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March 29, 2005

Savant's new reviews today are

Viva María! MGM
Rendez-vous Home Vision
Enchantment MGM and
Brigadoon Warners

A couple of pieces of notable news so far this week - I'm in the middle of Criterion's Kagemusha disc at the moment, and waiting to see the new Mysterians disc.

Two rather positive announcements come from The Digital Bits: June 14 has announced as the release date for Paramount's Danger: Diabolik DVD, with commentary, featurette, music video (?), teaser and theatrical trailer. This film was originally scheduled for last year, but Paramount took an unusual step and held off long enough to create special edition extras. Hopefully the disc will be fantastic. Savant's older (1999) piece on the ultimate Mario Bava color-fest can be seen Here ... it's a discussion of the film, not a review of the new disc.

Even more interesting , and hopefully not a rumor, is the word from The Digital Bits that the reason for the delay behind Universal's new release of Dune is because David Lynch has decided to become involved and help create a new extended cut. This comes is a shock because Lynch has vowed for years never to get involved with Dune again. That could be terrific news, and I hope it is true . . . Thanks, Glenn Erickson



March 26, 2005

Savant's new reviews today are

Waydowntown Home Vision Entertainment
The Sword of Doom Criterion
Stella Dallas MGM and
Islands in the Stream Paramount

Another Saturday rolls out ... with a couple of newsy items to relate beyond the suddenly splendid weather here in LA ...

Media Blasters has a new PR agent, who contacted me quite pleasantly. That was very nice, especially after all of my whining in this column. I guess the squeaky critic doesn't always have to review GREASE: DVD Savant will be getting Media Blasters screeners after all. I've received many positive letters about the two MB Tohos already out, THE MYSTERIANS and MATANGO, and should have my own (hopefully) positive notices up soon. "Good News, Good News ... the Markalites are on their way!"

MAJOR DUNDEE opens soon for brief runs in New York and Los Angeles. For those in LA who want something special, there will be a very special charity premiere held on April 13, on UCLA's ultra-wide James Bridges screen. Here's a Link to the informational page. There are going to be special guests and a show & tell with an audio-visual component as part of the evening. If anyone has questions, feel free to write me.

Good luck for the rest of this holiday weekend. Don't Kill Da Wabbit .... or otherwise be mean to the Easter Bunny ... Thanks, Glenn Erickson



March 22, 2005

Savant's new reviews today are

The Hairdresser's Husband, Tango and Le Parfum d'Yvonne
Second Sight; Pal Region 2 review by Lee Broughton
Lady in a Cage Paramount
Venus in Furs Blue Underground and
Bitter Victory Sony

Greetings from gloomy skies in Los Angeles ... not much to say that's really relevant, so I'll try to be short. I've been noticing new developments in major studio trends in regard to library product, the "old movies" that Savant loves to review. Paramount's typical release will have a good transfer but no extras. Universal is trying out a Studio Selections line of no-interactivity discs that simply play and re-play until they're turned off: No menus, or selections of any kind. And now Sony has a few discs out that have dropped all subtitles. Universal and Sony are still flirting with pan-scan only discs that drive fans crazy.

I've read speculation that DVD company executives may have decided that the library market has maxed out and have turned their interest toward seeing how the product cost can be trimmed without harming the bottom line. I was once present at a Home Video meeting where a giant contract for VHS boxes was taken from one vendor and awarded to another on the basis of a 1/4 cent saving per unit, so I can see where the incentive comes for suggesting any and all cost-cutting measures, whether they affect the quality of the product or not.

Also, I'm curious to see what happens to MGM product when (or if, as the deal isn't 100% final) Sony takes over in a month or two. One online report I read said that MGM product will all be repackaged under Sony's logo. Already some fans are upset that MGM's often bargain-priced discs may be sold at Sony's high-end price point. And I also wonder if new UA and MGM titles from the 1950s will continue to come out in non-enhanced letterboxed-flat versions, or will be retransferred in 16:9 as Sony normally does. I guess we'll have to wait and find out. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson



March 19, 2005

Savant's new reviews today are

L'eclisse Criterion
Easter Parade Warners
Yanks Univeral and
Deep Crimson Home Vision Entertainment

Happy Saturday ... Savant is catching up and enjoying the early Spring discs of all kinds. I'll be jumping all around in the timeline, as I've gotten a few titles a month in advance and still have one or two from (ahem) January to review. But with certain exceptions I can't complain. Thanks for reading and writing as always - let me remind writers that I answer every email but I don't always open emails unless there's some indication in the subject line that it was meant for me. I'm tired about hearing how I can use my bank account to launder millions from an African nation, or new ways to enlarge my ... appreciation of cheap pharmaceuticals on the web. So just put a movie-related key word in the subject line if you can. Thanks! Glenn Erickson



March 17, 2005

Savant's new reviews today are

Panic in the Streets Fox
Young Törless Criterion
Dead End MGM and
The Perfect Murder Home Vision

It's St. Patrick's Day so Savant is celebrating with movies about Germans, Indians, and Americans ...

A couple of notes: A writer friend is looking for interview subjects - she needs people who make habitual use of portable DVD players on trips, in unlikely situations ... any way except watching a DVD on a TV or a computer. If you are reasonably polite and want to play 20 questions and get quoted in a major US paper, send Savant an Email .. (above on this page)

I received some interesting corrections this week. THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY apparently does have 5.1 sound, it's just that you have to go to the audio menu to select it. The other mistakes were too embarrassing to report.

BLUE UNDERGROUND sent a nice note offering me a screener of the infamous/famous Jesus Franco film VENUS IN FURS, so it looks like I'll be selectively reviewing more of their discs from time to time. We now have at least eight smaller DVD concerns turning out terrific collectors' discs, and BU is consistently giving its wares great presentations.

Did you feel the karmic waves emanating from between the lines of that last paragraph? They're aimed at Media Blasters, ooooooo .... Savant wants the privilege of touting their marvelous Toho DVDs oooooeeeeeahhhhhh .... (smell incense burning) Om. Repeat twice daily while bowing toward Mt. Fuji.

Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson



March 15, 2005
Hello ... this is a quick mea culpa to just let you know that DVD Savant is late this week. I've got a session tomorrow that I've been working on a lot ... that's not to imply that 90% of you don't have crazy workloads or deadlines, just that this one hit me by surprise.

I've learned from a reliable source who has time to scour the web boards that the announced DVD of the 1984 DUNE, the two versions, has been postponed indefinitely. Amazon still lists it for May 10 (you know, when the real rain will come and wash all the garbage and filth off the streets) but that doesn't mean anything because it takes a while for a change to filter down to their level. So maybe it's just a rumor. If it isn't a rumor, and David Lynch is upset about the "Alan Smithee" extended version of the film, I hope that something wonderful will happen, like Lynch getting creative and rebuilding his own authorized longer version. That would be great, but I'm not holding my breath.

It looks like a friend has ordered a copy of THE MYSTERIANS anyway, so even if I do not review it, I'll get a chance to see it for myself. When you reach David Lynch, remember to have him complain to Media Blasters about my missing screener, eh?

Besides that, I 've gotten a lot of mail about altered and replaced music tracks, after my column on the mini-controversy surrounding MAJOR DUNDEE. But none of them involve taking an older film, with just one official track, stripping it off and replacing it. I still stand by my opinion that in the case of MAJOR DUNDEE, it's a noble experiment.

Thanks - more reviews probably Thursday for sure ... Glenn Erickson


March 11, 2005

Savant's new reviews today are

The Band Wagon Warner
Come and Get It MGM
Call Northside 777 Fox and
Francis of Assisi Fox

Another pleasant week in LA, making trips to the library and looking forward to upcoming assignments - the kind one hopes don't suddenly evaporate.

There's a bit of a fuss this week over the new mini-release of Sam Peckinpah's MAJOR DUNDEE which will hit New York and Los Angeles on April 15. Music score expert John Burlingame had an article entitled Resettling an Old Score in Thursday's Variety, discussing the displeasure of the president of the Society of Composers & Lyricists, Dan Foliart, over the re-scoring of the movie with an entirely new composition by Christopher Caliendo. Foliart stated that the revised DUNDEE had set a dangerous precedent, that future holders of old movies might be tempted to replace classic scores with contemporary ones. Burlingame said that studios have been known to replace the odd cue here and there when music rights were expensive or couldn't be located but that replacing an entire score was rare.

I'm not aware of too many full-score replacements either. I know of a lot of partial replacements, such as THE PRESIDENT'S ANALYST, for which certain Barry McGuire songs were replaced, and a (Eurythmics?) pop score that was replaced for home video for 1984.

There are probably other examples of full score swap-outs but the ones Savant is familiar with are several English AIP pictures, most notably THE WITCHFINDER GENERAL (THE CONQUEROR WORM), for which Orion dropped the original tracks in favor of synthesizer soundalikes. THE PRESIDENT'S ANALYST and PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES were restored for DVD, but 1984 was not. WITCHFINDER has been restored, but no DVD has been yet announced.

Columbia pictures had plenty of ammunition to justify their experiment with DUNDEE, as Sam Peckinpah's biographers affirm that the director hated Daniele Amfitheatrof's original score. It had been imposed on the movie in post-production along with 1001 other outrages to Peckinpah's vision. It doesn't take an expert to realize that the one most prominent factor crippling audience appreciation of DUNDEE has always been the music. The themes are reasonably good (my opinion) but grossly overused, while scene after scene that would play better in silence is drowned out by inappropriate noodlings or discordant phrases of Civil War-era themes. The crowning outrage was the producer's use of Mitch Miller's Sing-Along Gang. They chant the film's main theme, a mindless, jaunty march that inexplicably plays out over the aftermath of a bloody massacre.

Watching Peckinpah's epic always meant trying ignore the over-emphatic and distracting music. Nobody forgets the electronic "door chime" that goes off every time Major Dundee's Apache nemesis Sierra Charriba is mentioned - it makes the film play like Pee Wee's Playhouse.

I have seen the longer version (with the old score) and am very happy that twelve more minutes could be restored - it's an original extended cut from 1965, fully scored with Amfitheatrof music. The new scenes go a long way toward making the story coherent and satisfying.

It is a troublesome thought to think of future producers rescoring films and tossing out the old tracks. I don't think that will happen in any regular way for a couple of reasons.

The expense of arranging and recording a new score is prohibitive; DUNDEE used two different-sized orchestras and a new Mariachi band and is definitely not something whipped up on a keyboard. The Mariachis really help, by the way, as a ten-minute party sequence was previously backed by an inane Mexican cue repeated several times to fill up the time.

There are technical limitations as well. A few famous films previous to the late 1960s (like GONE WITH THE WIND, Foliart's worst-case example) have the original audio elements required to actually replace the music, but most older pictures exist only in composite tracks that will not allow the music to be separated cleanly. Perhaps future technology could make this possible, I suppose.

I also don't think marketers would consider that old movies could have a new life in release if the music were replaced ... what are they going to do, put in rap music or calypso beats or something? WUTHERING HEIGHTS isn't going to seem more modern or more commerical with new music. I don't believe Columbia approached the DUNDEE problem from that angle; I heard some of the discussion before the decision was taken.

The safe bet is always for not altering an old movie, but I think the new MAJOR DUNDEE will be of interest as an isolated experiment. I'll want to hear what the response to the new score is - personally, I have the feeling that I'll need several showings to shake the old music free from my memories ... this is one picture I've seen far too many times. I've been recutting the movie offline on my own for years, trying to see what would happen if the story were streamlined, or the narration removed. I'd like to hear what happens when the old score is backgrounded more, and with at least a third of it left out entirely. Dramatic scenes and battles could play on their own. Mitch Miller could be heard only over the end titles, or not at all.

I rather hope the controversy over the score gets some more attention because I like that idea that more people might become curious about MAJOR DUNDEE. With the new reel of footage and Christopher Caliendo's reinterpreted soundtrack, it's going to be a new experience.

I am told that Sony Pictures' eventual DVD will have both scores encoded, so the viewer will be able to compare and choose on their own. Glenn Erickson.



March 08, 2005

Savant's new reviews today are

The Seagull's Laughter Home Vision Entertainment
Howards End Merchant Ivory/ HVe
Our Town (2003) PBS/Paramount and
The Barbra Streisand Funny Girl-Funny Lady DVD Box Set Sony

Not much to say for myself today, just bouncing between different deadlines and trying to keep up (so much for my note last week urging readers to check this column out more often). Just got in a very fancy-looking Criterion disc of L'eclisse by Michelangelo Antonioni and will have to check it out soon. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson



March 04, 2005

Savant's new reviews today are

Malcolm X Warners
The Agony and The Ecstasy Fox
On A Clear Day You Can See Forever Paramount and
Tout va bien Criterion

Hello ... I've been hearing some interesting rumors. Criterion may be branching off with some kind of 'cult film' sub-company soon, which if the quality stays high augurs well for lovers of interesting fantastic films.

Apparently it's no rumor; Anchor Bay has inherited most of what was the Mario Bava Collection done by Image (roughly 1999 through 2003). Tim Lucas says they'll be remastered and re-tooled from the ground up, with rarities like Rabid Dogs put out in more than one version.

Savant didn't get a Mysterians screener from Media Blasters, but the word on the forums is that it's enhanced, doesn't look bad and has features like a discrete score and a full length commentary in Japanese but subtitled. Anybody who wants to confirm or deny any of this, I'd be glad to hear more.

Otherwise it's a quiet week. People seemed to like my Bambi review, and I appreciate the notes. I'm staying busy with writing and research and helping to get more editing projects going. Thanks! Glenn Erickson



March 01, 2005

Savant's new reviews today are

Bambi Disney
Piccadilly Milestone/Image
A Separate Peace Paramount and
Fighting Elegy Criterion

I feel like grousing about the Oscars this year. I tend to listen to them from the next room while writing instead of sittin through the whole thing, with the VCR going just in case something momentous happens. This year I join the folks who think the show is just boring. The idea of using hip young types like Chris Rock doesn't work for me as his attitude goes against the entire proceedings - why should stars dress up to have an angry comedian insult them? The presentation is geared as a TV show and has little to do with honoring talent or achievement in Hollywood. It will be better when it's no longer a beamed-around-the-world big deal. It's no longer worth the four months of media buildup.

Somewhere in the 90s they introduced a feature I really liked, an "In Memoriam" tribute to stars who have passed away. Now that's degenerated into a cheap show as well. It used to be that several dozen actors big and small were given their four seconds of film. Now the choice is obviously made by committee, with an AGENT or two thrown into the mix. The big names are saved for last so that everyone knows that the rest of the obits are lower on the "also ran" totem pole.

Back to important news ... you know, Mothra: The print last night at the New Beverly was splendid, with great color that made all video copies here look like dirt. The audio appeared to be mono. I'd seen the full length Japanese version without subs but the new subtitles explained a lot. The country called "Rolisica" is clearly a combo Russia-U.S.. Rolisica is the trouble behind everything - they assume control of the expedition to Infant Island, which they once used as an atomic blast site. Roliscia denies that the island is inhabited even after witnesses say it is, kind of a pre-echo of Radio Bikini. The Rolisican bad guy Nelson is an exploitative combo of Carl Dehham and Al Capone, committing theft and mass murder against native populations with the complicit backing of the Rolisican government (at least until things get too hot, with Mothra coming to wipe out "New Kirk City.") He uses semantics to wiggle out of charges of kidnapping and slavery by saying that the tiny princesses are not human but just merchandise. They like to sing and dance, so he's making them happy! Only the bare bones of this anti-U.S. fervor is left in the American redub. The Russian aspect of Rolisica can be seen in the combination of symbols on the flag of the Rolisican Embassy, and the Russian-looking uniforms of the Rolisican generals helping to fight Mothra. Maybe those were the only costumes Toho had.

The Japanese view of America is really funny. Every Anglo that could be rounded up (including familiar faces like Robert Dunham) is used to play Rolisican citizens - and New Kirk City has skyscrapers, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Harbor Freeway. We also see a short clip of the row of hotels where Santa Monica reaches the bluffs over the beach. Nelson's thugs are silly gangsters who speak in English every once in a while (the actor playing Nelson is said to be bilingual). He and his main crook pal laugh themselves silly: "Mothra is dead! Now we can be happy and filthy rich! Ha ha ha ha!" Nelson's last twenty lines are the same: "SHUT UP!" I hadn't noticed before, but when he's finally shot down, he's in the act of knocking a cane out from under an old man! I think there were some happy subversives at Toho that year.

In the original, the loveable Frankie Sakai's nickname is "Snapping Turtle," not "Bulldog." He never lets go, see, and is a master of the obscure martial art of slapping bad guys on the head with folded pieces of paper.

MOTHRA is a kooky combo of fairy tales, environmentalism, Kaiju and pointed anti-West criticism ... how can it miss? As always, the music is what makes it so magical. The print last night has the second song by the Peanuts, performed in kimonos on a little apple blossom set. Interesting that the huge audience watches them sing in rapt attention, when nobody beyond the first two rows should be able to see the tiny princesses.

MOTHRA plays one more night (tonight, Tuesday March 1) with the original subtitled GODZILLA at the NEW BEVERLY in LA.

From August Ragone on the Mobius forum, we're told that Columbia is doing the same theatrical restoration on BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE and THE H-MAN. The space movie has some new footage and a great original music score to restore. H-MAN is incoherent in its US release version, and not all that understandable at full length without subtitles (which is how I've seen these on old Toho laser discs). So besides being about fifteen minutes longer, a new subtitled version will hopefully explain what the heck's going on. Columbia restoration and their repertory department are certainly being responsive - I hope the Sony/Columbia DVD people notice the web attention and revival-house popularity and follow up on their new Godzilla series with these wonderfully amusing classics. Thanks! Glenn Erickson


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

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