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December 30, 2015

Savant's new reviews today are:

Sweet Adeline
The Warner Archive Collection
DVD

  It's sweet, all right, and sentimental and corny -- As Adeline Schmidt, Irene Dunne leaves her father's beer garden to sing in New York, where she falls prey to a predatory playboy. This Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein II musical has several marvelous songs. Dunne shows the film world the singing that brought her fame on Broadway -- "Why Was I Born?", "Lonely Feet" -- supported by Donald Woods, Louis Calhern and Dorothy Dare. Warners' new restoration makes this a must see for Irene Dunne fans. On DVD from The Warner Archive Collection.
12/30/15



The Detective
Twilight Time
Blu-ray

  Frank Sinatra shines in a story of police corruption that tries to say it like it is -- in 1968, just before the ratings system came in. It's a well-intentioned, suspenseful story directed by Gordon Douglas and burdened by odd censor choices, Sinatra's conservative self-image, and rudely retrograde attitudes toward gays. The supporting cast is fine -- Lee Remick, Jacqueline Bisset, Jack Klugman, Ralph Meeker -- but Sinatra's personality dominates. In a sparkling new transfer with Jerry Goldsmith's jazzy score isolated on its own track. On Blu-ray from Twilight Time.
12/30/15



and

Gunman's Walk, Land Raiders
&
A Man Called Sledge

Explosive Media GmbH
Blu-ray

  Three All-Region German Blu-rays give us a trio of Columbia westerns not available here in the States: Phil Karlson's Gunman's Walk is a superior 'juvenile delinquent gunfighter' tale written by Frank Nugent, with Van Heflin, James Darren, Kathryn Grant -- and doing great work, Tab Hunter. Nathan Juran's Land Raiders is a maladroit Charles H. Schneer production with a limp George Maharis but a solid perf by star Telly Savalas. A Man Called Sledge sees James Garner going Italo western, and not doing as well as he does in his semi-comic roles. The good direction is by Vic Morrow. Individual purchases on Blu-ray from Explosive Media GmbH.
12/30/15




Hello!

The year's winding up and I'm back on the case, viewing new discs. And I expect a quiet New Year's around Savant Central, so the review spice will flow once more.

I think the Star Wars media noise is beginning to taper off a bit, leaving behind incredibly lame car commercials and an episode seven that's little more than a replay of 4 through 6. I was amused enough but have to say I found the lack of anything new a little boring. The nostalgic touches were enjoyable, my favorite being when they power up the defensive graphic readout on the Millennium Falcon, to reveal that 'fancy' 1977 targeting graphic that looks like something from Playskool. If Disney has to go for the safe billion-dollar payout, I'm glad they'll be trying spin-off movies that are a little more adventurous -- you know, stories where the fate of the galaxy isn't forever at stake.

Upcoming reviews: The Warner Archives' The Girl Most Likely, The Beginning or The End, Hitler's Children, The Strangler and Wind Across the Everglades; Criterion's The Apu Trilogy and Lady Snowblood sets; Kino's How I Won the War, Figures in a Landscape, Faust, Gunfight at Dodge City, The Captive City, A Child is Waiting, The Devil's Disciple and The Hotel New Hampshire; Twilight Time's Born Free, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Kings Go Forth and Mysterious Island; and Scream Factory's Nightmares, just arrived. And I've promised to double back to review Ex Machina and Eclipse's Duvivier in the Thirties.

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson



December 27, 2015

Savant's new reviews today are:

Not Here Yet!

Hello!

It's different kind of holiday this year -- I've been including myself in everyone's activities and therefore have barely had a moment to even think about writing. I've been in need of a good break, maybe. So I'll leave my half-finished review of 3 German import westerns for tomorrow maybe. I'm even going to go to The Grove with everyone to see Star Wars, which I hadn't planned to see at all ... it's the old 'don't wanna get left behind' reflex. You know how it is, it's just nice having everyone home under such harmonious circumstances.

As there's no commercial disc of I Was a Teenage Frankenstein I've never written a review for the title. So the 'top photo' above links not to a review but to the Savant index of reviews, which is current up until the beginning of September. The top photo doesn't reflect my present mental state, although when I was a teenager it would have been nice to have Whit Bissell for a dermatologist. I mean, he's the cool guy who alerted the FBI to the Pod Invasion, so he deserves our respect.

So, maybe Monday or Tuesday for more reviews -- and I promise to have some more out before the New Year at the latest. Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson



December 22, 2015

Savant's new reviews today are:

Ant-Man
Walt Disney Studios / Marvel
3-D Blu-ray + Digital HD

  The latest addition to the Marvel franchise is a different kind of hero, an incredible shrinking secret agent with powers wholly unlike his fellow Avengers. Ex-con Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) has a reason for donning Michael Douglas's instant shrinking suit - he wants to reconnect with his tiny daughter. Everybody has sentimental family connection issues in this consistently entertaining pastiche, with Sci-fi ideas that come off very well via imaginative, zillion-dollar CGI effects. The 3-D is great, too. On 3-D Blu-ray + Digital HD from Walt Disney Studios / Marvel.
12/22/15




Battles Without Honor And Humanity
Arrow Video
Blu-ray + DVD

  The epochal five-feature Yakuza Papers saga comes to Blu-ray. Kinji Fukasaku's no-holds-barred vision of ugly violence and uglier politics on the streets of postwar Hiroshima is an epic spanning generations. The film amounts to an alternate history of Japan from 1945 to 1960 or so, and it put an end to the glorification of the Yakuza code. The enormous cast includes Bunta Sugawara, Tetsuro Tanba, Kunie Tanaka, Sonny Chiba, Reiko Ike and Jo Shishido. On Blu-ray and DVD from Arrow Video.
12/22/15





The Knack... and how to get it
KL Studio Classics
Blu-ray

  Richard Lester's '60s masterpiece applies his talent for directing comedy to a new kind of quirky, youthful sex farce. Shy boy Michael Crawford takes lessons on how to dominate women from Ray Brooks, when all he has to do to win cute Rita Tushingham is be himself. The style is everything; the movie was extremely influential. With a glorious music score by John Barry. With Ray Brooks and Donal Donnelly. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
12/22/15




and

Hitler's Madman
The Warner Archive Collection
DVD

  Douglas Sirk's first American movie came out so well that PRC sold it to MGM, giving Sirk a promotion out of the Poverty Row studios. John Carradine is excellent - and underplays! -- as the Hangman of Prague. The wartime allowance for propaganda needs lets the filmmakers portray him as a depraved sex criminal. Czech patriots ambush the Reichsprotektor Heydrich, and in retaliation the Nazis wipe out an entire town. With Patricia Morison and Alan Curtis, this is new from The Warner Archive Collection.
12/22/15






Hello, and Merry Christmas...

Hey -- I don't know how many reviews I'll have up across Christmas, so here's a down payment. All goes well here so far... I'm taking some folks from back East out grocery shopping, and for a bit of touring. We'll go past three Frank Lloyd Wright houses -- the Hollyhock on Sunset, the apartment building on Franklin used for Blade Runner, and the one up above Los Feliz, the House on Haunted Hill.

Just one link today, but it's a good one. Gary Teetzel forwards this promotional video with Phil Tippett, Jon Berg and Dennis Muren reminiscing about the stop-motion chess sequence in the original Star Wars. It's really nice. Tippett produced the video at his animation studio -- the link is The Force Awakens - Tippett Studio Holochess Stop-Motion Reel.

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson



December 18, 2015

Savant's new reviews today are:

Barbary Coast
The Warner Archive Collection
DVD

 Crime, lust and vigilante lynchings in the wide-open city on the bay, back in the gold rush days. Miriam Hopkins, Edward G. Robinson and Joel McCrea form a spirited triangle as a sharp roulette dealer strings one man along and can't prevent another from throwing away a fortune. Sam Goldwyn's impressive production shows Howard Hawks developing strong characters, in a somewhat old-fashioned story. On DVD from The Warner Archive Collection.
12/17//15




The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues
KL Studio Classics
Blu-ray

 Minimalist 'Z' monster movies really took off in the 1950s, earning good money without much in the way of time, money, and sometimes talent. Dan Milner's directing is competent, to be kind, but the 'nothing happens' script is a sure-fire soporific -- Roger Corman surely didn't worry about the competition. The good news is Richard Harland Smith's commentary, which delivers more illuminating info on this show than we thought existed. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
12/17/15



and

Thundercrack!
Synapse Films
Blu-ray

 Are you crazy, Glenn? Curt McDowell and George Kuchar's XXX epic of oversexed sensationalists running amuck in a storm-battered house goes beyond strange -- it's a legit experimental film and also 2.5 hours of hardcore porn, outrageous humor and other forms of giddy depravity. A movie guaranteed to make conservative heads explode -- read with caution. The plentiful extras include a feature documentary and an extra DVD containing interviews and some of Curt McDowell's erotic short films. On Blu-ray from Synapse Films.
12/17//15







Hello!

Gary Teetzel has found something special, a 1949 film short subject version of Charles Dickens' The Christmas Carol (sic) hosted by Vincent Price, starring Taylor Holmes as Scrooge, Nelson Leigh as the voice of Christmas Past, Queenie Leonard as Mrs. Cratchit, Jill St. John (!), Robert Clarke, Paul Maxey, and Earl Lee (of Five) as Marley. Vincent does congenial 'read the book' duty... but it's better than that Disney Mickey Mouse version. Thanks Gary! Who says we don't celebrate Christmas at Savant?




I found something cleaning up today, a Polaroid from the miniature shop of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It's pretty fuzzy but is the only shot I know of that shows my twice-over Oscar-nominated boss Gregory Jein actually sculpting the Devil's Tower miniature seen in the movie. By the time I was hired the actual mountain was finished, so here Jein is working on the large forest miniature. I also include a shot of Greg and me at Mike Matessino's 1941 re-premiere last year. I bump into Greg every so often but don't have his contact info, so maybe somebody could pass this on to him?




And finally, the new Ennio Morricone score for The Hateful Eight can already be audited online -- here's a high-quality nine minute chunk of a cue called 'L'Ultima Diligenza di Red Rock,' or 'The Last Stage to Red Rock.' This is one of those Morricone pieces that features a single instrument, almost celebrating its sound. Is that main instrument an oboe or a contra-bassoon? It reminds me a tiny bit of Il Maestro's main theme to Città violenta. A DVD of a Morricone concert is being released in January, Morricone Conducts Morricone. I wish it were in Blu-ray but I'll spring for it anyway.

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson



December 14, 2015


Savant's article today is:

DVD Savant 2015 Favored Disc Roundup

 Savant suffered over this one -- so many good discs this year, mainly due to having so many companies, here and abroad, turning out so much excellent product. And extras are making a comeback. I round up the labels and talk a bit about the tragedy of disc storage woes before getting to the Savant Top Twenty. Plus a bunch of personal photos. Happy holidays!
12/15/15



See you on Saturday, Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson



December 11, 2015

Savant's new reviews today are:

Speedy
The Criterion Collection
Blu-ray

 Wow -- Harold Lloyd epitomizes 'twenties optimism while serving up a full helping of great silent comedy. Even better, this tale of a stolen horse-drawn streetcar was filmed largely on the streets of New York, so we feel as if we stepped into a time machine. The great disc extras include input from Bruce Goldstein, whose New York tour of locations, pointing out scenes 'cheated' back in Los Angeles, is as entertaining as the movie itself. The disc is also a must for baseball fans -- Babe Ruth has a big guest role in the movie, and his film appearances are covered in another lengthy documentary. A great show for holiday viewing (unless your family hates New York). On Blu-ray from The Criteron Collection.
12/12/15



Wake Up and Kill
Arrow Video
Blu-ray + DVD

 Another wow -- a prime Italo crime classic, pre-exploitation era, by the clear-headed activist director Carlo Lizzani. Gian Maria Volonté has a big part, but the movie belongs to Robert Hoffman as Luciano Lutring, a real-life public enemy caught only months before filming began. The action ranges across four countries as Lutring graduates from smash 'n' grab to armed robbery, earning the alias, 'The Machine Gun Soloist.' Lizzani's resolutely realistic treatment glamorizes nothing, showing that there's no honor among thieves and implicating the police in shady policies as well. The film comes in two versions, including a two-hour Italian-language original never seen in the States. The special treat is a great music score by Ennio Morricone. Award-winning co-star Lisa Gastoni sings one of his songs. All-region. On Blu-ray and DVD from Arrow Video.
12/12/15



and

You Can't Take it With You
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Blu-ray + Digital HD

 Kaufman and Hart's Pulitzer Prize winning play won Frank Capra his third Oscar as best director. Robert Riskin's smart adaptation adds new scenes to emphasize a David and Goliath angle, plus a romance between star Jean Arthur and relative newcomer James Stewart, who seems to have lifted his 'aw shucks' nice-guy personal from this role. It's highly entertaining -- and Capra lifted plenty of elements to use in his later It's a Wonderful Life. With Lionel Barrymore, Ann Miller, Dub Taylor, Spring Byington and a terrific Edward Arnold. Newly remastered; with a new essay by Jeremy Arnold. On Blu-ray + Digital HD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
12/12/15




Hello!

It's DVD Savant's Annual Book day, a long-standing self-serving tradition here since 2015. As deadlines are drawing near for Amazon orders to be delivered by the 25th, I'm taking this ripe opportunity to push some good books by friends and associates.




First, there's Bill Warren's lofty tome for Sci-Fi fanatics, Keep Watching the Skies! American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties, The 21st Century Edition. It's still the go-to book for the genre, at least between the years 1950 and 1962 or so. It was once a two-volume set, but Bill rewrote it several years ago. If you buy the hardcover, remove that great jacket illustration and protect it somewhere.






Then we have John McElwee's fascinating book on classic film marketing and exhibition, Showmen, Sell It Hot!: Movies as Merchandise in Golden Era Hollywood. John covers the story of how pictures like King Kong and The Wizard of Oz were sold and shown to the public, a story that involves the stars and the moguls and a thousand crazy creative strategies. Helping out are the incredible illustrations, both from the movies and from McElwee's archives, hundreds of vintage picture palace marquees and movie ads.




I've got two books to push here from the prolific Stuart Galbraith IV, who I just heard deliver a great audio commentary for a new release of Battles without Honor or Humanity. The first book is Japanese Science Fiction, Fantasy And Horror Films: A Critical Analysis and Filmography of 103 Features Released in the United States, 1950-1992. It's a reference book, but Galbraith's comprehensive knowledge of the subject is unmatched. I have to say that Stuart was a real find when I met him in 1998 or so -- I was in the dark about Japanese fantasy and he already had most of the answers.




Stuart's The Emperor and the Wolf: The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune is a biographical study of the collaboration between two of the biggest personalities in Japanese filmmaking. Still a class-act item, the book shows the parallels in the two artists' lives, from their early teaming to their mysterious break-up. It's out of print, but the prices being asked for it aren't bad.




Next, there's a new book out in Tom Weaver's "Scripts from the Crypt" series, Ed Wood's Bride of the Monster. The key author is Gary D. Rhodes and Tom contributes as well. Sort of a super-scrapbook of essays, information and collector's exhibits -- Bela Lugosi's death certificate, even -- the book includes the entire screenplay for "Bride of the Atom" by Ed Wood and Alex Gordon. Just to be sure, I checked the Academy rules, and Bride not eligible for nomination this year, sorry to say. My favorite material in the book are the personal remarks by people who performed with Lugosi, especially on the stage.




And don't forget my own Sci-Fi book Sci-Fi Savant Classic Sci-Fi Review Reader, a collection of classic genre reviews repurposed as essays. I trace themes and issues through the genre, and show how the classics of the 1950s seem more original now than ever. It still sells, which is why I'm looking for an opportunity to write another one. I still love the brightly colored cover by Juha Lindroos -- I keep one in the car for use as a reflector in case of a breakdown.



And I have room for a link too -- Gary Teetzel points me to these several times a week, many of which I think he finds on the Classic Horror Film Board, a bulletin board I ought to be linking to more often. If you're into fantasy film, here's where folk like Tom Weaver and Bill Warren hang out. I guess I'm socially handicapped, as I've been reading it for almost twenty years but have never posted -- and they voted me one of their "Rondo" awards seven years ago. Gary's link this time is to a 1956 'Biography in Sound' radio show, Ticket to the Moon, a documentary on science fiction. Just click on Number 44. The interview subjects include John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Willy Ley, Ray Bradbury, Arch Oboler, A.E. Van Vogt, George Pal, and Forrest Ackerman. The docu acknowledges that sci-fi has a dubious reputation, but treats it seriously and with respect. Willy Ley sounds like Disney's Ludwig Von Drake. When Robert Heinlein is mentioned, he's introduced with the words, 'a more conservative viewpoint.' Ray Bradbury is especially eloquent about sci-fi in print and on the screen. He also relates his book Fahrenheit 451 directly to the blacklist -- burning books isn't far removed from burning authors. It's a great listen -- now I have voices to go with some of these writers.

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson



December 07, 2015

Savant's new reviews today are:

Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special
Shout! Factory
Blu-ray

 It's back and it's better than ever -- the makers of Pee-Wee's Playhouse capped their Saturday morning show with a Christmas Special to end all Christmas Specials. The show's regular characters, special treats and creative extravagances are enhanced with a tall stack of celebrity guests, performers and walk-ons -- Cher, Little Richard, Annette Funicello, k. d. lang. It's as smart and witty as the regular show, and when Pee-Wee dances with Grace Jones, it becomes a time capsule from 1988. On Blu-ray from Shout! Factory.
12/08/15



Downhill Racer
The Criterion Collection
Blu-ray

  Michael Ritchie jumped up as a director to be watched with this sports epic about a killer competitor (Robert Redford) who is a blaze on the ski slopes and an SOB in every other aspect of his life. The skiing is excellent and Gene Hackman and Camilla Sparv are fine support. But the style's the thing -- pictures like this inaugurated the anti-Hollywood look of '70s cinema. Great Austrian location work... this was the first in-depth gilmpse most of us got at the world of Olympic skiing. On Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
12/08/15



and

Team America: World Police
Warner Home Video / Paramount
Blu-ray

  Trey Parker and Matt Stone's 'outrageous, irreverent' comedy is the gusher of pointless profanity and smut that South Park fans are looking for. Jokes or no jokes, the ultimate message of this disaster is that liberals are dupes and traitors, foreigners are evil morons, and kicking ass around the world is our birthright. The design, effects and direction are impressive in one of the most ugly, least honorable spectacles of the Bush years. Go team! On Blu-ray from Warner Home Video / Paramount.
12/08/15




Hello!

Several fun links today. Randall William Cook found an online audio clip of something he played for me back in college, an audio outtake from a promo session for the old Gunsmoke radio show, with William Conrad having difficulty with a line that keeps coming out dirty, no matter how he reads it.

Gary Teetzel brings us yet another piece of essential Godzilla News, this bit referencing the way Toho's legal department reaches across the globe to clobber anybody or anything that seeks to do ANYTHING with their copyrighted super atomic Yokai Kaiju. Books have been blocked, and almost anything that ends in "-zilla" is off limits. Toho are sticklers with this, but do we get to see an original, stereophonic Gorath? Of course not.

Web critic and correspondent Kyu Hyun Kim had to shift his Q Branch page due to a destructive hack, but he continues to put out quality reviews at his reboot page, Q Branch Mirror Site. Here are links to his new reviews of unusual films, The Man Who Finally Died and Unearthly Stranger.

And over at Trailers from Hell Mark Helfrich comments on the trailer for Mark Hartley's Electric Boogaloo. It's the story of my Alma Mater, the Cannon Group.

And one last thing... there won't be a newsletter this week. I'm also plugging new reviews on Facebook weekly now, so you might check my Facebook page if you don't want to bookmark this Savant Main Page ... Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson



December 04, 2015

Savant's new reviews today are:

Five Came Back
The Warner Archive Collection
DVD

  Dalton Trumbo and Nathanael West contributed to the screenplay for John Farrow's suspense adventure about a plane crash in the Amazon jungle -- who will survive? Lucille Ball is the ranking castaway, but we also have great input from Joseph Calleia, Chester Morris, Wendy Barrie, John Carradine and Allen Jenkins. And it's been restored to a fine polish. On DVD from The Warner Archive Collection.
12/05/15








Love at Large
KL Studio Classics
Blu-ray

 Alan Rudolph goes all mushy on us, but in a good way. This loose, somewhat cartoonish comedy pits detectives Tom Berenger and Elizabeth Perkins on opposite sides of a hot case. All they uncover is one illicit love affair after another... while getting personally involved too. A quirky romantic favorite, also starring Anne Archer, Kate Capshaw and Annette O'Toole. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
12/05/15




and

Flying Disc Man from Mars
Olive FIlms
Blu-ray

 Make room for Mota, the man from Mars!  Mota jets around in a flying disc but enlists a scientist and two thugs to lay the groundwork for a full-scale invasion from space. Only the heroes of Fowler Aerial Patrol can save us!  Republic's serial adventure ought to carry an "80% Recycled" label -- even the flying disc is second-hand, bearing a Japanese Rising Sun flag from a previous wartime serial. On Blu-ray from Olive Films.
12/05/15




Hello!

I just turned in my nomination ballot for this year's OFCS (Online Film Critics Society) awards; voting is next week. That meant jamming in a lot of viewing of new movies, which was fun. So far, my favorite pictures of the year were Mr. Holmes, Brooklyn, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl and Mad Max: Fury Road. Some more are coming in, like The Big Short, so there is hope for additional favorites.

Reader Bart Steele sends along an Express article, an alarmist blurb, actually, called Warning: Scientists Could Spark Megaquake. It's more than a little suspicious, especially looking at the other articles the Express is hawking. I mean, the included graphic reminds me of a certain movie. Sufferin' Sorenson, that other fissure in the Indian Ocean looks like the dreaded Macedo Trench to me!

Never to be outdone, Gary Teetzel sees us one Megaquake, and raises us one Great Link to the Very Latest Godzilla Movie. It's only been around a month, maybe you haven't seen it yet.

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson


Don't forget to write Savant at [email protected].

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