Beautiful, beautiful weather in sunny California. We may not have seasons, but spring gets me every year. Of course, reading the newspaper helps to temper the spirit.

Criterion continues to prove itself worthy of its lofty reputation: Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne is a truly obscure wonderment that would surely be passed over by almost any other DVD distributor. We're the better for Criterion's eclecticism and willingness to invest in art. Robert Bresson and Jean Cocteau's literary adaptation is a strange noir-ish amour fou about obsessive love and obsessive romantic revenge, and has a quartet of arresting performances. María Casarès and Elina Labourdette are unforgettable as a vengeful schemer, and the puppet of her plan.

Columbia's non-restoration could mean lack of interest or simply no good elements to work with, but The Awful Truth shines through anyway. This cleverest of Screwball Comedies is one of Cary Grant's best, and after you see Irene Dunne, she'll become a favorite for sure. With a dog that plays hide and seek.

Well, I've counted, and I've got 14 reviews to write on DVDs that have already come out. Some of them will just have to get caught-up-with (what a bad sentence this is) when I can, as WEST SIDE STORY comes out on Tuesday and it's one I can't miss. Have a nice weekend, and stay away from television news if you can help it. The newspapers seem to have a much broader range of responses to our country's present .... activities. Thanks for reading.

Just sneaking out the gate tonight with the minimum of words ... can barely keep my eyes open. But there's a review of a good new picture ...

Fox adds another polished DVD of a classic to their shelf with The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, a Philip Dunne-Joseph Mankiewicz masterpiece of romance, drama and unerring good taste. Gene Tierney is intensely likeable as the widow who finds herself wooed by a ghost, and Rex Harrison is able to get maximum effectiveness from his bellowing voice.

That's it for tonight - more deadlines. I've a lot of pictures to catch up on, and I'll do my best ... Glenn Erickson

Another sleepy Saturday night ... Savant has a key classic film noir, one with Bogie himself, no less, and a latter-day conspiracy flick with a confusing storyline.

Anchor Bay's Winter Kills not only gives us a great transfer of a hard-to-see film, it tells the backstory of this mob-financed, twice stalled jinx of a picture. Jeff Bridges heads a passel of top stars who believed in the picture, until the Union thugs showed up to shut it down ...

Columbia's noir classic In a Lonely Place is a soulful romantic wail in the night. Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame are perfectly matched, but suspicion in a crime eats away at their love and trust. One of the better movies about Hollywood, even if just on the edge of the genre, this great picture has the bleakest, but most romantic, ending ever.

Not much to say tonight ... editing and writing 15 hours a day is a good way to avoid the insanity on CNN ... and good discs like those above at least provide a diversion. Take care, Glenn Erickson

Savant has yet another pair of goodies tonight, a gloriously escapist sci-fi classic, and an impressive VistaVision psychodrama from the mid-fifities:

Fox's Journey to the Center of the Earth is an entertainment delight, an adventure with class, humor and inventive solutions to every impossible aspect of its plot. Wonderful James Mason is the charming star, with Pat Boone remarkably acceptable as a tuneful Scots lad. And the Bernard Herrmann score is one of his most effective.

Paramount's Fear Strikes Out is an intense true-life drama about mental illness, extremely well-acted by Anthony Perkins in a performance every bit the equal of his later career-killer turn in Psycho. Rookie big leaguer Jimmy Piersall has everything going for him, but cannot get free of the psychic tyranny of his old man, played by Karl Malden. For a 1957 movie about a nervous breakdown, this doesn't seem to have dated at all.

I have to say I'm really enjoying writing about such wonderful movies, and can promise more treasures to come in the next weeks ... as I re-read earlier reviews, I find I'm catching and correcting all kinds of bizarre typos and other errors that zoomed past my efforts at proofreading - so all I can say is, thanks for putting up with the goof level on this page .... Glenn Erickson

Happy St. Patrick's day, or as it will be known henceforth, 'Moment of Truth Day?' Saint Patrick preserve us from the acts of foolish, ambitious men.

Two reviews today, and one of them is refreshingly political in content.

Criterion's The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum is a great picture about police-press collusion to harass an uncooperative witness. Angela Winkler is amazing as a young woman whose life is destroyed in a Germany terrorized by anarchists in the early 1970s. Criterion's (uncut) disc also contains a lengthy Italian docu on the Bader-Meinhoff period, that's an educational eye-opener.

Sony Tristar's Auto Focus is an unpleasant but surprisingly mature look at the crazy life and death of tv star Bob Crane, and the oversexed obsessions that cut short his marriages and career. Paul Schrader directs well, and stars Greg Kinnear and Willem Dafoe shine.

A grim Monday ... as the U.S. makes history. Let's hope for a swift and peaceful solution to this mess. I'm going to find a pleasant DVD to watch, to try and relax. Best wishes to all, Glenn E.

Yes, it's the Ides of March, for a couple hours more at least, so if you happen to be wearing a Toga, watch your back. The illustration may seem to be about me, but it's a coincidence from one of today's reviewed films. Mark Bourne of DVD Journal pointed it out to me ... and I haven't yet thought of a way to incorporate the headline into DVD Savant.

Fox Studio Classics dazzles us with their release of The Day The Earth Stood Still, everybody's favorite old Science Fiction classic. In his essay, Savant waggles a puzzled finger at the film's unique vision of a paranoid, militaristic America, and its odd choice of Alien Utopias. With Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Billy Gray and Sam Jaffe.

Miramax surprises us, by releasing an extended director's cut of the beloved Cinema Paradiso, a 1990 crossover arthouse hit that became a big date movie. There's reason to check it out again, as the added scenes include material that extends the story of the film's central romance. With Philippe Noiret, & Salvatore Cascio.

The other Fox sci fi classic won't be far behind, but I'm first going to take a detour into film noir, and some weird newer pictures ... goodnight from a rainy Los Angeles .. Glenn Erickson

Happy Thursday ... Well, I haven't rushed these two reviews and I think they came out okay - not as overwritten (that's writer talk for windy-blowhard) as some.

Image Entertainment finally presents a decent (actually, an excellent) DVD of John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13. It's a financially undernourished but handsomely shot exploitation film that dares to revive Howard Hawks' filmic formula, and survives on style alone. Got a smoke?

And Columbia TriStar has released a disc of a film that never used to look so good, John Cassavetes' Gloria. Gena Rowlands is an acting force of nature as she guards her 7 year old companion against mob thugs and hitmen.

Thanks for all the nice letters & responses ... it's back to the reviews ... Glenn

Tonight's entry is six reviews rolled into one ... I may be the last reviewer out with this boxed set of comedies, but I think I found some interesting points about them to discuss.

Anchor Bay's The Peter Sellers Collection Boxed Set is a disc-load of rarities with at least two classics, I'm All Right Jack and Heaven's Above!. Three more are a mixed bag of English Nuts, Two-Way Stretch, The Smallest Show on Earth and Carlton-Browne of the F.O.. And the odd film out is a weird 1970 starring vehicle about an unpleasant man blackmailing a woman for sex, Hoffman.

I've made some direct associations at Anchor Bay that I didn't have before, so I'm hoping for more timely discs in the future, and maybe some inside scoops now and again. Thanks for reading - Beddie Bye time, goodnight! Glenn Erickson

Savant checks in with two zingers tonight from Criterion and HVe - a deluxe disc set of a Sam Peckinpah classic, and a surprise treat in the form of a tripped-out journey into the wilds of New Guinea.

Straw Dogs is the one where Dustin Hoffman defends his castle while twisting Susan George's hair to show her how much of a man he is. A brutal rape, an attempted lynching and a siege on a castle-like stone house provide the thrills in Sam Peckinpah's best-realized film in a contemporary setting.

HVe's The Valley (Obscured by Clouds) is a weird safari film, following a sextet of French flower children into the highlands of New Guinea, to prepare to enter a promised Valley of Paradise away from the corruption and false values of our world. Dropping sexual inhibiitons along with their materialism, they commune with a primitive tribe along the way. It's a very original, very different French counterculture film, the rare kind that's not an embarassment.

The Sellers films are not long off, and I'm hoping for the Fox Sci Fi pictures soon , but there's plenty more good stuff to review first. Here's to a week without a war - let's take it one day at a time. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

It's a Saturday night, and Savant has a big bug movie for you, a classic 50s drive-in programmer, beautifully restored:

Image Entertainment presents Bert I. Gordon's Beginning of the End, a wacky parade of earnest acting, silly storytelling and some of the least frightening monsters ever put on film. But it's hardcore nostalgia, well-shot and crisply edited, that can finally be appreciated in this excellent transfer.

Savant's restoration announcement for The Good, The Bad and the Ugly has pulled down a record nine thousand hits in four days (somebody tell our advertisers!) which may not be much for the biggest DVD sites, but opened some eyes around here. I't's also triggered renewed contact with all my old correspondents, some of them writers and directors, who used to talk frequently about all things Leone. I''ll be sure to report on the print if & when I see it ... Thanks, Glenn Erickson

Long days and short nights in Savant land - but I'm getting a leg up on the reviews finally. And even getting a chance to make a few non-work phone calls. It's almost like really living.

Columbia's Superbit edition of their tentpole standard From Here to Eternity fares pretty well: these non-discriminating eyes could see the improvement on a large screen, in comparison with the older standard disc.

Retromedia's rather sloppy disc of the Barbara Steele horror vehicle The Faceless Monster is a mostly inferior horror concoction that still deserved better treatment for DVD. It looks like the company found a very clean, uncut print of the rare picture, but then did all it could to make sure it doesn't look very good. Savant doesn't like waxing negative about independent companies, but this one rubs me the wrong way more often than not ...

Some Savant readers have helped out with interesting rebuttal and response letters this week - for those who care, there are brand new footnote additions to the review of Metropolis and the newish 2003 revision of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. Thanks! Glenn Erickson

No review, but a fun announcement tonight, one that's been a long time a-coming:

MGM has finally been able to do the promised restoration of the top Spaghetti Western, Sergio Leone's THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY. And it's more than just adding the additional scenes that appear as an extra on the 1998 DVD. Get the whole story in Savant's article, The 2003 Restoration of the Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

Savant has a handful of reviews half-done, but nothing to show tonight... he'll keep digging through the Peter Sellers films, so as to get to those new Science Fiction classics. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

Two big reviews tonight, mainly courtesty of our quietly productive UK correspondent, Lee Broughton, who has come through with another genre double bill.

Paramount presents the superior historical thriller Lady Jane, which manages to create romance and suspense from England's briefest rule - the 9-day empire of Queen Jane Gray, and her honeymooning husband Guilford. Helena Bonham Carter and Cary Elwes star in this beautifully-produced and shrewdly-written epic.

From the UK, courtesy of correspondent Lee Broughton, comes a Region 2 PAL review of two separate discs, Lake of Dracula and Evil of Dracula. These early 70s Toho releases took the Hammer vampire films as their starting point and are very highly regarded.

Besides thanking Lee for helping me out, I have to say that the reviews will still flow .. maybe a bit slower for the next week or so, but I'm working on them, including the Peter Sellers boxed set (so much to see) and Criterion's new I Am Curious double bill. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson