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February 28, 2011
Savant's new reviews today are: 
Kim Novak and James Garner brighten this MGM sex farce that's all tease: three married men and a divorced bachelor rent a swank apartment for extra-marital fun and games -- and rent a woman to go with it. A little tastelessness never hurt anybody! Co-stars Tony Randall, Howard Duff, Howard Morris, Janet Blair, Patti Page. From the Warner Archive Collection.
3/01/11
Blu-ray 
Disney's wildlife fantasy of seasons and cycles looks incredibly clean and vibrant on Blu-ray, and can probably start a big discussion over what constitutes a good restoration. A Diamond Collection package deal that includes a ton of varied (if confusingly organized) extras, and a separate DVD version.
3/01/11
and 
Gathered together under the shaky category of HICKS PIX comedy are two very different movies. Murder, He Says is a weird proto-black comedy about a killer brood of hillbillies holed up in a haunted mansion. Fred MacMurray is the pollster who helps pistol-packin' gold digger Helen Walker search for a stash of stolen moolah. Feudin' Fussin' and A-Fightin' is a bucolic musical with Donald O'Connor in fine form as a traveling salesman Shanghaied to compete in a foot race. Both features co-star the unsinkable Marjorie Main. From the TCM Vault Collection.
3/01/11 Greetings! 
A photo from 1973, when Oscar really knew how to party! Well, we had excellent weather for the Oscars on Sunday, after being threatened with low temperatures and snow. On Saturday, only a bit of mist touching the top of the Hollywood Sign. I thought the weathermen had gone nuts until the news progams showed that it did hail and snow briefly just over the hill in Burbank and Glendale. And I spent the day in my shirtsleeves, not six miles away. I did watch part of the Oscars and listened to a lot more. It was pretty ho-hum but I like that better than mean-spirited humor and frayed nerves. Someone wound Kirk Douglas up pretty tight, as he was intent on grabbing all the camera time he could get. The "younger demographic" hosts were okay, and by that I mean that the charming and affable Anne Hathaway did all the heavy duty work while James Franco behaved in a distracted or uninvolved manner through the whole proceedings. He was lame and she was impossible to dislike. I did enjoy the IN MEMORIAM tribute but on the whole the night was rather subdued. Everybody likes to see the immediate reactions of the winners, and nobody wants to sit through the thanks mom and my goldfish bits. Technically the show was extremely slick, with all the montages clearly in restored HD -- I remember when I did my Oscar montage ten years ago, the producer wanted me to source my film clips from DVDs! Onward -- I have some delayed reviews of big February hits on the way, with a few before-street-date titles, lightly seasoned with burn-on-demand library attractions. Thanks for reading! -- Glenn Erickson
February 25, 2011
Savant's new reviews today are: 
Patricia Neal and Pamela Brown star in a horror film / love story unlike most genre efforts -- the script actually says something about human relationships. The new handyman in the grand old house is a hit with his blind employer and her frustrated daughter, but at night he sneaks out to commit serial murders. With music by Bernard Herrmann; from the Warner Archive Collection.
2/26/11
Blu-ray 
Charles Ferguson's documentary expertly communicates the fleecing of America by investment banks, showing up the venal thieves and liars for what they are without taking partisan sides. Guaranteed to make one angry and raise one's blood pressure -- convincing the viewer that the U.S. Government has effectively been taken over by Wall Street. Very, very strong stuff. Blu-ray, from Sony Classics.
2/26/11
Blu-ray 
Luchino Visconti's Technicolor masterpiece has been beautifully restored by the Italians. Alida Valli and Farley Granger share an adulterous relationship with the 1860s risorgimento as a backdrop. Like The Leopard, a sprawling epic-in-depth that clearly wasn't made on a budget. Blu-ray, from Criterion.
2/26/11
and 
A documentary about the friendship of the two most famous directors of the French New Wave, Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. Beautifully appointed, with plenty of film clips and vintage newsreel footage, but perhaps a bit narrow in its focus. From Lorber Films.
2/26/11
Greetings! Well, the rain is pouring down here in Hollywood, about a mile from where the Oscars will be given out on Sunday. The weathermen may have flipped, but they're saying that it might get cold enough this weekend for snow to settle as low as the Hollywood Sign. This is clearly revenge for Savant's boasting that things have been balmy here while the rest of the nation freezes. I pretty much used up all my impressive links last time, so tonight I have a few release announcements, some of which we already knew. A Blu-ray of King of Kings is due from Warners on March 29, and Warners is also promising Blu-ray discs of Grand Prix (from 65mm) and Papillon for May 24, and The Cincinnati Kid for June 14. Lorber Films has announced Blu-rays on May 3 of the Sophia Loren films Yesterday Today and Tomorrow, Marriage Italian Style and Sunflower. Unfortunately, some really hot titles I've heard about, I can't report without breaking confidences. Severin tells me that they'll have a favorite horror title with big stars in a couple of months, but I gotta stay quiet. This is how all the really exciting scoops get reported at other websites first --- but DVD Savant isn't equipped to compete in that game. Thanks for reading, and I'll try to keep up with the reviews of the good titles -- the suppliers are treating DVD Savant well these days, and I'm grateful. Thanks for reading! -- Glenn Erickson.
February 21, 2011
Savant's new reviews today are: 
Glamorous Joan Collins contributes an impressively controlled performance to a weird, delirious romantic fantasy with a flaky Sci-Fi premise. Tom Bell finds himself in a parallel universe, with a different career and a beautiful but disillusioned wife. Can true love sort out his inter-dimensional dilemma? An enjoyably overcooked soap opera that finishes with a strange race against time, as Bell looks for Joan's alter-ego back in his original "alternate reality". A rare oddity recovered by distributor Scorpion Releasing.
2/22/11
Elia Kazan's personal dream production is a unique epic about a brutal odyssey of immigration from a land of oppression to the United States. It's an only slightly altered story of Kazan's penniless Uncle Joe, who struggled for years to get to Ellis Island by hook or crook -- or turning himself into a gigolo: "I keep my honor safe inside me". A superb DVD, now available as a stand-alone disc from Warner Home Video.
2/22/11
Writer-director Norman Krasna strikes gold once again, finding a patriotic message in the romance between an average American Joe and the royal daughter of a foreign monarchy. The fun takes us right into the Roosevelt White House, and a marital showdown between democracy and European tradition. Starring Olivia de Havilland, Robert Cummings, Jane Wyatt and Jack Carson; from the Warner Archive Collection.
2/22/11
and Blu-ray 
It sounds like a flaky concoction, casting Hollywood stars Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford as dauntless journalistic heroes on a noble quest to take down a corrupt presidency. Alan J. Pakula's picture is instead one of the best real-life political thrillers of all time, and a docudrama that doesn't exaggerate the facts. Yet another 1976 film cheated of a Best Picture Oscar. On Blu-ray, from Warner Home Video.
2/22/11 
Greetings! Four reviews today and not much time to talk, what with the holiday pulling me out of the house again. The kindly promoters at the Film Noir Foundation have been getting excellent media coverage all week with their drive to raise money to restore Cyril Endfield's terrific noir masterpiece Try and Get Me!, a.k.a. The Sound of Fury. The Film Preservation Blogathon donation link is still good. If you want to get an idea of the great film you're supporting, I reviewed the title in 2009 as a Savant Revival Review, at this link. It may be the best ever scare picture about mob mentality, the kind that has now entered mainstream political activity here in the states: "There's no law against what's right!" In response to last Saturday's bizarre Portuguese mass illusion Light Show, Mark Stevens writes in with a link to a similar spectacle designed to commemorate the 600th Anniversary of the Prague Astronomical Clock. There must be a lot more of this technology about than I've so far encountered. More video of the clock (and other projects) can be found at the Macula website. Radio host Dick Dinman has two new DVD Classics Corner On the Air shows up commemorating Bette Davis and All About Eve. Part One contains interviews with Robert Osborne and Joan Leslie, and Part Two sees Dick interviewing Gena Rowlands about the legendary actress. Many more DVD Classics Corner On the Air shows can be found at the DVD CC Online Archive Reader Sergio Mims sent along a list of Fox films to be released on DVD by Shout! Factory. The ones that caught my eye were W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings, The Nickel Ride and 99 and 44/100% Dead. 
And correspondent "Rob" gives us a link to Peter Sellers performing "A Hard Day's Night" in the style of Laurence Olivier delivering a Shakespeare monologue ... it's pretty impressive. Upcoming Savant reviews should include the docu about Truffaut and Godard Two in the Wave, the Oscar-nominated docu about the financial meltdown, Inside Job (a Blu-ray) and new Blu-rays of Disneys's Bambi, Boorman's Excalibur and Visconti's Senso. Thanks for reading! -- Glenn Erickson
February 18, 2011
Savant's new reviews today are: 
The best of the postwar 'social problem' movies is a searing drama with perhaps Hollywood's best-realized black character to date. Clarence Brown films William Faulkner's book in the author's own Mississippi hometown with Juano Hernandez, David Brian and Claude Jarman Jr.. A gripping drama, with a mature, hard-hitting attitude. Remastered, from the Warner Archive Collection.
2/19/11
Season 3 Blu-ray 
The 37 Blu-ray episodes encoded in Rod Serling's great TV series look simply fantastic, and the five-disc set is loaded with commentaries, isolated music tracks and other extras. Plenty of favorites and classics in season three! From Image / CBS Blu-ray.
2/19/11
and London Underground 
This collection of early '60s English thrillers contains a murder mystery, a complex blackmail story, a clever heist classic and a jazz version of "Othello": Sapphire, Victim, The League of Gentlemen and All Night Long. Eclipse series 25.
2/19/11 Greetings! 
Three fast, very worthwhile links for you tonight! Gordon Thomas and I exchanged a fistful of emails a few months back, and his Bright Lights Film Journal essay on The Complete Metropolis is now online. Gordon discovered a fascinating clue in the Thea Von Harbou novelization, that "explains" a major plot inconsistency with the film's Joh Fredersen character. Plus, he has a much better handle on the religious and mythical elements running wild in the fantastic screenplay. Recommended reading! The second link is a music selection pointed out by author Brendan Carroll. Since the TCMfest will be re-premiering the suppressed film The Constant Nymph late this April, Mr. Carrol offers this link to a Special Concert Overture to Erich Wolfgang Korngold's The Constant Nymph. It's one of the composer's most deliriously emotional scores ever. And finally, Joe Dante has been circulating the URL for a Bizarre Portuguese mass illusion Light Show, a 3-D -like spectacle projected onto the side of an enormous columned building that appears to 'deconstruct' the building's architecture with dozens of weird illusions (see image above). It's really something to see -- and hear, when the large crowd roars its approval. Thanks for reading, and for your notes and corrections this week! -- Glenn Erickson
February 14, 2011
Savant's new reviews today are: 
A wonderful surprise -- the anarchic Frank Tashlin's romantic comedy turns out to be a treasure trove of original artistic expression. And this is taking into account Debbie Reynolds as the underage cutie that melts the heart of Dick Powell, a jaded screenwriter twice her age. Terrific color design in a live-action cartoon that for once makes '50s kitsch as attractive as all get-out. A terrific remastered restoration from the Warner Archive Collection.
2/15/11
Blu-ray 
James L. Brooks' take on the nightly network news focuses on the shift from journalistic aims to comforting entertainment. A romantic triangle between a producer, a reporter and an anchorman is trumped by a fourth element, careerism. William Hurt, Albert Brooks and Holly Hunter shine in a funny, warm and insightful story about a glamorous profession that increasingly favors image over substance. Blu-ray, from Criterion.
2/15/11
and Blu-ray 
Paddy Chayefsky expresses his love / rage opinions about Television and American culture through the ravings of a false prophet -- but his own prophecies about the future (our future) have turned out to be disturbingly prescient. The murderously funny Black Comedy features a passel of talent young and old having the acting time of their lives: Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall, Ned Beatty, Beatrice Straight, Marlene Warfield. Blu-ray, from Warner Home Video.
2/15/11 Greetings! I guess it's a coincidence that I have reviews today of two superior films "sort of" on the same subject: Sidney Lumet's Network and James L. Brooks' Broadcast News. The two pictures complement each other well. I also made a big personal discovery this week with Frank Tashlin's Susan Slept Here. I previously associated the director only with Jerry Lewis movies and wild one-off comedies like The Girl Can't Help It.. Seeing Susan now makes me want to see everything Tashlin has done. A pack of big-time release announcements came in today. Warners has booked a 40th Anniversary Blu-ray disc of A Clockwork Orange for May 31, as well as a 9-film Blu-ray set called the Stanley Kubrick Limited Edition Collection, with Orange, Dr. Strangelove, 2001, Spartacus, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket and new Blu-rays of Lolita, Eyes Wide Shut and Barry Lyndon. Criterion has announced a hefty schedule for May, which includes Blu-rays of Diabolique, The Great Dictator, Something Wild, Solaris, Fat Girl, Pale Flower and Smiles of a Summer Night. That's a Bergman, a Demme, a Tarkovsky, a Chaplin and an H.G. Clouzot! 
The great label Flicker Alley has a special Blu-ray (and DVD) item for April 18: the fascinating new documentary Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno: A Master Filmmaker's Unfinished Dream. In addition to examining the strange story behind this legendary abandoned feature, the show assembles takes from the three weeks of shooting with Serge Reggiani and Romy Schneider. The experimental lighting tricks used for exotic dream close-ups of Ms. Schneider create some of the weirdest imagery ever seen on film, without digital or post production effects. For fans of David Lynch's Dune, this Blastr link will take you to scans of the "studio-created cheat sheet" given out to the first audiences for the movie, in a desperate effort to explain the film's confusing terminology. I didn't catch up with the movie until it hit VHS, at which point I was VERY confused. Finally, Joe Dante steered me toward a terrific David Kalat TCM Movie Morlocks article about Orson Welles' Don Quixote, his "whatever happened to..." production that was given a God-awful finishing job by the notorious pretender Jésus Franco. Kalat has information I've never read anywhere else, plus insights into the estate tangles that gum up attempts to properly safeguard Welles' film work, completed, uncompleted or finished but held up by legal disputes. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson
February 11, 2011
Savant's new reviews today are: Blu-ray 
John Patrick Shanley made his screenwriting debut in this beautifully directed (by Tony Bill) story of a violent confrontation among neighborhood folk in The Bronx of 1964. With marvelous performances by Timothy Robbins, John Turturro, Jodie Foster and Todd Graff. Blu-ray, from Image.
1/12/11
Blu-ray 
Paul W. S. Anderson's debut feature is a slick, stylized tale of joy-riding car thieves that have perfected the art of a smash 'n' grab robbery technique called "ram-raiding". With the help of great performances from Sadie Frost and Jude Law, Anderson directs with a forcefulness not seen in his later big-budgeted American films. Blu-ray, from Severin.
1/12/11
Gene Hackman organizes a desperate prison breakout and Jim Brown can't avoid joining in. Director Buzz Kulik takes advantage of the new ratings system to present prison life on a nastier plane, and producer William Castle secured permission to film in a real Arizona penitentiary, using real convicts as extras. From Olive Films.
1/12/11
and Promised Lands 
The famed author, philosopher and activist directed only four films and just this one documentary, an impressively mature look at the Israeli Arab standoff at the end of the Yom Kippur War. Sontag filmed close to actual battle action and didn't shirk from presenting the unpleasant effects of combat. The film was banned in Israel and was re-released just last year in New York. From KimStim/Zeitgeist.
1/12/11 Hello! 
Two days and four reviews later, what I see on my cute links and important announcement lists isn't enough to make a big deal about. I'll instead get today's column over with and go concentrate on bringing the Savant Wish List up to date. (Don't look yet, it's a mess). It's also time to get ready for Valentine's Day, which is a big date around Savant Manor -- it's also our wedding anniversary. Looking at the Threat Board, I still have seven titles that I'd like to cover before they street next Tuesday and will get them out in the most efficient way possible. These things sometimes seem to write themselves but I can't crank them out, and wouldn't want to. I also want to do justice to titles like Twilight Zone Season 3 and a favorite, All the President's Men. I want to learn more about Scorpion's Quest for Love (a Joan Collins fantasy-horror from a story by John Wyndham) before I write it up. And Criterion has Sweet Smell of Success and Senso on the way, great pictures that demand some serious writing effort! So I hope these four reviews will suffice for the moment, and I'll do my best to keep them coming. Oh wait, I do have one Very Important Film Preservation Link to report. Thank you! -- Glenn Erickson
February 09, 2011
Savant's new reviews today are: 
A truly flawless Golden Age rom-com, with a baby on board. Working girl Ginger Rogers is mis-identified as the mother of an illegitimate child, and pressure from do-gooders and her employers forces her to accept it as her own. Writer Norman Krasna makes zero false moves with an unpromising idea -- the show is consistently funny and charming. With David Niven, Charles Coburn and one of the cutest baby actors of all time. From the Warner Archive Collection.
2/10/11
Blu-ray 
Ridley Scott's gloriously pretty images look terrific in Blu-ray, and the controversial female twist on the buddy action thriller (feminist? not feminist?) can still inspire conversation and unsolicited Savant opinions. A 20th Anniversary release that retains all the extras from previous DVD special editions. From MGM.
2/10/11
and 
A conservative radio station fuels a conspiracy to force welfare recipients out of New Orleans, and Paul Newman is their new disc jockey for hire. Joanne Woodward is his girlfriend and Anthony Perkins a potentially fanatic ex- Peace Corps volunteer (!). A character study resists being shoehorned into a standard thriller plot, resulting in great acting and a confusing story. Co-starring Laurence Harvey and Cloris Leachman, from Olive Films.
2/10/11 Greetings! 
It's fine to be back and attacking the review list -- February has a tall stack of desirable titles this year. I just learned that Warners will be releasing a Blu-ray of John Huston's The Man Who Would Be King on June 7. This feels like big news now that both Michael Caine and Sean Connery have retired (or is one just nearing retirement?). The title will really benefit from an HD re-transfer, as it was one of the first DVDs I purchased back in 1997. Other Fun: "Arbogast" of the high-quality fantastic & horror films blog Arbogast on Film not only has a secret identity, he's a local friend. Besides checking out his dapper opinions and news bites, we can now hear Ar-bo-gast in a Cinefantastique Online Round Table Podcast, sharing the mikes with his fellow wizards Lawrence French and moderator Steve Biodrowski. In case the link goes haywire, you're looking for Podcast 2:6. Just as exciting is the fun to be had over at John McElwee's lavishly illustrated Greenbriar Picture Shows Blog, where John turns his historical, theatrical release-themed research skills on everybody's favorite Horror of Dracula. The piece is in three parts so you need to start from the bottom up, with John's February 6 entry. The detail is fascinating: we learn that on opening night, New York's WOR radio station broadcast the film's entire soundtrack over the airwaves! Think of it -- all that thunderous music and screaming would have listeners dying to find out what's going on. And the film's dialogue contains few spoilers! I just got in a screener for February 1's Criterion Blu-ray release of The Double Life of Veronique, which I'll do my best to review. Ten years ago I couldn't make heads or tails of Kieslowski's celebrated picture but perhaps now I'll prove less dense. Blu-rays have also arrived for Network and Five Corners, adding to the fun. Thanks for your patience during my slight break of service ... and I'll try to be back on schedule with something for Saturday! Glenn Erickson
February 04, 2011
Savant's new reviews today are: Blu-ray 
Bette Davis, Anne Baxter and Celeste Holm shine in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's densely written ode to Broadway careerism. Now looking like a million in glowing, B&W Blu-ray. From Fox Home Video.
2/05/11
Blu-ray 
Alejandro Jodorowsky's delirious tale of circus madness and bizarre symbols really pops in a brightly colored Blu-ray edition. It's the film that has everything: an elephant funeral, an armless cult leader and a hero who thinks he's a mad doctor! From Severin.
2/05/11
and Blu-ray 
One of the nastiest of 'seventies horror offerings, Meir Zarchi's saga of gang rape and bloody revenge is pure, undiluted exploitation -- even Roger Ebert pronounced it SOA: Sick On Arrival. Presented in a polished Blu-ray transfer by Anchor Bay, in conjunction with a Blu-ray release of the recent remake.
2/05/11
Hello-- Lots of time pressure this week -- I'll be busy early next week so Tuesday's column will be late, along with its reviews. Scusi, milli regreti. 
For Fans of The King's Speech, Steve Nielson forwarded this Slate article by Christopher Hitchens entitled Churchill Didn't Say That: The King's Speech is Riddled with Gross Falsifications of History. I still enjoyed the movie. Beware -- I have readers writing in to tell me that the MGM MOD disc of the Sci-Fi favorite The Satan Bug is an up-rezz of the transfer made for a 14 year-old laserdisc. Yikes! Gary Teetzel writes with the reminder that the MGM HD cable channel will be showing some Roger Corman titles in March: Premature Burial, The Trip, Gas-s-s-s-s and a rare original-elements HD transfer of the Boris Karloff-Jack Nicholson horror film, The Terror. Gary also sends a link to this Star Wars- themed Volkswagen commercial: The Force. Next is a page by Dennis Lowe with some very fine (if long) documentaries on famous Special Effects talent of the past, including Percy Day, Les Bowie and Kit West. And finally, correspondent Gregory Nicoll tells me that TCM will be showing the superb, seldom-shown Gary Cooper western The Hanging Tree this Tuesday the 8th. No word yet if it's the same old flat transfer ... or something new. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson
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