Savant's new reviews today are

The Bodyguard (special edition) Warners
Fall Guy Home Vision Entertainment
Return to Peyton Place Fox and
All in a Night's Work Paramount

Some nice emails this week. I got more than one letter letting me know that Marc Singer of The Beastmaster isn't the surfer-dude slacker I implied in my review; he's an accomplished stage actor and is well-known for good performances in Shakespeare. I stand corrected ... but on the evidence of The Beastmaster, can I be blamed?

Several readers pointed me to an NTSC special edition disc of the original East-German version of First Spaceship on Venus, at an exhorbitant price. This has been a Savant wanna-have for ages, ever since seeing a PAL disc of the same original version, but without English subtitles. A friend who contacted DEFA by E-mail was told that there will be a more affordable domestic special edition this fall; I was asked not to mention the specific company yet. My original rewritten and thoroughly confusing review of First Spaceship on Venus is here.

It looks like I'll be going to the 9:30 Monday screening of Mothra at the New Beverly in Los Angeles; On Sunday night they're going to be giving out some strange awards in this town and everybody seems to want to watch that on television. So if anybody wants to say hi, or if you want to send your assassins, I'll be wearing my red bowling tennies and eating a tub of forbidden non-diet popcorn. The New Beverly has a new stereo sound system I haven't heard yet, and it's possible Mothra will be in stereo ... thanks, Glenn "just call me Bulldog" Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

Twentieth Century Columbia
The Life of Emile Zola Warners
The Cat and the Canary Image/Blackhawk and
The Beastmaster Anchor Bay

Writing is a joy this week. Too rainy to go anywhere ... as long as the power holds out and the computer and the TV work, can't miss.

Just some little notices today. Sherman Torgan of The New Beverly is showing a Kaiju Double bill starting this Sunday, the original GOJIRA from last year's revival plus Columbia's newly-struck subtitled, Japanese Version of MOSURA -- MOTHRA! The charming monster fairy tale has great music, especially now with a second mysterious song by the tiny twin princesses - the Peanuts - restored. I have a no-subtitles Japanese laserdisc of this, but I think I'm going to have to go see it on a screen. Mike Schlesinger over at Columbia is doing a fine job taking care of Columbia's Toho releases: MOTHRA - THE H-MAN, BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE.

Also, ace genre writer/interviewer Tom Weaver has reportedly posted on the net that Criterion may be prepping an uncut version of CORRIDORS OF BLOOD, the Karloff/Chris Lee horror movie about experimental anaesthesia that's notorious for having several seconds of surgical shock removed. The movie isn't bad at all (Lee plays a colorful creep named Resurrection Joe) and would be a big surprise to see out under the Criterion banner. Hope it isn't just a rumor!

Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

A Letter to Three Wives Fox
Dunsmore Image
It Happened to Jane Columbia and
Behold a Pale Horse Columbia

We're back with the rain in So Cal ... but Savant is on a writing vacation for at least a week, doing some serious Xtreme Keyboarding with no distractions. It's a bliss all its own.

Lots of mail about the John Badham Dracula, most of it split on the right thing to do with the film. But better news for the upcoming disc of The Agony and the Ecstasy. Several online listings call it a pan-scan disc. Savant has a soon-to-be-reviewed Fox screener that's both 2:35 and enhanced, exactly what we'd expect from the original format-friendly Fox ("good studio! good studio!").

Other mail mentions include no small level of enthusiasm for Warners' upcoming 'Controversial' film collection. Fox's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn has apparently been pushed back. For all-region fans, there's now apparently a pricey Japanese collection of rare Karel Zeman films - his whole filmography. Fearless leader Geoffrey Kleinman of DVDTalk is renewing efforts to get screeners for Media Blasters' Toho Sci-Fi releases. C'mon, MB, people are waiting for the high sign on quality before buying these, and unless they're upside down and purple, Savant's a sucker for things like Matango: Fungus of Terror, Dagora, Space Monster and Varan the Unreviewable, uh, Unbelievable.

Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

Casque d'or Criterion
Leave Her to Heaven Fox
Fidel Castro PBS and
Satan Never Sleeps Fox

A quick drop-off of reviews today ... gotta make an online appointment on time. I have one reader with some info that might be passed around, if only to get a confirmation. He says that a DVD release of the 1979 Dracula has been 'creatively retransferred' by its director John Badham to desaturate almost all the color except for the reds of blood, and that Badham's explanation is that he wanted to do this for the film theatrically but was overruled. The reader misses the bright colors he remembers and wishes there were enough concern to have the picture brought out again (don't know how likely that is). Is there some online information I can look into on this? Is his description of the color accurate?

Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

We Were Strangers Columbia
The Magic Voyage of Sinbad & The Day the Earth Froze Retromedia
The Broadway Melody Warner
Smithereens Blue Underground and
The Mansion of Madness Mondo Macabro

A sunny Saturday after two rainy days in LA ... and everybody seems to be out in the sunshine except Savant, who is dutifully compiling his reviews. I have a healthy backlog to catch up on but feel up to the task. I can just start to tell that the days are getting a bit longer ... Springtime is terrific each and every year, even here in season-challenged California. Thanks for reading, Glenn

Savant's new reviews today are

Touchez pas au grisbi Criterion
All Night Long Universal and
Charley Varrick Universal

Three quick reviews and a fast column tonight ... there's taxes, business taxes, jury duty, editing work, and a changeover to a new computer to manage this week. But check out Fox's pix just announced for May 24: Anna and The King of Siam, The Best of Everything, The Bravados, Broken Lance, Buffalo Bill, The Detective, Drums Along the Mohawk, A Farewell to Arms, Forty Guns, The Frogmen, Lady in Cement, The Razor's Edge, Tony Rome, and Warlock. What a haul. And Warners' "Controversial" boxed set, for May 10: I am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang, Fury, Bad Day at Black Rock, Blackboard Jungle, A Face in the Crowd, Advise and Consent and The Americanization of Emily. There's a lot for Savant to pontificate on there - I'll really be able to annoy people! Back soon with more reviews - Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

The Warner Gangsters Collection:
Little Caesar, Public Enemy, The Petrified Forest, Angels with Dirty Faces, The Roaring Twenties, White Heat
Warner DVD and
The King of Kings Criterion

The Gangster box was such a review workout that I'm chalking myself up for seven reviews this week, not two. All I wish is that I could get these screeners sooner so that the Savant reviews didn't have to come out two weeks past street date ... but better late than never.

There are a lot of desirable discos atop the Savant monitor of Joy, awaiting their turn to be spun on the Savant cheapest-DVD-player-in-the-store ... this should be an exciting month. Thanks for all the support, even from the reader with all the good advice for my commentary delivery on Night and the City ... I can use it! Thanks, Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

Thieves' Highway Criterion
October Sky Universal
La commare secca Criterion and
La Ciénaga Home Vision Entertainment

"Rise and Shine, Campers, 'cause it's Coooold out there!" After looking at the weather reports I think an awful lot of New Englanders and New Yorkers aren't going to be seeing their shadows today, and are therefore doomed to experience six more weeks of winter. Being in Los Angeles, I'd say tough luck, but my own kids (sniff!) are back (sniff! sniff!) there, freezing their earlobes off in the subzero temperatures. Hopefully things will get better for them before we change the family name to De Blochamps. (Arcane film reference, there, to let you know Savant is still the same immature fellow you expect to read!)

The Warner gangster box set arrived ... a day after street date, so once again Savant will endeavor to make up in quality what he lacks in timeliness. I have to review these one at a time; they're too much fun to just slough off with a blanket review.

Saw THE AVIATOR last night, and I have to tell you although the picture was interesting, I'm sick to the gills of action scenes (in this case aerial shots) that are simply animated cartoons given a realistic sheen through computer graphics. Again and again we had a long-zoom shot from infinity, through the nose of a flying aircraft, right up to Leonardo DiCaprio's blue eyes ... and we know we're looking at a digital sandwich and nothing to get excited about. I almost prefer sloppy rear projection or travelling mattes - at least you know somebody went up in an airplane. Gripe gripe gripe. Frankly, the creaky shots of zooming biplanes in Hell's Angels were twice as exciting, even when they were models.

Also got a mess-o Fox dramas in, and a Barbra Streisand serio-comedy that I actually think is terrific, so it will be a busy viewing weekend. Thanks for all the fun! Glenn Erickson