You know that a movie wows an audience when nobody stirs during the closing credits. That's what happened at the end of "Sweeney Todd" tonight at the first critics' screening in Manhattan. Finally, three-fourths of the way through the credits, I stood to exit, but my neighbors in the dark did not and I had to climb over them.

Viewers were either utterly spellbound by this film or else struck dumb and numb in shock. A movie that begins with small riverlets of blood flowing during the opening shots ends with red showers so intense that New York Times Carpetbagger David Carr said to me afterward, "I felt like I should've watched that movie wearing a raincoat."

An embargo surrounding this film prohibits us journos from reviewing it, but we're permitted to discuss it in general terms, so let's try to tread that fine line so I can inform you about the most important movie of 2007. Certainly, it's the best I've seen all year, although, of course, I'm a bit biased as a diehard fan of the Broadway show.

Everybody whose opinion I pooled after the screening tonight said they thought the movie and Johnny Depp were brilliant. And everybody thought it was outrageously bloody and grisly. Many said they didn't think it could win best picture because of that. Yes, there was widespread belief that it'll be nommed for best pic, director and actor — maybe even best actress (Helena Bonham Carter), too — and that MAYBE Johnny could win, but not the film. Not because it doesn't deserve it. But because of all the blood, they say.

But is that true? Hold your derby horses, naysayers! Didn't lots of Oscarologists say "The Departed" was too violent to win last year? Didn't "Silence of the Lambs" break the taboo against horror flicks winning? Hey, are we all such a nation of wimps that we'll let a little blood — OK, a lot of it — get in the way of the year's best picture winning best picture?

After tonight's screening, I asked a number of journos the same questions: Do you think "Sweeney Todd" is going to have huge megabuzz and a high Cool Factor when it comes out? Yes, they all agreed. Is it going to be one of those Gotta-See Pix? Unanimous answer: yes.

If that's true — and it clearly is — then those factors may be enough to help it float the blood biz. And, frankly, the red stuff is handled in such an outlandish, cartoonish way that it often doesn't feel real.

But the movie does. In fact, it makes viewers feel so deeply in profound emotional and psychological ways, that it will haunt you, on many levels, long afterward. Director Tim Burton has created a masterpiece for the ages. If namby-pamby Oscar voters are too squeamish to give it the best picture award it deserves, Sweeney Todd would be entirely justified to give them all a close shave.

But many of them are definitely going to be squeamish and this question of whether or not it's too violent is going to be — get ready right now — discussed over and over and over again all Oscar season.

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Good news for BAFTA producers and Manhattan hotel clerks! What goes around really does come around. The next slugfest Russell Crowe faces is against himself — at the upcoming Golden Globes. He was put in the lead acting race for both "American Gangster" and "3:10 to Yuma" by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's eligibility committee.

Other Globes eligibility news: John Travolta ("Hairspray"), Cate Blanchett ("I'm Not There") and Casey Affleck ("The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford") were all put in the supporting race.

Composer Stephen Sondheim obviously is quite proud of Tim Burton's screen adaptation of his "Sweeney Todd."

He held private screenings for V.I.P.s in London last week and in New York City last night. At the Manhattan unveiling were the two stars who won Tony Awards for originating the lead roles on Broadway in 1979 — Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou — plus Patti Lupone who headlined the recent Rialto revival. Also there was all-time Tony champ Hal Prince, who picked up the fifth of his 8 Tonys for directing the 1979 show.

"Ms. Lansbury stayed and chatted after the screening for about an hour before we took her to her car," a studio rep reports.

Attending the London screening: Paul McCartney, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Barbara Cook, Trevor Nunn and Cameron Macintosh.

Tonight "Sweeney" will be shown to U.S. media in New York and Los Angeles for the first time. I'll be at the New York screening being held at AMC Lincoln Square at 7 p.m. ET. Technically, there's an embargo against reviewing the film, but I think we journos are permitted to give general impressions and report on audience reax. Afterward, I will report what I can.

"Charlie Wilson's War," "The Savages," "Margot at the Wedding," "Juno," "Darjeeling Limited," "Waitress" and "Lars and the Real Girl" will compete in the comedy/musical categories at the Golden Globes, according to decrees made by the eligibility committee of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. All of those films have a mix of comedic and dramatic elements so there was speculation that they might be classified as dramas. "I'm Not There," which includes lots of Bob Dylan music, has been deemed a drama.

In the TV races, some series that straddled classification have been decided, too: "Pushing Daisies," "Californication," "Chuck," "Psych," "Samantha Who" and "Reaper" will compete as comedies.

In the race for best animated feature: "Bee Movie," "Beowulf," "Happily N'ever After," "Meet the Robinsons," "Ratatouille," "Shrek the Third," "The Simpson's Movie," "Surf's Up," and "TMNT."

Sixty-one movies have landed in the category for best foreign-language film. CLICK HERE to see the list! (Among the foreign titles is "La Vie en Rose," whose star, Marion Cotillard, will compete in the race for best comedy/musical actress.)

Nominations will be announced on Dec. 13.

New Line Cinema has high hopes that "The Golden Compass" can repeat the feat of their last adaptation of a fantasy trilogy — "The Lord of the Rings." However, while the J.R.R. Tolkien classic was known worldwide, Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" has enjoyed only moderate success outside of his native England since it was published in the late 1990s. Coming on the heels of Harry Potter, this tale of a schoolgirl caught up in a war of the worlds takes a far darker look at good versus evil and has alienated some in the Catholic Church. The film, adapted by director Chris Weitz, opens in the U.K. on December 5 and Stateside two days later. Reviews out of London following the world premiere there Tuesday range from raves to raspberries though all the critics praised the performance of Nicole Kidman.

In the Times, James Christopher neatly summarizes the complex plot: "Dakota Blue Richards is terrific casting as Lyra. A waif who has gifts beyond her ken, she was brought up, half-wild, by stuffy academics in a stodgy Oxford college. Her dashing and dangerous uncle, Lord Asriel (played by Daniel Craig), is too busy tramping around the Arctic to give her the time of day. But their lives are forever in danger. Both heroes are stalked by sinister members of the Magisterium – an outfit that wants to rule the world. Derek Jacobi calls the creepy shots while Nicole Kidman is his fabulously glamorous sidekick, a Cruella de Vil role that Kidman plays to icy perfection."

With buzz building for "Sweeney Todd," it appears that Helena Bonham Carter could be a lead actress Oscar contender again. Her only other nod was back in 1997 for playing another scheming woman who manipulates a man in "The Wings of the Dove." Both roles, that of Kate Croy then and Mrs. Lovett now, required the well-bred actress (a great-granddaughter of a British prime minister) to get down and dirty.

A decade ago, Carter was but one of four English roses in the race, all pricked at the finish by the sole American — Helen Hunt, winner for her thorny portrayal of a put-upon single mom in "As Good as It Gets." While Hunt had taken home the Golden Globe (comedy) and SAG award, she had been ignored by all of the critics groups.

Was this because of her television pedigree? At the time, she was in the middle of a seven-year run with Paul Reiser as Manhattan marrieds in "Mad About You" and had already won the first two of four consecutive Emmys as best comedy actress. While her track record in films was spotty — battling tornadoes in "Twister" gets you MTV Movie award nods, not Oscars — triple Oscar winner James Brooks, also a TV vet, cast Hunt opposite the irascible Jack Nicholson in "As Good as It Gets." Holly Hunter had turned down the role, citing the two-decade age difference with Nicholson, but 26-years-younger Hunt had no such problem playing the tart-tongued waitress who swaps quips and spit with Jack.

Since her unexpected Oscar win, Hunt's career has faded fast. After her series ended in 1999, she starred in four films of varying quality in 2000, made one of Woody Allen's lesser comedies in 2001, and appeared in "A Good Woman," an ill-conceived update of Oscar Wilde's "Lady Windermere's Fan," in 2004. After taking time off to have a baby, she tore a page out of Barbra Streisand's book and wrote, produced, directed and starred in "Then She Found Me," a comedy-drama about a woman in a mid-life crisis. While THINKfilm picked up the distribution rights at the Toronto filmfest in September for a spring 2008 release, Hunt has no future projects planned.

Back to 1997: Carter had won the National Board of Review as well as recognition from the L.A. and broadcast film critics for her riveting role as the anti-heroine in this sumptuous screen version of the Henry James novel. Five years earlier, she had had seen her on-screen sister Emma Thompson sweep the awards derby starring in another literary adaptation, E.M. Forster's "Howards End."

Carter's chief rival on Oscar night was thought to be Julie Christie, who could well be her main competition again this year for her astonishing work as an Alzheimer patient in "Away From Her." Born in India in the last days of the Raj, the upper-class Christie won the lead actress Academy Award back in 1965 as a bed-hopping babe in "Darling." More than three decades on, she was winning plaudits in 1997 for playing an unhappily married woman in Alan Rudolph's love-rectangle drama "Afterglow." She was named best actress by both the New York Film Critics Cicle and National Society of Film Critics and took home the Independent Spirit award the night before the Oscars for her subtle portrayal of a woman on the verge.

The fourth nominee, Judi Dench, was starring in her first film after decades of toiling on the British stage, and 12 years after her first substantive movie role in "A Room With a View" (Carter's film debut). She had won the Golden Globe (drama) for playing the widowed Queen Victoria in "Mrs Brown" and was fast becoming a favorite by Oscar night. Though she lost then, Dame Judi returned the next year to win the supporting-actress award for playing another monarch, Queen Elizabeth I, for all of 8 1/2 minutes in best picture winner "Shakespeare in Love." Her competition then? Two Brits — Brenda Blethyn ("Little Voice") and Lynn Redgrave ("Gods and Monsters"), one Aussie Rachel Griffiths ("Hilary and Jackie") and one American, previous lead actress winner Kathy Bates ("Primary Colors").

Since that win, Dench has had four more nods including one in 2001 for "Iris" with her younger self in that biopic played by the fifth nominee from Oscar night 1997, Kate Winslet. At 22, Winslet became a two-time loser in 1997, having been nominated in the supporting actress race two years earlier for playing Emma Thompson's younger sister in "Sense and Sensibility." (A decade on, she is the youngest actress to have had five nominations, but alas no win). Winslet may just have to make do with having starred in the biggest grossing film of all time — "Titanic" — which turned out to be quite the juggernaut on Oscar night winning 11 statues.

When Hunt won, many thought she had caught the wave of momentum that got her co-star, Jack Nicholson, his third Oscar. Indeed, they were only the seventh on-screen team in Oscar's first 70 years to win both awards for lead actor and actress. However, the more jingoistic Oscarologists think that she won because she was the only American in the race.

Does that theory really hold up? See separate post below. Meantime, give us YOUR vote for the 1997 race, please.

With so many foreigners competing in the Oscars race for best actress this year — Helena Bonham Carter ("Sweeney Todd"), Julie Christie ("Away from Her"), Marion Cotillard ("La Vie en Rose"), Keira Knightley ("Atonement") and Ellen Page ("Juno"), among others — it's possible that we may again see a sole Yankee in the race. Perhaps only Angelina Jolie ("A Might Heart") or Laura Linney ("The Savages")?

If so, we'll hear lots of chatter among Oscarologists about that ole chestnut that a sole Yankee always prevails against a foreign invasion. But is the theory really true?

Believers use this theory to explain the seemingly unexplainable, including Marisa Tomei's 1992 supporting-actress win for "My Cousin Vinny." While Helen Hunt ("As Good As It Gets") beat four foreign lasses, she had won several awards leading up to the Oscars. Tomei had not. On Oscar night, the frontrunner in that supporting race figured to be Aussie Judy Davis who had picked up several critics prizes for her work in Woody Allen's domestic drama "Husbands and Wives." Nipping at her heels were thought to be the three Brits — Dame Joan Plowright, Laurence Olivier's widow, who had won the Globe for "Enchanted April", New York critics choice Miranda Richardson ("Damage"), and Vanessa Redgrave ("Howards End").

But just how parochial are the Academy Awards? Before 1997, the last time a lone American actress prevailed over four foreigners in the lead-actress race was back in 1971 when Jane Fonda won for "Klute." Her competition? South African Janet Suzman ("Nicholas and Alexandra"), and three Brits - Vanessa Redgrave ("Mary, Queen of Scots"), the previous year's winner Glenda Jackson ("Sunday Bloody Sunday"), and one Julie Christie ("McCabe and Mrs. Miller").

Interestingly, when Christie won in 1965, she beat two other Brits — the previous year's winner Julie Andrews ("The Sound of Music") and Samantha Eggar ("The Collector") as well as France's only best actress winner Simone Signoret ("Ship of Fools") and the sole American nominee, newcomer Elizabeth Hartman ("A Patch of Blue").

The following year, 1966, was the only one in Oscar history that all five lead actress nominees hailed from foreign lands. British born Elizabeth Taylor won her second Oscar for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" beating out both British Redgrave sisters — Vanessa ("Morgan!") and Lynn ("Georgy Girl") as well as French beauty Anouk Aimee ("A Man and a Woman") and Ukrainian Ida Kaminska ("The Shop on Main Street").

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The much anticipated domestic drama "The Savages" opened to rave reviews from critics Wednesday. At Meta Critic, the survey of 17 critics yielded an impressive score of 87 while the wider canvas of 43 reviews at Rotten Tomatoes produced a jaw-dropping score of 93. This sophomore effort from writer-director Tamara Jenkins looks to figure in year end top ten lists and could well be in the running with the various critics groups that begin handing out prizes next month.

Carina Chocano of the Los Angeles Times calls the film, "one of the best movies of the year so far" and deftly describes the plot. "Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney play a brother and sister who are thrust into caring for the father (Philip Bosco) who never cared for them after he is diagnosed with dementia, forcing them to grow up well past the point at which they've started to age. (Jenkins has called it a 'coming of middle age' story.) For a tender, uncommonly perceptive look at sibling relationships and a profound meditation on death and the meaning we draw from experience, 'The Savages' is singularly funny and seriously moving."

With the settlement of the dispute between the producers and the stagehands that shut down shows on November 10, Broadway will once again be booming Thursday night. For full details of the strike read the excellent recap by Andrew Gans at Playbill.com - CLICK HERE

Three of the leading contenders for best play - "The Farnsworth Invention," "The Seafarer," and "August: Osage County" - were all in previews when the stagehands struck and will have to reschedule their opening nights in the weeks ahead. Producers certainly will have their work cut out for them to get attention in the busy holiday season. "Farnsworth," Aaron Sorkin's return to the Rialto after 18 years and toplined by Tony nominee Hank Azaria, may have an easier time of it than the serious-minded "Seafarer" and "August." Tthey lack the star power of "Farnsworth," though they have come to Broadway based on great reviews in London and Chicago, respectively.

However, the other show in previews, Disney's "The Little Mermaid," got less than stellar notices in its out-of-town tryout in Denver. With much work still needed on this water-logged legit version of the toon tuner, expect that opening night to be pushed back from the originally scheduled December 6.

Caught up with our Buzzmeter pundit Dave Karger of Entertainment Weekly backstage at the Gotham Awards where we did some dishing of Oscarmania. Dave explains why he took "Charlie Wilson's War" out of his top five for best pic, plus why he currently believes so strongly in "Atonement," "No Country for Old Men," "American Gangster," "Kite Runner" and "Juno." He's even, privately, rooting for one film — and it's not "Sweeney Todd"! (Quelle Horreur!) Which one is it? And why does he love it soooo? Watch below!

(Camera by Paul Sheehan)