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Hello!

As many outlets have, I received the official Fox/MGM announcement for their monstrous 22 Blu-ray box of James Bond movies this morning. It retails for $300 but is pre-selling at Amazon for $200. I think that even if I didn't already own several Bond BD discs, I'd still balk at the big investment; I guess the idea is that it's a perfect 'big gift' for someone for Christmas. Video companies keep looking for the big score, which I suppose is only natural. For the rest of us, we're all wondering when the titles will appear as individual buys. I have to say that there are only a few more Bonds that interest me personally, but a couple of them I really wish I could see in Blu-ray tonight. But please, I have no idea when they'll be sold individually!

My Saturday post on The Lawless (which I've fixed now, a typo-ridden copy went up on Saturday) did get a response from the alert John McElwee of Greenbriar Picture Shows. John reports that he's looking into writing one of his researched articles about the movie, to see if any evidence surfaces that the film's political content had any bearing on its scarcity on screens and on TV over the last 50 years. I'll definitely direct Savant readers to Greenbriar if the article appears!

Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

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Hello!

Pat Boone (left) would say hello too, but he's examining a residual check from a movie he made back in 1959 ...

I would like to have gotten today's Savant column posted earlier, but let me instead take the time to add a couple of good links...

Dick Dinman has been busy producing a trio of radio shows that he calls Dick Dinman's Journey to the Center of Pat Boone. With an assist from Arlene Dahl, Dinman devotes three shows to a Pat Boone interview that covers all aspects of Journey to the Center of the Earth, just out in Blu-ray from Twilight Time. We're promised the lowdown on James Mason, Marilyn Monroe (no, she didn't play the duck), an accident in Carlsbad Caverns and Boone's odd path to becoming a co-producer on the show. Here are the links -- Part One, Part Two and Part Three. Dinaman says that Mr. Boone also "sheds new light on the oft-repeated story about his "refusal" to kiss co-star Shirley Jones and frankly reveals why he later in his film career accepted the against-type role of an initially immoral character and the previously unscripted demands of that role which almost caused him to walk off the film." And I thought my personal moral dilemmas were difficult.

Hey, thanks to poster SWAC44 at TCM's Movie Morlocks site, I have a great link to The Goon Show, the 1950s British comedy radio show with Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers. The show in question is an elaborate, rather lengthy goofball takeoff on the BBC TV serial Quatermass and the Pit. It's weird, it's strange, it's sometimes hard to follow. But the direct take-offs on pompous BBC voices and attitudes are even crazier than what we are accustomed to with the later Monty Python crew. Sample: "This is the terror-stricken service of the BBC. Today at approximately this afternoon, a discovery was made on the site of the Notting Hill Gate site of the government's new dig-up-the-roads-plan-for-congesting-traffic scheme."

These guys are in love with silly noises and silliness in general. Don't stop when you hear the musical interludes, it's hard to say what's exactly happening then.

As an aid to understanding, they also provide a link to the full text of the script. If you have the capability, I recommend reading along while listening. I was constantly Googling oddball topical references made in the script, to find out what the Goonies were talking about. Enjoy!

Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson

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Greetings!

Craig Reardon forwards something truly fantastic. It's a demonstration of a camera that takes digital pictures that re-focus wherever you want them to. If that explanation isn't good enough, the brief text and the demo picture at The Next Digital Revolution will make it clear. I don't know about you, but this really excited me. I've had dreams in the past about a fantasy device that "refocuses" out-of-focus negatives. This invention doesn't do that, but it does go partway to being the fantastic omni-view camera from Ridley Scott's Blade Runner.

When writing about my new all-region BD player, I mentioned having only one actual Region-B disc to play on it. I was wrong -- a reader's suggestion reminded me that I had been given a French BD of Matinee a couple of years ago, called Panic sur Florida Beach. I don't get the title change, isn't "matinee" a French word? I had accepted that the disc would remain a handsome souvenir, a reminder that the U.S. DVD had no extras. Now I can actually look at it.

This French pressing has attractive designs and a humorous presentation that remind me of American discs made ten years ago, when even ordinary releases tried to look like special collectables. Not only does the film look great in HD, the extras include the entire uncut "Mant" mini-movie glimpsed in fragments during the feature itself, along with a lengthy (31 minute) interview featurette with director Joe Dante. Just cancel out the French sous-titres and you're there. Let me ask: U.K. correspondent Lee Broughton already reviews titles not available here, and I've received no complaints from readers, just thanks. I have a new Arrow horror film that I might cover -- should I fully review it or just write it up like this in the Savant column?

I hope the Savant reviews lately point out pictures you might not have heard of, and want to give a try ... in the next week I'll have a couple more "Savant obsessive" titles -- and pressed by Craig Reardon, I'm going to plunge into another Jerry Lewis / Frank Tashlin comedy. Thanks for reading! Glenn

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Hello!

Well, I never thought this would happen... I mentioned buying an all-region BD player a couple of instalments ago, and so far I've received 9 requests asking which one and where. I have a mind to ask the company for a finder's fee! Or, a better idea might be to remind Savant readers that I simply bought a player recommended by a friend, and that I am not an expert of any kind on video hardware. If my new player drops dead in two weeks, I'd rather not have angry mob at my door. Oh, and I have exactly one foreign-region Blu-ray to play!

When Olive Films announced Invasion of the Body Snatchers last week, I took it as very encouraging news. I think the first thing I wrote was a list of other Viacom/Republic-owned pictures that might come out, which included Nicholas Ray's Johnny Guitar. And whattaya know, the title shows up not five days later in an Olive Email, set for a July 7 release. The only question is what aspect ratio it will have. I've kept a TCM HD cablecast copy that's open-matte 1:33, when the main titles and other clues suggest it should be 1:85. However, the movie looks really good at the Academy ratio as well. Perhaps AR authorities Bob Furmanek or Jack Theakston (they've done the research) can answer the question -- did Republic hold out longer than other studios against the new widescreen framing?

Coming up, more Jean Rollin from Kino, Byron Haskin from Olive, and a top early gangster show from the Warner Archives collection. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

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Hello! Well, I broke down and bought an all-region Blu-ray player, as too many good things are coming out overseas. I'm more excited about foreign BD than I was about DVD because foreign DVDs were often time-compressed, which I can usually detect and don't like. I know that I will probably purchase very few discs. But the new player will be convenient when friends come from Holland and Germany, and it's always good to be prepared. And, actually, this machine replaces an ultra-cheap ordinary deck that I never should have gotten in the first place.

Three more Kino / Redemption Jean Rollin pictures came in. I'm going to give Rape of the Vampire a shot because it's the first one, and I've read so much praise for it over the years. Not much else is hopping in the news hopper -- work has really heated up, however -- so I'll get these notices out. Two correspondents wrote to ask semi-urgent questions about Bird of Paradise, so here's the review ---

Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

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Hello!

Interesting disc announcements this week, of older titles. Olive Films is becoming a major provider of quality Blu-rays of gems from the Paramount & Viacom-related libraries, meaning primarily Republic. This week they sent out fliers promoting the noir classics Body and Soul and Force of Evil (July 31) as well as the newer (1984) domestic thriller Firstborn. I've seen Force of Evil in HD and hope that these new discs will look as good -- who else is releasing Blu-ray product of such exotic titles? Olive has me checking the calendar for The Lawless, High Noon and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, already announced. This is a great trend -- can Republic's Johnny Guitar, Plunder Road and Try and Get Me? be next?

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Hello! -- besides being May Day (Fidel and Ché are due over for popcorn and marshmallows any minute now), I'm up against the wall with work commitments, so no clever column tidbits tonight -- what's that I hear, applause? I'm almost caught up with reviews, and if I could just squeak by a couple extra each week, I wouldn't feel so remiss. But I think I'm hitting the most interesting titles.

Thanks for reading -- see you Saturday! Glenn Erickson

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Hello!

Some quick announcements. I'm off tonight to catch a new widescreen print of the rare Slaughter on Tenth Avenue at this year's NOIR CITY: the 14th Annual Festival of Film Noir. It continues another week at the Egyptian Theater, finishing on Sunday May 6th. All the relevant details can be found at the American Cinematheque Noir City page.

Dick Dinman has two new radio shows up and auditable on the web! This time out the subject is the autocratic director Otto Preminger, as remembered by those who worked with him and inspired by Criterion's sensationally good Blu-ray release of Anatomy of a Murder. Part One of Dick Dinman's Anatomy of Otto Preminger has a stellar lineup of interviews: Kathyrn Grant Crosby, Geoffrey Horne, the late Peter Graves, and Kim Novak. Dick's blurb says that the interviews "reveal with great candor the ups and downs of working with this most controversial of all love-him-or-hate-him directors." Anatomy of Otto Preminger (Part Two) gives us a one-on-one with the candid and personable Stanley Rubin, who produced Preminger's high profile Robert Mitchum-Marilyn Monroe western, River of No Return. Rubin's thoughts illuminate the "not so euphoric reminiscences about the conflicts and challenges inherent on working with the Jekyll and Hyde-like Preminger". All of Dick Dinman's radio shows are accessible at his DVD Classics Corner on the Air Archive.

What else is cooking? We'd heard rumors that a disc reissue of the influential original Sci-Fi classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers was on the way, and Olive Films made it official earlier this week -- on July 17th we'll be getting a Blu-ray of a new remastered Body Snatchers (along with a BD of a little western you may know, High Noon). The horror and sci fi boards immediately lit up with questions about the true aspect ratio of this 1956 Allied Artists release, and were happily answered (with authoritative evidence) by Bob Furmanek, one of the trustworthy names in determining original A.R.s. Furmanek explained that although the film was shot flat and intended for a matted widescreen 1:85 format, it was decided to adapt it to the 2:1 SuperScope after principal photography wrapped. That accounts for a few shots (I mostly remember the accompanying close-up of a sweaty, terrified Kevin McCarthy) looking a tad tight. I've seen original SuperScope prints of Invasion of the Body Snatchers projected, and it looked sensational.

If you recall, older flat TV prints of the movie didn't open up the matting, but pan-scanned the already-cropped SuperScope area. The original camera negative of the film is lost, leaving only the re-formatted SuperScope elements. This is why no 1:85 remastering can be done -- and perhaps why no early cuts of the movie exist, before the film's (good) flashback structure was imposed. I'm really going to be looking forward to this one!

Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

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Greetings!

Since I'm reviewing a Brian Trenchard-Smith movie today, I checked back at the Trailers from Hell page and found the director's beyond-excellent commentary on John Schlesinger's Billy Liar. Listen to it -- in just a couple of minutes, Trenchard-Smith encapsulates the meaning of the British New Wave and relates Billy Liar to other Kitchen Sink movies as well as to Schlesinger's own Midnight Cowboy. And we clueless Yanks are given an expert lesson on the distinctions between Southern and Northern Brit culture, complete with a demonstration of accents.

Lots of odd disc announcements. I mostly hear about them second-hand, and now offer them to you third-hand.
Twilight Time in July and August has Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, Cover Girl, High Time and Bye Birdie coming on Blu-ray.
Warners just announced an odd couple of Blu-rays, for The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) and The Incredible Mr. Limpet.
Criterion for July has Down by Law, The Last Days of Disco, Metropolitan, Le Havre coming out in BD, plus and an Eclipse box of Jean Grémillon movies. Right now I'm digging into Criterion's discs The Organizer, Alambrista! and their Eclipse box of Czech political-paranoia pictures from the 1960s, Pearls of the Czech New Wave.
Kino Lorber and Redemption have The Blood Beast Terror on their schedule.
VCI has announced a few new "Carry On" movies in their basket, along with the war movies The Way Ahead, Flame Over India and Morning Departure.
Disney has announced 30 new titles to Blu-ray, but not a one of them really interests me ... The Color of Money, perhaps.
Anchor Bay has a new end-of-the-world movie I want to check out, Doomsday Prophecy, and a horror anthology called The Theater Bizarre with a segment directed by David Gregory.
Olive Films is bursting with new releases -- the ones that strike me as the most promising are The Spirit is Willing, Tales that Witness Madness and The Hangman with a young Tina Louise. But the most hotly awaited Olive title for this reviewer is Joseph Losey's The Lawless. It's easily the most searing critique of race prejudice and mob mentality from the McCarthy era.
The new publicists on the MGM Limited Edition beat say they'll keep me in the loop. Right now The House on Garibaldi Street, The Last Mile and Run for the Sun are supposedly on their way. Have MGM library Blu-rays ceased? I haven't heard of any in a while.
Finally, the Warner Archive Collection has sent me Doorway to Hell, Green Dolphin Street, Hot Millions, Joan of Paris, The Sky's the Limit and another Dorothy Mackaill double bill, Bright Lights / The Reckless Hour.

More immediate titles on my "write the damn review now" list include Badge 373 (Blu; Olive Films), Conversation Piece (Rarovideo), Bell, Book and Candle & Journey to the Center of the Earth (Blu, Twilight Time) and Ganja and Hess & The Girl on a Motorcycle (Blu; Kino Lorber). Take care and thanks for reading! -- Glenn Erickson

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Greetings!

This may be a stressed couple of weeks catching up, so I'll lay off the long columns for the moment.

Joe Dante sent a great link to a new instalment of New Zealand Pete's Matte Painting Site, which contains an incredibly tall stack of examples and facts about our favorite old trick shots.

Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson

My plan was to post reviews tonight. They're written but I'm dead tired and in no shape to both go through them again and do all that's necessary to post, so I'm begging off. Mea culpa, milli regretti.

But I DO want to make Los Angeles film types aware of this year's NOIR CITY: the 14th Annual Festival of Film Noir being held at the Egyptian Theater from Friday April 20 to Sunday May 6th. This time the programmers / Film Noir Foundation officers Eddie Muller, Alan K. Rode and Gwen Deglise have a lineup of great shows, all in 35mm prints. Some are meaningful gotta-sees, like the rare Alan Ladd version of The Great Gatsby and a new widescreen print of the even more rare Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, which I've wanted to see for ages. The special guests will include Julie Adams, Marsha Hunt and Norman Lloyd. All the relevant details can be found at this American Cinematheque Noir City page.

Sunday April 15, 2012 10:08 p.m. Pacific

It's finished! I had to leave the utterly amazing screening of the silent The Thief of Bagdad at the one hour mark, as I was falling asleep and still had to write it up, but I'm happy with all of my posts at the TCM Film Festival Blog Coverage Site. In general the series was more pleasant this year, even though I saw fewer entire movies. Part of this is because I was assigned to many titles I've seen upwards of 10 or 15 times each, including one for which I recorded a DVD commentary. The other is that in order to do a good job on the mini-review blogs, which was important considering the talent of my co-bloggers, I needed more time to write.

My typical modus operandi basically had me acting like a big shot at a series of parties, but each time having to leave before the drinks and cake were served. I'd show up for screenings at the last moment and breeze through the VIP line ahead of all the big spenders. I'd then take the worst seat I could find, knowing that I'd be leaving. After the guest speaker or star talked I'd watch the first ten or twenty minutes of the movie and then duck out, run back to the production room and write like hell. This was the pattern for four days straight. I really wanted to see all of the great print of Night and the City and couldn't make screenings of the hot-cha Pre-Code Clara Bow movie or a re-run of Counselor At Law. I was really there to work. Frankly, if I can't see a picture with a close friend or my wife, something's missing. I got sick of seeing movies alone 40 years ago in film school.

But that allowed me to strike up conversations with fellow filmgoers, in line or while waiting in our seats. I met a charming college instructor from New York on Saturday (I think I mentioned that) who was very generous with her conversation. A nice woman from Texas took time out to show me pictures of her dedicated movie room at home, with hundreds of discs arranged by movie star. I didn't mention my racks and stacks and boxes of discuses, any one of which I can locate if you just give me 36 hours' notice. The Texan lady was very involved with the TCM website, and I offered to forward her questions to my boss if she writes me. We'll see if I keep my job.

Everybody talks to everybody at this festival. Last night I ran into friend Mike Schlesinger, who introduced one of the movies this year. He said he was exhausted too. And I got to see FALL GUY with Jeremy Arnold. I saw pals Richard Harland Smith and Nathaniel Thompson several times, and took in a couple of shows with my boss, the all-wise and powerful Jeff Stafford. I talked to co-blogger John Miller several times as well, but never saw hide nor hair of the other three blogging team members.

At my last show tonight I met two lovely women from Canada down to enjoy the California weather. Even the rain the other day was no sacrifice, as their home is buried in snow at the moment. Those Canadian accents that the Coen Bros. and others exaggerate are real! And no, I was a gentleman.

So that's the situation. The TCM is great fun if your parents can afford it, to coin a phrase. It's back to my day job editing tomorrow, so I'll probably be posting another note tomorrow night begging off on new reviews until Wednesday. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson

Saturday April 14, 2012 8:17 p.m. Pacific

Oof .. I'm nearing the end of my roughest day of the festival. It started out with a screening of the rare film noir FALL GUY at 9 in the morning. Author Foster Hirsch interviewed producer Walter Mirisch afterwards; it's the legendary producer's first film. Mirisch made a lot of apologetic speeches about the film's quality, but was clearly happy to hear Hirsch's praise for his career. The movie has some good acting -- it stars Sean Penn's father Leo, who was blacklisted soon thereafter. Other aspects, like the crazy time continuity, awkward montages and unlikely ideas -- a body stays happily upright in a closet for three days -- are pretty klunky.

Next up, without much of a break, was the really good silent movie LONESOME, followed by an overlong but interesting selection of rare 3-D shorts presented by Serge Bromberg. Full accounts of the shows can be found at the Festival Blog Coverage Site.

I passed various personalities, authors I recognize and even friends because I hadn't a chance to write up any of these movies. After watching the beginning of a truly excellent 35mm print of NIGHT AND THE CITY, I ditched out to come back to the TCM work room to hunker over my keyboard. These TCM folks have been running in and out all day, setting up the fancy celebrity appearances and dashing around to supervise video shoots -- I had to brush past one shoot in the Hollywood Roosevelt lobby without even seeing what star it was. I didn't have access to a decent place to work last year so this is heaven. When it rained yesterday I just typed away and dried out while drinking cups of coffee.

So I'm off to see what's cooking over at Grauman's, and then down to the Egyptian to cover a real favorite, A NIGHT TO REMEMBER at 9:30 ... that's a 14 hour day.. I just reviewed the Titanic movie a week or two ago and am curious to see how it comes off on the big screen. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson

Friday April 13, 2012 7:30 p.m. Pacific

I should repeat the link from below -- the TCM Blog that I'm contributing to can be accessed at this link: Festival Blog Coverage Site.

Another three hours, another prime movie opportunity. Hey, FRANKENSTEIN was fun... I sat up front to see John Carpenter up close. (I know, I know, many of you have seen him many times at conventions) He gave a very respectful speech about James Whale, Karloff and the value of classic horror. Now I'm sitting waiting for VERTIGO to start in the large, main Grauman's Chinese auditorium. I'm not assigned this title but my fearless leader at TCM Online left a hole in my schedule that I'm only too eager to exploit. I'm also not a gaga fan of movie stars, and working on DVDs for the last years has taught me not to be a complete idiot in the presence of impressive celebrities. But I must admit that Kim Novak is a special case. I've kept a fat file of early Columbia photographs of her and VERTIGO was an almost obsessive title for me in film school, when it was completely out of circulation. That said, if the digital version being screened on this (very large) screen looks great, I might stay to see it again. Truth be told, I saw the movie for the first time in original Technicolor in 1971, right here in this same theater, at the first Filmex Exhibition. A life-changing experience that I wish would happen again some time, with some other movie. Or am I too old for that?

I met some nice people in line. One is a college instructor from New York who's fun to talk to -- we sat together for the purpose of watching seats for bathroom trips. She is married to a Spanish professor, just like me. The TCMfest is that kind of place for solitary attendees. Just speak up, and friendly people are on all sides.

6:14: Kim Novak walked on, introduced by Robert Osborne, who definitely gets the royal personage treatment. From my vantage point Ms. Novak looked small, perfectly proportioned and still attractive. She said some fairly obvious things -- Hitchcock knew what he wanted, etc. -- but also remarked that she had initial misgivings about that famous grey suit her character Madeline Elster wears in VERTIGO: "It wasn't like a second skin, as I'm accustomed to dressing." She began to appreciate the Edith Head outfit when she realized that it enforced the character change. I guess that means that the soft 'n' sensual Judy outfits were more to her taste -- fuzzy sweaters, limited undergarments!

The Barco DLP projection was very good, but not the stunning 4k presentation I saw last year, that actually made me want to sit through Breakfast at Tiffany's again. Rear projection shots looked a little milky. The big test for restoration for VERTIGO is the Argosy Bookshop scene, where Hitchcock purposely went for the effect of the afternoon light fading. The bookstore owner tells the sad story of Carlota Valdez, and the room slowly goes dark. Here, the room goes dark, but the contrast also becomes milkier. I won't pretend to be able to diagnose the issue, and the fact is that VERTIGO looked quite good overall. But I'm looking forward to the day when those 4k upgrade projectors become more prevalent in auditoriums like Grauman's big theater, with its (my estimate) 40-foot screen.

Off to see YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN back at the Egyptian (another brief hike down Hollywood Blvd.) I like Mel Brooks and am looking forward to finding out if he's funny in person. Personal confession department: I walked out of YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN when it was new. Couldn't get past the idiotic jokes of the first half hour back then; perhaps tonight will be different. Everybody seems to love that movie. -- Glenn E.

Friday April 13, 2012 11 a.m. Pacific

My first show today is ELMER GANTRY, but I'm basically ready for all the shows on my official dance card. All three are being screened down the street at the Egyptian, which hopefully won't mean standing on line in the rain ... on Friday the 13th, yet. My ambition if I stay caught up is to find time to get on line for the 6 p.m. showing of VERTIGO, the main idea being to get a glimpse of Kim Novak. I have to admit that although I'm not a celebrity hound, she's definitely worth walking across the street for, even in the rain. But it would also be nice to throw in some extra blog posts, to give the TCM folks their money's worth and then some. That requires talking to festival patrons and finding an interesting angle to exploit. Posts about avoiding catching a cold don't qualify. Gee, I hope Saturday and Sunday work out a little better -- last year I think I wore open-toed sandals for one or two days.

I'll check back in after I check out ELMER GANTRY. Star Shirley Jones is supposed to be a no-show, unfortunately. Hasta 1 p.m., GE

Thursday, April 12, 9 p.m. Pacific.

Well, I got here in one piece and just made it to the screening of SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS. I did have to backtrack and hike around the block because they blocked off access to Hollywood Blvd. for the red carpet ceremony for CABARET. Had to walk all the way down to Highland Avenue, and turn back. From across the street, the couple of glances in that direction revealed some tall blondes in fancy gowns, so I guess they were doing their premiere thing.

Inside the theater things calmed down. I asked the couple next to me if they were from out of town, and found out that they lived in the valley but were staying at a hotel for three nights, making this into a movie vacation for them. Good enough for me. This particular audience seems very excited about seeing the show. The introduction was handled by actor Ron Perlman , who said that he'd chosen it when he was a guest presenter on the TCM channel a year or so ago. But it was canceled at the last minute over a rights issue. The projection is video, off of a DLP.

Now I'd better post at the TCM Blog page about SULLIVAN'S. Next up, in an hour, Burt Lancaster in CRISS CROSS, a noir favorite ... and I'd better be ready to get in line.

Thursday, April 12, 11 am Pacific.

Hello! Although real coverage won't begin until this evening, blogging for the TCM Classic Film Festival has officially started, at the Festival Blog Coverage Site. Presuming all of my remote links stay linked, I'll also be reporting here at Savant until Sunday evening. How much and how frequently, I'm not sure yet -- I have to do some of this writing outdoors, and the weather's rather cool today. Thanks! Glenn

Savant's new reviews today are:

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Greetings!

Thursday through Sunday, I'll be working the TCM Classic Film Festival. Starting on Wednesday but really getting going on Thursday night will be a TCMfest Blog staffed by regulars from the TCM Online website, including old colleagues Nathaniel Thompson and Richard Harland Smith. Since we'll all running in different directions covering screenings, the festival isn't really a social event. The best thing about it are the audiences, which are about as un-Los Angeles as one can imagine. Nobody talks or texts and the movies are received like special experiences. Show anything even slightly unusual to these crowds (which include a lot of civilized out-of-towners) and they're thrilled. They're also respectful of the celebrities that show up. I've been to a memorial service in Hollywood where an aspiring actor showed up to be discovered and ruined the mood. Say hello to someone here and more likely than not you'll have a friendly conversation.

The Fest is showing a stack of films noir including one I haven't seen; those thrillers always make a powerful impact on a big screen so I'll have fun soaking up the audience reactions. I'd like to see Kim Novak at Vertigo but will have to see if I have the energy to squeeze myself in --- it's not a title I'm assigned. But I did get some choice venues to cover, like a program of rare 3D shorts. The Blog posts start going up on Thursday night and the Blog site should be humming by Friday morning. Now to think about parking...

Oh, before I forget. Twilight Time's much-coveted Blu-ray of Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) goes up for pre-order tomorrow. To make things extra thrilling, the first 100 copies will be autographed by the one and only Pat Boone! Sadly, Gertrude the Duck is undergoing rehab at the Betty Ford Center and was not available to sign any copies.

Joke courtesy Gary Teetzel (The Pat Boone part is real). Next reviews probably next Tuesday! Thanks for reading -- Glenn Erickson

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Greetings!

A couple of fun links today. Edward Sullivan forwards a link to an excellent two-part docu on The Innocents. In case you find it difficult to navigate YouTube, the docu's second half is here. Sir Christopher Frayling is the host-essayist. The docu originally appeared on a BFI Blu-ray.

The esteemed Alan Rode has a nice writeup at his website about his experience at the big Napoleon shindig up in Oakland last month, "A Few Thoughts on Napoleon". Some nice pictures too!

Olive Films has announced several more Blu-rays of Paramount pictures for June, which include Clint Walker in Night of the Grizzly, Robert Taylor and Tina Louise in The Hangman and two latter-day pix by Jean-Luc Godard, Numero Deux and Ici et ailleurs. If I ever bring the Savant Wish List up to date -- when my work schedule permits -- 2012 will shape up to be a good year for vault-library releases!

Finally, my sister traditionally sends pictures of eggs for Easter. My son the biologist has a topper this year. You can't see the eggs but the monstrous female leatherback sea turtle in the photo above is quietly laying them. A day off from hard work in the Carribean affords a few sights we can't get here in L.A. la-la land. Happy Easter!

Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

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Greetings!

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Greetings!

Dick Dinman's Classics Corner on the Air radio show has two more archived entries to tell you about. This time the focus is on the new Blu-ray of To Kill a Mockingbird, with Dick's special guest Cecilia Peck, the actor's accomplished daughter. The show is divided into halves, Part One and Part Two. And if you like that, check out the tall stack of older radio shows at the Classics Corner Archive.

Hey Sci-Fi fans in the great Northwest ... correspondent Scott Henderson has tipped me off to an April 19 - May 2 gala Screening Series at the Seattle Cinerama Theater. The Science Fiction Film Festival will include screenings of many usual-suspect titles (Terminator 2, Planet of the Apes, Close Encounters) and some nifty less common offerings (Dune, Barbarella, The War of the Worlds). Several titles will be presented in 70mm. But the hot ticket will be for the Complete Metropolis as I saw it at its 2010 L.A. premiere, accompanied by The Alloy Orchestra. It's a crime that the German restoration people won't let the fantastic Alloy score be released with the Fritz Lang classic on Blu-ray, so this is a special opportunity.

My son is a biologist currently working on a research study in a remote corner of a Caribbean island (no names please). No kidding! He hasn't met any refugees from Devil's Island or found traces of Dr. No's bauxite mining operation, but he is working hard in a tropical river, staying soaking wet for hours at a time. No pictures yet, but when I'm not marveling at what an adventure this might be, I'm also thinking about things like poisonous snakes and poisonous spiders and poisonous frogs ... nothing down there seems to be harmless except the giant sea turtles that come ashore. (I love turtles ... Paradise!) He gets into a town with internet service only once a week, and THIS is what he chooses to send me. For a minute I thought it was biologists' humor but apparently this damn disgusting thing is real, a slimy Tingler capable of cutting its way through most anything. Enjoy.

I'm happy to say that I've learned that I'll definitely be reporting from this year's TCM Classic Film Festival. It'll be my third year on the case. Last April I made the job much easier by buying an iPad, and (boast boast) think I hammered out the most topical posts in an on-the-spot manner. This time around I hope to do better. I also intend to flit between venues to catch things I'm not assigned but really want to see. They even have a scheduled star that I want to see in person -- Kim Novak. Besides a 3D presentation promising a "history of the format", the festival has scheduled two films noir that I did commentaries for ... maybe I'll finally get to meet Eddie Muller in person when he hosts. As we TCM writers usually only connect through Emails, it's exciting to hobnob with my fellow wizards, so to speak. The festival should be fun and I hope I attract some followers to the output -- my clever colleagues already have their own followings.

Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson

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Greetings!

Looks like we're back into Mad Men weeks again. I wish AMC or my cable carrier made the audio less tubby and clogged; I'd swear they've crossed the stereo channels or something because dialogue is BURIED and I have to blast the volume to hear the damn words. (That sounds wrong; honest, I don't run outside every hour to chase kids off my lawn or anything!) But I think I got the jist of what was said.

Just got back from reading the new article over at John McElwee's Greenbriar Picture Shows and realized I've been enjoying the site every Saturday for over a year, without shouting its praises. I mean, I've been thanked for steering readers to the rarified humor of David Cairns' Shadowplay as well, it's only right to jump up and down and shout about the good stuff.

I don't know of any resource like Greenbriar. John backs up his excellent opinions of old movies with hard data about their exhibition -- he's either from a family of motion picture exhibitors or he's bought / inherited / raided the files and art cabinets of every old movie house in the South as they closed down. He can tell you what was playing where all over his state and in every major city, on any day in the last century. At least it seems that way; I have a habit of freeze-framing DVDs whenever a movie marquee is visible, and damned if John can't narrow the date of photography down to a couple of weeks.

When I need a quote or a factoid more accurate than what's available on the web, I'll reach for the same forty or fifty books on my shelf. John is wired differently, as he tells stories about movies using arcane distribution and exhibition facts as building blocks. He'll often tie his articles in with new disc releases, which means that I'll review a DVD and then be blown away by his take on the exact same subject. This of course is why I asked him to contribute to Sci-Fi Savant -- his perspective on my favorite '50s movies was a revelation. The bottom line -- '50s Sci-Fi pictures very rarely hit big enough to justify bigger budgets.

Working backwards, here's what Greenbriar has covered in the last couple of weeks. All of these articles are embellished with rare photos and advertising art: March 24: On Fritz Lang's While the City Sleeps, John profiles what he thinks is the film's real auteur, producer Bert Friedlob. March 17: John uncovers the sleazy (by '50s standards) and misleading ad campaign for the Tab Hunter / Natalie Wood The Burning Hills, and how exhibitors complained. March 10 and 3: We get the inside dope on Green Dolphin Street, an expensive epic rejected by critics and the public. And back on February 25, John unearths facts behind the bizarre Bela Lugosi / Duke Mitchell / Sammy Petrillo horror comedy Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla, including the tale of Jerry Lewis's rage against the lower-case Martin & Lewis imitators. Lewis tried to have the movie bought up and destroyed, just like Hearst did Citizen Kane.

You'll also be entertained by John McElwee's writing style, which somehow packs in the info, a sly sense of humor and a strong likeability factor. It's a terrific page and one that I look forward to reading every week.

it's raining and cold here in Los Angeles. That better change quick, because unofficial summer here starts on April 6! Cheers, thanks and take care --- Glenn Erickson