CineSavant
Elvira, Mistress of the Dark
We love Cassandra Peterson, a smart woman who made a go of horror host work in the tough Los Angeles TV market,…
Articles by Glenn Erickson
CineSavant
The Public Eye
Howard Franklin's absorbing tale of the New York underworld is told from the point of view of a night-prowling shutterbug who documents…
CineSavant
Romance on the High Seas
A bigger and brighter film debut couldn't be imagined ... Doris Day became America's sweetheart in Michael Curtiz's peppy production, graced with…
CineSavant
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916)
A near-spotless restoration on the 104 year-old adaptation of the Jules Verne classic finally presents it in a form where we can…
CineSavant
America as Seen by a Frenchman
This marvelous proto-documentary is a cultural travelogue, before such films became a conduit to express social outrage or moral condemnation. To the…
CineSavant
Pride and Prejudice (1940)
MGM in 1940 was just the movie factory to turn out a smart, compact version of the Jane Austen novel, with Greer…
CineSavant
The War of the Worlds
"It neutralizes mesons somehow. They're the atomic glue holding matter together!" For most of the 1950s George Pal's Martian invasion tale reigned…
CineSavant
The Day the Earth Caught Fire
What's the best Ecological Thriller of all time? Finally available in a good Region A disc is Val Guest and Wolf Mankowitz's…
CineSavant
Britannia Hospital
Lindsay Anderson's third 'Mick Travis' movie is a crazy comedy eager to overstep lines of cinematic decorum. Britain in 1982 is a…
CineSavant
Come and See
The director of this unblinking account of the genocide in Belarus in 1942 and 1943 said that "people in America can't watch…
CineSavant
Africa Screams
Abbott & Costello perform at full strength in this very good, very silly jungle safari comedy. It's definitely for kids and nostalgic…
CineSavant
Hair
Bring back the Age of Aquarius! Olive Films returns with the company's best Signature Edition ever. The show is an excellent choice…
CineSavant
The Reluctant Debutante
Vincente Minnelli took time out from expensive MGM shows like Gigi to knock off this tale about the London debutante season, a…
CineSavant
The Spider
Bert I. Gordon rides again with an excellent encoding of one of his more popular sci-fi monster-ramas. Pert 'n' perky June Kenney…
CineSavant
Dark and Stormy Night
It's a Larry Blamire film, and it's composed of entirely NEW and UNIQUE elements: a lonely mansion, strange servants, the reading of…
CineSavant
Wildlife
The beguiling short-story feel of Paul Dano's intimate family drama makes us share the experience of a teenager whose parents are 'going…
CineSavant
Tokyo Olympiad
Will there even be an Olympics in our foreseeable future? Kon Ichikawa's 1964 masterpiece is still the most spectacular/intimate film about human…
CineSavant
Horrors of Spider Island
Don't call them Bad Movies -- when something's this enjoyable, other verbal put-downs are more appropriate. This low-grade German sexploitation horror pic…
CineSavant
Sunday in New York
Romantic comedies became coy sex chase comedies in the early 1960s, once Doris Day made 'professional virgin' a Hollywood career. This mistaken…
CineSavant
Toho Sci-Fi Double Bill
Mill Creek again dips into exotic Japanese sci-fi fantasy, and this time scores with the desired language choices and subtitle configurations for…
CineSavant
Film Noir the Dark Side of Cinema III
Today's noir forecast is vice, kidnapping, murder, suicide, narcotics and a sleazy stolen baby racket! Kino's third volume of Universal-International pix contains…
CineSavant
The Last Valley
This thinking man's epic got left behind with the demise of Road Show movies, which is a shame. A beautifully made, uncompromised…
CineSavant
An Unmarried Woman
Talk about a film whose time has come ... Paul Mazursky's ode to womanly liberation takes a sensible, gentle approach. Yes, the…
CineSavant
Sixteen Candles
John Hughes' breakthrough writing-directing hit still carries a glow (a very square, safe glow) that defuses its rougher edges, making it one…
CineSavant
The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse
Fritz Lang's final feature brings his career full circle to the core thriller concepts he pioneered back in 1922: superstitious human nature…
CineSavant
Husbands
John Cassavetes' breakthrough picture (filmed in 35mm, wow!) gets the Criterion treatment, with fine new extras that take us back to a…