CineSavant
What’s So Bad About Feeling Good?
George Seaton's literal feel-good comedy is the flipside of the pandemic film Contagion: a powerful virus 'cures' grumpiness and bad vibes, encouraging a…
Articles by Glenn Erickson
CineSavant
I Wouldn’t Be in Your Shoes
Gotta love that title! Producer Walter Mirisch's small-scale Monogram noir was once assumed lost, but now it's making its home video debut…
CineSavant
O.S.S.
Hollywood acknowledges the existence of America's proto- C.I.A. intelligence agency with this espionage tale of Yanks working with the resistance in occupied…
CineSavant
In Harm’s Way
Hollywood's last big all-star war epic in Black & White? Otto Preminger took a happy film company to Hawaii for this enormous…
CineSavant
The Web (1947)
It's smooth noir sailing with this polished noir from Universal-International and its choice cast of pros -- Edmond O'Brien, Ella Raines and…
CineSavant
Pickup on South Street
Sam Fuller turns from combat in Korea to cat 'n mouse games in New York City, with America's stand-up defenders being exactly…
CineSavant
Major Dundee
It's a new deluxe Limited Edition of Sam Peckinpah's mangled masterpiece, the third fancy boxed set in as many years. Arrow's presentation…
CineSavant
Essential Film Noir Collection 2
Viavision's second deluxe Film Noir boxed finds real variety in the film style, with entries that range from low-budget efforts to a…
CineSavant
The Human Condition
Masaki Kobayashi's six-part adaptation of the book by Jumpei Gomikawa may be the most ambitious, most truthful film about the big-picture reality…
CineSavant
Stranger on the Run
Favorite director Don Siegel is in fine form in this 1967 TV movie, a keeper with qualities not seen in Hollywood's mega-westerns…
CineSavant
The 317th Platoon
This unheralded story of the French retreat in 1954 Vietnam is one of the best films ever about guerilla combat. The professional…
CineSavant
Guns for San Sebastian
It's a big international action epic, filmed in Mexico with a French director. Anthony Quinn is an 18th-century bandit who liberates a…
CineSavant
Alfie (1966) + My Generation
Move over, Angry Young Men: Alfie Elkins leverages class resentment and killer good looks to become a ladies' man extraordinaire... in his…
CineSavant
Merrily We Go to Hell
Marriage, social pressure, professional disappointment -- and if you want to be really unhappy, add alcohol to that mix. Fredric March and…
CineSavant
Larceny
It happens every time: we want to cruelly betray somebody, but LOVE keeps getting in the way. When evil Dan Duryea sics…
CineSavant
The Face Behind the Mask
Is this a horror classic? I'd certainly say yes, just for the shrewd and sympathetic performance of Peter Lorre as an unlucky…
CineSavant
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly 4K
It's still one of the most popular movies ever, and fans are proving that by shelling out for an umpteenth home video…
CineSavant
The President’s Analyst
Here's a GREAT picture whose time has come -- Theodore J. Flicker's spy spoof is one of the smartest, funniest political satires…
CineSavant
Explorers
One of Joe Dante's finest pictures speaks heart-to-heart to gee-whiz space fans -- transporting us from our backyard to the far reaches…
CineSavant
Scarface (1932)
Still the fiercest and most cinematic of the first wave of gangster classics, Howards Hughes and Hawks's pre-Code rule-breaker was the one…
CineSavant
To New Shores & La Habanera
Douglas Sirk proves his mettle as a consummate romantic storyteller in these part-musical melodramas from the peak of his career in Germany.…
CineSavant
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
"Learn it. Know it. Live it!" The best-remembered teen comedy of the '80s is also an insightful and unabashed look at real…
CineSavant
Hellfighters
"Two smoldering women made all the danger worthwhile!"... heck, we didn't even see 'em catch fire. John Wayne is charismatic and Andrew…
CineSavant
Blood of the Vampire
The man with eyebrows that can kill! Not really, but that's the impression given by the poster illustration. The Baker/Berman producing team…
CineSavant
Giants and Toys
Brilliant filmmaking from Japan: Yasuzô Masumura's film all but screams in protest, that unfettered consumer capitalism is cannibalism, plain and simple. In…
CineSavant
The Woman One Longs For
It's Marlene Dietrich, before Josef von Sternberg and The Blue Angel -- and much of her mystique is already present. This sophisticated…