Good evening - just one review again tonight, and no excuses offered - I'm encountering a serious hour shortage here between work and writing. I'll be doing my best ...

Warners' deluxe 2-disc Special Edition of Otto Preminger's The Cardinal gives his epic of the church a regal sendoff. The soapy tale takes novice Priest Tom Tryon from WW1 to well into WW2, along the way encountering Nazis, the Klan, troublesome churchmen and a tempting Romy Schneider. It's big and quite impressive, although not as good as other pictures he was making at the time.

I have a notice here that a Barbara Steele (swoon) movie I've never seen is on the way, The Faceless Monster aka Nightmare Castle aka Amanti d' oltretomba. Who cares about the name, the word is that this version is 100 minutes long ... and the earlier versions I'd not bothered to check out were as much as half an hour shorter. Yes, when you're still a sci-fi and horror fan at heart, these are the things that matter. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

I've slipped in another goodie for the week - Anchor Bay's excellent disc of Nicolas Roeg's The Man Who Fell to Earth. An earlier disc was a true eyesore, and now that Studio Canal appears to be sucking up every loose film in Europe, like a black hole, we get this superbly transferred edition. The David Bowie fantasmagoria is a tough nut to crack for the average viewer, and can even be a frustrating ride for Science Fiction fans accustomed to less demanding fare, but Roeg's dazzling imagery and bizarre editing schemes are always fascinating. It's a two disc set with a number of interesting extras.

Awk, more deadlines. This summer, Savant will probably be staring at the Phone That Will Not Ring, wondering where all the work went, but right now he's on the busy side, so I've only gotten out 5 reviews this week. I'll still stay ahead of the deluge, but not so nimbly ... thanks again for hanging in there! GE

A busy weekend, so I barely have time to intro the two new reviews today. They're a day late but hopefully better-spelled than usual. Both are from Columbia TriStar, one a great disc of a little known gem, and the other a terrible disc of one of the studio's classics.

Desert Bloom is a fascinating portrait of Las Vegas in 1950, with the Atom tests providing a tense background to the unstable coming-of-age of a teenage girl played by Annabeth Gish. Jon Voight is her shell-shocked, psycho dad, and JoBeth Williams the perfect 1950s denial-based mother. Man-bait Ellen Barkin moves in to enliven things but turns out to be a problem herself. A very involving drama.

You Can't Take It with You is a 'classic', a Best Picture winner that is undeniably entertaining. Savant's finally reached his verdict on Frank Capra in general, and has a lot of negative analysis of the director's basic approach, and this picture in general. But it's nothing compared to the disappointment with the quality of the DVD. The back cover reads 'remastered in High Definition', but they didn't say that it must have been transferred using the scrappiest piece of film in the vault. Looking good, this picture can be a delight, but this DVD is pretty dismal.

Coming up, a bunch more Columbia, some Criterions and maybe some older titles that scheduling made me skip in the past weeks. And hopefully a rundown on those anticipated upcoming attractions, that keep this DVD Sap's sap running. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson

Time marches on, and more reviews keep coming. It's like a disease, but a pleasant one. Today I have a 70s comedy, and a chopped-up masterpiece from John Huston.

Warners' The Red Badge of Courage was once a courageous film - a straight version of the Civil War novella that didn't enlarge the scope of the story or add a female love interest to spice things up. It's peculiar that Hollywood often initiated projects like these, only to butcher them, and then perversely serve them up as the proud work of the studio. It's all here to be seen. With Audie Murphy (he's actually very good) and Bill Mauldin, and a little bit of what was supposed to be Royal Dano's greatest role.

Fox's Claudine is a winning romance / comedy / family film where the mom is shacking up with her boyfriend, while her family dodges the welfare workers. It's a serious show with some good points to make, and made its mark as an antidote to the blaxploitation product of the time. With Diahann Carroll and James Earl Jones.

February is grinding on, work-wise, but I have to admit my thoughts are straying toward the big titles coming out from Fox and others this spring - mainly bigtime Science Fiction and War spectacles. The top two Jules Verne adaptations and the most-loved Sci Fi film of the early 50s .... there's going to be some happy review writing here in Savant-land. Back in a couple of days, Glenn Erickson

Sunday Night is here! Savant's going to be busy cutting for about 36 hours straight, so he saved up an extra review to tide you over until Wednesday.

Criterion's Double Disc Special Edition of The Killers pairs both the 1946 and the 1964 versions of the Noir tale about two hit men who find a victim who doesn't run away or struggle when they finish him off. The double bill makes for great comparisons, as the first show, with Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner, came in the heyday of Film Noir, and the rethought remake, with Lee Marvin, John Cassavetes and Angie Dickinson, was released in the paranoid months following the JFK assassination, when the thriller landscape had changed completely. And Criterion packs the two-disc set with compelling extras.

Artisan's budget release of Copacabana is an amusing, script-challenged musical comedy that has to rely on the personalities of Groucho Marx and Carmen Miranda to stay afloat, but will more than satisfy their fans.

Paramount's 2002 version of The Four Feathers is a huge disappointment, a PC-ridden rethink of a classic story that stresses anachronistic characterizations and trendy, meaningless camera technique over storytelling. Some nicely staged battles are wasted in this unfocused, pandering effort.

Savant's glad he got his THE KILLERS review out before street date. Kino's METROPOLIS streets on Tuesday, and I'll try to review one more new disc by then as well. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson

Hope you're all ready for Valentine's Day. It's also Savant's wedding anniversary (a brilliantly practical idea, think about it) but he made sure to get this pair of reviews out on schedule:

Columbia TriStar's Living in Oblivion is an hilarious and insightful comedy about the pitfalls and insanity of low-budget moviemaking, with a winning ensemble of talent under leading man Steve Buscemi. It truly captures some of the weirdness ...

Image's DVD of Castle Hill's release of Volker Schlöndorff's Death of a Salesman is enough to make one a convert to serious stage drama: Dustin Hoffman, Kate Reid, Charles Durning, Stephen Lang and a then-brand-new John Malkovich put across a definitive version of Arthur Miller's classic play. A very handsome disc, with the bonus of a full-length documentary about the film, too.

It's flowers and candy time, so for pity's sake, don't forget. A new package of DVD goodies just came in the mail, so Savant will be busy with the reviews, even though he's working through the weekend .... Thanks for reading, as ever, GE

Monday sneaks around again, and Savant brings out reviews for two impressive discs ... timed to coincide with their street dates, for once.

Criterion's superb Beauty and the Beast is the budget-buster this week, a reissue that improves greatly on both the presentation of the feature and the extras that accompany it. With the once-rough edges of the visuals and soundtrack buffed out, this an irresistable Valentine's Day disc.

Image's The Mind Snatchers is not classic, but a retitling of 1972's The Happiness Cage, starring a young Christopher Walken and Ronny Cox. As a thriller it's a bit on the tame side, but as a science fiction film, this story of mind-altering surgical experiments is uncomfortably prophetic.

I promise to get to those theatrical television play presentations soon, along with the remake of THE FOUR FEATHERS, the original Korda version of which we just saw so as to have it fresh in our minds. I think I go back on the editing treadmill tomorrow, but it shouldn't hold up the reviews. Thanks for all the nice notes, with the helpful corrections! Glenn Erickson

A really special disc tonight - from the detail & quality-obsessed people at Anchor Bay.

Richard Lester's The Complete Musketeers does for Dumas what every classic deserves, a faithul adaptation that captures the fun of the original. Swashbucklers that bring out all the talents of their perfectly cast stars, The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers are great entertainments that haven't dated. A two disc set.

Good stuff coming ... Criterion's reissue of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, some theatrical treasures, and quality classics. Glenn Erickson

A day off, waiting for interviews to be shot ... and Savant kicks in with two quick reviews -- an old musical, and a pair of exploitation quickies.

Columbia brings out a pristine copy of a vintage musical, Pennies From Heaven starring Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong. The depression-era plotline is pretty thick, but Bing is good as an aimless troubadour who finds a family and makes good.

The latest slice of top-quality exploitation sleaze from Something Weird is a kooky caveman double bill of When Women Had Tails and 50,000 B.C. (before clothing). They're a pair of oversexed comedies, one a nudie effort from 1963, and the other an Italian opus from 1971. With tons of extra short subjects.

Not a bad day ... a trip to a Studio City used DVD store turned up a nice copy of FRENCH CONNECTION II, and a CD of the the great Elmer Bernstein soundtrack to ZULU DAWN. That 1979 sequel to the original ZULU would be a great movie for everyone to see right now. On the thinnest of pretexts, an English politician and his general start a war with the Zulu chief Csetzwayo, claiming imminent danger and atrocities, while all the while hoping to make their careers as expanders of the Empire ... old stories aren't really old at all. Thanks for reading, lots of top titles coming up. Glenn Erickson

A better Monday than most ... Savant has a winner love story, and a Bogart flick that you'll probably enjoy for his performance alone.

Warners' A Patch of Blue is an old favorite, a Sidney Poitier vehicle one doesn't have to explain as a product of its time. Elizabeth Hartman gives the standout performance as the vulnerable blind girl, with Poitier doing able support, and Shelley Winters stealing the screen whenever she can. With a powerhouse score by Jerry Goldsmith, too.

Columbia TriStar debuts another Humphrey Bogart vehicle with 1951's Sirocco, a so-so thriller set in 1925 Damascus, about seven years after Lawrence of Arabia left, with the French moving in, it seems. Despite good support from Lee J. Cobb and a dreamy-eyed Marta Toren, it ain't much. although Bogie fans won't be intimidated from seeking it out.

Some discs go right from the mailbox, directly into the DVD player. Criterion's long-promised restoration of Beauty and the Beast magically appeared today, and Savant couldn't resist checking it out tooty sweetie. It looks great ... I think it will be the first title Criterion has officially replaced with a better version. The review will be a few days' coming ... Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

Greetings from Los Angeles. A terrible disaster in the skies today. The sadness is tinged with the positive thought that people risking their lives for science and progress are true heroes. Astronauts are in some ways the best of the best of our technological society, and earn our admiration. A salute ...

Two not-too-successful comedies today. Artisan's The Magic Christian is a well-known title that Savant was sorry to find out isn't much of a film. But it's an interesting train wreck from Terry Southern and Joseph McGrath, starring Peter Sellers, Ringo Starr, and a plethora of misused cameo appearances. There is, however, the undeniably unique spectacle of Raquel Welch whipping a galley of at least 100 topless oarswomen.

Image/Castle Hill's The Stand-In is another misfire released no doubt for the appearance of a pre-fame Humphrey Bogart. It's satire of the movie industry isn't as clever as it wants to be, and poor Leslie Howard is woefully miscast and misdirected. Joan Blondell shines, however.

Thanks for reading. I'm going back to the TV news. Glenn Erickson