It's a big Saturday night, and Savant is happy to present a raft of new reviews, for four basic titles but 7 discs, really:

MGM returns exactly one year later with a 3-disc set of The Outer Limits the Original Series Volume Two, a handsome finish to the famed 60s Sci-fi show. Season 2 was chopped after only 17 episodes, but the lineup includes winners like Demon with a Glass Hand.

Fantoma makes our day with two more Educational Archives compilations of freaky short educational and propaganda films of the past,in their scratchy original glory. Religion goes from Sunday-school indoctrination to strange attempts at mass influence; and Patriotism blends useful shows explaining our great country's founding principles, with propaganda designed to mold public opinion. With Sex and Drugs & Social Engineering 101 and On the Job & Driver's Ed., this series is turning into quite a collection.

Pacific Family Entertainment has a very bogus-looking package out for Sam Peckinpah's Convoy, but there's a pretty-good DVD inside of the director's career-ending opus. With Kris Kristofferson and Ali MacGraw.

Finally, Artisan pulls the DVD boner of the season: although nothing on the packaging says so, their otherwise acceptable disc of the 1946 B&W James Cagney thriller Blood on the Sun is colorized, no kidding.

Some of you haven't been getting the Savant Newsletter, so DVDTalk web overlord Geoffrey Kleinman is looking into it. It's possible that AOL or another entity is using anti-Spam software which is inadvertently filtering the newsletter out. The solution, of course, the the patriotic thing ... is to just drop by this main Savant column page a couple times a week ... also, the reason I've not been reviewing all of the MGM Midnite movies is that screeners for some of them just haven't been sent out. I hope they come in later, as I'm eager to praise some of them highly, especially the masterpiece Tomb of Ligeia. Thanks, Glenn Erickson

A busy Thursday, but Savant's got the goods:

Q - The Winged Serpent is a class job from Blue Underground that blows away the old DVD. Michael Moriarity steals the show in a wild monster story hiding a subversive message about religion.

MGM gives us a long-delayed Special Edition of Joe Dante's The Howling. It contains most of the goodies from the old laser disc, plus an engaging new docu.

MGM also streets I, Madman a quirky and clever horror exercise that misses the usual pitfalls and almost makes it to minor classic status. 'Be careful what you read' might be a good motto for this one.

The docu this week is Chris Smith's engagingly droll Home Movie, a quaint tour of five weird houses and the people who inhabit them. Guaranteed to make one appreciate one's 5 rooms and a garage.

Hail and Hosanna, it's happened, good news too good to be true. Anchor Bay has announced that they're releasing the LONG, 4.75 hour Until the End of the World to DVD in Spring of 2004. For Savant, this is the most personal happy release ever, so be prepared to put up with me talking about it frequently from now 'til then, like a bona-fide DVD Weenie! Last I heard, this was tied up in legal problems that could have kept it out of legal sight forever. Hail Anchor Bay!

Coming up next, a great old TV series, and two new educational collections from Fantoma! Thanks for reading - Glenn Erickson

Back in form, at least for a few days or so - four reviews today:

MGM's Midnite Movies Double Feature of two Ingrid Pitt Hammer epics, Countess Dracula and The Vampire Lovers, come to DVD in pristine shape. The second of these sexy horror pictures has been extensively restored, fulfilling the promise of an article Savant wrote in 1998.

HVe's picture-perfect disc of Merchant/Ivory's The Europeans gives Henry James a heady mixture of fine performances (Lee Remick, Wesley Addey, Lisa Eichhorn) and a beautiful New England Autumn for a background.

John Steinbeck wrote the screenplay for his own The Red Pony, and it's an overlooked gem. Myrna Loy and Robert Mitchum turn in fine character performances, under strong direction by Lewis Milestone, and the famous score by Aaron Copland. From Artisan.

Columbia brings us one of Boris Karloff's least-seen, screwiest vehicles: The Devil Commands, which is a great title that has nothing to do with the movie. There is some body snatching going on to help poor Boris communicate with his dead wife, and good input from steely Anne Revere, but otherwise, this klunky spook show is pretty silly.

Savant saw the newest John Sayles movie in preview the other night. CASA DE LOS BABYS is more of Sayles' social commentary on an intimate dramatic level, with great performances from a clutch of Anglo women waiting in some Latin American country for babies to adopt: Daryl Hannah, Marcia Gay Harden, Mary Steenburgen, Lili Taylor, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Susan Lynch. Rita Moreno runs their hotel, and is part of the racket to soak the Americans as much as possible, but who's stealing from who? Less didactic and more deeply felt than Sayles' last effort, this one has a lot of emotion and some good observations about the intersection of the First and Third Worlds. - Glenn Erickson

Time marches on, and, thanks to a delay, I'm getting plenty of reviews done. More horror on the weekend, but this time around it's a mix of musicals, a classic, and a great docu.

Warners' The Kid Stays in the Picture is a riveting partisan docu on the wild high life of producer/studio head Robert Evans, told in his own words. Dazzling graphics and great clips illustrate this guy's roller-coaster adventures in Hollywood. The extras include about 20 minutes of really great gag-reel comedy, with Dustin Hoffman doing murderously funny, sometimes obscene imitations of Evans. Really something.

Criterion brings out a definitive disc of Vittorio De Sica's Umberto D., the last and acknowledged apex of the Italian Neorealist movement. A helpless pensioner finds himself pushed out of his room and abandoned by society, one indifferent person at a time. When he realizes he can't even keep his pet dog, it's just too much. With a lengthy TV show about De Sica, and a new interview with the woman who played Umberto's only friend, a young maid.

Columbia TriStar's Cover Girl is an attractive presentation of a flashy musical known for three things: elevating the status of dream girl Rita Hayworth, premiering the progressive technical-dance talents of Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, and just being an expensive Technicolor musical made at Columbia! Gene dances with himself, and Rita sings Long Ago and Far Away.

Fox's Hello, Dolly! is a great-looking, great-sounding disc of a musical with some classic moments but an overall feeling of emptiness. Walter Matthau and Barbara Streisand give it their best, but they're woefully miscast, and the giant production plays like an epitaph for the Old Hollywood nobody wanted to see any more. With Louis Armstrong.

It's a last-minute notice, but I just heard about it. Good friend Darren Gross has organized a PAPER MOON event tonight at 7:30 at the Vista Theater, 4473 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, CA - 90020 323-660-6639. I don't know who will be in attendance, but there should be a nice roundup of personalities.

With all the virus buzz going around, when you write, please make your Email subject lines read like mail specific to Savant or some subject in the Column. I wipe out lots of spam every day (I think I get it all), and too often I can't figure out whether to open something or toss it. Yesterday I deleted an Email by mistake - just saw a jumble of letters and hit the button, and only afterwards realized that it said IAMMMMW : the acronym for IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD. So you might want to re-send that one, if you read this, whoever you are ... sorry. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

Slipping two more reviews in before the deadline - an extra-fancy, extra-gory horror film, and one of the better pictures of the early 70s.

Anchor Bay is presenting George Romero's Day of the Dead in a deluxe presentation, kind of a box of gore tied with a pink ribbon. The rather good movie is enhanced with an excellent docu and fascinating BTS coverage of the film's amazing makeup effects.

Paramount's Paper Moon is another excellent disc, with a fine set of docus to back up an excellent transfer of Peter Bogdanovich's (perhaps) best movie. Tatum O'Neal is still a wonderment, the youngest actor ever to receive an acting Oscar.

Some interesting news: MGM is making a new 70MM print for the 40th Anniversaries of both IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD and the Cinerama Dome. But no, it is not an uncut version. The 70MM negative was cut to match the 35MM release. The print will have the overture, entr'acte music, and exit music. The only "new" thing on this 70MM print are the police calls that will be played in the lobby during the intermission.

The 70MM print will be playing at the Dome Oct. 16-19. The opening night will be a benefit for a scholarship at UCLA, but tickets might be as low as $20. Mrs. Kramer is trying to get surviving cast members to attend that night. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson

It's Sunday already, and you'll be happy to know that there'll be no food poisoning at the Savant homestead - the refrigerator is now fixed, thank you. Another motley selection of suspicious cinema awaits:

John Carpenter's golden goose Halloween re-emerges from the shadows once more, in a two-disc Anchor Bay special edition in the cool-sounding but otherwise indeterminate Divimax presentation. Jamie Lee Curtis is still the cutest carving knife victim on the block.

Artisan is front and center with a fairly obscure but very satisfying little Western called Four Faces West. Joel McCrea and Frances Dee are at the center of this tough-but-sentimental winner that has the charm of a Western from the silent days.

The Billy Wilder collection has a number of previously-released discs; Savant reviewed The Apartment two years ago but backtracks to touch down on the one-year-old Irma La Douce. Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine re-team in this big color dirty joke about prostitution in Paris. As a fairy tale it's not bad, but it's still funnier when seen before Jean Luc Godard's My Life to Live. Then again, anything is.

That takes up to the new week ... been looking at new episodes of The Outer Limits Season 2, and they're really good! Thanks, Glenn Erickson

It's back to good old-fashioned black & white horror, and a brand new release (don't faint!) from William Friedkin.

Warners' The Haunting is the original chiller-diller, still probably the best 'standard' ghost movie. Robert Wise uses every technique available to do the ultimate Val Lewton-style horror film.

Paramount's The Hunted is a crackling action picture that avoids contemporary action-cutting trends (a good thing) but skimps on the characters. Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro are a pair of real cut-ups, in some of the most gruelling knife fights ever filmed.

Artisan reaches deep into the Republic library for another gem, George Cukor's A Double Life. A film noir about backstage madness on Broadway, this won an Oscar for Ronald Colman and nominations for its writers and director, and is one of those pictures that's not as well known as it should be.

So howdy again. Am typing away like a happy little reviewer. I've been tipped off that people with access to CostCo warehouse stores (they're membership) may have access to the not-for-sale DVD of SUNRISE, that so far one has to send in three proof of purchase receipts, yadda yadda, to get. Some CostCo stores are said to be selling the disc as an extra with three-packs of other Fox Studio Classics films. I went to my store today, and no such bargain was available, but you may be luckier. More reviews on Sunday ... thanks, Glenn Erickson

Today's headlines: The Heat Blasts On ... and Savant has More Reviews.

Warners warms the hearts of fans of classic horror, with a double bill disc of House of Wax & The Mystery of the Wax Museum. The 1953 Vincent Price shocker, originally in Naturalvision Third Dimension, is paired with the 1933 original, itself in an obsolete color format, Two-Strip Technicolor. The old show stars the great ingenue Fay Wray in top screaming form.

Paramount also has a gem, Peter Bogdanovich's first real feature, Targets, which is not about a retail chain. The story behind this one is pretty amazing, and it's given in a detailed Bogdanovich commentary and interview. Boris Karloff is Byron Orlock, a horror star who wants to retire because his kind of movies are out of date. Fate proves him right, when he crosses paths with modern terror in the form of a mad sniper. A confected idea is given brilliant treatment here.

Something Weird and Image weigh in with the irresistably tacky-sounding The Wild Wild World of Jayne Mansfield, a monument to the pre-hardcore sleaze come-on that plumbs the dire depths of bad taste. See Jayne ogle Italian streetwalkers and talk about her basically shy nature! With one of those foreign 'documentaries' about sexual misadjustment, The Labyrinth of Sex.

Savant had another review, but thought better of posting it before reading it a few more times ... it's hard sometimes to say what's wrong with a movie without sounding like a complete grouch. More Wilder, more Anchor Bay and MGM horror (just got in the MGM sexy Vampire double bill), and more Criterion and HVE art pictures are on the way. Glenn Erickson

Another pair of reviews today, as California roasts in its hottest temperatures yet. Only ten AM, and it's time to turn on the AC. But first, the updates:

Warners' Casablanca will cause some to say, 'what, again?', but the studio archivists have managed to come up with some interesting extras with appeal for the most jaded fan. The transfer is one of the new digital cleanups, and Savant finds it very much an improvement.

Miramax agains stresses romance over politics with its muted anti-American The Quiet American, so muted in fact that it takes a Vietnam timeline and a partisan commentary from the director to make many audiences sure of what the film wants to say. Europe's colonial tradition is compared to a gentleman with his kept woman, in Grahame Greene's timely story. With truly impressive performances from Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser.

Hopefully more reviews before the end of the week; lots of projects going on here (what, Savant have a life?) but the time to write still presents itself ... Thanks for the patience, Glenn Erickson

Just two reviews up tonight - I'm back into editing mode, so will be trying more frequent updates with fewer titles. Thanks for the support ...

The hotly awaited The Thing from Another World touches down in a presentable disc with all of its oft-trimmed scenes intact. Writer Robin Brunet helps with a rundown of the reinstated footage, while Savant runs amuck in the interpretation department ...

Audrey Hepburn's fragile vulnerability makes Wait Until Dark an especially gripping thriller, what with creepy Alan Arkin breathing down her neck, and Bond director Terence Young behind the camera to keep the complicated & clever story on track. The scares & jolts delivered by this one are better than most horror movies!

Some interesting titles slipped in yesterday, a notorious-looking package from Something Weird and some vintage Romero remastered from Anchor Bay. I'll try to keep the reviews from backing up! Thanks, Glenn Erickson

Another good evening to all. Savant rounds the week out with a Billy Wilder comedy about the Cold War, a positive docu on America's Cuban Cold War boogeyman, and a guest review of a gargantuan music docu disc from Region 2 in the UK.

MGM's One, Two, Three finally gets the great video presentation it deserves in this new MGM encoding. The fast-paced laugh machine is still a riot of topical and political references from 1961, made just as the Berlin Wall went up, and people stopped laughing about this stuff. James Cagney is magnificent in one of his last performances.

First Run Features' Fidel is a docu on the Cuban revolutionary and strongman that takes a tack opposite the opinion of our State Department - the POV of the dictator as seen by the rest of the world. Definitely a partisan affair, it presents Castro as an important leader, without the rhetoric. Savant thinks America is great because writers and filmmakers are allowed to make statements like this.

Northern UK correspondent Lee Broughton gives us a detailed look at an enormous disc set called The Strange World of Northern Soul, an exhaustive study of the 70s trend in England of reviving 60s American soul music and its performers, even many who hadn't much success in the states originally. The dance hall movement seems to correspond roughly to our Disco craze, but sounds a lot more interesting. Region 2 and PAL, of course.

Still no Warners genre discs ... maybe tomorrow. Thanks, Glenn ("thinking carrot") Erickson

Happy weekend! I have more Billy Wilder on tap, and a nifty set of Saturday Night Live music performances.

MGM's Avanti! is an unappreciated romantic gem, and the perfect film to show someone who wants to relax. Jack Lemmon and Juliet Mills retrace the steps of their adulterous parents, and discover love, Italian style. With Clive Revill.

MGM's Kiss Me, Stupid, a notorious sex comedy that brought the wrath of the MPAA and the Catholics down on Hollywood and helped precipitate the Valenti ratings system, is an unabashedly lewd morality play that emphasizes Play over Morals. The DVD also reinstates an original censored scene, never shown in the United States. Contrary to rumor, this film is not the final chapter in the Kiss Me Trilogy of Kiss Me Deadly and Kiss Me Kate. But it does have Dean Martin, Kim Novak, Ray Walston and Felicia Farr.

Lion's Gate's Saturday Night Live: 25 Years of Music crams a quarter century of live performances and musical skits onto a 5 disc set. All the suspects are here (Savant includes a listing of songs) plus classic musical sketches like Disco Tut. Golden idols!

Horn-tooting time - Roger Ebert quoted me in his review of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly today!

I'm getting tons of helpful mail on the upcoming Warners' release The Thing from Another World, and already have the review partially written. I can't wait for it either, and won't hold it up. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson

Savant's back in action, after 7 whole days and no new reviews. They'll be coming pretty quickly now, however, with a box of Billy Wilders finally arrived. Writing about a Wilder movie isn't even work. I enjoyed my little break, and am looking forward to a bunch of hot titles in August ...

MGM's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is a wonderful picture given so-so treatment on DVD. The extras that help explain the lost long version are very good, but the transfer has some drawbacks. Highly recommended, just the same.

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark has been out for almost two years, but Anchor Bay is reissuing it in a bargain double bill, so I took this opportunity to review it, maybe to warm up for the exciting horrors coming in August. Cassandra Peterson's wit and daring make a corny/campy exercise into a fun show.

Image and Blackhawk have released a pair of exotic early films as a double bill: Alla Nazimova's silent Salomé, and the early talkie experiment Lot in Sodom. Both are plenty weird, but the second is one of the highlights of artsy erotic moviemaking.

Well, the Wilders will be rolling out soon, along with a tall stack of interesting horror and sci fi films from Warners and MGM (and possibly a couple more Anchor Bays). The Haunting, House of Wax/Mystery of the Wax Museum and The Thing from Another World are definitely on their way, among others. Every time a classic 50s sci fi comes out, I can feel the old tingle ... hope the Hawks film is an uncut version! Thanks, Glenn Erickson