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Savant's new reviews today are:

The Earth Dies Screaming
KL Studio Classics
Blu-ray
 It's a minor -- very minor -- Terence Fisher Sci-Fi suspenser that reaches the bare genre minimum and nothing more. Love the title and love those great stills, but when it's finished you're going to be saying, 'Now all I need is a good alien invasion movie!' Dennis Price and Thorley Walters are among the few survivors of an all out alien invasion, but are being stalked by horrendously incompetent killer robots that kill with a touch. A good extra is a commentary by Richard Harland Smith. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
9/27/16

Valley of the Dolls
The Criterion Collection
Blu-ray
 High camp or just plain trash? A cultural-cinematic swamp in perfectly rotten taste, this adaptation of Jacqueline Susann's supermarket 'dirty book' seeks out tawdry sleaze like no American movie had before. Junk beyond belief, and great entertainment if you're in a sick frame of mind. Patty Duke, Barbara Parkins and Sharon Tate star; Duke's women's room confrontation with Susan Hayward may be the low point of show biz bitchery on film. Hey -- and the extras take the picture seriously enough to analyze its inverted appeal. On Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
9/27/16

and

The Human Condition
Arrow Academy UK
Region B Blu-ray
 Are you ready for a nine-hour dose of the truth of existence so harrowing that you'll feel grateful no matter how humble your situation? Masaki Kobayshi's epic of the real cost of war boggles the mind -- the only sane response to its immense, cruel tragedy is a creeping revelation of cosmic bleakness. Yet all the way through we know we're experiencing a truth far beyond slogans and sentiments. The show is actually six movies originally released over two years in three parts. It's like a limited miniseries but for the big screen: the unlucky hero Tatsuya Nakadai struggles in war-torn Manchuria, under smoky widescreen skies. On Region B Blu-ray from Arrow Academy UK.
9/27/16

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Hello!

Wow -- a busy weekend with the house turned upside down for a special event. It might be back to normal by Christmas. I did get my reviews done but don't have a list of links prepared so I'll just say what's coming up in the gotta-review hopper: In hand and viewed I have The Warner Archive's Five Days One Summer, Fury, Star 80 and Strike Me Pink; Explosive Media's The Guns of Fort Petticoat; Olive Signature's High Noon; Criterion's Dekalog and maybe Beyond the Valley of the Dolls; and Kino's Astro Zombies and maybe Beware the Blob. I survived The Wild, Wild World of Batwoman so maybe I'll be able to find merit in Astro Zombies.

Promised but not quite in the door are The Warner Archive's On Dangerous Ground, Cinelicious's Private Property, Shout Factory's 40th Anniversary edition of Carrie and The Criterion Collection's McCabe and Mrs. Miller and Pan's Labyrinth.

More than a couple of weeks away but still hotly anticipated are The Film Detective's Suddenly! and Kino's Gasss...., The Return of Dracula, Strategic Air Command, The Laughing Policeman and Boy on a Dolphin.

This is going to be a difficult year to pick favorites for my end of the year list, as the number of desirable titles released seems to be climbing month after month. I may have to make choices based on objective merit as opposed to my personal taste -- and that's real work of the kind we should all avoid. But believe me, people say my lists are the greatest lists ever, I mean believe me they're terrific. We at DVD Savant are going to make lists great again. God bless and thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson

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Savant's new reviews today are:

Canadian Pacific
KL Studio Classics
Blu-ray
 Randolph Scott fights so the railroad can go through in this old-fashioned rip-snorting action adventure movie, the kind where shooting bad guys dead means never having to say you're sorry. Jane Wyatt gets top billing but the big burner on the prairie is newcomer Nancy Olson, who puts more sex appeal into her homegrown heroine than all of her later roles combined. The disc is in a screwy color format called Cinecolor with a limited spectrum of hues; the disc contains a long-form (one hour) highly technical docu on the restoration. Ya learn something new every time out. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
9/24/16

Stakeout on Dope Street
The Warner Archive Collection
DVD
 With a title like Stakeout on Dope Street you know it has to be good: three guys try to sell the mob's heroin, and find out the hard way what a lousy idea that was. Irvin Kershner got his start directing on this small-scale tale of kids and crime. Jonathan Haze and to-die-for Abby Dalton are standouts in the cast, while the uncredited executive producer who put up the cash is said to have been Roger Corman. It's a beautiful widescreen transfer -- the film was one of the first features shot by Haskell Wexler, who is also uncredited. On DVD from The Warner Archive Collection.
9/24/16

and

Twin Peaks
The Original Series, Fire Walk with Me & The Missing Pieces
Paramount / CBS
Blu-ray
 David Lynch and Mark Frost's 1990 TV series looks better than ever, while the 1992 feature prequel digs deeper in Laura Palmer's unpleasant final days without as many rewards. CBS's nine-disc set is a setup for delayed series continuation expected in a few months -- 25 years later. It's a repackaging of the 2014 restoration, one disc shorter and with fewer extras. But everybody looks great: Kyle MacLachlan, Sheryl Lee, Lara Flynn Boyle, Sharilyn Fenn, Peggy Lipton, Mädchen Amick. Plus that great Angelo Badalamente music score. On Blu-ray from Paramount / CBS.
9/24/16

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Hello!

A few new links today, mostly from Gary Teetzel and Joe Dante. This UCLA page is an interesting article by Molly A. Schneider about the Golden Age of Television: Playhouse-90-at-60: A Giant-Step-and-a Last-Gasp.

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For you real estate types, a prime purchase opportunity: Count Dracula's Castle Is Up for Sale. Make sure you hide your diary in a tree before you go in.

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Gary has the perfect gift for you heavy drinkers with lots of extra cash: Godzilla ice cubes (with video). Each one custom-made with a computer-driven lathe-mill?

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Mr. Teetzel also forwards this link to a Leonard Maltin article about special French-language radio broadcasts of Hollywood show-biz programs. Fave Marsha Hunt (Just saw her in Joe Smith, American) does some of the explaining: Hollywood Speaks French: Undiscovered Radio Discs.

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And finally, Bob Furmanek is dropping hints about another prime-1950s 3-D picture in the pipeline for Blu-ray 3-D through the 3-D Film Archive. The title hasn't been announced, but the best guess so far is Victor Saville's 1953 Mickey Spillane/Mike Hammer cop noir I, the Jury.

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson

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Savant's new reviews today are:

Patterns
The Film Detective
Blu-ray
 Is this Rod Serling's best teleplay ever? A year after it aired live on TV, Serling and director Fielder Cook filmed this United Artists theatrical version. Van Heflin, Everett Sloane and Ed Begley are at the center of a business power squeeze. Is it all about staying competitive, or crushing the ethics of the team players? With terrific early performances by Elizabeth Wilson and Beatrice Straight. This is one of the highest titles on Savant's old wish list; it's a shame it isn't better known. And is or isn't that Lauren Bacall in the lobby? On Blu-ray from The Film Detective.
9/20/16

Free State of Jones
Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Blu-ray + DVD
 Writer/Director Gary Ross constructs a miracle: a meaningful historical tale about the Civil War that doesn't bog down in details or ideology. Rebel deserter Matthew McConaughey leads a wartime insurrection against both the South and the North, and inaugurates a provisional breakaway nation. It's hard to believe that it really happened -- or that a film dares to tackle the sticky history of the South during the first couple of years after the surrender. On Blu-ray and DVD and Digital HD from Universal Studios Home Entertainment.
9/20/16

and

Johnny Guitar
Olive Signature
Blu-ray
 Olive's new branded line reissues the Nicholas Ray classic with a full set of authoritative extras, plus a never-before-seen 1:66 widescreen transfer, in all of its Trucolor glory. Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden never looked better -- we can all compare theories about color-coded costumes. Just how masculine is Vienna supposed to be? She's a stranger here herself. On Blu-ray from Olive Signature.
9/20/16

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Hello!

This is not directly film related... but I'm going to go there anyway, what with a photo sent to me today by friend Steve Nielson. It brings back memories of my long-gone friend Terry Schoonhoven, the famous fine arts muralist. Some of Terry's marvelous murals still look as good as when they were new, but other earlier major works were never expected to last this long. Coming to UCLA way back when and paying my first West L.A. parking ticket, I saw Terry's Isle of California (made with his L.A. Fine Art Squad partner Victor Henderson) on a wall behind the courthouse and stared at it for at least five minutes. I don't think they had finished painting it yet, and it was already as legendary as the graffiti around campus reading "Free the UCLA 30,000." Here's what it looks like now (above). All those rusted 'dots' are the result of bolting done for an earthquake upgrade. A good image of the glorious 'before' version can be seen at a nice little Federico de California blog entry called L.A. Urban Visionaries ~ A Fading Muralist Art Form 1969-2011.

If you can get your hands on it, the 1980 documentary Murs Murs in the Eclipse Series 43 disc set Agnès Varda in California is a splendid tour of the work of Terry and many others -- public art we too often take for granted. During the ten years before he died, Terry perfected a process where he made murals out of tiles, with pigments that don't fade. He had a kiln and a little factory behind his house a block away from me in Larchmont, and I got to see some of his experimentation, which went on for quite a while. When a batch of tiles was baking, he'd 'relax' by working on an ancient motorcycle. The resulting artworks done with this process are scattered around the Southland. The easiest to find are major ornamentation in our new (1995) subway. The little image just to the left is a detail of the wide mural just above, Traveler. The colors in those tiles should be permanent.

Anyway, that's my culture lesson for the week.

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Correspondent Guido Bibra alerts me to a BBC radio show called The Infinite Monkey Cage with Brian Cox and Robin Ince, who welcome Noel Fielding, evolutionary biologist Nick Lane and Sir Christopher Frayling for a half-hour discussion of Mary Godwin Shelley's Frankenstein. The humor is... British, for certain, and even Frayling displays some! (I always thought he had a touch of John Cleese about him.) The level of discourse is high, even if the speakers open up trying to be as silly as possible. I learned a lot about Dr. Frankenstein's basic technical challenges... enough to put a halt to any personal plans to sew parts of cadavers together. The show is called 200 Years of Frankenstein. Thanks Guido!

Thanks for reading --- Glenn Erickson

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Savant's new reviews today are:

The People v. O.J. Simpson
20th Fox Home Video
Blu-ray
 The crime of the century became a media circus, with no sleazy stone unturned -- yet behind what we saw on TV was even more conflict and consternation. This eight-hour miniseries is a beautifully constructed recreation with excellent casting, even though its O.J. doesn't remind us much of the original. It's highly absorbing stuff to anyone who lived through it. Starring Sarah Paulson, John Travolta, Sterling K. Brown, Courtney B. Vance, Kenneth Choi, Christian Clemenson, Cuba Gooding Jr., Nathan Lane, David Schwimmer and Robert Morse. On Blu-ray from 20th Fox Home Video.
9/17/16

Blood Simple
The Criterion Collection
Blu-ray
 Neo-noir got a major boost with this splendid first outing for the Coen Brothers, who planned to produce something commercially viable but broke through with a new style in fashionable genre mayhem. A fantastic cast helps, including the auspicious debut of the great Frances McDormand. With Dan Hedaya, M. Emmet Walsh and John Getz. Criterion's extras include great, serious input from the filmmakers. On Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
9/17/16

and

Aliens
20th Fox Home Video
Blu-ray
 James Cameron's superb spacemen vs. monsters siege battle epic is back in a reissue with an extra or two, still looking good on Blu-ray for its 30th Anniversary. That heroine Ripley is still the most battle-worthy space cadet in the galaxy, and the special effects combat still hasn't been bettered for excitement. Beware -- the 'new featurette with James Cameron' touted on the package front, is actually something one must download from the web. With Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton; on Blu-ray from 20th Fox Home Video.
9/17/16

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Hello!

It's a quick night tonight -- I'm burned out with some extra TCM work... but can offer news and links. My friends that have received various disc packages give a thumbs-up to the Universal classic horror collections --'Frankenstein,' 'The Wolf Man' -- and are very pleased with the quality. Most are up to the standards of the 4K restorations in the Classic Monsters set from a few years back. The word is also out that Son of Frankenstein has forty seconds of new material -- not a new scene, just odd bits here and there. That's a surprise.

The new Universal eight-title Hammer set is not being received well. Even more titles than before are mastered with inexplicably wrong 2:1 aspect ratios, and the while some of the transfers look pretty good, none look new or are given any special attention.

Other news, some of it a partial repeat: Kino will indeed release a Blu of the rescued 1933 Deluge. Kino has also announced The Invisible Ghost, a Lugosi favorite from Monogram.

Criterion's December releases are choice: John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle, Laurie Anderson's Heart of a Dog, Federico Fellini's Roma and, surely motivated by a new opera, Luis Buñuel's The Exterminating Angel. I can't wait to find out what the extras might be.

And Gary Teetzel tells us of two horror-Sci fi collectable toys, for those of you with lots of money to spend. (Hello, anybody there?) One is a Christopher Lee figure from The Scars of Dracula, which looks like the actor, sort-of. The other is a life-sized prop replica of the three-footed Martian from Quatermass and the Pit. Hey gang, let's all pitch in to get Gary a $400 rubber Martian insect!

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson

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Savant's new reviews today are:

La moglie più bella
Twilight Time
Blu-ray
 Translation: The Most Beautiful Wife. The 'double standard' between men and women has roots in paternalistic barbarism, as demonstrated by this quality Italo crime picture about a young signorina claimed against her will by a Mafia thug. It's essentially date rape, followed by matrimonial slavery. The gorgeous star Ornella Muti makes her debut; the sinister Mafia punk is Alessio Orano. It's strong stuff, but not exploitative. Italo director Damiano Damiani is at his best; he's present on a long making-of interview docu. The Isolated Score Track features music by Ennio Morricone! On Blu-ray from Twilight Time.
9/13/16

Comanche Station
Explosive Media GmbH / Alive
Region A+B Blu-ray
 The final 'Ranown' western collaboration between Burt Kennedy, Budd Boetticher and Randolph Scott is a minimalist masterpiece, an unusually gentle story about a great westerner on a forlorn romantic quest. It's also a showcase for the underrated Nancy Gates, as the 'wrong' captive rescued from the Comanche tribe. The equally special Claude Akins gives what may be his best performance. The show is a pleasure to watch in wide, wide CinemaScope. Budd Boetticher appears in a taped Q&A session. On Region A+B Blu-ray from Explosive Media GmbH / Alive.
9/13/16

The Horrible Dr. Hichcock
Olive Films
Blu-ray
 "Death will take you as you sleep! A sleep as deep as Death!" Barbara Steele doesn't realize that her husband is using her to recover a forbidden sexual thrill. Riccardo Freda's film plays imitation games with Alfred Hitchcock's filmography, but it also generates a Euro-horror spell like no other. Outrageous in 1962, it was a Technicolor ode to funereal surrealism... and perversity. New in this review -- a crazy theory that questions story assumptions about L'orribile segreto del Dr. Hichcock. It's the American Sigma III version, never before on a legit U.S. release. On Blu-ray from Olive Films.
9/13/16

and

Dr. Mabuse the Gambler
Kino Classics
Blu-ray
 He's back and as diabolically ruthless as ever! Weimar Berlin cowers under the pernicious influence of a sinister gambler-mastermind, the secret architect of an 'Empire of Crime.' Restored to near its full length (4.5 hours!), Fritz Lang's monumental pulp masterpiece is a Euro-classic lover's delight. Reviewer's confession: in this version I could finally follow the story and understand the characters... which are no longer genre ciphers. A double Blu-ray disc release, licensed from the German Murnau Stiftung. from Kino Classics.
9/13/16

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Hello!

A bumper crop of desirable discs all of a sudden, which accounts for the accelerated review pace. Some arrive thanks to the generosity of host site DVDtalk... a recent TV miniseries as well as a classic TV series (plus a movie) of bizarre renown. And I'll also be reaching back to nail a couple of skipped-over titles, including some Warner Archive MOD DVDs and another Randolph Scott Western from Kino that was a last-minute rescue, in its original, wonky color format Cinecolor... very strange stuff. The plan is to review the earliest titles first. The latest special item I've been promised is a Leslie Stevens feature that was a controversial fringe indie in 1960, and then disappeared into limbo until its rediscovery a couple of years back. And there's still a chance that the special edition of John Carpenter's biggest science fiction remake will find its way here. It's a good time to be collecting discs, especially if you are RICH. Boy, I remember the days of laserdiscs, when I was making good money and still felt like a spendthrift when trying to keep what I bought within budgetary reason.

Here's a nice Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell article about film collecting, to promote a new book by Dennis Bartok and Jeff Joseph. The link comes courtesy of Joe Dante, who is mentioned in passing. I understand he collected a film or two himself in his day.

I remember when the late, great Robert S. Birchard once proudly showed me a sales flyer proving that the Warner Bros. studio sold outright 16mm prints of its movies to schools and even individuals... The Sea Hawk, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, etc. The brochure he found established the 'first sale' proposition that kept a lot of film collectors from being prosecuted for owning movies. Boy, was he proud of that. Film collectors are going to miss Bob. I remember back as early as 1973, when he screened for us his film prints of a Tom Mix Western and the rare Paramount on Parade, at his West L.A. apartment on Brockton. Fare thee well, Bob.

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson

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Savant's new reviews today are:

The Monster of Piedras Blancas
Olive Films
Blu-ray
 Glurg garrgle gurgle raaaaw!  It's the razor-clawed reptile-man that scared the bejesus out of us little kids, way back when. Jack Kevan's basic monster mash drags its feet a bit, but technically it's as slick as they come. Plus, the encoding is perfect. And did I mention the scary parts? This one inspired plenty of gory nightmares. Savant offers some observations about the '50s monster-on-the-prowl subgenre, and the way we once loved them on TV. Plus, the Wayne Berwick connection. On Blu-ray from Olive Films.
9/10/16

Night Train to Munich
The Criterion Collection
Blu-ray
 Modern spy movies have nothing on this Brit thriller produced just as war broke out -- Rex Harrison, Margaret Lockwood and Paul Henreid clash with Nazi agents, and risk a daring escape to Switzerland. The witty script is seemingly constructed of good ideas that didn't fit into Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes, but at least this time the enemy is given its true name. The director is Carol Reed, in terrific form -- it's interesting to compare the way Reed works suspense, as opposed to Hitchcock. With Basil Radford and Naughton Wayne, good-old-fellows that approach every moral problem in terms of a cricket match. On Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
9/10/16

and

Once Were Warriors
Film Movement Classics
Blu-ray
 Do you really want something different? Dramas don't come more powerful than this one -- a New Zealand Maori family might escape their slum existence if it weren't for the father, an emotionally volatile monster whose brutality knows no limits. The show took in awards everywhere -- it's a stunningly affecting tragedy not completely devoid of hope, and brimming over with tough-love understanding for the problems of poor families everywhere. I looked online -- the movie is so strongly desired that OOP DVD copies were selling for over $100. On Blu-ray from Film Movement Classics.
9/10/16

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Hello!

Can't sleep? Do you like clever ruminations on the horror genre? I just happened to trip over Richard Harland Smith's old blog Arbogast on Film, and was happy to find that even though it stopped several years ago, it's all still up. Arbo- I mean old colleague and former TCM Morlock Richard has a unique viewpoint, accurate observances and a sharp wit -- plus nicely chosen images. I think he did the page for several years, last night he hooked me into revisiting at least six pages in one sitting. There's a 'beware of objectionable content' warning when you click over, but don't fret -- the visuals are plenty tame.

Explosive Media's Ulrich Bruckner was in town this week and we had a great get-together... plus I now have some more of his German-produced Blu-rays to review, including a couple of American titles not available here on Blu. Ulrich leans heavily toward westerns, and is perhaps the only home video exec I know who might actually take a request seriously, if it coincided with his taste. The good news? Most of Explosive's releases play in Region A.

I'll be reviewing an Explosive release right away, but also trying to address upcoming Halloween titles. Up next is one of the movie mysteries that got me into film writing, Olive's disc of the American cut of The Horrible Dr. Hichcock. I'll have to set aside some quality writing time for that one.

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson

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Savant's new reviews today are:

Hammer Films Double Features
Mill Creek Entertainment
Blu-ray
  A quartet of Hammer horror is good news for fans of The Boys from Bray: three out of four of these classic titles appear in encodings well worthy of a Blu-ray upgrade. And the star quotient is high as well: two films each with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. One double bill carries The Revenge of Frankenstein and The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, and the second, separate purchase The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll and The Gorgon. Now somebody re-think the baggy leisure-suit mummy and the Medusa with the joke-shop rubber snakes. Just sayin'; I like these movies. On Blu-ray from Mill Creek Entertainment.
9/06/16

The Glory Guys
Twilight Time
Blu-ray
  What is surely the most generic cavalry western of all time is actually from a screenplay by Sam Peckinpah, whose own cavalry western was released earlier the same year, with some of the same cast members. Twilight Time's extras have a lot to say about that, and so does Savant. Tom Tryon and Harve Presnell break a lot of dishes competing for lovely Senta Berger, while the rest of the troops spend their off hours brawling. When they finally head out to confront those pesky Indians, they discover that their enemy has fielded a force better than Uncle Sam's. An early, standout picture for James Caan. 'We're the Glory Guys! EEE-Yow!'. On Blu-ray from Twilight Time.
9/06/16

and

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
The Warner Archive Collection
Blu-ray
 Clint Eastwood's mint juleps 'n' murder epic is an easygoing pleasure. Kevin Spacey, John Cusack and a host of great performances guarantee interest, especially when a subtext of genteel sexual frivolity underlies everything we see. We've also got Voodoo magic and an out-of-town author who gets the feeling that he may be being used in a devious murder defense. I surely have to go to the book to really understand what's going on. The movie is a hyper-pleasant experience -- the atmosphere, the feeling of hospitality. A solid 'A' for this one, Clint. The Savannah tourism board must bless you in their nightly prayers. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
9/06/16

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Hello!

It finally looks as if Hollywood's first post-apocalyptic effects fantasy will be rescued from the 'lost' column. Good dependable Kevin Pyrtle of the site Exploder Button still surprises me from time to time. He's the one who found an online source for Abel Gance's La fin du monde ten years ago, before a disc was available. And now he has news of another restoration of an all-but-lost movie, RKO's 1933 Deluge. Until now the only known copy was a ragged Italian print with subtitles; it looks like this French filmic rescue is going to have French subs. But don't worry, crumbling skyscrapers and flooding cities don't have dialogue. If you happen to be in Paris, it's part of L'Étrange Festival 22nd Edition, which begins tomorrow. When and if Deluge shows up on disc, it'll be strange to see Sidney Blackmer portraying one of the last survivors on Earth -- Roman Castavet will be able to say, "I Am Legend." Pyrtle's Exploder Button article on the film is here, and a French film festival website about the rediscovery is here. So there.

My weekly Facebook postings are getting good responses -- no complaints, so far -- so I'm going to continue them. So if there are readers out there that can't get the Savant Newsletter, or don't want to be subsumed into yet another online database, please check me out on FB -- as either Glenn Erickson or DVD Savant. I 'friend' most everybody who isn't an eager Russian girl with a false photo that really wants to meet a nice American man.

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson

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Savant's new reviews today are:

Deadline - U.S.A.
KL Studio Classics
Blu-ray
 Richard Brooks tells it loud and clear -- democracy requires a free and competitive press. He also gives us one of the best newspaper epics ever. Editor Humphrey Bogart must deal with a gangster threat and a domestic crisis even as his paper is being shut down. Ethel Barrymore and Kim Hunter co-star, but the picture is packed with excellent supporting performances. Eddie Muller provides the 'this is not noir' commentary that drives home the film's essential civics lesson about what we've lost -- a functioning free press. Hey, they've hidden my soapbox again! On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
9/03/16

Hardcore
Twilight Time
Blu-ray
 That troubled Paul Schrader works out his aggravated psycho-sexual-religious conflicts in a feverish tale of a Calvinist searching for his daughter in the porn jungle of L.A.. A modern-day cross between The Searchers and Masque of the Red Death, it's brilliantly put together, with fine work from George C. Scott, Peter Boyle and the remarkable Season Hubley, whose take on a Hollywood hooker is both original and insightful. Schrader's revealing commentary shows that the film was meant to be even darker. On Blu-ray from Twilight Time.
9/03/16

and

Cat People
The Criterion Collection
Blu-ray
 This kitty needs no introduction, and all cleaned up on Criterion's sleek new transfer it plays better than ever. Simone Simon is the purring-sweet immigrant with a dark atavistic secret, Kent Smith the dolt of a husband and Tom Conway the predatory scoffer. The real hero of this all-time Val Lewton classic is director Jacques Tourneur, who invests his film with a feeling of real life that drew the audiences of 1942 into the web of fantasy. The disc contains the entire TCM docu Val Lewton The Man in the Shadows plus something fans have just plain gotta see: a lengthy 1979 interview with Tourneur himself, who comes off as the nicest person you'd ever want to meet. We knew he had to be like that, just judging by the gentle movies he made. Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
9/03/16

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Hello!

Kino has announced that they'll be releasing a Blu-ray of Freddie Francis' Techniscope horror thriller The Skull with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Tim Lucas has already announced that he'll be doing the commentary. This year's Universal and Hammer horror releases are just beginning to arrive; courtesy of DVDtalk, I'll be reviewing Sony's double-bill Blus of The Revenge of Frankenstein and Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, and The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll and The Gorgon.

For November 20, Olive Films has announced something truly special: Abel Gance's 1938 French film J'accuse. It's a remake of Gance's own silent movie from 1919. Basically a pacifist scream of anguish against the war to come, its conclusion will remind viewers of Night of the Living Dead: the fallen soldiers of WW1 rise from their graves to accuse the living of breaking faith with their sacrifice. The newest and equally politically pointed return to the concept is Joe Dante's 'Masters of Horror' episode Homecoming. I saw J'accuse in college, where the best available print was pretty dire -- but it was really creepy anyway. Listed with the cast on the poster are 'Les Gueules Cassées', which apparently refers to the actual battle-mutilated veterans that Gance used in the movie -- I think the French means 'broken mugs,' or 'broken faces.'

Also coming from Olive in November are Powell & Pressburger's One of Our Aircraft is Missing and Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes.

Twilight Time has its own socko slate of releases for November and December -- the ten titles include Robert Wise's I Want to Live!, John Huston's Moby Dick, Noel Black's Pretty Poison, Joseph Mankiewicz's The Barefoot Contessa and Ray Harryhausen's The Three Worlds of Gulliver.

And Film Movement is taking a bold step -- they've licensed a series of movies by Joe Sarno, the exploitation director who was recently the subject of Wiktor Ericsson's affectionate documentary A Life in Dirty Movies. The releases promised seem to be a mix of Sarno's '60s potboilers and his later more explicit sex films. Not the kind of man to be content with just skulls, the indefatigable Tim Lucas is listed as the commentator for these as well!

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson