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June 29, 2007

¡Hola! Savant's new reviews today are

The Original Nancy Drew Movie Mystery Collection
Nancy Drew -- Detective, Nancy Drew -- Reporter,
Nancy Drew -- Troubleshooter, Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase

Warner DVD
WR - Mysteries of the Organism
Criterion
The Verdict (Collector's Edition)
Fox
and
The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer
Digital Classics; a Region 2 PAL review by Lee Broughton

DVDTalk adusted its review templates for the Savant site a few days ago, which resulted in a funny "Incredible Shrinking" side effect. A bunch of old Savant articles now have teeny-tiny main title headings. I trust it will be straightened out in due course, but in the meantime, enjoy Savant before he shrinks into microscopia.

I got a couple of letters asking me to define the term "Camp", as in Warners' Cult Camp Classics releases -- the clever name combines two oft-used words that lack strict definitions. I've never read a good definition, and dictionaries never seem to grasp it fully. Realizing that my personal 'functioning' definition was probably wrong, I've been given some hints that basically boil down to the idea that Camp is more of a sensibility than a hard-definition qualifier. It's a "I know it when I see it" phenom, which sort of defeats the idea of definitions.

Then I was referred to Susan Sontag's 1964 essay Notes on Camp, that really nails the concept in art and life, and even has with specific movie references. I mean, it mentions The Prodigal and The Mysterians by name. After reading her essay, I'll be thinking twice before automatically putting quotes on words ...!

And finally, the Turner Classic Movies cable channel (TCM) is showing the ultra-rare English Science Fiction film These Are the Damned this coming Monday evening, at 10:30 EST. Its running time is unclear, but I have a feeling that it'll be the full 96-minute version -- I don't think Sony has any other in circulation. Savant's TCM short essay on the movie is at this address. Thanks, Glenn Erickson



June 24, 2007

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

Cult Camp Classics Volume 4:
Historical Epics

The Prodigal, Land of the Pharaohs, The Colossus of Rhodes
Warner DVD
Gary Cooper MGM Movie Legends Collection
The Winning of Barbara Worth, The Cowboy and the Lady, The Real Glory, Vera Cruz
MGM/Fox
Love Stories
MGE

Not a whole lot to say for myself, except that I did get that third Cult Camp Classics review in, so good for me. Coming up soon are The Verdict, WR Mysteries of the Organism, Heaven and Hell, The Nancy Drew Mysteries and Attack Force Z. Am hoping to get in The Joan Collins Collection and the MGM Noir titles soon: The Woman in the Window, The Stranger and Kansas City Confidential. Although all three have been seen on budget graymarket discs and tapes, MGM has the original elements, and they should look like new. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson



June 22, 2007

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

Cult Camp Classics Vol.1: Sci-Fi Thrillers
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, The Giant Behemoth, Queen of Outer Space
Warners
Cult Camp Classics Vol. 2: Women in Peril
Caged, The Big Cube, Trog
Warners
The Murder of Fred Hampton
Facets Video
and
Von Ryan's Express
Fox

Greetings! I'm happy to be putting up the first two Cult Camp reviews today. I was indeed sent a third Volume by gracious WHV, and will follow up with another review on Tuesday.

Gary Teetzel sent me a link to a fascinating article about an unproduced Disney Wizard of Oz Movie that was meant to star his Mousketeers. The article is at a great column called Jim Hill Media that I recommend heartily; I've spent a couple hours reading from it in the last day or so. Jim Hill really knows his stuff and has fine critical perceptions.

I've found out that the unusual Belgian fantasy Malpertius by Harry Kumel is coming out in R1; a review copy is on the way. It stars Susan Hampshire and Orson Welles. From all I've read about this movie, it ought to be very interesting. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson



June 18, 2007

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

If ....
Criterion
¡Yo soy Boricua, pa'que tu lo sepas!
Genius Entertainment
The Spaghetti West
Docurama and
Bridge to Terabithia
Disney

Various news bits here ... many review sites are receiving only a few of the hotly-desired upcoming Cult Camp disc sets from Warners. My reviews for two of the sets will be up next Friday. I'm putting in a special request (beg and plead may be a better choice of words) for the other two, and am asking myself if I 'feel lucky.' How can Savant not review Zero Hour!, The Colossus of Rhodes and especially Land of the Pharaohs?

On other news fronts, It looks like September will be the month for Criterion's Robinson Crusoe on Mars. Also coming that month will be the 1930 G.W. Pabst musical The Threepenny Opera, the version with Lotte Lenya.

The DVD Drive-In site reports that MGM's forthcoming DVD of Witchfinder General a.k.a. The Conqueror Worm will have a commentary with producer Philip Waddilove and star Ian Ogilvy. Among many other titles, Tom Weaver also reports that Fox will be releasing a special edition of Irwin Allen's lizardosaur epic The Lost World from 1960. Yes, it's no classic, but I'll never forget the great color and mighty dino roars on the soundtrack when I was an impressionable eight year-old.

A reader wrote in to tell me that on my main page, the photo I posted crowded or overlapped my text. I don't like that phenomenon when I see it on other pages, so I'm concerned about this ... does anybody else get that problem on Savant pages?

Gary Teetzel reported that the makers of the movie Saw and the rights holders to the old RKO library intend to remake some of the old Val Lewton movies, including the doesn't-need-remaking I Walked with a Zombie. Knowing exactly what the modern horror market needs, I rushed out this treatment synopsis:

The aloof, Byronic sugar cane planter's troubled personality can be subtly linked to his history of torturing wives, nurses and co-ed nude models come to San Sebastian for Hustler photo shoots. We're making the new-in-town nurse from the original story a sexy C.S.I. investigator instead. The Zombies will be an ethnically diverse bunch of pro wrestlers. Since there's no pro-Voodoo lobby, that part of the story can stay the same.
We've also come up with something brand new in the genre, a demented Zombie Master character who controls the horde of flesh-eating killers. He'll have narrow, bright lights always illuminating his eyes and will speak ever so slowly in an incomprehensible Hungarian accent. Creepy, huh? The sinister Calypso folk singer who insinuates evil tidings through his song lyrics is now a Rap singer and pro-Zombie Rights activist. The big revelation arrives when we discover that the Zombies are really mutated prisoners escaped from the luxurious GITMO detention center. They're part of a sinister Arab fundamentalist plot to destroy our freedoms from within by 'sneaking' themselves into the soft, cushy extra-territorial U.S. custody system.

Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson



June 15, 2007

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

Invasion of Astro-Monster
Classic Media
Twelve O'Clock High
Cinema Classics reissue Fox
Goodbye CP
Facets Video
and
How To Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and enjoy it)
Home Vision

It's Sunday morning and a killer walks the streets. He's four years old and has probably never seen a whole western of any kind, but he seems to know how to hold that mean-looking weapon. How could this cold-blooded hombre grow up to be such a pacifistic, non-violent guy? The secret is ... beats me, I just thought the picture was funny. I remember my mother buttoning that top button, too, as the neck was tight; and I have to assume that my dad handed me the toy gun to complete the lethal visual effect. Now, if I could only have some of that hair back. Edwards Air Force Base, 1956.

Correspondent Avie Hern offers some info about Van Johnson's plane-crash 'makeup' in a new footnote to The World War II Collection, Vol. 2: Heroes Fight for Freedom review. Important corrections are always worth noting!

A last note; the first two Warners Cult Camp Classics, Sci-Fi Thrillers and Women in Peril will be up at Savant on the 23rd. I've gotten the first two sets and they're quite good; hopefully Terrorized Travelers and Historical Epics will be on my doorstep soon! Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson



June 10, 2007

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

Le petit lieutenant
Koch Lorber
Steelyard Blues
Warners
Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster
Classic Media
and
Alice, Sweet Alice
Hen's Tooth

Hello! A big response for the Sergio Leone Anthology review, which is doing well on the DVDTalk 'most accessed review list.' I wish that interest extended to The World War II Collection Volume 2: Heroes Fight for Freedom review, because I thought I had some intelligent things to say about those pictures! The delayed Air Force review from that group is up now, as well. Am also dipping deeper into this season's Toho imports, which are getting around to the later, goofier Godzilla movies. Even with their juvenile ambitions, they're difficult to resist in their colorful Japanese versions with the dynamic Akira Ifukube audio tracks. Thanks for reading ... back soon with more. Glenn Erickson



June 08, 2007

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

The World War II Collection, Vol. 2: Heroes Fight for Freedom
Air Force, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo,
Command Decision, Hell to Eternity, 36 Hours, The Hill

Warner DVD

David and Lisa
Image / Castle Hill
and
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (Global Warming Edition)
Fox

Some great war movies today. Due to a contractual arrangement, the Air Force review is actually separate and won't be available for a couple of days, so try not to get too angry. I found this collection of war films really enjoyable -- all different, and interesting for different reasons.

Gary Teetzel forwards the following links: A teaser trailer for the new version of I Am Legend; and another William Stromberg orchestral rehearsal from Fahrenheit 451. He has read on a retail site that some sources are reporting that The Conqueror Worm aka Witchfinder General will be offered as an MGM Midnite Movies disc this fall. He also got one of those notorious 'Silver Surfer' fake coins back as change from a vending machine! Thanks for reading -- Glenn Erickson



June 04, 2007

Savant's new reviews today are

Straight Time
Warner DVD

The Sergio Leone Anthology
Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More,
The Good The Bad and The Ugly, Duck You Sucker

MGM / Fox

Frankenstein vs. Baragon / Frankenstein Conquers the World
Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock
and

The Sand Pebbles
Fox Cinema Classics Collection

So the day has finally come. Savant has been moping for almost two years about the no-show of The Sergio Leone Anthology, and now it's been released. This is a touchy area, as it wouldn't normally seem good judgment to 'review' a disc of one's own work, so I've put that fact out in the open in a disclaimer. I've done my best to outline the extras and give more information on the films while avoiding most value judgments. There are a great many questions being asked about the films, their versions, and what's been done in MGM's special editions, and I've tried to address them honestly ... I certainly agree that The Good, The Bad and The Ugly needs an original mono mix as an alternative to the stereo remix that took liberties with the sound effects. But mostly, its good to finally have these Sp Eds out!

Back to reviewing ... the bounty of June 5 is going to be spread out over the next two weeks. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson



June 01, 2007

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

Westerns with a Twist Box Set:
Guest review by Lee Broughton
The Sons of Great Bear; Chingachgook: The Great Snake;
and Apaches
First Run Features

Sansho the Bailiff
Criterion
and
Vengeance of the Zombies
Deimos

A pleasant weekend here in Los Angeles, with plenty of new discs to review. I can report that Warner Home Video's defective return policy is still functioning; I sent in a bad copy of Sweeney Todd that I've been sitting on for about a year, and was treated very politely. A replacement disc arrived about three weeks later. I'll be happy to pass the WHV return contact info along to anyone who needs it.

Straight Time is up next, and the following titles are in the wings: Alice, Sweet Alice, David and Lisa, Steelyard Blues, the Sergio Leone Anthology Box Set, the World War II Collection Vol. 2: Heroes Fight for Freedom, The Sand Pebbles, Twelve O'Clock High, Von Ryan's Express, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (Global Warming Edition), Yo Soy Boricua, The Verdict, If..., and Late Ozu. Happy viewing, Glenn Erickson


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

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