Lots of interesting decorations in the neighborhood!

Savant's new reviews today are:

The Chase
Twilight Time
Blu-ray
 (1966) Nothing on a screen was as politically disturbing as this indictment of Texas in post-assassination 1965. Horton Foote, Lillian Hellman and Arthur Penn's All-Star vision of an Ugly America found few friends when new; its overstated scenes of social injustice and violence now seem tame compared today's daily events. Marlon Brando leads a terrific cast -- Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Angie Dickinson, Robert Duvall! -- to endure the worst Saturday night ever in one cursed Texas township. With an excellent commentary that raises interesting issues - and helps explain what the filmmakers had in mind. On Blu-ray from Twilight Time.
10/29/16

I Wake Up Screaming
KL Studio Classics
Blu-ray
 Yes, it is a perfect title for a horror picture, but it belongs to an early film noir -- or as we discover, a murder thriller that previews the classic '40s noir visual look. It's all inky corners and characters seemingly caught in the patterns of blinds and metal screens. Victor Mature is the man on the spot for a killing, Betty Grable a woman in danger, Carole Landis a victim we meet only in flashback and Laird Cregar is the creepiest police detective in the history of the force. And don't forget Elisha Cook Jr., as the 'night man.' On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
10/29/16

and

Little Fauss and Big Halsy
Olive Films
Blu-ray
 Redford's back and Pollard's got him! Or is it Lauren Hutton? Sidney J. Furie fully earns his shaky reputation with this motorcycle buddy picture. Most of the energy seems to have gone into the deal, not the movie -- the show's just too hip to bother. Redford is a cool conman cad, Michael J. Pollard the nice guy he exploits, and Hutton a glamorous vagabond hippie. Great cinematography, but it's for fans that really want to look at a shirtless Sundance Kid. I know you're out there. On Blu-ray from Olive Films.
10/29/16

---

Hello!

Halloween rolls around again! I've been aiding and abetting friends putting up a Dia de los Muertos altar over at the annual Hollywood Forever cemetery. The elaborate ritual day ties up the streets and clogs up the parking - we're only a few blocks away so I'm the relay driver for those parking on our street. It's a big deal, and the altars people erect can be very elaborate. So far no rain and even some cloud cover, which we're appreciating.

Screening season with the Online Film Critics Society has begun, so I'll hopefully be catching up on the year's new movies and maybe going to some screenings. There's always something exceptional; last year it was Spotlight. I've been with the OFCS since 2001, and it's been a great experience professional and personal.

And trusted associates who have seen Region B Blu-rays of Ray Harryhausen's One Million Years, B.C. report an eye-openingly sharp and colorful transfer. I don't have permission so I won't name names, but one effects-expert friend wrote that (we) "get to see a few of the magician's tricks more clearly (the cut-tin palm leaves on the hut the allosaur demolishes, f'rinstance)." The image was snapped from his TV monitor. Kino confirmed back in early September that both versions will be on their forthcoming disc, the U.S. release cut and the longer U.K. version. More dinos!

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson

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Savant's new reviews today are:

The Executioner
The Criterion Collection
Blu-ray
 Now for something truly remarkable from the neglected Spanish cinema. Luis García Berlanga's wicked satire is a humanistic black comedy, free of cynicism. The borderline Kafkaesque situation of an everyman forced into a profession that horrifies him is funny and warm hearted - but with a ruthless logic that points to universal issues beyond Franco Fascism. Nino Manfredi stars, the camerawork is by Tonino Della Colli. This opens up a new realm of socially conscious European filmmaking. Are there more mini-masterpieces like this out there? -- the critics call this one the best Spanish film ever. On Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
10/25/16

The Return of Dracula
KL Studio Classics
Blu-ray
  Expatriate Francis Lederer is a cultured menace in UA's revisit of the Dracula myth, made just before Hammer Films staked its claim on the horror genre. Avid Hitchcock fans may find the storyline very familiar, when European cousin Bellac strikes up a 'special' relationship with his American cousin Rachel. Transylvania meets Americana in a horror that goes its own direction. Kino's widescreen scan retains the infamous color shot, a detail we're still talking about. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
10/25/16

Eye of the Needle
Twilight Time
Blu-ray
 The chase is on: a mix of icy ruthlessness and warm romanticism enliven Ken Follett's novel of pre-invasion espionage intrigue. Kate Nelligan heats up the screen with Donald Sutherland, the 'seventies most unlikely sex star. Plus a lush and wondrous music score by Miklos Rozsa. Richard Marquand's slick direction takes us on a race to Scotland, and on to a submarine rendezvous off a tiny, storm-swept coastal island. With Stephen McKenna and Ian Bannen. On Blu-ray from Twilight Time.
10/25/16

and

The Hills Have Eyes
Arrow Video U.S.
Blu-ray
 Arrow Video digs its sharp talons into Wes Craven's dirt 'n' Bowie Knife slaughter-fest horror picture, yet another strange travel advisory not to go anywhere, 'cause strangers might be cannibals. But hey, the movie works, and like much of Craven's filmography, it sticks its neck way out into dangerous territory. Starring Michael Berryman and Dee Wallace; Arrow's fat special edition contains a 4K scan, multiple extras, a poster and collector cards. On Blu-ray from Arrow Video U.S..
10/25/16

---

Hello!

Halloween is heating up around Savant Central, with friends and correspondents writing in to ask about horror films, or to recommend the best quality disc available for this or that arcane title. That's what I'm here for, if'n you're in the need; just know that I barely follow new horror pictures and review few of them. But I love most everything that can be called 'classic.' That makes putting together a 'recommended' list impractical, so if you want Savant suggestions just Google DVD Savant Horror... the selection that comes up when I do, looks pretty good.

Hey, I'm happy at not getting roasted for my 'detailed' review of anatomical issues in Olive's disc of Boy on a Dolphin. I admit that my approach wasn't on a lofty critical plane, but movies are more than genre theory and stylistic influences, if I'm making myself clear. At least I'm not trying to crank up readership by igniting phony aspect ratio scandals, so there.

---

Finally, although surely most readers already know the sad news, Tim Lucas has announced the cessation of publication of the print version of his mighty magazine Video Watchdog. Tim's official announcement goes into more detail as to what trends and publishing realities have forced his decision. I can remember James Ursini bringing over the 3rd or 4th issue in 1991, and me practically devouring it... imagine, a magazine devoted to bizarre movies and how they got that way. VW investigated strange versions, re-cuts, and other mysteries that kept genre fans like myself up at night. Every issue in the 1990s had at least one marvelous revelation, and Tim's insights and great sense of humor made the reviews a must -- it was a way to satisfy my curiosity about fringe pictures that I didn't necessarily want to see.

The periodical lived a charmed life for almost three decades; it still occupies a place of honor on Savant bookshelves. I had little interest in the old clamshell VHS tapes it catalogued in such detail, but it became a veritable Bible of what was hot and desirable down at the laserdisc emporiums. When DVD came in it served as the Master Star Map to all the wonderful 'new' horror and fantasy films suddenly available from Europe. My favorite Lucas / VW content was his deconstructions of classic pictures, where he advanced theories about how they may have been radically changed by rearranging scenes -- The Tingler, Murders in the Rue Morgue. And it was great to see Euro-horror research advance beyond the interviews in old issues of Midi-Minuit Fantastique.

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson

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Savant's new reviews today are:

McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Ther Criterion Collection
Blu-ray
 Robert Altman, Warren Beatty and Julie Christie join together for one of the great westerns, a poetic account of the founding of a town and the way big business preys on foolish little guys. Raw and cluttered, the show gives the genre a new look via Vilmos Zsigmond's cinematography, and the dreamy mix of snowflakes, opium and the music of Leonard Cohen seals the deal. With a herd of supporting actors, led by Shelley Duvall and Keith Carradine. And Criterion's extras are great too, a lot of good memories. On Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
10/22/16

Boy on a Dolphin
KL Studio Classics
Blu-ray
 Killer Greek scenery in CinemaScope graces Jean Negulesco's relaxed thriller about art theft in the Aegean. But viewers are more likely to remember Sophia Loren's sexy wet diving costume that insured that her first appearance in an American film didn't go unnoticed. She's pursued by the handsome American art expert Alan Ladd, and hoodwinked by the effete international art pirate Clifton Webb. It's a quality first look, or glom, at Loren's exciting Hollywood Debut. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
10/22/16

and

Strategic Air Command
Olive Films
Blu-ray
 The biggest, most lavish '50s collaboration between Hollywood and the Pentagon was this Anthony Mann-James Stewart collaboration, a morale & recruiting cheer for America's intercontinental bombing air force, the service that kept the peace by holding up our side of the balance of fear. James Stewart is a big league ball player yanked back into the service, who falls in love with something he finds sexier than his chirpy '50s wife -- a new B-47 jet bomber. Paramount filmed the show in VistaVision, and the aerial cinematography looks amazingly good on this quality scan and encoding. With Harry Morgan and Frank Lovejoy... did Frank Lovejoy's name suggest a title character for Stanley Kubrick? Quite a bit of Dr. Strangelove comes from this Cold War epic. On Blu-ray from Olive Films.
10/22/16

---

Hello!

An interesting note came in today from correspondent / film professor Clay Steinman, regarding my review of Nicholas Ray's On Dangerous Ground. A comment at the Trailers from Hell page informed me that it had been determined that director Ray had given testimony to HUAC and had indeed named names, in secret session.

Clay did some digging and came up with this counter-reply:

"Hello Glenn -- As far as I have been able to discover, there is no reliable evidence that Nicholas Ray ever named names in secret or otherwise before HUAC. I say this despite the accusation in Bernard Eisenschitz's Nicholas Ray: An American Journey (1993), which Patrick McGilligan repeated in Nicholas Ray: The Glorious Failure of an American Director (2011), and Richard Brody repeated again in an online New Yorker piece of Aug. 15, 2014. About forty years ago Bill Rothman brought Ray to Cinema Studies at NYU to show and talk about Wind Across the Everglades (1958). Ray had been fired from the picture before filming was completed and was not involved in the final editing. I remember Ray ranting against the film's writer, Budd Schulberg, not only for supporting Ray's ouster and mucking up the picture, but also for his friendly May 23, 1951 HUAC testimony, in which he named names. (Victor Navasky analyzes Schulberg's testimony in detail in his essential Naming Names [1980]; also see Anthony Giardina's New York Times article, Karl Malden and Budd Schulberg: Naming Names.)

So I was surprised to read decades later that Ray had himself informed. Unlike The New Yorker magazine, I learned in following up Brody's piece, the associated online site has no fact-checking system, or at least didn't two years ago. Was Brody wrong? Or was Brody right and Ray a hypocrite?

Brody wrote to me that the only primary evidence was Eisenschitz's account of his interview with Ray's ex-wife, Jean Evans, and its repetition in McGilligan. Evans and Ray divorced in 1942. According to Evans, Ray told her he had named her secretly and incorrectly to HUAC. Indeed, the statement by Evans to Eisenschitz seems the only indication anywhere that Ray gave secret testimony.

I checked the National Archives, which now holds the HUAC papers. I was told there is no HUAC record of any secret testimony by Ray, no record of any meeting by Ray with a HUAC investigator, and no record of consideration of Ray's case in memos, materials now available for others (e.g., Michael Blankfort's secret testimony, a copy of which I was able to order). According to McGilligan, Ray's FBI file has no information from sometime in 1948 until 1963.

It may be that Ray named one or more names, but while Evans's report may be accurate, Ray and Evans seem to have had a difficult time, and there could be other explanations for what he told her--explanations regarding Evans, Ray, their relationship, etc. I have no idea. Who knows in what context or spirit Ray told Evans he had betrayed her? Without more evidence, I would not write about Ray's informing as if it were fact." -- Clay Steinman, Media and Cultural Studies, Malcalester College

So that amounts to some serious film studies history today... Nicholas Ray led a fairly mysterious life, but from what I feel about what I've read and seen of him, it seemed odd that he could testify in any way and keep it a secret. I hope Mr. Steinman's research turns out to be the last word on one of our favorite directors.

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson

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Savant's new reviews today are:

The Laughing Policeman
KL Studio Classics
Blu-ray
 In the early '70s Walter Matthau excelled in three powerful cops 'n' robbers movies; the second sees him as a tough, laconic San Francisco detective charged with an impossible task -- running down a machine gun mass murderer, with no clues and no living witnesses. It's also one of the best films to enjoy the great Bruce Dern, and he doesn't play a kook or maniac. Terrific San Francisco locations and supporting actors, one of whom appears in an interview extra. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
10/18/16

Five Days One Summer
The Warner Archive Collection
DVD
 The great Fred Zinnemann's last feature is a very personal story, a fairly uncomplicated drama with a mountain climbing backdrop. Sean Connery plays older than his age as a Scotsman on an Alpine vacation, toying with social disaster. With excellent, non- grandstanding performances from Betsy Brantley and Lambert Wilson. It's a period picture set in the early 1930s, and is considered the best, most realistic drama about 'vacation' mountain climbing from that time. On DVD from The Warner Archive Collection.
10/18/16

and

Dekalog
The Criterion Collection
Blu-ray
 Kieslowski's remarkable Polish miniseries -- a brilliant conceptual rumination on the Ten Commandments, numeral by numeral -- gets the Criterion treatment, and the improvement is startling: based on the earlier DVD sets, I got the mistaken notion that the shows were filmed in 16mm. Also stunning is the disc's long list of key-source extras. The set also contains the two extra movies, the long theatrical versions of A Short Film about Killing and A Short Film about Love. On Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
10/18/16

---

Hello!

I'm back from Lake Havasu City and Phoenix, where I made some long-overdue family visits. On Saturday night we were enjoying our dinner when, only a block away, a big fire erupted. (above) Nobody was hurt, the Phoenix fire department got a good workout, and we had a front-row seat. Coming back from Phoenix is a seven-hour, 400-mile straight westward shot. Once you've seen your first ninety miles of California desert, you've seen enough.

Being passed around on Facebook is a YouTube link to a perfect transfer of an original Son of Frankenstein trailer from 1939, not the 'Realart' paste-up job that we're accustomed to seeing. It's an interesting cut - the 'new' Universal is promoting it as a class-A thriller, not a down-market monster show. Even the typeface for the title treatment is unexpected.

Next up is a steer from correspondent Ian Whittle, who tells me that he "just picked up the Halloween themed issue of The Simpsons Comic for this month and it's got a very clever parody of Metropolis in there. Worth checking out! I assume we in the UK get the same issue as the US does...?" Sounds good to me. I have to walk past a newsstand this afternoon, and I think I'll try and find it. After all, it is Metropolis.

And finally, a BIG batch of discs came in... so I'm digging into them right away. The first good news off the bat is from Olive Films. Their Strategic Air Command is a thing of beauty, a glorious transfer of the VistaVision original. I can't wait to dig into its 'interesting' content... I was an Air Force brat, remember.

I also took a look at Olive's Blu of The Return of Dracula with Francis Lederer. It's a stunner, and the MGM-sourced transfer includes the notorious color shot - just don't blink or you might miss it. Properly matted, the movie plays much better than I remember it. And hey, I can claim that it's a feminist film -- it's written by the accomplished secretary-turned screenwriter Pat Fielding. Reviews on those coming soon.

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson

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Hello !

I've been pulled out of town for a couple of days, and with only two reviews written and a lot of correspondence to catch up on, I'm pulling down the shades at DVD Savant over the weekend. This I don't like to do -- I remember how much I depended on places like the old DVD Resource Page and how disappointed I was when the editor took time off.

But rather than just say See Ya Tuesday, let me say that I've been working on my end-of-year list, which at the moment just seems impossible... mainly because there has been so much quality disc action out there this year, every week has had three 'favorites' come through. There are enough deserving masterpieces, discoveries and applaud-able restorations to do the list five times over -- and I already extend (pad?) my list to twenty titles. Any suggestions? I already make my decisions based on criteria so subjective that I have to call it a 'favorites' list -- how else can Crack in the World make my 'best' list, and Citizen Kane not?

Doing multiple lists is just too 'list crazy' -- I never contribute to best-of lists, normally. I'm leaning toward a buyer's guide to the arcane, or perhaps a 30-title list acknowledging titles that impressed me, without a #1. I can see my vendors and fellow critics rolling their eyes at some of my choices, which is perfectly okay. What is wanted is a most desirable is a list-article that Savant readers would enjoy, or use as a gift-buying guide. I rest my case... if you see an ordinary list, just like usual, it's because the well of brilliant ideas ran dry...

Cheers and see you next week, and about 900 road miles later...

Glenn

---

Tuesday October 11, 2016

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Savant's new reviews today are:

Violent Cop
Film Movement
Blu-ray
 A Japanese crime picture credited with jump-starting a new generation of odd thrillers. The legendary 'Beat Takeshi' goes rogue cop in his first self-directed feature, as Takeshi Kitano. It's excellent, a brutal tale with a fascinating lead character and a directorial style that compels one to watch -- it's never easy to guess what will happen next. Takeshi's brutal cop matches tactics one on one with a dope-dealing mob, and thing go way out of control. With a new documentary by Marc Walkow. On Blu-ray from Film Movement.
10/11/16

Ghostbusters
Sony / Columbia
Blu-ray
 It's a spooktacular reboot that has nothing we haven't seen before -- but the jokes are good and the comediennes form a welcome ensemble. You'd think that this one would have been committee'd and PC'ed to within an inch of its proton packs, but the personalities make it entertaining: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Chris Hemsworth and a tall stack of cameos. Wall to wall spooky VFX, too. Out in several formats -- I got the non- 3-D Blu-ray and it's fine. On Blu-ray from Sony / Columbia.
10/11/16

and

The Legend of Tarzan
Warner Home Video
3-D Blu-ray + DVD

 Lord Greystoke is back in Africa, righting wrongs, freeing the enslaved, smiting the Belgians and rescuing his blonde damsel in distress. Alexander Skarsgård is the jungle lord with the washboard stomach, Christoph Waltz is the dastardly villain, Samuel L. Jackson the amusingly anachronistic empowered black diplomat-adventurer, Margot Robbie the PC-sanitized empowered Victorian woman, and Djimon Hounsou a very impressive tribal chieftain. It's got more 3-D scenery, irate gorillas and special effects than we can shake a stick at... but do we really have a Tarzan? On 3-D Blu-ray + DVD from Warner Home Video.
10/11/16

---

Hello!

Last week's standard press release from Kino Lorber knocked me out - so many vintage favorites that I'm going to have to work overtime to cover them. I just received the quirky Walter Matthau cop saga The Laughing Detective to review, and in November we'll be getting Blu-rays of Preston Sturges' The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend, Victor Mature in I Wake Up Screaming, Peter Sellers in The Battle of the Sexes, Fritz Lang's Western Union (which may be the last Lang picture I haven't seen), Robert Siodmak's superb Cry of the City, Otto Preminger's Daisy Kenyon, Elia Kazan's Boomerang!, Henry Hathaway's The House on 92nd Street, John Brahm's The Lodger and The Undying Monster and Jim Brown, Raquel Welch and Burt Reynolds in 100 Rifles. They're also offering what is said to be Peter Cushing's last film, Biggles Adventures in Time.

I also have my nose to the mail slot for new discs from Twilight Time (Runaway Train, The Chase, Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte) and Criterion (McCabe & Mrs. Miller), along with October's Kino offerings (The Return of Dracula, Strategic Air Command). And don't forget Cinelicious' promised disc of Leslie Stevens' Private Property, and a promised Carrie from Shout! Factory... which may be a bit overdue.

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson

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Savant's new reviews today are:

It Came from Outer Space
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
3-D Blu-ray
 Are you 3-D capable? This classic-era Sci-fi is one of the better '50s films ever designed for 3-D, and the restoration on this much-coveted new release is excellent. Meteors explode in your face! A rockslide in your lap! Bizarre superimpositions! Ray gun blasts! And don't forget Ray Bradbury's feel-good sense of wonder speeches, from wide-eyed Richard Carlson. Another coup for the 3-D Film Archive, starring Barbara Rush and Charles Drake. On 3-D Blu-ray from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
10/08/16

On Dangerous Ground
The Warner Archive Collection
Blu-ray
 Warners knocks us out with a beautifully remastered RKO noir. Nicholas Ray's crime tale is like no other, a meditation on human need and loneliness. It's a noir with a cautiously positive, hopeful twist. Robert Ryan is the cop going off the deep end into near-psychotic brutality; Ida Lupino is the woman that gives him a second chance at life. Split between urban vice and rural vigilantism, the Rogue Cop suddenly finds that he's the only representative of law and sanity. With Ward Bond, Ed Begley and Charles Kemper; produced by John Houseman and written by A.I. Bezzerides. And the disc brings back one of my better audio commentaries. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
10/08/16

and

Suddenly
The Film Detective
Blu-ray
 Political terror scenarios were a bit simpler in the 1950s, and movies about them fairly rare. Frank Sinatra stars in this tense tale of presidential assassination by high-powered rifle -- his John Baron is the Chairman's only performance as a psycho villain. Playing in real time, the killers assemble in a California town to wait for a special train. The screenplay has a crazy thesis, blaming fussy mothers for America's going soft on vigilance against bad guys domestic and foreign. Nancy Gates, Sterling Hayden, James Gleason and Willis Bouchey co-star. This new Public Domain release is a first in Widescreen. On Blu-ray from The Film Detective.
10/08/16

---

Hello --

I'm preempting other news to talk about Bill Warren, a friend that I had the privilege to correspond with off and on for the past fifteen years or so. Bill passed away yesterday after a long struggle against a tall stack of medical complications. His wife of nearly fifty years, Beverly, has been thoughtfully reporting on Facebook for weeks about his up and down and finally deteriorating condition. I wouldn't claim to be in Bill's inner circle of friends but he was definitely special. He didn't remember, but I met him briefly in around 1973 when Randy Cook introduced us on a street corner in Westwood. It was an early encounter with serious fandom, and I already knew that Bill was 'somebody' because he wrote for Cinefantastique. Randy said that I was a big science fiction fan, and Bill said, "Oh yeah, what's your idea of a rare movie you want to see?" I think I pulled Transatlantic Tunnel off the top of my head and Bill just rolled his eyes: "Everybody's seen that."

The movies always came first. I'm pretty sure I talked with him on the phone in 1975 when I was checking out the list of movies he'd helped compile for Filmex's 50-hour Science Fiction Movie Marathon. He was concerned that Enemy from Space had become completely unavailable, in any form. He was right -- the picture was nowhere to be found until the late 1980s.

I wouldn't really get to know Bill until around 2002 or so, when I dug deeply into his two-volume Keep Watching the Skies and liked what I read. Besides its groundbreaking research, the book had a winning personal dimension. Bill described his interest in fantastic films with an ease that I admired.

So I did something I never do. I got a hold of his phone somehow and just called him up, and spent at least a half-hour praising his book, talking about myself only so much as to say that he made me feel that my own juvenile movie memories were valuable. From then on we corresponded fairly frequently. He'd write about his writing gigs and the books he was working on, or the movie sets he was visiting -- he was always being invited to watch the shooting of things like Spielberg's War of the Worlds. He also was a big fan of Sam Peckinpah and had even talked to him at a party once. I finally met Beverly when they came to a screening of Major Dundee. I remember Beverly impressing me with her knowledge of history.

We talked on the phone several times more -- I'm not much of a phone talker -- and conducted some serious emailing around the debut of his rewritten KWTS. Bill loved online discussion boards but became frequently frustrated by the flame postings and other flak that plagued him on the Classic Horror Film Board. He had a thin skin about malicious criticism. Some of our exchanges were coaching sessions about avoiding that kind of trouble, but Bill never got a handle on that.

When he talked about his vacations in Hawaii with Beverly the whole tone of his voice changed. He loved the place and couldn't wait to get back there again. I sometimes ran into him at screenings. He'd give a two-minute exegesis of what we'd just seen, or, as with a 2008 screening of Forbidden Planet, he'd walk out with a big smile on his face, like he was thirteen years old again. It was all very personal. Go to breakfast with him, mention Forrest Ackerman and he'd give you the whole story of his time at the Ackermansion, meeting all the notables that would come through and dealing with Forry, who came off as quite a character. Bill shared great stories about people like Jacques Tourneur. My favorite story is when he, Beverly, Forry, George Pal and Fritz Lang went to see a matinee together, at a neighborhood theater. I guess something like that could happen, but it's difficult to picture it.

Bill read Savant from time to time and was quick to add information, correct me on a mistake or just share his enthusiasm for a subject. He was old enough to have seen most of the '50s sci-fi classics first-run, all that came within reach of his boyhood home in Oregon. Although he was perfectly happy describing what in Creature with the Atomic Brain had excited him at age twelve, from what I can gather 2001 was the picture that most inspired him. He talked often about writing a long letter-essay to Stanley Kubrick, and getting back a written response in which Kubrick told him, 'yes, you have an excellent grasp of my movie, the best I've read.' I hope that Beverly eventually finds that misplaced correspondence, as it ought to be published.

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson

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Savant's new reviews today are:

Vamp
Arrow U.S.
Blu-ray
 Richard Wenk's 1986 horror comedy is even better than we remember -- funny, reasonably scary and stylish. Grace Jones' stripper vampire queen is intimidatingly strange, and great makeup effects and polished direction insure that the jokes and chills get equal attention. With Chris Makepeace, Robert Rusler, DeDee Pfeiffer, Gedde Watanabe and Sandy Baron, all trapped in a skid-row strip joint that's actually a nest of hungry bloodsuckers. For a sex-oriented mid-80's college farce, this is really well done. On Blu-ray from Arrow U.S..
10/04/16

Face to Face
(Von Angesicht zu Angesicht)
Explosive Media GmbH
Blu-ray
  (Faccia a faccia; Von Angesicht zu Angesicht) Sergio Sollima gives us one of the best political Italo westerns from the pre- May '68 era... with two top stars in great form, Gian Maria Volontè and Tomas Milian. An Ivy League professor learns banditry from a Texas professional, and aims to elevate Wild West thievery to a new level. This German import plays in U.S. machines and comes on two Blu-ray discs, one for each version -- and both versions have tracks in English, German and the original Italian. On Blu-ray from Explosive Media GmbH.
10/04/16

and

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
Twilight Time
Blu-ray
 Peckinpah's macabre South of the border shoot 'em up is back for a second limited edition, with a new commentary. It's still a picture made to separate the Peckinpah lovers from the auteur tourists - it's grisly, grim and resolutely exploitative, but also has about it a streak of grimy honesty... it 's a bloodbath with integrity. Starring Warren Oates, Isela Vega, Gig Young, Robert Webber, Helmut Dantine, Emilio Fernandez and 20,000 rounds of live ammo, give or take a few harmless flesh wounds. Smelly Benny should not apply for a job transporting live organs. On Blu-ray from Twilight Time.
10/04/16

---

Hello!

First up is an unusual announcement ... at this month's Spectrefest here in L.A., Joe Dante is going to be directing a live on-stage reading of the screenplay for The Man with Kaleidoscope Eyes, his proposed next film project, based on the cinematic, prismatic adventures of rogue filmmaker Roger Corman, who was one of Dante's mentors and the producer of his first two movies. More details and further information are in this article by Clark Collis: Bill Hader to play Roger Corman in Script Reading for Planned Biopic. Bill Hader, eh? That might work out well.

---

Today's other breaking news bulletin is a report from Gary Teetzel, who just attended an October 3 gala premiere, Hollywood style:

"On Monday night I was among a fortunate group of Southern California monster fans to attend the West Coast premiere of Shin Godzilla, the newest Japanese Godzilla film, It's the 29th Godzilla feature, for those of you keeping score at home. Held at the Regal L.A. Live Theater in downtown Los Angeles, the event was hosted by Funimation, the film's U.S. distributor. My invitation came courtesy of Keith Aiken of scifijapan.com, one of the web's leading English-language sites covering the wonderful world of Japanese science fiction, horror and fantasy. Attendees received a mini poster, a souvenir t-shirt and a coupon for free popcorn and a drink. In the best tradition of glamorous Hollywood, the premiere presented a red carpet with the film's star in attendance -- in this case, a man in a Godzilla costume who would pose for photos.

Anticipation for the film has been high among U.S. fans. The first Japanese Godzilla film in 12 years, Shin Godzilla is co-directed by Shinji Higuchi, who worked on the acclaimed special effects for the 1990's Gamera films, and Hideaki Anno, the writer-director behind the immensely popular anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion. In Japan the film has received glowing reviews and has become their top-grossing live action film of 2016.

The film returns Godzilla to his roots as a symbol of nature rebelling against man's destructive recklessness, specifically nuclear energy and its toxic byproducts. The 2011 accident at the Fukishima nuclear plant doubtlessly served as the inspiration. Anno (who also wrote the screenplay) focuses on the reaction of the Japanese government to the crisis, and uses this as a way to reflect on contemporary Japan and its role on the world stage. It's the most serious Godzilla since the 1954 original.

This is not to say that the film is without traditional monster action. Shin Godzilla delivers that in spades, utilizing modern CGI for the first time instead of the traditional man in a monster suit. Higuchi and Anno introduce some new twists to Godzilla's design and abilities that are sure to stir up a lot of discussion among fans.

The audience Monday night loved it from the opening Toho logo (which got an enthusiastic cheer) and the first strains of Akira Ifukube's familiar Godzilla theme all the way to the final revelation just before the credits. The film will open in select U.S. theaters beginning October 11, making it the first Godzilla film to receive a wide release in America in its original language. Funimation has chosen to subtitle the film rather than dub it." -- Gary

All I can say, Gary, is good going. That, and we want to see a photo of you posed with Godzilla.

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson

Why is this picture here? CLICK on it.

Savant's new reviews today are:

Fury
(1936)
The Warner Archive Collection
DVD
 Savant uncovers the true, hidden ending to this Fritz Lang masterpiece, a secret found in an editorial observation: the ending we see and hear is a studio alteration. The moral outrage of Lang's searing attack on lynch terror hasn't dimmed a bit -- with his first American picture Lang nails one of our primary social evils. MGM enforced some re-cutting and re-shooting, but it's still the most emotionally powerful film on the subject. Starring Sylvia Sidney and Spencer Tracy. Is this also the first 'found film' mystery movie? On DVD from The Warner Archive Collection.
10/01/16

High Noon
Olive Signature
Blu-ray
 Another release of the Kramer-Foreman-Zinnemann classic gives Savant another chance to make his argument that this supposedly 'liberal' movie is too confused to be anything but political quicksand -- if anything, its statement is bitterly hawkish. Quaker Grace Kelly wants her new hubby Marshall Gary Cooper to drop his guns and run, but Cooper knows that a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. The Signature treatment gives us a number of new extras. On Blu-ray from Olive Signature.
10/01/16

and

Body Snatchers
The Warner Archive Collection
Blu-ray
 Is the third time the charm for Jack Finney's stubborn human duplicator pods? Abel Ferrara keeps the faith and makes a straight, effective revisit of the paranoid classic. Does it all seem too familiar now, or are we just more Pod-like and less excitable? Gabrielle Anwar is the frisky teen that witnesses everyone she loves replaced by slimy duplicates. Meg Tilly, Forest Whitaker and R. Lee Ermey are in on the screwball alien antics as well. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
10/01/16

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Hello!

The new 3-D Archive classic 3-D title to be announced is 1953's Those Redheads from Seattle, a Paramount musical with Rhonda Fleming, Gene Barry, Agnes Moorehead and Teresa Brewer. It's not exactly a top title but the 3-D is supposed to be quite good, and the musical-plus depth combination certainly clicked in Kiss Me Kate. Incidentally, Best Buy is now shipping the Archives' 3-D restoration of It Came from Outer Space, so by this time next week I might have a review up.

Gary Teetzel has found another Orson Welles- related piece on YouTube, this time about his work in Spain... with many anecdotes offered by Jesus Franco: The Well. That narrator, though... he's really sleep-inducing. Just peeking, I can see that the bullfighting scenes supposedly found hidden in Spanish film vaults, seem to come from Welles' earlier Around the World with Orson Welles TV show.

It was good to have the time this week to do a bit of personal research on the ending of Fritz Lang's Fury. That sudden change change of tone during the last scene has bothered me for years, and my new explanation for why it was changed is probably correct. When I long ago read about how Lang's Hangmen Also Die! and Cloak and Dagger had been altered, changing the meaning of the end of the film, I became more interested in figuring these things out. It's too bad that the 'real' suppressed ending of Cloak and Dagger will probably never be recovered.

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson