Around the Blogosphere This Week

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

...The Cinecon festival has announced it will return to Hollywood in person this Labor Day Weekend, September 1-5, 2022. With the festival's most recent home, the Egyptian Theatre, out of commission indefinitely due to remodeling by new owner Netflix, Cinecon will be held this year at the Hollywood Legion Theater on Highland, which also hosted this year's Noir City Hollywood festival as well as the TCM Classic Film Festival. The films will be announced at a future date. In terms of COVID, the website says "We will follow the protocols established by Los Angeles County at the time of the event." The County's Public Health Director -- who incidentally is not a doctor -- has threatened to reimpose mask mandates in late June or early July, so I will not be buying an advance pass but will instead wait and see what the conditions are come September.

...There are a number of interesting film-related books coming out in the next few months. CAPTAIN OF HER SOUL: THE LIFE OF MARION DAVIES will be published by the University of California Press in late September. It's by Lara Gabrielle (aka Lara Gabrielle Fowler) of the blog Backlots. The book has already received a brief positive review from Publishers Weekly, which called it "a breezy, colorful saga of Old Hollywood."

...TCM and Running Press have a pair of upcoming books, with ROCK ON FILM: THE MOVIES THAT ROCKED THE BIG SCREEN by Fred Goodman debuting in late July and TCM UNDERGROUND: 50 MUST-SEE FILMS FROM THE WORLD OF CLASSIC CULT AND LATE-NIGHT CINEMA by Millie De Chirico coming in early October.

...HOLLYWOOD TIKI: FILM IN THE ERA OF THE PINEAPPLE COCKTAIL by Adam Foshko and Jason Henderson will be published by The History Press in early August.

...Published by Devonfire in the UK in August 2021: ALL MEMORIES GREAT AND SMALL: EXPANDED EDITION by Oliver Crocker. This book about the original ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL TV series can be purchased from Amazon UK.

...Coming in November from the University of Kentucky Press: LAWRENCE TIERNEY: HOLLYWOOD'S REAL-LIFE TOUGH GUY by Burt Kearns.

...Out in early 2023 from Disney Editions: THE OFFICIAL DISNEY PARKS COOKBOOK: 101 MAGICAL RECIPES FROM THE DELICIOUS DISNEY SERIES by Pam Brandon, who wrote the "Delicious Disney" books.

...Coming from Bear Manor Media: BECOMING THELMA LOU: MY JOURNEY TO HOLLYWOOD, MAYBERRY, AND BEYOND by the late Betty Lynn, written with Jim Clark and Tim McAbee. Lynn died last October at the age of 95.

...KC has reviewed Scott McGee's new book DANGER ON THE SILVER SCREEN: 50 FILMS CELEBRATING CINEMA'S GREATEST STUNTS at her blog Watching Classic Movies.

...My friend Beth Ann Gallagher has a terrific interview with TCM's Alicia Malone regarding Alicia's new book GIRLS ON FILM. It's up at SPELLBOUND WITH BETH ANN.

...Director Ernst Lubitsch's one-time estate is on sale for $20 million. More photos here.

...Turning to upcoming DVD and Blu-ray releases, the Criterion Collection announced the September release of MARTIN SCORSESE'S WORLD CINEMA PROJECT No. 4. It contains half a dozen films released between 1939 and 1976; I'm particularly intrigued by TWO GIRLS ON THE STREET (1939), a Hungarian film directed by Andre de Toth, who later made many fine Westerns and film noir titles in Hollywood.

...Kino Lorber Studio Classics will be packaging three of their previously released 3D titles in one set titled "Paravision Dreams." The movies are SANGAREE (1953), THOSE REDHEADS FROM SEATTLE (1953), and JIVARO (1954).

...Also coming from Kino Lorber: WHEN TOMORROW COMES (1939), starring Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer, on August 23rd...THE COUNTERFEIT TRAITOR (1962), starring William Holden, is "coming soon"...and there's a very exciting Dark Side of Cinema XI collection coming soon, consisting of A WOMAN'S VENGEANCE (1948) with Boyer and Ann Blyth, I WAS A SHOPLIFTER (1950) with Scott Brady and Mona Freeman, and BEHIND THE HIGH WALL (1956) with Sylvia Sidney and Tom Tully.

...The new Flicker Alley two-film set with THE GUILTY (1947) and HIGH TIDE (1947), which I'll be reviewing soon, has been reviewed by CineSavant Glenn Erickson at Trailers From Hell and Michael Barrett of PopMatters.

...More new releases reviewed by Glenn Erickson: The Dark Side of Cinema VII with films starring John Payne, Dana Andrews, Brian Keith, and Dick Foran...Judy Garland and Robert Walker in Vincente Minnelli's THE CLOCK (1945) for the Warner Archive Collection...and Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's THE TALES OF HOFFMAN (1951) for the Criterion Collection. Glenn's colleague Charlie Largent, meanwhile, has reviewed a new Disney Movie Club Blu-ray release of DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE (1959). It's a mystery why Disney doesn't make a title like that more widely available.

...Coming from the UK's Powerhouse Indicator in August: Robin Hood at Hammer: Two Tales From Sherwood Forest, with the films being SWORD OF SHERWOOD FOREST (1960) and A CHALLENGE FOR ROBIN HOOD (1967). Richard Greene stars in the first film and Barrie Ingham in the second.

...Powerhouse Indicator has previously released four great Blu-ray sets of Columbia Film Noir titles, all of which I own, with a fifth set focused on Humphrey Bogart due out in a couple weeks. They've just announced a new series of Universal Pictures film noir titles; Universal Noir #1 will feature THE WEB (1947), LARCENY (1948), KISS THE BLOOD OFF MY HANDS (1948), ABANDONED (1949), DEPORTED (1950), and NAKED ALIBI (1954).  Most of these films were long unavailable until released in recent years by either the Universal Vault DVD series or the Kino Lorber Studio Classics Dark Side of Cinema sets. Although I have these titles on Region 1 Blu-ray, I will seriously consider getting this set thanks to the amazing extras, including new commentary tracks, a 1944 WWII short with Alan Ladd and William Bendix, a Lux Radio Theatre production of THE WEB, a 120-page booklet, and much more. It's due out in September. (August Update: Universal Noir #1 has had its release date pushed back to October 24, 2022.)

...Farran Smith Nehme has written an interesting essay about producer Jed Harris and the film THE SAXON CHARM (1948), which stars Robert Montgomery in a role inspired by Harris. I reviewed THE SAXON CHARM in 2010.

...I enjoyed Jessica's review of Judy Garland in PRESENTING LILY MARS (1943) at Comet Over Hollywood...Leonard Maltin has several interesting new short reviews including the documentary IT AIN'T OVER (2022), about Yogi Berra...Colin reviews THEY RODE WEST (1955) with Donna Reed, Robert Francis, and Phil Carey at Riding the High Country.

...Notable Passings: Actress Andra Martin, who appeared in films and television for half a decade, from 1957 to 1962, has passed on at the age of 86. Her best-known work included the movies UP PERISCOPE (1959) opposite James Garner and YELLOWSTONE KELLY (1959) with Clint Walker; she was in three episodes of TV's MAVERICK, acting opposite each of the show's leading men, James Garner, Jack Kelly, and Roger Moore. Martin is seen here in a cute Christmas publicity still...Actress-Singer Linda Lawson has died at 86. She also appeared on MAVERICK and in guest roles on many other TV series over the years...Actor Philip Baker Hall has died at 90. He was a familiar supporting face in TV series and movies for half a century, including appearing in numerous episodes of FALCON CREST (1989-90) and playing Senator Matt Hunt in a couple episodes of THE WEST WING (2004); he was the CIA Director in ARGO (2012).

...This week I undertook a long-overdue updating of my blogroll, found at this page's left margin. Dead links and a number of sites which no longer update have been removed, other links have been updated, and new links have been added. The classic film links have been rearranged; generally speaking, sites which update regularly and which I visit most often have been grouped higher on the list. Please note that I have left up a number of links for blogs which no longer update but which have valuable archives still available, including sites written by a few bloggers who sadly are no longer with us; their work lives on. I hope my readers will enjoy exploring the refreshed blogroll and find it useful.

...Please note that there will not be an Around the Blogosphere This Week column next weekend on June 25th, when I will have out-of-town family visiting. Around the Blogosphere This Week will return on Saturday, July 2nd.

...For additional recent links of interest to classic film fans, please check out my May 28th roundup.

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