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July 31, 2012

Savant's new reviews today are:

Jean Grémillon
During the Occupation

Eclipse showcases another less-celebrated continental master of cinema. Made during the French occupation for German-supervised companies, Jean Grémillon's Remorques, Lumière d'éte and Le ciel est à vous are uncommonly rich stories with deep emotions and veiled commentary on France's political situation. Starring Madeleine Reynaud, Jean Gabin, Michèle Morgan, Pierre Brasseur, Georges Marchal and Charles Vanel. From Eclipse, Series 34.
7/31/12

Where East is East

Lon Chaney is Tiger Haynes, a circus trapper with a face scarred by jungle cats. His nemesis is Madame de Sylva, a mysterious "Eastern Seductress" who abandoned him after giving birth to their daughter. She has now returned to steal that same daughter's beau. Steamy tropical passions! Intense, outdated racist ideas! A murderous ape affectionately named "Rangho!" Tod Browning's perverse silent era jungle drama co-stars Lupe Vélez and Estelle Taylor. From The Warner Archive Collection.
7/31/12

The 39 Steps
Blu-ray

Alfred Hitchcock found his perfect thriller formula with screenwriter Charles Bennett's mousetrap-tight spy chase script. Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll flee handcuffed through the Scottish highlands, juggling sexy situations and witty dialogue. And this restoration is the first edition in which I could actually make out all of the dialogue in this classic film. In Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
7/31/12

and

Total Recall
Mind-Bending Edition
Blu-ray

Arnold goes to Mars, his brain scrambled with sinister memory programming. Paul Verhoeven's Sci-fi action film pumps up the genre with violence and gore; beneath the lack of taste and finesse is a pretty good Philip K. Dick concept. With Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside and about a million pounds of unsubtle Rob Bottin foam rubber effects. In Blu-ray from Lionsgate.
7/31/12





Hello!

Well, that's a relief --- I was locked out of my DVD Savant uploading programs today, and before the end of the working day a DVDtalk tech rep called up and talked me through the fix -- which was only partly my fault, instead of completely. A wonderful turn of events.

The reviews are late so I'm going to go almost straight to them today. The only note I want to add is from reader Allen Hollis, about Olive Films' exciting list of upcoming releases. One of them is Republic's 1936 western drama The Oregon Trail, starring John Wayne. Allen tells me that this particular Wayne picture is considered by most people to be lost ... so a lot of John Wayne fans may have an opportunity to add another Duke Pic to their shelves.

Thanks for reading! -- Glenn Erickson



July 28, 2012

Savant's new reviews today are:

Firstborn
Blu-ray

Michael Apted shines as the director of this absorbing, wholly credible story of domestic turmoil. Lonely divorcee Teri Garr needs company while raising her two boys (Christopher Collet and Corey Haim) so takes in the big-talking Peter Weller. In short order the family is a mess, with Garr zonked on coke and Sam making drug deals out of the bedroom. Only the oldest son is in a position to save the day. The impressive cast includes the impossibly young Robert Downey Jr. and Sarah Jessica Parker. In Blu-ray from Olive Films.
7/28/12

Easy Living
(1949)

Great director Jacques Tourneur gives every member of a large cast the opportunity to do their best work, even Victor Mature and Sonny Tufts. Football pro Mature has serious health issues but keeps playing, fearing that his wife Lizabeth Scott will leave him; team secretary Lucille Ball makes herself miserable hoping he'll become free. A surprisingly honest and perceptive movie about the people politics of big sports. This is 1949 so the team is given a special bonus if they win the playoffs: a fantastic $1,000 per player! From The Warner Archive Collection.
7/28/12

and

Permissive / That Kind of Girl

A pair of what passed for English exploitation films get the full-on BFI restoration treatment. What a difference a few years makes ... That Kind of Girl is a tale of hot fun and woe as an au pair from Austria inadvertently spreads VD. Permissive is the wholly realistic and frighteningly cold blooded story of a rock'n'roll groupie's cruel activities. Quite different, and surprisingly more honest, than their American counterparts. From Kino / Jezebel.
7/28/12




Hello!

I first heard the news last Tuesday from Gary Teetzel, but everybody's talking about the long list of Paramount/Viacom titles licensed by Olive Films. It includes a tall stack of Republic pictures, including many desirable independent productions originally released by other studios, but that migrated to Republic over the years. A bunch are MIA "Loose Goose" movies that Savant whined and wailed about because disc releases seemed so unlikely. Besides features, the full list also includes a long list of Betty Boop cartoons, I kid you not.

Some of the features Savant is most excited about: The Atomic Kid (1954) Leslie H. Martinson; Beware, My Lovely (1952) Harry Horner; Blowing Wild (1953) Hugo Fregonese; The Bullfighter and the Lady (1951) Budd Boetticher; Caught (1949) Max Ophuls; Champion (1949) Mark Robson; China Gate (1957) Samuel Fuller; City That Never Sleeps (1953) John H. Auer; Cloak and Dagger (1946) Fritz Lang; The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955) Otto Preminger; Cry Danger (1951) Robert Parrish; The Devil and Miss Jones (1941) Sam Wood; Diary of a Chambermaid (1946) Jean Renoir; Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965) Freddie Francis; The Enforcer (1951) Bretaigne Windust; Fire Maidens of Outer Space (1956) Cy Roth; High School Confidential (1958) Jack Arnold; Home of the Brave (1949) Mark Robson; I've Always Loved You (1946) Frank Borzage; It's in the Bag! (1945) Richard Wallace; Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950) Gordon Douglas; The Last Command (1955) Frank Lloyd; The Lost Moment (1947) Martin Gabel; Magic Town (1947) William Wellman; The Men (1950) Fred Zinnemann; Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (1948, pictured left) Irving Pichel; One of Our Aircraft is Missing (1942) Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger; One Touch of Venus (1948) William A. Seiter; Operation Petticoat (1959) Blake Edwards; The Pawnbroker (1964) Sidney Lumet; Penny Serenade (1941) George Stevens; Plunder Road (1957) Hubert Cornfield; Ramrod (1947) Andre De Toth; The Red Menace (1949) R.G. Springsteen; Ruthless (1948) Edgar G. Ulmer; Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) Allan Dwan; Shack Out on 101 (1955) Edward Dein; Shark! (1969) Samuel Fuller; She Devil (1957) Kurt Neumann; Stranger on the Prowl (1952) Joseph Losey; Strangers in the Night (1944) Anthony Mann; The Sun Shines Bright (1953) John Ford; Tam Lin (1970) aka The Devil's Widow; Three Faces West (1940) Bernard Vorhaus; Try and Get Me! (1950).

As we can see, Olive's Paramount-Republic stash is practically the Lost Elephant Graveyard of exotic MIA titles. The list seems to go on forever - it could take three years for this many shows to come out, even at Olive's accelerated release pace. It is promised that many of them will be Blu-rays.

Other Blu-ray release news: Kino Classics has Andrzej Wajda's stunning Holocaust drama Korczak scheduled for August 14. Universal brings E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial to BD on October 9, reportedly with all the latter-day revisions removed (good going, Steven!). Warner Home Video is releasing both versions (Garnett and Rafelson) of James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice on November 13. And finally, on September 25 Flicker Alley is releasing Smilebox editions of the original Cinerama attraction This is Cinerama and the later Cinemiracle production Windjammer, each with a bounty of extras!

Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson



July 24, 2012

Savant's new reviews today are:

Body and Soul
and
Force of Evil

Blu-ray

John Garfield fights the system in two strong dramas from Robert Rossen and Abraham Polonsky. He takes on the crooked fight game and refuses to throw a bout in Body and Soul. In Force of Evil he's a crooked lawyer helping a racketeer take over the numbers game in New York City. Intense action and suspense, and some of the greatest dialogue in all film noir. Co-starring Lilli Palmer, Canada Lee, Thomas Gomez and Beatrice Pearson. Separate releases in Blu-ray from Olive Films.
7/24/12

Show People

King Vidor's wonderful lampoon of silent Hollywood filmmaking stars the delightful Marion Davies as a "green" newcomer who becomes a star, first of slapstick comedies and then of stuffy costume dramas. Loaded with cute cameo appearances by big stars, and most likely a prime inspiration for the comedy in Singin' In the Rain. Costarring William Haines. From The Warner Archive Collection.
7/24/12

and

Love and Anarchy
Blu-ray

Director Lina Wertmüller and actors Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato concoct a bawdy tale of an assassin hiding out in a bordello in Fascist-era Italy. Giannini's bizarre anarchist hitching to gun down Mussolini, but mad love for one of the prostitutes gets in the way. An elaborate and colorful production -- with an abundance of 'colorful' language and provocative situations. In Blu-ray from Kino Classics.
7/24/12



Hello!

This is a fast evening... if I hurry I can get this in and still claim to have made my Tuesday deadline --- in at least some Time Zones.

Over on the Video Watchdog website, enterprising editor-publisher Tim Lucas is offering a preview of a VW Round Table discussion on Dark Shadows. This is of prime interest to me because close associate Darren Gross has been pursuing, investigating, researching, writing about and restoring elements for one of Dan Curtis' cut Dark Shadows movies ever since I met him in 1998. Darren and I even visited WB in 1999 or 2000 and rolled through some printing elements to determine if the copy was an uncut version -- Darren knew the movie so well that he could navigate his way through it on a rewind table, even when watching an orange, inverted image Internegative; I was an acceptable editorial aide because I'm a Guild member. Darren is joined in the VW Round-Table by Chris Herzog, Robert Tinnell and another friendly (and supportive) associate Richard Harland Smith.

And, Dick Dinman has put together a farewell radio show to honor Ernest Borgnine. It includes plenty of interview back & forth with "Ernie". Subjects covered include "winning the Oscar, his disastrous thirty-two day marriage to Ethel Merman, and his loving reminiscences about legendary co-stars Alan Ladd, Montgomery Clift, William Holden, Bette Davis, Gary Cooper, Robert Ryan, Spencer Tracy and many other filmdom greats with whom he shared the screen during his unparalleled fifty-four plus year career (pause for breath)." I want to hear about that crazy 32-day marriage -- were there compatibility issues or what?

Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson

Fuzzy photo from 1999: Stalwart Darren Gross braves the horrors of Bronson Caverns.


July 21, 2012

Savant's new reviews today are:

Three Reviews for a Premiere MOD Video Line:
They Came To
Blow Up America,
Diplomatic Courier
& Fraulein
Fox Cinema Archives

Three reviews for the new line of Made-To-Order discs: George Sanders infiltrates a Nazi sabotage school, Tyrone Power undertakes an espionage mission in Trieste and German Dana Wynter has a tough time protecting her honor when the Russians overrun her country. Also, some tough talk about video quality and MOD product: what collectors will and won't accept. From Fox Cinema Archives.
3/21/12

Cover Girl
Twilight Time

Blu-ray

Rita Hayworth is at the top of her form and popularity in this 1944 Technicolor musical vehicle that takes every opportunity to display her redhaired beauty. Oh, yes, Gene Kelly is in the movie too. He and Stanley Donen concoct some of the earliest 'creative' musical numbers of the '40s musical boom. With Eve Arden and Phil Silvers. In Blu-ray from Twilight Time.
3/21/12

They Made Me a Fugitive
Kino Classics

Blu-ray

Vintage Brit Noir, with tough guy Trevor Howard breaking prison to get revenge on the black marketeer that framed him for murdering a policeman. Terrific atmosphere and excellent suspense, thanks to director Cavalcanti's expressionist effects. With Sally Gray, and Griffith Jones as a narcissist named Narcy which is short for Narcissus. In Blu-ray from Kino Classics.
3/21/12

and

The Last Days of Disco
The Criterion Collection

Blu-ray

Chloé Sevigny and Kate Beckinsale star in writer-director Whit Stillman's ode to the New York disco club scene, frequented by young Manhattanites struggling to find themselves. In 1998 this may have seemed like an ancient anthropological study, but by now the era (pre- AIDS) smacks of innocence. With plenty of filmmaker extras. In Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
3/21/12




Hello!

A couple of links today ...

DVD Savant is always here to champion the literary arts. Rob sends this link to Joseph Moncure March's racy original 1928 poem The Wild Party, upon which James Ivory based a film:

What hips--
What shoulders--
What a back she had!
Her legs were built to drive men mad.

I wonder if the famous gun moll Bonnie Parker took to writing her doggerel after reading Moncure, or is that too wild of an association? A run-down of the career of Joseph Moncure March reads like a Wild Party in itself.

Gary Teetzel points out this brief James Bond promo featuring a reappearance of the classic 007 Aston-Martin DB5 Car. Very nice, but that car always needs to be filmed from as low an angle as possible -- !

And a number of welcome disc announcements lately. By now everyone knows about Sony's coming Blu-ray of Lawrence of Arabia (November 13). But Olive Films also has BDs of Pursued and Private Hell 36 (August 21) and A Double Life and Orson Welles' MacBeth (September 16). Criterion has a big selection of goodies coming: The Devil, Probably,The Children of Paradise and Les visiteurs du soir (All September 18), Eating Raoul and The Game (September 25), Sunday Bloody Sunday (October 23) and Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby (October 30). Thanks to their new connections with the Redemption label, Kino has an eclectic mix coming up: Rules for School/Troubled Youth (September 11), Mario Bava's Hatchet for the Honeymoon, Black Sunday and Lisa and the Devil/House of Exorcism (September 18) and The Penalty (October 23). Although a disk will be later in the future, Redemption has also arranged to license a BD disc of Bava's The Whip and the Body. Finally, to re-cap, Warner Bros. is releasing a 3D BD of Dial "M" for Murder along with BDs of Strangers on a Train, Little Shop of Horrors (with a restored "Don't Feed the Plants" finish), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and a special 30th Anniversary package for Blade Runner (October 9).

Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson



July 17, 2012

Savant's new reviews today are:

The Loves of Pharaoh
Blu-ray

A colossal Egyptian epic with court intrigues, impossible love, a slave who becomes the Queen of a mad Pharaoh and a giant battle on the sands -- all filmed in Germany in 1922! Ernst Lubitsch's silent costume saga has enormous sets, a cast of thousands and the top German actors of the day -- Emil Jannings and Paul Wegener. The disc comes with a great documentary about the restoration and a complete orchestral concert version of the movie, a taping of the recording session for the full operatic music score. A collector's disc available on the web in Blu-ray from Alpha-Omega.
7/17/12

State's Attorney

Slick defense mouthpiece John Barrymore saves Helen Twelvetrees from a jail sentence for prostitution and then installs her as a paramour in his glitzy Manhattan townhouse. He then becomes the District Attorney, and discovers that it's difficult to keep separate his vaguely criminal and honestly legal activities. Excellent Pre-Code fare, with Barrymore hamming up his role very enjoyably. From The Warner Archive Collection.
7/17/12

The Return of the Living Dead
Limited Special Edition

Blu-ray

UK correspondent Lee Broughton offers this review of a new Region B Blu-ray release of the 80s classic that first found humor in marauding zombies Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa and Linnea Quigley star, along with one of the wittiest zombie attackers on record. "Send more brains!" In Region B Blu-ray from Second Sight Films.
7/17/12

and

Boris and Natasha

Sally Kellerman and Dave Thomas are Natasha Fatale and Boris Badenov, crack Pottslyvanian spy-anarchists here to steal a secret formula -- because it's so good to be bad! Director Charlie Martin Smith's crack at a movie version of Jay Ward's beloved TV cartoon characters has a lot going for it, yet misses the mark. Fans of the seductive Kellerman and cartoon crazies like Fearless Leader may enjoy the good natured jokes. Also with John Candy, Alex Rocco and John Travolta, when his career was so dead that a quick cameo here was a break for him. From The MGM Limited Edition Collection.
7/17/12




Hello!

A very rushed Tuesday this week, with only a couple of (very interesting to me) links.

VCI links us to an article by Kit Parker on the nature of Public Domain, as it relates to his company's disc of A Walk in the Sun.

Rob points us to a nice link about the great Ernest Borgnine, a 50-minute YouTube docu about his travels in an enormous bus, mysteriously titled Ernest Borgnine on the Bus. I saw Mr. Borgnine at a screening in 1972 and like everyone else, liked him immediately. It looks like he was a terrific dad.

And Milestone Films is opening a new restoration of Shirley Clarke's pioneering experimental-independent film The Connection in Los Angeles on July 20. Clarke was an artist in residence/instructor at UCLA during my few years there, and was quite a wonderful character. Milestone has a new website up about Ms. Clarke, with interesting coverage of her career and films.

Finally, frequent Savant collaborator Gary Teetzel contributed an article to the Sci-Fi Japan Website, entitled Legendary Pictures Previews GODZILLA and PACIFIC RIM at Comic-Con. It's an eyewitness report.

Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson



July 14, 2012

Savant's new reviews today are:

Morning Departure

Perhaps the most realistic and uncompromised of British naval films, Roy Ward Baker's account of a peacetime disaster at sea is a taut "Cold Equation" tale of trapped men stymied by daunting technical limitations. Stars John Mills, Nigel Patrick and Richard Attenborough are in top form as submariners facing the worst and hoping for the best. This picture was almost denied a release, because of a coincidental real submarine incident that took dozens of lives. A.k.a. Operation Disaster. From VCI.
7/14/12

Singin' in The Rain
60th Anniversary Blu-ray
Ultimate Collector's Edition

The tip top movie musical finally reaches Blu-ray in both a plain-wrap release and a full blown boxed set that comes with gift goodies like its own collectible umbrella. Don Lockwood, Lina Lamont and Cosmo Brown never looked better in the restored HD image; the set also contains two DVDs of extras and a new documentary in HD. In Blu-ray from Warner Home Video.
7/14/12


and

Love Birds

Fans of the wonderful Sally Hawkins await her every new movie appearance -- that's why I leaped at the chance to review this romantic comedy from New Zealand. It's a mediocre-to-weak rom-com with a meet-cute centered on a little black duck that just wants to fly, but lacks the courage. Rhys Darby co-stars in the kind of movie we thought went extinct twenty years ago ... I guess I'm not seeing the full range of what's being released these days. The show can boast beautiful NZ scenery, a fine DVD encoding and many, many songs by Queen. From Freestyle Digital Media.
7/14/12




Hello!

Time and DVD reviews march on and on at this petty pace. My Editor's Guild showed a revival print of the '57 The Incredible Shrinking Man at a fancy screening on Tuesday, which I regret not being able to attend -- Tina Hirsch and Joe Dante were the post-screening speakers. Next time ...

Some great stuff came in to review, including discs of the German restoration of Ernst Lubitsch's The Love of the Pharaoh, which I'll be getting to in short order. It's an intensely creative package and marketing solution for a relatively unknown silent film epic. I also was beginning to think that DVD Savant was out of the running to receive screeners of the new Fox Cinema Archives discs, only to find a box of at least a dozen of the discs sent my way. I'll be wading into them quite quickly.

Now, I have only heard this next idea as a rumor, unsubstantiated and unconfirmed, and not from an insider source. I don't bother my sources with questions I know they don't want to answer. So let me just say it as Savant wishful thinking: wouldn't it be nice if the Warner Archive Collection began a Blu-ray Made On Demand disc program? Provided the things PLAY, I say yes -- some homemade BD-Rs mystify my present player.

Boy, did I receive a stack of emails responding to the subject of English subtitles disappearing from DVD discs. I'm not leading a crusade, but I will try to be more vigilant about specifying which discs have subs and which don't... my own hearing isn't getting better, and I still want to watch movies if I lose it completely.

Speaking of Joe Dante, he sent along this Retronaut link to Black Cat Auditions in Hollywood, 1961. The photo selection shows a huge number of cats lined up for what looks like a publicity stunt opportunity. Note how the cats bask without socializing -- if this were a black dog audition, things would be far different. The location is Bronson Avenue, at the Producer's Studio, now the Western end of The Raleigh Studios. An arrow fired in the direction shown in the photo previewed here, would cross Melrose Avenue and pass through Paramount Studio's Bronson Gate. All DVD Savant needs now is a tour bus.

This is where Roger Corman filmed several of his Poe Pictures. The vintage bungalow buildings are still there; it may soon be the only studio in town possessing an Old Hollywood look and feel. It's four blocks from my house and I drive by at least twice a month in pursuit of a hamburger. The movie in question is Tales of Terror so we see Peter Lorre, Vincent Price and the shapely Joyce Jameson posing with the kit-kats. At the time, Jameson was fresh from Billy Wilder's The Apartment.

Until next time ... just three days away... thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson



July 10, 2012

Savant's new reviews today are:

Shallow Grave
Blu-ray

Danny Boyle's apartment-bound murder thriller gives us Christopher Eccleston, Ewan McGregor and Kerry Fox as mean-spirited roommates that come upon a sudden windfall of riches -- and the storm of greed and mayhem that invariably accompanies such happenings. Caustic wit, good suspense and compelling characterizations; filmed in Edinburgh. In Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
7/10/12


Those Magnificent Men
in Their Flying Machines

Blu-ray

Stuart Whitman, Sarah Miles and James Fox head an all-star cast in a slapstick epic about a London to Paris air race in flimsy 1910-era contraptions that resemble motorized kites. Silly comedy (thanks to Terry-Thomas), fascinating antique aeroplanes and glorious 70mm aerial scenery highlight this popular family Road Show attraction. In Blu-ray from Twilight Time.
7/10/12

and

Chariots of Fire
Blu-ray

Hugh Hudson's Oscar-winning drama of the 1924 Olympics stars a stack of British names, headed by Ian Charleson and Ben Cross as runners overcoming personal obstacles to compete. An ode to vintage codes of ethics and chivalry, this became an audience favorite, as did its ubiquitous Vangelis title tune. In Blu-ray from Warner Home Video.
7/10/12




Hello!

Correspondent John Bernhard -- and others -- have been straightening me out vis a vis Curse of Frankenstein's head-in-the-acid-bath scene. Sorry to make eyes roll out there -- Ted Newsom will hopefully not strike me from the roll of marginally competent Hammer fans. The scene I described at the bath IS there and hasn't been cut, just a close-up of a severed head is missing -- a CU that hasn't been seen since very early in the game. On the other hand, John sends this YouTube link to the Missing CoS eye shot, which has apparently been restored for a Blu-ray this Fall. I'm looking forward to seeing that show in HD!

Hey, I'm getting a lot of positive feedback on my Johnny Guitar review. I wish I could entice more non-western fans into checking it out... people either love that maniac diva Joan Crawford, or she makes their skin crawl. I'm working up my reviews on two radical-noir pictures that mean a lot to me as well, Olive Pictures' new Blu-rays of Body and Soul and Force of Evil. The two pictures are so closely related that I think I'll make them a dual-title review. This job is fun when one's favorite pictures roll around.

I have readers either with hearing issues, or with relatives that need some form of captions or English subtitles on their video discs. The hard truth right now is that more and more of the older library titles these viewers want to see no longer have them. It used to be just discs from smaller companies that skipped the English subs, but the studios' MOD brand lines don't carry them either. Hearing-impaired fans of Film Noir, for instance, are not happy that Columbia's Noir series is now subtitle-free, now that it's moved to the TCM Vault line. Fanciers of Pre-Code delights will not be thrilled to know that Warners' desirable Forbidden Hollywood series will continue now on their subtitle-challenged Warner Archive Line. I know that this pattern is a function of hard times in disc-land, and not discrimination, but those directly affected have every right to feel very put out. Frequent Savant correspondent "B" has sent along this related Slate web article about the lack of closed-captioning on streaming TV. Author June Thomas hits my soft spot right away: she uses closed captions for the same reason I do, to hear ALL the dialogue in dense tracks, compressed tracks (take that, Mad Men) and shows where thick accents prevail. Hear hear.

UK correspondent Tim Rogerson informs me of something I missed in my review of The Blood Beast Terror: he says that Kino Lorber's flawless Blu-ray is seven minutes longer than any video copy he's seen, and he says he's bought several. So that's an alert to completist horror fanatics...

And finally, on July 17 the Warner Archive Collection is releasing another Savant favorite western that I've been waiting for, for quite a while: Delmer Daves' The Hanging Tree (pic above). Hopefully it will be a widescreen restoration; I've been told that it's been in the works for quite a while. This is a great summer for classic disc fans!

Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson



July 08, 2012

Savant's new reviews today are:

Johnny Guitar
Blu-ray

It's here: Nicholas Ray's superb western is one of the best films of the 1950s. Joan Crawford is the hardbitten gunslinging saloon owner defying a lynching party of 'respectable citizens'. Sterling Hayden leads a fascinating set of 'standard' western types honed to stylistic perfection: Scott Brady, Mercedes McCambridge, Ward Bond, Ernest Borngine, Royal Dano. The politically astute film also contains the '50s most daring allusion to the blacklist witch hunts. In Blu-ray from Olive Films.
7/07/12

Vacation from Marriage
(Perfect Strangers)

Robert Donat shines in this unusual Alexander Korda-MGM co-production. Separated for three years by the war, a dull English couple become convinced that their marriage cannot continue. But they have to meet first to talk it out... The wife is a young Deborah Kerr; Ann Todd and Glynis Johns co-star. Beautifully filmed by cameraman Georges Perinal and presented in a perfectly preserved print from The Warner Archive Collection.
7/07/12

and

Harold and Maude
Blu-ray

Hal Ashby's runaway midnight cult movie success probably got its start because of its pop music score by Cat Stevens, but it persists as a warm and moving black comedy (?) showcasing an against-all-precedent affair between a 20-year-old lover of morbidity, and an eighty-year-old nonconformist who steals cars. Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon star. In Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
7/07/12




Hello!

Some interesting links to send your way ....

"NZ Pete" has an enormous web page up about the Career of Jim Danforth as a matte painter. Best known as a stop motion animator, Danforth is also one of the best effects matte painters in the business. The detail in this lengthy interview will satisfy any lover of effects techniques.

Gary Teetzel sends this link to someone's sneaky-cam view of (part of) Saul Bass's lost and refound Original Ending to Phase IV. It's a bit like watching a movie as a five year-old, trying to see past the people in the row in front of you. Friend Darren Gross described the ending as a very effective Saul Bass piece that doesn't exactly seem part of the movie just seen.

And Dick Dinman has two radio shows up this morning about new Olive Films releases. The first, Dick Dinman Meets Gary Cooper at High Noon gathers Joan Leslie and director Michael Anderson to talk about the new Blu-ray disc of the classic western. The second, Dick Dinman and DVD Savant Salute Invasion of the Body Snatchers sticks me in front of a microphone to help Dick discuss Olive's new Blu-ray of Don Siegel's science fiction classic. Very gracious of Dick! A full list of Dinman's radio shows is up here.

Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson



July 03, 2012
Tuesday July 3, 2012

Savant's new reviews today are:

The Most Dangerous Game
with
Gow, The Headhunter

Blu-ray

Wow! This essential Pre-code ode to Sadistic slaughter in the jungle has been a Public Domain eyesore for decades -- now Serge Bromberg and David Shepard give us an almost incredible restoration. Cooper & Schoedsack's influential story of a madman hunting human prey looks and sounds very good. The cast, technicians and many of its sets were borrowed from King Kong. With Joel McCrea, Leslie Banks and the immortal Fay Wray -- who only screams once or twice! Paired with an equally vintage exploitation docu about cannibals. In Blu-ray from Flicker Alley.
7/03/12

and

The Blood Beast Terror
and
Burke and Hare

Separate Blu-ray releases.

English director Vernon Sewell contributes an odd duo of shockers to the history of horror. Blood Beast delivers Peter Cushing, Robert Flemyng and a giant moth; Burke and Hare reruns the Edinburgh body snatching scenario with odd doses of humor and rock music. Separate releases in Blu-ray from Kino Lorber / Redemption.
7/03/12




Hello!

As thousands of people have found out, it's Hot Weather in Richmond this Weekend. Crazy situations are happening all across the country. My son weathered a storm in Maryland two nights ago and may still be without power; an old business partner in Pocatello, Idaho barely escaped seeing his house burn down in a raging wildfire that wiped out part of his neighborhood. Here in Hollywood, I have my ear to the ground listening for Earthquakes, but have nothing yet to report.

What other news? My contact at the disc company VCI, I'm happy to say, vouchsafed to me that their expected Fall Blu-ray of a restored Gorgo "is coming along quite nicely." He knew that I'd be pleased to hear that, you can be sure -- my inner 9 year-old will have pleasant dreams tonight, of a Green sea monster with Red eyes.

With all the fan board talk about upcoming Universal Blu-rays and possible restorations of prime Hammer Horror movies, I've finally figured out what the lost "head in the acid bath" scene from the original Curse of Frankenstein is all about. It's a scene all of us scared brats saw back in 1957 (in my case, 1964) ... Peter Cushing quietly walks up to his handy acid bath, the one conveniently located underneath a roof skylight (it's an obscure OSHA rule). He unwraps an oilskin cloth from an object, which turns out to be a severed head that he carefully lowers into the bath. Cushing then folds the cloth neatly and walks away, never batting an eye. It's all in one shot. I had no idea that that was the scene that has gone missing, as it was always there before. It's important, too, because I'm not sure we otherwise know what is in that trough-like cistern.

I'd also like to put out a personal request to any European horror collectors that read Savant. A German TV or cable station has reportedly been showing a version of the 1941 Spencer Tracy Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, that is a full ten minutes longer than the surviving American cut, the only one known here. Does anybody have this on disc? If so, could you contact me at the DVD Savant email above? It would be very much appreciated.

The thoughtful Gary Teetzel offers one more interesting site for horror aficionados --- the blog Zombos' Closet offers large scans of movie Pressbooks, all pages inclusive. Mr. Zombos is free to quote me: "It's the perfect Horror blog to curl up with on a gloomy day."

Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson


Don't forget to write Savant at [email protected].

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