CineSavant
The Beginning or the End
Stop! Don't touch that dial... If you like your atom-age propaganda straight up, MGM has the movie for you, an expensive 1946…
Articles by Glenn Erickson
CineSavant
Mysterious Island (Encore Edition)
Fans that missed Twilight Time's initial Blu-ray release of Ray Harryhausen's Jules Verne spectacle get a second chance with this Encore Edition. It includes…
CineSavant
Nightmares
It's a TV movie graduated to feature status, with four imagination-challenged tales of terror. The script has lots of variety -- a…
CineSavant
Born Free
Do you love movies about cute animals? The original pet-lion-in-Africa romp is actually a well balanced nature film about the separation between…
CineSavant
Faust (1926)
The latest restoration of a German silent classic is F.W. Murnau's lavishly mounted version of the Goethe tale, starring Emil Jannings as…
CineSavant
The Girl Most Likely
RKO's final in-house production is a good end-of-an-era film, a spirited and well-made musical comedy. Bright-eyed Jane Powell can't stop accepting marriage…
CineSavant
Sweet Adeline
It's sweet, all right, not to mention sentimental and corny -- as Adeline Schmidt, Irene Dunne leaves her father's beer garden to sing…
CineSavant
The Detective
Frank Sinatra shines in a story of police corruption that tries to say it like it is -- or like it was…
CineSavant
Gunman’s Walk, Land Raiders & A Man Called Sledge
Germany's Explosive Media company has a serious itch for American westerns, and they have a trio of new releases. One is a minor Hollywood…
CineSavant
Ant-Man 3-D
The latest Marvel franchise hero is an incredible shrinking secret agent with powers wholly unlike his fellow Avengers. Ex-con Scott Lang (Paul…
CineSavant
Battles Without Honor and Humanity – The Complete Collection
Bloody havoc reigns! Kinji Fukasaku's no-holds-barred vision of ugly violence and uglier politics on the streets of Hiroshima is a five-film Yakuza…
CineSavant
The Knack…and how to get it
Meet Rita Tushingham, the cutest comic (and dramatic) actress of swinging London. This '60s masterpiece applies director Richard Lester's talent for comedy…
CineSavant
Hitler’s Madman
Douglas Sirk's first American movie came out so well that PRC sold it to MGM, earning Sirk a promotion out of the…
CineSavant
Barbary Coast
Crime, lust and vigilante lynchings in the wide-open city on the bay, back in the gold rush days. Miriam Hopkins, Edward G.…
CineSavant
The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues
Minimalist 'Z' monster movies really took off in the 1950s, earning good money on tiny outlays of time, money, and sometimes talent.…
CineSavant
Thundercrack! – 40th Anniversary
Curt McDowell and George Kuchar's comedy epic of oversexed sensationalists running amuck while trapped in a storm-battered house goes beyond strange. It's…
CineSavant
DVD Savant 2015 Favored Disc Roundup
or, Savant picks The Most Impressive Discs of 2015 This is the actual view from Savant Central, looking due North. What a…
CineSavant
Speedy
Silent comedy rules! Harold Lloyd epitomizes 'twenties optimism while serving up the fun. Even better, he filmed this on the streets of…
CineSavant
Wake Up and Kill
Gian Maria Volonté has a big part in this prime quality Italo crime thriller blessed with a great score by Ennio Morricone.…
CineSavant
You Can’t Take It with You
Frank Capra won his third Best Directing Oscar for this Kaufman and Hart adaptation. Star Jean Arthur is radiant, and relative newcomer James…
CineSavant
Pee-Wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special
It's back and better than ever -- the makers of Pee-Wee's Playhouse capped their Saturday morning show with a Christmas Special to…
CineSavant
Downhill Racer
The stylistics of documentary filmmaking helped wipe out the old Hollywood way of doing things, and this sharp look at Olympic skiing…
CineSavant
Team America: World Police
Trey Parker and Matt Stone's 'outrageous, irreverent' comedy is a gusher of pointless profanity and smut that will cheer the myriad fans…
CineSavant
Five Came Back
Dalton Trumbo and Nathanael West contributed to the screenplay for John Farrow's suspense adventure about a plane crash in the Amazon jungle…
CineSavant
Love at Large
Alan Rudolph goes all mushy on us, but in a good way. This loose, somewhat cartoonish comedy pits detectives Tom Berenger and…
CineSavant
Flying Disc Man from Mars
Make room for Mota, the man from Mars! Mota enlists a scientist and two thugs to lay the groundwork for a full-scale…