Sunday, February 21, 2010

Around the Blogosphere This Week

Miscellaneous bits of news and fun stuff from around the Internet...

...Among the interesting posts in last week's film preservation blogathon were articles by Lou Lumenick on Zane Grey adaptations, including Randolph Scott's TO THE LAST MAN (1933), and by Eddie Muller on CRY DANGER (1951), which starred Dick Powell and Rhonda Fleming. Miss Fleming put up some of her own money to support the restoration of CRY DANGER.

...More thoughts on film preservation were posted by J.C. Loophole at The Shelf.

...The Self-Styled Siren discusses movie rights issues and "lost" movies with Lee Tsiantis of Turner Classic Movies.

...Eleanor Parker was the focus of two posts last week at Classic Film and TV Cafe. Sazball wrote about Parker in a post titled "Underrated Performer of the Week" and Rick focused on Parker's tremendously entertaining film with Charlton Heston, THE NAKED JUNGLE (1955). I'm always happy to see Miss Parker's fine work recognized by others.

...Two early Robert Montgomery films, SO THIS IS COLLEGE (1929) and LOVE IN THE ROUGH (1930), have been released by the Warner Archive. Carrie has more -- including a great poster for SO THIS IS COLLEGE, plus the Archive links -- at Classic Montgomery.

...Head to First Showing for the latest TOY STORY 3 trailer, which has many more scenes than previous trailers. TOY STORY 3 will be out June 18th.

...Have you seen the Giant Light Saber Battle, a "flash mob" which occurred a few days ago in Bristol, England? Pure silliness, but fun.

...The popular political website Hot Air was sold by owner Michelle Malkin to Salem Communications last week. Hot Air bloggers Ed Morrissey (one of my favorite bloggers) and "Allahpundit" are expected to remain with Hot Air.

...More on the global warming follies from London's Daily Mail.

...Region 2 DVD news: Frank Borzage Volume 1, released last November, includes 7TH HEAVEN and STREET ANGEL. The set is reviewed by Clydefro at DVD Times. Volume 2 has LUCKY STAR and LILIOM. In the United States these films were released as part of the giant Murnau, Borzage, and Fox Boxed Set, which was a fabulous release, but very expensive.

...California's trying again to find a way to tax Amazon and other online companies. I find it disturbing that so many in our government take it as a given that everything must be taxed. One of these days maybe California will get smart and cut spending instead. This possible tax "collection" is yet one more economy killer.

...Sean Hannity has a new book coming out at the end of March, CONSERVATIVE VICTORY.

...A columnist at Canada Free Press shares thoughts on I'D CLIMB THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN (1951), which I reviewed last summer.

...Mondo 70 reviews Claudette Colbert in the pre-Code TORCH SINGER (1933). I found this film very interesting; my review is here.

...ClassicFlix has a list of Paramount films which will be released on DVD by the new company Olive Films. While many of the titles are post mid-'60s and not of much interest to me, the title UNION STATION (1950) immediately caught my eye. It's a terrific movie. Company rep "OliveFrank" posted at Home Theater Forum all the films will be remastered and released in their original aspect ratios. They will be available at all major retailers.

...A Shroud of Thoughts has a very interesting obituary for actress Betty Lou Keim, whose best-known film might be Vincente Minnelli's SOME CAME RUNNING (1958), which starred Frank Sinatra and Shirley MacLaine. Another obituary is at the Hollywood Reporter.

...The London Times ran a nice obituary on Kathryn Grayson. Among the many lovely tributes of the past week: The Shelf, Classic Movies, Classic Forever, The Baltimore Sun, A Shroud of Thoughts, and the Ava Gardner Museum, which posted a beautiful photo of Ava and Kathryn in SHOW BOAT (1951).

Have a great week!

4 Comments:

Blogger J.C. Loophole said...

Laura- thanks for the plugs!
I am excited about the Paramounts being released by Olive- but even more excited to see they will be released at "major retailers" (IR" Best buy maybe?) I hadn't heard that yet.
Also, I've been seeing the various Toy Story 3 trailers and some of the new characters, some of which they have been introducing one by one on their Facebook page. I really hope they don't go overboard with too many characters. That being said, I wonder how much they will incorporate them into the storyline. There seems to be a fine line. I love seeing a lot of different characters in cameos, small minor bits - but still allowing the viewer to focus on main characters. When film makers try to cram to many characters into the main storyline (a la the recent "Valentine's Day" or "Love, Actually") it just makes it difficult for me to enjoy the story. Very little character development occurs and they often spend too much time on inconsequential "bits".
By the way - I ordered Ruggles of Red Gap from the Amazon/Universals collection- I haven't seen it yet, but very anxious too- the print looks very good on a casual glance.

8:03 AM  
Blogger Laura said...

You're very welcome, J.C., and thanks for sharing your thoughts here on various topics!

That's interesting they've been introducing TOY STORY characters on Facebook, had no idea. I agree about too many characters in a film being problematic at times; that seems to have been one of the main complaints about VALENTINE'S DAY.

Would love to hear what you think of the RUGGLES OF RED GAP DVD quality.

Best wishes,
Laura

8:27 AM  
Blogger monty said...

The release of Union Station on DVD caught my eye. Thanks for sharing that info Laura. By the way, love your blog...it's crisp and detailed and very well done. I'm a new follower now.

2:19 PM  
Blogger Laura said...

Thank you so much for the kind words, Monty. I just added your blog to my blogroll a bit earlier -- I sure like your taste in movies. :)

Glad I could pass on the good news about UNION STATION! I enjoyed seeing that for the first time a few months ago and am delighted it's going to be on DVD as it deserves a wider audience.

Best wishes,
Laura

2:22 PM  

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