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January 30, 2004

Savant's new reviews today are

Diary of a Country Priest Criterion
Allegro non troppo Home Vision
and
Grand Hotel Warner.

January is slipping away, but the writing is still rewarding and fun, so I've decided to let it go. Filmmaker friend Don Adams (no, not that one) 'turned me on' to a great treat today, a web-based radio station dedicated completely to Psychedelic Rock from the late '60s. It's a lot of fun, as it plays tons of stuff I don't remember ever hearing. Along with less familiar stuff from Jefferson Airplane, et al., I just heard one of the songs from the movie THE PRESIDENT'S ANALYST.

The station is called Technicolor Web of Sound: Sixties Psychedelic Web Radio, and it's a real treat.

Not a heck of a lot to say for myself other than that ... thanks for all the letters, corrections, and clarifications on the reviews! Glenn Erickson



January 26, 2004

Savant's new reviews today are

Gaslight double bill Warner
Kanto Wanderer HVe/American Cinematheque
and
The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea Image.

Happy Monday ... I just got a report from a correspondent who went to three of the American Cinematheque's 70mm screenings this weekend:

"Hi Glenn. Jacques Tati's PLAYTIME looked great, and made more sense on the big screen than on the soft, cropped VHS I saw years ago. Considering that it's largely an indictment of modern living, the tone of the film is curiously gentle.

The brand-new Todd-AO print of THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES was truly stunning, almost like an IMAX movie. Scott McQueen worked with Fox to have the new print ready for the 100th anniversary of flight. Stuart Whitman (who didn't seem to remember much) and Ken Annakin did a Q&A after the movie. Annakin said that Peter Sellers was originally going to play both the Gert Frobe and Terry-Thomas roles; Dick Van Dyke was to have Whitman's part. The film was offered to UA, but they turned it down because they were gambling on MAD WORLD.

The film itself isn't very funny, but it's harmless, amiable fluff. Whitman is the weak link in the cast--they needed someone with more charisma or star power. Terry-Thomas can take almost any material and make it amusing; I wish his part had been bigger.

The IT'S A MAD MAD MAD WORLD print was O.K. overall, but the color timing was a little off in some scenes; it's like watching a first answer print that needs a bit of tweaking. They did include the intermission police calls that inform the audience what's going on during the break. We're told at one point that "The little boy is throwing rocks at Otto Meyer now", and later that "Otto Meyer is on a rock in the middle of the stream yelling at the little boy, even though he's been gone for 20 minutes.""

In addition to the Savant reviews above, I've added a short notice to the DVDTalk review database only: Annie (1982).

You also might want to revisit the review of Swing Shift if you're interested in Jonathan Demme's suppressed original cut for that film ... there's a link to an article that goes into it in detail. Thanks for reading, Glenn E.



January 22, 2004

Savant's new reviews today are

The Great Ziegfeld Warner
It Should Happen to You! Columbia TriStar and
The Best of Soul Cinema:
Coffy - Hell Up In Harlem - Foxy Brown -
Cooley High - I'm Gonna Git You Sucka!
MGM

Ann Miller passed away today. As an editor, I've run into my share of celebrities now and then but I'll always remember when Ms. Miller called my editing room looking for my producer on the laser show for That's Entertainment 3. "Hi Honey!" she said, with just the Texas drawl you'd expect. She made show business look simple and tap dancing talent seem natural, and I guess the only way she could have lasted so long, so strong is that she really was 13 when she broke into the movies.

I saw one of the MGM Ingmar Bergman discs last night and the transfer was impeccable, besting by far the VHS promos I made ten years ago. I'm looking forward to that set and learning more about the Svensk director in the extras.

I'm sort of waiting on news for a lot of discs right now. Unexpected goodies from Home Vision and Criterion are arriving daily to take up the slack while I wait for the likes of Love at Large, Flesh + Blood, Ed Wood, My Fair Lady, Diary of Anne Frank, Black Widow and Peyton Place. And that just brings us to February.

This is a DVD promotion, but the films being screened are good enough to mention here, in case you've missed any of them. Criterion and the Independent Film Channel (IFC) are holding a Crimewave film series on Friday, January 30 and Saturday January 31, showing a series of top pictures including Tokyo Drifter, Branded to Kill, Man Bites Dog, Honeymoon Killers and Alphaville. There's also a contest promotion called IFC Presents The Criterion Crime Wave Sweepstakes from January 11 to February 16 at www.amazon.com/crimewave. Prizes include a Home Theater System, watches from IFC, DVDs from The Criterion Collection, and Amazon.com gift certificates. Savant is disqualified (snfff!, injustice!) from entering, and is actively pursuing ways of cheating. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson



January 19, 2004

Savant's new reviews today are

One from the Heart Fantoma
Mutiny on the Bounty Warner
Swing Shift Warner and
Saturday Night Live: Halloween & Christmas Specials Lion's Gate.

Note, Jan. 19: I've already altered the review for ONE FROM THE HEART - I initially panned the image quality and after being advised to check it on other equipment, I'm convinced I was wrong ... the disc is OK. if you've already read the ONE FROM THE HEART review, please check it again before making a decision about Fantoma's disc. Apologies, Glenn Erickson

It's Martin Luther King day, but Savant labors on while others play ... the result of having such an odd work schedule, I suppose. Other sites are calling January and February dull months for big releases, but they're super for Savant, as this is the time all the studios sneak out their most interesting library titles.

Here in LA the Cinematheque is starting another 70mm festival, showing stuff like HELLO DOLLY and THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES, that can look pretty spectacular on a big screen in the larger format. Later on this month the New Beverly will be showing TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI (or something like that), a rare French crime film I'm interested in seeing ... so maybe I'll be getting out of the house sooner than I think ... Thanks, Glenn Erickson



January 17, 2004

Savant's new reviews today are

The Accidental Tourist Warner
The Rules of the Game Criterion and
Cure Home Vision / American Cinematheque.

Another happy week in the land of DVDs. The Accidental Tourist is a title I've been hoping would come out for years.

Another slew of interesting titles showed up today including Fantoma's enticing new disc of Coppola's One from the Heart. I was working on the Zoetrope lot when the experimental musical was being shot in 1980, so I'll be looking forward to checking out the extras. I'm presently laboring over a pile of Soul Cinema discs, which are educational to this honky reviewer, to say the least. I also have some reviews of Warners classics ready that I can't post more than two weeks before street date. So why do I watch a disc that comes out in March now, when I can't review it for almost a month? Go figure.

I hope I haven't missed MGM's Love at Large, a personal favorite. MGM sometimes gets their review copies out late, so I'll hold on a few more days. It came out last Tuesday and is a romantic oddity that always struck me the right way. Back on Tuesday! Glenn Erickson



January 13, 2004

Savant's new reviews today are

Ikiru Criterion
Aswang & The Living Corpse and
Blackmail Is My Life HVe/American Cinematheque.

Another week gone by ... and some good DVDs to be seen. Titles like IKIRU and A BRIEF VACATION aren't going to be Wal-mart sellouts, but will be snapped up by the fans of class-act cinema. I saw BIG FISH over the weekend and liked it overall, but thought it a little dull and subdued. With some of the casting and subject matter, it played like a Coen Bros. pic accidentally directed by Tim Burton. I know plenty of grumblers who've turned against Tim, but this is the first time that one of his films was lacking in the magic department. Some of the whimsical episodes were unusually flat, and the movie seemed to miss too many aimed-for laughs. That said, the thrust of the story was engaging, the ending very satisfying, and Albert Finney and Jessica Lange wonderful.

Savant's looking forward to THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST, which hopefully is on its way to my mailbox as I write. Thank you, Glenn Erickson



January 11, 2004

Savant's new reviews today are

A Brief Vacation Home Vision
La Terre Milestone/Image and
I Was a Male War Bride Fox

Responsibilities and a shifting schedule are keeping the number of Savant's reviews down, but they're still coming sort-of on schedule. I've been catching up on screenings. Just saw last summer's PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN for the first, time, and it wasn't bad at all. MONA LISA SMILE was thin and forced, with some good acting; SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE was delightful, its few faults totally overwhelmed by a witty script and absorbing performances. Will be seeing BIG FISH shortly; after Gary Teetzel's recommendation, I'm looking forward to it. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson



January 06, 2004

Savant's new reviews today are

The Postman Always Rings Twice Warner and
The Great Gatsby Paramount.

Not much to say for myself today; I've been (yes, I confess) attending to family matters and such, and neglecting the reviews a bit, if anybody's counting.

What new discs am I looking forward to the most? That's easy. Ed Wood. Love at Large. The Accidental Tourist. Allegro non troppo. Schindler's List. The Disney Archives sets for Tomorrowland and WW2. And somewhere out there in the future, but promised this year, Mill of the Stone Women, The Legendary Curse of Lemora and Until the End of the World. Not promised but hopeful: Eyes without a Face, with my optimism based only on a theatrical reissue. I'm told that the original Japanese Godzilla, without Raymond Burr but with all the serious anti-nuke content, will make it to theater screens as a re-issue but probably not to DVD. Thanks, Glenn Erickson



January 04, 2004

Savant's new reviews today are

Bay of Angels Wellspring
People Will Talk Fox
and
Born to Be Bad Fox

Hello, and welcome to what's started out as a cold year in Los Angeles. A downpour missed washing out the Rose Parade by one day, so I guess the Pasadena folks are congratulating themselves on their good luck once again.

January isn't big for new titles this year but between now and February 10 or so there's going to be a tall stack of the kind of catalog material Savant loves. A bit later in February, high art will be all over the map, with MGM's Ingmar Bergman films, Warner's Viscontis, and Criterion pickpocketing a fancy disk of Sam Fuller's Pickup on South Street in a new alliance with Fox. It'll be a great quarter for reviews. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson


Don't forget to write Savant at [email protected].

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