Savant Column

Saturday September 22, 2018

Hello!

Correspondent Lee Kaplan sent me a marvelous 2001italia.it article from 2013, Making the Starchild in ‘2001’: a tribute to Liz Moore. We can’t necessarily blame Stanley Kubrick for not crediting all of his technicians and artisans, for that didn’t happen until 1977 and Star Wars. Steven Spielberg followed George Lucas’s generous example, which is why an effects worker in a minor capacity (me) could be given screen credit, a real miracle. Ms. Moore would appear to have been quite an artist and master fabricator of effects marvels. This tribute is deserved — she contributed a major image to the 20th century culture.

The new disc announcements keep coming: Arbelos Films has announced a November 13 date for the release of its Blu-ray of Dennis Hopper’s legendary The Last Movie. About 48 years ago I worked a Westwood parking lot next to the Regent Theater, which disgorged a constant flow of weed-heads from this picture’s brief run. And earlier this year in the high country of Perú, I passed through the town of Chinchero, and realized it was Hopper’s filming location. I look forward to seeing if the film measures up to its reputation.

Kino’s KL Classics Blu-ray line has solidified its schedule through December, nailing down dates for some highly desirable titles. There are plenty more, but the ones that grab me at first glance are Sangaree 3-D (October 16), Ray Milland’s A Man Alone and Lisbon (November 6), The Outer Limits Season 2 & The Mamie Van Doren Film Noir Collection (November 20), The Puppet Masters & The Atomic Café (December 4) and The Last Command (December 11).

And I haven’t hard dates in hand but the next Blu-rays from The Warner Archive Collection have been announced: Bad Ronald, Robert Altman’s Brewster McCloud and a pair of Chris Lee Hammer vampire pix, Dracula A.D. 1972 and The Satanic Rites of Dracula. Those two Halloween- flavored titles join Bert I. Gordon’s The Cyclops, which does have a hard street date, September 25.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson