Savant's new reviews today are

Hi ... just got my review disc of THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY special edition today, and I'm very happy with it. Should have a review for it by Sunday, along with the other two Hammer releases from last Tuesday. Also got the new GREAT ESCAPE special edition, and can't wait to see what they've done with it. Thanks again, Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

Hello. Here's some news. Just about a year ago Warners released and Savant reviewed a rather cockeyed DVD of the great musical Kiss Me Kate. After a discontented reaction from the web, the Studio did the absolute right thing, they re-pressed the show with a more balanced framing and quietly reissued it. Savant just got his replacement copy of the new disc and is very pleased with the transfer - objects, people and the K of KISS in the title are no longer cropped offscreen on the left.

If you have an original KATE disc, Warners' trade-in policy may still be in effect. If you write to this address

[email protected]

saying that you have an earlier DVD of KATE to exchange, they'll send you a prepaid mailer to send it to the studio. Make sure you put your mailing address in your email as well.

Thanks, Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

I'd wanted to review a great Kino disc of Douglas Sirk's La Habanera today. My particular review copy unfortunately had a flaw that prevented me from viewing the second half of the movie. Filmed partly in Puerto Rico by the Nazi-dominated UFA, the movie has all kinds of sublimated political propaganda, helpfully pointed out in the disc's terrific program notes. It was shaping up as a fascinating show. I'm hoping for a replacement, if only to find out what happens in this overboiled Teutonic soap opera.

Haven't got the new MGM discs lately, but some of the attractive Warner titles, especially the new Hammer films, are due in soon. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

Ah, Savant's back with something to review ... the clutter of cellophane on the floor, those ridiculous security stickers peeled off and fresh discuses, diskii, duskoo - video in the player.

It's three hits and a miss this week with the unseen item being the big surprise. ROXIE HART is a solid entertainment from beginning to end and proof positive that older movies are bolder and smarter than new ones. SHERMAN'S MARCH is a droll delight that anyone adrift in romantic straits will appreciate. THE LAST OF SHEILA is a hard-to-see puzzle picture in perfect shape. Only HALF A SIXPENCE is less than half a movie - its appeal escaped me completely.

Coming up quick should be BLAZE, THE LITTLE PRINCE, THE MOLLY MAGUIRES and LA HABANERA ; I also have a few on the way from the far-flung future of May - DESK SET, CIRCLE OF DECEIT, DOWN TO EARTH, THE 300 SPARTANS and PRINCE VALIANT. HICKEY AND BOGGS is a no-show; I figure the distributor may have discovered the problem with its ownership.

Hoped for but not yet spotted are Sweeney Todd, Jack the Giant Killer, I Could Go On Singing, Helter Skelter, Helen of Troy, Frankenstein Must be Destroyed and Fast Company. I'm somewhat more certain of getting Criterion's raft of exceptional treasures - The Tin Drum, Stray Dog, Smiles of a Summer Night, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse and The Leopard. They'll get my attention as soon as they come in the door. It's a really dense pack of genre favorites hitting the racks this spring, pictures that Savant loves - and I'll try to spin as many as possible.

Lots of fixes and addendums to reviews this week from helpful correspondents - thanks to the readers who have better info to share on subjects like Fritz Lang and Robert Wise. If the C.I.A. ran this way, there'd be no troub - Watch it, Glenn. Thanks for all the help, GE

Savant's new reviews today are

Yes, Raw Meat is from last year, but I finally caught up with it and thought it was pretty good. There's a tendency among core genre fans to adopt standards that get way out of whack with reality. To read about the 1971 Murders in the Rue Morgue you'd think it was a lost masterpiece, but when it showed up it was pretty dismal, even in a beautiful restored edition. I certainly hope that Mill of the Stone Women isn't disappointing when it finally gets here. (Savant doesn't foster the illusion that he gets every screener before street date. Quite the opposite.)

Liliom is a different case. The movie is extremely good, and Kino has found a decent element for transfer. The film is so rare, Fritz Lang fans are sure to be as pleased as Billy Wilder fans were last year to finally see Mauvaise Graine. Both are in reasonable but not exemplary quality. How do you tell readers that a disc is worth their tight DVD dollars, when the images aren't pristine?

Thanks, Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

In addition to the Savant reviews above, I've added a short notice to the DVDTalk review database only: Phase IV .

Hi, It's Easter Sunday and I ran out of discs to review anyway, so there's only three this weekend, good stuff from Criterion (a borrowed screener), Home Vision (something I should have reviewed weeks ago) and Fantoma (brand-new and quite good!). There's a ton of interesting library titles this month. Some are on the way and I hope a lot more are as well.

Enjoy the holiday, and watch out for hostile pink bunnies, they're very sneaky, and they've become really militant after that Mel Gibson movie. Thanks! Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

The big surprise this week is the KRISTIN LAVRANSDATTER movie which I'd frankly never heard of - it's the best thing I've seen in weeks, a really beautiful Norwegian epic.

I just got a flyer from MGM for a new musical promotion that says that MAN OF LA MANCHA, FOLLOW THAT DREAM, I COULD GO ON SINGING and BILLIE will all be "standard" format, even though all are widescreen or CinemaScope. My word from inside MGM is that two of the DVDs will actually be different - LA MANCHA will be 16:9 only, and I COULD GO ON SINGING will be 2:35 letterbox flat. No news on the other two; supposedly the correct ARs were announced but these pub fliers still have the old news. Since this is word of mouth, I hope I'm not in error - the Judy Garland film looks pretty sad when pan-scanned.

Sometimes whining (politely) pays off - I decried the lack of a MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN screener, and the distributor is generously sending me one to review. Likewise a new disc of HICKEY AND BOGGS, which is on its way after I asked a publicist from whom I normally don't receive screeners. I'll be curious to find out whose disc HICKEY AND BOGGS is; it's a UA picture and I always thought it would be distributed on DVD by MGM.

Thanks for all the letters, and I hope I didn't throw too many out because the subject lines were suspicious .... Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

I have a really good reason to readers to go back and look at an older review; the mini-crisis of the Ingmar Bergman boxed set is the topic discussed in a rebuttal letter from Nick Wrigley, now appended to the review of Hour of the Wolf.

And generous correspondent Ted Todorov offered this tech-savvy advice on the subject of overscanning on monitors, something that I often say makes fine distinctions in Aspect Ratios irrelevant:

"...the easiest and for many people most practical method of eliminating overscan:

This is the easiest, cheapest and I suspect most widespread method for DVD viewers to eliminate overscan, especially for those of us without the technical knowledge necessary to adjust a TV's factory menu."

Thanks Ted .... Glenn Erickson

I didn't wake up with a three-pointed hat so I guess I've escaped being King of the Fools for another year. But tonight I've got three reviews of my own and one from UK-based correspondent Lee Broughton:

Savant's new reviews are

No super news this week. I'm keeping up and hoping for a break in the editing schedule (21 days straight and counting) to do a few things like pay taxes (there's a war on, you know) and replace a water heater. I did get the brakes on the van fixed, so people around the world can stop worrying for me.

I have to say I love editing. I'm not getting rich but the projects are just what I need - after 30 years doing this work, I'm not sure I could make myself cut a show I didn't care about. The GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY special edition double disc comes out in about a month. I'm very excited about that particular project as I had a lot of input in the extras beyond just cutting.

Thanks for all the support. BTW if you write, please be sure to make your subject lines NOT look like the spam I'm getting - 3-word "personal" messages that all turn out to be about drugs for sale or other such scams. Thanks! Glenn Erickson