REEL LIFE / FILMS & VIDEOS : A New Movie Ushers in Another Ski Season : Warren Miller has been producing the travelogues since 1949. This year’s is titled ‘Black Diamond Rush.’

The white flakes blowing around last week were the result of wildfires, but California’s higher elevations are getting a layer of powder more customary for this time of year. It’s snowing, meaning Warren Miller’s latest flick is out.

Every autumn, the release of a new Warren Miller film signals the beginning of the ski season. Miller, for those of you who consider football the only winter sport, has been the preeminent producer of ski travelogues since his first ski adventure film in 1949.

Any skier who’s ever stumbled into an Alpine bar or bundled inside a warming hut will instantly recognize the films. The action features the simply fearless and the merely foolish diving off cornices, dodging through trees and doing hot-dog aerobatics.

Previews of “Black Diamond Rush” begin Wednesday at the Westlake Village Theater. Shows are 6:30, 7, 8:30 and 9 p.m. See the 11-Day Calendar for later listings in Santa Barbara and Ventura.

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If skiing isn’t your thing, the Ojai Playhouse is having a free screening Wednesday of the Hitchcock classic “Strangers on a Train.” Actor Donald O’Connor, a host on American Movie Classics, will be on hand for the event. Tickets can be picked up only at the Ventura County Cablevision Office at 214 Bryant St. in Ojai or by mail from the main Cablevision office at 2645 Townsgate Road, No. 200, in Westlake Village.

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Listen up all you lipophobes.

Reel Life asked its staff nutritionist to determine the amount of butter topping dispensed annually at county theaters.

Butter topping is the operative phrase here since brands like Pop Top and Gold N Flow consist of partially hydrogenated soy oil with butter flavoring added.

The amount dispensed at the county’s 15 theater complexes works out to about 6,000 gallons--enough to fill an 18-wheel tanker, our staff nutritionist guesstimates.

The survey’s margin of error is plus or minus 100 million calories.

The weekly ratio of butter topping is estimated at one gallon for every 142 theater seats, but don’t feel like a fatso. Teresa Waller, a concession buyer for 429-theater United Artists chain, which owns the cinema at The Oaks Mall, said theaters on the East Coast consume about 30% more topping than California theaters.

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This Christmas will be the last for television audiences to see a new Romeo Muller Christmas special. Muller, who wrote TV adaptations of “Frosty the Snowman,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and the “Little Drummer Boy,” died last year, just four days after Christmas.

His 17th special, “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” should be finished this week. It’s reported to be a bit more satirical than Muller’ physically challenged caribou and socially stigmatized percussionist.

The 30-minute animated special is scheduled to air nationally Dec. 3 on NBC from 8:30-9 p.m.

Pancho Doll compiles Reel Life each week for Ventura County Life. If you have information on local film, television or video events or personalities, write to him at 5200 Valentine Road, Suite 140, Ventura 93003 or send faxes to 658-5576.