Hello!

We’re a day late due to some website issues — but Charlie Largent says it’s safe to publish … reviews, anyway

Mark Throop of the indispensable Movies ala Mark found this site, which has been around long enough to be familiar to lots of film fans (except uninformed me). It’s called Reel History and is run by Dr. Jared Frederick. He does a good job of analyzing movies about ‘true’ historical events, and comparing them to known historical reality.

It looks like most of the films discussed are about war or battles, at least the ones at the top of Reel History’s menu. We watched part of an illustrated video on John Wayne’s 1960  The Alamo and were impressed … the good doctor managed to relate the discrepancy between Wayne’s film and the historical record, without calling the picture an outright fraud.

I’m interested in a second video article because it’s about the Spielberg / Milius / Gale & Zemeckis  “1941”. Dr. Frederick rightly calls the epic comedy a mess, yet he has many interesting observations regarding its re-creation of / exaggeration of the real event of 1941, in which some Angelenos seem even more stupid than the characters in the movie.

Actually, it’s hard to find an article with four consecutive words that discuss “1941” in any context other that its box office success or lack thereof. I liked it. Maybe I should write an unexpurgated ‘Making of 1941’ sometime. Maybe not. From witnessing much of the filming, I have a wonderful recall of second-hand gossip, and scores of skewed subjective personal observations.

Being reported from all sides is TCM’s schedule for April, which will set aside its Friday nights for a month-long tribute to producer-director  Roger Corman. They’ll be showing numerous Corman films, the films of some of the famed directors he helped get started, and a biographical documentary or two.

The news can be glommed at leisure, at the pages for  Warner Bros. Discovery,  All Hallows Geek and  Conskipper,

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

We didn’t post reviews yesterday because Trailers from Hell has  a formatting glitch that needs to be fixed up … we assume it will be straightened out shortly.  So … nothing is wrong with CineSavant or the rest of us here in Los Angeles!

We’ll hopefully be posting again shortly.

Hello!

This is a fun thing to see. I met the great Nathaniel Thompson almost 25 years ago, when I think he was wrangling publicity for Image Entertainment DVDs. His  Mondo Digital page is a solid source for the wide range of fantasy and horror; Nathaniel has a knack for covering extreme horror cinema with an intelligence not seen too many other places. I worked with him off and on at TCM with people like Richard Harland Smith. It was also fun to follow his adventures working for the Academy.

This is a ‘Shelf Space’ web interview produced by Kino Lorber and starring Kino’s Frank Tarzi and Alicia Lu. The talk covers Nathaniel’s career but mostly about his audio commentary work. This is very interesting for someone who has tried a few commentaries — Nathaniel has an enviable ability to let his knowledge and ideas flow, creating coherent, entertaining tracks even on the fly.

Part of the fun is hearing the three discuss audio commentators we all know by name. Nathaniel also explains how he keeps track of his personal archive of over 30,000 discs. I was just happy to enjoy spending some more time with Mr. Thompson.

CineSavant is an independent review site but the discs have to come from somewhere. One distributor has been ‘berry berry good to me,’ so I have no compunction about helping them promote a sale. It’s for The Warner Archive Collection discs at the MovieZyng page. It reads like a good deal to me — the basic come-on is 4 titles for $54 dollars.

I hope I’m communicating the details correctly. One browses eligible Warner Archive titles at the MovieZyng page, and when your cart has 4 titles, you enter code ARCHIVE17 at the checkout.

MovieZyng has an inducement program for its reviewers, but CineSavant isn’t participating. I just don’t want to be an influencer, I guess. But we’re big fans of the WAC and want it to do well. The  Warner Archive 17th Anniversary Sale  is right up top at the

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

Good friend Malcolm Alcala sends along a nifty little link to nine minutes of fine B&W cinematography.

12 years ago the Los Angeles County Museum of Art put on an exhibition called Under the Mexican Sky: Gabriel Figueroa — Art and Film. The most celebrated Mexican cinematographer shot scores of top Mexican classics and some of the best films by Luis Buñuel, not to mention a number of classy Hollywood pictures.

This is the exhibition’s video sampler of fine Figueroa movie images. Several appear to be from John Ford’s  The Fugitive. We’re big fans, so it certainly works for us. And nobody photographed classic ‘Spanish Eyes’ with quite the same finesse.

Noir City 2026 is coming back to Hollywood’s Egyptian Theater for two weekends in April. The exhibition has become practically a vacation destination over the years, what with the fine show put on by The American Cinematheque and the Film Noir Foundation, and hosted in-person by Eddie Muller and Alan K. Rode.

The lineup this time guarantees extra entertainment — the theme is Face the Music!,  in twenty films that carry musical performances. Ida Lupino and Ann Sheridan sing in  The Man I Love  and  Nora Prentiss, while Jazz performers and compositions feature big in  Anatomy of a Murder  (Duke Ellington),  All Night Long  (Dave Brubeck, Johnny Dankworth, Tubby Hayes & Charlie Mingus),  The Sweet Smell of Success  (The Chico Hamilton Quartet),  Odds Against Tomorrow  (John Lewis), and  Pete Kelly’s Blues  (Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee).

Some of these pictures really take off on the big screen — the talent roster has some of the best directing work of Otto Preminger, Raoul Walsh and even Jack Webb.

Noir City screenings are always ideal, like an old-time communal theater experience. They will be having live music at every show, often with vocal accompaniment — 20 movies in two weekends!  I might try to attend this year!  Full information is through the American Cinematheque link:

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

This first link is fun … Gary Teetzel sends along a little bit of music heaven, credted to Stereozentrum. It’s the main title cue from Alfred Hitchcock’s  Psycho, arranged for solo piano.

Since the YouTube video is a live performance, we get to see the pianist’s skill uninterrupted. The post has a couple of paragraphs of learned music talk, that happens to discuss something called the ‘Hitchcock Chord’ … if it’s a joke, I wouldn’t be able to tell. But I was certainly entertained.

‘Stereozentrum’ doesn’t identify himself directly, so forgive the omission of the name of the talented pianist.

As long as we’re in the neighborhood, here’s some extra Psycho links — for  Petra Hayden’s Psycho Acapella;   Bernard Herrmann’s Psycho score explored for A-level music students;  and score explored for A-level music students; and of course the immortal  Psycho Sleigh Ride medley.

Producer-director and restorationist Arnold Leibovit has another Puppetoon release coming on Blu-ray. It’s a 4K remaster of a restored Director’s Cut of the original 1987  The Puppetoon Movie.

It sounds like a digital overhaul of the entertaining feature, which includes classic by producer George Pal, and creative contributions by Ray Harryhausen, Willis O’Brien, Gene Warren, Sr., Wah Chang, Fred Moore, Buddy Baker, Louis Armstrong, and Peggy Lee. A look at the sales page gives a full description of the restoration, and the improvements made to the Puppetoons included.

The disc is due in late April, the link is to a preorder page — it’s loaded with bright Technicolor images.

Other Puppetoon compilations are at Arnold Leibovit’s  Puppetoons Productions Home Page.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson