Savant has yet another pair of goodies tonight, a gloriously escapist sci-fi classic, and an impressive VistaVision psychodrama from the mid-fifities:

Fox's Journey to the Center of the Earth is an entertainment delight, an adventure with class, humor and inventive solutions to every impossible aspect of its plot. Wonderful James Mason is the charming star, with Pat Boone remarkably acceptable as a tuneful Scots lad. And the Bernard Herrmann score is one of his most effective.

Paramount's Fear Strikes Out is an intense true-life drama about mental illness, extremely well-acted by Anthony Perkins in a performance every bit the equal of his later career-killer turn in Psycho. Rookie big leaguer Jimmy Piersall has everything going for him, but cannot get free of the psychic tyranny of his old man, played by Karl Malden. For a 1957 movie about a nervous breakdown, this doesn't seem to have dated at all.

I have to say I'm really enjoying writing about such wonderful movies, and can promise more treasures to come in the next weeks ... as I re-read earlier reviews, I find I'm catching and correcting all kinds of bizarre typos and other errors that zoomed past my efforts at proofreading - so all I can say is, thanks for putting up with the goof level on this page .... Glenn Erickson