Greetings! I was able to correct an error in last Tuesday's post, but it was too late to keep it from being sent out in the newsletter. I reported that the Toho science fiction film Dogora would be released on Blu-ray by Severin in a couple of months; as it turns out this new "Dogora" is a different movie entirely. It never occurred to me that that title might be given to another movie. My apologies.

Savant correspondent and radio producer Dick Dinman was awarded a Golden Minidisk Award back in January and sent me this photo of him receiving the prize at the awards ceremony. His winning program is the DVD Classics Corner on the Air radio show Seeing Red: A Skelton in Your Closet, an interview piece featuring memories of Red Skelton from stars Arlene Dahl, Ann Rutherford and Betty Garrett.

A great link heads-up from David Erickson, about Lockheed's fake camouflage "neighborhood" erected during WW2, to disguise the aircraft plant from Japanese bombers. I remember reading about this while researching 1941; an early Bob Gale-Robert Zemeckis script included a scene where General Stilwell visits the odd construction. The script said that everything on the seemingly endless array of nets was built at a scale smaller than reality, but I can't tell that from these pictures, at the website Think or Thwim.

Universal has announced a Blu-ray release of Apollo 13 on April 13, and a disc of Dune on April 27. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson

Greetings! My review of the Roberto Rossellini War Trilogy is finally up; it's Criterion's 500th spine number and a valuable contribution to film culture all around. Elsewhere, Warners' Goodfellas Blu-ray is indicative of that Studio's commitment to value. It's loaded with the usual WB quality extras including a second disc with a documentary and a selection of vintage cartoons. And I still like the way WB discs let us get into the feature content with a minimum of disclaimers, promos and other diversions.

Correspondent Rob sends me this link to a new horror-related web page called Shadows and Screams, hosted by a cartoon ghoul named Myron Morbidio (right). The graphics are certainly good and I liked the review I read of I Bury the Living. Best wishes!

Correspondent Guido Bibra has forwarded a link to a really interesting U.K. site called Carpool that I hadn't heard of (ignorant me). The nicely produced show presents Robert Llewellyn (from Red Dwarf) interacting with various guests as he drives them around London ... doing interviews on the run. Some are local notables, authoritative experts and a sprinkling of outright celebrities like Patrick Stewart. You'll be surprised at how well-made the shows are and how good are Mr. Llewellyn's talk skills.

Frequent Savant correspondent and pal Gordon A. Thomas informs me that the new issue (#67) of the web zine Bright Lights is up ... it contains Gordon's personal review column Bright Sights and his special piece The Power of Pulp that compares Lang's Dr. Mabuse with Miss Mend, a bizarre America-set silent Soviet thriller newly released by Flicker Alley.

And a final note: Next up is definitely a pair of full reviews on the eight titles in Sony's Bad Girls of Film Noir, Volumes One and Two. Those will be posted bright and early on Saturday the 6th. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

Greetings!

A couple of good links today ... this first has nothing to do with movies but intrigued me just the same, and it's from my son so gets first position. It's a satellite photo of the entire British Isles under snow, all at the same time. It just looks ... cold.

Another Metropolis scoop from expert Aitam Bar-Sagi, this time an all-German web video news item about the restoration, with plenty of semi-restored images, including a brief new moment of the arrest of worker #11811 by the security agent "Slim" (a major participant in the previously lost scenes). The new footage from that ragged Argentinian 16mm print is plenty ragged, but very watchable. The high-quality MediaThek web video report is here. Time to invite my German-speaking friend over -- thanks, Aitam!

A poster at the Home Theater Forum has leaked a list that purports to be a full list of Warner Home Video's deep-library Blu-ray offerings for the rest of the year. It's a pretty good list with titles I certainly want. As it's not technically official I'm not sure how to (or if I should) enter them in the ongoing Savant Wish List. I guess I'll have to invent a non-confirmed category and give it shot. June sees two versions of The Getaway, August Deep Blue Sea and What's Up Doc?, September Forbidden Planet, Lost in Space, Mars Attacks! and THX 1138 (director's cut). Listed for October are The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Three Kings, while November brings Ben-Hur and the 1935 Mutiny on the Bounty. I'm told that Warners is working in a full restoration of Mutiny on the Bounty. The big questions are: will Forbidden Planet also include The Invisible Boy? Will The Maltese Falcon have the other two versions? Will Ben-Hur also have the silent version? And finally, is this list reliable? It certainly seems credible.

Finally, Art Fisher informs us that Kino will follow up its Blu-ray release of The General with a Blu-ray of the 1925 Sergei Eisenstein classic Battleship Potemkin on April 20th. They're the first two silent BD releases in the Region One. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

Greetings! I'm a little, heh heh, rushed tonight so I'll upload my reviews and make it quick.

Here, thanks to UK correspondent Lee Broughton is an amusing UK butter ad based on a very familiar movie.

Thanks for reading! -- Glenn Erickson

Greetings! Some interesting new discs have arrived, including the two new Sony Bad Girls of Film Noir boxed sets, eight Columbia thrillers that are mostly new territory -- some of them don't even show on TCM. They're down a bit in the queue but I'll be having fun writing them up.

Bill Shaffer sends along a webpage link to this year's Kansas Silent Film Festival, to be held on February 26 and 27 at Washburn University in Topeka. The popular gathering has a good lineup of comedies and dramas this time around.

Savant correspondent Aitam Bar-Sagi sends a link to AlgoSoft Technology's webpage showing a brief (too brief!) sample of their Flicker removal tests on Metropolis, that indeed abolish some of the damage visible on the raw 16mm dupe found in Argentina. We should soon be seeing the entire restored film!

Finally, associate Steve Ryfle sends us this gag making fun of a film composer with enough Oscars to use as bowling pins, John Williams Shreds. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

Greetings!

Warners is bringing out more of its economical TCM Greatest Classic Film Collections on February 2, with three solid releases containing 4 titles each. A Marx Brothers set contains Room Service, A Night in Casablanca, A Day at the Races and At the Circus. The originally - titled Romance features Splendor in the Grass, Now Voyager, Love in the Afternoon and Mogambo. Savant's favorite is actually a combo of two previously-released double bills: Sci-Fi Adventure gives us Them!, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, World Without End and Satellite in the Sky. Frankly, I consider them a major gift opportunity, especially for relatives that don't want dozens of discs crowding their shelves.

Another issue is at hand. A buzz is going around the web about Joe Dante's Matinee, mainly that Universal's plans to release its upcoming DVD plain-wrap, as my information presently has it. The old laserdisc included terrific uncut film-within-a-film "Mant!" sequences, and we're told that a number of interesting extras exist for exploitation, including cut scenes. The movie is a major cult item and interest in it is very high ... and fantasy fans are accustomed to Dante's entertaining commentaries. Being deprived of a director presence on what may be his most personal movie, would be a shame.

DVD Savant doesn't field angry petitions or encourage fans to march on studio gates, but I'd like to express my hope that responsible parties within Universal will not let this opportunity go by. I'll gladly promote any other sites efforts in this just cause -- to end up with the DVD of Matinee we wanna see ... !

The DVD Savant Wish List has been updated with many Universal and Warner titles just released in their respective archives programs ... take a look. Can't wait for the upcoming Criterion Lola Montès and Sony's two Bad Girls of Film Noir DVD sets, both due in February! Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

Greetings! A lot of news today, some of it new and other bits a few days old.

The only link I have is rather silly: Robozol sends me this French Star Wars Disco music video-type ... thing, or whatever it is. Enjoy it if you can stand it.

Next comes a stack of impending release announcements. Warners has announced a 45th anniversary Blu-ray and DVD of Doctor Zhivago for May 4. Shout! Factory is said to be releasing a double feature DVD of Roger Corman's Attack of the Crab Monsters and Not of this Earth in July ... no exact date yet, so I haven't added it to the Savant Wish List.

The Home Theater Forum has announced a formidable list of Universal DVD-R releases to be offered on Amazon, but these don't have dates either. They include The List of Adrian Messenger, Dragnet (1954), Kitten with a Whip, Ruggles of Red Gap, The Brass Bottle, Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here, The Chalk Garden, Blue Collar and Death Takes a Holiday.

I can also report an uncorroborated rumor that Sony's Icons of Suspense DVD box, which is slated to include an R1 disc of the much-desired These Are the Damned, is going to street on April 6.

And finally, Joe Dante's wonderful Matinee has been announced from Universal for DVD release on May 4. We hope it will have plenty of extras, including the stand-alone Mant! film-within-a-film.

Two books to report: Fred Weibel's new book Edison's Frankenstein is just in time for that film's 100th anniversary, from BearManor Media. Savant correspondent Bruce Hallenbeck also put out a new horror-related book not long ago, Comedy-Horror Films, a Chronological History. It's from McFarland.

Bernice Murphy and Elizabeth McCarthy inform me that the new issue of their web magazine The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies is up ... it's issue number seven.

Lastly, I'd like to say that I've received many emails about The Fabulous World of Jules Verne and haven't gotten around to answering all of them yet. They mostly talk about the availability / non-availability of Region 1 copies of Karel Zeman pictures. I've amended some of these emails to the review. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson

Greetings!

The big news for collectors today is that The African Queen finally has a hard release date for Blu-ray and DVD: March 23. It comes with several extras including a making-of docu called Embracing Chaos. Boxed sets will also include Katharine Hepburn's book The Making of The African Queen or How I Went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind.

I've received no violent reactions to my review of The Green Berets, and don't want to solicit any! I did hear from a couple of longtime correspondents who asked why I didn't righteously clobber the movie with abuse. One suggested a gag title: "It Never Waynes but It Bores". I should have a review for Criterion's (stunning) Blu-ray of Che up in a little over a week, which may put me back on an even keel, attitude-wise.

I'm getting my nose back to the buzzsaw here, seeing as there's some writing work to do ... hope to have another bushel of Warner Archive Discs to wade into, next go-round. Thanks for reading, and stay warm out there. Twenty degrees in southern Florida? Isn't there a law down there? Glenn Erickson

Greetings!

Warners has just announced five Blu-ray double bills, including a pair of Harrison Ford films Presumed Innocent and Frantic. The latter film, an underrated Roman Polanski thriller, has only been available on a fairly miserable Pan-Scan DVD and is a prime target disc for Savant in the DVD Savant Wish List. The others are Analyze This/Analyze That; Dirty Harry/Magnum Force; Miss Congeniality/Miss Congeniality 2 and Grumpy Old Men/Grumpier Old Men. They'll be out on February 23. This is a step in the right direction, as I imagine three normal-length older films would have no difficulty fitting on a Blu-ray disc. More power and yet another welcome innovation from Warners.

A Turner Classic Movies heads-up .. on January 15, the cable channel is scheduled to show Jerzy Skolimowski's Deep End, a rarity that's been on a lot of folks' wanna-see lists for years. This is the one with the mysterious still photo of the young man down in the deep end of a swimming pool, holding a cut-out standee of the girl he loves.

Craig Reardon sends along this link to a Star Trek: Voyager clip. It's from Genvieve Bujold's half day of shooting before she quit and was replaced by Kate Mulgrew: The First Captain Janeway.

I've finally read almost all of Bill Warren's book Keep Watching the Skies!, the 21st Century Edition now available through McFarland. The hefty volume (seven or so pounds) is truly an encyclopedia of the first years of the Sci-Fi boom, 1950 -1962. What distinguishes it from its competition is Warren's personal relationship with the films he loves, and as he imparts information on the most obscure titles, we know we're reading the opinions of a fellow who experienced most of the films first-hand on their initial release. (By comparison, space cadet come-lately Savant didn't discover Sci-Fi matinees until 1959 or so.)

Bill doesn't gush over his favorites, quite the opposite. He keeps a jaundiced eye on the cinematic shortcomings to be found in pictures like Cat Women of the Moon and Devil Girl from Mars, yet holds the classics up to critcal scrutiny as well. His prose is often amusing always shows a real understanding of his subject. It's as if the parade of rubber monsters, needle-nosed spaceships and mad scientists are part of the same flow of expression, a very fifites blend of artistic idealism and commercial crudity.

Although many of Warren's entries have only been slightly amended with new information, a significant number are basically new, mostly because he's been able to see original versions. Back in the early 80s re-viewing many of these films was nearly impossible, forcing Warren to rely on memories thirty years old.

Dropping the chronological order of the old 2-volume set, the new book organizes the movies alphabetically, which makes them easier to find but obscures the development of the genre. Warren adds several interesting appendices and introductions, and the fat volume boasts a couple of sections of color poster reproductions along with abundant B&W stills. It's very good that the original, and still the best, compendium of classic Sci-Fi film criticism is back in an improved edition.

Savant associate and sometime contributor Stuart Galbraith IV gives us a special interview with Bill Warren, which I hope will please the curious, the inquisitive and the questioning alike. I can never tell those three types apart.

An extra link, courtesy of Gary Teetzel: Scroll down on this Huffington Post Page to see The Best Fails (Falls?) of 2009. Some of these are really violent, somer are as funny as hell ... and others combine pain and humiliation in gross quantities. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson

Greetings! 2010 is here, and I have to say I'm ready to "make contact" as promised in the movie title. The scan cleverly hidden to the right of this text is of a gift from prime Savant contributor Gary Teetzel, a 1984 original promo button that will look appropriately fannish next to my promo "atomic fail-safe key" from The Andromeda Strain.

It's a quiet week, with friendly notes coming in from longtime Savant correspondents and fairly new contacts. By far the best fringe benefit of the site is having contact with so many interesting, knowledgeable people spread out across the globe -- lawyers, artists, businessmen, teachers, scientists. When I was in grade school I was lucky if I could find one kid who shared my arcane interests. Well, they're all here now. A Savant-met friend came through L.A. right after the Christmas holiday and we were able to get together at a deli to talk. That's real progress for a guy who never cultivated slick social skills. My friendship list has always been brief, but loyal ... like those Russians in Ninotchka.

All this end-of-the-year-reflection business has put an unusual volume of "I" this and "my" that into my writing, so I'll try and calm back down to the subject at hand. Some of the more interesting pictures I've been reviewing continue to be available only on foriegn discs (or not at all), but reader response encourages me to keep writing them up. And next post I'll have a full review of Bill Warren's hefty book release Keep Watching the Skies!. Happy New Year, Glenn Erickson

Greetings! The most turbulent decade since the 60s is over -- let's hope the 'teens becomes a time when at least part of the world gets put back together again. I had fun compiling my Best of 2009 List and 2010 Savant Wish List, so the end of year chores are done once again. A "normal" review schedule should be back in place in less than a week as things settle down at the Casa de Savant (located on several rolling acres, all crammed into a small 1922 Hollywood tract lot -- I always imagine Laurel & Hardy building the original house here).

A lot of responses have bounced back re: my review of Duncan Jones' Moon. Most readers seem grateful that I didn't spill any spoiler beans for a movie that can't even be discussed without resorting to spoilers. That's a prime Savant skill: selective obfuscation.

A spread-the-joy note ... if you haven't checked lately, some great film journalism continues to go down over at McElwee's Greenbriar Picture Shows and David Cairns' Shadowplay sites. Shadowplay is just wrapping up its 52-week, 52-title overview of the entire filmography of Alfred Hitchcock. Some of the observations and essays on classics like Vertigo and Psycho are of world-class quality. If you find yourself between eggnog and a hard place this weekend, these sites are a great place to roam. At any rate, that's where I go to recharge my filmic batteries ...

Thanks for reading and Happy New Year -- Endure, Subsist and Evolve!
Glenn Erickson

Greetings! Hello again. A technical state of holiday continues at Casa de Savant, but a couple of reviews have leaked out, just the same. All is well, although I'm eating far more than normal .... a typical report for this time of year.

Joe Dante directs our attention to a page called Richard Graham's Government Comics Collection. It has full downloadable scans of officially commissioned comic books -- government propaganda for all kinds of issues. Li' Abner is present shilling for official messages; the Blondie family dramatizes family values and mental health concerns.

Among more political choices, one title (pictured here) presents the Grenada invasion in the form of a war comic. The site also has a pro-revolutionary Sandinista comic book from Nicaragua. Highly recommended.

Next posting up should carry the new year's Savant Wish List! Thanks for sticking with DVD Savant during the holidays -- Glenn Erickson.

Greetings! I was going to just drop all pretense of activity this week and skip out on my Savant duties, but I obtained my next batch of MGM Archive Collection discs yesterday, and The Next Voice You Hear... sort of had an invisible "watch me" sign on it. A couple of hours of deliquency from Christmas duties, and here we are.

Gary Teetzel sent me this Sci-Fi Wire link to three brief clips from the BBC's New Day of the Triffids miniseries. We Yanks hope to see it on BBC America or have it available for purchase on disc soon. Have a great Holiday and I'll be back in a few days ... thanks, Glenn.

Greetings, and I hope your holiday is coming together as planned, if you're the type that dares to make plans! The big news this week, at least in Savant's tunnelvision world, is Criterion's announcement that they'll be releasing the Nicholas Ray film Bigger than Life on March 23. A dangerous movie to oversell, this story of a schoolteacher that inadvertently expands his ego through drugs is the emblematic film of the neurotic 1950s. Starring its producer James Mason, Barbara Rush & Walter Matthau, and featuring the music of David Raksin. "God was wrong!

TCM's fine Obituary Montage for 2009 is up; I wonder if they'll amend it to include a marker for the marvelous Jennifer Jones. TCM's obits have been consistently more tasteful than the Academy's, in my view.

Friend & writer Jeremy Arnold pointed me to that link, and also offers an interesting Life Magazine link to a nifty photo article on the Auditions for a new James Bond, back in 1968 when Sean Connery bowed out of the running. Unpublished: James Bond Auditions is a good read, too.

My Inglourious Basterds review was reprinted at DVDtalk, and shot up to the top slot of most-read reviews there, due I'm sure, totally to my byline (cough, cough), I mean, the fact that the Blu-ray just came out and is very popular. Responses have been positive -- I wasn't sure all that many viewers appreciated Tarantino's movie ...

So, I've gotten in Blu-rays of Moon and Paranormal Activity, and hope to have access to more Warner Archive Collection discs soon. I'm especially hoping to get a loaner on the delirious religious parable, The Next Voice You Hear. And it's time to get a Christmas tree as well ... Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson.

Greetings! I'm getting a lot of feedback from my Inglourious Basterds review and have already posted two responses (yea and nay). So look again if that disc is on your mind this week.

I'm also working hard on the end-of-year mini-essay that goes with the new year's Savant Wish List -- a lot of changes in the landscape of Library Catalog discs this year. With that in mind -- along with my subjective "best of 2009" list to compile, I'll cut this short. Thanks for the notes and thanks as ever for reading! -- Glenn Erickson