Around the Blogosphere This Week

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

...Coming to DVD from Criterion on January 15, 2013: the 1934 version of Hitchcock's THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH.

...Mark, aka the Professor, of the blog Where Danger Lives writes about Sterling Hayden and Anne Baxter in THE COME ON (1956) at Noir of the Week. I'm sold!

...Here's a nice blog I stumbled across on one of my favorite actors, Robert Taylor. It started up earlier this year.

...There's a new biography out of Lew Ayres, written by Lesley Coffin and published by University Press of Mississippi, which has a good track record for quality biographies. Moira has more on the book at The Skeins, and she'll be hosting the author for a Q&A at the Silver Screen Oasis starting next Friday, October 26th.

...I'm looking forward to picking up the Criterion Eclipse set Three Wicked Melodramas from Gainsborough Pictures next time there's a Criterion sale. Dave Kehr reviews the set in the New York Times, and there's more from Glenn Erickson and at the blog Faded Video Labels (the latter link via Speakeasy).

...James Mason was one of the stars of the previously mentioned Gainsborough set, rising to fame as the villain audiences loved to hate. In CAUGHT (1949), which I first saw in 2010 and then again the following year at the Noir City Festival, Mason plays a good guy poor doctor opposite Robert Ryan's disturbed multimillionaire. This week Jacqueline reviews CAUGHT at Another Old Movie Blog, where she begins by saying it's "one of those movies that reminds us, deliciously so, that what the story is about is sometimes not as important as how it is told." And I completely agree with her, Frank Ferguson is wonderful in this film!

...Carla Laemmle, niece of longtime Universal Studios head Carl Laemmle, turned 103 yesterday. She reminisces in the L.A. Times about living in a home on the Universal Studios lot as a child.

...Another interesting new book: THE FILMS OF VICTOR MATURE by James McKay, due out in December. McKay previously wrote DANA ANDREWS: THE FACE OF NOIR.

...Cliff pays tribute to Miriam Hopkins at Immortal Ephemera. I'm especially looking forward to catching her in Lubitsch's THE SMILING LIEUTENANT (1931) in the future.

...KC of Classic Movies pointed me in the direction of this interesting Daily Telegraph interview with Kim Novak.

...Kay has an interesting interview with one of Edith Head's assistants at Movie Star Makeover. Regarding a comment in the interview, I love the Helen Rose look too!

...A couple of weeks ago Moira had a lovely post on A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN (1945) at The Skeins. The original Betty Smith novel had a big impact on me as a teen.

...Over at Screen Savers, John DiLeo reviews the career of Cornel Wilde, whose centennial was October 13th.

...I always enjoy visiting Riding the High Country, where this week Colin reviews Joel McCrea in WICHITA (1955).

...Continuing the Westerns theme, Susan Doll writes about Barbara Stanwyck and Westerns at TCM's Movie Morlocks blog.

...Raquelle's latest "Warner Archive Wednesday" review at Out of the Past is of YOUNG IDEAS (1943), a fun movie with some favorites of mine in the cast, including Susan Peters, Richard Carlson, and Allyn Joslyn. Mary Astor and Herbert Marshall also star.

...Last weekend I saw a trailer for PLAYING FOR KEEPS (2012), which comes out December 7th. It was the only trailer that day, other than for LES MISERABLES (2012), that interested me. I'm not expecting a great film, but it looks as though it might be enjoyable. It stars Gerard Butler, Jessica Biel, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Dennis Quaid.

...Royalty Watch: On Saturday Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg married Countess Stephanie de Lannoy in a beautiful ceremony attended by the members of many royal families. The Daily Mail has terrific photographs and video links, and there's more video of the ceremony here.

Have a great week!