I'd been meaning to see this film for many years and finally did last year in our local photography museum's theater. They used the DVD and I was not only very impressed with the film itself, but the quality of the DVD's image projected on the big screen as well. This was one of those times where I left the theater saying to myself, "Now THAT'S how movies should be made!" I feel Leonard Maltin's review is sufficient; I will only add that some of the rocket models (intermingled with scale models of real ones) used to decorate Gen. Scott (Burt Lancaster)'s office and the Senate hearing room looked like cheap props out of bad science fiction movies, but that was only a minor distraction for me. Lancaster's character was quite frightening, Fredric March made a believable President of the United States, Edmond O'Brien turns in another great character performance (this time as a Senator from Georgia), and the title sequence (reportedly by Saul Bass) coupled with Jerry Goldsmith's score is quite dramatic. And I found it amusing that Kirk Douglas (Col. Casey) once again crossed swords with George MacReady (Sec'y. Todd) and Richard Anderson (Col. Murdock) as he previously did in "Paths of Glory!"

My only complaint with the DVD is that it did not have more in the way of supplemental features, especially more complete cast information than was provided in the film itself. I was interested in knowing who other actors in minor roles were since a good many of them are not listed at all (most notably John Houseman as Adm. Barnswell); I ended up having to go to the Internet Movie Database for that. Other than that (and a few other very minor technical nitpicks in the plot), this is indeed a true classic and I'm proud to have it in my collection.

Just looked at the first 6 chapters of what I presume to be the June 2001 re-issue of the DVD and I'm pleased to report that a number of frames that were missing from the laserdisc version have been restored, namely where you see the bullet wound in Guy Callaway's forehead and where the sheriff tells Col. Mortimer, "His name is ... Manco" along with the cut to Manco walking into the town of White Rocks. Sound synchronization doesn't seem to be a problem as reportedly has been the case with the initial release of this DVD, though with a movie as heavily dubbed as this one is to begin with, it's hard to tell for sure. [Others have] mentioned some frames were missing from the scene where Manco and Mortimer are being beaten up by Indio's gang. I'm sorry to report that this is true; they don't even show where Indio suddenly stops laughing and orders his men to stop the beatings. They cut to where he tells his gang what he plans to do with Manco and Mortimer.

I first listened to "Wonderfulness" when I was in junior high school. I enjoyed it then and I enjoy it now; it really is a classic (if not THE classic) Bill Cosby album. But even more remarkable was how this album once cured me of a severe fever.

I hadn't listened to the album for a number of years when I came home after graduating from college and got the flu. I had a very high temperature, was extremely weak, lost my appetite, and (worst of all) couldn't sleep. I decided I was going to try and be entertained as long as I had to be awake, so I crawled over to my turntable and put this album on. Ironically, the first cut I listened to was "Tonsils" where Cos tells the story of when, as a child, HE was sick with a sore throat and ended up in the hospital to have his tonsils removed. Even though I had heard this and all the other stories many times in the past, they sounded fresh after so many years and I found myself laughing quite hard. By the time the album was done, I felt MUCH better ... I was actually able to stand up, walk around, and join the rest of my family for dinner!

This review is for the original vinyl copy of the album (LP) which I never intend to get rid of. One thing I noticed about CD versions of his other classic albums is that there are no silent pauses between the cuts (they just segue right into one another as if he were doing one very long stand-up session), a feature which I personally dislike. Still, I highly recommend this particular collection of his stories enough to say that if you have to own only one Bill Cosby CD, this is it (but do try to get as many of his others as you can, too ... one can never overdose on laughter)!

From the title, it appears that this book is supposed to be strictly about animals of the order "Pinnipedia," that is, animals that are flipper-footed. This order includes the true seals, sea lions, and walruses. The book starts off well enough with beautiful photographs and good descriptive text, but on page 63, Cleave inexplicably groups walruses and manatees together as if manatees also belong to this order. Manatees, while bearing perhaps a slight resemblance to walruses, are of the order "Sirenia" (manatees and dugongs) which are actually more closely related to elephants than to any marine mammal. Furthermore, while pinnipeds are piscivorous (fish-eating) and can spend part of their lives out of the water (i.e., on land or ice), manatees are herbivores and totally aquatic. The author does not point out these distinctions and thus this chapter is very misleading. Hopefully this will be remedied in any further printing of this book; in the meantime, anyone using this book as a reference should keep this in mind (indeed much more authoritative sources should be used instead such as Marianne Riedman's book "The Pinnipeds" or "The Sierra Club Handbook of Seals and Sirenians" by Reeves, et al).

Normally I research an author's background before buying a book on a technical subject such as submarines, but in this case since I was waiting for a plane and was desperate for something to read, I got this book. It initially appealed to me since it was profusely illustrated and even included mention of the "Kursk" incident, but when I saw the rather wide (almost double-) spacing between the lines, I was a little suspicious.

Admittedly, I've only read through the first dozen or so pages so far, but this one error I found really bothers me (especially for a "revised and updated" edition). The world's first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus (SSN 571), was launched in 1954 (January 21st, to be exact), not 1962 as the book states.

In skimming the rest of the book, I came across a photograph of Adm. Hyman Rickover on page 115 "on the deck of a submarine headed out to sea." The submarine's number is clearly visible on the conning tower: 571. It's obvi!ously the Nautilus; why the author would not identify this historic vessel as such or even by name instead of just labeling it as "a submarine" is beyond me. As I finish the rest of the book, I know I'm going to be uncomfortable with any more of this author's assertions.

I think any submarine enthusiast getting this book should use it as an exercise in checking for errors; anyone wanting to learn about submarines for the first time should go to a more credible source such as Norman Friedman of the U. S. Naval Institute or "Jane's Fighting Ships."

Aside from the excellent transfer, the DVD also contains a scene that was omitted from the network broadcasts for many years, no doubt to make room for more commercials. It immediately followed the scene where the characters are catching snowflakes on their tongues. They are shown throwing snowballs at an old tin can on a fence. When this scene ends, it slowly stops snowing and Charlie Brown goes to Lucy's Psychiatric Help stand. This explains the abruptness in the network broadcasts and older videocassette releases when one moment it's snowing and the next it's not as well as the obvious cut in the background music. I haven't looked at the supplemental material yet (I would've preferred an old interview with Charles Schulz on the making of this special), but just having the complete, uncut program makes this DVD worth the price.