Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

Greetings once more. The Oscars were on the tame side this year. Loved Giuseppe Tornatore's foreign films montage but thought the weird graphic treatments on most of the other montages were distracting and ugly. It also seems so wrong for the most glamorous people in the world to dress up and gather, and then be harangued by a host that acts like it's all a lark. And this year's host was inoffensive compared to what we've gotten in recent years. On the other hand, I don't think a lot about Oscars so I don't feel these opinions very strongly. I certainly enjoyed seeing Ennio Morricone and Clint Eastwood together.

No Alice Faye screeners yet - I have a feeling that few if any were sent out. This is an unusual turn of events.

Notice the new look at the Internet Movie DataBase? It seems a bit harder to read now, and to have much firmer commercial connections. But it's still a great resource. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

A busy week! Another quick job came in after the first quick job (sorry to be so vague) but it's all over now, I promise. Gary Teetzel just passed on the welcome word that Fox is putting out the much-wanted titles Broken Arrow (James Stewart & Debra Paget) and Hell and High Water (Richard Widmark and the Commies) in May ... which is great. Savant has been looking at a blurry 'scope VHS tape of the Sam Fuller Cold War comic book movie far too long! Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

I'm late, yes indeed, but I've spent the week running around like that proverbial jackrabbit on a date. "The reviews will soon be under control" is getting to be a weak refrain, but good distractions (i.e., paying jobs) don't get sniffed at around here. Semper Pecunae.

Let's see ... Anchor Bay decided on final specs for their MARIO BAVA COLLECTION, and the titles still have some attractive extras. WARNERS announced some welcome new boxed sets, with a particularly good WAR set. CLASSIC MEDIA gave us the specs for their two Toho Ghidrah movies, which I've been advised are far better than I remember .. dancing Kaiju? Readers are excited about the announcement for NIGHT OF THE COMET and BECKET and generous with praise for some of my reviews. I also got the sharp end of the email stick for A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS. Advice for writers in fan-land: don't diss Steve McQueen.

I'm impatient for the ALICE FAYE COLLECTION as I want to see and review the delirious THE GANG'S ALL HERE, but I shall hold out somehow. Just saw THE HEIRESS for the first time (I know, perhaps I could have skipped my 50th viewing of MAJOR DUNDEE somewhere in the past) and it knocked me out. Ditto Criterion's new THE BICYCLE THIEF (BICYCLE THIEVES). The quality of the transfer will invalidate a lot of film school papers describing the film's murky visuals.

That's it, I have to get to the library for some research before doubling back to the reviews for the above plus THE BLOODY CHILD, THE WELL and the LITERARY CLASSICS COLLECTION. Thanks for your patience! Glenn Erickson

Salutations! Savant's new reviews today are

Hi again. I've gotten several welcome notes telling me not to write off the announced Newtwork UK disc of Things to Come, as the Network-Granada connection may be a good one:

"Just a note regarding Things to Come - Network is a well-respected UK distributor and has a massive deal with Granada and releases practically all of their 'archival' titles, both feature films and television. Granada owns the Korda library (which is still very much in copyright here in the UK, unlike in the US) and so has exclusive rights to the film material in the UK. They also own the Rank library, the Romulus library (The African Queen and so on) and the ITC library.

A film collector friend of mine in Montreal has a 16mm print of Things to Come that he claims is longer than standard versions, but I've never seen it in its entirety and can't verify that for sure. I was there when he got it from another film collector, but only watched part of one reel. If I hear anything else, I'll let you know! -- Stephen Cooke, Halifax, NS."

Not that Savant thinks himself the ultimate clearing house for info on rumored and promised new restorations, but when something potentially exciting comes along, why not stir up some interest? Perhaps the Network-Granada Things to Come will be special and surprise us. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

Howdy once more! Reader Don Showalter directed Savant's attention to this interesting Things To Come link, about a May 2 SCI-FI LONDON Film Festival screening of what is described as a "restored, extended edit" of the 1936 H.G. Wells classic that Savant has written about to excess. It sounds too good to be true, especially in that no concrete details are given; the Legend-Harryhausen colorized disc a couple of months back raised false hopes of a restored release, so we hope this will be longer, especially because the article says that a DVD is in the works from Network DVD.

Odd qualifiers sneak into the announcement copy: "This version of the film is the longest known to exist anywhere in the world and has been sourced the best available 35mm elements." Available to whom? "Network has commissioned the best and longest known version to exist of this film anywhere in the world in H.D." I'm awful glad it was commissioned. Longest known to whom? Did they really search the world over? Does H.D. mean that this is a digital video job, and not a real film restoration?

Some American companies will identify a reamed 16mm print transferred to digital tape as a 'digital restoration.' How come the BFI is not mentioned, or any archive or restoration entity? Granada television is the only other company cited. Perhaps some helpful Savant reader can step forward and better inform us of the facts. I'd be happy to apologize for my suspicious attitude, should this be the restoration we've been waiting for.

I've been assured that Things To Come already exists somewhere in a version slightly longer than its present 96 minutes, but continuities and stills show that when originally screened it was upwards of 113 or 117 minutes, perhaps even longer. So we shall wait and hope in cynical optimism. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

Hello again. Here's something of interest: Savant friend and frequent correspondent Gordon Thomas (for at least six years) now has his own review column at the Bright Lights website. It's called Bright Sights and may be found here: Gordon Thomas' DVD Roundup. Also on board is a separate writeup of the R2 DVD of Henry King's 1957 film of The Sun Also Rises. I've read both, and they're good.

Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson

Salutations! Savant's new reviews today are

We launch into February with a quartet of horror films from Italy, England, Brazil and Mexico. The Mexican El esqueleto de la señora Morales is actually a macabre black comedy, but it's close enough. The only thing odd about Dark Sky's Kill, Baby ... Kill! disc is that it won't be here until March 27. Just a few days later, Anchor Bay will be issuing their version of the show in a Mario Bava Boxed set. Full details of the box set contents have been posted on the Feb. 3 entry of Tim Lucas' website Video WatchBlog.

Savant grabbed a copy of the Japanese Science Fiction film Virus last month, but it was defective. I have another copy from Amazon but as it is a birthday gift, I am holding off until later in the week to check it out. Stuart Galbraith IV warns me not to expect too much, yet I think I'm going to like it. Stuart just reviewed for DVDTalk another 80s Japanese Sci-Fi called Sayonara Jupiter. The dystopian political Sci-Fi winner from last fall Children of Men is expected on March 27 as well; it was the best film I saw last year save for Pedro Almodóvar's Volver. Hope to be finally catching up with Letters from Iwo Jima next week.

Thanks for reading, and for the suggestions for the Savant Wish List; it's shaping up as a good general-purpose list. Glenn Erickson

Hello! Savant's new reviews today are

Savant's chugging along with reviews and other writing; maybe it's a good time to see what's coming up. Arrived or on the way for review are The Skeleton of Mrs. Morales, Council of the Gods, A Summer Place, Here Comes Mr. Jordan, The Clock, The Bloody Child, Sins of the Fleshpoids, Kill Baby ... Kill! (Dark Sky), Green for Danger, Hercules and the Captive Women/Giant of Metropolis, Neither the Sea nor Sand, The Heiress, Blume in Love, A Man for All Seasons and Paul Robeson Portraits of an Artist.

Looking at upcoming titles, I eagerly await Bicycle Thieves, Performance, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, The Alice Faye Collection (with The Gang's All Here), 49th Parallel, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, The Well, Cinderella Liberty and Night of the Comet. Warners boxed sets will include The Prisoner of Zenda and Billy Budd, and Fox collections will debut The Sun Also Rises and The Snows of Kilimanjaro. So we're going to be plenty busy here.

The graphic here is a little reminder to my good friends at NoShame ... their R2 of Caltiki il mostro immortale is Savant's 'Santa Claus' title of the moment! Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson