Archive: December 2013

  • Silent Cinema: Mack Sennett and the Fun Factory

    I've written previously about the evolution of cinema from the earliest experimental tinkering of the great inventors to the stylistic breakthroughs of D.W. Griffith and Louis Feuillade, a twenty-five year period when movies went from nothing more than a gleam in Louis Le Prince's eye to a world-wide phenomenon playing in a form not all that different from what we still enjoy today. The fastest and most startling evolution in film, though, may well have been in the genre of comedy...

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  • Robert Taylor: Blue-Eyed Handsome Man

    Robert Taylor, a star at MGM for close to a quarter of a century, was one of Hollywood's best-loved actors, popular with moviegoers and colleagues alike. Taylor was born in Nebraska on August 5, 1911. As a young man he was interested in both medicine and music; he ultimately selected music and was headed toward a career as a professional cellist when he followed a favorite professor to Pomona College in California. Once in California, Taylor fell into acting and a career at MGM; ...

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  • The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (Blu-Ray) in February

    20th Century Fox has announced a February 4th release date for The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (Blu-Ray). Bonus features from the DVD are expected to carry over to this new hi-def version. After making her way to China to become a missionary, an English parlor maid (Bergman) wins the heart of a Eurasian colonel (Curt Jurgens) and the r...

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  • WARNER ARCHIVE: Classic Shorts from the Dream Factory, Vol. 2

    Warner's sole Golden Age release from their Archive Collection this week is Classic Shorts from the Dream Factory, Vol. 2. The 3-disc set will contain 36 shorts in all (below) and will be available here at ClassicFlix on December 10th. These new DVDs add to the total of over 1,200 Warner Archive titles exclusively available for rent at ClassicFlix.com.

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  • CRITERION: Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent (Blu-Ray / DVD Combo) in February

    Criterion has scheduled a February 18th street date for their Blu-Ray / DVD Combo of Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent (1940). The exciting and fast-paced thriller will come in a 3-disc set with 1 Blu and 2 DVDs with all bonus features (below) contained on both formats. In 1940, Alfred Hitchcock made his official...

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  • The Twilight Zone: The Premiere Episode

    In the November 7, 1959 issue of TV Guide, Rod Serling commented, “Here’s what The Twilight Zone is: It’s an anthology series, half-hour in length, that delves into the odd, the bizarre, the unexpected. It probes into the dimension of imagination but with a concern for taste and for an adult audience too long considered to have I.Q.s in negative figures. The Twilight Zone is what it implies: that shadowy area of the almost-but-not-quite; the unbelievable told in terms that can be believed. Here’...

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  • DISNEY: The Jungle Book (Blu-Ray) in February

    Walt Disney has set a February 11th release date for their Diamond Edition Blu-Ray / DVD Combo of The Jungle Book (1967). Exactly which bonus features carry over from the previous Platinum Edition are unknown, but they are expected to be plentiful. ...

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  • WARNER BLU: Hatari, El Dorado & Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

    Warner Bros. has announced the three titles above for Blu-Ray release on March 11th. All three were previously released on DVD by Paramount and are part of the studio's library licensed by Warner.

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  • Sunrise (Blu-Ray / DVD Combo) in January - 3 DAY SPECIAL PRICE

    20th Century Fox has scheduled a January 14th street date for a their Blu-Ray / DVD Combo of Sunrise (1927). Long out of print on DVD, this set comes with most of the previous bonus features, and adds the European Silent Version as well. Retail is 9.99, and it is available here at ClassicFlix for only 3.99. However, for three days only (until Sunday November 10th), we'll have it for the special pre-order price of

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  • Dark Cinema: Richard Widmark - That Little Boy from Sunrise

    He had that face, that laugh, and that coast-to-coast grin that was a little aw-shucks humility and all sinister intent underneath. Richard Widmark often played characters so far in shadow they were invisible, yet your eyes were always searching for him in the frame. An innocuous 'come on' or 'heya, pal' had you leaning forward in your seat, rapt and unblinking, simultaneously fascinated and worried about what he would do next. Widmark possessed a delicious, contradictory combination of boyish c...

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