Hello!

Yes, just one review today — the holidays have pounced full force, along with other outside work. I post this nice, nervous photo of Ella Raines and Franchot Tone because I’ve been told that Arrow Video’s upcoming (March) Blu-ray of Robert Siodmak’s marvelous film noir Phantom Lady will be accompanied with a commentary from Alan K. Rode, whose work is always top-notch.

I’ve also found out that a screener of Shout Factory’s new Dracula Prince of Darkness is on its way, courtesy of DVDtalk. It’s still difficult to review Shout/Scream genre titles, so this is a nice break. DPOD always looked terrible on video before, so I was pleased to see a bit of it on TCM around Halloween, looking quite handsome — If Shout’s disc looks at all similar, the first Chris Lee Dracula sequel’s better qualities will surely stand out more brightly.

The top photo of the church congregation from Robert Benton’s Places in the Heart grabbed me because it’s a discreet shot from a rather beautiful ‘miracle’ scene that audiences sometimes don’t recognize as such. At least, I was strongly moved in the theater by a filmic display of mystical Christian faith, without overstatement or pandering. We’ll be getting back to typical CineSavant genre thrills soon enough.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson