Hello!

First up — Kino Lorber has announced on its Facebook page that they’ve lined up the great Canadian crime thriller The Silent Partner for Blu-ray this year. Daryl Duke’s show features Elliott Gould, Christopher Plummer and Susannah York, and also a young John Candy. It’s a terrific ‘Christmas’ movie; I used a picture of Plummer in a Santa Claus suit at my column link just two weeks ago, on December 22.

Next, I received a couple of notes last week from people that have had trouble obtaining their replacement discs for last year’s 3-D Revenge of the Creature release that had some problems. I asked the always- informed Gary Teetzel if he had the eMail info that we used, successfully, last Fall:

“Glenn, to request a replacement disc for Revenge of the Creature, your correspondent should send an e-mail to:

USHEConsumerRelations@visionmediamgmt.com

They will need to supply the following information:

Shipping address.
Daytime telephone number.
A copy of the sales receipt.
OR a photo of the disc and the outer packaging.

In my case, I sent a photo of the packaging & disc, plus a snip of the Amazon order since I had no physical receipt.”  I hope that helps, Gary.”

And correspondent Dave Horner, writing in on January 2, writes in to say he’s contacted Kino about the replacement disc for the The Outer Limits Season Two set. The disc in question is the first, because its episode Soldier, the one with Michael Ansara as a Terminator- like warrior from the future, has an audio flaw. Me. Horner reports that Kino said the replacement disc might not be ready for a few months. But regarding the Soldier episode he also adds:

“The disc set is missing an audio commentary for Soldier, which is listed in the booklet as having been recorded by Gary Gerani, but is not on the disc itself. It can be heard on Gary Gerani’s facebook page, dated Dec. 10th. Gerani has some interesting notes on the process of recording the commentary. Anyway, I was able to download the audio as an mp3 with my 4K Video downloader. I’ll load it onto my tablet and play it along with the Blu on a separate player. Best, Dave Horner”

I went to the Gary Gerani link, and saw that the missing commentary plays right from Facebook!   Perhaps when Kino remasters the flawed disc, they will be able to re-incorporate Gerani’s track back into the disc set.

And signing off, I’d just like to add that I’m really happy with the generous response to my 2018 Favored Disc Roundup .. promoting it on Facebook makes a big difference on who I reach. It was pointed out to me that not one ‘new’ movie made the list. It isn’t because I’m discriminating against new pictures — I just want to promote things I feel are special, and don’t want to use my biased soapbox to champion titles that already have enough attention. If I spread the awareness a little wider for an obscurity like Strange Victory or It Happened Here, then I’ll feel justified. Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

The holidays are wrapping up, and even if you’re adversely affected by the partial government shutdown, you may feel lucky simply to have survived 2018.

With a bit more time on my hands, I’m gearing up for more reviews than normal in January: I’ll be playing catchup with some December titles as well.

Wanna go to a premiere? I believe that Steve Finkelstein rounded up this 1933 newspaper ad from theater owner Sid Grauman, who apparently wanted to make sure the grand opening of a certain blockbuster didn’t play to an empty house. Three dollars and thirty cents doesn’t sound like much, but it did if you were making $35 a week. I understand that, in addition to the movie and a lavish prologue stage show, RKO erected a full-sized bust of Kong in the forecourt of the Chinese Theater.

A nod to a pair of good review sites: ‘Vienna’ over at Vienna’s Classic Hollywood dropped me a friendly, flattering line today; I checked out her page again, and also moved on to Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings — both feature reviews and opinions from interesting viewpoints (in other words, with thoughts I hadn’t considered).

Thanks for reading, thanks as ever, and Happy New Year ! — Glenn Erickson

Hello, and happy-new-year-approaching!

Fellow film writer Sergio Mims sent me a link to this old news video item about The Exorcist that includes plenty of footage of the great National Theater in Westwood, where I worked in 1972 and 1973. (Play the video that says ‘Cultural Impact.’)

It includes interviews with three people I knew fairly well. Manager Harry Francis was an old-school company man who ran the theater along road-show lines — we ushers and assistant managers addressed each other only by our last names, like in Downton Abbey, and we walked around in our tacky finery as if waiting on tables. The assistant manager Randy Robbins let me room with him for a summer, and I went out on a movie date once with the cashier interviewed, Donna (excuse me, Miss) Yearwood. I am shocked at how young she looks here. She was very sweet and much too sophisticated for me; I must have seemed a tadpole by comparison. I was smart in that I decided to quit a few weeks before The Exorcist arrived; I have to say I was offended by the way the Warners publicity men whipped up a hysterical campaign promising patrons that real devils were on the screen, even implying that actor Jack MacGowran had died due to a demonic curse.

Roommate Steve Sharon and I were able to walk down and take a look at the long lines forming in the rain; Robert S. Birchard shot 16mm film of the long lines that I was able to use much later in a home video promo for Exorcist III. Assistant Manager Mark Stern worked such long hours that he got permission to walk the theater in his stocking feet, because they were so sore. I think the publicity people made note of that, too. It was probably the most pressure put on a theater staff that I ever saw; Mann Theaters brought in staff from all the other theaters to fill in. There were five or six ushers just working the lines waiting outside.

The National had bad luck for almost its entire history — the flops booked into it greatly outweighed the hits and I think the last film I saw there was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989. The theater’s design was pretty incredible — that giant marquee up front lowered on an elevator device so its sign could be changed. When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences built a new theater in Beverly Hills, it copied the design of the National, simply reversing its orientation — the big staircase was to the West, not the East. As you can see in the video, there used to be a big empty parking lot on the East side of the building, and now the entire block has been redeveloped. The theater was so modern that we never thought it would be razed and replaced, but when Westwood stopped being the center of moviegoing in the 1980s, I guess major change was inevitable.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

  Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Charlie had this great Disney round-up review ready to go, so rather than wait a few days I figured we’d might as well have a Chris Lee Christmas as well.

The photo is of our ‘Christmas Pulpo’ … it was previously an ordinary Pulpo, but the ribbon makes all the difference.

With everything that’s happening I hope your family and life-pattern is intact and going forward, without the floods, fires, storms or politics making it too rough — I guess I’m thinking about the many government employees on work furlough. It’s sunny and nice in Los Angeles — I hope the weather where you are is what you want it to be —

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

Hoo-ray for me, as all my pre-Christmas work came together in time; just as it should be the house is filled with family. This year is a time to give thanks that all are well — there’s a lot of unhappiness going around, and it doesn’t always feel right to be in this pocket of peace and security.

Today’s disc news is brief but great: Kino has pre-announced a number of very attractive titles for next year, seemingly because some bounder leaked them. But it’s a classic treasure trove of early Alfred Hitchcock: Blackmail, Murder! and Number 17; and a six-title set that includes some silent pictures: The Ring, The Farmer’s Wife, Champagne, The Manxman, The Skin Game and Rich and Strange

Also Preston Sturges’ The Great McGinty, Joseph Losey’s Accident, Alain Resnais’ Last Year at Marienbad and… and… Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville.  Terrific!

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson