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Yes, Happy New Year. To mix metaphors, Savant's trying something that hopefully won't boomerang in his face. Back in 2000 or so, I received many emails from readers frustrated at the slow roll-out of DVDs of their favorite movies, and responded with various articles (now extremely obsolete, but still in the Article Index) explaining and guessing why. Well, seven years later, I've come up with a long list of desired titles still Missing In Action. We all have these imaginary lists in our heads, and this is mine. If the list clicks, I'll update it as I think of more films, and I'll certainly accept & acknowledge suggestions. It's all explained at the end of this link.

I know, Savant has been running the same unchanging site for so long, I'm not sure if I'll commit to this ... but it seems interesting enough to try.

As happens over the holidays, I'm hearing from a number of regular correspondents and sharing their plans for the new year. I certainly see Savant continuing, and there are couple of more writing opportunities ahead. I'm also looking forward to more film & video editorial assignments, some of them not related to DVD. We'll just have to see.

Peace, progress & happiness for all, Glenn Erickson

Greeting! Savant's new reviews today are

Hello again ... the year 2006 is on the way out, with a hopefully happier 2007 on the way. We're enjoying the cool but sunny days here in Los Angeles -- clear skies! -- and thinking about the new snowstorm hitting Denver -- how do they get through all that?

What's coming up? A look at the schedule sees a slowish start to another promising year. First Run Features begins with a pair of 1950s German films, Council of the Gods and Rotation, and then there's a Robert Mitchum collection (Angel Face, Home from the Hill, Macao, The Sundowners, The Good Guys and the Bad Guys, The Yakuza), remastered Yojimbo and Sanjuro from Criterion, and a quadruple bill of Richard Gordon thrillers (The Haunted Strangler, Corridors of Blood, First Man Into Space, The Atomic Submarine) from the same company. The first week of February brings interesting shows like Miracle in the Rain, A Summer Place & Blume in Love (Warners), The Heiress (Paramount) and Here Comes Mr. Jordan (Sony).

Some of the Lowry re-mastered 007 films hit in February, but after seeing On Her Majesty's Secret Service I'll be looking before buying. The expensive new transfers pay no attention to OHMSS's original look. Both the opening sunset beach scene and the ending dawn mountaintop battle are color-timed as if they were taking place at high noon, and almost every scene is 'brightened' so that it looks like a Doris Day movie -- the real Alpine locations might as well have been filmed on the Universal back lot. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson

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Greetings! Just stopping in from a busy week to drop off a pair of new reviews. More Criterion and weird horror to come. See you Saturday! Glenn Erickson

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

Hello again! The image to the right simply serves as an inspirational reminder to be generous in our gifts to our loved ones!

As we seque into the holidays, Savant will still be on board with 'silent running' review status on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The house is full of people, which is always fun, and the big TV is suddenly the home of video games instead of old movies. Don't worry, if I see at least a couple of minutes of B&W, pre-1970 film twice a day, I don't go into withdrawal. And nobody notices the dark circles under my eyes and the wild expression any more. Hopefully, you're just stopping through for a minute's break from your holiday activities. If you want more end-of-year lists, Tim Lucas and his merry band of writers are starting a bunch at the Tim Lucas Video WatchBlog. The DVD Journal's mighty-fine list is up as well. John McElwee is contributing holiday-themed movie star visuals over at Greenbriar site.. And they may not be particularly Christmasy, but Tom Sutpen, Stephen Cooke and Richard Gibson are still dishing out the interesting visuals at If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats. Enjoy and see you on Tuesday!

Cheers! Glenn Erickson

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Greetings once again! This is the sixth time Savant has chosen a quasi- top ten disc pick for the year's end. The list looks back at the DVDs that were the most fun, the most desired and the most rewarding. The actual top ten spread out fairly evenly this year: Two Criterions, Two Universals, and one each from Warners, Paramount, Dark Sky, Classic Media/Sony Music, Project X/New Yorker. An R2 Czechoslovakian film sneaked in from a company called Filmexport. The Warners and the Universals were boxed sets, but as I didn't want to start dividing those up, I just threw in the whole package.

It's finals time and everybody is on the move, shopping or dealing with the weather. Savant's taking advantage of the dip in review volume by watching less TV (the eyes appreciate this) and concentrating on other writing (which the eyes don't appreciate). Warners' Up Periscope, The Illustrated Man and Operation Crossbow are on their way. Also got an intriguing collection called The Best of Hootnanny! that brought back some pleasant memories. Those reviews soon.

Take it easy, don't drink too much and I'll be back on Saturday ... Glenn Erickson

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

A few extra notes today: Helpful correspondent Jeff Krispow provides the following information about a Criterion replacement disc situation:

Due to an authoring error on the first printing of Criterion's Jigoku, 2m08s of footage was skipped over when the layer change occurs (Ch. 16 @ 65:45). Thankfully, the always-reliable folks at Criterion stick by their promise to provide consumers with a quality product. I spoke with my Criterion contact earlier this week and was informed that Jigoku had been reauthored and repressed, and that the corrected discs were now available. As the replacement discs have only just been received, Criterion has not yet "officially" acknowledged this issue within the Known Problems section of their website, nor was it mentioned in their most-recently email newsletter sent out this past Monday. In the meantime, should you wish to exchange your Jigoku disc for the corrected repressing, you can contact Criterion via the DVD Tech Support form on their website. (Note: It is my understanding that only the disc itself will be exchanged, not the DVD case or booklet.)

Other items of interest: We may all have another good reason to watch the Oscars show this year, as they're going to be giving out a special award to composer Ennio Morricone! That's an Oscar montage I want to see.

Savant finally saw the new transfer of Fritz Lang's Liliom (1934) that comes as an extra on the new Carousel disc set. It's beautiful, and completely outstrips the murky, blurry copy on the old Kino Release. I may re-do the review to reflect this ... a separate review of a DVD extra!

Finally, the odd pop-up Amazon ads on this Savant front page confuse me too. When you click on my name, some product for Glenn Ford invariably pops up! Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

Two discs and four titles reviewed today. Savant really enjoyed figuring out what offended the censors in 1933's Baby Face; the new disc offers two versions of the film for comparison. I'm getting closer on the 'best of' article for this year and should probably just stop talking about it and put it up. I'll be braving the crowds at the video store to see if there are any discs I didn't review that might make the list. See you in a few days, Glenn Erickson

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

What? Only two reviews? And neither is a ten-disc set? Yes, the holidays are upon us and Glenn is feeling itchy to wander from his computer chair a bit more. That, and the flood of gotta-review discs is slowing down. And I'll be putting together my laughably idiosyncratic "Best of List for 2006," the one that cheats by basically being a top ten with 50+ titles! Here's Last Year's List, should you want to prime your particular angry mob in advance.

A happy plug for a deserving associate: A Savant acquaintance from wa-ay back, film and video enthusiast Tom Koester, is holding a screening of a new 3-D documentary at Rocket Video on La Brea Avenue in Hollywood, Thursday December 14 at 7:00 PM. The show,

is billed as An unusual doc dealing largely with the making of an Underground Rock CD, done from an insider's POV in an immersive style, which is heightened by the use of 3D.

Shot in Digital 3D Video by film maker Tom Koester, it centers on the efforts of Texas raised guitarist/song writer Mike Alvarez and his musician friends to create a full 10-song CD in one weekend.

The film will be shown in 3D Digital Projection. 3D glasses will be provided, and a Q & A with Tom Koester will follow the screening.

More info, pictures and links to online 3-D demos can be found at Tom Koester 3-D at Rocket Video Web Page.

Finally an odd but interesting request from a Savant reader who wants to know: Does anyone know where in New York that restaurant scene in Who Was That Lady? was filmed, the one that ends with a fight on the sidewalk? Does the Chinese restaurant still exist somewhere in Manhattan? To the reader, it looks like a practical location, not a studio set. (?) Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

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A pleasant enough week squeaking into the holidays in L.A., where we're not suffering through the weather as most of the midwest and east seem to be. Was a little late last night, as I stayed up to see FACE OF ANOTHER (Tanin no kao) on Turner Classic Movies. It's a Hiroshi Teshigahara horror film about a man wearing a false mask over a ruined face. I'd read about it in Sci-Fi books for 35 and this has been my first chance to see it. Judging from the perfect transfer and the JANUS logo, I wouldn't be surprised if it turned up on DVD in a year or so. It was very talky but the makeup work was impressive. I've seen the next movie, FACE BEHIND THE MASK with Peter Lorre so I called it a night around 1:30 AM. According to Mike Schlesinger, the Lorre film will be showing up from Sony sooner than later, which is very good news. Then again, there's no counting the number of unofficial announcements, wishful-thinking guesses and rumors that haven't panned out!

Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

It's here ... Savant has a little holiday shopping done but not as much as he should. But this is always a great time of year, anticipating the family all coming home from school, etc. Good luck on finals!

Upcoming reviews: The Dean Martin Double Feature, The Conformist, The Wild Blue Yonder, Superman II The Richard Donner Cut, Red Angel and Lotna. I've also just learned that the TCM Archives: Forbidden Hollywood Collection Volume 1 is on the way; it contains Baby Face, Red Headed Woman and Waterloo Bridge.

Still no sign of Blood of the Vampire/The Hellfire Club, She or Things to Come but maybe they'll be along in time. I also hope that the orphaned The Kremlin Letter will catch up with us soon. It's been a great fall.

Saw The Illusionist last week and thought it was very well made and acted, but difficult to really become involved in. The 'illusions' were so outrageously impossible that it seemed altogether too easy to guess what was going on ... especially because bad endings in romantic movies are so rare in new films, especially period pictures. Just the same, a handsome production. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson