Glenn Erickson's
Review Page and Column
Girl with a Suitcase 04/19/25
Claudia Cardinale’s first major starring role was a big success in Europe, even if our New York critics seemed primed for more ‘intellectual’ film art. She’s a sensation as Aida, a showgirl ditched by a dishonest lover … whose more gentlemanly but acutely underage brother comes to her rescue. It’s a hard lesson in survival and romantic incompatibility. Young Jacques Perrin is the decent kid who falls head over heels in love; Cardinale displays big talent as the vulnerable woman who knows the kid is just too young. Excellent direction by Valerio Zurlini, plus terrific pop music and a nice early career appearance by Gian Maria Volontè. On Blu-ray from Radiance Films.
04/19/25
The Savage Eye 04/19/25
What does one call a film this original? It’s a poetic documentary-investigation of Los Angeles culture circa 1958; it’s also a powerful proto-feminist essay. Ben Maddow, Sidney Meyers & Joseph Strick collaborated on this rare attraction. Barbara Baxley stars as a disaffected divorceé who sees the city as layers of Hell. She and Gary Merrill deliver a stream of consciousness on the progressive soundtrack. It’s sane, humanist and compassionate, and also quite adult; the credits are a roll call of talented individualists: Haskell Wexler, Irving Lerner, Verna Fields, Jack Couffer. One disc in a four-disc set, on Blu-ray from Severin Films.
04/19/25
CineSavant Column
Hello!
Nothing on the Column item docket today — except for goofy online videos old and new … which people keep saying they like.
First up is a homemade video mashup from ‘Tvcrazyman’ — a clever editorial job that tasks The Man of Steel with defeating an armada of invading flying saucers. Ray Harryhausen worshippers may complain, but hey, re-editing the effects master’s work is always rewarding.
Fun is fun:
Up second is an old friend that’s forever winning new fans. Posted by ‘homemadespots’, it’s a musical excerpt from the 1965 Indian murder mystery-musical Gumnamm. A clip of the dance number shows up in Terry Zwigoff’s Ghost World, just long enough to retard one’s consciousness by two or three evolutionary levels.
This one never gets old. The mindless, mind-warping music and the hyperfrenetic dancing are enough to shake one’s brain loose. The earworm guitar riffs will take possession of your frontal lobe for at least a week.
The choreography feels like a metaphor for modern life: people are bombarded by sub-atomic particles, just like David Byrne. It looks so frantic … psychologically speaking, the dance feels like a logical reaction to current national events.
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson
Behold a Pale Horse 04/15/25
Fred Zinnemann’s superb thriller has suspense, fine characterizations and a potent anti-fascist theme. Gregory Peck is excellent as an embittered lost-cause warrior who takes on one last mission into Franco territory to kill an old enemy, Anthony Quinn. Emeric Pressburger’s very modern story benefits from Zinnemann’s precise direction and impressive production design by Alexandre Trauner; the costars are Omar Sharif, Paolo Stoppa, Mildred Dunnock and Christian Marquand. On Region B Blu-ray from Powerhouse Indicator.
04/15/25
The Time Traveler’s Wife 04/15/25
What can you expect when the hero of a story is a Special Collections librarian? Audrey Niffenegger’s scrambled-time romantic fantasy shouldn’t work, but it squeaks by — fashioning a ‘life metaphor’ that doesn’t get tangled up in its own sci-fi plot complexities. The picture-perfect cast, especially Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana, sell the illusion 100%. It may not be Oscar nomination bait, but it’s a crowd-pleaser that revives the good old romantic film blanc fantasy. On Blu-ray from New Line / Warnerblu.
04/15/25
CineSavant Column
Hello!
Michael McQuarrie finds another good Internet Archive item. It’s an episode of the old PBS TV show Frontline. To explain, PBS was this great public-supported TV station that presented all manner of education and public interest programming, including original productions like Frontline that offered fine documentaries with journalistic integrity. Exactly what happened to public broadcasting is an entire different discussion.
The beautifully produced The Monster That Ate Hollywood is about the ‘corporatization’ of Hollywood. Produced in 2001, the process had been underway for decades, but it’s nicely spelled out, with excellent celeb interviews and relevant film clips.
Frankly, it’s hard to imagine anything produced about Hollywood that’s this good — most studio-based projects are so thoroughly corporatized, that anything not selling a product is pushed aside. We should know, having worked on video featurettes and docus for so long … starting in the late ’90s, the attorneys kept a close watch on was shown and spoken. What you wanted to say didn’t matter, what the piece said about their product did.
These are not just companies, says Peter Bart, they’re Nation-States, that want ‘Risk-Averse’ movies.
The final joke is the writer’s credit on the show …. Alan Smithee.
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson
I’m All Right Jack 04/12/25
Labor madness finds new extremes in Roy Boulting’s acidic satire pitting scheming bosses, a Bolshie provocateur and would-be arms smugglers against each other in a munitions factory. Terry-Thomas, Richard Attenborough, Margaret Rutherford, Liz Fraser and Peter Sellers’ Comisar of the assembly line all torment the upperclass twit Ian Carmichael; some of the hilarity is in thoroughly rotten taste. The double-entendres are so frequent, one starts looking for dirty meanings in every line of dialogue. Can’t wait to read Charlie Largent’s take on this one. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
04/12/25
Lady of Vengeance 04/12/25
A wronged beauty commits suicide, and Dennis O’Keefe’s hero plans a killing-for-hire to avenge her. Director Burt Balaban’s murder tale has a twisty surprise or two but not much else going for it. Star O’Keefe looks unhappy and Ann Sears is just a beautiful observer, which gives Anton Diffring’s sneering, slimy villain the opportunity to run away with the picture. His fans will want to take note. It’s a minor oddity from 1950s England … hearing O’Keefe and Diffring voice the agenda for a perfect torment-slaying is pretty weird. On Blu-ray from MGM Amazon.
04/12/25
CineSavant Column
Hello!
Joe Dante circulated this Click Americana page from March 5, 2025. It’s a round-up of facts and insights about our American Drive-In Movie phenomenon — where it started, how it developed, and how its boosters thought it would never end.
There are photogenic images of Drive-Ins on view, but also a lot of shop talk from an article within the article — Charles R. Underbill Jr’s assessment of the state of all things Drive-In, from 1950. When WW2 ended there were only 60 of the things, but in five years over a thousand were constructed. Only a few hundred are left today.
And Michael McQuarrie, bless him, comes up with another rewarding link, one I’ll be going back to myself.
It’s from the Internet Archive and it’s simply called ‘The Tarantino Collection.’ It’s described as a collection of film reviews and writing, most of which appeared on the Beverly Cinema website. It says they were written between 1982 and 2022 … a goodly chunk of time.
Tarantino is always a good read — his tastes and knowledge are refined, and his comments are seldom predictable. His 3 or four pages on Bogdanovich’s Targets were an excellent start.
There’s an index but you have to peck your way through the pages to find individual topics. We like it.
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson
The Cruel Sea 04/08/25
It’s a top-rank war movie, the best of its kind. The Ealing Studios, writer Eric Ambler and director Charles Frend transpose Nicholas Monserrat’s best seller to the screen with honesty and realism. Little-known now, the show was a hit in America, too. It made a star of Jack Hawkins and raised the profiles of Donald Sinden, Denholm Elliott, Stanley Baker, and Virginia McKenna. It’s superior filmmaking all around — we forget details and invest ourselves in the fates of these brave people facing uncertain lives … hmmm, that hits home. On Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
04/08/25
Blue Sunshine — 4K 04/08/25
Having an LSD flashback? Can you really remember every controlled substance you regularly imbibed in your wild days? Freaky homicides figure in Jeff Lieberman’s horror thriller, but the uneasiness builds on everyday fears we all understand: why is my hair suddenly falling out? Am I losing my mind? Zalman King, Deborah Winters, Mark Goddard and Robert Walden are 30-ish adults re-experiencing hallucinogenic blasts from the past … that turn them into hairless, murdering maniacs. It’s a highly original thriller, boosted to the top home video format. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + CD from Synapse.
04/08/25
CineSavant Column
Hello!
What, another atom bomb-related movie? It’s a Michael McQuarrie find, a twenty-minute documentary produced by the Air Force for the Atomic Energy Commission, on a series of bomb tests at the Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands in 1948.
Screenwriter Carey Wilson is listed as the narrator. Could he have tweaked the narration as well? The tone of the writing matches the MGM short subjects where Wilson’s voice is frequently heard.
Only Peter Kuran would know if better materials for this short subject are lost, as this looks like a 16mm dupe. We’ve seen some of these shots of men at electronic equipment, repurposed for science fiction movies (in better condition). That narration script is very well done, with no thoughtless or extreme remarks to exploit as madness in The Atomic Cafe. Operation Sandstone is three separate detonations. The opening title card looks like a birth announcement for a new baby.
The final speech is quite a poetic mouthful, however: “So can it be with the energy Man has created. The road is open, a road which may show us the cure for cancer, a road which may enable us to produce heat, and power and new metals with atomic furnaces. New fuels, new ways to nourish the soil, and correct vitamin and mineral defiencies in the very food we eat.”
Yeah, but the only aim we see is to make bigger and better bombs …
Thanks for reading!
Donovan’s Reef — 4K 04/05/25
John Ford and John Wayne’s best ‘old man’s movie’ is deceptive — on the outside it’s as square as can be, an easy-chair comedy vacation for all concerned. But Ford imbues the proceedings with poetic formalism, and a nostalgia for a generation in retirement. John Wayne was never so at-ease charming, Lee Marvin does some marvelous clowning, and Elizabeth Allen’s pluck & spirit defuse the rampant paternalism in the screenplay. Peter Wollen was right: this South Seas island is a fantasy Valhalla for the western combatants of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics.
04/05/25
Sadie McKee 04/05/25
Glamorous Joan’s screen image is now fully defined, and her improved acting carries her pictures with grace and assurance. Director Clarence Brown makes a soapy story play like high drama. It’s rags to riches again, as one woman captivates the three men in her life. Sexy Sadie elopes with one man, marries another and resents a third, but guess who ends up the winner? Edward Arnold’s performance is the standout; Franchot Tone and Gene Raymond do well enough, but we prefer the smart comic touch of Jean Dixon. And it takes a minute to accept the sight of Arnold, Akim Tamiroff and Leo G. Carroll looking far younger than we ever thought they could. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
04/05/25
CineSavant Column
Hello!
Intrepid correspondent Michael McQuarrie comes up with a winner from my past … I remember leafing through this at the UCLA Research Library’s Theater Arts Reading Room, the moment it arrived … ulp … 52 years ago.
The irreplaceable Internet Archive has issues of Take One, the magazine that published the fine interview with Ivan Reitman about Cannibal Girls.
This issue from May of 1973 features has an impressive lineup of must-read items: The Horrible Hammer Films of Terence Fisher by Harry Ringel, Carl Foreman Interviewed by Joe Medjuck, The Murder of Fred Hampton by Gerald Peary, The Grotesque West of Sergio Leone by Stuart Kaminsky, Sergio Leone Interviewed by Noel Simsolo, plus review coverage of the movies Pulp, Ludwig, Ulzana’s Raid and High Plains Drifter.
Harry Ringel’s Hammer-Fisher piece is a particular good read … analyzing the Gothic horrors from a different perspective. Carl Foreman talks directly to his blacklist experience. The letters and ads are of interest, too.
And Michael McQuarrie scores with a second item from The Internet Archive … an entire feature film from Turkey. It’s a horror comedy from 1974, apparently patterned after Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein. Why, oh why, was this not given a major U.S. release? . . . . You’ll soon understand why it wasn’t.
The whole show appears to be here, and it’s a great opportunity to brush up your Turkish … having no subtitles would make this a sink or swim teaching lesson. But the comedy is so basic, I doubt anyone will get too lost, or really want to know what’s going on.
I know, I know, there’s not enough money in the world to repay Mr. McQuarrie for this public service. Like I said, this show’s from Turkey … do I need to pay a tariff to watch it?
The title translates roughly as ‘My Friend Frankenstein.’
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson