Archive: April 2014

  • Accidentally Preserved, Vol. 2

    Silent film accompanist Ben Model and his label, Undercrank, recently released Accidentally Preserved, Vol. 2. This follow up to the popular Volume 1 contains 9 more rare / lost silent films and is now available for rent here at ClassicFlix.  For those wishing to purchase, it is currently only available at Amazon.

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  • Character Actors: The Women

    A previous column saluted the great male character actors – this month, a look at the actresses who specialized in supporting roles in vintage films: the mothers, grandmothers, and matrons; landladies, secretaries, maids, and nurses; spinsters, gossips, harridans, and eccentrics; bad girls, earth mothers, and iron-willed women.  The films of the studio era are a museum of our images of women, both traditional and transitional. Lest this so...

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  • Joan Fontaine: Elegy for an Oscar Winner

    I began writing this article on Joan Fontaine before her death in December 2013 at the age of 96.  With her recent passing, I'm especially glad to have this opportunity to pay tribute to a remarkable actress. Joan Fontaine was born Joan de Havilland on October 22, 1917, in Tokyo, Japan.  When Joan first entered the film business, the name de Havilland was already 'taken' by Joan's older sister, Olivia de Havilland.  Particularly given ...

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  • COLUMBIA CLASSICS: Mary Astor - And So They Were Married

    Three more from Sony's Columbia Classics line are on their way with Mary Astor and Melvyn Douglas highlighting this wave in And So They Were Married (1936). The romantic-comedy co-stars Edith Fellows, Jackie Moran and Donald Meek.  Also out is the WWII war-drama The Boy from Stalingrad (1943) starring Bobby Samarzich, Conrad Binyon, Mary Lou Harrington and Scotty Beckett and the Western The White Squaw (1956) s...

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  • TV Time: Dynamic Duos

    Television at its best is a collaborative medium, with producers teaming up to develop concepts, screenwriters working together to turn those concepts into stories, and craftsmen behind the camera joining forces to turn the written word into living color (or black and white before the mid-sixties). This month, I'm counting down the best teams who appear on camera in the vast annals of classic television--my all-time favorite small-screen dynamic duos.

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  • KINO: Max Linder Collection, Plus Death Kiss on Blu

    Kino has scheduled The Max Linder Collection with a May 27th street date. Released under their long dormant Slapstick Symposium line, the single disc set will contain the new-to-DVD The Three Must-Get-Theres (1922) as well as the previously released Seven Years Bad Luck and Be My Wife (both 1921). Coming from the label on May 13th will be the DVD & Blu-Ray release of&n...

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  • Cimarron Strip - The Complete Series in May

    E1 Entertainment has set a May 27th street date for Cimarron Strip - The Complete Series. Strip is one of the most oft-mentioned TV Westerns requested by fans for DVD release and is one of only three 90-minute Western series that aired in the 60s. This 8-disc set contains all 23 episodes and will retail for 9.98, but is available at ClassicFlix.com for only 4.99. Bonus feat...

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  • WARNER ARCHIVE: Joan Crawford Bonanza with 5 New to DVD

    Five years ago Warner Bros. introduced their Archive Collection (reported here by us). Now five years and over 1,200 classic titles later, their Archive line is still going strong. No more evidence is needed proving the depth of Warner's catalog than to look at this week's five releases by the studio starring the ever popular Joan Crawford. They are: The Bride Wore Red (1937) - Franchot Tone, Robert Young, Billie Burke, Reginald Ow...

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  • Here Comes Mr. Montgomery

    Robert Montgomery was a multi-talented actor-director and two-time Oscar nominee, and yet for some years he was probably best remembered as the father of Elizabeth Montgomery, the delightful star of the classic TV series Bewitched. As Montgomery's films have become much more available in recent years, thanks to DVDs and Turner Classic Movies, he is today enjoying a resurgence of popularity with classic film fans. Montgomery was born on May 2...

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  • OLIVE: Home of the Brave, Flying Tigers - DVD & Blu in May

    Two WWII military films have been scheduled by Olive Films for release on May 13th: Flying Tigers (1942) and Home of the Brave (1949) on both DVD and Blu-Ray.This marks the DVD & Blu debut for Home of the Brave and the Blu bow for Flying Tigers. Prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Ha...

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