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Well, good news. The Peckinpah disc set arrived and Savant is delving into the goodies, hoping to check them all out before New Years' activities get in the way. I should have a review up for the next instalment! I've also added two new mini-reviews of the foreign fantasy films Ikarie XB 1 and Mothra. No, there are no DVDs yet announced for these titles, but I keep wanting to refer to them in other reviews and this provides a way to link to them. The brief text for each originally appeared in Savant's main Column. Cheers and happy new year, Glenn Erickson

Well, it's time for a break at Savant - no new reviews until New Year's Eve. I have a couple ready but like everyone else need to attend to a few family matters - and visiting kids and relatives aren't going to want to watch Bird with the Crystal Plumage or Naked Among Wolves as fun holiday fare. Many sites simply take two weeks off so Savant doesn't feel negligent about taking a couple of days!

I still have my eyeballs peeled for the Peckinpah box and will attack that first thing; last Fall was one long string of lengthy boxed sets (The Hammer Horror Series, The Bela Lugosi Collection, The Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection, The Val Lewton Collection) and I'll probably break the Peckinpah films into separate reviews.

Worthy announcements: Warners is putting out The Nun's Story and The Shoes of the Fisherman as part of a religious-oriented box a little later in '06; Mogambo and Three Godfathers are out now but only as Target exclusives. Warners also has a Laurel and Hardy box of odds 'n ends on the way. Besides End of August at the Hotel Ozone, Facets will be bringing out Rene Clement's Battle of the Rails in late January. It's a guerrilla-filmmaking account of the French resistance dogging the Nazis in the last days of the war, partially filmed in the last days of the war.

Writer Bruce Holecheck informs Savant that Criterion has announced that Viridiana has been delayed in order to incorporate new interviews with star Silvia Pinal. That's excellent news; the disc is expected in May of 2006.

This note from Aitam Bar-Sagi about a new version of Metropolis: "The new version of  Metropolis is one made especially for DVD, and is called by its authors (Enno Patalas, Anna Bohn and Gunter Krüger): "A Study version." It will be prepared from the same source materials as the 2001 version, from a DigiBeta tape. Though one happily expects the same quality, one should also not expect new footage.

The first presentation of the DVD will be on February 24th 2006 at the Zeughauskino, Berlin. No information yet for its availability, but I will keep an eye open. -- Aitam Bar-Sagi"

Savant's enthusiasm for this new version will depend on its running speed - I'm tired of seeing the film accelerated to 24 or 26 frames per second, and no longer care to hear how it was premiered by ParUfaMet in 1926. The score being presented on piano raises hopes that the restoration will be shown as it was in initial 2001 museum screenings.

So take care, stay out of snowdrifts and stay reasonably sober ... Savant will check in in a few days! Thanks, Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

Response for Savant's Savant 2005 Favored Disc Roundup has been "favorable" - should you feel ready for more, Savant can recommend Tim Lucas' Video WatchBlog "VW Kennel's Favorite DVD Releases of 2005. Whereas Tim's choice is slightly more exotic than Savant's, you can also wander over to The DVD Journal, where the DVD Journal Top Ten List is perhaps a little more mainstream. Pass the eggnog ...

That's it for the pre-Christmas rush. I don't know if Savant will be offering reviews this Tuesday or if I'll take a bit of a break. Thanks for all the help this week - from 'Paladin', Eric N. Wilson, B. Luke Styer and Ben Murray among a few others ... and everybody try to relax and stay safe! Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

Hello again. A reminder that Savant's Email has now officially migrated to the new address: [email protected]. The old AOL address is kaput - I just took one last look before letting it expire and saw a couple of dozen old emails that I never read. If something was important or still useful and you didn't hear back, please write again!

Other quick pre-holiday news: Turner Classic Movies is showing a special Doc on the great director Budd Boetticher on Wednesday the 21st, with his Seven Men from Now making its re-premiere as well. There's also a new disc release for that title, the first of the Boetticher/Randolph Scott/ Harry Joe Brown "Ranown" westerns of the 1950s. The DVD Talk review of that title is being covered by Savant pal Stuart Galbraith IV. His notice for Seven Men from Now is already up at this URL.

Another discus importantus sighting thanks to Savant correspondent Thomas Treasure: The Czech post-apocalpyse Science Fiction film End of August at the Hotel Ozone is being released in Region 1 by Facets video on January 31. Savant saw and reported on the film a couple of years back when it showed at The American Cinematheque with the terrific Czech space epic Ikarie XB-1; I hope the second title ends up as part of the same arrangement.

Savant hears from studios and DVD distributors only infrequently but got a lot of pleasant Email in response to the Savant 2005 Favored Disc Roundup. As Lina says, it's nice to know that one's hard work ain't been in vain for nothin'. Believe it or not, there are DVD executives that care, and spend considerable time scouring the web to study what is and isn't being well received.

Of the holiday movies, the only knockout so far has been the new King Kong, which is a magnificent movie experience with almost exclusively good word-of-mouth. I'm convinced it will hold and build in boxoffice as more people find out how terrific it is. Just saw In Her Shoes from a little earlier in the year; it's also a fine picture that was lost behind a stupid ad campaign. The Family Stone - not bad but not as perceptive or fresh as it thinks it is. Pride and Prejudice is very good, especially with supporting characters like Donald Sutherland. Kiera Knightley is fine but getting used to her smile takes a while. Will check in one more time before Christmas Day! Stay safe -- Glenn Erickson

It's here!: The Savant 2005 Favored Disc Roundup. With an essay about the state of studio library titles on DVD. Happy Holidays!

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Greetings! Not much news but busy times at hand: Kids coming home, celebrations shaping up. When he heard that it was a superior transfer, Savant went out and bought Scarlet Street immediately and reviewed it almost as fast. I remember this one putting a real chill in my bones one cold November in film school.

Gary Teetzel told me about this bit of Ray Harryhausen news - he's apparently exec producing a new short subject called The Pit and the Pendulum.

Elsewhere, Criterion has vacated its planned release of Luis Buñuel's Viridiana at least momentarily; hopefully it will be rescheduled soon. Savant keeps staring at his mailbox, but I don't think that will make the Warners' Peckinpah Westerns Boxed Set come any more quickly. That's all for now! Thanks, Glenn Erickson

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Savant has already reported his interest in Lion's Gate's Sam Arkoff double features announced for January: Earth vs. the Spider/War of the Colossal Beast and How to Make a Monster/Blood of Dracula. The big question is of course the quality of the transfers and mastering. We've all seen these pictures in flat TV prints or miserable graymarket releases, when all were originally widescreen films. Lion's Gate has been doing very well lately with its transfers, so we're hoping these will be enhanced widescreen transfers that crop away dead space and the occasional ragged edge: The Spider has scenes against featureless backgrounds that can look ridiculous (or more ridiculous) when shown flat.

Now I'm informed that Lion's Gate has listed a couple more Sam Arkoff double features slated for April: The Day the World Ended/The She Creature and Teenage Caveman (aka Prehistoric World)/The Saga of the Viking Women and their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent. Hopefully The Day the World Ended's SuperScope format will be retained - widescreen showings have been rare. And VIKING WOMEN is a campy hoot, with Abby Dalton and Susan Cabot as feisty Viking warriors! Or should that be warriorettes?

Savant is still buzzing from seeing the new King Kong and will be on line to see it again soon ... it's only grown in memory from last Saturday's hasty King Kong Preview Review. Good luck to all and hope your holidays are shaping up. Glenn Erickson

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Just a bit of news: Media Blasters is still completing its disc of Atragon!, which is now expected sometime in January.

Savant has just returned from an early Director's Guild screening of Peter Jackson's KING KONG and has written a non-spoiler Review. You can find it at This Link! Glenn Erickson

HOMECOMING

Just a reminder that this Friday Night the Showtime cable channel is going to repeat Joe Dante and Sam Hamm's Masters of Horror episdode Homecoming. It just got written up in today's L.A. Times for its direct anti-Iraq war theme: "The Big Picture: It Takes a Zombie to Speak Out" by Patrick Goldstein, 12/06/05. A modest horror film for cable is the first Hollywood production to take that position, proof that, as Mr. Dante says, the entertainment industry is not a hive of left-wing conspiracies.

The Times article offers the observation that horror and science fiction movies have always expressed political undercurrents considered too extreme for direct statement, a theory often advanced here at DVD Savant. In The Homecoming a President proudly counters the tearful mother of a soldier killed in a foreign war by saying he wishes her son was alive so he could let everyone know the true meaning of his sacrifice. His wish is granted by a wholesale zombie crusade.

It's a wickedly appropriate twist on an old theme. Frenchman Abel Gance made a political-pacifist horror film called J'Accuse right after WW1, and then re-made it in the late 1930s when war in Europe seemed inevitable. Bob Clark's obscure but potent Deathdream was an eerie 'chickens come home to roost' horror film about Vietnam. The Homecoming would seem to be a smarter film - and a potentially more influential one - than either of them.

Savant missed the show's first cablecast. I will definitely be seeking out Showtime this coming Friday night! Glenn Erickson

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The "holiday" season is upon us, with all its attendant pressure. People in demanding jobs or concentrating on school finals don't even get to think about celebrating until a few days before Christmas, and for that deserve all the cheer they can get. Savant has been so caught up that he's had to skip most of the special screenings of new movies, although he's still planning to get out to see King Kong next Saturday. The web is fairly well split between people grumbling that it never should have been remade, and hecklers happy to hear rumors that the film "is in trouble." Savant has a Qué será será attitude about all that, having already lived through the shameful 1976 de Laurentiis Petrox-Kong fiasco. Whatever happens, I'm sure the new movie won't put me to sleep.

DVDTalk has been amazing this fall in terms of sourcing Savant with screeners for all the pricey special discs that came out. I have to admit that I barely keep up with new movies -- saw the new Pride and Prejudice a couple of nights ago and thought it was entertaining enough -- but am rabid about the old films. With 1800 reviews in the Savant database, the site is starting to become a good overall resource. I'll have to keep that in mind while compiling my 'Best of 2005' article due in on the 15th. Thanks for reading and don't sweat the holidays ... Glenn Erickson

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Actress and comedienne Wendie Jo Sperber passed away last week. I usually don't turn Savant into an obituary column but I knew her from 1941 and liked her a lot. She and John Candy were the friendliest actors on the set and of all the gang from "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" she was the most talented. Wendie got the thankless 'Nancy Walker' role in 1941 and ran with it -- literally -- and regardless of the movie as a whole, every scene she was in worked like a charm. I never saw Bosom Buddies on television but I'm sure she was good in it ... and I wish her family the best.

A few months ago Jon Lidolt, a Toronto based correspondent told me that he had worked on David Cronenberg's Crimes of the Future and I encouraged him to write something about the experience. He sent along an amusing article with a couple of snapshots from the late 1970s and I'm happy to include them in Savant's first guest article, Working with Cronenberg on Crimes of the Future.

This is sort of a film noir weekend, with light comedies and a chance of French tragedy predicted for early next week. Good luck on Christmas shopping ... at least in L.A. traffic. Glenn Erickson