October 20, 2003
October 21, 2003

It's plenty hot in California tonight - you can bet the air conditioner got a workout today. Three Savant favorites reviewed :

Warners' The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is a doozie of a monster movie and probably the first radioactively-revived threat to mankind invented to put a science fiction spin on a story about a big lizard that goes to town. Ray Harryhausen's first solo effort is a winner, and so is Warners' disc.

Columbia TriStar has a classy offering in Bernard Girard's Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round, a caper film with a very quiet message. James Coburn cons Camilla Sparv, but is he just conning himself? Also starring the Los Angeles International Airport circa 1966.

Warners' The Black Scorpion is for hard-core monster fans only, as it's one of the derivative copycats of the Beast above, in this case made by one of the same producers. Stop-motion fans will call it a must-buy, for Willis O'Brien and Pete Peterson's jittery animated scorpion menaces.

This is a crunch weekend. I have help from my friends, but what gets reviewed depends on how much sleep I get. I'm giving it my best ... thanks for the friendly letters and corrections! Glenn Erickson

Posted by DVD Savant at October 20, 2003 09:52 PM