Savant's new reviews today are
Bringing Up Baby Warners
Arrowsmith MGM and
Stage Door Warners
Hello ... finally saw Major Dundee with its new music on a big screen last night, and will be reviewing it soon --- it was a very positive experience. One could feel the audience actually getting into the details of the story, instead of being benumbed by the bad choices in the old music track. I think this will be very good for Dundee and Peckinpah, as until now only the devout and determined have really gone to the effort of wading through the music track to get to the movie underneath. Now everyone can. Savant got to see some reviewer-writer friends as well (name-dropping time) ... Nathaniel Thompson, Alain Silver and Bill Warren. I've been corresponding with Warren for years but never met him in person.
It was fun writing about The Mysterians again after all this time and all the email discussions equally as nostalgic as I am for Toho's "red-blooded phantasmagoria" ...
People are scrambling to find leftover copies of MGM's recalled double bill of Panic in Year Zero / Last Man on Earth, which may soon be fetching astro-inimic, aztroh, apspa ... very high prices on Ebay. I think a friend will be getting a copy imminently, so I'll at least be able to see it!
And on the subject of the rumors of David Lynch getting involved with a long version of his 1984 movie Dune, I'm now hearing counter-rumors to the effect that he's not considering it at all. So depending on what one likes to believe, it's either going to be a terrific disc or the whole thing is a feather on the fickle breezes of DVD hot air.
I've read a message-board post about Danger: Diabolik in which a writer hoped that my 16mm track was used to get
the correct original voices on the movie. I've since read that the restorers did indeed locate a good copy of that original
track, but that some legal problems might prevent its use (not to mention the problem of what to do when the presumably
complete European cut doesn't exactly match it). I'm sure they'll do their best. I did offer the print last summer, just so
they could see how the music was originally mixed (earlier VHS and laser releases muted too much of it) but communication
wasn't good so let the issue drop. As often turns out, the restorers (at Zoetrope, I believe) do seem to have been on the
ball. They most likely were constrained from discussing the issues with outsiders. So I'm looking forward to the disc!
Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson.
Posted by DVD Savant at April 01, 2005 06:43 PM
