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March 30, 2007

Hello! Savant's reviews today are

Godzilla Raids Again and its U.S. version Gigantis The Fire Monster
Classic Media
Mothra vs. Godzilla and its U.S. version Godzilla vs. The Thing
Classic Media
and
Cinderella Liberty
Fox

I just got my screener of The Silent Partner and am surprised to see that the packaging states it is 16:9 enhanced .... and previous specs had mentioned full frame. Outstanding, Lionsgate! Of course I'll have to see the disc to find out if it really measures up overall.

It came with a pile of other titles, which tells me I will be chugging away, burning up the pixels for new reviews. See you on Tuesday, and thanks for all the support. Glenn Erickson



March 25, 2007

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

The Mario Bava Collection Volume 1
Black Sunday, The Girl Who Knew Too Much,
Black Sabbath, Knives of the Avenger, Kill, Baby ... Kill!
Anchor Bay

and
Muriel, ou Le temps d'un retour
Koch Lorber

Plus an article:

The Color of Peter Pan
by Benoît A. Racine

This is worth repeating for an update: It's been leaked that the three Sergio Leone special editions will be coming out on June 5: Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and Duck You Sucker (Fistful of Dynamite). Note that Duck You Sucker is coming out under the preferred original American title, the one that works with the film's final gag. Also The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is being reissued and bundled with the other three in a package called The Sergio Leone Anthology. Configuration-wise, this new GBU will be identical to the fancy 2004 Extended Version.

I'm also happy to have gotten a screener of The Mario Bava Collection in such a timely fashion (thank you Anchor Bay) ... and pleased to find out that all of the transfers look so good. I've received a number of inquiries wanting to know how the AB copy of Kill, Baby ... Kill! measures up to Dark Sky's delayed Kill, Baby ... Kill! and am happy to oblige. I happily gave my review copy of the Dark Sky disc to Savant's #1 research aide and anti- foot-in-mouth advisor, who liked the movie more than I did and surely deserves it. The Dark Sky disc has great extras but I think it's a little crazy to pay $260 on Ebay for something that may be $17 at Amoeba in a few months ... on the other hand, I'll bet knowing they're selling that high is a good ego payoff for Tim Lucas and David Gregory. Now, the idea of getting my hands on a loose copy of Fox's cancelled disc of Boomerang!, that's a different story! Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson



March 23, 2007

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

My Sister Maria  Rainbow
Hemingway Classics Collection
Under My Skin, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, A Farewell to Arms,
The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man

Fox
and
The Alfred Hitchcock Box Set
The Ring, The Manxman, Murder!,
The Skin Game, Rich and Strange

Lionsgate

Back to the weekend again ... Spring has just arrived and it almost feels like summer here. A number of interesting titles are coming up. A new selection of Errol Flynn movies is supposedly on its way, along with Muriel, Another Sky, Cinderella Liberty and The Natural but in the next few weeks I'm also looking forward to: Children of Men, Bedazzled (1967), The Silent Partner, The Anchor Bay Mario Bava Box Set, Blood and Sand, True Confessions, Thieves Like Us, Pulp, Brute Force and Overlord. Hopefully some of those will start arriving as well. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson



March 19, 2007

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

Animated Soviet Propaganda:
From the October Revolution to Perestroika

Kino
and
Deal  S'more Entertainment

Hello again. Savant is once again healthy and ready to face the harsh 70-degree temperatures of this cruel Hollywood winter. I've received a number of emails this week expressing dismay at the transfer of The Gang's All Here, and many others excited about the upcoming Warners Cult Camp Classics line. Once again, Warners seems the best studio in terms of reacting to, and actively courting the film fan market.

I exchanged a few emails over the weekend with respected writer and commentator Tom Weaver, who just appeared a couple of weeks ago with Bob Burns, actor Slick Slavin and actress Charlotte Austin on a commentary on VCI's restored "Positively No Refunds" DVD of of the goofy 50's monster opus The Bride and the Beast (co-billed with The White Gorilla). Ms. Austin apparently came to the commentary recording session with a printout of Savant's 2002 review of the monkey movie in question, and then quoted from it on-mike. Hmm, Savant's magic crystal ball sees him running out to find a copy of said disc, like, right away.

Lastly, I've updated the Savant Wish List with new requests and a number of newly announced titles. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson



March 16, 2007

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

Volver
Sony
The Alice Faye Collection
On the Avenue, Lillian Russell, That Night in Rio and The Gang's All Here
Fox
and
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
Warners

Hello! The big DVD news this week comes from The Digital Bits, which has revealed that Warner DVD is introducing a new budget line called Cult Camp Classics. Four sets will be released on June 26:

Volume 1 - Sci Fi Thrillers (Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman, Giant Behemoth and Queen of Outer Space), Volume 2 - Women in Peril (The Big Cube, Caged and Trog), Volume 3 - Terrorized Travelers (Hot Rods to Hell, Skyjacked and Zero Hour) and Volume 4 - Historical Epics (Colossus of Rhodes, The Prodigal and Land of the Pharaohs). Each of the sets will start retail at $29.98, and the films will be available separately for $14.97 each.

It's great to see Warners digging deeper into its library, especially cracking open the Allied Artists vault. I personally don't mind the slightly derogatory inference that comes with the Camp Classics label, although Dick Dinman just told me that he's surprised to see Caged being treated like a campy women's prison film ... Eleanor Parker got an Oscar nomination for it and it's a very good movie, worthy of inclusion in a serious Noir set.

From the Classic Horror Film Board, Tom Weaver has leaked that the Volume One set will all have commentaries: "... some well-known FX guys-fans on Behemoth, Yvette Vickers and Weaver on 50 Foot Woman, and Laurie (The Queen) Mitchell and Weaver on Queen of Outer Space."

Zero Hour is of course the aerial jeopardy film that forms the basis for much of the movie Airplane! Also can't wait to hear the Dimitri Tiomkin music for Land of the Pharaohs in 5.1 Dolby .... Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson



March 12, 2007

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

Perversion Story
Severin
and
Sanders of the River & Jericho
part of the Paul Robeson Portraits of an Artist box from Criterion

Hello! Savant came down with a very unwelcome cold. I'd rather be out seeing that new Korean monster movie, THE HOST. Being sick means I have seen all of the Alice Faye DVDs but won't have reviews on them until Saturday. A thousand pardons.

Ed Sullivan sent me to a couple of new articles in a fine web magazine called The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies. I linked to it before but haven't seen it for awhile. Some excellent articles there.

FInally, another website has announced that Fox will release on June 5, Special Editions of Fantastic Voyage and the original film Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, each with many extras. The Voyage disc is to be known as the "Global Warming Edition." Either it simply takes its clue from the story, which involves the Earth's skies catching on fire, or they've used CGI to insert Vice President Al Gore into several scenes. Just kidding.

I shall sniffle some more and see thee later in the week ... Glenn Erickson



March 08, 2007

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

The Bridesmaid
First Run Features
and
The Bloody Child
Facets

A lot of interesting discs came in today, which means some fun writing for the weekend. I do promise to look at the pleasant weather out the window, just for a break. I've been sent a loaner on the new ALFRED HITCHCOCK Lionsgate set, the review for which will appear first at the TCM site.

Along with the discs came another fat envelope with a copy of the book The Gangster Film Reader edited by Alain Silver and James Ursini. I contributed a fat chapter on the film White Heat, and I have to say that it feels great to be in the company of so many respected writers.

Coming Tuesday, reviews of two of Criterion's Paul Robeson films and a quirky Lucio Fulci sex & murder thriller called PERVERSION STORY .... starring the wondrously alluring Marisa Mell.
Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson



March 06, 2007

Savant's new reviews today are

The Naked City
Criterion
A Reason to Live, A Reason to Die & Now They Call Him Sacramento
by Lee Broughton; Wild East, Dorado Films
and
The Heiress
Universal

Hello once more --- Reader, correspondent and webmaster Rick Klaw has set up a page celebrating Geek Movies not on DVD that invites various writers to add their guilty pleasures. The first half of the alphabet is already up. I think I need to contribute to the second half!

UK correspondent Lee Broughton weighs in with another pair of detailed Spaghetti Western reviews. He really ought to think of compiling them, as his coverage is so thorough. I think Lee has been writing for Savant for at least seven years, as well as helping me as an outside consultant. There's nothing like good help when one is outside one's specialization.

A few more announced titles have been added to the Savant Wish List. I'm pleased that the list is getting so much input from readers.

Although it hasn't mailed yet, the Alice Faye Collection should be on its way soon, with Cinderella Liberty and Volver. All movies about women, but whatcha gonna do? Of the new releases coming out, I hope I can review Children of Men and Animated Soviet Propaganda. In April I'm hoping for Bedazzled, The Silent Partner, True Confessions, Thieves Like Us, Pulp, Brute Force, Overlord, Play Dirty and Von Richtofen and Brown. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson



March 03, 2007

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

Bicycle Thieves  Criterion
and
Performance  Warner DVD

Hello from DVD Savant .... hmm, a couple of notes tonight. Rumors are afoot that Dark Sky's disk of Kill, Baby ... Kill! may only be pushed back, as opposed to cancelled. Savant has no hard info on this one way or the other but I've already gotten seven emails about it, including offers to buy my review copy.

The genial Joe Dante is the host on a new trailer site called Trailers from Hell, which offers a selection of vintage coming attractions for pix like Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman, with and without Dante commentary. I like it!

Also feel like a little kid this week. I was writing about the 1962 Sci-Fi opus VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, after which some friends assured me that the old Aurora model kit of the jolly sub Seaview is now back 'in print' again from a new company, Polar Lights. So I bought one online, for only about 10 times more than the original two or three kits I bought when it was new in the 1960s. Big doings in the Savant bathtub soon! If it goes together decently I'll post a photo. On the other hand, my eyes aren't what they used to be. Thanks, Glenn Erickson


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

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