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Hello again! Here's a scattered stack of news & links. MPI has shown its confidence in David Gregory's new horror film Plague Town with an announcement that its May 12 release will include a Blu-ray disc. The presentation will also contain Gregory's student thesis film, Scathed.

Correspondent Kevin Pyrtle forwards a serious psychiatric page that discusses using the science fiction film Invaders from Mars as a psychiatric tool in cases of separation anxiety. I was sure that picture had a direct line to the childhood brain, but here's scientific validation for the notion. Now I know what a Capgras Scenario is ... it explains my Uncle Ira.

Correspondent Matthew Rover tells us that Arch Oboler's anti-fascist fantasy Strange Holiday is now viewable in its entirety at YouTube, at this link.

Gary Teetzel reports that MGM's May 12 Blu-rays will include the 007 adventures Licence to Kill and The Man with the Golden Gun; Fargo, and Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. Happily, the Clint Eastwood disc will have all the extras of the earlier special editions, plus English, French and Spanish tracks, PLUS a mono track (hopefully mostly original) AND a previously unheard Christopher Frayling commentary track.

The same day on standard DVD, MGM has announced the westerns A King and Four Queens (Clark Gable), Doc and Young Billy Young; the Korean war brainwashing drama Time Limit and the Lauren Bacall / Kenneth More North West Frontier (Flame Over India). The last picture is a favorite involving a train escaping across an Indian desert, pursued by a rebel army. I've never seen it in CinemaScope.

Finally, correspondent Dean Blake tells us that a Three Days of the Condor Blu-ray is slated for a May 19 release by Paramount. All these and other newly announced titles have been added to the 2009 Savant Wish List. Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson.

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Hello! I've just heard a rumor that Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront is coming to Blu-ray, which I hope is true. I saw a perfect print long ago at FILMEX and was very impressed. All home video versions to date have been incorrectly opened up to 1:33, when the movie looks terrific properly matted to a widescreen 1:85.

I thought Sunday night's Oscars were fairly reasonable and that Hugh Jackman was a much better host than a comedian or talk show host. The L.A. Times blasted his opening musical number, which to me was splendid (although the subsequent dance numbers weren't as interesting). I turned off the red carpet coverage after hearing a "fashion consultant" insult Marisa Tomei's striking gown by saying a woman should only wear one napkin on her lap at a time. And it was great to see stars like Sophia Loren, etc. It wasn't the best year for movies and I thought the streamlined show dragged less than is usual. I put myself strongly in the minority by not being enthusiastic for Slumdog Millionaire, which just rang false to me but was a feel-good uplift for everyone else.

In the inset picture (above right) Barbara Steele is happy to have two of her Euro obscurities newly available in Region 1, but wonders why the video transfer makes her look so pale! I'm stepping up my reviews to match the output of desirable discs and am confident that I'll stay current with the new releases.

Absoute joy department: As long as we're celebrating all things Bollywood this week, reader "Rob" sends this terrific YouTube link to a familiar Beatles Song, Bollywood Style. It looks very much directed by the same talent that did the demented Nam Pechaan Ho musical number repurposed for Ghost World. Twist! Twist! Shake your head! Rock Out! Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson

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Hi .. it's a rushed week ... I've got the following DVDs on my plate to get out: "W.", The Whole Shooting Match, Roman Polanski's What?, The Silver Chalice, Rachel Rachel, When Time Ran Out, Delbaran, Wonderful Town, Treasures IV: American Avant-Garde Film 1947-1986, and The Long Hair of Death / An Angel for Satan double bill.

The Blu-ray list is almost as long: Being There, The French Connection II, A History of Violence, The Passion of the Christ, Amadeus, Raging Bull, Gandhi, several Imax Films and Kramer vs. Kramer. I'll be looking to do them all justice, in short order.

The one link I have for today comes from friend Stuart Galbraith IV, who must like Rube Goldberg devices as much as I do. It's from a japanese website called "Pythagora Switch". Cute music, too.  Enjoy! Glenn Erickson

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NEW release news from Criterion: On May 12 comes John Huston's Wise Blood, while May 19 follows with Peter Yates' The Friends of Eddie Coyle and a 3-title Shohei Imamura box called Pigs, Pimps & Prostitutes, with Pigs and Battleships and The Insect Woman. Criterion's Eclipse will premiere its 16th series entitled Korda's Private Lives, containing The Private Life of Henry VIII, The Rise of Catherine the Great, The Private Life of Don Juan and Rembrandt.

Feeling a little bit like our furry friend (right) from Hobson's Choice? For some this might be an old-news YouTube piece, but it's good stuff for anyone who can use a dose of get-up-and-go, wheels-spinning Motivation! Yeah!  Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson

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Happy Valentine's Day!

Helpful correspondent Dean Blake passed on an announcement about a Warners Directors Showcase coming on May 26, with Hal Ashby's Looking to Get Out, Hugh Hudson's Revolution, Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point and David Cronenberg's M. Butterfly. The interesting news is that Looking to Get Out is a longer director's cut, while Revolution will be a "Revisited Director's Cut" that includes forty minutes of new footage. As neither film was a success theatrically, it will be interesting to find out if they are improved in the new versions.

Dean Blake, Sergio Mims and Art Fisher wrote at more or less the same time to tell me that Fox has announced a street date for a DVD of Fritz Lang's Man Hunt, which along with a couple of other Fox titles, was supposed to show up a year ago. Made in 1941, Man Hunt is about an English spy who attempts to assassinate Hitler, and tangles with Nazi agents (George Sanders, John Carradine) in London.

Just in case you thought this was all serious DVD news, correspondent "Rob" provides the perfect link to shatter our illusions of the Flower Power 60s ... starring Peter Lawford, nobody's idea of a Peace 'n' Love guru. All it lacks is Sammy Davis Jr. in a cameo: The Age of Aquarius. Let me know if you hear even one note sung correctly. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson..

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Hello! A few fun links today. Friend, radio producer and host Dick Dinman directs us to his latest online interview show, Dick Dinman's Birthday Celebration for Ernest Borgnine. Screen legend Borgnine regales us with affectionate remembrances of Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, William Holden, Bette Davis, Gary Cooper, Spencer Tracy and other greats with whom he shared the screen during the course of his unparalleled fifty-two year career. Dicks' numerous other DVD Classics Corner On the Air broadcasts are available in the archive section at this link.

Sofa monsters! Craig Reardon is going through his old photos and gave permission for me to post his 1973 snap of Ray Harryhausen and a couple of old friends. I suppose one might drop in for coffee, have a sit and watch as Ray idly animates to pass the time -- when we see him in featurettes with his models he often constantly "adjusts" them.

Correspondent "Rob" sends this YouTube re-edit entitled Python Trek, which will amuse Star Trek fans -- I thought it was pretty funny too. Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson.

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Will nobody ever listen to Savant?

Hello! That's just a subliminal Savant message that I carefully placed in Five, a movie released nine months before I was born .... hmm .... 9 months ... could there be some kind of hidden secret in this?

A couple of announcement-links: Matthew Rovner has the second part of his Arch Oboler Article up over at Parallax View; he gets pretty deeply into the filmmaker's pioneering work with 3-D.

Over at the Bright Lights Film Journal, correspondent Gordon Thomas has an interesting article up about Kino's new special edition of D.W. Griffith's silent Way Down East.

For Savant readers reading this column on Friday, the 6th, tonight TCM is showing a really weird atom-age thriller called The Atomic City. Gene Barry stars as a Los Alamos engineer whose son is kidnapped by Commies hoping to force him to reveal nuclear secrets. I only saw the film once, but remember it as a jaw-dropping Cold War endorsement of a police state. The scientists working on nukes live under constant surveillance, and the G-Men tracking down the Reds do whatever they need to do to get suspects to cooperate. All of this plays out on vintage Los Angeles locations. I hope I haven't mis-remembered the picture, which I've waited about fifteen years to see again.

Finally, Craig Reardon forwards this helpful computer monitor screen cleaning program. It's a link to a free download that removes unslightly grit that can accumulate on the back side of your screen, where you can't clean by hand.

Thanks for reading! Glenn Erickson

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Hello once again! As it turns out, I've been complimented with one of those Dardos Blogging Awards that's going around. It's sort of a pyramid praise scheme for bloggers, and the delightful Greenbriar Picture Shows site run by John McElwee nominated me. DVD Savant really isn't a blog, but John stretched the category. Perhaps, like me, he doesn't visit scores of blogs every morning.

The rule of the International Dardos Conspiracy is to relay the glory onward to one's five favorite blogs. It feels like I'm passing on the parchment rune in Curse of the Demon. When I inform these five sites of the questionable compliment of being nominated by me, I form a mental image of them desperately trying to slip the runic paper back to me before the Witching Hour. At any rate, being praised by the likes of John McElwee brings out the better angels of Savant's nature ... and here are my picks:

1). Shadowplay is "The Wilfully Eccentric Film Blog" maintained by filmmaker David Cairns, who can't seem to write an ordinary sentence without making me laugh. Someone should have told me that this kind of wit existed in Scotland. David champions hard-to-see Continental filmmakers, runs weird frame grabs of silent film inter-titles and chooses by far the most interesting movies to analyze.

2). If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats is sort of a "photo blog" run by Tom Sutpen with assists from Stephen Cooke, Richard Gibson and Kimberly Lindbergs. I've been visiting this site daily for over three years now, staring at its fascinating news & publicity photos and vintage graphics. The text is often minimal, but the site is highly educational -- I see a picture of somebody, google his or her name and discover that the innocuous bespectacled guy from the 1950s, or the dreamy brunette in handcuffs was a master spy, blacklist victim or the center figure in a once-hot sex scandal.

3). "Corrupting the world since 1998", Mondo Digital is a disc review site by Nathaniel Thompson. Yes, this is not a blog per se but neither is my page; I come here regularly to keep up with the latest genre and sleazoid cinema discs, many of which I don't actually want to watch in person. Nate's writing is informed, accurate and to the point, and his graphics are excellent. In fact, if he does them himself I don't want to know ... I'd be too jealous.

4). The House Next Door is where I go to keep current with television programs, mostly cable dramas, that I don't watch! The blog entries go off in many directions to other subjects and sources. The high quality of the text makes me think that the writers are all professional journalists.

5). The Unsung Joe is a fun little blog that simply singles out minor -- sometimes extremely minor -- bit players in movies. Illustrated with frame grabs, the profiles reveal fascinating back stories for these anonymous people. Where does all of this information come from?

I'd like to finish by saying that I have a memory of receiving, about a week ago, another email about "Dardos". This was before I realized what the "awards" were, and I may have skimmed it too fast thinking it didn't apply to me because DVD Savant is not a blog. I hope I didn't inadvertently ignore someone trying to be complimentary before.

Monday's "Get Fuzzy" comic strip (Feb 2) puts us online movie reviewers in our place, collectively at least. It's a good reminder of reality, before letting the Dardos Awards' fame, cash prizes and free vacations go to my head. I'm just glad that I haven't reviewed Shaun of the Dead.

Final note -- If you're in the market for discs this month, drop by Film.com and read the new column I've started there, Glenn's Guide for the Classics Collector - February. It's a quick run-down of all the DVDs and Blu-rays that are on the Savant radar this month, and why! -- Thanks for reading, Glenn Erickson