Savant's new reviews today are

Greetings! The most turbulent decade since the 60s is over -- let's hope the 'teens becomes a time when at least part of the world gets put back together again. I had fun compiling my Best of 2009 List and 2010 Savant Wish List, so the end of year chores are done once again. A "normal" review schedule should be back in place in less than a week as things settle down at the Casa de Savant (located on several rolling acres, all crammed into a small 1922 Hollywood tract lot -- I always imagine Laurel & Hardy building the original house here).

A lot of responses have bounced back re: my review of Duncan Jones' Moon. Most readers seem grateful that I didn't spill any spoiler beans for a movie that can't even be discussed without resorting to spoilers. That's a prime Savant skill: selective obfuscation.

A spread-the-joy note ... if you haven't checked lately, some great film journalism continues to go down over at McElwee's Greenbriar Picture Shows and David Cairns' Shadowplay sites. Shadowplay is just wrapping up its 52-week, 52-title overview of the entire filmography of Alfred Hitchcock. Some of the observations and essays on classics like Vertigo and Psycho are of world-class quality. If you find yourself between eggnog and a hard place this weekend, these sites are a great place to roam. At any rate, that's where I go to recharge my filmic batteries ...

Thanks for reading and Happy New Year -- Endure, Subsist and Evolve!
Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

Greetings! Hello again. A technical state of holiday continues at Casa de Savant, but a couple of reviews have leaked out, just the same. All is well, although I'm eating far more than normal .... a typical report for this time of year.

Joe Dante directs our attention to a page called Richard Graham's Government Comics Collection. It has full downloadable scans of officially commissioned comic books -- government propaganda for all kinds of issues. Li' Abner is present shilling for official messages; the Blondie family dramatizes family values and mental health concerns.

Among more political choices, one title (pictured here) presents the Grenada invasion in the form of a war comic. The site also has a pro-revolutionary Sandinista comic book from Nicaragua. Highly recommended.

Next posting up should carry the new year's Savant Wish List! Thanks for sticking with DVD Savant during the holidays -- Glenn Erickson.

Savant's new review today is

Greetings! I was going to just drop all pretense of activity this week and skip out on my Savant duties, but I obtained my next batch of MGM Archive Collection discs yesterday, and The Next Voice You Hear... sort of had an invisible "watch me" sign on it. A couple of hours of deliquency from Christmas duties, and here we are.

Gary Teetzel sent me this Sci-Fi Wire link to three brief clips from the BBC's New Day of the Triffids miniseries. We Yanks hope to see it on BBC America or have it available for purchase on disc soon. Have a great Holiday and I'll be back in a few days ... thanks, Glenn.

Savant's new reviews today are

Greetings, and I hope your holiday is coming together as planned, if you're the type that dares to make plans! The big news this week, at least in Savant's tunnelvision world, is Criterion's announcement that they'll be releasing the Nicholas Ray film Bigger than Life on March 23. A dangerous movie to oversell, this story of a schoolteacher that inadvertently expands his ego through drugs is the emblematic film of the neurotic 1950s. Starring its producer James Mason, Barbara Rush & Walter Matthau, and featuring the music of David Raksin. "God was wrong!

TCM's fine Obituary Montage for 2009 is up; I wonder if they'll amend it to include a marker for the marvelous Jennifer Jones. TCM's obits have been consistently more tasteful than the Academy's, in my view.

Friend & writer Jeremy Arnold pointed me to that link, and also offers an interesting Life Magazine link to a nifty photo article on the Auditions for a new James Bond, back in 1968 when Sean Connery bowed out of the running. Unpublished: James Bond Auditions is a good read, too.

My Inglourious Basterds review was reprinted at DVDtalk, and shot up to the top slot of most-read reviews there, due I'm sure, totally to my byline (cough, cough), I mean, the fact that the Blu-ray just came out and is very popular. Responses have been positive -- I wasn't sure all that many viewers appreciated Tarantino's movie ...

So, I've gotten in Blu-rays of Moon and Paranormal Activity, and hope to have access to more Warner Archive Collection discs soon. I'm especially hoping to get a loaner on the delirious religious parable, The Next Voice You Hear. And it's time to get a Christmas tree as well ... Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson.

Savant's new reviews today are

Greetings! I'm getting a lot of feedback from my Inglourious Basterds review and have already posted two responses (yea and nay). So look again if that disc is on your mind this week.

I'm also working hard on the end-of-year mini-essay that goes with the new year's Savant Wish List -- a lot of changes in the landscape of Library Catalog discs this year. With that in mind -- along with my subjective "best of 2009" list to compile, I'll cut this short. Thanks for the notes and thanks as ever for reading! -- Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

Greetings! I'm very happy to post today on Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, which hit me as the most engaging and exciting film I've seen this year. Tarantino's insider-hipster instincts overachieve here, transcending the escapist war action genre and analyzing its appeal in subversive detail. Can you tell that I liked it? Well, it's the first QT pic I've really liked since Jackie Brown. To paraphrase Aldo Raine, I think it's QT's masterpiece.

On the links home front ... we have Distributor Wars!

John McElwee's Greenbriar Picture Shows blog this week features a fascinating article about film distribution in the 1950s -- an illuminating story of price fixing and other shenanigans between Disney, RKO and exhibitors. Great reportage! (scroll down to December 7) Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

Greetings! A sort-of double dose of Tarzan tonight -- that's Tarzan, not Tora-san or Porta-San -- a clever Turkish piratical version and a pair from the Warner Archives. These are the Gordon Scott T-zans Savant first encountered in the theater in 1960, when they seemed the most violent, exciting things going ... next to Hercules!

A trio of Sci-Fi links to throw at you. At a German website called DVD Duell one can see an early George Lucas student film called Freiheit. Scroll down to December 3 (Dez 3) to find the three-minute opus. It stars, of all people, future director Randal Kleiser. Hopefully this isn't already the oldest news on the web -- I was surprised to discover it.

Savant friend Kevin Pyrtle reviews an early Danish science fiction film from the Danish Film Institute, 1916's Vredens Dag (The End of the World). It seems every time we find the "original" film about a particular theme, another earlier title shows up to take its place. Yep, a nasty comet threatens to destroy all life on Earth, or at least in Copenhagen. Kevin's review (a Danish Film Institute disc is available) is at this link.

Gary Teetzel sends this link to a pre- Buster Crabbe Buck Rogers in the 25th Century short subject, apparently made for the 1933 World's Fair. An embarrassing mess, it nevertheless features an interplanetary battle between fleets of rocketships, a quarter century before Battle in Outer Space. Gary encourages us to pay special attention at the 7:15 mark, to enjoy the worst acting reaction in history! Thanks for reading -- Glenn Erickson

Savant's new reviews today are

Greetings! It's a full house of reviews today, and it's likely to stay that way for a while. The holiday movies seem to come out all at once in late November, creating a pileup in the review lists. So there'll be no slack time between here and New Year's. I'm also trying to compile my highly subjective "best of" list, my look back at the discs I most appreciated this year.

Fun links today begin with Hollywood vs. New York, a clever montage by Kirby combining Gershwin music with clips from films where New York gets clobbered by catastrophic special effects.

Radio host Dick Dinman's show on director Frank Capra has been picked up by TCM Online for their celebration of the famous director. Dinman's interview with Frank Capra Jr. has been repurposed into podcast form.

Disc news: Taking a step beyond those Blu-ray combo sets that throw in an extra DVD disc, Universal has announced a new line of Blu-ray / DVD flippers, starting on January 19 with the Bourne series. Is this an interesting way to promote the new format in tough economy? The Uni press copy calls it "Future-proofing" one's collection.

Art Fisher has sent me full info on a pair of Sony Bad Girls of Film Noir disc sets that will street before the studio's awaited Columbia Noir Collection 2. Titles in Volume 1 are The Killer that Stalked New York, Two of a Kind, Bad for Each Other and The Glass Wall; Volume 2 will feature Night Editor, One Girl's Confession, Over-Exposed and Women's Prison. The various Bad Babes represented therein are Evelyn Keyes, Dorothy Malone, Lola Albright, Lizabeth Scott, Terry Moore, Gloria Grahame, Ann Robinson, Janis Carter, Constance Towers, Ida Lupino, Jan Sterling, Audrey Totter -- and three features with that unsung 50s siren Cleo Moore (seen above).

The Warner Archive Collection for early December carries a heavy concentration of early talkie musicals, which come highly recommended. I'll need to do a bit of reading on the subject but I'm looking forward to reviewing a few: Golden Dawn, Hollywood Revue of 1929, It's a Great Life, Rio Rita, Sally, On with the Show! I'm also hoping to snag the dizzy religious parable The Next Voice You Hear -- and just for perverse variety, the very irreligious delinquency sleaze-fest Untamed Youth. Yin and Yang, to wit.

Michael Schlesinger has asked me to mention a special screening of The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra on Sunday, December 13th at the Cinematheque's Aero Theater in Santa Monica. The horror/sci fi spoof will be accompanied by what they're calling a "live commentary" from writer-director-star Larry Blamire and several of the original cast. It sounds like utter chaos and perhaps some real fun. Full details at the Cinematheque Aero calendar. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson