CineSavant
Lifeboat
When Alfred Hitchcock films are praised, this 1944 picture tends to get overlooked. Yet it hooks and holds audiences as strongly as…
Articles by Glenn Erickson
CineSavant
Story of Sin
There's plenty of Sin in Walerian Boroczyk's searing movie but little of it can be laid at the feet of its heroine,…
CineSavant
Ride the High Country
Before he became the flag bearer for cinema violence, Sam Peckinpah made his reputation with this unique western, a marvelous rumination on…
CineSavant
The Russians are Coming / Career
Another offering of vintage East German pictures gives us all the pieces of a cinematic puzzle: Heiner Carow's 1968 memory- movie of…
CineSavant
The Vampire Bat
Another impressive horror restoration! Majestic Pictures pulls together a great cast, including Fay Wray and Lionel Atwill, for a smart gothic horror…
CineSavant
The Skull
Peter Cushing! Christopher Lee! Each is at the top of his game, playing competing collectors of occult incunabula -- the kind that…
CineSavant
‘How to Succeed’ – Take 2
Not so fast Savant — with the help of correspondent input, CineSavant presents more information on David Swift’s adaptation of How to…
CineSavant
Invisible Ghost
Bela Lugosi fan alert! This Monogram horror opus is yet another narrative-challenged fumble of unmotivated, incomprehensible characters... but Bela's great in it,…
CineSavant
Julieta
Pedro Almodóvar bounces back with an absorbing saga of a mother and daughter told in an interesting style. A woman feels isolated,…
CineSavant
Peyton Place
The book was raw & dirty, and did you read what that girl did with that guy on page 167? Racking up…
CineSavant
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Broadway's delightful -- but wickedly accurate -- satire of big business was brought to movie screens almost intact, with the story, the…
CineSavant
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 3-D
J. K. Rowling is back with a wizard world tale over which she has complete control -- a diverting period adventure starring…
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23 Paces to Baker Street
No, not a blind Sherlock Holmes, but a blind Van Johnson who directs his butler, his girlfriend Vera Miles and the London…
CineSavant
Tower
A fateful day is re-examined by its survivors, whose stories are told via a brilliant narrative arrangement, and the use of animated…
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Fences
Verdict? The film of August Wilson's play is absorbing, intense. If we rate by quality of writing, acting skill, and the craft…
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Phaedra
Or, "Never on Sunday with Your Stepson." Director Jules Dassin's monument to his beloved Melina Mercouri transposes a Greek tragedy to…
CineSavant
Our Man in Havana
It's Obi-Wan versus Fidel! Well, not really. The pre-Bond espionage genre lights up with cool intrigues and comic absurdities, as a Brit…
CineSavant
Film / Notfilm
An experimental film by an Irish playwright, shot in New York with a silent comedian at the twilight of his career? Samuel…
CineSavant
Summer Storm
Here's a real gem -- a 'classic' Chekhov story turned into a compelling tale of lust and murder. George Sanders and Linda…
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World Without End
"Thru the Time Barrier, 552 years Ahead... Roaring To the Far Reaches of Titanic Terror, Crash-Landing Into the Nightmare Future!" ... and…
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September Storm — 3-D
3-D in CinemaScope? That seems like a strange combination, but this obscure treasure hunt adventure with Joanne Dru and Mark Stevens is…
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Cinema Paradiso
Giuseppe Tornatore's ode to the Italian love of movies was a major hit here in 1990, despite being severely cut by Miramax.…
CineSavant
Compulsion
This classy Fox production was considered the epitome of sick film subject matter in the pre- Psycho year of 1959, the true…
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RoboCop 2
It's ugly, it's violent, and it's graphic novelist Frank Miller's nasty vision through and through. Scream Factory's Collector's Edition brings out the…
CineSavant
45 Years
Andrew Haigh's quiet, two-person relationship tale won a lot of friends last year. A revelation from the past changes everything in the…
CineSavant
The Valley of Gwangi
Gwangi! Ready your rifles and lariats because this is one of the best. Harryhausen's happiest dinos- à go-go epic comes thundering back…