Hello!

By this time most of the announcements for summer disc releases are out, and close associates are snooping about for news of potentially desirable genre product — yes, horror and sci-fi as well as crime and noir — scheduled for later in the year. In the average year the usual thing is for only a few Gottahavethedamnthing titles to be on the radar, with dim hopes for exciting Halloween- themed releases. This year is more than just unusual — the flow of hot announcements began a couple of months ago, and it seems it will peak in July. Most of the items are Blu-ray improvements on favorites, but there have already been some notable debuts, like the French Fantomas trilogy from the 1960s, which CineSavant’s Charlie Largent should be reviewing within the week.

Looking at the list of goodies, I see that Kino Lorber’s new release compact with Studio Canal is a major source of new product. Scream Factory has been putting out attractive ’50s Universal thrillers for months now, and still has some major items to spring on us. Also represented here are Criterion, Flicker Alley, Arrow Academy and Mill Creek/Kit Parker:

May 28: The Alligator People, Blue Velvet
June 4: The Last Warning, The Man Who Laughs, Arabesque
June 11: Frankenstein Created Woman, The Entity, Piranha
June 18: The Silent Partner, The Running Man, The Monolith Monsters, The Universal Horror Collection (The Black Cat, The Raven, The Invisible Ray, Black Friday)
June 25: Monster on the Campus, Lost Highway, Gone to Earth/The Wild Heart
July 2: Bob le Flambeur, Le Doulos
July 9: This Island Earth, The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid, Mothra, Alphaville, Dead of Night
July 16: Noir Archive 9-Film Collection Volume 2, The Leopard Man, Attack of the Robots
July 23: Criss Cross, Death Takes a Holiday, Death in the Garden
July 30: The Reptile, Quatermass and the Pit, Quatermass 2
August 6: A Foreign Affair
August 13: Early Hitchcock (Kino box)
August 20: Isle of the Dead, 4D Man, Dinosaurus!, Hercules in the Haunted World
August 27: The Leech Woman

It’s quite a list; July is in particular a real killer month. I may not be able to review quite a few of them, but I’ll do my best.

CineSavant may be a little lean in the next week, as I’m concentrating on an outside project. But Tuesday will see a review of a fairly hot title, and I’ll keep the CineSavant Column news coming!

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson