September 6, 2000
(This page holds the Savant Semi-daily columns between June 28 and September 6, 2000) Nice news: The new Midnite Movies VHS of THE VAMPIRE LOVERS from MGM is indeed the restored version Savant wrote about back in 1998, the one with the uncut beheading scenes in the first and last reels. It's only a few seconds of footage, but to many Hammer fans, it represents a frustrating 30 years of watching some really awful jump-cuts. Hopefully a DVD will follow in 2001, although none has yet been announced. It's been reported to me that the new Fox double bill discs of four FLY movies and VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA / FANTASTIC VOYAGE look and sound terrific, with wonderful new 16:9 transfers. After grumbling about Fox's stingy attitude toward widescreen enhancement, Savant is encouraged by the news that from here on out 16:9 will be standard on all of their titles wider than 1:37. VOYAGE TO SEE WHAT'S ON THE BOTTOM (as Mad Magazine dubbed it lo-ong ago) has always been a Savant favorite, a silly movie that is somehow irresistable. Speaking of irresistable silly movies, I borrowed PROJECT MOON BASE to write a review and now regret not asking for it for DVD Savant. It's simply wonderful, a cross between CONQUEST OF SPACE and television's Captain Video. Thanks mainly to the hyper-militarism of author Robert Heinlein, it supports Savant's pet themes of military aggression in the U.S. Space Program, so it can't go wrong. I found it very enjoyable, quite a surprise. Toy spaceships and a perky femme astronaut in short-shorts and tight t-shirts are a fine 50s combination. In case the opportunity to plug it doesn't arise later, my producer informed me that the NORTH BY NORTHWEST docu we put together is being shown this Sunday, the 10th, on TCM cable television. GE
September 4, 2000
The millenial year (unless you consider 2001 the millenial year) is 75% gone ... Savant had to pick up a son from across town, a surface-street and freeway ordeal that usually takes 45 minutes. With lights in my favor, a one-way trip took 15 min. this morning. Skies are clear and you can see the Hollywood hills. Savant always thinks of two things on days like this: how wonderful it would be in LA if the traffic weren't so bad, and how beautiful this town must have been until the smog came in the late 40's ... actually, the smog is much better now that it was ten years ago, so someone's doing something right. Got a sampling of the Universal Horror discs that came out last week. In general, all seemed to be the same basically good transfers from the early 90s. PHANTOM OF THE OPERA looked better than its previous laserdisc version, at least the scenes we sampled. Too bad it's kind of a snooze film, unless you're a Claude Rains addict. INVISIBLE MAN, movie quality-wise, is the best of the bunch, but its transfer, while fairly clear, is marred with frequent snowstorms of negative dirt. If anyone was doubting, let it be known that Universal basically restored FRANKENSTEIN (still a staggeringly good disc, and ten times the movie I thought it was when I was young) and is coasting on its other horror titles, to the extreme of mistakenly (?) putting out a really sub-par BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, a bona fide classic. CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON is a tad grainy here and there, with the kind of compression grain that makes slightly grainy scenes look like pincushion-art. Otherwise it's a handsome disc. And ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN, an unkillably entertaining movie, came out looking fine too. Universal may scrimp on the transfers (which to Savant are more important) but their documentaries are just dandy. The A+C docu steered away from the darker tale of the comic duo that shows up on cable TV, and instead played like a valentine, with a lot of pleasant testimony from sons and daughters (it's fun seeing stills of the kids meeting the monsters on the set) and maybe one too many shots of Bob Burns holding up yet another collectable monster makeup item. INVISIBLE, with everyone concerned being long-dead, had a tougher row to hoe, so it became a piece on James Whale, complete with clips from OF GODS AND MONSTERS. Savant has heard of some of these non-horror Whale Universal pictures, and it's a bit frustrating to hear the docu praising unseeable films like THE ROAD BACK. Universal wouldn't dream of making it available on video or even cable. Heck, Whale's superior SHOWBOAT only gets seen because MGM bought it when they remade it. THE CREATURE docu was the best by far. With both actors-in-the-rubber-suit still alive and kicking, and plenty of stills showing the genesis of the Gill Man, the coverage of the production of the film is very impressive. Especially the 'monster suit', whose design and construction shows a high level of care and artistry, when compared to what passed for monsters at Universal in the 50s (I'm thinking here of the day-glo Metaluna Mutant, whose execution fell short of its terrific design). After the descriptions of how the creature suit was really dozens of custom-molded foam rubber pieces glued to a body stocking, we get to marvel at how good it looks on screen: one shot in particular when the Creature flexes its arms over its head shows the suit moving and looking great. Best-looking monster of 'em all. The only bit Savant takes exception to is the over-analysis of the 'subtext' in CREATURE ... repeating the John Baxter bit about the sexual connotations of the pas-de-deux swimming scene is okay, but trying to claim CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON is an environmental statement is ridiculous. So what if the Creature stares at a cigarette butt floating in his pristine lagoon - our heroes dump about 40 pounds of fish poison into the pond, and neither the cast nor the director seem to be raising any objections. Jack Arnold made some fine movies, but one of their strengths was his refusal to insist upon artsy meanings ... that the studio wouldn't have put up with anyway. The embarassing critical lionization of Arnold as an auteur came decades later, when desperate fantasy fan film writers (like Savant) got tired of writing about Minnelli and Aldrich. Happy news ... Savant will now be able to review ANCHOR BAY discs now and again. You'll note that the 'reviews' here are critical but not reviews in the sense that it's a fair game ... So if it seems like anything that Image or Anchor Bay puts out is an A+ movie, it's because Savant only reviews films he likes. There are plenty of discs I don't review because all I'd have to offer were negative comments - I can be plenty negative about a lot of really popular films. Savant has himself been steered away from wonderful movies he only caught up with years later (JOE VS THE VOLCANO, UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD), because some bozo reviewer trashed it. Savant doesn't see himself as an arbiter of taste or a killjoy.T hat's no fun. Defending orphaned unpopular science fiction and horror films - now that's fun. Looking at the hit ratio between pics like Savant fave 1,000 EYES OF DR. MABUSE (880 after 60 days) and NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1889 after 10 days), it's obvious that if Savant stuck to Kubrick films and big-ticket big-attention titles, the site would get more attention. Well, DVD Savant is my fun site. I get to write what I want here and I don't have editors garbling my sentences and correcting my idea of what passes for good syntax. (not you, Mr. Lucas.) And I'm having fun writing about kooky little movies for now, especially because there are so many good ones coming out. Coming up: FIRST SPACESHIP ON VENUS, REPO MAN, X THE UNKNOWN, and some surprises. Thanks for a fun summer of letters - keep writing and telling me where I went wrong. So I didn't know what everyone else knew: George O'Hanlon of KRONOS was the voice of George Jetson. Look at it this way, Savant gets to learn something too. Happy Labor Day, Glenn Erickson
August 29, 2000
It's also plug day, and high time for it. I've just heard the new Monstrous Movie Music CD of "Creature From the Black Lagoon and Other Jungle Pictures", and it's a delightful addition to the two original 1996 MMM discs, the ones that had big pieces of the scores for Gorgo and Them! If you aren't familiar with these people and their work, they have a home at The Monstrous Movie Music Website. There you'll find all the details about the recordings. These are painstakingly recreated orchestral scores (not original tracks) that sound as good or better than the originals, with the tone and feeling for the originals tapped right on the nose. I don't know the folks behind these discs personally, but it just struck me that because they were catering to exactly my taste (bless 'em), their completely independent outfit deserved all the publicity I could give them. My favorite of the new tracks is the wonderful MGM Tarzan music. The discs come with very fat, extremely informative booklets. The true ending of the score for Them! heard on the MMM disc, convinced me that Warner's did indeed cut short the last scene ... You can hear where the music edits on the soundtrack are, after hearing this recording. Other surprising minor news ... I was driving home down Vine Street today (yes, I do have to go by Hollywood and Vine to get home) and noticed that the Vine Street Greyhound Bus station had been demolished, like, just a day or so ago. Hardly an irreplaceable landmark, this little station, behind the Cinerama Dome, right next to the McDonald's, was always a notable stopoff in the Glenn Erickson tour of Hollywood, as it's the bus station seen in Stanley Kubrick's The Killing. It had never been changed since that 1956 movie so I was fond of showing visitors the angle of Sterling Hayden stomping in and stuffing things in and out of the lockers. The view across Vine had certainly changed, but not that ancient interior. So .... Rest In Peace, another arcane Hollywood location site. GE
August 26, 2000
The NORTH BY NORTHWEST review is up. The film really is a delight seen in this hyper-quality presentation. Library title DVDs are just getting better and better - I saw Anchor Bay's THE DEVIL RIDES OUT last week and the breathtaking pictorial quality made it a terrific experience. Also just finished DINOSAURUS!, a silly kiddie film, true, but an almost perfectly transferred 16:9 'scope version of what's only been seen flat and grainy for 40 years. Took last Wednesday off to go see the Cinematheque Michael Reeves double bill of THE CONQUEROR WORM and THE SORCERERS. I have the laser of WORM but wanted to see it with its original music. It was replaced on all home video versions with a dismal synth score by Orion Home Video. A nice discussion followed the film with producer Philip Waddilove, actor Ian Ogilvy, and THE SHE BEAST producer Paul Maslansky; in the discussion the producer said he was trying to get MGM to restore the music to their DVD, that he revealed is on next year's secret release schedule. I talked with the producer between films and confirmed what I feared: MGM has simply told him they will look into the matter. Savant's information is that MGM is very aware of the status of the 'rescored' Orion/AIP titles. They most likely consider the expense of even locating the legal paperwork to relicense the music for home video to be budgetarily unjustified; too bad that 'marginal'films like WORM aren't in the hands of 'marginal' DVD companies like Anchor Bay, who exult at the prospect of revitalizing them. As Waddilove explained, the real culprit is the old Orion Home Video, which, according to him, sold the music rights to THE CONQUEROR WORM for use in beer commercials - ! For those of you who saw the print of CONQUEROR WORM on view, it wasn't an MGM print but instead a badly timed Orion copy from the early 90s (gotta defend MGM Technical Services, it's the law!) GE
August 18, 2000
A solid week of editing but it's good to be back ... I read where Martin Scorsese is promoting the full restoration of three films - THE BIG SKY, FAIR WIND TO JAVA and another that's slipped my mind. This is exciting because these are exactly the kinds of films that get skipped over. THE BIG SKY always gets stomped on by critics who fall over themselves praising RED RIVER, but it's just as good, and more satisfying for Savant. Somehow the anglo actress playing the Indian Princess isn't a problem for me ... and the sentimentality of THE BIG SKY is as solid and overpowering as the Tiompkin music. Savant likes LAND OF THE PHARAOHS a lot, too. THE BIG SKY is Hawk's best achieved ensemble movie - big star Kirk Douglas is muted and 'character-actor-ish" which is good. There are usually about twenty people on screen in many of the sequences, and Hawks handles them all incredibly well. TCM shows the restored 140 minute cut (instead of 120-something) by inserting 16mm material all the way through the film ... every new grainy piece is a needed bit of character or atmosphere. FAIR WIND TO JAVA I've never seen all the way through but have seen the ending about 200 times as a kid. A big budget Republic(?) action movie with Fred MacMurray (!!!) playing a swashbuckling sea captain, this is a strictly for fun action film with pirates and sailors running all over some fairly convincing sets. The ending is almost as good as WHITE HEAT for overstated destruction .... The heroes and villains close in on a magical temple on the slopes of a giant smoking volcano, in search of a fabled treasure ... Said volcano turns out to be none other than Krakatoa (say, Fred, is that East or West of Java?) and blows up, like, real good. I think the Lydecker serial people did the effects, which sure impressed Savant from age 10 to 18 or so ... like I said, many times over and over. The Cinematheque here in Hollywood is having a fantasy sci fi horror festival and are showing some rare stuff ... naturally, many things I should be seeing I'm not (JIGOKU (HELL) ) but I'll be catching up with WITCHFINDER GENERAL with its original music and THE SORCERERS next week, along with CASTLE OF BLOOD, a Barbara (sigh) Steele film I've only seen on an unwatchable vhs tape. I expected to receive KRONOS and DINOSAURUS today but was disappointed ... not yet ... I'll concentrate on a couple of reviews for a magazine and remind myself I wrote 3 Savant reviews last week so as not to feel guilty now. Hope Steve posts soon (I should be calling him.) I'm also due to receive a couple of DVDs of NORTH BY NORTHWEST early next week ... I'll review it too. GE
August 13, 2000
The screening of KISS ME DEADLY went well - mumble-mouth public speaker Savant actually did pretty well, although I always have the idea I'm hogging the microphone from John Kirk. The LA FILM SCHOOL has a lot of underpublicized but exciting screening series - the availabilty of special repertory screenings in LA is pretty tight, what with UCLA, the Museum, The Cinematheque, and the New Beverly Theater, so I hope they do well. One plus for the LA FILM SCHOOL is their beautiful new screening room and good projection. MARTIAL ARTS FANS ... couldn't help but let you know that Savant got invited to a shoot on Thursday for Peter Spirer's (RHYME AND REASON) new docu on the world of martial arts. He had been waiting for a key interview to finish the show, so Savant tagged along to a hilltop home in Brentwood to watch them shoot about an hour's worth of candid talk with Jet Li (See Photo). Mr Li was a friendly, nice and cooperative interview subject, and quite open about his early years in Beijing, his approach and attitude to the martial arts, and how his career developed. I've seen earlier cuts of the docu and it is the first one about Martial Arts (Savant is not an expert) that was entertaining, intelligent, and wasn't selling something. When it comes together I'll let readers know. GE
August 9, 2000
Savant has an announcement about a modest public appearance he'll be making this Saturday, August 12. It's at the LA FILM SCHOOL on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, across the street from the now-dormant Cinerama Dome. That night at eight the film school's film series, open to the public, ( with some kind of admission; I don't have a phone number) will be showing Kiss Me Deadly, and I will be on hand with John Kirk to explain how and why we restored its ending in 1997. The big treat is the film itself, a good new restored 35mm from MGM. It would be fun to meet a couple of local readers there, and Savant is looking forward to it. The rest of the time, Savant's going to have his nose buried in a word processor. With two kids splitting for college in little more than a week, and some MGM and magazine assignments knocking at the door, I'm not going to have time to watch my cache of self-indulgent DVD's (which just arrived) or write about them quite yet. But three reviews in one week has hopefully earned Savant the right to drift afield for a short spell .... Maybe I'll meet one of you Saturday ... "Va Va Voom, Pretty Pow!" GE
August 7, 2000
Permission from Warners has been granted, so I can finally acknowledge what many of you already know. ANNIE GET YOUR GUN is soon to be out on DVD. Its non-availability was the subject of an early Savant article; while at MGM I received many letters asking where it could be seen. For 27 years, the answer was, Nowhere. Made in 1950, ANNIE was withdrawn from all exhibition in 1973 when Irving Berlin and his heirs asked a high price for rights renewals. MGM/Turner never paid up, but it looks like Warner/Turner found its pockets deep enough to spring for the new music license. ANNIE was a lot of (mostly older) folks' favorite musical. A clip showed up in THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT 3, where an end credit created some confusion by saying that all the films seen in the movie were available on MGM Home Video. Savant had never seen ANNIE until just a few weeks back when he took a job to cut an intro-docu for the DVD. I apologize to all the e-mailers whose questions I dodged, but I signed a confidentiality agreement that wouldn't let me discuss it, even though a (not widely printed) announcement had been made. ANNIE GET YOUR GUN is a very good show. Betty Hutton's enthusiasm and gusto is infectious, and the film has four or five perfectly-staged musical numbers. Coming from 1950, it also has a very dated comedy view of American Indians. The show-stopping Sun In The Morning and Everything You Can Do numbers are really the end of the show, which finishes on a very anti-feminist note that now seems an unintentional downer. Working on the short docu, Savant got to see ALL of the raw dailies that comprise the abortive attempt to shoot the movie with Judy Garland a few months earlier. Garland, looking like an emaciated rag doll, couldn't carry through with the job due to 'ill health', and was basically fired - marking the effective end of her movie career 15 years after it began. Her comeback sensation A STAR IS BORN was indeed a smash, but didn't sustain, and she remained a TV and live performer with the exception of just a handful more film performances. When ANNIE comes out Savant will review it and dig deeper into the Garland dailies. It feels very strange ... Savant is a moderate fan of musicals and thought he had caught up with the last of the best twenty years ago. ANNIE is a big surprise in that regard. Too bad that a lot of the folks who really wanted to see it, have by now passed away. GE
August 6, 2000
Savant is on a writing roll here, so expect a number of new reviews soon, in addition to the new August MGM Video Savant, which is up now. Summer is slipping away ... but the sensational discs keep coming. Working for MGM, I've seen their discs of MISERY, CARRIE, THE BRIDGE AT REMAGEN, AND A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM and they are all really nicely mastered. HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING is the only (minor) disappointment; its letterboxed image appears to be a retread of the older laser master, and is not as flattering as the other discs. I've also gotten DEEP RED and am working up the nerve to sit through it. (Dario Argento fans may laugh now.) I'm expecting my bounty of advertising-revenue-earned discs in a few days as well. Who knows, maybe this DVD disease will be sated and pass, and I can find my way to another avocation, like, drugs. GE
August 2, 2000
It's spending spree time ... the DVD Resource ad revenue check came in, and this time Savant gets to go on a DVD splurge. There's an awful lot of good discs out there. If any of you have visions that the Savant household is awash with free product, let me disabuse you of that notion - most of the best I get to review are discs borrowed from Savant associate Gary Teetzel. It will be fun to buy some discs for their own sake, and not to review. On the subject of Reviews, I get a lot of requests to review more discs by specific title. So far everything I've written about has been more of an essay than a straight review. Savant isn't exactly the best source for instant judgement of technical achievement, and I've found many of my readers know much more about the 5.1 and DTS soundtracks than I am. I also don't pretend to have something to say about every film I see. MGM wanted me to write on PRINCESS BRIDE, a delightful movie that I can see over and over again, yet I never get a single inspiration to write about it. You may wonder why Savant chooses to write about MISSILE TO THE MOON when there are so many other higher-profile pix to examine. All I can say is that I found I had something to say about MISSILE TO THE MOON. Another obscure (but much more beautiful) space movie is coming out next month, FIRST SPACESHIP ON VENUS, and I'll be covering that one too. But I'll be trying to write more, shorter notices in between the essays. SHAFT is one. I just received a couple more Image discs. BLACK SABBATH I'll want to study a bit, but I'll try to keep more reviews coming, to keep some action happening here at DVD Savant. GE
July 29, 2000
Just got back from a preview of HOLLOW MAN, which for its first 40 minutes comes on like the best invisible man movie ever made. The effects are fascinating, everything gels. Then the Verhoeven excess and violence kick in. The 'power corrupts' theme was done better and more convincingly in the Claude Rains opus 67 years ago, here it gets a lame workout. After half a movie of really cool plot developments, we get a poor man's 4D MAN with jealousy and sex becoming all too important; the film starts fairly enough exploring the kind of voyeuristic content that previous Invisible movies (or X-The Man With X Ray Eyes) shied away from. But it has nothing to say about it - all the stalking of helpless females seems done for our enjoyment. Verhoeven really is a misogynist and truly digs the kind of puerile hijinks teen boys get off on; the action quickly gets down to groping and disrobing all the females in sight. There is a solid section where visuals reminiscent of EYES WITHOUT A FACE keep the interest up, a masked figure among the lab animals, as it were. But once the plot abandons all examination of its own subject and becomes a multi-climaxed violence bloodbath, interest goes the way of all flesh. The audience laughed at some of the lines, and were surely lost by the time the (CRACK IN THE WORLD-similar) cliffhanger ending came around. It seems a shame that Verhoeven should be crucified in STARSHIP TROOPERS for putting forth interesting (but unpopular) ideas, and therefore make his next movie totally idea-free. Our 'heroes' never once worry about the uses their invention would be put to, and are completely cynical and detached from such concerns. They instead fret about their careers, lifestyles and personal egos a lmost exclusively, as if they really did live in a moral and ethical vacuum. Also saw today, a 70mm reissue of the restoration of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, which was splendid as usual. It was at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, as part as a farewell celebration. The dome will go dark for 18 months while a huge theater, parking, and retail complex is built around it, and will go back into operation eventually without being gutted, or split up, as was rumored before. There's a lot of upgrading and development going on in Hollywood right now, so hopes are high that the area will be rescued as a cultural center ... heck, you can even go see MARY POPPINS in a special engagement at the El Capitan with your tots, and sing along to the songs with singalong lyrics projected on the screen! More reviews soon ... am seeing SPACE COWBOYS in a couple of days. GE
July 25, 2000
Savant would like to draw attention to a Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me petition site that gives some interesting details about possible new scenes to the film (approved by Lynch himself) that need encouragement to find their way to disc. Savant thinks this petition particularly worthwhile... The Missile To The Moon review is linked and up ... next comes SHAFT, whenever it arrives from Texas, hint, hint. Speaking of Texas, I really like Steve's arguments against the dunning prosecution certain free-DVD enthusiasts are getting in court. I've been following the Hollywood trades, which naturally always cover issues from the producer's point of view, whether it be Unions or anyone else trying to make a buck. Here the networks have a huge free land-grab of broadcast space from the Feds to launch HDTV, and of course they're just going to sell it for more NTSC channels and telephone communications, etc. In the trades, the lawsuits are all covered from the warped viewpoint of industry spokesman Jack (only minority kids can be shown holding guns) Valenti. All of Steve's points make total sense, but they won't to the studios. His first tenet, Make It Available, goes against the studios' control mindset: they have the product, they control its distribution, and that gives them leverage to play the DVD consumer market as a captive audience. Hey, why don't we just let studios own their own theater chains again, so they can keep the whole business an inside secret? Hopefully a new 'magazine' will be out soon over at MGM Video Savant ... the first one is still up for those of you who missed the NIGHT OF THE HUNTER article. GE
July 23, 2000
July 23, 2000. A nice week. Savant will have a review of MISSILE TO THE MOON up as soon as he gets the energy to drag the DVD player upstairs for a few frame grabs. The new Anchor Bay deluxe DUEL IN THE SUN came out and Savant could see that it has been transferred much better than their previous release, which Savant reviewed a couple of years ago. As for Disney's fab restoration, the same scenes that had misregistered matrices with color fringing are still there, so either the same element was used, or the elements didn't merge any better than they did when the previous internegative was made. Savant also got a peek at the 1956 ...AND GOD CREATED WOMAN Criterion disc, which is the prettiest older European DVD Savant has seen so far. The 'scope image is very bright and colorful, and Roger Vadim's direction is actually quite good. Bardot is a real star, and her pouting 'I don't give a damn but I'm ready to party' attitude is very racy and advanced for 1956. Vadim's moralistic story puts his basic misogyny in bold relief however. As the title states, all the problems stem from the animal-like, hotsexed, impetuous Bardot. The big news for the average viewer are the clever ways Vadim manages to keep her in a state of implied or imminent nudity, screened by see-thorugh umbrellas, etc. Ultimately she is being exploited as much more of a sex object than Monroe ever was; no wonder she quit movies outright much later. Seeing AND GOD helps one rethink the other Vadims; BLOOD AND ROSES also treats women as dangerous slaves to sex and vampirism, PRETTY GIRLS ALL IN A ROW now seems unadulterated softcore trash. BARBARELLA, after AND GOD, makes Jane Fonda look a lot stupider than her later smart chick persona would suggest. Vadim's talent must have been all invested in charming females out of their clothes ... he doesn't really seem to like them, however. Savant also got a nice look this week at the generous Stuart Galbraith's Japanese laserdisc of Bito No Kitai Ningen ... the original version of THE H-MAN, in handsome Tohoscope. The original is just as confusing as the dubbed Columbia version (especially without subtitles) but the film is a stunner in good color, especially the creepy boat sequence and the bizarre effects of the dissolving victims of 'the Hydrogen Man'. Savant thought he saw more melting effects than in the American copy, but Stuart said nothing was cut. Seen in half shadow, one sailor appears to fall apart as he collapses - strangely scary in a film with no real gore or violence, just oozing slime (filmed the same year as THE BLOB; were both imitating X-THE UNKNOWN?). This was a hot playground topic in 1958, hearing my 3rd grade classmates who were lucky enough to see it, describe the horrors, is one of Savant's first memories of Movie Envy. I'll try to get the MISSLE review up quickly ... I know hundreds of thousands of eager readers can't wait! Thanks, GE
July 12, 2000
The Savant preview of THE 1,000 EYES OF DR. MABUSE is posted. Hopefully I'll get enough interesting mail on this one to provoke a response column for non-virgin viewers, and really get into the text and subtext and sub-sub text of this movie. The surface of this thriller is fascinating by itself. Saw a restoration pre-screening of THE BIG GUNDOWN last night. It's a 1967 spaghetti western with Lee Van Cleef and Ennio Morricone music, directed by Sergio Sollima, that carries a heavy rep among fans of the genre. What we saw was an hilariously mangled original IB Tech print that had been cut up to make a TV version and then slapped back together. You can read about the experience at a post I made on the Sergio Leone Web Board, where doubtless the experts on Italian Westerns will straighten Savant out on a lot of details. Savant's friend Darren Gross made a hit at last weekend's Dark Shadows festival. Darren is an authority on the Dark Shadows movies and last year Savant helped him a bit in uncovering an uncut negative in the Turner/Warner vaults for one of them. Darren is working on a restoration for DVD; and his Night of Dark Shadows Restoration Website is up and collecting even more interest than Darren expected. GE
July 10, 2000
To quote a favorite Tex Avery Cartoon, "Hey, what do you know? B-b-b-b- Billy's back!" Nice to see new words from the dashing dervish of discs himself, S-S S- Steve Tannehill, who apparently is alive and kicking on his 40 acres of newly fenced sagebrush out on the wide prairie. Somebody tell him to stop torturing cats (too many Anchor Bay discs?) and get them speakers properly wired up, pard'ner. Savant saw his screening of THE PERFECT STORM and is pretty convinced the parade's gone by on the novelty of stating an opinion on that one. It just kind of sat there for me .. the details of the serious fishing life were interesting, but Savant didn't really have deep feelings for the characters, which was odd. The story and dramatic aspects of the tale were seriously muffed, with many a standard motivation trotted out and given no inflection whatsoever. The acting was uniformly good it is true. The effects were staggering for about ten minutes, but simply got repetitive. There wasn't enough exposition to fully appreciate the situation ... are they in mortal danger amid those waves or not ... how do they even stay on their feet? They never seemed concerned enough to me. It also seemed impossible to go out on deck they way they were, or to be rescued once washed overboard, so their continued survival was not entirely understood, just as their demise came as an equal surprise. (Oh the ship CAN sink. Fancy that.) If you don't know the ground rules, I start lost and stay lost. The fracturing of the attention given the men on the boat was also harmful - it was a waste of time to show the sailboat going to Bermuda, and the faceless bravery of the rescue teams also looked like a plain impossibility. Savant found himself curiously unmoved by the whole affair, and especially the sentimental pitches at the end. Well, it's good to have Steve Back, and the attempt (not too successful) keep the daily commentary going will do a fast fade for the moment ... Savant himself has a backlog of writing to catch up on. The MABUSE review should be up as soon as I can shake off my excitement over the film and write about it in a way that will appeal to anyone but myself! GE
July 6, 2000
Fast note. Screeners of THE 1000 EYES OF DR. MABUSE, THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE, and (actually for MGM Video Savant) THE PRINCESS BRIDE all arrived. I expected PRINCESS BRIDE to be a flat version only, but it has two versions, flat and letterboxed (albeit without 16:9 enhancement). Is this what the dissenting fans expected? I thought the fracas was over the announcement of a flat-only disc, like CHITTY CHITTY DON'T MAKE ME WATCH THIS MOVIE. There are no extras save for a trailer. I popped the disc on and the letterboxed transfer looks very good, at a glance. So is this a wonderful MGM save, or what? (That's the Savant you all know, the one who asks for the answers instead of having them.)(Note: No, actually it's not .... many readers thoughtfully informed me of the promised Special Edition that was withdrawn. A scheduling conflict kept Rob Reiner from contributing to a SE for BRIDE, so they just stuck with SPINAL TAP this year. That, of course, doesn't account for the non-anamorphic transfer...) GE
July 4, 2000
Just posted a new review of the EuroTrash 'classic' The Awful Dr. Orlof. Image's EuroShock collection is slowly grinding out some of the weirder horror titles that have drifted around the reference books for 30 years but remained hard to see in anything except grungy gray-market vhs tapes. Of course, rarity makes for eagerness to possess or see these things, and as they finally come to light, one has the weird feeling of letdown sometimes. Having pursued movies in the 70s before home video, Savant knows the feeling well. Savant waited 8 years to see THE SEVENTH VICTIM, and almost 10 to see VERTIGO, and 11 to see EYES WITHOUT A FACE, all three of which I obsessed over with a fervor that makes today's average Bava or Argento freak look healthy by comparison. ORLOF delivers the goods, it must be said, and surprised me when it turned out to be a well-shot, rather old-fashioned gothic with some really ravishing senoritas being menaced in a turn-of-the-century Paris (the cop uniforms look French: these EuroTrash films don't bother about establishing details). It stars the inimitable Howard Vernon, I assume fresh from his bizarre role as the assassin in 1,000 EYES OF DR. MABUSE (the DVD of which has been pushed back a week or two) and before ALPHAVILLE, the place where you've likely seen him before. I'll be seeing THE PERFECT STORM Thursday night (probably after most of you do) and get a report on this page Friday for you. Looks very promising. GE
July 4, 2000
The first year of the millenium is already half gone. The Pink Floyd - WIZARD OF OZ synchronicities debate is going to heat up again: TCM is broadcasting THE WIZARD OF OZ Monday night, the 3rd, with the Pink Floyd album, The Dark Side of the Moon on the SAP channel. The last wave of gab about this one was an internet tizzy that Savant got caught up in in 1997; the article on the subject is still there and Savant still stands by it. 'Synchronicities' happen so frequently between any visual and any soundtrack that everything that aligns between OZ and the rock album can be chalked to to coincidence. For every magical moment of alignment in OZ, Savant found five minutes of random meaninglessness. Savant hasn't tried the other Floyd Synchronicity of note, that pairs one of their songs with the Jupiter and Beyond sequence in 2001, A SPACE ODYSSEY. That one sounds a lot more rewarding, if only because Pink Floyd would seem the perfect soundtrack for a mind-blowing cosmic epic. BLOOD SIMPLE was quite a treat Thursday night. It's being reissued in a recut director's version. Apparently the young Coen brothers team were obliged to cut and rearrange parts of the film for its 1983/1984 debut. Savant saw it back then but can't remember any specific differences to compare with the new cut. The Texas-noir murder tale is one of the more original twists on DOUBLE INDEMNITY and conveys its complicated doublecrosses almost completely visually. One can see the budding idiosyncratic style which is uniquely the Coen's, only with fewer fussy showoff visuals by cameraman Barry Sonnenfeld than one is used to in later pix like RAISING ARIZONA. (There's still a funny truck down a bar-top that takes a selfconscious detour to avoid a sleeping drunk.) Another big plus is Frances McDormand, everyone's favorite pregnant police chief from FARGO, here playing a convincing panhandle hausfrau. The reissue print we saw at the Director's Guild was preceded by a funny tongue-in-cheek (?) intro where a strange man (the real producer? an actor) amusingly lampooned the pompous intros we're used to seeing on dvd and cable TV whenever someone thinks an audience needs to be reminded that what they're seeing is film history in the making. At least that's what I think it was. These Coens are shifty types, if you get my meaning.
June 30, 2000
Have just launched a review of two Columbia SINBAD movies, 7th and GOLDEN VOYAGE. Also saw a screening of a restoration of Ethan and Joel Coen's BLOOD SIMPLE last night. More on that later. GE
June 28, 2000
Finally, a slight break in the workload .. Most of the DVD television campaign for JAWS was finished last night, so Savant might have a moment or two to check out something new to review. INDEPENDENCE DAY just streeted, but Savant's in no rush to see it, second ending or no. Compared to the new THE PATRIOT, and especially GODZILLA, it's still the best movie from its makers, and it was certainly exciting enough the first time around, but Savant still feels pretty silly watching it. Strange that PATRIOT, written by the PVT RYAN scribe, isn't better than it is, since the weak link in these guys' repertoire has always been their writing, from MOON 44 onward. But the three Harryhausen Sinbad movies should show up tonight (on loan from a gracious pal) and they'll give Savant a chance to think back on how he practically crawled under his theater seat to escape the Cyclops, 39 years ago. Tomorrow night I should get to see the DIrector's Cut of BLOOD SIMPLE in a Director's Guild screening, so my next update on Friday will hopefully have some thoughts about that terrific movie. I don't remember the original in detail so I'm probably NOT going to have the definitive scoop on what's new or changed. We want Steve Tannehill back! GE Go to even older Savant Daily columns. [Savant Main Page] [Savant Links] [Article Index] [Review Index] [Savant 5 Year Report] DVD Savant Text © Copyright 2007 Glenn Erickson Advertise With Us Review Staff | About DVD Talk | Newsletter Subscribe | Join DVD Talk Forum Copyright © DVDTalk.com All rights reserved | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use