Glenn Erickson's
Review Page and Column
Symphony for a Massacre 04/28/26
The Cohen Film Collection
Blu-ray
We finally caught up with this superb French crime thriller about a gang of cultured crooks that trip up on their own sense of sophistication. Kingpin Charles Vanel collects a fortune from four partners to initiate a drug deal; but one of the group is cheating with his ante and another intends to steal the bundle and run away with another’s wife. Director Jacques Deray plays the entire movie as actions, not speeches; the cagey thief dashes back and forth across France to establish his alibi. The classy cast plays it all low-key: Jean Rochefort, Michel Auclair, Jose Giovanni, Claude Dauphin, Michele Mercier and Daniela Rocca. The surface pleasures are a fine jazz score and marvelous location shoots circa 1963 — just seeing the cars is a thrill. On Blu-ray from The Cohen Film Collection.
04/28/26
Trouble in Paradise — 4K 04/28/26
The Criterion Collection
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
Some movies appear to approach perfection. Ernst Lubitsch ditched operettas for saucy pre-Code romance with this winning, hilarious look at high class thievery and honest lust. Herbert Marshall and Miriam Hopkins are larcenous high-society outlaws, preying on continental swells that can afford to be bilked for millions. Kay Francis is the wealthy widow who teaches them both a lesson in love, forming a ménage à swindle. Critics go nuts for this picture’s formal beauty and wickedly clever insinuations of sex; Criterion has rounded up input from four of the best. On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
04/28/26
CineSavant Column
Hello!
We saw this link in a post circulated by Joe Dante yet it’s been up for seven years. An anonymous Rod Serling fan cobbled together an ersatz episode of The Twilight Zone, using film clips purloined from the 1968 classic Sci-fi feature Planet of the Apes.
What sounds like a nice exercise gets nicer when we learn that the revisionist editor added other elements to make his fan cut more authentic. The clips from the Franklin J. Schaffner movie are pan-scanned flat and in B&W, to better match the Twilight Zone format. And the editor scoured episodes of TZ to find just the right opening and closing narration to borrow. Rod Serling’s voice sounds like it belongs there.
Serling’s voice does belong there: the TV legend was a co-writer on Planet of the Apes, along with the previously blacklisted Michael Wilson.
A new article by Josh Weiss at the web page Sy Fy has more information on the clever edit. We agree with the observation, ‘what could look more appropriate than the Statue of Liberty finale with the Twilight Zone music playing?’
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson
International House 04/25/26
Univeersal Home Entertainment
Blu-ray
The FUN never stops in this pre-Code Paramount variety show, with a rudimentary plot, bizarre performers and plenty of risqué humor. It’s the 1933 equivalent of Wild and Crazy — with a sensational cast, some of whom need explaining: W.C. Fields, Rudy Vallee, Stuart Erwin, George Burns & Gracie Allen, Cab Calloway, Bela Lugosi, Baby Rose Marie, Franklin Pangborn and Sterling Holloway. Top billing goes to the then-scandalous tabloid sensation Peggy Hopkins Joyce. You haven’t lived until you’ve experienced this hour of off-color jokes, flirtatious nudity, booze humor, Cab Calloway singing about marijuana, the spectacle of Baby Rose Marie, an incredible television invention and the Six Day Bicycle Race! It takes place in Wu-Hu, China, but don’t let the posy fool ya. On Blu-ray from Universal Home Entertainment.
04/25/26
The Maid (La nana) 04/25/26
Shoreline Entertinment
Blu-ray
Sebastián Silva’s domestic drama is Upstairs-Downstairs for the 21st century, a story that involves class difference and social isolation, yet doesn’t push the usual buttons of comedy or tragedy. When the exhausted maid of an upscale Chilean family begins behaving strangely, we fear that this beautifully-acted film may be turning into a horror picture. We instead get a believable, absorbing and funny tale of personalities we can understand. These days, just showing a situation that doesn’t devolve into chaos or bloodshed is good news. Catalina Saavedra is remarkable as the unhappy, rebellious maid Raquel; the picture generates a good feeling about people. On Blu-ray from Shoreline Entertainment.
04/25/26
CineSavant Column
Hello!
A good Saturday to you … we were made aware of an interesting link at The Classic Horror Film Board. Board member Ray Faiola has put together a missing bit of picture and sound from the original release of a prime Universal horror picture.
The interest is built-in. We all know that the Karloff Frankenstein begins with a ‘word of warning’ from Edward Van Sloan, but we had forgotten that similar clip had been trimmed from the official version of Bela Lugosi’s original Dracula.
We’re not quite sure what we’re looking at. “It’s a reconstruction of the long-missing Edward Van Sloan curtain speech from Dracula that syncs up a 16mm silent print with audio from a Vitaphone disc.” But are they saying that that’s what we’re hearing? They elsewhere ask if some collector has a Vitaphone disc for the last reel of Dracula. Online, some are theorizing that the track we hear may have been created by AI. I don’t know enough to have a coherent response to that.
But the clip itself sounds pretty cool:
And Joe Dante is circulating a link to this article from Architectural Digest written by Michele Duncan and posted on April 22, 2026.
The title says exactly what it is. The pictures show the family man and happy daddy Orson doing the domestic thing, and Duncan’s text has interesting things to add. The explanations for the photo images are more than illuminating. Welles fans get to see where he lived and worked. We’re told that his neighbors were Greta Garbo and Shirley Temple.
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson
Danger: Diabolik U.K. import — 4K 04/21/26
Eureka! Video
4K Ultra HD + Region B Blu-ray
We once again have sprung for a pricey Mario Bava import — this time to finally be able to hear this Italian show with its original Italian-language audio. That’s basically what’s covered in this abbreviated review of an all-time CineSavant favorite. Can you hear Alessandro Alessandroni’s sitar yet? “Adesso è il momento giusto — Di stare pìu vicino a me!” It’s in 4K, has a treasure trove of video extras and good text essays by Roberto Curti, Troy Howarth and others. On 4K Ultra HD + Region B Blu-ray from Eureka Entertainment.
04/21/26
Gambling Ship 04/21/26
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Blu-ray
There’s nothing like discovering a ‘new’ movie by a favorite star. Cary Grant took time out from playing cinematic arm candy for Mae West to try his luck starring as a reluctant mobster. The gangland context is a turf war between illegal gambling ships. Benita Hume is Cary’s love interest, with Jack La Rue as the nasty rival gangster and Glenda Farrell and Roscoe Karns as comic relief. Cary Grant’s screen persona isn’t yet fully formed — he’s not fully comfortable as an ambiguous Good/Bad Guy. On Blu-ray from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
04/21/26
CineSavant Column
Hello!
We’re pretty much in awe of the work schedule of friend Alan K. Rode , who very shortly will be opening the 2026 instalment of the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival. The Palm Springs festival has been going strong since 2000.
This year’s festival runs from May 7-10 with a great lineup of pictures. New digital restorations of Allan Dwan’s Slightly Scarlet and Blake Edwards’ Gunn, plus an eclectic lineup of moody thrillers — Joan Crawford in The Damned Don’t Cry, Sidney Poitier and Richard Widmark in No Way Out, the gritty English productions Hell Drivers and It Always Rains on Sunday, and even a chance to see the explosive Bonnie and Clyde on a big screen.
Allan has the particulars of the festival all mapped out … attendees slip into town to enjoy the show and the town before the summer heat takes over.
Thanks to a nice tip from correspondent Michael McQuarrie, we get to see a YouTube encoding of a documentary by favorite Trailers from Hell guru Brian Trenchard-Smith: a 1974 piece on stunt work in Hong Kong action pictures, circa 1974.
Trenchard-Smith wrote, produced and directed the martial arts movie documentary, which features stuntman Grant Page, but also Carter Wong, Lawrence Lee, June Rhee, Wang Yu — and stars George Lazenby and Stuart Whitman, then in Hong Kong filming Hammer’s Shatter. It’s one of 4 or 5 stunt-related films by Trenchard-Smith, before his directing career took off with The Man from Hong Kong.
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson
Gilda — 4K 04/18/26
The Criterion Collection
4K Ultra HD = Blu-ray
Our interest in this noir must-see has never faded. Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford remain one of the hottest screen couples of the 1940s in this surprisingly adult, surprisingly sophisticated love/hate tale in a casino in Buenos Aires. Their romance is one for the books, with perverse angles that must have sailed over the heads of the censors. Criminal husband George Macready and international postwar scheming raises the tension even higher. Hayworth’s song and dance performances include an all-time sexy cinema highlight, ‘Put the Blame on Mame.’ On 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.
04/18/26
The Crawling Hand + The Slime People 04/18/26
VCI, Kit Parker Films
Blu-ray
A popular DVD combo is back for more, this time remastered in Blu-ray quality. Diss these no-account drive-in cheapies if you must, but they made their producer a lot of money, being produced for peanuts and playing theatrically and on TV for almost two decades. Rod Lauren is a mixed-up teen possessed by part of a dismembered astronaut, accompanied by actors and a hot music theme lifted from top-40 radio. Then a horde of slug-like monsters covers all of Los Angeles with a slimy force-field dome, trapping a few hapless survivors. The title creatures look pretty good, but only from one camera angle. Tom Weaver’s interview with Susan Hart puts a blessing on the creepy-creepy double bill. On Blu-ray from VCI / Kit Parker.
04/18/26
CineSavant Column
Hello!
The new Trailers from Hell podcast The Movies That Made Me has snagged the director and home video entrepreneur David Gregory for their newest interview show of career highlights and film favorites.
We first met Mr. Gregory years ago, when his Severin Films was turning out DVDs; he directed his first feature around 2008 and has continued to several documentary pieces. We’ll be looking for his newest, a feature documentary on the history and legacy of the Paris Grand Guignol theater. According to TFH, David is tasked with profiling his 5 fave Severin releases, and 5 dream titles he’s like to someday release.
25 years ago, when editing a TCM documentary about Joan Crawford, there was one movie we couldn’t see, called Letty Lynton. Correspondent Richard Coombs sent in this link to an article in The Guardian detailing the legal conflict that took Letty Lynton off screens just four years after its premiere.
Writer Pamela Hutchinson gives the pertinent facts. The story was based on a real-life murder, that later became a very different movie by David Lean. The movie created a fashion fad over an Adrian-designed ‘Letty Lynton’ dress style that became very popular. Crawford’s grandson Casey LaLonde took part in the effort to clear Letty Lynton to be screened again. It is going to be shown at the TCM Fest in May, and then be released on disc by The Warner Archive Collection.
90 years on, we can finally see Joan Crawford’s wildest film
Oh, and one more thing. We love living in California, but all those poor commuters are really in a rough spot right now … here’s the bad news at the pump this morning.
Let’s hope for the best for all of us.
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson
Catch-22 — 4K 04/14/26
Shout Select
4K Ultra-HD + Blu-ray
We remember plenty of movies that got chalked up as failures, yet now seem more interesting than most new Oscar nominees. Mike Nichols’ ambitious anti-war epic, from Joseph Heller’s satrical novel, impresses greatly in multiple ways, with a dream cast in quirky, imaginative roles. Alan Arkin’s Yossarian is an airman, a sad sack everyman. He wants to survive his combat posting, but the Army Air Corps seems determined that he become a battle statistic. Paramount’s new 4K encoding is a beauty, and the extras include an all-time favorite commentary track, an audio discussion between Mike Nichols and Steven Soderbergh. On Blu-ray from Shout Select.
04/14/26
The Gay Divorcee 04/14/26
The Warner Archive Collection
Blu-ray
Some movies just knock us for a loop. This first official starring vehicle for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers is delightful entertainment, the kind of psychological medicine that makes the world seem right again. The cast is so good, the guy playing the waiter deserves star billing. All that and a giant musical number — plus the introduction of one of the top romantic melodies of the 20th century, Night and Day. Fred and Ginger’s dancing duets are pieces of heaven guaranteed to cheer up most anybody. A new digital restoration makes the images look as if they were filmed yesterday. Includes a battery of surprise extras. On Blu-ray from The Warner Archive Collection.
04/14/26
CineSavant Column
Hello!
We’re hoping we’re in line to review Ignite Films and Eagle Rock Pictures’ new 4K edition of Joseph H. Lewis’s key noir The Big Combo. Ignite is a very special film collection, having accomplished such a terrific restoration and release for the previously abused classic Invaders from Mars. 4K Ultra HD ought to do a lot for The Big Combo, with its ‘extreme noir’ lighting by John Alton.
The crime drama has been a focus of noir studies from the 1970s, focusing on the twisted personalities on view — every relationship has a perverse angle. The romantic triangle is really a tangle of sexual obsessions, while the only stable people are a pair of gay hit men. The stars carry the drama with ease: Cornel Wilde, Jean Wallace, Richard Conte, Brian Donlevy and Helen Walker. The inseparable hired killers are none other than Earl Holliman and Lee Van Cleef.
Ignite / Eagle Rock have announced four separate packages, standard editions in 4K and Blu-ray, plus two separate Steelbook editions. Each package includes an entire bonus feature filmed by John Alton, The Crooked Way. More info is available at the Ignite Website.
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson