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April 29, 2013

Savant's new reviews today are:

City that Never Sleeps
Blu-ray

Gig Young is an unhappy Chicago cop at the center of a tangle of illicit romance and murderous crime, in an entertaining noir featuring William Talman, Marie Windsor, Edward Arnold and Mala Powers. And don't forget Chill Wills, as a mystery cop who might be an angel sent from heaven to redeem the hero, I kid you not. Great night-for-night location cinematography and a terrific gimmick in The Mechanical Man -- a mime doing a robot act in a storefront, who witnesses a murder. In Blu-ray from Olive Films.
4/30/13

Funny Girl
Blu-ray

Barbra Stresand conquers the screen in her first movie in this superior Broadway musical adaptation. Streisand's superstar personality and talent dominate everything in sight, yet the movie works -- at age 26 she seemingly has a lifetime's show biz smarts on her side. Directed with class by William Wyler and co-starring Omar Sharif, Walter Pigeon and Anne Francis. Blessed with a brand-new 4k restoration that really pops. In Blu-ray from Columbia Pictures/Sony.
4/30/13

and

Apartment for Peggy

George Seaton wrote and directed this superficially heartwarming postwar comedy-drama, about a young college couple (Jeanne Crain, William Holden) struggling on the GI Bill (look it up) and helping an old professor (Edmund Gwenn) find meaning in life. And it's got cute suicide jokes! Nicely acted, but the sentimental manipulations and dated values are actually rather oppressive -- the leading character is a pushy student bride who is less charming than obnoxious. An MOD disc from 20th Century Fox Cinema Archives.
4/30/13




Hello!

A fast go-round today, as there's not enough time to lay out a full column. I did find something interesting, however, one of several articles about a real super-weapon project begun in 1957 and abandoned in 1964, called SLAM. the Missile from Hell. It was, and I'm not kidding, an atomic powered rocket:

"SLAM was perhaps the most fearsome weapon ever conceived. The missile was designed to deliver as many as 26 nuclear bombs over the Soviet Union in a single mission. It would do this while flying at Mach 3 and less than 1,000 feet above ground level. SLAM's shock wave overpressure alone (162 dB) would devastate structures and people along its flight path. And, as if that were not enough, its nuclear-fueled ramjet would continuously spew radiation-contaminated exhaust all over the countryside."

It struck me immediately -- could Project Pluto's SLAM rocket have been the inspiration for the dreadful 1958 Sci-Fi thriller The Lost Missile, starring a young Robert Loggia? It's about an almost identical Supersonic Low-Altitude Missile that roasts a path across the earth as it flies. No explanation is given for the origin of the film's very terrestrial-looking rocket, although a half-baked narration implies that it may be from outer space. The movie is only an hour or so long and frankly looks as if half its scenes are missing. Is it possible that it ran into 'official difficulties' with the secret military project, and changes had to be made?

Doesn't it warm your heart to know that the Pentagon was looking out for us, with warm and fuzzy defense ideas like SLAM? And so practical, too. Forget drones, I think we need a SLAM ... if I were a schoolteacher, I'd have my students check out the brief article, and then make a mental list of all the ways this scheme was entirely insane. It reads like something designed to be deliberately leaked to the Russians, to scare them to death.

Hey, Thanks for reading! I'll be back on Saturday -- Glenn Erickson



April 27, 2013

Savant's new reviews today are:

The Dawn Patrol

Neil Hamilton sends Richard Barthelmess, Douglas Fairbanks Jr and a bunch of rookie flyboys up to get shot to bits by German aces in this original WW1 aviation classic. It's the original, relevant version that was remade seven years later with Errol Flynn. The second movie re-uses almost every bit of flying and non-dialogue material. Written by John Monk Saunders. From The Warner Archive Collection.
4/27/13


Vietnam:
The Ten Thousand Day War

Peter Arnett wrote this unflinching docu miniseries that tells the straight story of the Vietnam debacle, from the end of WW2 until the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in 1975. Terrific interview material with many of the major diplomatic players, American, French and Vietnamese as well; includes every iconic war image plus reels of previously un-viewed film material from the Communist North. A four-disc set from Time Life / Star Vista / VSC.
4/27/13

and

Ruthless
Blu-ray

Edgar G. Ulmer's high-budget tale of an All-American business shark plays like an anti-Capitalist Citizen Kane. Beautifully directed and filmed, with strong performances from Zachary Scott, Louis Hayward, Diana Lynn, Sydney Greenstreet, Lucille Bremer and Martha Vickers. The theme is money and power, as sought by a man that wants them so badly that he's willing to betray any friend and ruin any associate. In Blu-ray from Olive Films.
4/27/13




Hello!

We've still got the 3-D Expo 3 coming up in town in early September. I've been writing to Bob Furmanek lately, and have found out that he's added another page to his 3-D Film Archive site. It's about the History of the Archive, and the unusual path Bob took to becoming one of the foremost 3D history experts in the country. It includes something I didn't know about, a job stint Bob had with Jerry Lewis.

And over at the Greenbriar Picture Shows page, John McElwee has announced an upcoming book .... soon? It's called Showmen, Sell it Hot!: Movies as Merchandise in Golden Era Hollywood. John's article is from Tuesday, April 23, so to get to it you'll need to scroll down past a couple of great articles about shows like the old Hammer Curse of the Werewolf. It's fun reading John's announcement, as he's almost as self-conscious about pushing his book as I was about mine. John's book promises to be quite a read, as anyone who has perused the Greenbriar page soon finds out ... I spent a week reading the whole backlog of articles when I came upon it years ago, and half the people I've sent to it have told me they've done the exact same thing. Anyway, I certainly wish John the best with his book and will be posting about it again when it becomes available.

Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson



April 23, 2013

Savant's new reviews today are:

Murder is My Beat

Edgar G. Ulmer tries out a mid-'50s sleaze-noir story, with detective Paul Langton helping convicted murderess (Barbara Payton) escape, so they can find the real killer. The no-budget noir is set in a Central Californian city -- but all we see are familiar Los Angeles streets! Robert Shayne and Tracey Roberts co-star in an excellent example of Ulmer fringe filmmaking. An Allied Artists film from The Warner Archive Collection.
4/22/13


Naked Lunch
Blu-ray

David Cronenberg and author William S. Burroughs are a match made in creepy movie heaven. Peter Weller is the drug addicted writer who lives in a bizarre world of disgusting physical transformations. His typewriter is really an alien insect from another dimension, ordering him to kill his equally addicted wife (Judy Davis). Not easy to watch but definitely great Cronenberg. With Ian Holm, Julian Sands and Roy Scheider. In Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
4/22/13

and

The Red Pony
Blu-ray

John Steinbeck's touching story of childhood on a Salinas Valley farm becomes an unusual family story with terrific creative input: director Lewis Milestone, screenwriter Steinbeck, composer Aaron Copland; and actors Robert Mitchum, Myrna Loy, Shepperd Strudwick and Louis Calhern. Rather rough for a child's film, but as honest as they come. In Blu-ray from Olive Films.
4/22/13




Hello!

Today's dose of Edgar G. Ulmer will be followed soon by one of the director's big-budget classics, 1948's Ruthless. I just realized that I also have two of Jean Renoir's American movies on the way, This Land is Mine and Diary of a Chambermaid. They're special films that perhaps only a fan checking off a list of "auteur" titles would be keeping an eye out for.

I know that I rattle off reports of Hollywood screenings at places like the American Cinematheque as if they were no big deal ... readers in Dubuque or Topeka probably think I'm spoiled rotten, film accessibility-wise. Well, it's true. Hollywood and the L.A. County Art Museum are less than a mile away; a younger version of myself could bicycle to either venue (cough, cough). So it's only fair that I wax jealous about a film program of Utopian Science Fiction Films screening soon at the Munich Stadtmuseum. Yes, that's Munich, Germany, a place where the shadow of Savant has never fallen, so to speak. On the docket are most of the big titles post- 2001: A Space Odyssey. Listed for Saturday, July 14 is Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World, the 4.5-hour trilogy version that I was so excited to write about ten years ago. I almost feel like buying a plane ticket...

Thanks for reading -- Glenn Erickson



April 20, 2013

Savant's new reviews today are:

The Devil and Miss Jones
Blu-ray

Jean Arthur, Charles Coburn and Robert Cummings bring Norman Krasna's marvelous screwball comedy to life: a millionaire curmudgeon goes undercover in his own department store, to personally root out the agitators causing trouble among his employees. He instead finds true friendship and a new set of values! Great stuff, directed by Sam Wood and designed by William Cameron Menzies. In Blu-ray from Olive Films.
4/20/13

Django Unchained
Blu-ray + DVD
+ Digital + Ultraviolet

Quentin Tarantino pulls off miracle after non-PC miracle in this generic mashup of Spaghetti westerns and Blaxploitation epics. Incredibly gory entertainment doesn't shy away from the consequences of slavery, earning its right to be as vulgar as it pleases. A terrific script and great performances from Christoph Waltz, Jamie Foxx, Leonardo Di Caprio and Samuel L. Jackson -- as the most villainous Uncle Tom imaginable. In Blu-ray from Anchor Bay / The Weinstein Company.
4/20/13

Major Dundee
Blu-ray

Sam Peckinpah's mysteriously mangled epic western comes to HD in a two-disc edition that permits the experimental 2005 revision, with its controversial replacement music score, to eclipse the original from 1965. A beautiful-looking presentation with a frustrating downside -- the complete version has only the new score, and the original score is present only on a chopped-down version that nobody wants to see. In Blu-ray from Twilight Time.
4/20/13

and

Darren Gross interviews Helen Samuels
of Major Dundee

Guest interviewer Darren Gross proves that the entire legendary lost Prologue Massacre cut from Major Dundee was indeed filmed. We hear the whole story from the uncredited actress who played a role in it -- and would have been Sam Peckinpah's first female character to suffer a violent on-screen death. With a rare photograph that helped Darren locate Ms. Samuels, and that backs up her story. DVD Savant rewrites the book on Sam Peckinpah!
4/20/13




Hello!

A lot of writing and re-writing this week, what with the complicated Django Unchained on the docket. As for the new Twilight Time Blu-ray of Major Dundee, I wasn't sure that the long essay I wrote was appropriate at all for the format of a review. Having reviewed the movie twice already, I really wanted to get deeper into what I've learned about it. I also confess that I wanted to express more personal opinions and theories on a movie that some of the published Sam Peckinpah studies dismiss as unworthy of serious consideration. So consider the review a chapter in a Peckinpah book that DVD Savant never wrote.

More importantly, the Blu-ray release presents an opportunity to web-publish friend and colleague Darren Gross's unique interview with Helen Samuels, a teen actress who played a key role in the legendary (really) deleted Massacre Prologue to Major Dundee. Like an investigative reporter, Darren located Ms. Samuels and obtained a great interview from her. The significance of what she has to say goes beyond curiosity because more than a few Peckinpah biographers and historians believe that the Massacre Prologue was never filmed. Helen's account indicates that at least some of it was.

More Olive Films, Criterion and Kino discs have arrived ... the reviews will keep coming! Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson



April 15, 2013

Savant's new reviews today are:

Repo Man
Blu-ray

Alex Cox's punk-inflected L.A. fantasy sees Emilio Estevez join a gang of anarchic car repossessors, tangle with his old criminal friends and a new group of government spooks seeking a certain car with an atomic secret in the trunk. Harry Dean Stanton shines as the sayer of the Repo Code, Cox's anti- Reagan era screenplay is packed with memorable dialogue, and the soundtrack is one of the best of the middle 1980s. In Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
4/16/13

Hell's Half Acre
Blu-ray

A strange noir-meets-Waikiki hybrid from Republic Pictures, directed by John H. Auer. War widow Evelyn Keyes tangles with gangland murders in Honolulu while trying to find out if notorious restauranteur/songwriter Wendell Corey is her long-lost husband. With an engaging cast that includes Elsa Lanchester, sultry Marie Windsor and pert Nancy Gates. It was all filmed on location on a nostalgic post-war Oahu that's long since been redeveloped. In Blu-ray from Olive Films.
4/16/13

and

Monsieur Verdoux
Blu-ray

Chaplin's cold-as-ice black comedy is beautifully directed and acted -- with Martha Raye a wonderful standout -- but isn't very funny. Changing his image and front-loading his political philosophy, Chaplin lets America have his anti-capitalist, anti-clerical opinions point blank. The movie is about a cultured businessman who sees nothing wrong with murdering women for their money, when the rest of the civilized world encourages wholesale slaughter in the name of profit. As the disc extras document, the abrasive message added fuel to the political firestorm demanding that the 'Communist pervert' Chaplin be deported. In Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
4/16/13




Hello!

Some quick notes tonight! I ordered a couple of DVD-to-Blu-ray upgrades through Warner Home Video's Interesting Trade-in Program, and just ten days later am the happy recipient of Blu-rays of Deliverance and Woodstock -- I know, I know, I'm showing my age. But I'm proud of myself, as I followed the easy instructions and managed not to screw it up or lose my money. In other words, it's yet another good Warners promotion that a) works, and b) is not a gyp.

Fellow sci-fi freak Kevin Pyrtle has located (online, if you want to see it) a previously un-see-able Danish Science Fiction film from 1916, Verdens Undergang (The End of the World). Kevin's article The End of the World in Six Stirring Parts and the link to the show are here. Abel Gance's 1930 La fin du monde follows practically the exact same storyline blueprint, 16 years later. The experts keep confusing the number of Danish science fiction films, but so far I know three: this picture, 1917's Himmelskibbet (The Sky Ship) and half a century later, Reptilicus. One can't count Journey to the Seventh Planet because there was no Danish version -- good old Kip Doto proved that the Danish version of Reptilicus is a separately-directed item distinct from A.I.P.'s release. Aren't you glad I'm around to point these things out?

On the local front, Twilight Time is dropping hints that a Blu-ray of the 'Scope and color Violent Saturday may be on the way. If you recall, Fox only had a flat letterboxed version back in 2011 when TT's DVD came out. Gee, if they're doubling back on the trail, maybe they might consider a Blu-ray of The Kremlin Letter. It's a Savant favorite and not the most popular title in history, so I'm not holding my breath.

The week started out good -- Anchor Bay's Django Unchained should be written up by Saturday, and Star Vista/Time Life's DVD compilation Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War is ready to go. And there are a lot more Olive Films and Criterion discs that really need to be reviewed too, so I'll be a busy boy. Thanks for reading -- Glenn Erickson



April 12, 2013

Savant's new reviews today are:

Dracula
(Horror of Dracula)

Region B Blu-ray + DVD

This long-awaited UK disc not only reflects a fancy 2007 BFI restoration of Terence Fisher's Peter Cushing/Christopher Lee masterpiece, it incorporates legendary censored shots recovered from a surviving print in a Japanese film archive. See Count Dracula's full disintegration scene! As it's a Region B disc only all-region equipped fans can play it, so we hope a domestic disc (c'mon, Warners) is on the way. With a fat selection of great extras, and DVD copies (PAL) of both cuts. And there's already a controversy about a missing shot! In Blu-ray from Lionsgate UK / Hammer.
4/13/13

Tristana
Blu-ray

Luis Buñuel's faithful adaptation of the famous Galdós novel presents Catherine Deneuve as an innocent corrupted by her Uncle/guardian (Fernando Rey). She runs away with an artist-lover (Franco Nero) but blood ties are difficult to ignore in Spain of the 1920s. All the Buñuel themes are present, yet it doesn't have the playful tone of one of his comedies ... and is instead an incisive critique of an entire culture and bourgeois-paternal mindset. A brilliant film, finally viewable in a gorgeous new transfer. In Blu-ray from The Cohen Film Collection.
4/13/13

and

Creepy Creature Double Feature
Volumes 1 & 2

These two (sold separately) double bills return us to the late-night insomniac TV experience, in all its glory. Volume One has Roger Corman's ingenious no-budget producing debut, Monster from the Ocean Floor; and Bert I. Gordon and Tom Gries' woefully threadbare adventure picture, Serpent Island. Volume Two presents a pair of minimalist, borderline embarrassing monster romps that nevertheless became ubiquitous on the tube. The Crawling Hand features the severed, murderous arm of an unlucky astronaut, and The Slime People is an ambitious epic about a horde of gross-out slug-men from "the bowels of the Earth" that trap all Los Angeles under a mysterious dome. Don't expect to see all that depicted on screen! Disc 1 comes with Tom Weaver's entertaining audio interview with Roger Corman, and on Disc 2 Weaver learns about triple-Z production realities from Susan Hart. Two separate budget-priced releases from VCI.
4/13/13




Hello!

Well, I got to see, study and review the new UK Dracula (Horror of Dracula) Blu-ray, which I accomplished by borrowing a copy. It's so good, I'm going to order a copy unless I hear that a domestic Warner disc is on the way. Then again, the extras are so good maybe I'll just go for it. I need to first look up how much £17.00 is in good old shrinking Yankee dollars. My review was finished just as Tim Lucas reported on an unexpected discovery in the disc's transfer of the surviving reels of the Japanese version, and I've managed to work in a response.

A fun link: consultant Bob Furmanek has written a very informative article about Aspect Ratios and the changeover from Flat Academy 1:37 to widescreen 1:85, with various ratio stops in between. I wish these guidelines were law at the movie studios and disc companies, where disputes about ARs have become an excuse to make extra money by packing disc sets with unnecessary 'alternate' versions. The New Era in Screen Dimensions is now up at the 3D Film Archive.

And finally, a question that worries me, as it involves a memory that I'm not absolutely certain is real. In watching the new Dracula BD, I noticed once again an incident similar to one that occurs in, of all things, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Jonathan Harker is waiting alone in Dracula's hall when he knocks some dishes from the banquet table, and must pick them up off the floor. That's when the Vampire Bride appears, seemingly out of nowhere. The spaceman at the end of 2001 does the same thing with a glass of wine, on the floor of his fancy period room/alien prison. When he bends to pick up the mess, he looks up and beholds the next stage of his own evolution.

Here's where the memory question comes in. "I remember" reading somewhere that this particular scenario had an allusive (not 'elusive') connection with Friedrich Nietzsche and Thus Spoke Zarathustra. My usual exhaustive research (twenty keystrokes on the Internet) turned up nothing. Did I dream this? Is it typical Savant crazy talk, or is the answer already common knowledge among readers that paid better attention in their college classes?

Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson



April 08, 2013

Savant's new reviews today are:

Little Fugitive
Blu-ray

Wonderful, wonderful no-budget filmmaking does what million-dollar movies usually do not: it emotionally transports the audience to a specific time and place, in this case the relatively innocent 1950s at Coney Island. That's where little Joey (Richie Andrusco, the best child actor ever) runs away to when he thinks he's shot his big brother Lennie. Morris Engel's camera captures the Boardwalk experience from a 6 year-old's POV; Joey's little world of pony rides and cotton candy becomes our world. Liberated from most feature conventions, this treasure is acknowledged as a major influence on the French New Wave... no kidding. In Blu-ray from Kino Classics.
4/09/13

Boris Karloff Triple Feature

Our beloved Boris gets a chance at non-monster dramatic roles in three Warners pix from the late 1930s. West of Shanghai is an unrecognized showcase of great acting; Karloff plays a Chinese warlord. The Invisible Menace is about a murder, not an invisible man. Devil's Island is a solid adventure about a doctor unjustly sent to the French penal colony, and rebelling against the horrible conditions he finds there. Great stuff for Karloff fans that don't know how good he could be, trading dialogue in non-fantastic scenes. From The Warner Archive Collection.
4/09/13

Die! Die! My Darling!

When her fianceé dies, Stephanie Powers goes to pay her respects to his mother. Little does she know that mother is a mad-as-a-hatter Talulah Bankhead, a Fanatic who expects Powers to cloister herself forever in worship of the Beloved Son! Terrific psychodrama chills and thrills featuring a credible script, great direction from Silvio Narizzano and a trio of super supporting performances by Yootha Joyce, Peter Vaughan and newcomer Donald Sutherland. From Sony Pictures Choice Collection.
4/09/13

and

The Atomic Kid
Blu-ray

Mickey Rooney gets accidentally nuked in an atomic blast, a real knee-slapper comedy event that may be only funny moment in this always amusing, never quite laugh-worthy screwball comedy. Goonish Robert Strauss is there to profit from the bizarre predicament, which leaves his buddy not vaporized but merely endowed with a few odd super-powers, like glowing in the dark and making slot machines pay off with jackpots. Commie spies get involved, and Mickey's hot date is spoiled when he discovers that too much amorous excitement might make him explode! More of a sociological artifact than a functioning farce, but it looks great, in Blu-ray from Olive Films.
4/09/13




Hello!

The Noir City Hollywood, 15th Annual Festival Of Film Noir opening night last Friday was great fun, with the audience pretty much spellbound by the gripping, grim Try and Get Me! and knocked out by the great cast and equally subversive theme of Hell Drivers. Just try and find another movie with a lineup of stars-to-be this interesting: Stanley Baker, Patrick McGoohan, Sean Connery, Herbert Lom, Gordon Jackson, Peggy Cummins, Jill Ireland, Sidney James and David McCallum! When McCallum came on, all the NCIS fans in the audience applauded -- he looked about twenty years old, and had crooked teeth! Hell Drivers is about crooked employers exploiting truck drivers, forcing them to break the law and risk their lives just to keep their jobs -- it's practically a protest pamphlet against corrupt capitalism! Cy Endfield had to partly disguise his name, but the politics that got him blacklisted weren't changed by the trip across the Atlantic.

And hey, the midnight trip back from Hollywood Blvd. was almost as exciting, with us having to make detours around police 'incidents' and mobs of stylish night-outers queueing up for all these clubs that sprang up on the side streets in the past ten years. Back in the '70s I'd just say, 'lotta freaks out tonight', but all these hipsters, gangsters and pretenders clearly have money to blow. Didn't have it then and don't have it now -- but the fun doesn't look as enticing as it once did.

Savant is overseeing a $$ pricey bit of work tomorrow -- they're replacing the forced heating and air in my house. With the high winds tonight, I'll be lucky if my twenty-year-old roof isn't leaking like a sieve in the next rain. It's lucky that DVD Savant is such a high paying gig hahahahahahahah (choke!). Actually, I'm posting this Tuesday column a bit early, in case my internet goes out in this windstorm.

The UK Blu-ray disc of Dracula/Horror of Dracula came in today, so I'll probably be reviewing it pretty quick. After mentioning my desire to do so I've gotten more letters asking where the review is, some of them rather impatient. Just remember that my reactions are going to be as subjective as usual -- I've seen it maybe six times theatrically in 35mm Technicolor, and I'll just tell it like I see it. And don't worry, I have no special commitment to the old Warner DVD, or the way it looks. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson



April 06, 2013

Savant's new reviews today are:

The Soul of a Monster

What does a horror film fan do when a show turns up out of nowhere, that seemingly hasn't been reviewed in print anywhere? George Macready is a (we're pretty sure) satanic zombie in this odd Val Lewton-wannabe from Columbia. The legendary Rose Hobart is the mystery woman who plucks him from death's door, but leaves him with no pulse and apparently no blood in his veins! The rest of the show is well-directed skulking about, atmospheric touches from cameraman Burnett Guffey and a spoonful of pro-church sermonizing. Pretty unique! From Sony Pictures Choice Collection.
4/06/13

The Song of Bernadette
Blu-ray

Easily the best-made film with a religious miracle as its theme -- and there aren't many that hold up well. Jennifer Jones is stunning as the French maiden who witnesses the appearance of a 'Beautiful Lady' in a wasteland grotto; the highly intelligent screenplay critiques all angles around the event without demanding a faith-based response... almost. Fine acting input from Charles Bickford, Vincent Price, Anne Revere and others; the picture hasn't a single 'ponderous' moment. With several good extras, including Alfred Newman's great music auditable on an Isolated Music Score. In Blu-ray from Twilight Time.
4/06/13

and

Badlands
Blu-ray

Terrence Malick's first feature proved that a commercial filmmaker could also make genuine cinema art -- it's a sensational 'true' crime story in an utterly original style. Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek play Kit and Holly, disaffected young people who take off on a whirlwind murder spree as pointless as it is savage. The feature is accompanied by great interviews and a featurette, with the full participation of the stars, producer and art director. In Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
4/06/13




Hello!

A respectful bow to the memory of Roger Ebert... whose courage and resilience will continue to be a source of admiration and inspiration.

Gary Teetzel forwards a link to a ten-minute collection of terrific behind-the-scenes clips from the making of Toho's first Ghidorah film. We get a good look at some amusing horseplay from the man in the Big G suit, miniature makers at work (looks familiar to me!) and impressive publicity appearances. Nobody step on his tail, now!

Credit where credit is due department: Writer Matthew Rovner tipped Savant off a couple of months ago to the WAC's release of Arch Oboler's Bewitched. Matthew has been studying the writer-director-producer Oboler for some time now, and has posted interesting articles on the radio veteran's film work. Arch Oboler's 'Bewitched' and its Alter Egos is Matthew's own review/study of the film. Night of the Auk is a critique of an Oboler TV show from 1960, a science fiction tale starring James MacArthur and William Shatner. When the moon mission astronaut Shatner claims Earth's satellite for the United States, he touches off a nuclear war! Online as well is Rovner's original 2009 study of Oboler's career: What Ever Happened to Arch Oboler?

Am working my way through a tall stack of desirable Warner Archive and Olive Films discs. Criterion just sent four of its latest, including Blu-rays of Repo Man and Gate of Hell. Thanks for reading! -- Glenn Erickson



April 01, 2013

Savant's new reviews today are:

China Gate
Blu-ray

Sam Fuller's mercenaries, with Angie Dickinson as 'Lucky Legs', help the French field a commando raid on a Commie ammo dump on the Viet/Chinese border, where tons of arms and ammo are pouring in from Moscow to bolster Ho Chi Minh's evil political conspiracy. At least, that's the theme of this gung ho anti-red action movie. Will Gene Barry accept the Asian-featured child he's fathered with Lucky Legs? Will the jungle fighter Goldie (Nat 'King' Cole) reconcile his desire to kill all the Commies in the world, with his tender rendition of VIctor Young's title tune? Now for the first time in its original CinemaScope proportions, in Blu-ray from Olive Films.
4/02/13

Scene of the Crime

MGM's stars Van Johnson, Arlene Dahl and Gloria DeHaven don't seem quite right for a full-on noir picture about police corruption and the hunt for mob murderers, but the movie was reportedly a big hit. Van Johnson snaps out the hardboiled banter as a tough cop, but Gloria DeHaven makes a highly unlikely strip club headliner and hit man's gun moll. With a great eccentric performance by Norman Lloyd, Yuk Yuk! From The Warner Archive Collection.
4/02/13

and

The Vampire Lovers
Blu-ray

Hammer flipped a coin (go Skin? or No Skin?) and inaugurated a trio of nude vampire sagas with this entry starring Peter Cushing and featuring sexy girly-show scenes with Ingrid Pitt, Madeleine Smith, Pippa Steele and Kate O'Mara baring more than the usual double-deep cleavage. The idea of a serious adaptation of Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla gets lost in all the posing and soft-core lesbian fumbling. But don't worry, a stern posse of sword-wielding puritans knows how to put those vamps in their proper place. With very good extras. In warm, lush color, those female ghouls look awfully healthy. In Blu-ray from Scream Factory.
4/02/13




Hello!

Savant gets to go out to the movies Friday night, and a special show it is -- this year's Noir City Hollywood, 15th Annual Festival Of Film Noir begins on Friday, April 5 at the Hollywood Egyptian Theater with a double bill of two hot titles by everyone's favorite blacklist target, Cy Endfield. He's the director or writer behind The Underworld Story, Zulu, Sands of the Kalahari and Zulu Dawn, and the Cinematheque is showing a double bill of his most interesting work not available on video. I've written about Try and Get Me! but have never seen it on a big screen or with an audience because prints simply didn't exist; the Film Noir Foundation has completed a film restoration. I haven't seen the second picture on the bill but have heard a great deal about it. Hell Drivers is said to be a tough-edged drama about truckers in a corrupt situation in England ... it sounds as if Endfield brought his grudge against the profit motive with him when he relocated to his new cinematic home. I believe Hell Drivers may be the picture that put Endfield and Stanley Baker together as a producing team. The full schedule for Noir City 15 is now viewable ... it looks like they're even including a 3-D double bill in the mix.

Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson


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

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