Around the Blogosphere This Week

Miscellaneous bits of news and fun stuff from around the Internet...the "Weekend before the TCM Classic Film Festival" Edition!

...TCM has announced the lineup for this summer's Essentials Jr. series, again hosted by Bill Hader. The season leads off on June 2nd with THE COURT JESTER (1956). Will of Cinematically Insane shares more thoughts on the upcoming season.

...The L.A. Times has published an article on the popularity of the TCM Classic Film Festival, which opens next Thursday.

...Congrats to Kim of GlamAmor who will be hosting two films at the TCM Festival. Kim, an expert on movie fashions, will be introducing A FOREIGN AFFAIR (1948) and FLYING DOWN TO RIO (1933). I've had the pleasure of meeting Kim at a few screenings and am delighted so many other classic film fans will have the chance to get to know her via her introductions.

...Jessica's heading to Hollywood this week, and so are Aurora and Lara. Links to a few more festival-goers' posts can be found here.

...The Chinese Theatre is going to become an IMAX theater?

...In my last roundup I shared links regarding a controversy over the correct aspect ratio for SHANE (1953). It was announced last week that the Blu-ray edition of SHANE will go out in the correct 1:37 ratio, as was intended when the movie was filmed, and the TCM Classic Film Festival is also switching their planned screening from a 1:66 print to 1:37. The release date of the Blu-ray may be pushed back.

...Cliff's interesting articles at Immortal Ephemera of late include a profile of Elizabeth Allan, who starred in DAVID COPPERFIELD (1935) and A TALE OF TWO CITIES (1935), and a comparison of PUBLIC ENEMY'S WIFE (1936) and its remake BULLETS FOR O'HARA (1941). I briefly reviewed PUBLIC ENEMY'S WIFE back in 2007. Now I need to watch the remake, which I recently recorded.

...Vienna pays tribute to Barbara Hale, who turned 91 last week.

...Vienna shares my love for "B" movies -- I've got to see MEXICAN MANHUNT (1953) with George Brent!

...I'm a bit behind on keeping up with blogathon news, having spent so much time driving back and forth to film festivals in Los Angeles the last few weeks! Traveling to see movies means I haven't been reading about them quite as much as usual. Jessica of Comet Over Hollywood is hosting a blogathon on child actors next May 24th-26th. Details are here...And May 3rd through 10th there's a Mary Astor Blogathon, being hosted by Silver Screenings and Tales of the Easily Distracted. If you're hosting an upcoming classic film blogathon I've not previously mentioned, feel free to leave a comment and I'll include it in a future roundup!

...I also missed out on a recent James Cagney blogathon, but have been slowly catching up with many great posts, such as Caftan Woman's take on JOHNNY COME LATELY (1943), which I saw at UCLA in March. There were lots of interesting posts in the blogathon, and I encourage my readers to visit the links at the blogathon's host site, The Movie Projector.

...Speaking of Mary Astor, here's Greenbriar Picture Shows on RED DUST (1932). Fantastic photos, as always!

...There are also great photos in Jeff's post on THE WILD NORTH (1952) at THE STALKING MOON. I remember this film with Stewart Granger and Cyd Charisse fondly and need to revisit it! It's available from the Warner Archive.

...Robby shares photos of two locations from BELLES ON THEIR TOES (1952) at Dear Old Hollywood. BELLES ON THEIR TOES starred Myrna Loy, Jeanne Crain, and Debra Paget, among others.

...RIDE CLEAR OF DIABLO (1954) has been one of my favorite films seen this year, in a year of great films. It prompted me to seek out even more movies starring Audie Murphy and Dan Duryea. Colin writes about RIDE CLEAR OF DIABLO at Riding the High Country, and there's also an interesting discussion which follows in the comments.

...Last year I reviewed an excellent film, FROM THIS DAY FORWARD (1946), starring Joan Fontaine and Mark Stevens, supported by Rosemary DeCamp and Harry Morgan. It recently resurfaced online -- do yourself a favor and watch it while you still can. Fontaine in particular is outstanding. Hoping for a DVD release of this RKO film!

...Here's a great photo Tweeted from today's London Marathon.

...Sincere thanks to Aubyn of The Girl with the White Parasol for the Liebster Award, and be sure to check out Aubyn's blog. I especially enjoyed her recent review of DODGE CITY (1939).

...Notable Passing: Author E.L. Konigsburg, author of many children's books including the Newbery-winning FROM THE MIXED-UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER, has passed away at the age of 83. Konigsburg won another Newbery for THE VIEW FROM SATURDAY. FROM THE MIXED-UP FILES... was filmed in 1973 with Ingrid Bergman in the title role. As a child I received a Dell paperback of the book with a scene from the movie on the cover, seen here, and all four of my own children have gone on to read that same copy of the book.

...More notable passings: Spanish actress Sarita Montiel, also known as Sara Montiel, recently passed away at the age of 85. She starred in VERA CRUZ (1954) and SERENADE (1956) and was married for a few years to SERENADE director Anthony Mann...and Richard LeParmentier has passed away at age 66. LeParmentier had a small but memorable role in the original STAR WARS (1977) as an admiral who makes the mistake of doubting the power of Darth Vader and the Force.

...This year's festival tally to date: I saw "only" 10 films this year at the Noir City Film Festival, down from 19 in 2012 and 14 in 2011. Half the films were new to me, and half were repeat viewings; links to my reviews of all 10 Noir City films are at the bottom of my introductory post to the festival.  I also saw 7 films last month at the UCLA Festival of Preservation -- review links rounded up here -- up from just 2 at the last festival in 2011, which adds up to a whole lotta films on the big screen in the last 7 weeks. And in a few days I expect to see many more films at the TCM Classic Film Festival than the single title I saw last year!

...Please note that next weekend there will not be an Around the Blogosphere This Week column due to my attendance at the TCM Classic Film Festival April 25th through 28th.

Have a great week!