A beautiful day in California. Savant has a warm romance and a cold political warning in the offing tonight:

MGM's 1984 is a close-but-no-cigar stab at George Orwell's sinister classic. It isn't so much the fault of the production (the acting by John Hurt and Suzanna Hamilton is excellent) but the fact that so many of the novel's original ideas have already been plundered. Richard Burton gives his final performance here.

Warners' A Man and A Woman is the definitive European date movie, a confected but intelligent visual account of three weeks in the romantic lives of two beautiful French people who are as attractive as movie stars. With the soft photograpy of Anouk Aimée and Jean-Louis Trintignant, and Francis Lai's mellow score, what's to complain about?

Savant takes time out to ponder the literal glut, no, onslaught, no, plethora of desirable library titles coming out between now and summer .. here's a quick rundown of the DVD announcements that make this critic's mouth water: Gunfight at the OK Corral, Nevada Smith, Kiss Me Kate, Le Mans, Little Big Man, King Rat, 20000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Mission, Barton Fink, Miller's Crossing, The Unforgiven, Attack!, Battle of Britain, Sink the Bismark!, Throne of Blood, Miracle Mile, Is Paris Burning?, Giant, Once Upon a Time in America, The Right Stuff, The Flight of the Phoenix, Never on Sunday, Wings of Desire, Juggernaut, Avanti!, Kiss Me Stupid, One Two Three, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes .... There's enough there to keep Savant happily writing until Labor Day. See You in a couple of days, Glenn Erickson