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December 2, 2008
Savant's new reviews today are
Casablanca
Blu-ray
Ultimate Collector's Edition
Warners
Fanfan la tulipe
Criterion
Dr. Syn: The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh
Walt Disney Treasures
Disney
Sunset Boulevard
Centennial Collection
Paramount
Greetings! We're off and running on the Christmas holiday season. Correspondent "Rob" has tipped me off to the Universal Horror Blog site, which has an excerpt from an ancient episode of the You Asked for It show in which Bela 
Lugosi makes an appearance -- announcing that his next movie will be "Dr. Acula". The direction and camera work is not bad at all!
New DVDs are up at the 2008 Savant Wish List -- which I am indeed updating -- Sony is continuing their Martini Movies line in early February with hotly-desired titles like Five (an Arch Oboler End-of-the-World tale) and Our Man in Havana (Alec Guinness, directed by Carol Reed).
New Criterion policies and an 'orientation video' to their refurbished Criterion.com page are viewable at this link.
Correspondent Dean Blake reminds me about an almost secret DVD offering. Turner Classic Movies' Lost and Found RKO Collection is a group of recovered and restored pre-code RKO pix that premiered on the channel last year: A Man to Remember, Double Harness, Living on Love, Rafter Romance, Stingaree and One Man's Journey. They're available as singles or in a six-disc collection. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson
Tuesday November 25, 2008
Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are
The Messenger:
The Story of Joan of Arc
Blu-ray
Sony
Irma Vep
Essential Edition
Zeitgeist
and
Capricorn One
Lionsgate
Not quite ready for Thanksgiving yet -- I'm writing reviews and still checking out that amazing LIFE magazine photo archive. Pictures from The Thing from Another World show James Arness being outfitted with smoke hoses to film his electrical demise -- Craig Reardon points out the "ICE" sign on a building in the background, indicating that the location is one of those downtown ice-making warehouses, to get the visible breath on actors' faces. The beaucoup stills for When Worlds Collide show the miniature makers working on the great spaceship model. Several shots of the panoramic painting of the new planet Zyra probably squelch the Savant theory that the cartoonish artwork was some kind of temp effort. Destination Moon's shots of the moon set show space-suited midgets in use, to make the set look deeper and larger! And most big Hollywood stars and directors have a photo or two - I even found new images of Val Lewton.
Over at Film.com, my enthusiastic review is up for the Walt Disney Treasures deluxe tin boxes, A Mouseketeer Named Annette and a Duck Named Donald. Have a fine and safe Thanksgiving! -- Glenn Erickson
Casablanca
Blu-ray. Warners Ultimate Collector's Edition may be the best looking B&W video release ever. Bogie and Bergman are back, but they look much, much better. A fancy box aimed at gift-givers contains some novelty extras.
12/02/08
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Fanfan la tulipe
The escapist swashbuckler genre gains another classic with this breezy, funny action comedy starring Gérard Philipe and Gina Lollobrigida. An egotistical young rake joins the army to avoid a forced marriage, and gets the notion that he'll marry the King's daughter. A war, a fake gypsy fortune teller and a hangman's noose get in the way. Criterion.
12/02/08
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Dr. Syn: The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh
The Patrick McGoohan-starring TV miniseries has been on the fan wishlist for some time, and Disney comes through with a fine presentation that also includes the feature film version. A Walt Disney Treasures tin box special. Scarecrow!
12/02/08
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Sunset Boulevard
Billy Wilder's Hollywood Noir classic looks better than the older release and comes with some improved extras produced by Laurent Bouzereau. Paramount Centennial Collection.
12/02/08
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The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc
Blu-ray. Milla Jovovich is a trembling, frantic Jeanne d'Arc in Luc Besson's beautifully filmed, historically questionable epic. With Faye Dunaway & Dustin Hoffman. Sony.
11/25/08
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Irma Vep
Olivier Assayas gives us a slice of French filmmaking, on an ill-fated production based on how good Maggie Cheung looks in black tights. Funny and interesting, with a great turn by Nathalie Richard. An Essential Edition from Zeitgeist.
11/25/08
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Capricorn One
Peter Hyams' space fraud thriller is pretty silly, but it does have O.J. Simpson! Elliott Gould and James Brolin co-star in a movie about a faked Mars mission. Lionsgate.
11/25/08
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300 Limited Collector's Edition
Zack Snyder turns 300 Spartans loose against a million Persians, by filming 40 gung-ho Greek soldiers against a blue screen. Big, impressive and faithful to Frank Miller's graphic novel -- and dedicated to the proposition that chopping up people is a virtue unto itself. In a very fancy box-set release. Warners.
11/22/08
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Revenge of a Kabuki Actor
Wall-E
Tropic Thunder
Blu-ray
A Christmas Story
Blu-ray
A Shari Lewis Christmas
Quo Vadis
Thunderball
Blu-ray
JFK -- Probing the Wounds essay by Jon Paul Henry
To Hi-Def with Love: Restoring 007 Savant Article
Casino Royale (1967)
Hancock
Blu-ray
JFK Director's Cut
Blu-ray
Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Blu-ray
Taxi to the Dark Side
Planet of the Apes
Blu-ray
The Last Laugh
Kenji Mizoguchi's Fallen Women: Osaka Elegy, Sisters of the Gion, Women of the Night, Street of Shame
Blossoms in the Dust
Live and Let Die
Blu-ray
Missing
The World Sinks Except Japan
Transsiberian
Blu-ray
The Entrance & The Passage Separate R2 PAL releases reviewed by Lee Broughton
Six in Paris
Strange Behavior
Ten Years of Rialto Pictures
Poltergeist
Blu-ray
From Russia With Love
Blu-ray
Baraka
Blu-ray
Dr. No
Blu-ray
Savant Article: Bond Blu-ray Trouble? by Stuart Galbraith IV
Warner Bros. Pictures Gangsters Collection, Vol. 4: The Little Giant, Kid Galahad, The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse, Invisible Stripes, Larceny Inc., Public Enemies The Golden Age of the Gangster Film
The Films of Budd Boetticher: The Tall T, Decision at Sundown, Buchanan Rides Alone, Ride Lonesome, Comanche Station
The Movie Orgy (Special Screening Notes)
DVD Savant 2007 Favored Disc Roundup
SAVANT'S DVD WISH LIST 2008
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