Friday night, late, and Savant is determined to get some reviews out ... and then some sleep. Christmas is just another deadline these days - without little kids to spoil, I wish it could just be about a tree and nice music and maybe going to church ... good idea. The reviews:

Anchor Bay leads off with two crime films (separate releases): Hell is a City and The Frightened City. The nigh-perfect b&w transfers show off Val Guest's crackling direction of Stanley Baker in the first, and Sean Connery's salad-day charm in the second. Anchor Bay is really coming across with the classic English titles.

From Region 2, in PAL comes The Warrior, an Indian film that's received some very strong notices. The epic struggle of a warlord's enforcer to find enlightenment ranges from battles on the plains to showdowns in the Himalayas. Reviewed by correspondent Lee Broughton.

Image's Bride of the Gorilla is the movie Savant thought he was getting when he ordered THE BRIDE AND THE BEAST last Summer ... the mistakes one makes in this racket. Here Barbara Payton finds herself married to a philandering murderer who loves her dearly and only has one problem ... he's too interested in roaming the jungle as a mad gorilla monster, to follow through on his wedding night. A bizarre film with a location that doesn't make sense, dramatics that refuse to gel, and bigger-than-life acting ... a guilty pleasure. Why don't they make musicals out of these things?

A surprise package just came from Fearless Leader Geoffrey Kleinman ... but I'll try to make a Savant-sized dent in my backlog of review discs first! Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson