Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

Hello again ... I've updated the Savant Wish List over the weekend with various announcements (with release dates) that I've been gathering. At year's end, I think I'll shift all the films that have been released to the bottom, under a separate "2007" heading, and move forward. New suggestions for the wish list keep arriving, so I'll try to update it each month.

Correspondent Gordon Morrice of Aberdeen Scotland tells me that a French Version of the great film Zulu Dawn (reviewed here in an inferior R1 release) is a beautiful enhanced and full-Panavision widescreen transfer. An enticing Screen shot is available here; Gordon says that the English track is mono but the French track is Dolby stereo. These days R2 PAL is seeing many desirable discs before they reach R1! Thanks, Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

Hello! Reviews of ten separate movies in three sets on Savant today!

Other news: I received an intriguing note from reader Kevin Pyrtle last night on the subject of La fin du monde (The End of the World), the hard-to-see 1931 Abel Gance movie that I noted in an older (1999) Savant article called Those Astral Collision Movies, in conjunction with When Worlds Collide and Gorath. Here's Kevin Pyrtle's email:

"Dear Savant, Your article entitled Those Astral Collision Movies was my first introduction to the film that graces the subject of this email - what followed was a long and, more often than not, fruitless search for the French version of it. I have finally located a copy of the film in its original form (though bits of it seem as though they may have been transferred at the wrong frame rate) as it aired on Italian television some time ago. You can find it up for viewing here in Windows Media format: La fin du monde - entire feature. My review of the film can be found here -- it covers what information I've been able to find on the production along with the film itself.

I'm not sure if you've had a chance to see this film -- but having found it myself I couldn't imagine going on not sharing it with the person who is fairly well responsible for my seeking it out in the first place. I hope that it will eventually make its way through a restoration and onto DVD, but considering the only known 35mm of it currently resides in Prague that may be little more than a dream. Let me know what you think of it. Kindest regards, Kevin Pyrtle (WTFFILM)

I went to Pyrtle's site and discovered that he wasn't kidding about the Windows Media restriction: Being a Mac person, I'll have to watch La fin du monde on somebody else's PC. I'm looking forward to seeing if it's any good ... and exactly how racy it really is. -- Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

Not much in the way of big news today. Writing the review for the 20 Million Miles to Earth 50th Anniversary Edition was a particular chore, as the reissue disc creates an instant conflict of interest. One doesn't want to say anything bad about a release of a Ray Harryhausen film, and there's also the risk of seeming self-important when criticizing Colorization. In a perfect world, there'd be no need to once again harp on what's wrong with the practice. But because people like it and buy it, one runs the risk of being labeled a whining elitist, a film purist. As I say in the review, if you want to see how an excellent paint-by-numbers job makes Ray Harryhausen's clever effects composites look like plastic toys on a tabletop, then this disc is just the ticket.

Warners just announced a promising-sounding Burt Lancaster The Signature Collection boxed set for October 23: The Flame and the Arrow, His Majesty O'Keefe, Jim Thorpe - All American, South Sea Woman and the JFK conspiracy film Executive Action.

The Fox DVD page lists some interesting 'coming soon' titles: The musical With a Song in My Heart, horror titles The Lodger, The Undying Monster, Hangover Square, films noir Daisy Kenyon, Dangerous Crossing, Black Widow, Studio Classics Charlie Chan Vol. 4, Ford at Fox Box and Cinema Classic 2-disc Sp Eds The Day Earth the Earth Stood Still, An Affair to Remember and The Robe. As an extra noir title, they also say that Boomerang! will be on the way as an 'official' release. A great many have already been sold. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

A Peckinpah Alert: Sam's first film, The Deadly Companions has been elusive in a decent version, but will soon be out in Region 2 as noted at the DVD Maniacs site. I've never seen it in Panavision. Unfortunately, what the film really needs is for someone to remove its terrible, wall to wall guitar music score. It's as intrusive as the guitar meanderings of Mesa of Lost Women.

The Trailers from Hell website is expanding, with entertaining new offerings: Joe Dante on The Incredible Petrified World and John Landis on The T.A.M.I. Show.

The American Cinematheque's Horror & Sci-Fi festival promises to fill the Egyptian Theater all through August, with showings of pictures like Blood and Roses, Crack in the World, These Are the Damned, Curse of the Fly, The Projected Man, Games, World Without End and Kiss of the Vampire. I think I'll be going a minimum three times myself, as some original Technicolor prints are being shown for some of the titles.

Finally, sad news for Los Angeles film fans. Sherman Torgan, the owner of The Beverly Cinema, has passed away. Many of you may only know him from this year's very successful "Grindhouse" series of old exploitation double bills, but Sherman has been running the little repertory movie house since 1979. I remember when I had small children and needed to get out of the house, dropping by to see him and Jim Ursini every Saturday at midnight. Sherman was a dedicated showman and a good friend, and the L.A. movie scene will miss him terribly. -- Glenn Erickson

¡Hola! Savant's new reviews today are

Steve Eifert of the impressive Noir of the Week site has just added a new essay I've written about the restoration of Kiss Me Deadly, as seen through ten years of hindsight. The KMD repremiere happened in August of 1997 when I was able to briefly meet A.I. Bezzerides in person. (photo) The Noir of the Week website not only gives the article a generous deluxe treatment, it allows casual browsers to see both the restored original ending of the film and the mangled one that was 'predominantly exhibited' for over forty years. Next week the site will be doing a British noir triple feature page written by English authority Andrew Spicer. Thanks for reading -- Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

Greetings! Savant got an early peek at the Warners Film Noir 4 Classic Collection and it looks great. I hadn't seen all the pictures, and Crime Wave and Tension were excellent. All the prints so far are dazzling. I have to say that noirs seem to get more interesting once we get into the low "A" - high "B" strata, titles without the big stars. You'll start seeing reviews for them on Tuesday.

Fox appears to have shut down their noir series for the moment -- appropriate titles may be growing scarce -- but with the new MGM Noirs and Criterion's deluxe Ace in the Hole, we've already got a full noir plate this summer! Glenn Erickson

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

I just got the Joan Collins Collection on Friday, so reviewing its five features took the whole weekend, especially figuring out the odd commentary tracks. The review of the flashiest picture in the set, The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing is committed to TCM first and will follow in about a week, so sorry about that delay. Now to try and figure out how to write about the difficult Chris Marker movies La Jetée and Sans soleil, and the equally weird Hiroshi Teshigahara pictures Pitfall, The Woman in the Dunes and Face of Another! Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

Greetings! Savant's new reviews today are

Yes, we're on the Seventh Day of the Seventh Month of the Seventh year of the 21st century, and I've been waiting all day for the sky to turn purple, or angels with flaming swords to demand to see my I.D., or to look out the window and see all the planets lined up like at the end of 2001, A Space Odyssey. Since I don't think any of those things are going to happen, I'll have to settle for dinner out.

Meanwhile, it's back to Joan Collins movies, the good group of CinemaScope pix from the 1950s when she was like a riper version of Jean Simmons, given few opportunities to show her acting talent. My review will be out Tuesday, I hope, all except for the entertaining The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, which will be delayed for reasons beyond my control .... a thousand pardons! Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

Happy almost July 4! Savant's new reviews today are

Just two reviews today but you know how it goes, family commitments and all. I'm trying to determine the true aspect ratio of Fox's new disc of The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, because readers are upset that all the handouts and Amazon specs say that the CinemaScope picture is flat. I feel confident that that info is a mistake, because Fox is very good about releasing pictures in their proper AR, bless 'em. But I know several readers who would like to order early and my screener won't be here until Friday or so. ----- THE ANSWER, from a helpful Dick Dinman: The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing DVD is indeed a full CinemaScope widescreen. The pub handouts were all wrong, as Savant had guessed.

I also didn't get a chance to see the TCM version of These are the Damned last night. I did watch the beginning and saw that they'd scheduled only 90 minutes for it. If they showed the full cut, it should have run about eight minutes over the start time for the next show ... so I'd also like to know what happened there too. It was in beautiful widescreen, the first time it's been shown on TV that way, I believe. ---- THE ANSWER: These Are the Damned was shown on TCM in its full 96-min length, which frustrated a number of TIvo users whose machines clicked off at the 90 minute mark ... which will certainly leave them in suspense for a subsequent viewing.

The Joan Collins movies, The Nightcomers, The Woman in the Window, The Stranger, Kansas City Confidential and Malpertuis are all here or on the way. I also got a good look at Criterion's new Ace In the Hole and I'll have a review up around the 13th. Thanks for reading and have a nice July 4th! -- Glenn Erickson