Around the Blogosphere This Week

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

...When I wrote this column last week, I was anticipating spending the current weekend at the Noir City Film Festival and thus had said there would be no Around the Blogosphere post until the weekend of the 21st. Well, as I'm sure everyone realizes, Noir City was cancelled mid-festival, along with just about everything else in the world, so here's an unanticipated link roundup! (And as I mentioned in my post on the cancellation of Noir City, my final two reviews from the fest will be coming soon.)

...We'll start off with some truly good news, which I'm sure everyone can use about now: It was just announced that the Warner Archive Collection will release BLOOD ON THE MOON (1948) and RACHEL AND THE STRANGER (1948) on Blu-ray next month! I first reviewed BLOOD ON THE MOON here in the earliest days of this blog, back in 2006, and I've been hoping for a U.S. home viewing release ever since. Similarly, I've been hoping for a release of RACHEL, which never made it to DVD. I expect to review both of these releases here in due course. This great news gives me hope that eventually we might see Warner Archive DVD or Blu-ray releases of THE VERY THOUGHT OF YOU (1944) and FROM THIS DAY FORWARD (1946). (Update: At his CineSavant site, Glenn Erickson shares information directly from George Feltenstein of the Warner Archive: RACHEL AND THE STRANGER is the long-lost original cut with 14 minutes restored! A DVD version will also be released further into the future.)

...Theatrical producers have been considering streaming current Broadway shows due to the coronavirus crisis.

...Here's an interesting release scheduled to arrive from ClassicFlix this June: The Complete Hal Roach Streamliners Collection, Vol. 2: The Westerns. Streamliners had running times somewhere between a short and a feature film; the three films in this set run between 45 and 47 minutes. All three Westerns in this set star Noah Beery Jr. and Jimmy Rogers, the son of Will Rogers. The supporting casts include names such as Mary Brian and Jean Porter along with many familiar character actors. I'm also hoping to review this set.

...I was thrilled to learn that Dave Smith, founder of the Walt Disney Archives, will be honored with a tribute window on Disneyland's Main Street U.S.A. The window will be unveiled on June 22, 2020, which is the 50th anniversary of the Archive's founding. Dave passed on last year. I was very fortunate to meet him at the 2011 D23 Expo and see him speak on multiple occasions, including at the 2010 Destination D event on Disneyland and the 2013 D23 Expo presentation on MARY POPPINS (1964).

...Coming soon from Kino Lorber: The Western/vampire movie mashup CURSE OF THE UNDEAD (1959), starring Michael Pate, Eric Fleming, Kathleen Crowley, and John Hoyt.

...I regularly enjoy visiting the blog Jeff Arnold's West. Here's his new write-up on MY DARLING CLEMENTINE (1946).

...Leonard Maltin has a terrific new post up sharing the titles of a number of recent books on Disney history. I've actually been intending to write a similar post myself for quite a while and have some additional titles to share; since I'm not going anywhere for the foreseeable future and anticipate my work slowing down, I hope to have that posted here in the next few days! (Update: Here's my post on recent and upcoming Disney-themed books.)

...On Sunday, March 15th, silent film accompanist and composer Ben Model is going to live stream a pair of comedy shorts with his live accompaniment at 12:00 PT/3:00 ET. What a great idea! Some smiles will be welcome by everyone this weekend.

...Attention Southern Californians: The March 28th Retroformat screening of Harold Lloyd's SAFETY LAST! (1928), mentioned here last week, will be rescheduled to a future date due to the coronavirus situation.

...Notable Passing: I recently learned on Twitter of the passing of Nico Charisse, the son of Cyd Charisse and her first husband, Nico Charisse; he was the stepson of Tony Martin. Nico's wife, Sheilah Snodgrass Charisse, died in 1979 in the crash of American Airlines Flight 191 near Chicago.

...For additional recent links of interest to classic film fans, please check out my March 7th roundup.

Have a great week, and everyone stay healthy out there!