

and
Villa Rides!
Legend Films

Greetings! The friendly Dick Dinman has a couple of new web-based audio interview shows that I'm happy to promote tonight. I want to learn more of what Robert Osborne has to say when he and Dick "candidly talk at considerable length about Sinatra's late career laziness":

Frank Sinatra: A Tribute to the (Acting) Chairman of the Board: Dick Dinman's guests Turner Classics Movies host Robert Osborne and three-time Best Actress Oscar nominee and two-time Sinatra leading lady Eleanor Parker (in a rare and exclusive interview) focus on Sinatra the actor and offer some revealing and occasionally critical insights about Sinatra's dramatic abilities.

A Conversation with Robert Osborne. In this second show, Dick says that Osborne gives us some gratifying news about upcoming TCM acquisitions. They discuss the dramatically increased popularity of the Golden Age cinema classics as well as some major never Oscar-nominated stars whose work has always been taken for granted.

I haven't paid much attention to special screenings lately -- the new movies being offered don't always appeal -- but I think I'll check out the new Indiana Jones movie this weekend, just to be able to give an early report -- I promise no spoilers, although the one trailer I saw looks like it's 50% repeated situations from earlier series episodes. Take a look at this Dial B For Blog page that makes a case for the first IJ movie being, ahem, borrowed from a Scrooge McDuck comic book! -- Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson



May 14, 2008

Finally! Savant's new reviews today are

Man of the West
MGM / Fox
and

The Major and the Minor
Universal

First off, today's post debuts a film Savant's been whining for for ten years, when he posted an early article about the need for Anthony Mann's Man of the West, with Gary Cooper and Julie London (found her yet?). A DVD is finally here.

Savant headquarters experienced a major DSL breakdown that, in unison with an inability to directly upload material to DVDtalk, seriously interfered with this site's normally dependable work flow. I won't go into the details, but both issues seem to have been resolved (at least for the moment) and we're soldiering on. And I thought I'd never be addicted to anything, but four days with interrupted net access and dealing with dial-up on strange computers, and I was ready to knock off a convenience store to recover my high-speed fix.

On a more optimistic note, DVD Savant is pleased to announce that he's now contributing reviews to the Film.com website. The first two are for Warner Home Video's Frank Sinatra The Golden Years box and an individual entry for Sinatra's Some Came Running. My new boss at Film.com, Mark Bourne, suggested that I ask readers to offer a short comment at the bottom of one of the reviews, you know, to let the Film.com brass know that they haven't backed a lame horse, bought a pig in a poke or tied an albatross around their necks. (That comes later.) The main DVD Savant site at DVDtalk will continue as Savant's home base, assuming that the website management issues stay resolved, the dam holds, and I don't start flashing back to the long-ago Cambodia protests.

A note for reader esa@net : I wrote a nice answer to your note but your returm email ain't working no way no how. Any suggestions?

For something more fun, Allan Peach has forwarded this great link to a UK site called Golden Age Comics. It has a vast archive of public domain comics from the 20 to the 1950s! Thanks for reading (!), Glenn Erickson



May 09, 2008

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

The Skull
Legend Films

Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Starz! / Anchor Bay

and
Houdini
Legend Films

I always remember May 10 because of the Travis Bickle quote from Taxi Driver, and here we are again. Some day a real rain ...

Some interesting news this week. Criterion has announced that sometime this fall, they'll begin releasing some of their discs in the Blu-ray format, and they've put out a brief list, which contains The Third Man, The Last Emperor, The Wages of Fear, Bottle Rocket, Walkabout, El Norte, Gimme Shelter and many others, including a few new titles. I've also heard that Blu-ray production is stepping up at all the studios, with many titles now in the pipeline at Fox. So I would think that the flood would be beginning around August.

The disc finders at DVDTalk have dispatched screeners for me of The Major and the Minor and Easy Living, so reviews of those favorites will be up fairly soon, if after street date. I'm hitting more titles earlier now thanks to better relations with the distributors. Still sticky are MGM and Fox films, which will already means that the highly desirable May 13 MGM films will be late: Man of the West, Carve Her Name with Pride, The One That Got Away, The Secret Invasion, The Day of the Outlaw, Navajo Joe. No matter how late they are, I'll want to review them. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson



May 06, 2008

Hello! Sorry we're so late. Savant's new reviews today are

Twister (Blu-ray)
Warners

La roue
Flicker Alley / Blackhawk

and
Merrill's Marauders
Warner

An unnamed but well-connected source gave me this amazing link: Animator vs. Animation by Alan Becker. Don't stop, don't ask questions. Just open the window as wide as you can before you press 'Go.' It lasts about 3 minutes.

And when you're finished, check out this even wilder followup, Alan Becker's "Animator vs. Animation II". Thanks, Glenn Erickson



May 02, 2008

Savant's new reviews today are

Fox Western Classics
The Gunfighter, Rawhide,
Garden of Evil
Fox

The Delirious Fictions of William Klein
Who Are You Polly Maggoo?,
Mr. Freedom, The Model Couple
Eclipse

Irma Vep
Second Sight
Region 2 PAL review by Lee Broughton


and
Z.P.G.
(Zero Population Growth)
Legend Films

Hello, short post today: Eight reviews, no waiting! Just thought I'd pass on this link to a UK TV commercial that features our scaly old friends, the Gremlins. It looks very expensive! Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson


Don't forget to write Savant at dvdsavant@mindspring.com.

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