Archive: 2014

  • Classics 101: Movie Comedy Teams

    Once a staple down at the local Bijou, the movie comedy team has gone the way of the sing-along bouncing ball and newsreel, vanished into cinema history. These days, actors may team for a film or two but only in between their multi-million-dollar solo paychecks; no more than occasional co-stars, more akin to Hope & Crosby and Tracy & Hepburn than to Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, and Dr. Howard. In this installment of Classics 101, I thought it’d be fun to review some of the best work of the movies’ grea...

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  • CRITERION: It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (Blu-Ray / DVD Combo) in January

    Criterion has scheduled a January 21st street date for their Blu-Ray / DVD Combo of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. The 5-disc set will contain 2 Blu-Rays and 3 DVDs with loads of bonus features (below) including a new high-definition digital transfer of a 197-minute extended version of the film. Stanley Kramer followed his Osc...

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  • SHOUT!: Dobie Gillis - Season 2, Hazel - Season 5 in January

    Shout! Factory has announced The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis - Season 2 and Hazel - The Complete Fifth and Final Season for release on January 14th. NOTE: The last season of Hazel was filmed in color. Atten-SHUN!!  Our heroes Dobie Gillis (Dwayne Hickman) and Maynard G. Krebs (Bob Denver) are...

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  • Baby Peggy: The Elephant in the Room in November

    Milestone Films will release Baby Peggy: The Elephant in the Room on November 5th. Bonus features included with the 55 minute documentary are her 1924 feature Captain January as well as three shorts. Details below. Also of note from Milestone, they tweeted recently that they will release a Blu-Ray version of The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) early next year.

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  • Silent Cinema: Louis Feuillade - Hitchcock before Hitchcock

    Almost from cinema's beginning, recurring characters were popular with filmmakers and theatergoers alike. With the actor's persona—Chaplin's Tramp, for example—clearly established before the film had even begun, audiences knew what to expect and could make their choices with some confidence. Directors meanwhile could dispense with character exposition, which ate up precious film time, and get right to the action. And theater owners, who drove the development of film much more than people reali...

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  • Delayed Again: Cry Danger, Young at Heart & Bamboo Saucer

    Originally scheduled for release in October, then delayed until January 21st, Olive films has announced the delay of Cry Danger (1951), Young at Heart (1954) and The Bamboo Saucer (1968) until April 8th. No word was given as to why, but we can assume there are mastering and/or restoration issues.

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  • Here's Edie - The Edie Adams Television Collection in November

    The Edie Adams estate, via its label 'Ediad,' is releasing Here's Edie - The Edie Adams Television Collection on November 19th. The over 12 hour 4-disc set contains all 21 of her Here's Edie variety show that originally aired between 1962 and 1964 -- and haven't been seen since! Great guest stars abound and are listed below (as well as a promo video). Retail will be 49.95, but it is available at ClassicFlix.com for only...

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  • The Hitchcock Century

    2020 will mark the true centenary of Alfred Hitchcock's entrance into the British film industry, as a title card illustrator. But to honor a man who often compressed and distorted time in his films, we can celebrate the Hitchcock century now. Hitch is with us as much as when he was alive and active, crafting his whimsical celebrity as the master of the macabre. Now we see him in the round, and there are few reputations as secure. He would savor the acclaim and the critical r...

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  • Animation Craze: A Brief History of UPA - McBoing-Boing, Magoo, and a Rooty-Toot-Toot to You

    In 1941, a number of animators at the Walt Disney studios walked out on the job, effectively going on strike. At issue was the question of unionization, which some employees demanded as a way to guarantee their rights and fair pay. Disney, who had long propagated the notion of his shop as one big, happy family, was infuriated by the strike, and stubbornly held out for more than a month. By the time the strike ended, the Disney studio lost nearly half its workforce. The artists who ...

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  • The Vivien Leigh Anniversary Collection DVD & Blu in November

    To mark the 100th year of her birth, Cohen Media has announced The Vivien Leigh Anniversary Collection on both standard DVD and Blu-Ray with a street date of November 19th. Making their Blu debut, all four films, Dark Journey (1937), Fire Over England (1937), Storm in a Teacup (1937) and Sidewalks of London (1938) were released on DVD by Genius Entertainment in 2003. The set has long been out of print. Bonus ...

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