Around the Blogosphere This Week...
...will not appear this weekend while I'm attending the annual Lone Pine Film Festival.
...will not appear this weekend while I'm attending the annual Lone Pine Film Festival.
We're headed to the annual Lone Pine Film Festival today!
It's time for a quick peek ahead at what's in store on Turner Classic Movies this November!
I'm quite excited about the November Star of the Month, Ruth Roman.
Roughly 20 of Roman's films will be shown on Tuesday evenings, including the TCM premiere of BELLE STARR'S DAUGHTER (1948).
Some of the great Roman films on hand next month will include THE WINDOW (1948), STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951), and TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY (1951).
The TCM Spotlight on Wednesdays will feature suspense films, and a Special Theme on the first three Thursday evenings of the month will be the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.The Powell-Pressburger series will include the TCM premiere of the new documentary MADE IN ENGLAND: THE FILMS OF POWELL AND PRESSBURGER (2024).
Noir Alley films this November will be NOBODY LIVES FOREVER (1946), LE DEUXIEME SOUFFLE (1966), TRAPPED (1949), and NAKED ALIBI (1954).
Veterans Day will be marked with a series of military-themed films on November 11th. Thanksgiving Day will be spent with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers during the daytime hours, followed by several family films in prime time. The family film lineup includes the always-welcome 20th Century-Fox film CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN (1950).Additional programming themes include films based on W. Somerset Maugham and Damon Runyon stories, along with winter, tropical locations, romances, Soviet Communists, San Francisco, and scientists/inventors. There will also be a day of nine MAISIE films starring Ann Sothern.
TCM will feature a memorial tribute to Gena Rowlands on November 4th. Additional filmmakers honored with multifilm tributes will include Gig Young, Esther Williams, Greta Garbo, Hedy Lamarr, Fred M. Wilcox, Dick Powell, and the team of Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo.There are still a number of blank spots on the schedule, so stay tuned for much more on the complete November schedule here at the end of this month.
In the meantime, Bela Lugosi continues as the October Star of the Month.
Related post: Book Review: Ruth Roman: A Career Portrait.
TweetHumphrey Bogart plays a wife murderer in the highly enjoyable CONFLICT (1945), just released on Blu-ray by the Warner Archive Collection.
Richard and Kathryn's friend Dr. Mark Hamilton (Sydney Greenstreet), a psychologist, becomes suspicious about Kathryn's disappearance...and meanwhile some of Kathryn's possessions begin turning up in unexpected places.
I last saw this 86-minute film way back in 2011 and was delighted to revisit it via this beautiful Blu-ray.Everything about this film is a pleasure, from the star power of Bogart and Greenstreet to the loveliness of young Smith to the well-constructed story. This is a polished film made by pros in front of and behind the camera at Warner Bros.
As I wrote in 2011, the film is also an interesting example of the mid-'40s fascination with psychology, which was often worked into crime films.
More than that I won't say, so as not to spoil the plot. As it happens I had forgotten how it ended myself so revisiting the movie was extra-enjoyable.
CONFLICT was filmed in black and white by Merritt Gerstad. The score was composed by Frederick Hollander, orchestrated by Jerome Moross (THE BIG COUNTRY). Gown were created by Orry-Kelly.Supporting roles are played by Grant Mitchell, Patrick O'Moore, Ed Stanley, Ann Shoemaker, and James Flavin.
I was interested to learn that Marjorie Hoshell, who plays a telephone operator in an extended sequence with Bogart, married Jeff Chandler the year after this movie. They were married for nearly eight years.
The Warner Archive Blu-ray print of CONFLICT is from a 1080p HD master from a new 4K scan of the original nitrate camera negative. It looks absolutely terrific and also has excellent sound.Disc extras consist of the trailer; the cartoons LIFE WITH FEATHERS (Sylvester & Tweety Bird, 1945) and TRAP HAPPY PORKY (Porky Pig, 1945); the shorts PEEKS AT HOLLYWOOD (1946) and ARE ANIMALS ACTORS? (1945); and a short 25-minute Theater of Romance radio production from September 1945.
Thanks to the Warner Archive for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray. Warner Archive Blu-rays may be ordered from Movie Zyng, Amazon, and other online retailers.
TweetMiscellaneous bits of news and fun stuff from around the Internet...
...Recent movie reviews: CineSavant Glenn Erickson reviews the MGM musical WORDS AND MUSIC (1948), on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection, at Trailers From Hell...Colin reviews Gary Cooper in MAN OF THE WEST (1958) at Riding the High Country...Toby Roan recently reviewed the new Blu-ray of WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE (1951) at his blog The Hannibal 8...Stephen reviews Jeanne Crain as MARGIE (1946) at Classic Movie Man...and Tim Salmons reviews Kino Lorber's Columbo: The Return (1989-2003) for The Digital Bits.
...Notable Passings: The appealing baseball player turned actor Drake Hogestyn, who starred on DAYS OF OUR LIVES for nearly 40 years, has sadly died of cancer at 70. I also remember him from the one-season series SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS (1982-83) which also starred Richard Dean Anderson, Peter Horton, and River Phoenix...GENERAL HOSPITAL star Ron Hale, who played Mike Corbin, has died at 78. Hale also starred on RYAN'S HOPE for 14 years...Barbara Leigh-Hunt, who starred in Hitchcock's FRENZY (1972), has died at 88. She played Lady Catherine in the 1995 BBC production of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE with Colin Firth...Singer-songwriter-actor Kris Kristofferson has passed away at 88....Please note that Around the Blogosphere This Week will not appear for the next two weekends, when I'll be at the Lone Pine Film Festival and then attending a family wedding. The column will return on Saturday, October 26th....For additional recent links of interest to classic film fans, please visit my September 28th column.
Happy October!
Disc extras consist of a commentary track by Jason A. Ney plus three trailers for other films available from Kino Lorber.
SHACK OUT ON 101 is highly recommended. It may not be great "art" but it is great, great fun.
Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.
TweetMy latest Western RoundUp column has just been published at Classic Movie Hub.
The first feature-length 3D film, BWANA DEVIL (1952), was released on Blu-ray this summer by Kino Lorber Studio Classics.
This impressive Blu-ray set includes three different versions of the film, including the 3D Film Archive's restoration of the 3D print from 4K scans of the original 35mm Ansco Color negatives.
The set features one 3D version for 3D Blu-ray players; another 3D print which can be viewed with anaglyphic red and blue glasses included in the set, as seen in the photograph below; and a "flat" 2D print.
This 79-minute film about man-eating lions in Kenya, written and directed by Arch Oboler, has many similarities to MAN-EATER OF KUMAON (1948), another Kino Lorber release I reviewed earlier this year.
Robert Stack, a champion skeet shooter offscreen, seems apt casting as lion hunter Bob Hayward. Hayward is supervising the building of a railroad in Africa, but the construction is disrupted by workers being killed by fearsome lions.Bob and his friend Dr. McLean (Nigel Bruce) try to come up with ways to find and kill the lions, but things keep going from bad to worse, with an increasingly high body count.
Bob's bride Alice (Barbara Britton) shows up in Africa unexpectedly just as things are coming to a climax. After a terrible attack on the railroad camp, it's Bob and Alice against the lions, and only one side will survive.
The movie itself is frankly not particularly good. The story takes a while to get rolling, and Stack's Bob is initially presented as an irresponsible drunk, making it hard to warm up to his character.The movie was shot in Southern California but also effectively incorporates safari footage shot in Africa.
The movie's technical achievements and importance as the film which started the brief 3D craze in the early '50s make this a valuable watch despite story deficiencies. Kino Lorber has done something special here in making this set of "film history in a box" available to home viewers, and they're to be applauded.The movie is presented as it was theatrically, preceded by an original 1952 explanatory prologue hosted by Lloyd Nolan, along with puppets Cecil and Beany, and midway through the film the original 1952 intermission "snipe" appears. Both the introduction and the intermission snipe are in black and white.BWANA DEVIL is presented by Kino Lorber as a Special Edition in a cardboard slipcase, which is seen in the photo near the top of this review. Extras consist of the featurette THE STORY OF BWANA DEVIL with 3D historian Mike Ballew, which can be viewed in either 3D or flat versions, and two different trailers.
Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.
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