Another month, and Christmas is sneaking up far too quickly. INVADERS FROM MARS is due out from Image on Tuesday, but no review copy so far - too bad, I'm hoping it will be a knockout disc.

The reviews today: Paramount's Roman Holiday shows the studio taking extra care with their flagship titles - the level of restoration on this Audrey Hepburn/Gregory Peck classic is remarkable.

MGM's Legend of the Lost is no classic, but again a flawless transfer makes all the difference. John Wayne and Sophia (why's the shirt torn in those places?) Loren shine under the superior Technirama camerawork of Jack Cardiff.

Screenings, holidays, and editing work are slowing Savant down a bit, but he's working hard to keep the reviews coming. We went out to see THE QUIET AMERICAN last night, a very good movie about a reporter (Michael Caine) involved in the very beginning of CIA meddling in Vietnam, back in 1952 when the French were still there. Brendan Fraser is the 'quiet American', a medical consultant with a secret agenda. Right now I wish I could see the 1958 Audie Murphy (!) version, which reportedly makes the CIA character out to be nobly tragic. The best thing about the show is how it equates the foreign conspiracies against Indochina, with Fraser and Caine's possessive behavior toward the Vietnamese woman. Her only choice is to be a prostitute, or the property of a foreigner.
Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson