Savant's new reviews today are

Savant's new reviews today are

Gomorrah
Blu-ray
Criterion

My Brilliant Career
Blu-ray
Blue Underground

and
Universal Cult Horror Collection
Murders in the Zoo, The Mad Doctor of Market Street,
The Strange Case of Dr. Rx, The Mad Ghoul, House of Horrors
TCM Vault / Universal

Happy news this week comes with the publishing of Bill Warren's newly-revised Keep Watching the Skies! I'm told that this is a substantial re-write and update of his two-volume study from the 1980s, of the same title. I'm looking forward to seeing it because the original has always been a key reference & fun-reading Sci-Fi book -- unlike fan efforts and opinion-only pieces, everything in it is based on direct research: in my opinion Warren is the authority on this subject, bar none. This time around the book has a cover that would definitely sell as a collector's poster (see, right). The new Keep Watching the Skies! can be ordered from its publisher, McFarland. Although the website gives a March launch date, I'm informed that books are shipping now.

This month happens to be the 50th anniversary of the release of On the Beach. A couple of days ago I listened to Fallout from the Shore, an interesting half-hour BBC radio show by Libby Purves that's all about the movie's making and the controversy around its release. The Eisenhower administration said its science was wrong and called it defeatist propaganda. Publicity from pundits like Dr. Linus Pauling helped On the Beach become a major aid to Ban the Bomb activism. Simultaneous premieres were held in several world capitols, each attended by a major star from the movie. Ms. Purves' show also gets into the particulars of how the film was received in Australia where it was filmed -- and the very negative response of Nevil Shute, the author of the original book. Listen quick -- it's going away shortly. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

Greetings, and Happy Turkey Day! Some of these links are a week old, so forgive me if they're repetitive.

This is at least a fortnight past, but too important to miss; the Academy has video up that lets us all see Jonathan Demme present Roger Corman with his Oscar at Saturday's 2009 Governors Awards ceremony.

I'm certainly excited by Criterion's February titles: In Blu-ray they list Max Ophuls' Lola Montès, Götz Spielman's Revanche and Steve McQueen's Hunger. On DVD alone they have Leo McCarey's Make Way for Tomorrow, a drama I thought would never be released in any format. Lola Montès will be the new restoration that came out last year; the old Criterion laserdisc is one of the few titles I still pull out my old laser player to see. It's a very special laser player -- sometimes it decides to work and sometimes not.

Guido Bibra forwards information about the rebirth of Metropolis that will be of interest to European viewers: "The new restored version with the footage found in Argentina will be premiered at the Berlinale on February 12th - and it will be shown live on the French-German culture channel ARTE, so it's going to be watchable on free satellite TV all over Europe. This is going to be interesting, since they will apparently be broadcasting with a live orchestra! I'm sure there's going to be a bigger announcement soon." That's in addition to the news that the restoration will be given its North American Premiere at the TCM Classic Film Festival to be held concurrently at Grauman's Chinese Theater and the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, this coming April.

MGM appears to be following in Warners' tracks, beginning their own "burn on demand" DVD-R disc series for library product they are unwilling to release on regular DVD. Readers have sent links to titles already listed on Amazon: Trapeze (December 15) and Return to Paradise (December 29). There are about a dozen others also on Amazon now, including The Group, Rich in Love, Dreamchild and Two for the Seesaw. What's going on? I've seen no publicitiy on this whatsoever. How do I review them? The last time I saw the fine Gary Cooper/ James A. Michener film Return to Paradise was on a poor quality VHS tape. A publicity announcement is out about a Warners-MGM video on demand downloading service, but I've yet not seen anything about these DVD-R discs.

Meanwhile, I expect to be able to review more Warners Archive titles soon, including two of the Gordon Scott Tarzan pictures. One of them is Tarzan's Greatest Adventure, which features none other than Sean Connery as one of Anthony Quale's second-string thugs.

Here's a plug for The Film Noir Foundation's Noir City Sentinel, a fine newspaper-formatted webzine with well-researched articles. FNF correspondent Alan Rode has posted two really good Sentinel articles for free, Jake Hinson's very good look at John Garfield and He Ran All The Way and his own piece on the mysterious writer-producer-promoter Philip Yordan. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson

FREE AT LAST!
Savant's new reviews today are

Welcome back, wherever I've been. This is by far the longest that DVD Savant has been non-operational, and just getting going again is a bit weird ... after doing the site's background routines automatically for so long, I suddenly have to remember how it all works again. I have three reviews up meant for 10 days ago. Check back in a couple of days and I'll have more -- not so much to "catch up" but to keep faith with DVD companies that need their review notices to come out reasonably close to street date. So let's hope everything uploads in a coherent manner. My thanks to John Sinnott, Dick Bradley and Nate Andrews of the parent company for getting me connected ... communication is patchy so I hope I stay connected!

Back to business ... Dick Dinman has new programs about new Sony/Columbia releases up on the web from his popular WMPG FM radio show DVD Classics Corner On the Air. Listenable post-broadcast on the web are:
A Fuller Film Experience. Samuel Fuller's widow Christa Lang Fuller, Fuller star Michael Dante and host Dick Dinman salute the defiantly maverick writer-director whose striking works are now on display in the new dvd release The Sam Fuller Collection.
A Castle of Columbia Noir. Dick Dinman and guest Rita Belda (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Technical Specialist, Film Restoration and Asset Management) discuss Sony's dvd releases of The William Castle Collection and The Columbia Pictures Film Noir Collection #1.

Edward Sullivan reacts to the "Ellie & Carl" montage in Pixar's UP by sending this link to a somewhat similarly themed animation by Bruno Bozzetto, Life in a Tin. I covered it in an older review about another Bruno Bozzetto feature film. The quality here is better but the audio seems about ten frames out of sync!

Something impressive from Uruguay -- a new five-minute short subject with special effects (and direction) that rival Hollywood feature films. Giant Robots (¡Robots gigantes!) attack Montevideo in Fede Alvarez' Ataque de Pánico! Almost 300 thousand views on YouTube already.

Thanks for bearing with all of this -- Glenn Erickson.

Elsewhere, I just heard the news that the new, full-length restoration of Metropolis is to be given its North American Premiere at the TCM Classic Film Festival to be held concurrently at Grauman's Chinese Theater and the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, this coming April. I think I'm going to try and catch that one.

I have more news but just keeping track of my finished but un-launched reviews is rather complicated right now ... thanks for keeping an eye on "DVD Savant, the Incredible Shrinking Review Page".

Glenn E.

Thursday November 19, 2009

Well, I don't know where things are with DVD Savant, exactleeee. A manager at the host site told me he'd have me connected again on Tuesday; when nothing happened yesterday I wrote back. Haven't received an answer yet. I'll write everybody again this morning and see what happens -- I don't think there's much else I can do at the moment. Thanks for all the notes expressing interest. If you'd like to read my review of the Universal Cult Horror Collection, it's up at this link at TCM. I know some readers (I hope I still have a few) were waiting for that one. Cheers ... ? Glenn E.

Tuesday November 17, 2009

Well, tomorrow it will be a solid week of no Savant updates; after 11 years of being prompt and punctual with my reviews this feels very disturbing. I promised the distributors of The Exiles, a really important independent release deserving of exceptional treatment, that their review would be up today -- it was supposed to go up last Saturday.

DVDtalk's site maintenance people have been very attentive and helpful in the past, so I've waited until today to try to contact one of them personally. Maybe he can take a second from putting out programming fires elsewhere, to reconnect DVD Savant to the web. Glenn.

Monday November 16, 2009

Hopefully DVDtalk will put DVD Savant back live today. In general the site maintenance here is excellent and we've never been down this long before. I have reviews ready for The Exiles, Confessions of a Nazi Spy and a Blu-ray of the 1998 Godzilla. Thank you. -- Glenn

Saturday November 14, 2009

Hello -- ! I have reviews ready today but our host site DVDtalk has been experiencing some problems, which include an inability for me to upload any reviews at the moment. I'll check back several times today to see if I can update the site. -- Glenn.

Savant's new reviews today are

Greetings! This may classify as truly obscure trivial trivia, but I've received an interesting follow-up to my recent review of Messiah of Evil from a Savant reader who prefers not to be identified: He's compared the "Point Dune" beach house in Messiah with "Monte Baragon's" Malibu beach house in the old Joan Crawford film Mildred Pierce ... and they're the same building! The house number is identical and other angles reveal that the walkway view is the same as well. And the Messiah extras reveal that the scene was filmed in Malibu. I wonder if the filmmakers even knew? Now 50,000 Joan Crawford fans will need to pick up copies of Messiah of Evil!

Yes, that's all the DVD "news" that's cropped up in the last three days. Savant's upcoming reviews will include DVDs of Confessions of a Nazi Spy, The Exiles, Downhill Racer, The Golden Age of Television, Avant-Garde 3 and The Tora-San Collector's Set #1. Upcoming Blu-rays are Gomorrah and My Brilliant Career. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

Greetings! Some interesting web destinations today. Kaiju fan Kyle Gilmore has uploaded what he calls a Godzilla Fubar reel, a collection of very good-looking outtakes from 90's Toho Godzilla pix (hey, isn't that Biollante?) that feature spaceship models that don't work right and huge pratfalls by men in Godzilla costumes. It's pretty funny seeing the titantic saurian tip to one side, and keep tipping ... until he falls like a ton of molded rubber, rearranging the landscape on impact. The funniest clip is a perfect shot of Big G emerging from the ocean ... perfect, that is, until we see a large fish jumping out of the water behind him!

At Sean Axmaker's blog can be found the full information on the Lionsgate The Dead DVD recall. The first run was apparently pressed with several minutes of movie missing.

Finally, the insightful David Cairns presents his Shadowplay article on Vertigo, one of the most interesting analyses of the Alfred Hitchcock movie I've yet read. It's under the date November 4 and is entitled Friends of Carlotta. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson.

Savant's new reviews today are

Greetings! Another week with a record number of reviews ... this may continue until the peak of Fall releases subsides in a few weeks. Meanwhile I'm having a fine time. I've gotten several requests to review Warner Archives' From Hell It Came so have given a borrowed copy a spin for some more good laughs. Sometimes being entertained is just effortless, and who ever met a Tabonga they didn't like?

Helpful reader Dean Blake has forwarded a fascinating Chicago Reader article on actor Robert Ryan, a definite Savant Favorite. Be sure to take a look at Ryan's full letter to his daughters, explaining his family background and early years in Chicago ... it's great reading.

Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson