Another weighty week of reviews ... I've checked to make sure they're at least spelled correctly (knock on wood). We finish off this week with a review that couldn't wait -

Criterion's The Adventures of Antoine Doinel Boxed set hits the street today. The four-film collection is an extremely pleasant account of growing up (or not growing up) and learning the rules of romance, for the young boy who started as an adolescent delinquent in The 400 Blows. Savant only saw a couple of the films, mainly because he lost the thread and thought they would be spoiled, so here's the chance to see them in the right order.

With reviews coming out as quickly as they are at the moment, the most recent eight displayed with their covers on this front page, may only be a couple of days old. Not that anybody should read all of them, but it's good to check the big clump of title links a little further below, to see if anything's sneaked by. Thanks, Glenn Erickson

Happy Monday ... Savant is flying high, having just received a tall stack of the upcoming Westerns and War films to start shuffling through.

Criterion's The White Sheik is an utterly charming fable that has fantasy elements but always keeps its feet on the ground. Includes an interview with the surviving stars that's a a must-see.

Nostalgia Ventures' One Step Beyond and Gangbusters & Dragnet are a pair of television show compilations whose mid-range quality is compensated for by their low price. Episodes have appearances by Cloris Leachman & Christopher Lee.

Home Vision Entertainment has launched a ZATOICHI - Independent Film Channel screening series and contest they've asked me to tell you about. It involves Seven Samurai Saturdays, Featuring Zatoichi the Blind Swordsman, from May 3-June 14 with a marathon of all seven samurai films on Saturday, June 21.

The campaign features an online sweepstakes offering ten lucky winners a Blind Swordsman prize pack consisting of:

Grand Prize: 5 disc DVD player from IFC, 7 DVD Zatoichi pack--#1-7--from Home Vision Entertainment, $100 gift certificate from Virgin Records.

First Prize: DVD player from IFC, 5 DVD Zatoichi pack--#1-5--from Home Vision Entertainment, and $50 gift certificate from Virgin Records.

Ten Second Prizes: 1 IFC t-shirt, 2 Zatoichi pack--#1 and #2--from Home Vision Entertainment, and $25 gift certificate from Virgin Records.

From April 26-June 21, viewers can log on to IFCTV.com or enter to win the Samurai Saturdays sweepstakes at Virginmegamagazine.com.

All promotional partner websites: IFCTV.com, homevision.com and Virginmegamagazine.com will feature editorial and behind-the-scenes content on the Samurai Saturdays Screenings on the Cable Channel.

A hefty lineup of reviews today ... including a preview of a certain talked-about Russian epic:

Ruscico and Image's War and Peace will make you reassess just how Big an epic film can be - this is seven straight hours of amazement. Beautifully directed, and with a Natasha who draws comparisons with the innocent heroines of fairy tales, Tolstoy's national treasure has a number of powerful intimate scenes as well. As they say, when it's over, you've really seen something.

Not quite on the Leo Tolstoy level of achievement, Harold Robbins' The Carpetbaggers is an entertaining soap opera of ambition, big business, the movie biz, sex and scandal. See George Peppard torture Carroll Baker by refusing to have sex with her! See the censors keep the action off the beds, while everybody talks in arch double-entendres! A good cast and a clever screenplay cheat the MPAA while at least delivering the sleazy spirit of Robbins' potboiler.

Paramount's Nevada Smith is a straight 'n sober, old-fashioned revenge Western, with 30ish Steve McQueen once again playing a green teenager whose parents are slaughtered by evil claim-jumpers. The story's thin but Lucien Ballard's Big-Sky vistas are not.

Warners' Les Girls is a bright & sassy romantic farce, that just happens to have 5 or 6 Cole Porter songs in it. Kay Kendall, Mitzi Gaynor and Taina Elg are showgirls buzzing around their boss, cabaret performer Gene Kelly. The DVD restores the dazzling decor and costumes in George Cukor's comedy, and there's a handsome remix as well.

Gene Kelly also plays a giant turtle in Gamera: Guardian of the Universe ... That's a lie, but the tortoise with the rockets up his rear end did make a splashy 1995 comeback in this retooled Kaiju romp. Thanks to CGI, the ridiculous man-in-a-suit is now beautifully combined with the urban landscapes he trashes. Savant guest reviewer Gary Teetzel explains how they souped-up the turtle in this detailed essay.

The reviews they are a flowin', is what Bob Dylan should've sung. Besides some top Criterion titles coming up, I've amended the review of Kiss Me Kate with some pretty-definitive research from an astute reader, which I think clears up that DVD's framing controversy. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

It's Thursday, and Savant has just spent about 34 hours without electrical power: a power station in the middle of Hollywood just decided to blow up yesterday morning, so I was forced to do shameful things while waiting, like read books. Sitting like a lump in the dark was also no fun ... but we're finally back up and running. While out of action, I find I've made a significant Web etiquitte goof ...

First up is MGM's glowing musical hit, Kiss Me Kate, one of their wittiest and most entertaining titles. Ann Miller crashes through the screen in a red outfit in 'Too Darn Hot', and Bob Fosse and Carol Haney open eyes with his new kind of dancing in 'From This Moment On.' In between is a couple of hours of solid comedy.

Coming in second is MGM's nutty comedy Fatal Instinct, an Airplane! - like sendup of noirish murder mysteries, the kind where husbands cheat, wives conspire murder, and everybody ends up dead. Armande Assante, Kate Nelligan, Sherilyn Fenn and Sean Young are the scheming foursome. The assembly line of crazy jokes is a bit hit'n miss, but there are a lot of good ones, too. With a funny commentary from the makers, and a half-dozen equally demented discarded scenes.

There's been an interesting turn of events that will change the way Savant posts his reviews. I've been uploading, but not linking, reviews for a long time, changing them as needed until I was ready to link to them from this index page. Who could find them, except people I might point them out to, to get corrections or opinions? Everybody, that's who, as I wasn't taking into account search engines. My KISS ME KATE review ended up linked by another major review site in an incomplete state - and it had opinions and conclusions about that title's framing on DVD that were premature. Sometimes one has to write out one's darkest suspicions before tearing them down.

I've since altered the review drastically, with the receipt of new information from Warner/Turner. But a couple of days ago, another site found the unlinked review and linked to it, and it apparently added to a mini-furor over the framing of KISS ME KATE for which I'm sorry to say I am partly responsible. I apologize to the other site for my web ignorance, and will no longer upload reviews until they're closer to being finalized.

Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson

Nice weather in Los Angeles, cloudy and cool ... and Savant has a trio of genre goodies today ...

MGM's Midnite Movies has a science fiction double bill this month: Invisible Invaders is a cheapo walking-dead concoction with John Agar blasting down reanimated corpses, kind of a Plan 9 & Four fifths from Outer Space. With John Carradine, for one scene only. Co-feature Journey to the Seventh Planet takes place in the year 2001, which is the closest it gets to quality entertainment. Sid Pink's Danish delight has undersized carboard sets, monsters so terrible they had to be replaced by Sam Arkoff, and a bevy of phantom ladies pulled like wet dreams out of our horn ... heroes' subconscious-es. (whew!) Together they're paydirt for genre fringe fans.

Universal's Bob Hope Tribute Collection disc of The Ghost Breakers has smoothie Hope in a role at least a little subservient to a plot, with sprightly Paulette Goddard and take-charge Willie Best around to keep things bright and cheerful. It's a good example of comedy mixing well in a horror millieu, as we cogknow ..congosc .... people in the know, know.

Lots of goodies coming up, including the Cole Porter Musicals, a preview review of the Russki epic of epics, and some hot Truffaut pictures. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

Four, count 'em, four reviews tonight ... five if ya take the double header into account. Probably won't be back with more until Monday or Tuesday ...

Universal's Fahrenheit 451 is a better transfer of the 1966 Francois Truffaut sci fi fable, and it has a brace of excellent docus to help it all make sense.

MGM's Cry of the Banshee & Murders in the Rue Morgue are an undisputed bargain, but not the best pair of horror films one is going to encounter ... yet both are beautiful restorations of cuts never shown in theaters, and one has Vincent Price, to boot.

MGM's A Chorus Line can also boast an excellent transfer of this Panavision musical; Michael Douglas stars in the screen adaptation that didn't repeat the success of the stage hit. Coming 9 years later may have something to do with it.

Retromedia's Satanik is a limp crime - horror film with a title and trappings that might hook those looking for a comic-book thriller. Bad idea ...

Savant's now going to dig into part 2 of the Ruscico/Image WAR AND PEACE ... then it's back to work! Thanks for reading

Yes, thanks to the quick action of Personal Support Computers in Santa Monica, I'm back up and running (I hope) and only about $50 poorer for the privilege. So I will be able to keep the reviews coming, after all.

Universal's not giving out screeners, but DVD Talk managed to find an end-run way of snagging the classic Sci Fi film The Andromeda Strain, Robert Wise's unusual and fairly successful attempt to turn two hours of technical exposition into a doomsday thriller. It starts better than it finishes, but there's enough thrills in the show (and some laughs, even) to put it way into the plus category. With a thorough docu. Savant has the inside story on the choked-monkey controversy here as well.

MGM's double bill of the hippy-trippy Psych-Out & The Trip are excellent versions of two very loopy pictures, one that holds up and one that mainly entertains by letting Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Dennis Hopper and a very silly-looking Dean Stockwell make fools of themselves. Susan Strasberg keeps her dignity, however. With Roger Corman's priceless description of his LSD experience, courtesy of MGM's docu extras.

Besides a mountain of other titles, the much-desired, hard to find screener of the Ruscico WAR AND PEACE showed up today. It'll be a challenge, but I'll have my daughter, a Russian-literature major, to help me out when the going gets tough, like, as soon as I confuse the first two or three names. Hopefully the computer will also hold out. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

Saturday night again ... and another two fun reviews:

Image Entertainment premieres Pupi Avati's acclaimed The House with Laughing Windows for the U.S. on this very attractive disc. It's a sunny gothic, with a really creepy mystery unspooling in a rural Italian town.

Paramount's first library Western of the season is the entertaining Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas having a mighty fine time blasting down the likes of John Ireland, Lyle Bettger and Dennis Hopper (not to mention Special Guest Dying by Lee Van Cleef and Jack Elam. And stalwart Jo Van Fleet gets batted around some as well. Something for everyone in this great crowd-pleaser: "Have you no kind words to say? Before I ride away?"

No special news for the day - I've been mostly writing and staying away from the television news, playing ostrich, I suppose. There's a Film Noir festival at the American Cinematheque going on that I know a lot of my friends are attending. See you in a couple of days! Glenn Erickson

A nice day in L.A. ... and a pair of nice DVDs to tell you about.

First Run Features' Power and Terror: Noam Chomsky in Our Times is a plainwrap record of some of the Professor's political speeches, and as such is an excellent introduction to the country's premier intellectual dissident. A nice DVD job, with 30 extra minutes of lecture material. This review's on the early side - the disc doesn't officially street until June.

Columbia TriStar's Born Free has already been out for several weeks, but don't let it slip by. It is an intelligent treat for animal lovers, and an excellent movie to show 6 year olds just old enough to learn the difference between movie animals and the real thing. It also has the cutest lion cub footage ever shot.

Savant had a great time today: he played hooky from cutting to see the final result of the film restoration of THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY, and it looked great. Much of the print, which was a mix of new Italian and old American source elements, was just beautiful. The new grotto sequence was a bit down on the quality scale (it was made from a print) but will probably be indistinguishable after the video transfer. All of the other missing scenes were there too. The voice replacement was done very well - with a script translated by John Kirk, and read by Eli Wallach, Clint Eastwood and a Lee Van Cleef impersonator. All in all, the post dubbing was excellent, with only Clint sounding a bit reedy with his aged voice. When this shows in selected theaters and on AMC in May, it's going to get a lot of positive attention for MGM. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

A beautiful day in California. Savant has a warm romance and a cold political warning in the offing tonight:

MGM's 1984 is a close-but-no-cigar stab at George Orwell's sinister classic. It isn't so much the fault of the production (the acting by John Hurt and Suzanna Hamilton is excellent) but the fact that so many of the novel's original ideas have already been plundered. Richard Burton gives his final performance here.

Warners' A Man and A Woman is the definitive European date movie, a confected but intelligent visual account of three weeks in the romantic lives of two beautiful French people who are as attractive as movie stars. With the soft photograpy of Anouk Aimée and Jean-Louis Trintignant, and Francis Lai's mellow score, what's to complain about?

Savant takes time out to ponder the literal glut, no, onslaught, no, plethora of desirable library titles coming out between now and summer .. here's a quick rundown of the DVD announcements that make this critic's mouth water: Gunfight at the OK Corral, Nevada Smith, Kiss Me Kate, Le Mans, Little Big Man, King Rat, 20000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Mission, Barton Fink, Miller's Crossing, The Unforgiven, Attack!, Battle of Britain, Sink the Bismark!, Throne of Blood, Miracle Mile, Is Paris Burning?, Giant, Once Upon a Time in America, The Right Stuff, The Flight of the Phoenix, Never on Sunday, Wings of Desire, Juggernaut, Avanti!, Kiss Me Stupid, One Two Three, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes .... There's enough there to keep Savant happily writing until Labor Day. See You in a couple of days, Glenn Erickson

Two quick reviews of good shows tonight, a filming of a famous play, and one of the best war films ever.

Columbia's SuperBit Edition of Das Boot spreads the long, long picture over two discs, to keep up the high bit rate.

MGM's DVD of the Claire Bloom-Anthony Hopkins version of A Doll's House presents a superior retelling of the old but still topical Henrik Ibsen play. Ralph Richardson, Denholm Elliott and Anna Massey star as well.

That's it for tonight - more reviews in a couple of days .. Thanks, Glenn Erickson

With the weekend looming, Savant has three goodies tonight, again with a review assist.

Lee Broughton provides a pair of Region 2 reviews with Uzumaki and Malice@Doll, a pair of very strange-sounding Japanese fantasies.

And Warners presents an attractive version of Francois Truffaut's Day for Night, his ode to the filmmaking process, French-style. With Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Valentina Cortese, and Jean-Pierre Léaud.

Yet another heavy weekend of editing ... but spirits are light with the positive reception of the West Side Memories DVD docu. Apparently the boxed set has racked up almost three times the orders initially projected, which is also good news for Savant's producers. See you on Sunday ... Glenn Erickson

Thanks to some Ringo-ish help from my friends, Savant has three reviews to spring upon ye this sunny April Fool's Day. It's the day that, if the Groundhog comes out and sees his shadow, he bites you.

MGM's big West Side Story special edition boxed set is worth the wait, with an improved picture and remixed track, plus a docu that scores hard-to-obtain key interviews from three creative forces behind the picture - Arthur Laurents, Stephen Sondheim and Hal Prince.

Writer Stuart Galbraith IV contributes a review of Black Rose Mansion, a strange Japanese melodrama about an nightclub woman irresistable to men. The hook is, she's played by a male actor.

Milestone and Image present the documentary Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Power of Women in Hollywood. It's an informative and pleasant look at the meteoric career of Hollywood's highest paid screenwriter of her time. Interviews with modern women directors flesh out the story of a film industry before most women were shifted out of major creative roles. Comes with a complete Frances Marion-scripted feature, the 1917 The Little Princess with Mary Pickford.

Stay healthy & God bless, Glenn Erickson