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March 31, 2012
Savant's new reviews today are: 
Columbia's hodgepodge comedy mixes military antics with a cut-rate reprise of It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World but makes amends with a cast of always-amusing Brit comedians -- Terry-Thomas, Lionel Jeffries, Bernard Cribbins, Wilfrid-Hyde White. Michael Callan is the Yankee bait with luscious Gabriella Licudi and Patricia Viterbo helping in the mad chases and swindles. Made in 1965, this show is not well known -- its director is Michael Winner. From the Sony Choice Collection.
3/31/12
Blu-ray 
Fishing boat operator Frank Sinatra helps Anthony Franciosa raise a German submarine as a way of impressing Neapolitan beauty Virna Lisi, and before you can say Yo Ho Ho is helping a motley crew play stick-up on the high seas -- with the Queen Mary. The fantastic maritime fantasy was written by Rod Serling; perhaps some Somalian pirates got a hold of a copy of this show. Anything that O' Blue Eyes can do... . In Blu-ray from Olive Films.
3/31/12
and Blu-ray 
Tony Curtis and Jerry Lewis chase stewardesses around a Paris flat, in what may be the most dated sex comedy of the 1960s. In the main titles, the three leading actresses are identified by their measurements. With Thelma Ritter to help out with the off-color snickers: in a very handsome Blu-ray presentation from Olive Films.
3/31/12
Greetings! Dick Dinman's Classics Corner on the Air radio show has two more archived entries to tell you about. This time the focus is on the new Blu-ray of To Kill a Mockingbird, with Dick's special guest Cecilia Peck, the actor's accomplished daughter. The show is divided into halves, Part One and Part Two. And if you like that, check out the tall stack of older radio shows at the Classics Corner Archive. Hey Sci-Fi fans in the great Northwest ... correspondent Scott Henderson has tipped me off to an April 19 - May 2 gala Screening Series at the Seattle Cinerama Theater. The Science Fiction Film Festival will include screenings of many usual-suspect titles (Terminator 2, Planet of the Apes, Close Encounters) and some nifty less common offerings (Dune, Barbarella, The War of the Worlds). Several titles will be presented in 70mm. But the hot ticket will be for the Complete Metropolis as I saw it at its 2010 L.A. premiere, accompanied by The Alloy Orchestra. It's a crime that the German restoration people won't let the fantastic Alloy score be released with the Fritz Lang classic on Blu-ray, so this is a special opportunity. 
My son is a biologist currently working on a research study in a remote corner of a Caribbean island (no names please). No kidding! He hasn't met any refugees from Devil's Island or found traces of Dr. No's bauxite mining operation, but he is working hard in a tropical river, staying soaking wet for hours at a time. No pictures yet, but when I'm not marveling at what an adventure this might be, I'm also thinking about things like poisonous snakes and poisonous spiders and poisonous frogs ... nothing down there seems to be harmless except the giant sea turtles that come ashore. (I love turtles ... Paradise!) He gets into a town with internet service only once a week, and THIS is what he chooses to send me. For a minute I thought it was biologists' humor but apparently this damn disgusting thing is real, a slimy Tingler capable of cutting its way through most anything. Enjoy. 
I'm happy to say that I've learned that I'll definitely be reporting from this year's TCM Classic Film Festival. It'll be my third year on the case. Last April I made the job much easier by buying an iPad, and (boast boast) think I hammered out the most topical posts in an on-the-spot manner. This time around I hope to do better. I also intend to flit between venues to catch things I'm not assigned but really want to see. They even have a scheduled star that I want to see in person -- Kim Novak. Besides a 3D presentation promising a "history of the format", the festival has scheduled two films noir that I did commentaries for ... maybe I'll finally get to meet Eddie Muller in person when he hosts. As we TCM writers usually only connect through Emails, it's exciting to hobnob with my fellow wizards, so to speak. The festival should be fun and I hope I attract some followers to the output -- my clever colleagues already have their own followings. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson
March 26, 2012
Savant's new reviews today are: 
A great disc for fans of classic cartoons - it's a full collection of UPA short subjects, those 1950s gems that changed the look of animation while compressing progressive design and content into 7-minute masterpieces. Fully restored in full color; Gerald McBoing Boing and Mr. Magoo are featured but the real gems are adaptations like Madeleine and The Tell-Tale Heart and other titles one never heard of. From The TCM Vault Collection / Sony.
3/27/12
One of Anna Magnani's last appearances, this Italian TV movie is a curious blend of character study and indirect social criticism. Italy is changing and the retired Anna succumbs to the culture-driven notion that new horizons will open for her if she owns her own automobilie. Without resorting to preaching of any kind, the truth of consumerism is presented -- the car owns Anna, not the other way around. Directed by noted writer Alfredo Giannetti. From Rarovideo.
3/27/12
and Blu-ray 
The U.S. cut of the acclaimed John Le Carré miniseries is six hours of intense espionage nirvana. Alec Guinness is George Smiley, the maddeningly calm spymaster working to solve a sticky puzzle: which of four top operatives in "The Circus" is a Soviet agent? Cool and calm and absolutely engrossing. With Michael Jayston, Hywel Bennett and Ian Bannen. In Blu-ray from Acorn Media.
3/27/12
Greetings! Looks like we're back into Mad Men weeks again. I wish AMC or my cable carrier made the audio less tubby and clogged; I'd swear they've crossed the stereo channels or something because dialogue is BURIED and I have to blast the volume to hear the damn words. (That sounds wrong; honest, I don't run outside every hour to chase kids off my lawn or anything!) But I think I got the jist of what was said. Just got back from reading the new article over at John McElwee's Greenbriar Picture Shows and realized I've been enjoying the site every Saturday for over a year, without shouting its praises. I mean, I've been thanked for steering readers to the rarified humor of David Cairns' Shadowplay as well, it's only right to jump up and down and shout about the good stuff. I don't know of any resource like Greenbriar. John backs up his excellent opinions of old movies with hard data about their exhibition -- he's either from a family of motion picture exhibitors or he's bought / inherited / raided the files and art cabinets of every old movie house in the South as they closed down. He can tell you what was playing where all over his state and in every major city, on any day in the last century. At least it seems that way; I have a habit of freeze-framing DVDs whenever a movie marquee is visible, and damned if John can't narrow the date of photography down to a couple of weeks. 
When I need a quote or a factoid more accurate than what's available on the web, I'll reach for the same forty or fifty books on my shelf. John is wired differently, as he tells stories about movies using arcane distribution and exhibition facts as building blocks. He'll often tie his articles in with new disc releases, which means that I'll review a DVD and then be blown away by his take on the exact same subject. This of course is why I asked him to contribute to Sci-Fi Savant -- his perspective on my favorite '50s movies was a revelation. The bottom line -- '50s Sci-Fi pictures very rarely hit big enough to justify bigger budgets. Working backwards, here's what Greenbriar has covered in the last couple of weeks. All of these articles are embellished with rare photos and advertising art: March 24: On Fritz Lang's While the City Sleeps, John profiles what he thinks is the film's real auteur, producer Bert Friedlob. March 17: John uncovers the sleazy (by '50s standards) and misleading ad campaign for the Tab Hunter / Natalie Wood The Burning Hills, and how exhibitors complained. March 10 and 3: We get the inside dope on Green Dolphin Street, an expensive epic rejected by critics and the public. And back on February 25, John unearths facts behind the bizarre Bela Lugosi / Duke Mitchell / Sammy Petrillo horror comedy Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla, including the tale of Jerry Lewis's rage against the lower-case Martin & Lewis imitators. Lewis tried to have the movie bought up and destroyed, just like Hearst did Citizen Kane. You'll also be entertained by John McElwee's writing style, which somehow packs in the info, a sly sense of humor and a strong likeability factor. It's a terrific page and one that I look forward to reading every week. it's raining and cold here in Los Angeles. That better change quick, because unofficial summer here starts on April 6! Cheers, thanks and take care --- Glenn Erickson
March 24, 2012
Savant's new reviews today are: Blu-ray 
A fantastic visual discovery, Mikhail Kalatozov's tale of four geologists stranded in the midst of an enormous Siberian wildfire is the artistic equal of his earlier The Cranes are Flying and stars that film's incandescent actress Tatyana Samojlova. The expressive poetic multi-image montages are truly remarkable. In Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
3/24/12
and Revenge of the Resurrected 
UK correspondent Lee Broughton reviews a double bill of Spaghetti western revenge tales starring German actor Peter Lee Lawrence. One has music by Alessandro Alessandroni and is directed by Leon Klimovsky; the other is a genuine obscurity said to resemble the well-known Death Rides a Horse. From Wild East.
3/24/12
and Blu-ray 
Susan Hayward schemes in the shadow of Jay Robinson's fruity Emperor Caligula, while Victor Mature agonizes over that age-old problem -- can a sensitive Christian massacre for profit or survival, the same as ordinary heathens? This matinee favorite features quality slicing and dicing in the gladiatorial arena, with Ernest Borgnine cueing the hungry tigers, and Debra Paget and Anne Bancroft playing good and naughty Roman beauties. In Blu-ray from Twilight Time.
3/24/12
Greetings!
Some very fine discs have come through the door, causing me to reshuffle my review plans and do titles some sooner than others. Here's what's on my plate for Savant readers: Rarovideo has new DVDs in my lap of The Automobile and Alfredo Alfredo, and an intriguing Blu-ray of Visconti's Conversation Piece. Criterion has me staying up late seeing and re-seeing Blu-ray's of A Night to Remember, The Last Temptation of Christ and the David Lean Directs Noel Coward collection. I can't wait to get into Kino's Blu-rays of the Buster Keaton Sixteen Comedy Shorts 1934-37 and Charlotte Rampling: The Look. Kino's Redemption label just delivered the chilling horror tale The Asphyx in a gorgeous new Blu-ray restoration ... that movie always makes me uncomfortable! Arriving in the same package was an Icarus DVD that has my attention called Red Persimmons, a 2001 essay film said to be about vanishing Japanese
TCM/Sony has also come through with a must-review set called the UPA Jolly Frolics Collection, a three-DVD grouping of animated '50s short subjects that range from Gerald McBoing Boing to James Mason narrating The Tell-Tale Heart. It's still scary! And coming this way but being posted first at TCM Online are Olive Films' Blu-rays of Boeing Boeing and The Buccaneer. Olive also has delivered Where Love Has Gone, Come Blow Your Horn and Assault on a Queen. Finally, along with today's Gladiator picture, Twilight Time's immensely enjoyable Blu-ray of Bite the Bullet is here. The good news? I'm expecting a couple of weeks of free time very soon, which should enable me to clear out the backlog of discs in the I really want to review these holding pen. Thanks for holding on! Oops -- one more coming up almost immediately -- Acorn Media's Blu-ray of the 1979 Alec Guinness miniseries version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I'm 2/3 of the way through at this writing! --- Glenn Erickson
March 19, 2012
Savant's new reviews today are: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel Blu-ray 
This fast-paced, funny documentary tells the story of Hollywood's most prolific independent producer-director through the interviews of the actors and filmmakers that 'graduated' from Corman's employ: Coppola, Bogdanovich, Nicholson, Scorsese. Film clips take us from Corman's '50s cheapies through Horror shockers, biker films and teen protest epics, to his successful New World Pictures and beyond. And you get to see Jack Nicholson's eyes tear up while waxing nostalgic about his first mentor. In Blu-ray from Anchor Bay.
3/20/12
Blu-ray 
No introductions are needed for this across-the-board hit -- unless you hate Hawaii, this Alexander Payne comedy drama is the best all-round film from 2011. George Clooney tries to hold his nuclear family together when an accident puts his wife into a coma, all the while dreading a decision he must make on behalf of his extended family, which can't wait for him to sell the family's heritage, the last giant parcel of undeveloped land in Hawaii. A rich and warm story that generates a good attitude about people. In Blu-ray from Fox Home Entertainment.
3/20/12
and 
A George Stevens film that nobody has ever heard of! AA rep Ray Milland tries to help actress Joan Fontaine kick the bottle, and they grow fond of one another in no time at all. But Milland's married to Teresa Wright. An interesting low-key examination of modern alienation and human values that probably wasn't appreciated when new. And some advertising company scenes bear comparison with Mad Men. From Olive Films.
3/20/12
Greetings! I'm up against it tonight, time-wise and for that reason will rush through the column. I've got one gotta-see link for you, provided by Gary Teetzel. It's Away from It All, a John Cleese short subject travelogue spoof reportedly shown with Monty Python's Life of Brian but not really seen since. If the first minute seems slow, rest assured that the piece gathers momentum as it goes. Apparently the unofficial title is "F____g Gondolas". Enjoy. Quick Glenn, what else? Hey, I'm enjoying the original BBC Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with Alec Guinness; the new Gary Oldman movie is great too. And Criterion's David Lean directs Noel Coward set has arrived -- it has Blithe Spirit, In Which We Serve, This Happy Breed and Brief Encounter. I wrongly told one correspondent that it was an Eclipse disc set, but it's from the parent label Criterion, so all the features should be fully restored. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson
March 17, 2012
Savant's new reviews today are: 
This moving and beloved wartime story cemented the stardom of Peter Finch and Virginia McKenna. Sixty women and children captured by the Japanese in Malaya are subjected to a forced march that claims many lives. A British secretary and an Australian POW connive to sneak food and medicine past their inhumane captors. A highly effective story that carries a big emotional uplift, this is still more effective than the 1980s miniseries version. From VCI.
3/17/12
Destitute unwed mother Barbara Stanwyck assumes the identity of another woman, and finds herself welcomed as a lost daughter-in-law by a gracious, loving family. All looks rosy until her child's father comes prowling for blackmail. A great noir/melodrama hybrid from Mitchell Leisen, also starring John Lund and Phyllis Thaxter. From Olive Films.
3/17/12
and The Complete Collection Blu-ray 
Anchor Bay gives us a striking 3-Blu-ray, 1 DVD package containing theatrical and extended cuts of Kinji Fukasaku's fantastic teenage bloodbath epic, a sequel and a disc full of behind-the-scenes extras. Although definitely edgy fare -- the movie came out not long after our Columbine tragedy -- the show earns its status as a cult classic. In Blu-ray from Anchor Bay.
3/17/12
Greetings! A lot has been cooking on the Blu-ray front this week ... the web is alive with announcements of new Deep Library (older titles) releases by major studios. During the economic downturn every pundit with a keyboard stomped on Blu-ray as a dead format being left behind the by great new world of Internet downloads. I've got nothing against living in The Cloud (the fate of the Krell notwithstanding) but I'm sufficiently old-school to want a physical object to covet when I pay out hard cash. I don't consider movies to be disposable experiences. Anyhoo, the news is very interesting. First up is the word that after more or less abandoning library releases, Fox Home Video is apparently doing an end run around one of its licensors. The tiny company Twilight Time has been distributing and promoting licensed Fox titles, and now Fox has suddenly decided to jump back into the BD market. They're also going to release through Screen Archives Entertainment, the ingenious outlet tapped by Twilight Time. In other words, now that TT has taken the risks to market products that Fox couldn't be bothered with, the big corporation is reasserting itself. Fox's discs won't be limited editions, a fact that also means that fans won't be motivated to buy before the 3,000-unit production runs sell out. Their first offerings are Zorba the Greek and The Grapes of Wrath. Don't be confused, it's a different movie than Grapes of Wrath of the Titans. Feel the Wrath, Tom Joad! Meanwhile, Twilight Time would appear to be inspiring other companies big and small to expand their Blu-ray programs. Olive Films, which licenses Paramount titles, has announced many new titles, including classy Blu-rays (and DVDs) of two seldom-seen, terrific titles. Joseph Losey's searing The Lawless is a pioneering, influential indictment of race & ethnic relations in America, Completely uncompromising, it's probably the most successful liberal outrage movie. John Cassavetes' first studio picture Too Late Blues is an absorbing study of a jazz bandleader with personal issues. Not only is Bobby Darin very good under Cassavetes' direction, the movie gives a young Stella Stevens a terrific role. Olive is also going to be bringing out Blu-rays of the westerns , Denver and the Rio Grande and Run for Cover. 
Over at Disney, a long list of Blu-rays has been announced, to be spread out between now and Christmas. Although not exactly deep library, the list includes some attractive titles. Here goes: Father of the Bride, Bringing Down the House, The Color of Money, Cocktail, Ransom, Sister Act, Evita, Adventures in Babysitting, Grosse Pointe Blank, Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, The Rescuers, High Fidelity, Ed Wood, Judge Dredd, Ghost of the Abyss 3D, Lady and the Tramp 2: Scamp's Adventure, Pocahontas, The Tigger Movie, The Aristocats, Pete's Dragon, Hocus Pocus, Arachnophobia, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Son of Flubber, Cold Creek Manor, The Santa Clause Trilogy, The Absent-Minded Professor, Flubber, While You Were Sleeping, Sweet Home Alabama, Beaches, Babes in Toyland, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Brother Bear and Dick Tracy. More to my core direction of interest, I hasten to include Criterion's June slate: Gray's Anatomy, And Everything is Going Fine, Shallow Grave, The Samurai Trilogy, Hitchcock's The 39 Steps and Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush. The good news about The Gold Rush is that the original uncut 1925 version is said to be a new restoration, something very much needed. They're all BDs (and DVDs too). So phooey on critics scoring cheap shots predicting the death of Blu-ray. Finally, get your fingers set to run, not walk, to Trailers from Hell and its accompanying Blog. The upcoming week on TFH will feature trailers for the science fiction films Voyage to the End of the Universe, Battle Beyond the Sun and Inseminoid! Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson
March 12, 2012
March 13, 2012
Savant's new reviews today are: Blu-ray+ DVD 
Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branagh offer terrific interpretations of Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier in this exceptionally smart, intelligent, funny, sexy and true account of an assistant director (Eddie Redmayne) who finds himself on intimate terms with the most famous and desirable woman in the world. Also with Judi Dench and Emma Watson. In Blu-ray from Anchor Bay / Weinstein.
3/13/12
Spencer Tracy's uncommitted performance doesn't do this powerful stage play adaptation any favors. Deborah Kerr and Leueen MacGrath excel as the women in the life of a ruthless industrialist, who ruins lives to give his (unseen) son Edward all the advantages of the world. With Ian Hunter and Mervyn Johns. From the Warner Archive Collection.
3/13/12
and Blu-ray + DVD 
Michael Cimino's Best Picture Oscar winner has a fantastic dream cast that brings some great characters to life. His story has a lot of questionable content and tries to feed us an unearned streak of patriotic sentiment. But boy does it play well in HD! With Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, John Cazale, John Savage and Christopher Walken. In Blu-ray from Univeral Home Video.
3/13/12
Greetings! A nice weekend out here in California. I had a hard time getting home Saturday night, and later found out that that big rock they've been carting to the LA County of Museum of Art was in the way. Funny, it doesn't look so big in the middle of town as it did out at Riverside --- kind of like King Kong come to the big city.
I've just gotten in an interesting stack of Olive Films : Assault on a Queen, Something to Live For, Come Blow Your Horn, Who's Minding the Store?, Who's Got the Action?, It's Only Money and No Man of Her Own. Also have the Monty Python and the Holy Grail BD , The Descendants on BD and am hoping for the new John Huston Fat City disc. Have also seen Criterion's Letter Never Sent (excellent) and am going to finally take a look at The Last Temptation of Christ this week, assuming the time is there! And don't forget Anchor Bay's BD of Corman's World, and VCI's A Town Like Alice, which I've never seen either. An exciting week!
Thanks again, Glenn Erickson
March 10, 2012
Savant's new reviews today are: Blu-ray 
Otto Preminger's best movie is also the best courtroom drama to date -- and it's half a century old! James Stewart must deal with an unlikeable defendant, and also with his provocative wife. From a true story, told in a fascinating style and blessed with superb actors: Ben Gazzara, Lee Remick, Eve Arden, George C. Scott. And the widescreen B&W cinematography looks fantastic in Blu-ray. From .
3/10/12
Blu-ray 
Jean Renoir's first American movie is a true gem, an absorbing drama that treats its rural Georgian characters without condescendsion. A five-year old murder and a secret pact raise havoc in a town near the Okeefenokee Swamp. The young Dana Andrews is marvelous, and he's supported by a great ensemble that includes Walter Huston, Walter Brennan, Anne Baxter, Virginia Gilmore and a tall stack of John Ford stock players. A very welcome vintage classic Blu-ray from Twilight Time.
3/10/12
and 
The intrepid hero of this Euro-cop thriller behaves like a no-gadgets Euro-spy, running down leads to nail a drug ring operating out of Amsterdam. The story is predictable but the action is very good, with a classic high-speed boat chase through the Amsterdam canals a definite highlight. The secondary actors -- Barbara Parkins, Vlaydek Sjeybal -- fare best in the midst of assassins, smugglers and crooked cops. From Scorpion Releasing.
3/10/12
Greetings! One big announcement to report today, from VCI. I received the following note a couple of nights ago from my VCI contact, with news that warmed the "little kid monster fan" still lurking inside me. I'd heard through Gary Teetzel that VCI was going to reissue their disc of the all-time favorite giant monster movie Gorgo, and maybe in Blu-ray. I like VCI's previous special editions of this title, even though the source materials available for what was once thought to be a Public Domain title weren't as good as one would want them to be. So I anticipated a re-worked HD version of what I already had. And then I read this: "Hi Glenn, we are still working out all the details on the Gorgo release. However I can tell you that we will be making a new HD 1080P transfer from either the 35mm negative, or master positive, which we recently obtained after their discovery in a salt mine storage vault in Kansas. It should be gorgeous and hopefully the DEFINITIVE release. We are shooting for a pre-Halloween street date and it will include quite a bit of bonus material, which of course we are still working on. I don't mind at all if you want to give it an early mention in your column, and I will try to feed you more details as they become known." 
Well, that's fantastic. Just last week in my discussion with Stuart Galbraith about SCI-FI SAVANT I gave this answer to a question: Galbraith: Name three sci-fi pictures not on Blu-ray that you're most anxious to see in high-def, and how they'd benefit? Erickson: That's kind of a juvenile question, which means that it's very welcome! I'd love to see Gorgo again in good quality, and only Blu-ray could do it justice... Galbraith: Boy howdy! Erickson: ...It was originally Technicolor, filmed by Freddie Young who did Lawrence of Arabia, and on a big screen it looked simply astounding. It's nowhere to be seen these days in primo quality, even though VCI's DVD transfer gives it a good try. I wrote a new review for Gorgo for the book, but I didn't relate my borderline embarrassing experience with the movie at age nine back in 1961, so I'm eager to review it again. And of course I'm eager to see the glorious green titan from the Irish Sea, backed by that sensational Angelo Lavagnino music track... I think I'll be looking forward to Halloween this year. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson 
March 05, 2012
Savant's new reviews today are: 
It's an MGM operetta / musical biography with a difference -- top talent French director Julien Duvivier turns waltzing figures into great cinematic art, and one-movie-wonder singing diva Miliza Korjus dazzles as a predatory artiste who takes no prisoners. Top billed and doing well as the suffering woman is Luise Rainer. Johann Strauss' life is simplified into Andy Hardy terms -- with rampant adultery -- and comes out exactly as advertised, an expression of the Spirit of Strauss' life and music. For musical fans, this is a lesser known gem. From the Warner Archive Collection.
3/06/12
Blu-ray 
The wild imagination of writer-director Frank Tashlin gets a great workout in this Jerry Lewis comedy vehicle set in Japan but filmed almost entirely within a few miles of downtown Hollywood. Lewis is subdued and Tashlin's surreal gags take center stage; this is also the film debut of the incredibly cute Suzanne Pleshette. Orginally in VistaVision, Olive Films' new Blu-ray exactly captures the look of Technicolor.
3/06/12
and Blu-ray 
Alfred Hitchcock's laziest star vehicle lets his charming stars Cary Grant and Grace Kelly carry its tale of a cat burglar trying to clear his name in a French resort town. Plenty of travelogue material and some cute scripting, but in this case it's the terrific Robert Burks Technicolor / VistaVision cinematography that blows viewers away -- the close-ups of Kelly compensate, and even the rear projection to insert the actors into the French locations looks good. With a bundle of new extras as part of the studio's HD 'classics' line. In Blu-ray from Paramount Home Video.
3/06/12
Greetings! More fun links, posted here just because we can. Max Fraley (or one of his associates at the Film Forum Express has uncovered a 1955 TV Kinescope of Peggy Lee singing the theme from Johnny Guitar. That's all the encouragement I needed. Correspondent Craig Reardon forwarded this hilarious African Bull Frog video. It's short, fascinating and has a powerful conclusion that I'm sure you'll find as philosophically rewarding as I did. Profound, penetrating, visceral... anybody can identify. What more can I say? Joe Dante sends us to a remarkable io9 article about Weird and Wonderful Movies that We'll Never Get to See. I'm shocked -- I was looking forward to seeing the sci-fi film It's Great to Be Alive someday, and these folks say that it's lost! Other observation: there are a LOT of movies about apes in this list. Over at the Classic Horror Film Board voting is underway for their annual Rondo Awards. I was pleased to be granted one in 2008, which was honor enough, but the Sci-Fi Savant book has been nominated this year. Voting is open to everyone (foreigners! vegetarians! fans of colorization! No questions asked!) at this link. Finally, fans of Raoul Walsh, John Huston and John Wayne have a crack at two planned new Blu-rays of his films, according to Blu-ray.com. Both the 1930 The Big Trail and the 1958 The Barbarian and the Geisha will arrive as Walmart exclusives on May 8th, in BD-DVD combo packs. All I can say is that The Big Trail will be a must-get, if it's the 65mm widescreen "Grandeur" version. I was excited to receive the old DVD release, and my review copy turned out to be the flat version! Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson
March 03, 2012
Savant's new reviews today are: Blu-ray 
John Ford's first entry in his RKO cavalry trilogy is the expected blend of Irish humor, reverence for the military and a troubled view of American history in regards to the Indian Wars. In an interesting switch, commander Henry Fonda is the hawk and officer John Wayne is the dove, relatively speaking. With Shirley Temple, John Agar and a wagonload of Ford stock players. Now in Blu-ray from Warner Home Video.
3/03/12
A close-knit English clan takes the law into its own hands to avenge a murdered daughter, but the brutality and tension boomerang to wreck the family as well. An obscure but suspenseful crime-horror drama starring Joan Collins and James Booth, directed by Sidney Hayers of Burn, Witch, Burn fame. From Scorpion Releasing.
3/03/12
and Blu-ray 
Director Hideo Gosha injects his own brand of anti-authoritarianism into this tale of samurai that turn against the system. One's a sentimental altruist, another a cold cynic and a third seems to act out of ironic detachment. Excellent storytelling in a Japanese forerunner to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, starring Tetsuro Tanba. In Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
3/03/12
Greetings! A few links to offer today: First, friend Stuart Galbraith IV has interviewed me on the subject of my book Sci-Fi Savant. Our discussion is up at DVD Talk at This Link. I like how the piece turned out -- the questions hop all over the subjects of Sci Fi movies as well as the experience of growing up with them -- and not growing out of them. Many thanks to Stuart. Has as anyone bought this supposed "Extended Edition" of Tora! Tora! Tora! -- ? Along with reader R. Alan Bryan, I'd like to know if it's really longer than the latest (and slightly extended) Blu-ray I reviewed a few months back. Also up, just for the fun of it, is this Powerhouse Montage, an ode to the terrific music of Raymond Scott. A second superior Audio-only recording link is here. Gary Teetzel found this interesting Mighty Joe Young link at the Home Theater Forum ... as a tribute to the film, we see the original Joe Young armatures animated as an ode to the original movie. By Tom Woodruff Jr. 
What are people talking about? Well, I hear plenty of thoughts about the new U.K. disc of Ken Russell's The Devils, and Twilight Time's upcoming Journey to the Center of the Earth Blu-ray (1959, of course). I've also received some interesting comments on my review of the 1961 Something Wild and readers asking if the Blu-rays of Pal Joey and Scarlet Street are sufficiently improved to warrant repurchasing. I have to withdraw from an opinion on that, as it's all completely relative. I have friends that buy whatever they want and others that agonize over every purchase. I'd argue that home video discs are cheaper than ever, considering the quality of the experience, but buying carloads of discs (or VHS tapes, or Laserdiscs) was never a practical investment. I was impressed when I saw some people snapping up lasers like they were the ultimate technology, and would soon accrue in value. Unfortunately, the only folks that made out on that deal were the ones that sold their collections in 1997 and 1998. I still have lasers that originally retailed for $125.00 and once sold for twice and three times that ... any takers? Therefore, my rule has always been to buy for what you can enjoy now, and not to spend the milk money or otherwise do something that will break up your marriage. I had lots of fun searching for bargains in the early 1990s, something that today's collectors can't really do. Small record stores are harder to find. Worse, the way discs are sold doesn't lead to very many being remaindered, or scattered into resale bins. Limited edition collector's discs can sell out, and discs sold only on the web are not offered at discount prices. Yet if Pal Joey is your favorite old movie, the new Blu may be irresistible -- Frank Sinatra crooning hasn't looked or sounded this good since the last original Technicolor print bit the dust. It's all relative. Thanks for reading and don't spend too much! Glenn Erickson
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