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June 30, 2012
Savant's new reviews today are: 
An all-star cast distinguishes Jacques Deray's wild tale of a French hit man pursued back and forth across Los Angeles by both mobsters and the cops. Jean-Louis Trintignant is the 'outside man', backed up by Ann-Margret, Angie Dickinson, Roy Scheider and a gallery of familiar faces from gangster pictures old and new. And it's a wall-to-wall portrait of L.A. in 1972, as seen from fast-moving cars. From The MGM Limited Edition Collection.
6/30/12
Robert Taylor, Charles Laughton, Walter Brennan and Brian Donlevy are all in fine form in this exciting, entertaining escapist Navy enlistment booster from late 1942. When the promised action arrives it's great -- some really fine sea battles are created with Oscar-nominated miniature effects. And Laughton delivers a stirring patriotic speech, just to show 'em how it's done. From The Warner Archive Collection.
6/30/12
Blu-ray 
J. Lee Thompson directs a veddy proper Brits-in-India tale suspense thriller about a tiny train escaping through a desert overrun by murderous rebels. With Kenneth More, Lauren Bacall and Herbert Lom -- and some excellent location photography. Lots of action, along with the assumption that those foolish Indians should never have sent their English administrators packing. In Blu-ray from VCI.
6/30/12
and The Complete Restored Version Blu-ray 
The Marlon Brando - Vivien Leigh smash play adaptation is a knockout in HD, in this reconstruction of director Elia Kazan's original cut before the Code censors and Catholic busybodies got involved. Includes a number of fascinating featurettes and a souvenir booklet. In Blu-ray from Warner Home Video.
6/30/12
Hello! Four reviews today but little time to talk ... Universal has announced a pricey but all-inclusive Universal Monsters Blu-ray Set with restored transfers of all the top titles -- including the Spanish-language Drácula, and Creature from the Black Lagoon in 3-D! I can't betray confidences to describe the restoration effort going on at Universal, but I can assure you that very good work is being done for this, along with fancy HD restorations of other top Uni titles. Like the enormous James Bond Collection presently being offered, I'm hoping for an early ability to order these titles piecemeal. The well-heeled disc fans are going to have a field day. "Blu-ray is being phased out".... baloney. Deadlines approach... let me talk about upcoming reviews. In-house and in the hopper are terrific Blu-rays, from Olive Films (Johnny Guitar, High Noon, Firstborn, Force of Evil, Body and Soul), Kino (Love and Anarchy, Permissive/That Kind of Girl, The Saphead, Burke and Hare), Flicker Alley (The Most Dangerous Game/Gow) and Criterion (The 39 Steps). On DVD await VCI's Morning Departure, and an interesting grouping from The Warner Archive Collection: Easy Living, State's Attorney, Show People, Vacation from Marriage and the Lon Chaney film Where East is East. Twilight Time's hotly awaited Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines and Cover Girl should be arriving soon. 
Lastly, I've also been told that Alpha-Omega's mail-order-only restored Blu-ray of the "lost" silent Ernst Lubitsch epic The Loves of Pharaoh is on its way, and I'll be giving it a featured review. Top silent thesps Emil Jannings, Paul Wegener and Lyda Salmonova star. The impressive reconstruction has been outfitted with impressive, creative extras by Thomas Bakels. A twenty-page color booklet has interviews and essays as well as photographs of missing scenes. On the disc itself will be a docu about the restorations... if it is as good as Thomas Bakels' AMIA THE REEL THING demonstration, it'll be great. The disc will contain a newly recorded orchestral rendition of the film's music score -- and another extra that presents the score "in concert", with the film as "the supporting act". In an interesting move, Alpha-Omega's disc will be viewable in ten selectable language versions, with every artwork inter-title remade for each language in the appropriate style. The disc is region-free and can be ordered now from Alpha-Omega. Oh, I got one note back from a reader that his Savant Newsletter had arrived this week. Did anybody else get re-upped for the list? Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson
June 26, 2012
Savant's new reviews today are: 
Kerr's back and Brynner's got her! Audiences expecting a torrid followup to The King and I instead got an intriguing tale of international travelers detained by a Russian Major from leaving occupied Hungary. Yul is the Major and Deborah the English Lady he takes a Soviet fancy to. With Robert Morley, E.G. Marshall and Anne Jackson, and directed with intelligence by Anatole Litvak. From The Warner Archive Collection.
6/26/12
Blu-ray 
Charlie Chaplin's most famous film is revived in HD in two versions, the 1942 sound version Chaplin recut, and a faithful new reconstruction of the 1925 silent original. With a score of great extras certain to increase one's appreciation of this marvelous comedy. In Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
6/26/12
and Blu-ray 
Thanks to relaxed censorship, Jane Fonda sexes-up the theater screen with her erotic romp as a galactic adventuress and sex partner for seemingly every man she encounters in space. Also starring John Phillip Law, David Hemmings and Anita Pallenberg, and directed by the incorrigible Roger Vadim. In Blu-ray from Paramount.
6/26/12
Hello! 
A busy week here at the underground laboratory at Savant Central. The talk of the hour is of a screening last Sunday at the Cinefamily Theater of Saul Bass's 1974 sci-fi thriller Phase IV. Olive Films released a good DVD of this show last year, which I reviewed here. Even back then, readers like Edward Sullivan and Bruce Holecheck wrote in to describe a legendary lost ending, dropped by Paramount. According to this new Hollywood Reporter Article, the Cinefamily gathering showed a print of the deleted ending that looked better than the feature print of the film found for the screening! Friends that attended describe the ending as an even more abstract sequence that showcases Saul Bass's notable skill with montage and graphics. Given the weird, Ethereal-Cereal finish of the much-lauded 2001: A Space Odyssey, it's a crying shame that Paramount wouldn't simply let Saul Bass have his way. Lots of positive feedback on my Invasion of the Body Snatchers review, thanks! I've cleaned up some egregious typos in it. Today gives us yet more Sci-Fi in Blu-ray. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson
June 23, 2012
Savant's new reviews today are: Body Snatchers Blu-ray 
Don Siegel's near-perfect paranoid sci-fi invasion movie arrives, finally, in a fantastic HD transfer, sadly with no extras. Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter lead a great cast in one of the most frightening -- and meaningful -- movies of the 1950s. For eighty minutes, The monster matinee became a conduit for great art. The meaning is still debated, and none of its three remakes can touch it. In Blu-ray from Olive Films.
6/23/12
and Conversations with Six Great Hollywood Cinema Artists on Film Classics 
Writer-director Daniel Raim gives the floor to four art directors / production designers and two ace cameramen, to fashion a portrait of artistic creativity in Hollywood filmmaking. Robert Boyle, Henry Bumstead, Albert Nozaki, Harold Michelson, Conrad Hall and Haskell Wexler discuss their work, the virtues of good films and the ways that movies are enhanced by fine design and expressive technical contributions. Illustrated with plenty of film clips, artwork and other documentation -- and a hefty selection of extras. From Docuramafilms/ NewVideo.
6/23/12
Hello! It's a rushed night... obligations are causing this weekend to evaporate before I have a chance to get much writing done ... but I've given the reviews my best. I recorded a "Pod Cast" interview with Dick Dinman this morning for an upcoming radio show. It should show up in a few weeks, if Dick loses all judgment and decides to use me!
Courtesy of Gary Teetzel, here's a link to a joke video about Chuck Norris. It makes me laugh because the soundtrack reminds me of the cacaphony in the halls of the defunct Cannon Films editorial department. I even cut one of the worst trailers for a Norris Hey -- new Blu-ray disc announcements! Lionsgate has Mad Monster Party in the pipeline for September 4, while Olive Films has announced the French films The Devil, Probably and Police for July 17. The biggest news comes from Warner Home Video, which has announced that on October 9, they'll be putting out a 3-D Blu-ray of Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder. This should really be something, and I hope it takes off so that we'll get more 3-D on disc. I don't have a set myself but I think that those fans that invested in all the promises and promotions deserve to see some great classic 3-D pictures too. It's rumored that The Creature from the Black Lagoon is on its way from Universal. Warners is also putting out a Blu-ray of Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train on the same date, but it of course is flat. Here's a web page promoting Warners' release, complete with a clever animated 3-D graphic. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson
June 18, 2012
Savant's new reviews today are: 
This Pre-code delight offers a warped view of college life in 1932 -- or does it? The only subjects on anyone's lips are romance and sex; the handsome young lovers may die in a car crash, or even worse, make the dreaded mistake of going all the way. Naturally, it's a twisted facts 'o' life fable loaded with highly questionable teachable points -- the main one being, if you hit it off with a girl and can't stay celibate for two years, chuck your education and go West together -- in the depths of the Depression. Great fun, snappy risqué dialogue, direction by Gregory La Cava. From the Warner Archive Collection.
6/12/12
Blu-ray 
A sterling 4K digital restoration -- using no automatic digital tools -- gives the terrific Beatles landmark animated movie a fine sendoff in HD. Uncut and at the correct AR, the adventures of the jocular moptops in Pepperland and their defeat of the Bue Meanies is still quite a show. The deluxe package contains plenty of goodies. In Blu-ray from Capitol Records.
6/12/12
This highly ambitious Syfy Channel end of the world extravaganza features entire pieces of the world crumbling, an errant Cosmic Whatsis coming to swallow the Earth whole, primitive doomsday predictions run wild and our favorite theme, trendy young folk running from Evil Government Conspirators while trying to save the world. Be my guest. From Anchor Bay.
6/12/12
and Blu-ray 
William Castle produced his greatest movie in 1968. In the same year, he also directed this fairly maladroit futuristic show about scientists probing the suppressed memories of a spy to find out what happened on a secret mission in China. Star Christopher George is blown off the screen by acting reliable Henry Jones, which is not a good sign. Then again, this must be seen to appreciate the incredible depiction's of the spy's memories --- which are brought to life through animation by Hanna-Barbera. In Blu-ray from Olive Films.
6/12/12
Hello! Just a couple of fun items tonight. Clever stuff on Prometheus is circulating on the web, and Gary Teetzel has nabbed a couple of the best URLs for your perusal. One is well on its way to getting a half-million hits. Judging by the questions raised by these people, I guess I checked my brain at the door when I saw the show. The Links are the Astronomer Phil Plait on PROMETHEUS and Red Letter Media Talks about PROMETHEUS.. Both contain spoilers, but only funny ones. 
Also, Trailers from Hell! has commenced it's own Trailers from Hell Kickstarter Campaign, to expand its function and properly advertise itself. Joe Dante, art director Charlie Largent and Co. surely know a thing or two about marketing, as the Kickstarter Page is very entertaining in itself, and truly elaborate. And YOU TOO can get your very own Starship Troopers big bug talon .... they even have a picture of it up. The pitch is compelling, and I can feel my purse strings loosen as I read it. Take a look -- ! And now I'm going to run -- my BD screener of Invasion of the Body Snatchers '56 has just arrived! Thanks for reading --- Glenn Erickson
June 16, 2012
Savant's new reviews today are: Blu-ray 
James L. Brooks pulls off a winner, with Jack Nicholson in a lively role and Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear and Cuba Gooding Jr. all incredibly well cast. This one pretty much takes the prize for Movies-that-Make-Us-Feel-Good-about-People; Nicholson and Helen Hunt both took home Academy Awards. We also get to see an annoying lap dog tossed down a garbage chute! In Blu-ray from Twilight Time.
6/16/12
Blu-ray 
A real oddity: a '50s American sci-fi picture with a pronounced, up-front anti-nuke, anti-defense, anti-Cold War attitude. Seven kids become 'voluntary' agents for a brain from outer space, and follow its orders to sabotage a military mission to put offensive nuclear weapons in orbit. Jack Arnold's bleak tale of juvenile delinquent peacenik school children defying their parents pretty much takes the cake -- the message for kiddie matinees is that Dumb Parents haven't got a Clue. In Blu-ray from Olive Films.
6/16/12
and 
Philippe Mora's comment-free documentary uses German file film, including the then- recently (1973) discovered color Eva Braun home movies, to sketch a picture of Nazi Germany as the Germans saw it -- a proactive nationalist force bringing new hope and blessings to all. Seeing Hitler patting dogs and embracing children is far more disturbing than standard images of his hateful speeches, as it slowly dawns on us that carefully managed images were used to enforce an illusion of a complacent, contented citizenry. Chilling, and easily misinterpreted as positive propaganda for Hitler worshippers; this was banned in several countries and hasn't been widely screened. From Kino Lorber.
6/16/12
Hello! Some interesting fun stuff to cover today. Criterion has announced for September Blu-rays for The Children of Paradise, Les visiteurs du soir, Eating Raoul, Umberto D and David Fincher's The Game. Adding to the fun, Kino's September is packed with Horror in Blu-ray: Mario Bava's Hatchet for the Honeymoon, Black Sunday and Lisa and the Devil/The House of Exorcism. That's not to mention Val Guest's nudie Au Pair Girls, a Wong Kar-Wai double feature of Fallen Angels and Happy Together, and Buster Keaton's The Navigator. Also out on DVD will be two more collections of Classic Educational Shorts, Rules for School and Troubled Teens. Correspondent Louis Helman offers a link to Vanity Fair's The Paramount Picture, a group photo featuring 116 stars and filmmakers who have worked on the studio's films. The large graphic has a mouse-over function that allows one a close look at all the famous faces. It's so perfect, it's hard to believe that it isn't an elaborate composite. A two minute video about the photo shoot gives the answer. 
After a disappointing first hour that mostly checks off elements and plot points from the first film, with a slow investigation of a Terrore nello spazio alien construction, I thought the movie was going to shape up as a tepid remake-variant. You know, increasingly stupid spacemen doing dumb things, and that pesky Weyland Company up to its nasty hijinks, like interstellar Beagle Boys. In the late 21st century everybody remembers a 1970s rock musician, but I guess nobody saw old sci-fi and horror movies that warn against doing dumb things like playing with alien snakes or trusting so-calm-they're-sinister robot men. But then less predictable things began to crop up, and Prometheus took off. I loved the way various visual elements from the first picture began to proliferate, and didn't mind that things weren't identical, or that the 'space jockey' seems to have shrunk in size. It's amusing to see an alien that looks like The Thing from Another World minus rose thorns on his knuckles; maybe he's from the same race as the woeful Phantom From Space. Then the wonderful main actress started showing even more determination and guts than the original Ripley. I could tell that things were working when the ickiest, most taste-challenged scene in the movie turned out so well. A woman in your life pregnant and sensitive? Go see Madagascar instead. Article links are already circulating proposing grand metaphysical/religious interpretations of Prometheus; here's a pretty good one sent me by the watchful Gary Teetzel. Ridley Scott's Blade Runner gained a new lease on life when fans circulated complex interpretations of its many meanings (across its many versions!). It seems that part of the viral plan built into Prometheus is to reinforce Scott's reputation as some kind of sci-fi prophet. The arguments are fun as long as we aren't being told that the monster is Jesus or that 101 Christian correspondences add up to a coherent statement. To wax enthusiastic over interpretive theories, I'd prefer a more genuinely profound basic theme than Alien's Bugs In Space concept, but hey, great sci-fi pictures weren't common even when the genre regularly embraced original Sci-fi ideas. Prometheus stands well enough on its own as a thriller not to require an application of Peter Wollen's Signs and Meaning in the Cinema. And when Scott's film warmed up in its last 2/3rds, I had a great time. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson
June 11, 2012
Savant's new reviews today are: Blu-ray 
Bernardo Bertolucci's five-hour, fifteen-minute epic of the struggles between Italian farm landlords and working peasants comes to life in this near-flawless HD presentation. The glittering cast includes Robert De Niro, Gerard Depardieu, Donald Sutherland, Dominique Sanda, Stefania Sandrelli, Burt Lancaster, Romolo Valli, Sterling Hayden, Laura Betti and Alida Valli. The only question is what language to watch it in -- Italian, French or the English with the original voices of De Niro, Lancaster et. al. Oh -- occasional sex scenes are far stronger than what one would expect. A two Blu-ray, one DVD release in From Olive Films.
6/12/12
This TV movie tones down the dramatics to concentrate on the facts of what may be the first "extraordinary rendition" to make international headlines. In 1960 a team of Mossad agents entered Argentina to kidnap SS war criminal Adolf Eichmann and spirit him back to Israel for trial. Starring Topol, Nick Mancuso, Janet Suzman, Martin Balsam, Alfred Burke and Leo McKern; the just-the-facts presentation steers clear of deeper political issues. From the MGM Limited Edition Collection.
6/12/12
and 
That old joker Jess Franco takes a spin with the story of the mad Count and Countess Zaroff, who hunt human prey on a private island. The other seventy minutes wallow in Franco's usual exploitative sex scenes, fake torture scenes, zoom shots on female anatomy, and various kinds of padding. The difference in this go-round is that the film source and transfer are pristine. This is by far the best-looking Eurotrash picture I've yet seen on home video -- the competent cinematography is ... actually ... very attractive!. From Mondo Macabro.
6/12/12
Hello! Some links to offer today -- Over at Greenbriar Picture Shows (for Saturday, June 9), John McElwee has indeed delved into the subject of the elusive Paramount picture recently released by Olive Films, The Lawless. He has plenty of information on Pine-Thomas films, as this was evidently the company's one foray into 'social consciousness' filmmaking, and it became a fiscal black eye in their track record of profitable independent productions. I only guessed that The Lawless was a rare item based on my inability to see it for, oh, FORTY-TWO YEARS .... John has the facts to confirm it. This is only part one of his report, the next comes out next Saturday. 3-D fans can now take a look at the 3-D Archive at YouTube, just up from Bob Furmanek and Company. It features newly-shot 3-D footage to view among some vintage offerings. Be sure to first consult the handy YT3D tutorial (it's one of the choices on the page) to "optimize your viewing experience". And Dick Dinman has two more radio shows up for auditing -- the subject this time is the new documentary To Whom it May Concern: Kashen's Journey. Entitled The World of Nancy Kwan (Part One and Part Two), the shows feature interviews with star Nancy Kwan and producer/director Brian Jamieson. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson
June 09, 2012
Savant's new reviews today are: 
This '50s update of The Most Dangerous Game gives us Richard Widmark as a reclusive author and Jane Greer as the reporter who tracks him down in Mexico. Both of them end up as human prey, hunted by desperate men that can't let them get away. Co-starring Trevor Howard and Peter Van Eyck, and transferred in brilliant color in SuperScope 235. From The MGM Limited Edition Collection.
6/09/12
Blu-ray 
A successful but weary ballet star takes a day off to remember a wonderful, yet traumatic summer of love when she was a teenager. Ingmar Bergman makes the pangs of young romance and loss seem very real, and counterpoints them with a backstage drama at the ballet. With Maj-Britt Nilsson and Birger Malmsten, and a third star in the glorious Swedish summer, which we are told is only eight weeks long. In Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
6/09/12
and Blu-ray 
Relative newcomers Tina Louise and Jack Lord show promise, but Paramount's western effort has tired blood, with both director Michael Curtiz and star Robert Taylor on the career downgrade. A Federal Marshall needs help identifying a killer, and finds that a whole town -- as well as a young widow willing to inform for money -- can't force themselves to betray the wanted fugitive. In Blu-ray from Olive Films.
6/09/12
Hello! 
Gary Teetzel has sent over a link to news about an episode of a BBC series from the middle '60s called A Whole Scene Going, that contains a preview of the movie Dr. Who and the Daleks. Brief excerpts collected here contain first a minute or so of singer Judy Collins and then a snippet of BTS footage of director Gordon Flemyng on the set. I never thought I'd see him talking on film. Why did he take the assignment? "Well, first, it was offered..." Gary has also forwarded a link to an Imgace page called 100 Years of Paramount Pictures, which has become something of a game. The artwork presents dozens of little medallions that look like Boy Scout merit badges. Each represents a movie. The identities of some are easy to nail and others throw me entirely. Just thought I'd pass it on. The Warner Archive Collection has a number of interesting titles out in the last couple of weeks, including The Journey (Yul Brynner, Deborah Kerr), Back from Eternity (Robert Ryan, Anita Ekberg) and the entire Crime Does Not Pay series of short subjects. These are the pro-police films initiated to promote the F.B.I., the ones that passed off familiar Hollywood character actors as government officials, and mostly proved that outrageously silly plotting could make The Law win every time. But they are packed with acting and directing talent 'on the way up' in the Hollywood system. 
And Twilight Time just announced four Blu-ray releases for September and October. On September 11 arrive 1959's The Sound and the Fury and 1989's Steel Magnolias. Coming on October 9 will be 1985's Enemy Mine and 1990's Night of the Living Dead. Finally, I've collected a stack of emails from readers whose access to the DVD Savant Newsletter has been suspended or otherwise rendered non-functional, and will be turning them in at the end of the week, more or less. So let me know if you'd like to be included in my fix-the-newsletter request to DVDtalk. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson
June 05, 2012
Savant's new reviews today are: Pre-code Double Feature 
The rediscovered queen of Pre-code brings her special talents two two more rarities. The early-talkie musical Bright Lights sees Dot showing the skills she perfected in Ziegfeld's Follies, ten years previously. The Reckless Hour is a serious, but rather strained morality play about a good girl seduced by a cad from the carriage trade; it co-stars Joan Blondell. From the Warner Archive Collection.
6/05/12
Blu-ray 
Joan Collins goes without glamour makeup and Jayne Mansfield gets the decent dramatic role denied her in a half dozen other Fox pictures, in this earthy CinemaScope adaptation of the book by John Steinbeck. Co-starring Rick Jason and Dorothy Michaels, with Dan Dailey along for the ride as an amorous traveling salesman. Includes Twilight Time's customary Isolated Score Track. In Blu-ray from Twilight Time.
6/05/12
and Blu-ray 
The cyborg's back, crackling with electricity, zapping people with his death ray and swearing to eliminate all those fools that want to do good things for the human race. That philanthropy for you, when you're a nine foot metal man. With Ross Martin, Otto Kruger and Mala powers. Now in Blu-ray from Olive Films.
6/05/12
Hello! I'm wondering about my readership in general at the moment. A couple more readers have written to say that they're no longer getting my weekly Savant Newsletter, and when they try to renew it online, they're told they are already signed up. Before I make a minor squawk at DVDtalk -- I honestly don't know why this happens -- I'd like to ask people that want but can't get the newsletter to drop me an email ... so I can submit them all at once. It's a minor deal perhaps, but I'm trying to frustrate my readers as little as possible... the Savant text is trouble enough. I'm receiving my own newsletter now but went without one for years. Thanks. 
My one link today is to plug the interesting The Friends of Marty Melville site, a favorite destination of fans of Greenbriar Picture Shows and Trailers from Hell. The aptly-named site collects Ad Mats from old newspaper movie listings, showing exactly how pictures of various stripes were marketed in the old days. I can testify that as a kid back in my home town I scoured Wednesday's movie listings, planning my Saturday afternoon based on these ads: there was no TV hype, no Internet buzz and little access to trailers to tell me what was worthwhile to see. Besides discovering where in Los Angeles a movie like Rodan might make its bow -- the darn thing opened simultaneously at 26 theaters -- the Marty Melville page occasionally displays the entire independent theater page from a big city paper. We can see that Noo Yawkers of 1950, should they care to hike down to some proto-beatnik kulture pit in Greenwich Village, had access to plenty of European arthouse hits, as well as movies flagged as subversive by the distribution mainstream. The pro-Commie Christ in Concrete did play New York in 1950 -- there it is in b&w. Anyway, The Friends of Marty Melville is yet another good site with the ability to fully absorb one's attention. Work and other writing call, not to mention family business ... but I'll be back on Saturday with more reviews. Thanks for reading, and please let me know if you want but cannot receive a weekly Savant newsletter! Glenn Erickson
June 02, 2012
Savant's new reviews today are: Blu-ray 
Shakespeare goes ferocious in Ralph Fiennes' modern adaptation. A victorious warrior is pressured into running for high office, but cannot overcome his distaste for common citizens. Banished, he leads a neighboring country in an invasion of his own home. Vanessa Redgrave takes acting honors as Fiennes' literal battle-axe of a mother, and Gerard Butler is his hated enemy/ally. The dissection of the relationship of war to patriotism and politics is astonishingly relevant. In Blu-ray from New Wave / The Weinstein Company.
6/02/12
Pearls of the Czech New Wave 
Criterion's offshoot label brings forth six fascinating Czech films, made during a brief window of leniency under harsh Communist rule. The range varies from anti-Soviet anarchy to frightening political parables, to movies that simply acknowledge that people have aims other than the struggle of the proletariat: Pearls of the Deep, Daisies, A Report on the Party and Guests, Return of the Prodigal Son, Capricious Summer, The Joke. From Eclipse.
6/02/12
and Blu-ray 
Martin Scorsese, Francis Coppola and Woody Allen contribute chapters to an anthology of personal movies about New York, starring Nick Nolte and Roseanne Arquette, Giancarlo Giannini, Mia Farrow and Mae Questel. All three are handsomely crafted, but in none does the filmmaker use the opportunity to stretch his talent or to try for anything different. But boy, is the price right. In Blu-ray from Mill Creek.
6/02/12
Greetings! A quiet weekend. I attended a memorial service today for a great artist I met working on a movie in the 1970s, and got a brief glimpse at a couple of co-workers I hadn't seen for years. He really was a fine and friendly man and it was very nice seeing what a pleasant extended family he had. It's not exactly movie related, but Jaci Spuher sends in this Open Culture link to a fascinating film about the construction of The Golden Gate Bridge, which just celebrated a big party. The creation of that bridge -- which I have a sentimental attachment to, like millions of other people -- is just amazing... it should be one of the Seven Wonders of the modern world. And Craig Reardon offers this Foreign Promo for the bow of the TNT channel in Belgium. The inference is that it is all real and candid, which I don't buy -- but it's exciting anyway. Other Blu-ray announcements: Fox is releasing some Marilyn Monroe Blu-rays on July 31: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, River of No Return, How to Marry a Millionaire, There's No Business Like Show Business and The Seven-Year Itch. On September 4, Universal will bow a Blu of the wonderful Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. And those good folk at Kino/Redemption are going to be Blu-ray dipping into the Mario Bava catalog -- remember him? Starting off in September will be Black Sunday/The Mask of Satan and Hatchet for a Honeymoon. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson
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