Around the Blogosphere This Week

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

...Season 2 of DOWNTON ABBEY starts tonight! Here's a nice story from the Los Angeles Times.

...I really enjoyed Dave Kehr's New York Times review of MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (1944). It's one of my favorite films, but I have to say I've never thought about Minnelli's color choices for each season. I'll be paying particular attention to that next time I see it. I was scanning through related comments at Dave's blog when I happened across a mention of my own humble blog, in conjunction with a discussion of MARGIE (1946) and the terrific comments shared here by Blake Lucas.

...The Lady Eve's Reel Life has a terrific month-long series on VERTIGO (1958), which I just saw for the first time New Year's weekend. I especially enjoyed today's post on Kim Novak's costumes. Don't miss this series.

...My father came across this very interesting 2011 story about Ernie's Restaurant, seen in VERTIGO.

...Jacqueline spent the first week of the year in Las Vegas, at least figuratively! I enjoyed her posts on THE LAS VEGAS STORY (1952) with Victor Mature, Jane Russell, and Vincent Price, and MEET ME IN LAS VEGAS (1956) starring Cyd Charisse and Dan Dailey.

...LUST FOR GOLD (1949), starring Glenn Ford and Ida Lupino, sounds quite interesting. You can read more about it at Kevin's Movie Corner.

...Barnes and Noble is considering selling off its Nook reader business?

...Actress Anne Hathaway says her performance as Catwoman in the upcoming Batman film THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (2012) was inspired by Hedy Lamarr. (Via KC at Classic Movies.)

...Warner Bros. plans to double the window in which new films will be made available to Netflix, from 28 to 56 days. Warner Bros. says that the 26-day window has increased sales of new DVDs at stores such as Best Buy.

...The Movie Projector reviews the excellent William Wellman Western YELLOW SKY (1948), which stars Gregory Peck, Richard Widmark, and Anne Baxter.

...The next new thing from Roku: the streaming stick.

...Clara of Via Margutta 51 and the Siren posted very enjoyable lists of the classic films they enjoyed watching last year. I was glad to see Deanna Durbin's LADY ON A TRAIN (1945) made the Siren's Top 20 list.

...Speaking of Deanna Durbin, Grand Old Movies reviewed Durbin and Gene Kelly in CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY (1944).

...I learned a lot about Diana Dors from this post by the Self-Styled Siren. I have one of her movies in a set of British films and will have to check it out.

...Susan King of the Los Angeles Times recently interviewed Doris Day. Day will be awarded an L.A. Film Critics Life Achievement award on January 13th. She will not attend the ceremony but says she is "thrilled." I'd sure like to see her also receive an honorary Oscar, even if she doesn't wish to attend the ceremony. She more than deserves it.

...I enjoyed Elisabeth's lists of her favorite movies and books of the past year, posted at The Second Sentence. There are some great ideas here to enjoy in 2012!

...Last week Twitter went crazy with the hashtag FavoriteThingsinClassicFilm, started by Jill of Sittin' on a Backyard Fence. It was great fun reading the wide variety of submissions. Jill shared more about the fun at her blog.

...Dorian has a fun take on NIAGARA (1953) at Tales of the Easily Distracted. NIAGARA stars Joseph Cotten, Jean Peters, and Marilyn Monroe. It's a colorful noir, if that's not an oxymoron!

...Hugh Jackman plans to star in a Broadway musical about Harry Houdini, with Aaron Sorkin serving as librettist. Interesting... Jackman will star in the film version of LES MISERABLES. But Taylor Swift and Amanda Seyfried as Eponine and Cosette?

...The Daily Mail has an interesting story on theories regarding Glenn Miller's doomed flight. The 1944 diary of a 17-year-old plane spotter is involved.

...Notable Passings: I was very much saddened by the death of political columnist and pundit Tony Blankley, former editorial writer for the Washington Times. Blankley had been a child actor, with credits including the Humphrey Bogart film THE HARDER THEY FALL (1956)...Screenwriter Frederica Sagor passed on at the remarkable age of 111. She wrote a number of silent films and later returned to films writing the story for the Betty Grable film THE SHOCKING MISS PILGRIM (1947)...Master swordsman Bob Anderson has passed on at the age of 87. Don't miss his obituary; I especially liked the part where he says "I believe I learned as much from [Errol] Flynn as I taught him."

...For lots more recent links, please visit last Tuesday's New Year's roundup.

Have a great week!