Hello!

The disc boutique The Film Detective is releasing a restored Blu-ray of — of all things — Eegah. It’s the micro-budgeted triple-Z picture from 1962, the one with the reputation more humble than amiable groaners like the legendary ‘Manos’ The Hands of Fate. I’ve only seen bits of ragged TV prints, but I remember staring at the Drive-In ads for this when I was ten — what could be cooler than a cave man movie, starring Richard Kiel no less?

They say it’s restored, which piques my interest. The saga of “The Crazed Love of a Prehistoric Giant for a Ravishing Teenage Girl!” will be available starting November 26. Who could resist?  Well, I guess some of us can’t.

← Gary Teetzel found a credit for a Robby the Robot appearance he hadn’t heard of before, a 1975 TV pilot from Bill Malone called Holmes and Walston. The gimmick is that Robby the Robot thinks he’s Sherlock Holmes, see?  His caretaker, Walston, is Dr. Watson. Jerry Mathers played Walston. Gee, is it hard to imagine why this didn’t go to series…?

More details, including some home movies filmed on the set, can be seen at the Sherlock Holmes Encyclopedia.

→ On the home front, a fairly incredible group of new discs came in the door last week, so many that I’m accelerating the review process to properly cover more of them. Here’s what’s in the ‘gotta review’ hopper at present:

Buster Keaton’s Our Hospitality, John Sayles’ Matewan, Robert Hamer’s It Always Rains on Sunday, The Boulting Brothers’ Seven Days to Noon (core Sci-fi), Carol Reed’s The Man Between, Don Siegel’s Madigan and Charley Varrick, Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, Blake Edwards’ The Days of Wine and Roses, and Robert Wise’s The Setup.

I’m checking out the enticingly-titled Naked Alibi & Woman in Hiding to see what they’re all about, too.

Finally, Joe Dante and Jon Davison will be holding their own mini- film series at the American Cinematheque Spielberg Theater come November 2 – 23, with the title Joe Dante’s 16mm Spotlight. It’s a core film fanatic’s dream get-together, as Dante and Davison reach into their personal film collections for strange oddities. The first title up is Servando González’s 1965 The Fool Killer, “a bizarre Western starring Anthony Perkins as an axe-murdering philosopher roaming the southern countryside with a 12-year-old runaway companion.” The eclectic cast includes Dana Elcar, Henry Hull, Salome Jens, Arnold Moss, Edward Albert and Lana Wood.

Other titles and descriptions are at the American Cinematheque page; this very welcome ‘alternative screening opportunity’ is programmed with assistance from Chris Lemaire.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson