Savant's new reviews today are

Another Tuesday, another rush. I'll have the rest of the film noir discs reviewed before street date, which will be a record. Two discs today are also ahead of street date - Media Blasters' fourth Toho release, and a nifty collection of Avant-Garde films not due until August. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

Summer's beginning and wise people everywhere are finding better things to do with their time, but Savant's here to help out those still bitten by the DVD bug. There are good (or at least unusual) discs coming out - Media Blasters just sent a check disc of their upcoming Dogora, Space Monster so I'll be breaking with habit and reviewing that one nice and early. We also have the first three of the five new Warners Film Noir Box 2 under the DVD-o-Scope for a quick analysis, including one of the best, Richard Fleischer's The Narrow Margin. So there's plenty of good stuff to see ...

Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

Work pandemonium forces me to rush these reviews to the site in a hurry ... sorry can't talk too much. Lots of fun letters on DIABOLIK, even from the disc producer. I really liked the DVD, if you can't tell by now.

Film Noir 2 reviews will be coming in soon! Glenn

Savant's new reviews today are

Paramount has bestowed special edition status on one of Savant's very favorite films. In his resources-challenged attempt to collect 16mm movies in the 70s, Savant only found three prints he could afford: It's a Wonderful Life, Major Dundee (which turned out to have a missing scene) and a ragged copy of The Horrible Dr. Hichcock. A fourth acquisition was Danger: Diabolik, also a bit beat-up but a cherished possession. Its price was far too high but Savant didn't care. I don't know what will become of the prints, as after August all but the Freda horror movie will be on DVD. 30 years of enjoyment isn't bad.

Danger: Diabolik always brings back memories of college. I rented the film at least three times and was told by my Films Incorporated booker that I was one of the few who did. That, of course, gave me the common film student delusion that because so few people were aware of the movie, I  had to be somebody really special to have latched onto it. My Films Inc. prints, by the way, always had the dope-smoking scene, leading me to think that some creep in the Chicago Films Inc. exchange personally censored the copy that Tim Lucas and friends were renting. I've never seen it cut the way Lucas claims, and I saw it at Air Force base screenings that censored everything.

Thirty years later, the Comic Book Ethic that was so fresh in Danger: Diabolik now seems to be the order of the day. We have serious films (people stare and look anxious) and action movies (people dodge explosions) and a tiny minority of films that can really surprise us. So many ultra-violent and boringly 'stylish' movies nowadays only wish they had the inventive spirit of Mario Bava's movie. -- Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

Well, the big plan was to have a review of Danger: Diabolik out today. It's more than half written, but the disc must have been shipped from DVDTalk by way of Schenectady ... eight days and no show. So we'll make do.

In the interim, the Universal Lugosi and Hammer horror announcements for the fall have been augmented by a couple more offerings. A rumor has it that Warners will have a Val Lewton Boxed Set out on October 4 (the rumor came with no details). More official is a Fox offering that includes some ripe attractions - and two Killer Tomato sequels. Jack Clayton's The Innocents is the big title, and everyone is hoping that the transfer will do justice to its stunning Freddie Francis images. The Doctor and the Devils should be the definitive Burke & Hare bodysnatching epic, but falls a bit short despite a perfect cast. If it is what I think it is, Cabinet of Caligari is the botched but bizarre Robert Bloch shocker with Glynis Johns and Daniel O'Herlihy that shows what happens when an attempt to make an artsy horror film falls on its face. The Fox rumor also mentions the 1958 House on Haunted Hill, which has already seen two DVD releases and is said to be quasi-public domain. I'm half expecting that title to evaporate back into rumor-land as well. Thanks, and sorry about the lack of a Mario Bava review. Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

Wild, wild news from Universal broke two days ago: On September 6 they're going to release two more incredibly affordable horror collections.

The Bela Lugosi Collection will have Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Black Cat (prime Ulmer!), The Raven, The Invisible Ray, and Black Friday .

The Hammer Horror Collection will have even more titles: The Brides of Dracula, The Curse of the Werewolf, Nightmare,Paranoiac, Kiss of the Vampire, Phantom of the Opera, Night Creatures, and The Evil of Frankenstein.

Each set will be only 19.99 retail; with the usual discounts the second pack will probably come down to $2 a title! We only hope that the encoding and formatting will be good - Universal has been doing well with these multi-title sets jammed onto a minimum number of discs, but many of those films were in B&W and on the short side.

Also, there is a rumor going around that may be a real revelation for King Kong fanatics. I call this a *rumor* because I haven't even read it personally, but it is supposed to come from genre authority Tom Weaver, and I checked with another genre authority yesterday and he seemed to think it was real as well. Remember the legendary 'spider pit' sequence in the original Kong, reportedly cut after a preview? If my source is correct with this *rumor*, Weaver says that at least a part of it has been located, in a French print that was used as a new restoration source for the other more standard excised Kong scenes - the gnashing of natives in Kong's mouth, the dropping of the brunette over 5th Avenue, Kong's amorous monkeying with Ann Darrow's perfumed dress. In the cut Spider Pit scene, the barely-alive sailors tossed from the log by Kong are attacked by giant spider monsters. The horrible detail has been seen only in a single surviving still image that first saw the light in Famous Monsters magazine, back when we were gum-chewing kids.

Again, this is still in the category of *rumor*, but some rumors are too hot to keep quiet about, as long as one stresses their proper status. --- Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

Five movies is a lot of Bette Davis and I'm proud to say I didn't grow weary of her. However, I am putting on some movies with a few explosions, just so my television doesn't think I've given it away.

A spooky news release from MGM, indicating perhaps the shape of discs to come: "The DVD release of The Pink Panther Classic Cartoon Collection, previously announced for July 26th from MGM Home Entertainment, has been postponed to a future date not yet determined. Thank You." I hope the rest of the MGM schedule holds together.

Have been getting a lot of interesting email that have become revisions to my reviews. House of Bamboo has three very educational ones that I recommend. Will now go check out the voluminous Edward R. Murrow boxed set, and the NoShame release of Story of a Love Affair. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

No big news tonight. I have both the Bette Davis and Joan Crawford sets and will be trying to do justice to them without writing the usual Savant encyclopedia. No, I am not practicing to be paid by the word.

The more avid Kaiju fans will be interested to know that correspondent Gary Teetzel has reported that the Japanese Daei film studio has announced they'll be doing another Gamera movie soon. It won't be a sequel to the popular trilogy from a few years back, but a whole new film apparently harkening back to the originals and Gamera's reputation as a "friend of all children." Daei denies that the plot has Gamera building an amusement park at his home, admitting that he sometimes sleeps with children, and being arrested for child molestation.

Couldn't resist. Thanks for reading and the correction re: The Program as the film where the football players lie down in the middle of a highway for kicks. Thanks, Glenn Erickson