Glenn Erickson's new CineSavant continues as before. It is up with new reviews at the new URL:

My new contact email -- please use it -- is

I am keeping my 'DVD Savant' logo as a sub-identity, to avoid confusion.

Please note the link change, change your bookmarks, etc. DVDtalk has been a kind and gracious host for many years, and I still hope to be contributing reviews to the massive DVDtalk review database.

I hope the format of the new page is pleasing. As ever, thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson

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Gary Teetzel links us to the world today, starting with two Metropolis- themed items. A Smithsonian Magazine article by Matt Novak from 2012 takes a look at a vintage explanation of the film's effects: 1927 Magazine Looks at Metropolis, 'A Movie Based On Science'. Then, in Wired Magazine from the same year, Geeta Dyal displays another rare item: Recovered 1927 Metropolis Film Program Goes Behind the Scenes of a Sci-Fi Masterpiece. My only comment is about the method used to create the 'electric bolts' in the machine room -- the article implies that they were shot live on the set, like a foreground miniature, when they were double-exposed at a later time. Just a detail. The second document was for years the main source of technical info on the film, so it's nice that it was so carefully written.

Film collector Wade Williams, over at the Home Theater Forum, is saying that he's contributed a film source to a Warners restoration of the long version of Howard Hawks' The Thing From Another World, a show long in need of a visual reupholstering job. When the show plays on TCM now, the long-version scenes drop to a low-quality 16mm source. It would be nice if a smart new restoration were indeed on the way, but Williams' note mostly clouds the issue. He says he loaned his print to WB ten years ago, and recently as three years ago I was told that WB still lacked decent elements with which to 'fix' the movie -- a collector's print might or might not be good enough, and WB has pretty high standards. When Williams says the film is 'newly restored,' is he saying that something new and unannounced has happened? Only when Warners issues a confirmation will we know.

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson

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Partly inspired by John Kirk's efforts twenty years ago to locate a missing musical number called 'Coffee Break', Joe Baltake takes on the larger issues behind the show How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, both on stage and film. It is indeed a favorite, partly because the writer-director David Swift befriended me back at MGM. Baltake's September 4 entry at The Passionate Moviegoer is the one to read, but I will put in a plug for my short piece that stirred the pot on this issue back in 1998: Wanted: The Missing 'Coffee Break' Scene.

A great article by Beth Daniels over at Smithsonian.com caught my fancy -- it's How Bullwinkle Taught Kids Sophisticated Political Satire. That's Bullwinkle J. Moose, I'll remind you. Thanks to Edward Sullivan, who gave me the tip for this item. Unlike Savant, author Daniels was too young to see The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle when it was new. Since we kids in 1960 hadn't a clue about many of the show's cultural and political references, she must really have been confused ten years later, when kids had no way of knowing what a big deal Hula Hoops were.

Actually, I only think it was Edward that sent me this link ... Edward Sullivan has been sending me meaningful and useful notes and links forever. I checked, and since he started in 2005, there have been 571 emails from Ed, all of them with something really valuable enclosed. I up 'n' blab that information in this way because I'm against the Facebook idea of a rolling obituary, where we only find out who the good guys were, famous or just friends, after they're gone. So thanks, again Ed.

And, as Gary Teetzel reminds me, the holidays are just around the corner, and you know, I never felt it was a bad idea to, you know, suggest little gift ideas when they arise! Gary found the ideal item, and now we just have to figure out the price. A part of my completely non-binding 'gift suggestion' today appears in the photo above. Assuming the link still works, you can see all of it at this Bonham's Auction Page link. Hey, thanks in advance! I won't ask for new car until next year.

Thanks for reading --- Glenn Erickson

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If you've already read my just-previous Krakatoa East of Java review, it just became a lot longer, with an 'additional information' letter from correspondent "B," aka 'woggly.' Maybe it's too much, maybe not, but how can one resist MORE knowledge about this unforgettable picture. The producers liked it -- they covered half a block in New York with a poster.

And, to sneak away early on this Labor Day, I'll finish with a link from Gary Teetzel, for an item everyone needs: a Godzilla / Mothra Rug. Looks good to me.

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson

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Hello! We're melting in Los Angeles on a Labor Day weekend.

The newest radio show from the DVD Classics Corner On The Air is Dick Dinman & Eddie Muller Reach Their Breaking Point. If that isn't self-explanatory, host Dinman and TCM's 'Noir Alley' cable host to sing the praises of Michael Curtiz’ John Garfield masterpiece, which reached Blu-ray a couple of months back via The Criterion Collection's excellent Blu-ray. Eddie Muller considers it Curtiz' best directed feature; I wonder if Alan K. Rode's new book will concur.

Is this for real? Joe Dante has been circulating this link to a Sun article, with a video, of what is supposed to be a real water creature. You have to look hard to get the name of the thing, and the locale is hard to pick out as well ... the article and video are titled Terrifying blob creature that looks like a BRAIN discovered in a spooky lake called ‘The Lost Lagoon’. I don't know . . . the hazy description makes the thing sound like a 'composite organism' of the kind seen in the old sci-fi thriller Quatermass 2.

What with the interest in Arrow Video's new Blu-ray of Erik the Conqueror, correspondent Edward Sullivan has sent in a new link to performances by The Kessler Sisters, Alice and Ellen, who are still kicking over a half century later. I've had this blurry music video-like Scopitone Kessler Sisters do 'Quando Quando Quando' song & dance number on my desktop for ten years now -- the multiple languages and peppy orchestration appeals. The flashy 2016 Kessler Sisters TV performance found by Ed isn't as exciting, but it sure is a testament to the powers of longevity. Good for them -- !

And judging by the reviews just in, Guillermo del Toro's new fantasy picture The Shape of Water may be the del Toro smash hit we've wanted to see for years. It stars Sally Hawkins in what reads like perfect casting, a role suited to a master 'silent' actress like Judith Evelyn. (Extra points if you know who she is.) I stopped after two paragraphs into the Daily Variety rave review and am going to keep my head down in an effort to see the movie with a clean slate. It's nice to be excited about something new again, and I hope all the positive thinking pays off.

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson

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-- some fun news here in hot and dry Los Angeles, weather that I wish I could sent Texas way.

Apparently we could be expecting a Criterion Blu-ray of Ikarie XB-1 in the future, as a number of weeks back the label even put out a list of Czech titles that would be brought to the U.S.: Janus Films to Bring 30 Classic Czech Films to the States. However, no mention is made of specific disc releases for any of them yet. For the last fifteen years or so, a common litmus test for what Janus/Criterion will release on disc has been if the show appears on the TCM cable channel, with a Janus logo. That recently happened with the Wim Wenders science fiction epic Until the End of the World. Hope springs eternal

Hopefully this next link will be taken in a humorous, not blasphemous sense -- Gary Teetzel has discovered someone selling Vincent Price 'St. Vincent' Novena candles online. Good taste doesn't come with the purchase -- the little green bottle Vincent is holding bears a skull 'n' crossbones, indicating a vial of poison. The historical Saint didn't poison anybody, and reportedly died on the rack. Link presented as an unsolicited public service by Ban Savant Now (BSN), a leading nonprofit.

Correspondent "B", who sometimes goes by the mysterious moniker woggly knows that I am a big 3-D enthusiast, and so asked me to give a brief shout-out for the 3-D Funhouse: Recent Restorations from the 3-D Film Archive event that begins Friday at New York's Museum of Modern Art. Third-Dimensional masterminds Bob Furmanek, Greg Kintz, and Jack Theakston are returning to MoMA to present their restorations of GOG, Those Redheads from Seattle, September Storm, Dragonfly Squadron and the Archives' 3-D Rarities compilation. The show is being organized by the Museum's Dave Kehr. Messrs. Furmanek, Kintz, and Theakston presented many of the Rarities shorts at a MoMA program a few years ago. "B" lets me know that he'll be trying to see GOG on the big screen.

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson

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DVD Savant's esteemed Field Correspondent Gary Teetzel reports from the A.M.I.A.'s The Reel Thing. The second day is underway now but we have the rundown on Friday's program:

Friday's lineup of presentations at The Reel Thing were:

1)

Recovering Early Optical Sound: Joseph Tykociner's 1922 Composite Sound-on-Film System: The title sort of says it all--this was an early attempt to create optical sound, with a test demo. It was a form of variable density, and was recorded live to the film. It took up about a quarter of the area of the frame, forcing the image to be vertical. The audio we heard was fairly crude, and the poor quality of the elements didn't help, but you have to give Tykociner credit for coming up with the system at such an early date.

2)

The Digital Post-It: Cataloguing Unstructured Metadata for Preservation in Distributed Databases Using Open Standards: Don't even ask me to try to explain this one.

3)

Restoring The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez: The Result of a Long Partnership Between an Archive and a Festival: This discussed the work that the Academy did for years in association with the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival. They restored several titles from different Latin American countries, and even a rediscovered 1935 Spanish-language film made by 20th Century Fox, Asegure a su mujer. (Antonio Moreno from Creature from the Black Lagoon was one of the stars.) The festival ended a few years ago, but inspired by those past projects the Academy has restored The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez. The original neg existed, only as un-conformed Super 16mm. Edward James Olmos had a 35mm blow-up print, but it was in bad shape. A rights holder had an interpositive, but refused to grant access. So the Academy scanned all sixteen hours of original neg and used Olmos' print as a guide to put it back together in the digital realm.

4)

Artificial Intelligence for Automatically Repairing Vertical Scratches. Another one where I could not hope to explain the science, but the demos they showed were impressive -- perfect restorations of shots with running vertical scratches from Don't Go In the Basement * and others. Most impressive was a 1907 short, Laughing Gas. Like most films from that era the source element was covered with countless light scratches; Algosoft got rid of all of them, making the film look incredibly pristine, like nothing you've seen from that period. It looked someone had gone back in time and grabbed a brand-new print from the lab, then traveled back to 2017. In fairness, a couple people in the audience noted that grain had been de-grained and then re-grained, and argued that all this work altered the character of the film.

* . . . because there's a restroom down the hall.

5)

HDR Video Mastering for Classic Cinema. This was mostly a rep from Sony showing clips from different decades of films they have transferred in HDR: The Bridge on the River Kwai, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Ghostbusters and The Fifth Element. I was most impressed by CE3K. They showed the scene where Dreyfuss first encounters a UFO while in his truck. The added brightness that HDR gave to the flashlight, the headlights and, most importantly, the UFO made the scene really vivid; you could believe that half of Dreyfus' face could turn red from the intensity of the light! The presentation prompted some healthy debate. A cinematographer in the audience had recently viewed a movie he had shot. Many of the aspects of HDR impressed him, especially color, shadow detail, etc. However, in close-ups and medium shots he felt that highlights on the actors sometimes looked unnaturally bright, and he worked with the colorist to try to tone it down and make it less (to him) distracting. He pointed out that he also felt the highlights on William Holden in the Kwai clip (Guinness and his men first arriving at the camp) looked excessively bright. With regards to CE3K he (or was it another audience member?) voiced serious doubts that Vilmos Zsigmond -- a guy known to flash the negative to reduce contrast -- would have approved. (Grover Crisp said that Spielberg had approved the HDR master.) The Sony rep emphasized that they get talent involved whenever possible to make sure they approve the HDR master.

By the way, since I've done such a lousy job of describing HDR in the past, here's a better description from the presentation's abstract:

6)

The Troop, Redux: An ACES Reformatting and Archiving Case Study Project: This discussed the restoration of a short film by the Academy to help develop its ACES system (Academy Color Encoding System), which aims to help maintain color consistency across a variety of formats -- HDR, HD, SD, etc. -- and work on long-term archiving solutions for digital content.

7)

The Sorrowful Spinning Saga of RCA's SelectaVision CED Videodisc: A fascinating and funny look at the story behind RCA's infamous SelectaVision Videodisc system, which spanned some 17 years. Studies to test the feasibility of discs with both picture and sound went back even further. There were some interesting bits about other technology along the way, like one offered in the 'sixties in the Niemen Marcus catalog that consisted of a console TV with video tape recorder (reel-to-reel, of course) off to the side, plus a video camera. Cost? $30,000. There was also mention of the first consumer home tape system from the early 'seventies (which I had never heard of) called Cartrivision. Here's an article on it: How Cartrivision's 1972 VCR Foresaw–And Forfeited–The Time-Shifted Future by Ross Rubin.

8)

Analyzing Image Bit Depth in Digital Archive Deliverables: See my description of #2.

9)

Finally, YCM Labs showed clips from a restoration they are working on, a 1924 Marion Davies film called Lights of Old Broadway. The film is unusual in that it mixes a variety of film stocks and techniques: black & white, tinted scenes, 2-strip Technicolor scenes and one scene with Handschiegel color. --Gary

Thank you Gary, and I wish I could be there tonight for the restored premiere of Hawks' Scarface, Shame of a Nation. --

I'd also like to point out a really important note from Michael Schlesinger about the truth behind the withdrawal from distribution of John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate. The idea that Frank Sinatra pulled the movie over issues with the assassination of President Kennedy has been debunked for some time now, but Michael was in charge of the film's re-premiere in 1988 and has the straight dope on the subject. It's in a comment at the bottom of an article on The Manchurian Candidate at Joe Baltake's The Passionate Moviegoer, from August 21.

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson

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Altair Four's eclipse was good, but there's nothing like witnessing the real thing. Yes, Monday's solar eclipse was fun to watch -- a glimpse of the sun's orb was partly blocked here in Los Angeles, and we saw a lot of viewers become either elated or disappointed in the various network coverage. The experience of darkness at noon is pretty strange; I remember an overcast feel for some eclipse witnessed in my past, but never real darkness such as we saw on TV.

My joke is that, if some uncomprehending person got the time confused and ran out to see the eclipse at 11:30 last night, they might say, "Wow, it really IS an eclipse -- it's pitch black out here." That's a spin on the old joke about alien invaders: How did they get through the Solar System without being detected? -- They snuck in after darkness.

Every picture tells a story. A colleague of my wife ran out to get some eclipse glasses yesterday, and bought an extra pair 'just in case.' They proved to be useful, as demonstrated by the family dog, Riley. I think Riley has the appropriate attitude for a special day.

Reviews coming next: ClassicFlix's The Noose Hangs High with Abbott and Costello, Twilight Time's Kid Galahad with Elvis, directed by Phil Karlson; and Kelly Reichart's Certain Women from Criterion. Langushing on Charlie Largent's to-review plate are Visit to a Small Planet, Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex but Were Afraid to Ask, La Poison, They Shoot Horses Don't They and Suddenly, Last Summer

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson

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I haven't seen a lot of discussion on the The Good, The Bad and The Ugly disc I reviewed a week back, but I was pleased to read this The Edit Room Floor article on various versions of the film. It jibes closely with my own memories of what happened with the versions at MGM, and also agrees with my assessment on the film's color. I have heard from a couple of European contacts that, in their opinion old IB Tech prints from Italy were a little more yellow -- but that they were nothing like the 2014 Fox disc, with its green skies.

A couple of nice items from This Isn't Happiness, a challenging image & ideas page I've been looking at almost daily for at least 13 years now. This item "Oh Boy" is a quote from an old ABC News broadcast, about the impending solar eclipse, but also about a future that happens to be our present.

The second This Isn't Happiness item is Harry Frankfurt's Bull****, a frank and concise appreciation of the difference between fact and baloney in modern discourse. Whups -- those were two non-film related links, even though the second uses some prime film clips to make its case. My quota for the summer is now filled.

Is it true what correspondent Andrew LeBlanc tells me, that a particular Warner disc of King Kong Skull Island is now hitting astronomical prices online? The disc in question, says Andrew, is a Best Buy Exclusive, containing a 4K + 3-D + Blu-ray + Digital. Mine doesn't have the 4K, so I guess I'm out of luck for the Big Payday.

And collectors have found out that Kino's expected Blu-ray of William Dieterle's Portrait of Jennie (due October 24) won't be overloaded with extras, but will be favored with a new commentary from Troy Howarth. I'm hoping Troy supplies more insights into the film's twisted, convoluted production and release history: I've been following it ever since reading an article in one of the very first Cinefantastique magazines. Actually, if Kino delivers a high-quality transfer and audio track, that will be more than enough to rock my jolly meter: The Wind Blows -- The Sea Flows -- No -- bo -- dy knows.

Over at the new page Current Thinking on the Western, Italo-western connoisseur Tom Betts has a new article up detailing the history of his 'zine Westerns… All’Italiana!, from its origins in 1983, when typing and photocopying pages gave way to primitive first-generation home computers. Mr. Betts was an inexhaustible and generous resource for the documentary featurettes we cut on the Sergio Leone movies fifteen years ago, but I was only tangentially aware of the scope of his network of Italo western fandom. Tom's terrific 21st century online 'zine iteration, the Westerns… All’Italiana! webpage, goes into incredible detail on the genre and its colorful stars and filmmakers.

And Gary Teetzel closes out the column with a link to a new trailer for a thing called Godzilla: Monster Planet. You're on your own, brave Kaiju fans...

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson

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The Cohen Collection's new Blu-ray of the long-missed The Old Dark House now has a street date, October 24. Gary Teetzel found the blurb on a Barnes and Noble page. I'm already thinking about a nice po-ta-to. They dropped the video promo from YouTube, the one that made the famous James Whale horror show look better than new.

And just in: Kino has announced that its new Avanti! disc will have new interviews with actors Juliet Mills and Clive Revill!

Here's one for the 'it isn't always me' department. Craig Reardon pointed out that in the review of Duel in the Sun, I had written 'Joseph Cotton' numerous times instead of 'Joseph Cotten.' It's one of the various spell-check programs that changes what I write as I write it, 'correcting' me. So just remember when you read my error-ridden texts, I'm not (quite) as incompetent as I seem. Or, now that I've established plausible deniability, I can behave as if I never make mistakes. Win-win.

Civic wisdom and political sanity are in short supply these days, so here's a genuine boost for your morale. Joe Dante is circulating this link to the short subject Don't Be a Sucker!, which Joe reports was at one time edited into his epochal comedy marathon The Movie Orgy. Done in the earnest style of an educational picture, it's an anti-fascist film, a scary, patriotic 17 minutes with excellent work from Paul Lukas, Felix Bressart, Kurt Kreuger, Richard Lane, George E. Stone, Ivan Triesault and everyone's favorite Nazi swine impersonator, Martin Kosleck (right). As a news report on the nature of Fascist slime, it's highly pertinent today, and who better to teach us basic American values than our favorite character actors from the 1940s?

Produced by the Army, the short subject is dated 1947, but some of its content indicates that it is a slight revision of the 1943 original listed in the IMDB.

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson

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It's upcoming disc round-up time. Newcomers Classic Flix have favored Savant with the Abbott and Costello comedy The Noose Hangs High (August 14), while the UK label Powerhouse Indicator may start sending review material in September. Kino has enough desirable product out to warrant a review every few days; a review of last month's Bob Hope movies My Favorite Brunette, The Road to Rio, The Road to Bali, The Lemon Drop Kid and Son of Paleface is almost finished, with Duel in the Sun, Barton Fink, Prizzi's Honor, Custer of the West, Visit to a Small Planet, They Shoot Horses Don't They, The Birthday Party and Tobor the Great just arrived.

Twilight Time promises 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag, The Long Hot Summer, The Emperor in August and Suddenly, Last Summer up next, with Hour of the Gun, Beneath the 12-Mile Reef and Gun Fury 3-D due in September.

Arrow USA is hot as well, with Ronin and The Love of a Woman in hand and Don't Torture a Duckling, Erik the Conqueror and The Big Knife on the way. The loss for this summer are some Shout no shows -- they've put out two-score desirable horror pix and we've only reviewed two because a writer bought them for himself. How are Savant readers going to live without the full skinny on the irreplaceable The Manster? Hey, Tim Lucas loves it!

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson

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I've been reading a bit, thanks to some helpful links. I enjoyed Nick Pinkerton's Film Comment interview with Mario Adorf, especially what the German actor has to say about Sam Peckinpah and Major Dundee, where he played Sgt. Gomez, a Mexican cavalryman. The joke on that movie set was that Adorf made a more convincing Mexican than did the real Mexicans.

Valued correspondent 'B' has sent me an interesting book that I just finished, Hollywood Divided: The 1950 Screen Directors Guild Meeting and the Impact of the Blacklist by Kevin Brianton. It's a fascinating research summary on the famous Directors' Guild meeting in 1950, where, legend has it, John Ford led a rebellion against Cecil B. DeMille's underhanded campaign to toss Guild president Joseph Mankiewicz and institute a loyalty oath, one that would spread to other guilds and take over Hollywood. According to author Brianton, everything we know about this episode is wrong, taken from 1970s accounts either embellished or mis-remembered. DeMille was trying to jam the Mankiewicz recall through, but there's no direct evidence that he mispronounced the names of foreign-born directors at the meeting to make them seem un-American. Mankiewicz was never against a loyalty oath as long as it was voluntary. And John Ford defended DeMille as much as he criticized him. Not only that, but Ford's famed introductory line, "My name is John Ford. I make Westerns" is not an accurate quote! The most fascinating thing about the book is reading what scores of well known directors had to say at the six-hour meeting, and on which side of the fence they stood. According to Brianton, my late friend Robert S. Birchard in his bio Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood, was one of the first historians to correct the ledger as concerns DeMille. The great filmmaker was still a super-patriot who informed for years on the industry to the F.B.I., but he wasn't as dark a villain as painted by other accounts.

Gary Teetzel checks in with a video of comedienne Rose Marie taped at a screening last week at the Aero of a new documentary on her life and career, Wait for Your Laugh. Gary reports:

"At one point during the audience Q & A, someone asked Rose Marie if she dated anyone after the death of her husband. She said she had gone out a few times, and then shared an anecdote about her fellow Hollywood Square panelist who happens to be one of our favorite horror stars . . . how often do we get to hear a new prime-source story about Vincent Price?"

The photo is of Rose Marie in Paramount's International House, a pre-code picture . . . made eighty-four years ago.

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson

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Arrow Video has a strong disc line-up for August, starting with Re-Animator but continuing with Frankenheimer's Ronin, Bryan Yuzna's Society and Mario Bava's Erik the Conqueror. Now I'll have to break out my A.I.P. 'Erik the Conqueror' poster.

Olive Films in August is said to be giving us Blu-rays of two seasons of the old Flipper TV series, which I can sheepishly report being a fan of at age 13 or so -- I saw the movie and liked the song, I guess. They're also putting out Larry Cohen's blaxploitation gangster pic Hell Up in Harlem. Finally, Olive has a disc of Orson Welles' The Stranger on the way. If it's licensed from MGM it ought to have a much better image than past discs – I've seen MGM's master and it's beautiful.

Gary Teetzel enlightens us with an interesting link from the Golden Age of Live Television: remember the rather good Toho horror fantasy Matango aka Attack of the Mushroom People? Now on YouTube is a copy (a poor one, unfortunately) of a 1958 episode of the TV series Suspicion called Voice in the Night. It's an adaptation of the William Hope Hodgson story that inspired Matango. A synopsis:"The survivors of a shipwreck escape to an island where a strange fungus grows on everything." Arthur Hiller directs an impressive cast: Barbara Rush, James Donald, Patrick Macnee and James Coburn. Joan Harrison (assisted by Norman Lloyd) produced for Shamley Productions; Robert Boyle did the production design. Not too shabby, huh? Skimming through I can see that the YouTube copy is pretty bad. The first several minutes are so dark that it might as well be a radio show. But with these actors we can recognize the voices!

Finally, for the wedding held at our house last week, artist Patrick Tsao designed personalized place cards for all the tables, each with a Mexi-Aztec design motif customized to the personality of individual guests. I looked at mine for a while before realizing that it beheld the likeness of a certain Irish movie monster. So appropriate!

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson ]]> update 2017-08-05T09:36:02-08:00 http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/archives/2017_07.html No link! Savant has been tied up all weekend. This is why! Savant's new reviews today are: Night PeopleKL... 15581@http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/

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Some quick notices:

I've gotten notes asking why I haven't been linking to Dick Dinman's web radio show DVD Classics Corner On The Air lately, and I have no reasonable excuses . . . but I wouldn't miss this one. Dick interviews none other than the illustrious Michael Schlesinger on the subject of the new KL Studio Classics disc of Billy Wilder's One, Two, Three. Michael did the disc commentary for the great comedy and is the perfect source for a lively conversation. This time around the 'Dick's Pick's' feature also discusses a long list of Kino - KLSC releases, including the serial Daredevils of the Red Circle and Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat. To hear this show go to the direct DVD Classics Corner Dropbox; to find Dinman's older shows please go to www.dvdclassicscorner.com.

To me the hot KL Studio Classics disc this week is William Wellman's silent Beggars of Life, with Richard Arlen and Louise Brooks -- I haven't seen it, and I'm going to at the first opportunity. It's another show I've read about for years but not caught up with.

And I was quick to share this one with Gary Teetzel: All of Galaxy Science Fiction magazine is now online, free for the reading. Gary reports that, "looking at just the first two issues, you see stories by Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Frederick Pohl, Robert Sheckley, Robert Bloch and Clifford Simak. That's a pretty impressive lineup!" The wiki entry for the magazine is complimentary as well.

And over at John McElwee's great Greenbriar Picture Shows site -- for today, July 31, an article about The Screaming Skull, focusing not on the movie so much as the A.I.P. Arkoff & Nicholson business method. Great stuff, right down the nickels and dimes of stiffing producers for money owed! When I told John that I'd spent $75.00 of UCLA's money renting a 35mm print of A.I.P.'s Voyage to the End of the Universe in 1975, he said I'd been taken for a ride!

Thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson

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TCM's surprise cablecast last Sunday of Until the End of the World was quite a thrill. Other web-casters with broad audiences, like Tim Lucas, relayed the message so it's likely that a lot of people that could DVR the 4.5- hour show did.

I was very pleased, as UTEOTW as reconfigured by Wim Wenders looks great. I've seen it twice on a screen, and this looks more like that experience than the good but not fantastic European DVDs that were released. I guess the length of the show is no longer an issue. Wenders got rid of the three-movies format, removing the extra 'Teil 1., 2. and 3.' opening sequences. I'll have to check to see if any recap narration was lost. Having English subs for the occasional French dialogue helps too. The amazing thing is the control Wenders retained over his movie, even though he had to wait 25 years to get the rights back. It wasn't like Warners took the negative from him; he has never cut original negative so even now he could edit a different version and not have technical difficulties. I like the 3-movie version just because it has the subliminal thrill of a road show presentation -- there were two intermissions in the theater, where the audience practically congratulated itself at sharing something special.

Back in 1996 the Hollywood screening was just like old times -- I had seen something unofficially screened that I'd have to wait a long time before seeing again. In between I met the ex-wife of one of the producers, who told me some stories, and I also met some people who thought UTEOTW to be the worst movie they'd ever seen in their lives. What can one say? It's like anything else, it either works for you or it doesn't. The naysayers can't be discounted, because the short versions certainly bombed in 1991, and received terrible reviews.

The show gives every indication of a Criterion release in the next year or so -- not only is there a new Wim Wenders logo, but the Janus Films logo too. Criterion has said it's releasing the Wenders pictures, and has already done several.

Thanks again, Mike Stubbs, for letting me know that my printed TCM cable guide was wrong -- I might have missed this!

Also up today: the finishing Diary Post reports on Gary Teetzel's Comic-Con experience up today::

A pre-'Good Evening' announcement . . . I wasn't able to attend today's Warner Archives Comic-Con panel, but the news has broken that the Halloween titles are Innocent Blood, The Hidden and The Green Slime.

Good Evening Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea. Decided to spend most of the day in Ballroom 20, chiefly for the mid-afternoon panels for Star Trek: Discovery and Supergirl. First up, though, was a panel on Once Upon a Time, which I don't watch, so . . . yawn. Then a panel on Riverdale. Yawn again.

Next was the panel for The Simpsons. Matt Groening, the showrunners and directors were joined by Nancy 'Bart Simpson' Cartwright and Joe Mantegna, who voices Springfield mobster Fat Tony on the show. (Fat Tony will be featured on the cover of the upcoming DVD release of Season 18.) They ran a special Q & A with Bart Simpson, and a spoof of The Exorcist that will be part of this year's "Treehouse of Horrors" episode. They handed out prizes to audience members who asked questions. When they ran out of prizes, Matt Groening would whip up some sketches on the spot to use as prizes.

Next was a panel devoted to Family Guy and American Dad, so I took the opportunity to go to the bathroom and then grab some food. (They give you passes so you can get back into the hall.)

Finally got to Star Trek: Discovery. The panel included Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman and other producers, plus several cast members: Sonequa Martin-Green, Doug Jones, Jason Isaacs, James Frain (Sarek) and others. (No Michelle Yeoh.) Rainn Wilson, who guest stars as Harry Mudd in the series, moderated. A new trailer was shown, and a fair amount of time was devoted to allaying some of the fears fans have been voicing online.

Next up was Supergirl. The entire regular cast was there except for Chyler Leigh, who was said to be dealing with family issues. A few details for the upcoming season were teased, and a number of fan questions were answered.

After that I left the ballroom and headed to the main floor, which was predictably jam-packed. Went through the Walking Dead display/photo op attraction. It was pretty weak compared to previous years--have your photo taken next to a fake tiger and walk through a hall of junk while zombies try to scare you, unsuccessfully. Watched some of the autograph session for Westworld, which was an absolute madhouse--worse than Friday's Game of Thrones autograph session. The entire cast was there, save Anthony Hopkins.

Did some more exploring of the main floor. Haven't bought a thing yet, and frankly am not seeing anything tempting--at least anything that is affordable!

Since traffic is blocked off for two or three blocks in the late afternoon, the Gaslamp District takes on a carnival flavor around dinnertime, with street performers, bands, etc. Call it Nerdi Gras! After dinner, went back for the annual party and viewing of the masquerade.

(The subject of the masquerade reminds of the subject of cosplay. It's always interest to follow trends in cosplay from year to year, as a sort of barometer of fans' interest. This year cosplay is mostly devoted to old reliables -- superheroes, Star Wars, Game of Thrones. The one new trend this year was Stranger Things. There were a few Demogorgans, and several people dressed as Eleven. I didn't see anyone who went so far as to shave their head; most dressed as Eleven when she disguised in the blonde wig and Nancy's old dress. Several incorporated Eggos into their costume; one person went so far as to dress as a box of Eggos. The Eggo people must be delighted by all the free publicity.)

The only interesting panel tomorrow is Doctor Who in Hall H. Even if I could get in, it's in the mid-afternoon, so I'd waste most of the day waiting for it and sitting through other panels. I could try to go to the Game of Thrones exhibit, but that would also probably take most of the day, unless I got in line at 5 AM! So might just spend the day shopping; I still haven't fully explored the immense main floor.) -- Gary Teetzel

Since I'm not a convention attender-type, I'm always fascinated by Gary's reports, both the things he has to go through and the pictures he brings back. So I thank him for taking the time for this. And thanks for reading! --- Glenn Erickson