Hello!

Artist Juan Orsono created this gray on gray portrait of a Martian pal; we’re ready and eager to see the SuperCineColor original. And we only have to wait 40 days or so.

Yes, that transparent shill CineSavant still wants to drum up excitement over Ignite Films’ upcoming release of Invaders from Mars. We may be beating a dead Mew-Tant here, but Gee Whiz! — the world needs to know.

And collectors’ items are where you find them — on the right is an example of an ‘Il Cinema Ritrovato’ souvenir — an IFM carry-all bag to brighten your day. Here’s where I’m supposed to say something like ‘collect ’em all’ — except there was only one style.

Invaders from Mars in 4K Ultra HD : September 26.

An interesting announcement for Tarzan fans: The Film Detective is releasing a three disc Blu-ray set called The Tarzan Vault Collection: Three of Edgar Rice Burrough’s classic tales of the King of the Apes. Are these the only Tarzan-related features not controlled by the Warner conglomerate?   We loved the older Warner DVDs, and wish they’d start doing fab HD remasters on them — but this collection of ‘other’ Tarzans gives us two complete silent features and a full 1935 serial that got produced outside the MGM / Johnny Weismuller / rights umbrella.

The shows give us the barrel-chested Elmo Lincoln in the silent classics Tarzan of the Apes (1918) and Adventures of Tarzan (1921), plus the 12-chapter serial thrills of The New Adventures of Tarzan, starring Olympian Herman Brix aka Bruce Bennett.

Loaded with commentaries and video docus, the disc will be out shortly, on August 23.

My review last week of the Viking movie The Long Ships took a positive attitude; we like that show a lot despite its frequent awkwardness. But I just discovered that I reviewed The Long Ships before, nineteen years ago, and forgot all about it. My attitude about it back then seems to have been very different, more in tune with some readers that last week offered a litany of sarcastic comments.

Where’s my Pulitzer?: “The silly bell is found hiding in plain sight where any shepherd who rang the clapper would figure out its secret. It looks like half of Rolfe’s crew are brutally killed when the bell rolls off a cliff with them chained to it. Widmark’s only retort is a cheery, “Well, that was the quick way!”

The old review now reads as if I were trying to be a comedian. Could we just not resist being so sarcastic back then?   The 2003 DVD Review of The Long Ships is still up at the old DVD Savant, typos and all.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson