Around the Blogosphere This Week

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

...Coming to Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection: ARSENIC AND OLD LACE (1944), starring Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey, and Peter Lorre. Extras will include a commentary track by Charles Dennis, author of the upcoming book THERE'S A BODY IN THE WINDOW SEAT! THE HISTORY OF ARSENIC AND OLD LACE, and a 1952 radio adaptation starring Boris Karloff.

...The Warner Archive Collection September Blu-ray releases will include another Massey film, ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS (1940), along with the classic KING KONG (1933).

...Coming in the UK this fall from Masters of Cinema: A Blu-ray release of THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME (1932), which like KING KONG stars Fay Wray. Joel McCrea also stars in THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME, which I reviewed after seeing it at UCLA in 2019.

...Book News: JEAN SIMMONS: HER LIFE AND CAREER by Michelangelo Capua was published by McFarland last month...Bear Manor Media Tweets that CLAUDE RAINS: AN INVISIBLE MAN by Toby I. Cohen is "On the way."

...Recent blogger book reviews: Last month at Out of the Past Raquel reviewed CAMERA MAN: BUSTER KEATON, THE DAWN OF CINEMA, and THE INVENTION OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY by Dana Stevens. I just caught up with her review and think the book sounds very interesting. Incidentally I just bought Imogen Sara Smith's book on Keaton recently...Jess at Box Office Poisons reviews LORETTA YOUNG: THE THINGS I HAD TO LEARN, which Young wrote with Helen Ferguson. As a Young fan, I'm going to have to buy my own copy...Digging Star Wars reviews Will Brooker's BFI Film Classics Book on STAR WARS (1977). It's important to note that both the Young and STAR WARS book reviews were part of Raquel's great annual Summer Classic Film Reading Challenge; links to many more book reviews are at Raquel's site, and I highly recommend checking them out...Annette Bochenek previews the new Maria Montez biography by Tom Zimmerman at HOMETOWNS TO HOLLYWOOD.

...More good Kino Lorber Blu-ray news this week! The release date for the Dark Side of Cinema IX has been announced as October 11th, with the Dark Side of Cinema X coming one week later. The films in Vol. IX are LADY ON A TRAIN (1945), TAKE ONE FALSE STEP (1949), and TANGIER (1946), with Vol. X having a boxing theme, containing FLESH AND FURY (1952), THE SQUARE JUNGLE (1955), and WORLD IN MY CORNER (1956). All six films will have new commentary tracks. LADY ON A TRAIN is one of my top favorite Deanna Durbin films, which also stars Dan Duryea, and the other five films in these sets all have great casts including William Powell, Shelley Winters, Marsha Hunt, Maria Montez, Tony Curtis, Audie Murphy, Tommy Rall, and Ernest Borgnine, for starters.

...New Glenn Erickson CineSavant reviews at Trailers from Hell including Kino Lorber's Dark Side of Cinema VIII collection and SUMMERTIME (1955), starring Katharine Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi, directed by David Lean.

...Jessica's latest "Musical Monday" review at Comet Over Hollywood is a favorite Esther Williams film, EASY TO LOVE (1953). She says it's "visually stunning and quite funny," and I concur with those opinions.

...Rachel shares her "Ten Favorite Biopics" at Hamlette's Soliloquy.

...A new cookbook coming from Ina Garten in October: GO-TO DINNERS: A BAREFOOT CONTESSA COOKBOOK.

...Notable Passings: Mickey Rooney Jr. has passed away at the age of 77. He was very briefly a Mouseketeer in the '50s and was later a musician; he was in Willie Nelson's band and appeared in a Nelson film, HONEYSUCKLE ROSE (1980). Rooney's mother was Rooney's second wife, Betty Jane Baker...Taurean Blacque (seen here), who played Detective Neal Washington on HILL STREET BLUES (1981-87), has passed on at the age of 82. I really enjoyed him as the very cool, level-headed half of a detective team with hot-tempered J.D. LaRue (Kiel Martin); Martin died back in 1990, only 46 years old. Offscreen Blacque was the father of 13, including 11 adopted children. 12 of the children survive, as well as 18 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren...Roxene Supple, a former owner of the Camelot Theatres in Palm Springs, which later became the Palm Springs Cultural Center, has died at 97. I love visiting the Palm Springs Cultural Center each year for the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival.

...For additional recent links of interest to classic film fans, please check out my July 16th roundup.

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