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March 28, 2011
Savant's new reviews today are: Blu-ray 
Savant's favorite version of the Christ story was directed by Nicholas Ray and is the first of the Samuel Bronston blockbuster epics filmed in Spain. Jeffrey Hunter is Jesus, surrounded by a capable cast that includes Robert Ryan; the show takes liberties with the political story of the Roman occupation of Judea to deliver an intelligent, poetic and moving experience. From Warner Home Video, now in Blu-ray.
3/29/11
The Complete Collection Blu-ray 
An upgrade from an earlier DVD set, this fourteen-title gift set contains excellent restorations of the entire run of Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce Sherlock Holmes adventures, both at Fox and Universal. See all three actors that played the nefarious Professor Moriarty opposite Rathbone, plus Gale Sondergaard's Spider Woman and assorted Nazi foes. Several titles carry commentaries. On Blu-ray, from MPI.
3/29/11
Blu-ray + DVD 
Disney overachieves with their Princess franchise, concocting an engaging and satisfying adaptation of a favorite Grimm fairy tale and following through with grace and style. And they find 101 ways of making seventy feet of magic blonde hair in motion. Read and reject Savant's crackpot thoughts on writer Dan Fogelman's interesting new story wrinkles! Originally 3D, the disc looks great on Blu-ray (+ DVD), from Disney Home Video.
3/29/11
Blu-ray 
Paramount's restoration team has done an impressive job with the 1956 Cecil B. DeMille epic, which looks bigger, better and brighter than ever before. Charlton Heston shines in the role that made him the go-to actor for larger than life historical characters, in this grandiose, odd, but culturally potent milestone movie. Four hours of miracles spread across two Blu-ray discs. That's 5 mpd's. From Paramount .
3/29/11
and 
Danny Kaye is a private who masquerades as his look-alike, an important Allied General, to help win the war ... but doesn't realize that Nazi agents have targeted the General for assassination. He's forced to dance in a kilt before being kidnapped and sent to Hitler's Berlin, where he exchanges Heil-sign salute with Adolph himself! Kaye's comedy costars are Dana Wynter and Wilfrid Hyde-White. From Olive Films.
3/29/11 
Greetings! Puff, Pant, I did get all five reviews out on time, but just barely ... and there's another heavy deadline for Saturday. You would really think that ... well, never mind. Dick Dinman has FOUR new DVD Classics Corner radio shows for us, all on director Vincente Minnelli's non-musical pictures, hosted by Dick and featuring the participation of Mark Griffin, author of the acclaimed biography A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and FIlms of Vincente Minnelli. Listing the Versatile Minnelli radio shows should be easy enough -- it's Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. I hope my links are correct! I think I'm caught up with the March 29 titles, except for MGM's The Greatest Story Ever Told, which came in today. So did Teen Wolf and Resident, so I'll be looking into them as soon as I catch up with other obligations. Take care and thanks for reading -- Glenn Erickson
March 25, 2011
Savant's new reviews today are: The Vanquished 
Michelangelo's second feature film is a socially-conscious triptych of true crime juvenile delinquent stories from Italy, France and England, beautifully played, photographed and directed. The exceptionally good extras include an uncensored version of the Italian segment with a politically edgy theme. One segment has interesting parallels with Antonioni's later Blow-Up. A solid contribution from RaroVideo.
3/26/11
Blu-ray 
What a treat, and from left field! This unheard-of 1939 Technicolor musical recreates much of the original D'Oyly Carte staging and flavor of the classic Gilbert & Sullivan comic opera. The wit and satire of the play is matched by the wonderfully eccentric physical production -- an 1885 goof on Oriental styles. Great Blu-ray fun and a welcome delight from the Criterion Collection.
3/26/11
Vincente Minnelli's big-budget saga of American Hollywoodites making movies during Italy's cinema boom pits a neurotic Kirk Douglas against a bunch of manipulative and vicious movieland users and abusers, played by Edward G. Robinson, Cyd Charisse, Claire Trevor and George Hamilton. With beauties Rosanna Schiaffino and an almost unrecognizably baby-faced Daliah Lavi. A Remastered Edition from the Warner Archive Collection.
3/26/11
and Italian Crime Collection 
Trigger-happy gangsters run amuck in the north of Italy in a quartet of Fernando di Leo action-intrigue-sex thrillers: Caliber 9, The Italian Connection, The Boss and Rulers of the City. With American stars Henry Silva, Woody Strode, Richard Conte and Jack Palance, and European icons Gastone Moschin, Barbara Bouchet, Mario Adorf, Luciana Paluzzi and Adolfo Celi. From RaroVideo.
3/26/11 
Greetings!
It's a fun crush of reviews this week -- all four of the titles above were great viewing. By and large, the Speaking of Warners, they really have the publicity machine rolling. A new promotion in honor of the 2nd anniversary of the game-changing Warner Archive Collection program is basically a 50% off sale, 5 select DVD-Rs for $50. The list of eligible titles is a good one. I normally wouldn't tout this offer but I've already had two readers asking for title recommendations. I'm not going to go that far .... Also today the mainstream Warner DVD people did something that convinces me that the recession is finally over, at least for home video: they sent an elaborate publicity package from an upcoming (this Fall) Ultimate Blu-ray for the 1959 Ben-Hur. The goodie box contains an oversized color brochure on the Oscar-winning epic, a DVD preview of the set's special extras, plus a a fancy writing book in a leatherette cover embossed with the Ben-Hur logo and an official Ben-Hur ball point pen. (No decoding ring.) I think the campaign's aim is to educate callow Yutes unfamiliar with SuperDuper Road Show epics of yesteryear. I know what I feel like doing: I'll write in the first page of my new book, "Governor Lew Wallace, the author of Ben-Hur, put out a murder contract on William Bonney, alias Billy the Kid." Actually, Warners' impressive commitment to classic and library titles on Blu-ray is what makes me willing to play along with their promotions. More power to them. Have a great weekend and thanks for writing! -- Glenn Erickson
March 21, 2011
Savant's new reviews today are: Blu-ray 
Charlton Heston and Edward G. Robinson suffer in the overpopulated jungle of New York City, where normal food has become extinct and the Soylent Corporation serves up protein in little colored wafers. Definitely one of the better ecological disaster pictures, with a "secret" ending that's found a permanent place in the culture. Now on Blu-ray, from Warner Home Video.
3/22/11
The best of the '60s Italo space operas is a fun diversion, even if it looks held together with duct tape and piano wire. A nefarious mad doctor is shrinking people to Barbie Doll size and using fusion grafts to create bizarre mutants. To sort out the conspiracy, intrepid space jockey Tony Russel must fight a corps of killer karate women on the crazy planet Delphos. Tacky scenery, awful miniature work --- but it's colorful, noisy and has a legion of fans. From the Warner Archive Collection.
3/22/11
Blu-ray + DVD 
Just when you thought Coffin Joe was safely locked away, he comes back to once again torture and slaughter! The Brazilian boogeyman returns to finish his Zé do Caixão trilogy after a 40-year gap in time. It's a truly nasty gore film "enlivened" by Coffin Joe's appalling nonsense philosophy proclaiming himself a free spirit operating beyond the rules of God and Satan. And it all looks unappetizingly gruesome in Blu-ray. From Synapse.
3/22/11
and Blu-ray 
A gentle (and true!) fable from Depression Era Tennessee -- Feared hermit Robert Duvall comes out of the woods to arrange his own funeral -- which he wants to attend. Sissy Spacek and Bill Murray co-star in a frequently touching tale of strange fates and buried secrets. From Sony Pictures Classics, in Blu-ray.
3/22/11 Greetings! Next Tuesday is such a big day for desirable releases that I'll be working overtime to keep up with the reviews. I've covered Embodiment of Horror and Soylent Green today, but there's still Antonioni's I Vinti, along with Blu-rays of Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Collection, Tangled, King of Kings, The Mikado and Topsy Turvy ready to go. And that's not counting titles expected to arrive this week: How I Won the War, The Ten Commandments, The Greatest Story Ever Told, How Do You Know and that other Easter classic, Teen Wolf. So it's definitely time to knuckle down here. Meanwhile ... Warners just announced a Blu-ray box of the three Lord of the Rings films, but this time the Extended Editions, for June 28. I'll have to forward this info to my son right away ... And Paramount just announced a Blu-ray of Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time In the West for May 31. I'll have to forward this info to myself right away ... Over at Trailers from Hell, Joe Dante adds his commentary to a coming attractions snippet from one of Savant's favorites, Daughter of Horror. And don't forget my older review for Kino International's excellent disc that combines both versions of the ill-fated experimental horror picture, Dementia and Daughter of Horror. 
Dave Strohmaier sends along two Cinerama trailers for our enjoyment, transferred in the preferred Smilebox format: This is Cinerama and the "Cinemiracle" feature Windjammer. The trailers indicate that both will be coming to HD in 2011, but that's all the information I have for now. Dick Dinman has two new DVD Classics Corner radio shows for us. Dick Dinman's Sagebrush Sagas reviews a quartet of new Warner Archive westerns, with comments from actress Arlene Dahl and soundrack scores from Andre Previn, Bronislau Kaper and Jerry Goldsmith. Controversial Classics is a critical roundup of eight recent discs; the late Tony Curtis makes a special appearance. Thanks for reading! -- Glenn Erickson
March 18, 2011
Savant's new reviews today are: 
Federico Fellini's TV experiment is part documentary, part mockumentary and a full celebration of the appeal of the circus and its famous clowns as filtered through a lifetime admirer. The new DVD label RaroVideo packs the release with extras, including a rare Fellini short subject from a 1953 omnibus film.
3/19/11
Blu-ray (and DVD) 
Robert Epstein's 1984 docu draws upon stills, audio recordings and news video to present a rich and inspiring portrait of the famous San Francisco political activist, who was just getting started when he and Mayor Moscone were assassinated in City Hall. In addition to a restored Blu-ray transfer, the extras include input from many of the film's original participants as well as a full discussion of the trial of Harvey Milk's murderer. From Criterion.
3/19/11
and 
A delightful find: an RKO police drama filmed on the streets of New York and Brooklyn by a crew versed in studio short subject work. The mystery of a woman murdered in Central Park leads slowly to the killer, by clues as diverse as an ink smudge, some mud and a blade of grass. The show is a like a time machine to a different era, where an all-male police force searches for a killer in skid row cafés and tattoo parlors. From the Warner Archive Collection.
3/19/11 
Greetings! Gary Teetzel points us to a wildly funny (and criminally racist) 1933 Pooch the Pup cartoon called King Klunk, that follows the original plot fairly closely. Now you'll know what's going on when someone asks you on the street: "Goona goona?" I just saw Battle: Los Angeles this week and found it a real headache picture, but only for its celebration of militarism -- you know, my usual argument against our perpetual war culture and the brainwashing of the young, that sort of thing. Although I didn't see this movie as a particularly offensive example of what Matt Zoller Seitz is railing about, I heartily endorse his Salon.com article Time to Declare War on the Shaky Camera! Stamp "HACK" on their foreheads indeed! Finally, TCM Cable is showing a seldom-seen gotta-see film noir Monday evening, Max Ophuls' Caught starring James Mason, Barbara Bel Geddes and Robert Ryan. It's a superior picture in every way. Viewers only familiar with Ms. Bel Geddes from Hitchcock's Vertigo will be pleased to see her in a more glamorous role ... she's pretty amazing.
Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson
March 14, 2011
Savant's new reviews today are: Blu-ray 
Louis Malle's unanimously praised occupation story charts the friendship of two boys at a Catholic boarding school during WW2 -- where the humanitarian Priest is hiding a number of foreign Jewish children from the Gestapo. Based on a true incident from the director's childhood. Now on Blu-ray, from Criterion.
3/15/11
Collector's Set Volume 2 
Handsome matinee idol Raizo Ichikawa portrays the deadly swordsman Nemuri Kyoshiro, a rogue killer for hire who gets into one complicated adventure after another by misjudging the character of the women he meets. A superior and entertaining samurai series that represents the height of the genre before the game plan changed in the ultra violent 70s. The set contains four fast Sleepy Eyes of Death thrillers: 5: Sword of Fire; 6: Sword of Satan; 7: The Mask of the Princess and 8: Sword of Villainy. From AnimEigo.
3/15/11
and 
Ben Gazarra is Chicago's famous crime boss and Sylvester Stallone his Frank Nitti in Steve Carver's action-packed and historically accurate (at least the violent parts) account of ten fast years of Prohibition lawlessness. Harry Guardino is Al Capone's best buddy, while Susan Blakely is the wild 'n' sexy flapper in Al's love nest. Produced by Roger Corman, from Shout! Factory.
3/15/11 Greetings! The news does unfold, doesn't it? The disaster across the ocean still hasn't sunk in, and now we have a radioactive threat to be concerned about. Let's all hope that the Japanese and outside experts get a handle on the nuclear emergency ... like, right now. While we're taking turns chewing our fingernails ... 
MGM HD showed a new transfer of Roger Corman's The Trip over the weekend, and I've been hearing comments on it from various readers. The new version is a partial reconstruction of Corman's original intentions, made under the filmmaker's supervision. It doesn't include some scenes Corman remembers from the cut he originally submitted to A.I.P.. What it does have that's new is a two-minute extended psychedelic hallucination sequence. In keeping with Corman's oft-stated dissatisfaction with the studio's tampering, MGM has removed a disclaimer added to the beginning of the show, and also jettisoned the "cautionary" shattered-glass freeze frame applied to the final shot before release. Of special note is a couple of minutes of original Exit Music, which MGM HD showed intact twice over the weekend. It has only previously been heard on the old laserdisc of The Trip. Craig Reardon has pointed me to this Vimeo encoding of a 5-minute featurette, with behind-the-scenes shots, from the 1964 Harryhausen spectacle First Men in the Moon. The picture is plenty fuzzy but it's thrilling to hear Laurie Johnson's title music behind shots of NASA ships launching, etc. When Sony puts out its hoped-for Blu-ray of First Men, an original color copy of this show would be a really fine extra! Do they need a hint, or what? 
Director Joe Dante has written to comment on my review of Eye of the Devil: "I've loved this picture ever since I saw it as a second feature (!) to Wild Wild Planet in Philly in 1967. The gliding, ever-present camera movement has been a big influence on my own work. I think some of the shortcomings you note are due to its troubled production history. A good portion of the movie, which began production in 1965, was reshot after star Kim Novak took a tumble off her horse and Deborah Kerr had to replace her. Furthermore, both Sidney J. Furie and Michael Anderson preceded J. Lee Thompson in the director's chair. When the Catholic Legion of Decency demanded the deletion of all depictions of crosses, jarring cuts were made directly to the prints of the now 92-minute release version. To top it off, the original title 13 was changed at the last minute despite the fact that posters and ads had already been prepared. Most of this stuff was destroyed, but I managed to hang on to a three sheet poster-- which explains the odd Eye of the Devil title treatment (pictured). It was originally a number 13 with a shadow underneath, but became a weird shaped box with the new title crammed in. Anyway, I still love the movie. But has anybody out there got a trailer so we can run it on Trailers from Hell?" Uh oh ... I'm expecting that the Warner Archive Collection's disc of Wild Wild Planet will surface to be reviewed in the next few weeks! Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson
March 11, 2011
Savant's new reviews today are: 
This great-looking 'sixties shocker finds Deborah Kerr and her children menaced by the pagan cult that worships her husband's vineyards in the French countryside. David Niven, Donald Pleasance and Flora Robson co-star, with Sharon Tate and David Hemmings as a creepy pair who might be witch and warlock. A Remastered Edition from the Warner Archive Collection.
3/11/11
Blu-ray 
An interesting family drama about real issues faced by real people in the real world -- a gay child, managing a parent who needs close care, and being seduced by that drop-dead gorgeous co-worker in her private swimming pool. Make that two out of three real issues! Richard Levine's thoughtful and mostly believable drama is a noble effort that reflects what's going on in a lot of families these days. Starring Liev Schreiber, Helen Hunt and Carla Gugino. Blu-ray, from Image Entertainment.
3/11/11
and Blu-ray 
Viewers will get just what they expect from Roger Corman and SyFy's preposterous monster mash -- babes in bikinis, beer and surf in Mexico, and a hybrid maneater that loves to gobble up bungee-jumping vacationers. Blu-ray, from Anchor Bay.
3/11/11 
Good grief -- As we're recovering from simply the sight of those astounding, terrible events in Japan, all we can hope is that there are more survivors in that seaside town than the video would seem to suggest. Although it seems on the trivial side now, I do have some links to report ... so here goes. This Variety article says that 40 MORE minutes are going back into Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America. Correspondent Ted Haycraft forwards a link to a Christopher Frayling excerpt discussing scenes cut from the movie with Louise Fletcher, which we hope will be going back in. Friend and former co-worker Mark Bourne's entertaining film-related blog Open the Pod Bay Doors, Hal continues to offer interesting articles ... I recommend skipping down to his March 7 entry, which has a list of the ones he thinks are the best. And I've been having fun snooping around on the Friends of Marty Melville page, which as you should know by now is devoted to newspaper ad mat and other advertising for movies of all kinds. I've already found an entry for the Sci-Fi film Gog which appears to prove that the movie was indeed shown to the public in 3D. And the site has an ad mat for an awful 3D picture called Prison Girls that includes a listing for the Santa Monica Wilshire theater where it showed in 1972. I was the assistant manager of Mann's Wilshire theater during the run of that spectacle of eyestrain ... and remember everything about the installation of the funky 3D equipment, etc. And that's it. As Los Angeles is a Pacific Rim location, I think I'll go out tomorrow and buy some proper earthquake supplies. And see that the insurance is paid up. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson
March 07, 2011
Savant's new reviews today are: Blu-ray 
John Boorman's version of the Arthurian legend is an imaginative and beautiful fantasy that looks all the better in Blu-ray. Starring Nicol Williamson, Helen Mirren and Nicholas Clay; with smaller parts filled by notables like Gabriel Byrne, Liam Neeson and Patrick Stewart. From Warner Home Video.
3/08/11
Landed gentry and accused imposter Dirk Bogarde must sue to regain his good name -- but his war-impaired memory is so bad that he begins to believe his accusers. With Olivia de Havilland; this is one of those courtroom thrill-ride movies easy to shoot down but a lot of fun to watch. From Warner Archive Collection.
3/08/11
& Arizona Colt Hired Gun 
UK correspondent Lee Broughton assays this spaghetti western and its sequel, a double bill disc. Starring Giuliano Gemma as one Arizona Colt, and Anthony Steffen as the other! Both are amoral sharpshooters at large in an Italian-manufactured wild west, from the DVD distributor Wild East.
3/08/11
and Blu-ray 
The late Edward Wang's masterpiece is a touching and insightful look at the pressures on a modern family in post-industrial Taiwan. It's an excellent place to start watching contemporary Asian cinema. Now on Blu-ray, from Criterion.
3/08/11 
Greetings! A quick hello this week -- I seem to have expended all the clever movie-related links back on Saturday's post, and won't drag you off topic with non-movie-related items. It's also sunny outside, and after three days wishing I was out there instead of in here, I'm going to take the afternoon off. Thanks for the corrections, notes, tips on Region 2 discs and candidates for the Savant Wish List, which I should have updated by this evening. Late News bulletin: The COSTCO chain club store is selling very economical Fox double bill DVD packages. One of them combines the Carmen Miranda musicals Down Argentine Way and The Gang's All Here. Be forewarned -- a reader has written in to report that the copy of Gang in his package was the inferior 2006 release, with the miserable faded color, from the 2007 Alice Faye Collection. The good transfer is from the 2008 Carmen Miranda Collection. That is all.... Try to survive the week, and see you on Saturday! --- Glenn
March 04, 2011
Savant's new reviews today are: Blu-ray 
Ernest Lehman's savage tale of power and corruption on the Broadway column beat is one of the most sophisticated New York noirs ever. Burt Lancaster's vicious J.J. Hunsecker is a dangerous slap at Walter Winchell, and Tony Curtis' venal pretty boy Sidney Falco is one of the best-realized characters in American movies. Criterion's dazzling Blu-ray shows off the film's amazing B&W look, while the extras chronicle the remarkable director Alexander Mackendrick.
3/05/11
Robert Taylor won't submit to psycho-medical procedures that might open him up to prosecution for murdering his wife -- but doctor Audrey Totter wants him to clear his name, no matter the risk. A better than average psychological noir from MGM, also starring Herbert Marshall. Warner Archive Collection.
3/05/11
and Blu-ray 
Norman Jewison brilliantly directs Nicolas Cage, Vincent Gardenia, Olympia Dukakis and especially Cher (!), bringing John Patrick Shanley's superb screenplay to life. A genuine 80s classic in a (finally) worthy Blu-ray presentation. From MGM.
3/05/11
Hello ... I think I have a some interesting and cute links here tonight ... 
Correspondent Marcel Hanke has compiled a thorough comparison (with frame grabs) of the American cut of the 1941 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Arzt und Dämon, a substantially longer version seen on German cable television. Yes, that means longer, if not un-cut, erotic montages, for all you dogs out there eager to see new dream footage of Lana Turner and Ingrid Bergman. The only thing is, Marcel's Schnittberichte.com Comparison is written in German, so get set to run the text through a translation program! Editors Elizabeth McCarthy and Bernice Murphy tell me that their new issue of The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies is now online ... new articles include an Alex Naylor piece on American and British censorship in the 1930s and its effect on the horror genre. That merry Scots film professor and blogmeister supreme David Cairns has a couple of must-see items up at his terrific (and funny) Shadowplay page, but as I've waited half a week to report them, you'll have to scroll down to specific dated posts. February 23 has a drop-dead funny critical autopsy of a Gamera film, Turtle Recall perhaps the most humorous piece of this kind I've ever read. February 28 has a great article on the lost (well, at least in the English language) 1933 RKO picture Deluge -- including a five-minute YouTube clip of its entire, mind-bogglingly elaborate New York earthquake-tidal wave sequence! This one demands to be resurrected. Note ... those links shift daily, so you may have to search backward in David's Shadowplay pages to locate the right date. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson
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