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It’s being reported that Joe Dante’s terrific 1985 fantasy / sci-fi classic Explorers will be coming to Blu-ray in May. A trio of barely-teenagers build and fly their own interplanetary spaceship, to a rendezvous with aliens in outer space. Cleverly worked out from a script by Eric Luke, the computer-age First Men in the Moon addresses Junior-High problems and adolescent romantic fantasies. It stars a very young Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix and Jason Presson, with Brooke Bundy, Amanda Peterson, Robert Picardo and Dick Miller, and music by Jerry Goldsmith. I’ll be looking forward to finding out how the special effects were accomplished… ’85 is fairly early in the development of computer graphic effects.

After about a year I’m happily back in contact with Swedish correspondent Stefan Andersson — we were able to exchange local Coronavirus reports. Stefan loves to report film-related online links …. in this note he pointed to a bunch of great links, starting with a way to see 3 Early Max Ophuls Films with English subtitles.

Stefan also sent a link to the 3-minute musical promo for an unreleased silent restoration, the Munich Filmmuseum’s reconstruction of Der Golem, with a new recording of the original music score by Hans Landberger. It’s said to be more complete than the Murnau Stiftung’s (really impressive) 76-minute Golem restoration that I reviewed last May. The Munich Filmmuseum’s cut is said to run 91 minutes — could some of the difference be because of a slower film speed?

And finally, correspondent Phil Lantis asked me to plug his organization’s New Hallywood Silent Film Festival, which is run out of Santa Clarita. This year the festival, which runs for three days starting on February 12, will be virtual. The flyer says they’ll be holding ‘sessions’ on Fatty Arbuckle, William S. Hart and Georges Méliès.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

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I’m the socially scarred type that doesn’t automatically respond well to cutesy videos about puppies and kittens, etc. In fact, I sometimes resent the bald feel-good items on the network news shows, the ones that always seem to showcase a cute animal, a veteran or a precocious child (or some combination therein).

But never fear, quality sweetness & light content grabs me too. This Dutch airline video circulated a few days ago by TFH’s fearless overseer Joe Dante is just the thing to brighten one’s day. At first I wasn’t sure it was real, but apparently it is. Plus there’s that curious, charming Dutch language. So puppy lovers, enjoy!   The link connects you to KLM Lost & Found service.

Let’s do a quick roundup of what’s in the review hopper — what’s in hand to review right now. Titles that have my attention: Robert Shaw and Jacqueline Bisset in The Deep, Alan J. Pakula’s The Parallax View, Charles Laughton and Ella Raines in The Suspect, Harvey Hart’s Dark Intruder, Ray Milland and Ann Todd in So Evil My Love, Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy in San Francisco, Eli Wallach and Carroll Baker in Elia Kazan’s Baby Doll, Stacy Keach, Faye Dunaway and Harris Yulin in Frank Perry’s Doc, Warren Oates in Sam Peckinpah’s Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, Andrei Konchalovsky’s Runaway Train, Alex Cord in Stiletto… and what’s supposed to be Otto Preminger’s worst film Rosebud.

And I might be doing a combo review of The Harvey Girls and Good News — just enough to praise one great musical number from each.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

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Some ambitious pixel-pushing image manipulators have been monkeying around with the trailer for Jurassic Park — just for the fun of replacing all those scary dinosaurs with … well, it’s self-explanatory in Pixel Riot’s
Pee Wee Park. A little more than half a million viewers have seen it since last August, which might mean I’m one of the last.

And correspondent “B” came through with an unusual find … a comic book adaptation of the MGM musical Singin’ in the Rain, included as an extra in a vintage issue of “Movie Love” magazine, #14 from April of 1952. Yes, it looks as if some comic book artists were handed a dialogue script and a pile of movie stills, for every panel resembles a pose we’ve seen in an official still photo.

“B” reacted as I did to the odd choice made in the panel pictured on the left, depicting Lina Lamont as she trumpets her own importance at Monumental Pictures.

I don’t credit myself as having the swiftest sense of humor on the planet, but this is an extreme case of just plain Not Getting the Joke.
(The images become much larger if opened in a new window.)

And finally, on Facebook Constantine Nasr has let drop that Val Lewton’s horror opus Isle of the Dead is coming to Blu-ray in March. Is this the Boris Karloff picture that was interrupted because he injured his back during filming?   I guess I’ll hear the story again if the disc has extras.  Isle of the Dead is one of two Lewton movies inspired by classical paintings, and we always loved the eerie Böcklin painting.  It shows up elsewhere in Lewton’s work, too.  I’ll also never forget one line of Karloff dialogue, repeated ad infinitum in the trailer: “No-one may leave the Island!”

And I was right! Also announced for March is my all-time favorite musical Damn Yankees with Gwen Verdon, Tab Hunter and Ray Walston. May the Warner Archive Collection live long and prosper…

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

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Another link from the active link-accumulator David J. Schow and also recommended by TFH fearless leader Joe Dante: the dedicated Jason Cuadrado has created a fully-animated homage to The Twilight Zone that also folds in a little Star Trek. It’s been making the rounds for about a month, but if you’re as disconnected as I am it will be a pleasant surprise: “Reap What You Sow” – An Animated Fan Film.

Not sure any real movies were released last year?  You’ve got company. Just the same, the Online Film Critics Society was on the case, and we voted for the best of 2020, the Year the Movies Went Away. You can see the results as reported by Wyllisa Bennett, at OFCS: And the Winners Are…. I think next year will mark my 20th year with the OFCS … I’ve got spindles and spindles of Acad screeners, you know, the ones we’re told to destroy!

And this one has me so curious, I might just bite on a UK purchase — you know, the kind we have to wait 6 weeks to receive. I read about it long ago in a Variety review and in the Hardy Encyclopedia of Science Fiction … and then it was recommended to me highly by a Czech friend, the one who long ago helped me see Ikarie XB 1 and Who Wants to Kill Jessie?   It’s called Tomorrow I’ll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea (Zítra vstanu a oparím se cajem). Directed by Jindrich Polák, the director of Ikarie XB 1, it’s a time travel story vaguely about a Marty McFly- type expedition to neutralize Hitler … I say vaguely because I’m avoiding synopses and don’t want to spoil it for myself. These Czech sci-fi comedies are truly fun — extremely droll and imaginative, so I might give the Second Sight disc a try. If that happens I’ll be doing everyone a favor:  when I spend for a foreign Region B disc, it all but guarantees that a Region A domestic disc will come out right away!

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

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I’ve cleverly swiped a link from correspondent David J. Schow, to an Edit Room Floor photo article featuring new snaps from a Hollywood Point Blank Wrap Party. We see director John Boorman — who looks very young — but the other invitees are mostly other alpha male stars associated with action pictures — Charles Bronson, Warren Oates. David also recommends snooping around the Edit Room Floor Home page, for other interesting images from everything from Sergio Leone to George Lucas movies. The one above ↑ is Sam Peckinpah and Steve McQueen on the set of The Getaway.

CineSavant reviewer and advisor Lee Broughton has some news: his book The Euro-Western: Reframing Gender, Race and the ‘Other’ in Film has just been published in a paperback edition from Bloomsbury Academic. European westerns upped the violence quotient, but Lee’s book examines the assertion that the European western strongly influenced the depiction of Native Americans, African Americans and women as well. Sir Christopher Frayling’s testimonial lauds Broughton’s analysis of the movies A Town Called Bastard and Hannie Caulder.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson