November 23, 2000
(This page holds the Savant Semi-daily columns between September 8 and November 23, 2000) Thanksgiving greetings to all ... Savant has a very un-Thanksgiving review up, for the 1968 sex shocker THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE, an unusual movie in a long line of unusual movies from Robert Aldrich. Happily free from editing until Monday, Savant wishes everyone the best. The most pleasing news going 'round the DVD sites this week is a rumor that Paramount will be bringing out Sergio Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST next year, and if it's true, it'll be a special disc for a lot of Western fans. With the smaller outfits not putting out their biggest titles in December, Savant's looking forward to next year's installments in the Mario Bava special editions, and some special titles from Anchor Bay, like THE WICKER MAN and DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE. It's nice to have things to look forward to. Savant ordered on the web (a rare occasion) GLADIATOR and BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, so if the weird titles dry up, there'll be some solid classics to fall back on. Thanks for all and see you next week - Savant.
November 21, 2000
New reviews up. Savant gives YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE a going-over basically railing about all the problems and never quite expressing why he likes it so much. It's a great disc. Also, guest reviewer from the U.K., Lee Broughton provides a completely English review of a completely English television series on DVD. They're crazy about THE SWEENEY over there; Lee has no problem expressing himself. Back in a day or so! Nice to hear from you all. Glenn
November 19, 2000
In addition to QUICKSAND, a new double bill review of THE GARDEN OF ALLAH and PORTRAIT OF JENNIE are up. I have a feeling most Savant readers will be unfamiliar with these titles; ALLAH is very enjoyable and JENNIE one of Savant's favorites, a really elaborate and magical fantasy. The GLADIATOR disc from Texas didn't work out as I'd hoped. It has a LARGE white DreamWorks disclaimer sentence written across it constantly when you are trying to watch. Some family members didn't mind but Savant found it impossible to follow the complicated fast cutting with the added distraction. I think it's an online purchase in my future. We'll get that review shootout going one way or another. I thank Steve T. for trying! A nugget for the forty or so authentic detail freaks who keep my email box hopping: while cutting last week, I realized from memory alone that the thunderous main theme of MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1962) is identical to the sweet romantic theme to THE TIME MACHINE. Not similar, identical. You just take the light melody associated with 1899 London and make it bombastic and you've got the title music to the Marlon Brando movie. Anyone care to shoot me down on this one? GE
November 17, 2000
Well, the DVD docu I've been working on is in the can and it turned out great so the effort was definitely worthwhile. Savant starts another the week after Thanksgiving. That makes this the week of A Fistful of Reviews - there's a lot to catch up on. The newest review, QUICKSAND is up as well Sorry that fearless leader Steve Tannehill got sick, but being bedridden made for some good writing so we benefitted; my screeners of GLADIATOR and CHICKEN RUN just arrived from the fantastic DVD Resource headquarters in Texas, and we'll be doing our review shootout soon. There's a good chance we'll be in perfect agreement, so here's your opportunity to see us look silly ... Savant would have posted last night but at the time if he had to look at another computer screen he'd have screamed. Instead I watched the new MGM disc of YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, a nostalgic Bond favorite. YOLT 'gets it right' only about 20% of the time but those parts are great. There are a couple of good fistfights, some pretty photography, and that ridiculous but fabulously excessive set at the end. I guess the only way to appreciate it is on a big screen as even my widescreen JVC (55") didn't do it justice. Ninjas and samurai swords, and dozens of commandos dropping on ribbon droplines into a battlefield like the Astrodome. If only the space effects were better! Hopefully the next couple of weeks will justify your dropping by DVD Savant ... thanks for hanging in there, and an especial thanks to the writers asking me to get back to it ... GE
November 9, 2000
Haven't been adding to Savant because I've been in Florida stuffing ballot boxes and - no, I've just been working 3 17-hour days in a row. Nothing sad here, just long hours cutting fun stuff for future DVDs - deadlines are no fun. I hope to have something real to read new on the weekend - thanks for checking in, Glenn
November 4, 2000
Editing is really heating up (and getting more exciting; I have beautiful material to work with!) but here are three new reviews, or one review with three films, for a trilogy of Anchor Bay zombie horror films: City of the Living Dead, The Beyond, and Let Sleeping Corpses Lie. They're strong stuff, and Savant doesn't recommend them to anyone yet uninitiated into the realm of gore cinema. The nice thing to report is they definitely are not movie trash like the collective works of Herschel Gordon Lewis, or the slew of gut-ripping, animal-mangling zombie films that followed in their wake from the likes of, for example, Ruggerio Deodato. Although Fulci oversteps the line continously, he's following a certain aesthetic ... to which the average Savant reader is, I am confident, more receptive than Savant himself. Over at MGM Video Savant the November 'issue' is up. Last month an article on Woody Allen was struck down because of concerns over Woody Allen's publicity rights - unfortunately, because the MGM website is obviously internal publicity for the studio, contracts practically forbid any discussion of the director. This month there are articles on War Movies, Stephen King adaptations, and a pair of musicals. Helpful fan Rudy sent Savant a vhs of the original East German version of First Spaceship on Venus, which was quite a treat. A lot of Savant's guesswork in his review of the US cutdown were just plain wrong, but further analysis will have to wait until I can get a couple of German speakers in here to translate for me (Savant's six verbs and 50 word Deutsch vocabulary don't go very far). But the original version is quite beautiful, more colorful and less contrasty than the Crown International American copy. Makes me want to order a DVD (PAL, region 2) I can't play! Savant will soldier on for now ... thanks for all the nice letters on American Beauty. GE
October 30, 2000
I've gotten a lot of responses to the American Beauty critique, and almost all are positive. If I were doing a national elections poll, I'd conclude that all America has problems with American Beauty, just like me, when in reality everyone decided long ago that it's sliced bread with cherries on top. It's obvious that I'm doing something right by not attracting furious angry letters, but I was a little disappointed, actually, that I didn't hear many good arguments against my subjective claims. On the other hand, I read several good defenses of M*A*S*H that took me to task for ignoring the context of the movie, the Korean War, that accounted for the twisted attitudes of the Swamp heroes of the 4077th. Annie Get Your Gun had a 50th repremiere at the Academy last Friday. I didn't attend but heard from my producer that it was a fun geriatric crowd with lots of celebs. The disc is already being reviewed all over the place but I'm not getting access to this one the way I did North by Northwest, so my take and 'inside dope' (who's a dope?) will by necessity wait until I am be-disced. I have a short list of errors on the disc already, even though I haven't seen it! I'm putting the finishing touches (read: trying to get started) on my next review, for three Anchor Bay Zombie-related discs. This subgenre is not my favorite by a long shot, so I'm trying to find the right hook ... and to make the review useful beyond empty opinionizing ... you know the drill ... not the Fulci drill to the head, please! I think this is going to take a while because I'm this family's designated sit-by-the-damn-door-and-hand-out-candy stooge. Later, Glenn
October 28, 2000
Sniveling coward that he is, Savant wrote a critique of American Beauty a couple of months back and has been sitting on it ever since. With lemming-like reflexes, now that I have the reinforcing backup of a few positive responses, It's finally linked and is now an official Savant article. No mail bombs, please. Lots of nice responses to Dementia / Daughter of Horror ... unless you're already a confirmed weird movie freak ... rent it first! I know it can do no wrong in Savant's eyes, and my review is probably way out of line. Last Wednesday, through the connivance of a network of cinema freaks, Savant held another gathering of Savant Secret Cinema ... an irregular ritual which came about with access to prints of desirable films, and the ability from time to time to arrange a 35mm projection situation. This time the print shown was a collector's copy of a public domain title, so squawking about it here seems harmless enough. Collector Mike Heenan of Tempe, Arizona drove to LA just to see his 35mm IB Tech print of Mario Bava's Hercules in the Haunted World on a big screen. The many 35mm collectors out there always have the problem of being unable to see their collection at will, and the generous Mike apparently not only drove all the way here, but turned around and drove all the way back after the show was over. Even in college, Savant didn't have the stamina for that. His Hercules, one of maybe 50 American release prints from the early '60s, played very well. It had a lot of scratches but little frame damage and only a splice or two. There's no substitute for seeing a Bava film on the big screen. Savant remembers this one from when he was ten years old, but couldn't get through a Sinister Cinema pan'n scan tape. Here the electric colors and powerful compositions of Bava the artist raise this pepla head and shoulders above its sword'n sandal competition. The movie has almost no action except for Herc Baby throwing rocks around (including one he tosses into the air that is never seen landing; I really wanted it to return for the finale and flatten the unfunny comic relief sidekick). The women are gorgeous and look entirely contemporary, and Reg Park gets to answer an oracle's careful explanation of the villain's scheme, including the imminent murder of the heroine, with a straight-faced "So, what are you trying to tell me?" In TotalScope the film stretches to a real 2:35 to one, not what passes for such on video, and it was ver-ry w-i-d-e. Hammer fans will fall out of their chairs when they hear about the extra at the screening: a ten minute reel of outtakes and slate trims from The Revenge of Frankenstein. These were negative trims that turned up in a can and held few surprises but were fascinating just the same. Half of the clips had been 'lacquered' and thus retained about 95% of their original lustre, according to the lab expert who attended. Besides watching Peter Cushing, Francis Matthews, Eunace Gayson and Michael Gwynne hover in extended stage waits, there was a new character, a thin little clapper boy in his school tie, dressed just about identically to Wallace of Wallace and Gromit fame, dutifully snapping off the Bray studio slates. A monkey wrangler was also briefly visible trying to get the caged chimpanzee to hit his proper cues. Hammer fans of course would die to see this stuff; Cushing in one take enters, says a few words, then turns around and says another line before putting his coat back on and exiting, proving that economy on a Hammer set was such that getting the entrance and exit in one go was considered a way of saving on film stock. Somebody said Terence Fisher broke the frame line once or twice in a blur - they recognized the glasses on his nose - but it was so fast Savant didn't catch it. A published Hammer expert and film documentarian was in attendance, and lip-synched a few dialog lines into the silent screening for us! Savant apologizes for the cheap tease, but this reel came from obscurity and must return to it. It was brought by another web-anonymous collector. Savant's proud of the calibre of his attendees, who really enjoyed the Bava show and the special Hammer treat. We're not necessarily talking famous here, just a great bunch of fans with a common interest. It would be fun to name them all but, (sigh) that would compromise Savant security. There are a couple of name directors who are rapt collectors and whom we keep expecting to show up at these things (well, the couple we've had) but never make it. Now that they've missed these Revenge outtakes, maybe they'll think twice next time! GE
October 26, 2000
A new review of Dementia / Daughter of Horror is up. Gleen mus szleep, or he wint efen get to wurk dumorrow ... but he'll try and write about his secret screening tomorrow night! Thanks!
October 25, 2000
A new review of Robot Monster is up. It would have been up days ago, but I was trying to see the film one more time to scribble down a coherent plot synopsis ... the one you will read doesn't even mention the movie's startling, incredible dream-flashback plot device. One review I like in Hardy's Encyclopedia of Science Fiction is for the practically unwatchable Mars Needs Women, where Hardy or one of his contributors slams critics, especially the "Worst Movies" kind of reviewers, who sneeringly dismiss movies like Robot Monster for the sin of not having the production values of major features. If that were the sole criterion for success, dogs like Mission to Mars and SuperNova would be great movies. Both have excellent state-of-the-art effects, right? Robot Monster is no classic, but it's a great example of naive moviemaking, and maybe unconscious art. Savant attended the Cult Movies 2000 Convention at the Hollywood Roosevelt last Saturday, the 23rd. It was a bizarre collection of celebrities and vendors. After checking in with a few video people I knew, I had the opportunity to introduce myself to and praise an author I admire, David Skal. In one room alone were the following: Maila (Vampira) Nurmi, Ted V. Mikels, Liz Renay, Joe Turkel, June Wilkinson, Fred Williamson, Robert Quarry, Kitten Natividad, Karen Black, Jack Hill, Jaime and Gilbert Fernandez, Johanthan Haze, Sid Haig, Dolores Fuller, John 'Bud' Cardos, and don't forget Forry himself, Forrest J. Ackerman. The activities at these soirees boil down to three basics, not counting special shows (we found out later our pal Stuart Galbraith was giving some kind of Godzilla presentation, but we missed it). First, there's grabbing free goodies, which are mostly paper handouts. Second is shopping, which for Savant means smiling at the dozens of tables hawking illegal videos. We wanted to flip out MGM ID when we saw titles like Message From Space staring at us, but we knew the vendors would probably laugh in our face. If I were buying a gun at a gun show, I guess the situation would be more serious. Third are the celebrities, most of which I knew of and was curious about. It's a strange state of affairs, because you don't know if a particular 'celeb' is there because he genuinely loves fans and is proud of his career, or if he's living out of his car and needs the dough, or if they've been recruited by an agent (a very familiar one was moving through the proceedings) promising them a good time. Some of it was kind of a carny atmosphere: all the septegenarian 'babes' were in a row, looking nothing like the gloriously sexy nude photos they were willing to autograph at 10 or 15 bucks a pop. June Wilkinson I can remember having extremely impure thoughts about at age ten, with a cousin's stock of Playboy magazines. She still looks in great shape, but talking to her would mean playing the Tex Avery Country Wolf: "Garwsh, uh huh, uh huh, C-c-c-can I have your auto-auto-auto-signature?" My pal Gary Teetzel solicited autographs from Robert Quarry and Joe Turkel. Quarry looked a little lost and disassociated and only perked up when he saw the rare photo Gary had provided to sign. Turkel was wonderful. He's the great actor, the bartender of The Shining and the big cheese in Blade Runner. He engaged Gary in a full-on serious conversation and explained the setup for the photo he signed. I liked him immediately. I spoke with Something Weird video entrepreneur Mike Vraney, and patiently withstood a scathing critique of fan-boy web reviewers who put down his (definitely weird) wares. He meant me too, even though he hadn't read my stuff - and to my surprise I wasn't a bit offended. Web writing isn't like real journalism, at least the way most go about it, and I consider myself somewhere in the middle. Definitely not a fan-boy, but not quite like the real Journalism I read at my fave site, The DVD Journal. I do plenty of my share of revising ill-chosen words, thanking heaven that my original articless don't go out in unrecallable hard print. Vraney was obviously on a mission from God to make his exploitation films available to the world, and had no use for the cheap reviewers. But Savant isn't like that, I explained ... After about twenty minutes we were getting along just fine. Savant resisted buying the bargain insert poster for Voyage to the End of the Universe. I already have 150 posters in my collection, of course packed away where no one, including me, can see them. And I am still daydreaming about the $350.00 French poster I saw for Les Yeux sans Visage / Eyes Without a Face. It was a style I'd never seen, even more beautiful than the standard one. Savant is holding a special screening tonight ... I'll hopefully be able to report on that in a few days, with perhaps another review. I just can't get around to things like American Beauty (although I have a un-linked rant on why it rubbed Savant the wrong way, that I'll give the URL to anyone who asks). Not when there's the likes of DEMENTIA / DAUGHTER OF HORROR, CARNIVAL OF SOULS, and LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE to review! See ya soon, Glenn.
October 21, 2000
A new review of Sisters is up, a very impressive Criterion disc. Criterion has been coming out with a string of fun and quality fantastic films lately, following up on their earlier CARNIVAL OF SOULS. Savant hopes to be writing on several of them. I've found a nice Superman page for those of you eager for news on new and possibly revised editions on DVD. Dharmesh of this page has done a particularly good job analyzing 4 different versions of SUPERMAN 2. And don't forget the earlier Superman II: Whose Sequel is it Anyway? page, which reads like a good book. There was a false alarm on the The Mobius Home Video Forum today, with people mislead into thinking that the Paul Ferris score had been restored to MGM's vhs tape of THE CONQUEROR WORM. It hasn't .. even though the title sequence credits him. Next review up, the fearsome, flea-ridden ROBOT MONSTER, in fab 2-D, as humorously claimed on its garish packaging! I'm also going to put in a rare stealth appearance at the CULT CON at the Hollywood Roosevelt tomorrow afternoon, snooping for Savant scoops among the promised celebs and quasi-celebs. Haven't been to a convention in years, so we'll see how they've come along. Glenn
October 17, 2000
Just posted a triple header review for the three Anchor Bay Werner Herzog / Klaus Kinski 'Selva" movies. You'll have to read it to figure out what the Selva means. One of the three is a 1987 release that Savant had never heard of before, but it is just as good as the other two. Editing is going well, but as you can tell, it is slowing down the Reviews. Still, ROBOT MONSTER and SISTERS should be along in good time. I passed up a preview of RETURN OF THE DRUNKEN MASTER to get the review out, so let all know that there's a heap of dedication here at Savant Central. I find that Nikes hide the hooves pretty well and mousse can keep what hair I have left over the horns, so nobody has noticed yet. Shh. Don't tell. The big hoohah this month are the Lon Chaney docu and movies promised on TCM ... the promos are beautiful on the cable channel, with shots from his silents that look to be of very good quality. Note also that the THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS review has been revised with a letter from Lee B., helping Savant clear up some original version questions. I'm expecting my copy of DEMENTIA / DAUGHTER OF HORROR in the next couple of days, and will be quick to clue you in on its (I hope it is good!) quality. Thanks for staying with me, Glenn
October 14, 2000
Survived Friday the 13th without a scratch, although my cloven hooves aren't fitting as well into my shoes as I'd hoped. There's a new review up of They Might Be Giants, which came out two seasons ago but impressed Savant enough to want to write about it. I should have a Herzog/Kinski triple jungle review up fairly soon. Saturdays off are wonderful when you have to work 60 hours Monday through Friday. I get such a nice lift from DVD Savant that I feel enormous guilt from not keeping it current every other day or so. So I'll try to follow up toot sweet. I've posted an amusing letter from esteemed All Day DVD prez David Kalat, his reaction to the Savant Detour review from a few weeks back. David is the cinema saint who brought us The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse, and therefore walks on water in Savant's version of reality. Savant has been reviewing a lot of Wade Williams' DVD releases, and hasn't found it easy to decide whether the collector/entrepreneur is in general good for film curatorship or not. Another reader helpfully pointed out that the new DVD of Rocketship X-M actually has only replaced the V-2 launch shots with newer footage, and that the rest of the 1970's redo scenes were left out. No wonder they match so well .... anyway, Kalat's letter can be found as a revision to the Detour review. I found The Outlaw Josey Wales in a markdown bin and am saving it for tonight. Savant didn't care much for Clint Eastwood films in the '70s but have been assured its one of his best, so here goes. Be back in a couple, hopefully, as soon as I find a way to comb some hair over these horns ... GE
October 13, 2000
No, to squelch a rumor, Savant is not the Antichrist, and has not been in the Middle East starting wars for the last five days. But I'm not even going to pretend I'm taking care of business here at DVD Savant ... one of those jobs has come along that not only is fun but takes all of one's waking hours. I have two new reviews scribbled out (while digitizing tapes) but not typed... Maybe I can get one of them posted this weekend. And these semi-daily columns are going to be spotty for a spell ... try to think of my higher frequency of reviews in the last two or three weeks ... dig into some older Savant articles, maybe? Glenn
October 9, 2000
No time except to tell you about the Duel in the Sun Roadshow Edition review now up. Will check in as soon as I have time! Glenn October 7, 2000: Several fascinating new discs in the review mill ... Savant's seen all of SISTERS and loved it. AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD and THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS were excellent as well. THE FABULOUS FILM WORLD OF GEORGE PAL also had some surprising extras. Gary Teetzel brings news from Skull Island: One of the first and best making-of movie books is George Turner's (with Orville Goldner) book The Making of King Kong. George, who passed away some time back, is also admired for his books Forgotten Horrors and Cinema of Adventure, Romance, and Terror. Savant was lucky to have some dealings with him when he was editor of American Cinematographer magazine, at his editorial headquarters behind Grauman's Chinese. Now George's son Douglas is updating and revising the KONG book, using a wealth of information Turner obtained after the initial publication. (George had outlined plans for the revision before his death.) Douglas is also selling reproductions of Kong production art and stills of rare test frames to help pay for the work of digitally restoring several photographs. You can read all about it, and see a photo restoration example, here. There's something I've forgotten, but I have to run to breakfast, so this entry might change later in the day! Glenn
October 5, 2000
A new review is posted, for a Mario Bava thriller Savant hadn't seen, and really liked : The Girl Who Knew Too Much. A stunningly attractive vintage Italian murder mystery! I know this update's a little early, but now's when Savant has the time to write. Besides, here's something some of you might want to hear early ... The Silent Movie Theater, the recently reopened LA Landmark on Fairfax, is screening for several days starting tomorrow night - Alfred Hitchcock's DIAL M FOR MURDER in 3D! This was the definitive 3D experience for Savant back in 1979 ( see my old 3D article, the only 3D movie I've seen that seemed organically designed and harmonious with the format. Or, to be brief, more than just a novelty. If you live in the LA area, be warned that the theater isn't too big and this show might be popular, so good luck. Savant saw an original 1953 print in real polaroid two-projector 3D, but that was 21 years ago. He doesn't know what they're showing now or what it will look like! The Silent Movie has HOUSE OF WAX scheduled next week, also in 3D. I mentioned this once before, about a year ago, but it's amusing enough to repeat again. If you watch the first few minutes of John Huston's THE ROOTS OF HEAVEN you'll hear a ver-ry familiar sound effect in the first stampede of elephants, an authentic, aggressive elephant trumpeting cry. I asked my high school senior last year why it seemed so familiar, and he pegged it without a blink - it's the exact sound effect for the Empire's Tie Fighters in STAR WARS, you know, the fighter ships like the one Darth Vader had. It's uncanny listening to the elephants in HEAVEN after realizing this! THE ROOTS OF HEAVEN is a very good film and is showing a bunch more times this month on fXM cable, letterboxed as well, so it's there to be checked out. Hasta Domingo, Glenn
October 3, 2000
There's a new review up for THE TIME MACHINE that came together because there was no editing to do yesterday ... I'm kind of proud of this review. The Silent Man essay part of the review is an idea I've resisted writing about for 21 years. It was a revelation to me at the time and I haven't read anything about it since. If it turns out to have been common knowledge all along, I'll , I'll, I'll just be embarassed, I guess. I sat through most of GORGO the other day ... it really is a sad disc. Most scenes are mushy. There is ZERO detail in many of the darker scenes. The resolution of the image is so poor in some shots that I found myself doing a running commentary to tell my guest what he was really supposed to be seeing on screen. The menus are ugly and themed more like the '98 GODZILLA movie. The entire still selection plays out keystoned and tiny on a cartoon billboard on the screen. And the 'docu' turns out to be the disc's liner notes read out loud against an accompanying selection of stills that sometimes do, sometimes don't relate to the text. Several 'storyboards' are actually just Photoshop - fudged images from THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS with magic marker lines sketched around them. There are only two more things to say about the GORGO disc. First, it's watchable, which means I'll probably end up getting one myself eventually. Second, this is the first VCI disc I've actually seen, and I'm becoming very nervous about their upcoming BAVA exclusives, BLOOD AND BLACK LACE and THE WHIP AND THE BODY. Very nervous, as in, no pre-orders here, Mom. Couple days until a GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH review. fXM showed BIGGER THAN LIFE letterboxed Sunday night without even the Widescreen Website knowing about it, so Savant missed it, grrr. Glenn
October 1, 2000
Quiet Day. A review is up for Treasures from American Film Archives, if you aren't aware. I hope this amazing boxed set gets the attention it deserves. Image's The Girl Who Knew Too Much arrived on Friday, and it was a really nice surprise. Savant thought it was going to be a horror film, naturally, but it turned out to be a light thriller with some very creepy moments, an entry in the 'Mario Bava Collection' that shows il maestro working in a new vein. A couple of other titles have to come first, but I'll review it this week for sure. For those who hold off buying these things until the word is out, I can say up front that Girl is an excellent disc, 16:9 enhanced, and the original Italian version with removeable subtitles. It is also supposed to be quite different from The Evil Eye, the AIP re-cut. The original score and pop tunes are intact here. I've been tipped off about some disappointing imports. Savant gets plenty of queries about the (non) availability of Kurosawa discs. Reader Richard Milin says he bought some from a webseller, from a Hong Kong label called Mei Ah. Savant hasn't seen these discs for himself, but Richard reports that the removeable English subtitles are 'terrible, laughable translations' that spoil the movie. If the idea of grabbing all of these discs appeals, Savant recommends perhaps initially checking out only one, to see if the subs offend you as they did Milin. I'm asking for more info about the overall quality of the DVDs, because the subs might not be important to Japanese language speakers (or nuts like me who wouldn't mind watching some favorites sans text). The letterboxing and image are the first concerns. Check back here a bit later for that update. Okay, I can't help it. It's October Fool's day anyway ... this news bulletin just in: HEADLINE: OCTOBER 01, 2000 Poland's worst air disaster occurred today when a small two-seater Cessna 150 airplane crashed into a cemetery early this morning. Polish search and rescue workers have recovered 826 bodies so far. But that number is expected to climb as digging continues into the Afternoon.......... We couldn't stop laughing here ... Please take into account that Savant thinks 'dumb Swede' jokes are just as funny, and hopes he hasn't offended anyone. I guess I can rule out running for public office now. Hasta Martes. Glenn
September 29, 2000
A review for DETOUR is up. Savant is supposed to be slacking off with editing, but somehow gets the urge to write each time he comes home. DETOUR is a very flawed disc, yet the best copy of the movie Savant has seen (haven't yet seen the TCM copy, which is said to be good). How do you review a film under these circumstances. There can't be a pile of cash in DETOUR, so how do you criticize people who just want to get a great film out where we can see it. The case with VCI's GORGO disc is something else altogether. Savant was looking forward to writing a big fun review, of the autobiographical kind. GORGO was one of the biggies in this freak's childhood. I've seen the movie on a giant screen as late as 1975, in Technicolor that looked so incredibly good: all the colorful images on any copy of the film are dazzling, especially the views of mama Gorgo walking through London below blazing purple and red skies full of smoke. For a movie that had to be padded just to reach screenable length, and with some very questionable opticals, GORGO was an extremely satisfying experience. Alas, after announcements of a 16:9 transfer piqued my hopes ( the 16:9 would promise a NEW transfer) the disc appears to be an indifferently authored copy of the same letterboxed 1:66 version shown on AMC. There is occasional stairstepping and pixellation, but the film still looks marginally better than on television ... marginally. The promised 'docu' turns out to be a not-very-informative selection of posters. VCI's website STILL says the movie is 16:9 if you look it up. VCI is now promising 'wonderful' versions of two much-anticipated Mario Bava greats, BLOOD AND BLACK LACE and THE WHIP AND THE BODY. The experience with GURGLE, I mean GORGO, does not bode well. The tragedy here, as with Invaders from Mars, is that viewers may never see just how wonderful GORGO once looked. When baby Gorgo surfaces at Nara Island, in good Technicolor you can see an entire gradient of black on black, on yet darker black. On this transfer, all that is visible are dull torches being thrown in the darkness at a black blob with a winking red eye. New discs expected soon, and hot to review after TREASURES FROM AMERICAN FILM ARCHIVES: SISTERS from Criterion; THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH from Image, and THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS from Anchor Bay. Back to writing and editing. Glenn September 27, 2000. PC puzzles. At work yesterday at CUT Editorial, I checked out Savant on the NT or whatever that is the foundation of their Discrete Logic edit* nonlinear editing system. On this NT, DVD Savant was quite different. It was readable, but certain html things I do didn't come through, like small type to differentiate picture captions, etc. I'm sure there's nothing wrong with the page that a good lesson in html or an automatic html program wouldn't fix, but this was news to content-oriented me. The new Anchor Bay REPO MAN review is up ... a film that is just too wonderful for words. The fun of hearing Alex Cox, three of his actors, his casting director, and his exec producer, ex-Monkee and much better film creative Mike Nesmith,is also difficult to describe. This audio track is like a reunion of crazy film students (I've been to my share of crazy film student reunions) who never grew up. PBS' American Masters show tonight (Wednesday) will focus on Clint Eastwood, a favorite subject of my pals over at the The Sergio Leone Web Board. Savant's fave Eastwood site is the Eastwood World Wide Web Page. No special DVD news this time around ... I'm hearing not-very-encouraging first reports on GORGO, a VCI disc out today. I'll be seeing Gary's copy on Thursday, hopefully (Friends are essential to DVD worship, if you don't have money). I may be getting some of the newer Criterion discs to review soon, so I've got some positive things to think about while editing away the days .... GE
September 25, 2000
Back to work. But there's time for today's notes. Savant sees that Steve Tannehill is back (I find out like everyone else, when he posts!), which is always a good sign. It would appear that Steve is in a coffee shop in St. Louis that has an internet connection for his laptop .... (or one in his hometown with a St. Louis name). A few months back Steve wrote that he thought that 'duelling reviews' between the two of us might be a good idea. I got the impression that he had actually seen some of the discs I'd gone wacky over and had formed ... an opposing position? This might sound like a good idea, but I'm not totally convinced. Savant is thin-skinned (deep inside I know I'm a nut with a fringe opinion) and has a bad habit of coming down hard on movies that rub him the wrong way. I purposely stay away from reviewing movies like American Beauty and Magnolia, because I'm sure I'd offend people. Yes, I know risk is the real game, something that made DVD Guy Steve Tannehill the must-read he is. Savant has the courage of his convictions but shies away from confrontation. How contradictory can you get? No matter how academic or superior I think my reasoning is (and you have to have ego tied up in this, I suppose), an individual opinion isn't all that valuable. This is why, when I say I hate a movie, I usually add that that fact shouldn't keep anyone else from giving it a try: I've already spent 30 years trying to form my OWN opinions without being TOLD what to hate; and I can count a dozen movies that I missed because some bad press told me they were terrible, that later became favorites. Gladiator and Eyes Wide Shut were hard to write about; it's hard work to write words you know people don't want to read. Dozens of letters came in upset with what I'd written, in many cases with good arguments. If I disagreed, so what? Believe me, it's a lot easier to explain the glories of Detour or Dementia / Daughter of Horror, than to argue whether Kubrick is a genius or a hack. And why should anyone care, if I can't separate Gladiator from other movies made 40 years ago? If Mr DVD Guy can think of a non-pit bull way of duelling, super. I've never forgotten the "Jane, you ignorant slut" debates on Saturday Night Live, that summed up what passes for 'intelligent' discourse. Saying you think someone's (and America's) take on a movie like American Beauty is all wrong isn't going to make many friends! OTHER news ... Savant's been cleaning house on the site - this Index page and the Subject Index pages have some navigational additions to perhaps ease the column out of the stone age, into the bronze-papyrus era. I also found out that the Quatermass and the Pit review had gone unlinkable for over a year, so I fixed that. Other than that - oh yes, Billy Wilder fans who liked the rare Peter Sellers / Orville Spooner pix over at MGM Savant might be interested to know that I've been looking at a lot of color stills from The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes - the two cut episodes. Hopefully these photos can be the basis for an MGM article on the movie. There was a great Laserdisc back in '94 or so that had the picture only from one of the missing adventures, and the sound only from the other. After so many good books on Wilder and the discovery of this photography, there's a new story to be told about the movie, if MGM thinks it's a good idea. Welcome back, Steve. - - - Glenn
September 23, 2000
A transitional day. Several reviews in the works. Since I start an editing project on Monday I'd better get them done quickly, but first there's back-to-school get-togethers and a family lunch. I've gotten a lot of interesting mail from readers on FIRST SPACESHIP ON VENUS - the review has been revised a couple of times with new information. Some of my guesses have been good; in one major instance I repeated yet another questionable fact from the (still great) Hardy Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, hoping someone would come forward with some real facts. Andreas Kortmann, who I believe is from West Germany, did just that, bless him. There is a German region 2 DVD of Der Schweigende Stern coming out on later in the month (if I read the amazon.de page correctly) and I might just order it if I can, and see it someday on a friend's multiregion DVD. Maybe a multi-region machine is going to make sense as a Savant purchase soon. As Gary Teetzel has advised me, it's just a matter of time before TOHO starts putting out all of their terrific old science fiction and monster movies on DVD. They've been making it difficult for American labels to produce satisfactory DVDs here, and that can only be because they don't want American product to boomerang back to their markets and compete with their domestic output. Anyway,that's the theory. I've seen Stuart Galbraith's amazing collection of literally every Toho laserdisc released, and he's shown us beautiful TohoScope and sometimes stereophonic lasers of GORATH, ATRAGON, VARAN THE UNBELIEVABLE, DOGORA, SPACE MONSTER, THE HUMAN VAPOR, THE H-MAN, MATANGO and THE SECRET OF THE TELEGIAN. All are completely different experiences in their original Japanese language versions, and not the cultural joke some people think of them here in the states. MOTHRA was the best, an enchanting movie that looks and sounds great widescreen and in stereophonic sound. I had already bought THE MYSTERIANS and BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE for myself, at stratospheric prices. What the lasers lacked, and the anticipated TOHO DVDs might contain, are English subtitles. Then all would be rosy. The only other feature I can think of is an obvious one, especially as the Japanese don't seem to be very kind to foreign licencees: hey TOHO, make them all-region discs. Dream on, Savant. Then again, there's always the French METROPOLIS disc everyone's told me about! Anyone know of any cool buys on a multiregion machine here in LA? I'd have a great time describing these original Japanese laser versions and comparing them with the miserable copies we have ... anyone want a Savant article on the subject? See you Monday, Glenn.
September 21, 2000
The FIRST SPACESHIP ON VENUS review has been up a day. Savant couldn't resist getting in deep on this one, even though the American release version (78 min) is practically a souvenir sampler of the original (130 min). I found out all about it that I could. My tease at the end, to alert The American Cinematheque to show it is no joke - there's no reason why a German print of DER SCHWEIGENDE STERN and a Czech print of IKARIE XB-1 shouldn't be available, especially with the director on the Cinematheque's International Board! The DVD Journal, a favorite Savant hangout, had a letter in their mailbox feature yesterday from a happy MGM customer who got very good, even unheard-of service from that company when there was a problem with his DVD. When I worked for MGM I snagged a few problem letters and tried to help out, and I know there are people now at MGM who would respond exactly as the writer reports. So how come I get the idea that the letter is a plant? Something about the way it is written. It's probably my suspicious nature. MINI - REVIEW: Savant received the TREASURES FROM AMERICAN FILM ARCHIVES DVD set yesterday, and it's quite a package. It contains 50 films and pieces of films, ranging from paper-print 60-second shorts from 1893, to entire silent features, to experimental silent films, picaresque home movies, and even some 1960's acid-head abstract movies. I looked at the first two discs, and four hours passed before I put them down, even though I only sampled some of the longer items. There's a perfectly-preserved hand-tinted movie that consists only of a rose, a female model, and an American flag. There's HELL'S HINGES, an entire silent Western that Savant hasn't seen but was supposedly remade by Clint Eastwood (as High Plains Drifter). The first two-color Technicolor silent feature, the whole thing, is here. Also SPIES, the gloriously racist Private SNAFU cartoon that was included (or bits and pieces of it) in the TOONHEADS LOST CARTOONS special Savant cut last year. The whole cartoon is here, uncensored, a far better print than I had to work with! Next were some curious Groucho Marx home movies, and a 1928 experimental silent version of THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, which has to be the craziest multi-exposure expressionist film of all. And OFFON is a perfect copy of a mindblowing late-60s 'trip' experimental film, a solarized, video-derived, hypnosis-inducing mixture of colors and industrial-noise audio. The TREASURES package is fascinating ... kind of a cinema school in a box. I attended dozens of screening classes at UCLA in the early '70s and didn't see as much variety - or such perfect quality. This one is highly recommended. It's amazing that it is an ordinarily-marketed product. I see Sony and Image logos on the box, but with the handsome packaging (careful getting the discs off those stubborn hubs) you'd think you'd bought it from a museum. Back in a couple. GE
September 19, 2000
A curse upon UPS, which kept me at home waiting for their delivery all yesterday, only to show up at 7:15 PM, during the 15 minutes I was picking up my high-schooler Daniel from Tae Kwon Do. Their 'you weren't here' tags always act like THEY were inconvenienced. Actually traffic in LA is so bad, who can blame anyone for not getting where they're going to? We have a bus driver strike which is making life a living hell for millions of poor people who can't get to their work, day care, and doctors. I asked a friend who lives in Beverly Hills how that neighborhood is surviving without their daily influx of thousands of domestics, and he said that 'everyone's already worked out carpools for their help.' The LA Times prints nice pictures and sympathy editorials, but we all know that if anyone in Bel-Air or Hancock Park couldn't get to work, the mayor would call in the National Guard. I hope GET UGLY EARLY becomes a theme ... see today's papers. Americans need to learn that their soldiers aren't more noble than any other country's. (this is a CORE DVD issue, of course) We all knew from the Boy Scouts that if you get any ten kids on their own and tired and hungry in a strange setting, they turn into LORD OF THE FLIES savages at the drop of a hat - and add fear and weapons to the brew and G.I. Joe is just doin' what comes nat'rally. Savant wants to see a series of expensive tax-supported Army recruiting ads with the theme, GET UGLY EARLY! But now for something about DVDs. Savant has heard all of this from several non-MGM sources, so I'm not breaking any confidences. By now everyone knows that the DVD title THIS IS SPINAL TAP underwent a last-minute repressing because its subtitles were missing, the documentary-style titles that gave locations and names and commented on the proceedings. How and why that happened isn't important. There are a lot of screener discs out there without the titles, but the general run is good. And the disc itself is hugely entertaining, especially the hilarious commentaries, in character, by the stars. But Savant has read some pretty vicious criticism about the fact that the subtitles are video add-ons, instead of the film burn-ins seen on a movie screen. The character and typeface of the subs are not the same as the original. Earlier screamers declared the GOLDENEYE disc a 'travesty' for the same reason, because previous film subs had been replaced by less authentic video chyrons. Savant has two responses to this: WHY: Video companies have to distribute their wares internationally, which means if the English version were to be a transfer of the final image with the titles already burned in (which would be a grainy optical dupe, by the way), then the company would have to compress the DVD twice or three times, minimum, for overseas use. These people already have as many as six or eight completely separate transfers of a title to pay for and worry about - doing this would result in 12 or 16 different transfers to vault and keep track of (read: mislabel and lose). OVERARCHING WISDOM: A video is a video and a film a film. Even though the DVD experience is quickly overcoming the movie experience in quality, Home Video is still not a movie, but an 'amazing simulation'. Are these people aware that, no matter what the packaging says, your letterboxed editions rarely show the full-frame of the original film? Why not scream about that? I once asked an important film archivist (in 1985) if he cared if a film were altered on video, and he said real film archivists don't acknowledge the existence of video, that making good video copies was a cheap excuse to say a film was restored when a decent print still couldn't be screened. Savant knows that in a few years film and video are going to converge, along with everything else. Then the subtitle folk will be happy, I suppose. Seeing a movie in a digital theater will essentially be the same as watching your HDTV at home. People won't even consider going out to the show a special event anymore, and will gab through the screenings like they were in their own homes. (Hey,they do that now.) Frankly, Savant is too grateful DVDs exist to faint over the details. At 13 years old I spent ten dollars for crummy silent b&w 8mm cutdowns of movies I liked, and played them over and over again. I saw OUR MAN FLINT in a theater, and had a dream of having my own OUR MAN FLINT magic movie (it came in something like a suitcase, with the Flint logo on the side) that showed on my wall. Now the packaging for the recent Fox science-fiction double bills shows an OUR MAN FLINT / IN LIKE FLINT double bill coming soon, and it's far smaller than a suitcase. If they suddenly decided to replace all the cheesy special effects in FLINT with ultra-slick digital improvements, well, that would be the cue to riot in the streets. But a non-original subtitle ..... this is like a Bunuel film, where a saint gives a cripple back his hands, and the first thing the beggar does is slap his son. "I give you a miracle, and you count the warts," is a favorite Savant saying when he feels underappreciated. THIS IS SPINAL TAP, the 35mm movie, is gloriously intact and restored on film, its negative, subtitles and all, as safe as a movie can be. Feel better? GE
September 17, 2000
A review for Anchor Bay's X THE UNKNOWN is up, a no-nonsense monster movie that has a squeamishly sexed-up interpretation you may not be aware of. Some of my favorite discs are early AB fare like DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS; starting out bravely at the beginning of DVD as a lowly independent, Anchor Bay's stylish presentations now routinely compete with Criterion for artistic relevance, and with the majors for quality. TCM's lineup of foreign films last Friday had a number of great titles Savant had (shamefully) avoided in film school. Claude Chabrol's LES BONNES FEMMES was a simply excellent drama about four Parisian shopgirls searching for love. Before it, however, was a stunning movie by Jacques Rivette called THE NUN with Anna Karina, a long and harrowing story of an innocent girl forced to join a convent in the 1760's, and how her purity ensures doom for herself and everyone she cares about. They don't call these classics for nothing; I was kicking myself that I didn't tape them. Writing this Savant update allows me to avoid watching the hideous Olympic coverage, which if anything seems worse than last time around: a horrible spectacle of endless stupid graphics, Yankee-centric moronic commentary, and crudely demeaning sentimental athlete 'highlights', complete with reality-bending montages. The necessity of time-delaying each grouping of events allows the television packagers to cram each evening full of commercials, and pace each competition to favor only those foreign competitors who will place with a medal, thus allowing more time to concentrate on American athletes. The Olympics are one of the few sports competitions that Savant really enjoys, but the way we get to see them now transforms them into cheap flag-waving and packaged glory. (End of Venom. Enjoy 'em if you can.) Back on Tuesday. GE
September 15, 2000
Several readers took exception to my claim that the Bush RATS TV ad wasn't subliminal, and I yield to their most likely superior knowledge while sticking to my common-sense guns. Three letters argued that a one-frame flash was undetectable at speed, so therefore it was subliminal by definition. They said a visual image can't be shown for less than a frame, which isn't true. Careful editing can record an image of ONE FIELD - 1/60th of a frame. They show up as Avid errors all the time! I have the perpetual eyestrain of an editor who has scrutinized video so much I jump at flash frames that aren't there, and see dirt where it isn't. But the RATS ad wasn't just a flash frame. There was a ragged flicker effect of a 'smeared' version of the title that bounced around for a few frames before the final representation of the RATS word flashed once. This 'flicker-flash' of graphics is a current trend in trailers and TV spots. Anything to keep their attention, methinks. Savant claims that the RATS frame was hard to miss because the viewer eye was already primed by the preceding flicker. So it wasn't just 1/30th of a second, but really a little sequence of cuts, that were not subliminal at all. The 'sequence' itself was similar enough to these nervous graphic treatments in trailers and TV spots, that Savant is convinced that it was someone's intentional stunt. Being so costly to air, TV spots are carefully scrutinized. Any suggestion that the flicker somehow got into the ad accidentally, is insulting. Savant is sure someone truly well-read on the subject would find the jokey Savant article to be un-authoritative on the subject of subliminable , excuse me, subl ... hidden messages. I still think that the idea of subliminal messages is a joke in a culture where so much of what we're fed in media is an overt psychological command to feel unfulfilled, and to keep buying, keep consuming. Rather like the wonderful core idea in the so-so John Carpenter movie, THEY LIVE. A convincingly authoritative commentator to the LA Times this morning didn't agree with either side of this uninformed Savant mini-debate. She did say the RATS ad was not subliminal, but for other reasons. Here's the link: Subliminal Commentary. Back to trivial matters (Note to Savant: Keep your nose out of politics). I'm proud of my HANGMEN ALSO DIE review and JUMP CUT 7 entry, which went up yesterday. It's a great movie that needs some background knowledge of history to work. Readers also tipped me to some interesting TV this weekend. TCM tonight is showing several Jean-Luc Godard movies in a row, that I should at least tape. They're not that easy to see. And AMC is showing ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. a week from Saturday in an uncut version that restores ten minutes of footage, some of it Ray Harryhausen animation. Since I didn't see it on laser, this is another opportunity. Suggestion to Fox Video for another DVD double bill: ONE MILLION YEARS, B.C., and the 1960 THE LOST WORLD. Or CURSE OF THE FLY and THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE ... That's probably going too far. Glenn
September 13, 2000
"Subliminable Potatoe" That's all Savant has to say about the elections. That RATS graphic flash wasn't subliminal - by definition subliminal messages are ones that are so fast YOU DON'T NOTICE THEM. These news services are dumber than Bush or Quayle, or maybe they don't want to kaibosh a good story on a slow day. They should read about Subliminal Advertising from a reputable source. If one's not available, Savant's Old Subliminal article might do. The September MGM Savant page has been up for 12 days but I didn't want to crow about it until some errors had been fixed. I think the article on Trailers has some good things to say, but the choice attraction are the photos of Peter Sellers in the KISS ME STUPID article. I was lucky to find a used copy of HANGMEN ALSO DIE! in a bin last week and actually uncovered some info on a missing scene, just by reading a book (advice from The Tick's One-Ton and Handy). I'll have a review for it and a JUMP CUT #7 article up by Friday. But coming this weekend is (whoopee!) FIRST SPACESHIP ON VENUS, which will kind of round off my summer-long review orgy of outer space movies, at least until the next gotta-see one comes along. Thanks to MST3K, this film has an undeserved zilch reputation. As usual, Savant will attempt to raise consciousnesses everywhere, willing or not. Thanks to those who wrote in to tell me DEMENTIA / DAUGHTER OF HORROR is no rumor, and that a real DVD is on the way. I still haven't seen an official site on it or anything, but I have faith in my readers ... A couple of emails asked me to relate my little Edy Williams story. At the convention where I first saw Barbara Steele in 1993, I was parking in the lot when this odd woman was unloading a van full of stuff onto the asphalt next to us. I was with Jim Ursini, and we asked her if she needed help. That's when we noticed she looked familiar. Jim ID'd her first as the famed Edy Williams from Eve and the Handyman and who knows how many decades of adult films of one kind or another. What she was doing at a convention for sci fi and horror folk, I don't know, but she assumed we knew who she was and that we worshipped her body and soul. I'm not kidding. She was in some weird kind of revealing showgirl outfit that she had to be 25 years too old for. Not that she looked bad; she was in excellent shape and had the energy of five women. "Oh thanks, sweetie" she said and handed us both everything she was carrying, as if it were assumed we were the packmules of the day. So the two of us waddled through a couple acres of cars toward the convention hall, with this remarkably durable-looking woman striding on ahead of us. She had a timeless tough-girl look in her eye, but you had the feeling she was completely honest about herself ... all business. The end result was that she hustled us both into the hall for free as her 'assistants' (we got some funny looks, we both felt like Edy Williams' personal Eunuchs). But, standing there like Laurel and Hardy, we did beat the price of admission. We dumped all of her stuff at her booth assignment and tried to make a fast exit, but Edy gave us both a big kiss. Mine was almost on the lips! She called us both "honey", handed us R-rated brochures with her latest photo-spread and sent us on our way. It was really fun being 'used' by a bad girl who could have been our mother. Okay, so it's not some hot story but it is the truth, which you'll always get, through Savant's warped perceptions, here at DVD Savant. Until Friday, GE
September 11, 2000
Well, the American Cinematheque screening last night of CASTLE OF BLOOD carried quite a surprise. Series programmer Dennis Bartok, while introducing the movie, welcomed none other than the film's star and possibly the #1 living Horror film icon. We all swiveled in our seats to see Barbara Steele, still stunning-looking and there to see the film for herself. With a wide, wide smile, Barbara waved, and that was it. We had wondered who the 'guest' would be a few minutes before, because a video cameraman had been setting up down front. Apparently Bartok had tried to interest Ms. Steele in sitting for an interview, and failed. Too bad she didn't speak because she's been dubbed so often in her career, Savant doesn't associate a particular voice with her. (I did hear her say a few words in the lobby afterwards). She was probably wise not to let the appearance be publicized or there'd have been a mob demanding autographs. Her publicist accompanied her, presumably to run interference, but the crowd was polite and behaved. I had seen Steele once before in 1993 at a convention (where I had an interesting encounter with Edy Williams, now that's a story) and she seemed shell-shocked in the face of fan attention. Alas, the print on view, said to be borrowed from director Joe Dante, was nothing worth coming out to see. It was a decent-quality 16mm copy that projected well but it had a scratchy audio track (probably the reason it became a collector's print) and was a center scan of a 1:66 original. At least once Barbara was cropped entirely offscreen. The film picks up substantially whenever Barbara appears. Besides being the most weirdly photogenic of the great 60s film faces, her presence packs a sexual charge for even an incoherent film ... and she knows how to wear a lowcut ballroom gown, too. Savant had only seen a bleary Sinister Cinema tape and had hoped to at least be able to appreciate the photography of the film. Originally known as the more artistic-sounding DANSE MACABRE or LA DANZA MACABRA, the film is moody and slow and needed a knockout image to keep one interested. As Image and Anchor Bay fans have discovered, Euro-horrors in pristine condition are as visually oriented as vintage widescreen Westerns - sometimes it's the pictures and not the story that matters. Unfortunately this has happened to Savant before at American Cinematheque. It's probably not their fault, because promised prints fall through, and *** happens. I was a rabid attendee until 1997 or so, when I suffered a string of features with really disappointing 16mm prints. Even carefully reading the screening programs backfired once, when the wonderful, French-language JUDEX turned out to be almost unwatchable: 35mm, but with a terrible (and undeclared) dubbed English track. This after I had coaxed my teenage French-major daughter to give it a try. Running a repertory movie house of any kind has to be a lot of grief; I'm sure Sherman at the New Beverly catches hell from over-demanding fans every time a substandard print arrives for him to screen, and there's nothing can be done about it. And we're lucky to be the beneficiaries of the Cinematheque, whose range of unique shows is impressive. They gave us the uncut five-hour UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD, didn't they? When you're showing 45 year-old movies, well, it's catch as catch can. Back on Wednesday, GE
September 08, 2000
Be they rumors or solid news, Savant can't resist blabbing about Deathwatch, which a poster on the hip Mobius Science Fiction Board has said is coming from Anchor Bay. Deathwatch, with Romy Schneider, Harvey Keitel, Harry Dean Stanton and Max Von Sydow is at the moment only available pan'scanned and time compressed down from 127 minutes to 119. It's one of the great modern Sci Fi movies shot in English by French director Bertrand Tavernier. It's release may be far into 2001, like Day the Earth Caught Fire, but Savant will always be patient for something like this. The other non-announced announcement is a double bill of Dementia and Daughter of Horror, supposedly from Kino International. I've checked their website and tried to send a note to their email mailbox, which isn't receiving mail. I screened Dementia once in 16mm in college to a dorm full of enthralled UCLA students. It's a cross between Vampyr and a Maya Deren-style experimental film, with a wailing score augmented by an even more wailing Marni Nixon vocal. Savant saw the recut Daughter of Horror version, which adds an incredibly over-the-top haunted narration by Ed McMahon (!) on a fuzzy, murky Sinister Cinema vhs - My best friend Steven Nielson proclaimed it the best thing he'd seen that year, and he's plenty picky. Daughter of Horror is represented, as many of you know, by a clip seen in a movie theater in The Blob. I'll be rushing to review the double bill when it appears. I feel like a Star Wars junkie, thinking "please let the rumors be true!" Here's a link to a new site called In Stereo, hosted by George A. Flaxman. The site has a number of interesting articles on George's favorite subject, film audio, some of them breaking down 1950's releases by studio and quoting contemporary Variety notices. The only caution I would have is to not take some of the Variety listings at face value; even now, when a studio announces something 'that will be' in the trades, it doesn't mean it came to pass. George mentions an unfinished Errol Flynn feature from 1954, The Story of William Tell. Savant will be looking for his promised article on this phantom film, for which I don't know the story and have seen only one still of Flynn trying his best to make a comeback. I checked with MGM,which should have material on the UA movie if anyone does, and they have zilch. Savant is braving the wilderness of the Egyptian theater on Hollywood boulevard Sunday night to see Castle of Blood, a Barbara Steele / Antonio Margheriti horror film originally called Danse Macabre. I'm expecting to see a nice print (yay) of a vintage black & white (yay) Barbara Steele (swoon) movie, with the sex scenes trimmed (boo) and terrible English dubbing (yucch). I'll let you know how it turns out... One more thing - Savant got restless yesterday and revamped the Savant SAVANT SUBJECT INDEX, updating it with all the new content in this site that has accumulated in the last 10 months. It's an accurate way to cruise for subjects that interest you, if you haven't read the rest of this book-like page. See you Monday - Glenn 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