Hello!

A big surprise the other day … out of the blue, news that a restored Blu-ray of the long-MIA science-fiction thriller  The Day of the Triffids  is on the way. The word is that it is coming as a UK release on December 14. Caution: we don’t know what the Region Coding is; early posts said it was Region B, which will not play on standard U.S. players.

The news was a shock to us … for two years we have been wondering where the rights to this high-profile title would land. A restored Triffids is highly desired by collectors … we’ve received more questions about its absence than any other ‘absent’ Sci-fi title.

The new disc is from Ignite Films, a reputable company that went all-out several years ago with a major restoration on the Sci-fi classic  Invaders from Mars. Ignite’s superb 4K disc release was The hard media event of 2022.

Ignite’s product description calls this new disc a long overdue restoration and proclaims that at last the Triffids live again. We hope that it is indeed the restoration we know; we will have a lot more to say on the subject in the next few days. The film restoration of The Day of the Triffids that we know was a fairly amazing story. It was finished in 2010, and it ‘re-premiered’ at a TCM Fest midnight show on April 23 of 2011. The picture looked immaculate.

The release will give us the chance to tell the story of its restoration — and its years in ‘movie limbo’ — in much greater detail.

Well, that should give us something to think about while awaiting Horror of Dracula … which is due to arrive any day now. Excuse me, it’s time to check the front door again.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

We’re in a typical rush this Tuesday … when you’re not out voting, I have a request. Has anybody tried to sign up to post a comment on a CineSavant review at TFH, and had trouble with the procedure?  A couple of people have written to say that the page did not follow through with an expected response. I don’t know how it works, exactly.  I can’t check myself, as I’m inside the system.

– – –  The comments are a great way to add info about a movie, or to register a differing opinion — I only toss out hostile remarks I think are hostile. There are really very few.

I need to be more active posting comments, but what really makes the page rewarding is hearing from readers directly through emails. Good friends have come from this. The people that write can know that their email information stops here. No lists of emails are compiled.

It was great to have all three horror reviewers contributing for Saturday’s Halloween post … it gave me time to finish today’s Kubrick review. Those guys like their horror movies, it goes without saying. We’ll have another silent review from Denise Morrison in the next couple of weeks as well.

With that said, we’re suddenly aware that we’re still patiently waiting for these promised new 3-D discs to come our way, the ones that got pushed past Halloween. Do you ever feel like something is going to take forever?  ↗

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

CineSavant does its best to get into the Halloween spirit. We have three reviews, even if two of the most touted titles were delayed until sometime in November — Hammer/WAC’s  Horror of Dracula, and The Warner Archives’  Phantom of the Rue Morgue in 3-D. Radiance Films’  Planet of the Vampires in 4K, plus their intriguing set called   Fantastique: The Dreams and Nightmares of French Cinema, were always for November, but distinctions like that never get in the way of disc collectors’ irrational grudges.

Meanwhile, we have a some images with a Halloween theme, namely, photos of a holiday lawn display in Washington, D.C..  Is it just me, or have giant Skeletons overrun Halloween decorating this year?  We particularly like the skeleton ballet dancers. Not only did one D.C. resident go crazy with the bones and the cobwebs, some serious political statement-making came along as well. Here’s hoping that not all of the blessings of democracy end up in the graveyard. This creative skeleton-poser even depicts the Statue of Liberty as down for the count, in big need of a lift.

The photos only capture a bit of this particular display. Correspondents have been sending me images of decorations that engulf entire houses, with lighting and animation that must have cost thousands. For me, a pumpkin on the porch is Halloween fun enough. My gang of close associates that are really into Halloween either pick their favorite chiller show for the big night, or look forward to Day of the Dead celebrations.

Good timing at Trailers from Hell!  Our favorite trailer-narrating TFH Guru is none other than director Brian Trenchard-Smith. His camera presence is so smooth, he should be seeking a second (third?) career as an actor. We double-checked — the image just above is not a photo of Brian.

Mr. Trenchard-Smith contributes a typically excellent commentary for Terence Fisher’s 1959 The Mummy, the classic with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Beyond his clever sense of humor, Brian dispenses a bounty of interesting facts about the film’s production and its censorship challenge. Will this movie about the love-sick Kharis be my own Halloween treat? … other pictures I typically turn to on Halloween include  Circus of Horrors,  Mystery of the Wax Museum and  Island of Lost Souls.

Thanks to Charlie Largent for the deco banner for Halloween … Charlie’s own vintage Halloween Triple Bill post is called

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

We wuz robbed of a couple of the most desired and expected horror items promised for Halloween. But there is some good news: attendees of the Academy’s re-premiere screening last Saturday night of Terence Fisher’s Dracula aka Horror of Dracula returned with positive reports.

CineSavant’s advisor Gary Teetzel was there to watch history being made. Besides reporting a packed house that watched in rapt attention, Gary reports that

“It looks and sounds very good. Color looks excellent — not the excessive blue of the BFI restoration. The restored footage is in much better condition and integrates much more smoothly. As for added footage, I think there is an extra shot of Drac writhing in agony in the sunlight. The “face peeling” shot looks like it might be a few frames longer.”

That sounds fine and dandy to us. Trailers from Hell’s Joe Dante also attended, and circulated his reaction. His word for the restoration: Impeccable. Joe wrote that

“the added destruction scenes from the Japanese version are seamlessly integrated and somehow the music is still in sync. And to my nostalgic delight it even begins and ends with the original 1958 Universal International logo.”

So I guess we won’t be regretting our pre-release purchase of the movie, as it is now something grand to anticipate for Thanksgiving … you know, brightening up the world, post-election. when a review comes along we will try to compare this lauded restoration to some of the promises made by Hammer in the last half-year.

Also forwarded by Joe Dante is a fairly remarkable TV spot clip that would seem to augur who knows what for the Shape of Things to Come in everything audiovisual. The legendary movie star Greta Garbo is digitally resurrected through AI to host a corporate TV commercial.

I look at the recreation and think to myself, ‘I can see giveaways,’ and ‘sometimes she doesn’t look like the Greta we know.’  Does that make the slightest bit of difference?  Going forward, photos and video will no longer suffice as evidence for anything.

The spot doesn’t acknowledge the creepiness of the AI exercise, but it does have a sweet finale … a clip from a film advertisement Garbo made in 1919.

This also means that a then-preposterous joke from an old issue of The National Lampoon, written and illustrated by Edward Sorel, could now come to pass: the great movie star Greta Garbo could emerge from retirement to appear on TV’s Celebrity Bowling.

Thanks for reading, & see you on Halloween — Glenn Erickson