Hello!

First note …. written Sunday morning. FYI,  Trailers from Hell was working on an access issue — the page was being rejected by some virus protection software. CineSavant heard from readers we didn’t know we had, who were blocked from reading reviews, and maybe the whole TFH page. That will hopefully have been fixed by Tuesday morning. Please write in if your software continues to block the way / be blocked.

Courtesy of Michael McQuarrie, here’s something fun from back in the day, created by a pair of over-achieving film students. It’s a 40-minute music & dance comedy about junior high school called, cleverly, Junior High School. It provided a solid career launch for its makers David Wechter and Mike Nankin, whose work we enjoyed at UCLA.

The sweet little item was designed to counter negative images of school life. It’s also the source of the almost-forgotten phrase ‘itty bitty titty committee,’ which has had a workout in various later comedies. It is also the first screen work of actor-dancer-choreographer Paula Abdul. It’s said to be a new encoding.

Also: This is even more of a must-see for us fans of Sci-fi. Wechter and Nankin brought down the house in UCLA’s Melnitz Hall, flooring us with what may have been the funniest student film ever:  Gravity.  It’s a satirical, not-quite-safe-for-work takeoff of condescending educational-instructional films.

And we’ve got one more last-minute announcement to make …

Just in time for Halloween, Studiocanal will release on Blu-ray a classic chiller long in need of restoration, Ealing Studio’s 1945 ghost story omnibus Dead of Night.

Assembled by four fine directors — Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden and Robert Hamer — Dead of Night is the granddaddy of spooky horror tales. Several are minor masterpieces, and even the comic story is good. The framing story to introduce the tales is truly macabre. It’s also a paradoxical time puzzle, far more mind-bending than we’d expect.

The capper episode starring Michael Redgrave is an all-time classic of psychological possession. The big surprise is that its 15 minutes distill the entire premise of Alfred Hitchcock’s  Psycho.  No joke.

A new 4K restoration is very much desired. The older discs we’ve seen all share a so-so image and frustratingly degraded audio. We’re hoping the restoration fully revives Ealing’s delicate soundtrack … the creepy little noises plus the powerful music score by Georges Auric.

Dead of Night arrives October 20. Details on the extras are viewable at the Amazon UK preorder page:

We’ll see if the present world trade disruption interferes with global commerce. The discs must flow!

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

An odd link courtesy of correspondent Lee Kaplan: It’s an embryonic film from director David Bradley, filmed when he was a teenager. To us UCLA film students Bradley was a classic cinema lecturer who brought in rare prints from his personal film collection, which was said to be enormous.

The outspoken Bradley had a peculiar film career. He self-produced two ‘cine-club’ features in the 1940s, both of which starred a very young Charlton Heston; he hung out in New York author and critic with James Agee. She somehow maneuvered himself into directing an MGM feature, an impressive feat. But his Hollywood legacy ended up hanging mostly on a trio of exploitation pictures, a juvenile delinquency tale, a lower-case Sci-fi, and the core crazoid Psychotronic effort  Madmen of Mandoras, later reconfigured as They Saved Hitler’s Brain.

This link goes to an excellent encoding of an amateur home movie epic Bradley made when he was 17 … he’s clearly trying to be professional, what with the neatly crafted intertitles — it’s his homemade version of a Mad Doctor movie.

After a  welcome announcement last month Severin Films and its top man David Gregory are making more news…

… the director’s Theatre of Horrors: The Sordid Story of Paris’ Grand Guignol will be given a grand premiere in Paris on September 6th. Narrated by Barbara Steele, the documentary charts the history and influence of the theater beyond its own macabre shows of cruelty and mutilation.

Barbara Steele is going to appear in person with Gregory at the premiere. It sounds like an epochal night in the history of horror — a feature devoted to the untold story of the weird, yet very mainstream theater, with an opportunity for Ms. Steele to bask in some well earned, much deserved adolation and accolades.

There’s more to the story … a full accounting of the event and Severin’s other recent surprises is at their website news page:

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

First up from Michael McQuarrie is a 1980 educational film about a kids with socializing problems, Why Is It Always Me?  We’re more accustomed to vintage educational pictures that are either depressingly clueless or unintentionally hilarious.

The interesting factor is that the star of this thing is the very photogenic John Cusack. The show tries too much and is still painfully square, but Cusack looks ready for anything. He’s not exactly the great actor yet, but he gives everything that’s needed.  Despite the haircut they’ve given him.

Gee, we wonder if some filmmaker could find a way to integrate these shots as flashbacks in a new movie …

Plus, this was first posted on Sunday … and is thus a repeat:

We have a quick note to add here at CineSavant to mark a milestone …. it was ten years ago that the old DVD Savant page migrated to guest status at Trailers from Hell. After 15 years with various hosts, TFH came through with an ideal arrangement.

The first ‘Savant’ review up at TFH was Mad Max; Fury Road, which was accompanied by a nice note from TFH welcoming ‘DVD Savant’ into the fold: August 24, 2015.

Friend Stuart Galbraith IV came to the rescue back then too, letting me post a few weeks of reviews on his page when posting at DVD Talk was no longer possible. At this link to the DVD Savant Column for August, 2015, one can read some of my concern, wondering what was happening at DVD Talk. Then, on August 25’s Column, I was able to to make the announcement … “The vaunted Trailers from Hell page has stepped up and offered to guest-host DVD Savant while waiting for DVDtalk to renew access to the site. This is fun, being handed from one gracious group of online entrepreneurs to another.”

The temporary situation soon became more permanent, more than just a place to post reviews. When TFH scheduled a website facelift for itself, they offered to design a new independent web page for me, to be the home of the ‘new’ DVD Savant. I don’t recall the changeover very clearly, but the first actual CineSavant Column appears to have arrived on  July 4th, 2017. It looks pretty plain-wrap to me now. After getting some bugs worked out and the column format nailed down, I see I made an announcement on  September 16, 2017. By this time we had the linking picture at the top of the Column, etcetera. Charlie Largent created the logos for CineSavant, which I think are beauties.

Anyway, the ten years has been a smooth ride. Contributing reviewer Charlie Largent has been contributing reviews here for over eight years, and we’ve had a lot of input from the UK’s Lee Broughton as well.

Thanks for reading, and for all the correspondence, which has taught me so much. We couldn’t pass up this Anniversary without saying something.

Cheers and best, Glenn Erickson

Hello from Glenn Erickson:

We have a quick note to add here at CineSavant today to mark a milestone …. it was ten years ago that the old DVD Savant page migrated to guest status at Trailers from Hell. After 15 years with various hosts, TFH came through with an ideal arrangement.

The first ‘Savant’ review up at TFH was Mad Max; Fury Road, which was accompanied by a nice note from TFH welcoming ‘DVD Savant’ into the fold: August 24, 2015.

Friend Stuart Galbraith IV came to the rescue back then too, letting me post a few weeks of reviews on his page when posting at DVD Talk was no longer possible. At this link to the DVD Savant Column for August, 2015, one can read some of my concern, wondering what was happening at DVD Talk. Then, on August 25’s Column, I was able to to make the announcement … “The vaunted Trailers from Hell page has stepped up and offered to guest-host DVD Savant while waiting for DVDtalk to renew access to the site. This is fun, being handed from one gracious group of online entrepreneurs to another.”

The temporary situation soon became more permanent, more than just a place to post reviews. When TFH scheduled a website facelift for itself, they offered to design a new independent web page for me, to be the home of the ‘new’ DVD Savant. I don’t recall the changeover very clearly, but the first actual CineSavant Column appears to have arrived on  July 4th, 2017. It looks pretty plain-wrap to me now. After getting some bugs worked out and the column format nailed down, I see I made an announcement on  September 16, 2017. By this time we had the linking picture at the top of the Column, et cetera. Charlie Largent created the logos for CineSavant, which I think are beauties.

Anyway, the ten years has been a smooth ride. Contributing reviewer Charlie Largent has been contributing reviews here for over eight years, and we’ve had a lot of input from the UK’s Lee Broughton as well.

Thanks for reading, and for all the correspondence, which has taught me so much. We couldn’t pass up this Anniversary without saying something! Cheers and best, Glenn Erickson

Hello!

Correspondent Michael McQuarrie gives us two strong online links today. The first up is a 1970 short subject adapted from a stage play by Arthur Miller, and starring Eli Wallach and Robert Ryan. It’s almost unknown and is rather indifferently directed, but it’ll be something that fans of the stars will want to see.

It’s The Reason Why, directed by Paul Leaf. He directed other short subjects showcasing noted actors — Alan Arkin, Dustin Hoffman, Elaine May. Leaf produced some offbeat short subjects and a string of successful TV movies, including Judge Horton and the Scottsboro Boys from 1976.

A year after The Wild Bunch, Robert Ryan wears a mustache for a show that could have been filmed in a day. The business on hand is the hunting of wild woodchucks on Eli Wallach’s country property, but the real subject would seem to be killing in general, and maybe the Vietnam War. It was reportedly filmed on Arthur Miller’s home in Roxbury, Connecticut. We wonder if a woodchuck problem inspired playwright Miller to write this one-act piece. It comes off as a bit preachy and insubstantial, but it makes its point. It would go well with a clip of Marilyn Monroe from  The Misfits, wailing about the killing of wild horses.

Second-up is a long-form Swiss documentary in the German language about Italo westerns, filmed in 1972. The subject is the decline of the genre, but we see plenty of BTS footage from the set of a western by Sergio Corbucci, plus lots of contemporary footage of movie districts with marquees, etc.

After the opening I couldn’t get the English subtitles to function, but I think that’s just me … Michael apparently didn’t have that trouble. Google translates the title Leichen pflastern seinen Ruhm as the English ‘Corpses Pave His Fame.’

The last item was forwarded by Joe Dante. We of course know the fine Patty Duke / Anne Bancroft version of  The Miracle Worker, but we were much less aware of the original Live TV version from 1957. It later became a Broadway play, which is where Bancroft and Duke got involved.

The original TV teleplay was written by William Gibson, of today’s reviewed movie, The Cobweb. The director is the great Arthur Penn. Annie Sullivan is played by Teresa Wright, looking very severe. Helen Keller is played by Patty McCormack, a performance that will erase memories of her infamous  Rhoda Penmark.

Also on hand are Burl Ives, John Drew Barrymore, Akim Tamiroff and Katharine Bard. The music is by Russell Garcia. It’s a top title of the Golden Age of Live TV — remarkable in every respect. No problems with drapes, here.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

Criterion released its November disc lineup yesterday: of seven features, six will be available in 4K Ultra-HD; the titles include John Hughes’  The Breakfast Club, Reginald Hudlin’s  House Party  and a Blu-ray of  Abbas Kiarostami Early Shorts and Features.

Four titles grab us as extra-special. We can hear the sound of pocketbooks being put at risk —

•  Howard Hughes’  Hell’s Angels will be in 4K. Announced as the ‘Magnascope’ Road Show version, it may not be longer than what we’ve seen before, but it’s been re-formatted a 1.54:1 aspect ratio. Criterion says that a 1:37 encoding is present as well. One of the extras is a selection of outtakes and rushes from the picture. It will be interesting to see the color dirigible sequence in 4K; it’s been 20 years, and I can’t remember if there’s more than one.

•  Based on how good the making-of docu  Hearts of Darkness looked last week, we’ll also want to get a look at Les Blank’s  Burden of Dreams, the epic story of the making of Werner Herzog’s  Fitzcarraldo. It’s an epic in its own right. Besides capturing Herzog’s all-time classic ‘nature is vile and murderous’ harangue, Blank filmed some of the wildest out-of-control real-life filming ever. Smashing into rocks, the untethered steamship drifts toward a dreaded waterfall with no power, and with Herzog trying to direct a panicked, screaming Klaus Kinski on board. It’s reality madness, did Herzog take the risk just to see Kinski blow a fuse?

•  Luis Buñuel’s  Él is one of his creepiest semi-surreal explorations of ‘everyday perversity.’  Within the strict confines of Mexican censorship he suggests taboo weirdnesses that remain disturbing. Did the Mexican cast not know what they were getting into?  It’s another Buñuel gem that’s difficult to see in a decent presentation, which makes a 4K encoding seem miraculous. This is excellent … more Buñuel, please!

•  Finally, Criterion’s 4K edition of Stanley Kubrick’s  Eyes Wide Shut promises some special extras, but the news will be that it’s the International Version that went unreleased in America back in 1999. Is the film a triumph for Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman?  Gee, it’s been 26 years already, and the debate over the film’s merits has yet to die down.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson