Online Classic Movie News, Hollywood News Archives and Classic DVD Releases

FEBRUARY 2010

1. Mack Sennett's Fun Factory from MacFarland & Company
This is the first major comprehensive study of Mack Sennett’s entire career, including his early apprenticeship as a director at Biograph under the great D.W. Griffith, his two decade run as an independent producer in Hollywood from 1912 to 1933, and his life after the closing of his studio.

2. Wim Wender's Paris, Texas on DVD
German director Wim Wenders and writer Sam Shepard create a stark, compelling portrait of life, love and alienation in a small Southwest town in this 1984 film starring Harry Dean Stanton as a drifter who returns after a four-year desert odyssey to reconnect with his ex-wife and son.

3. The 50th Anniversary screening of A Call From the Stars on Feb. 18 in Los Angeles
A rare screening of this documentary by the Hollywood Heritage Museum is part of a presentation fundraiser to assist filmmakers in the completion of their feature documentary Marsha Hunt: Sweet Adversity. Selected clips from this film will be shown.

4. Winter/Spring Film Forum Schedule for 2010
Check out the upcoming repertory movie line-up at New York City's Film Forum. Highlights include Josef von Sternberg's The Docks of New York (1928), Joseph Losey's film noir The Prowler (1951), a Lee Tracy festival and more. GET THE DETAILS.

5. 14th Annual Kansas Silent Film Festival - Feb. 26 & 27
Melissa Talmadge Cox, Buster Keaton’s granddaughter, who will introduce her favorite of her grandfather’s films, OUR HOSPITALITY, and other highlights include The Yankee Clipper (1927) & Chaplin's The Vagabond (1916). GET THE DETAILS.

6. Bad Girls of Film Noir, Vol. 1 on DVD
A quartet of B-movie thrillers that includes Evelyn Keyes as The Killer That Stalked New York (1950), Lizabeth Scott in both Bad for Each Other (1953) & Two of a Kind (1951) plus The Glass Wall (1953) with Gloria Grahame.

7. Portable Grindhouse: The Lost Art of the VHS Box
Like vinyl, here is the revenge of another analog cast-off: the VHS is once again insinuating itself into American culture, and this book celebrates the anarchic design art of those early VHS boxes.

8. Sammy Davis Jr. in A Man Called Adam on DVD
A jazz trumpet player seemingly has it all but blames himself for the traffic accident that killed his family and begins a downward spiral that threatens to destroy his life and career.

9. Roberto Rossellini's War Trilogy on DVD
A 3-disc set that includes key works of the Italian neorealism movement - Rome Open City (1945), Paisan (1946) and Germany Year Zero (1947). Extras include bonus documentary and many other features.

10. Che on DVD from The Criterion Collection
Steven Soderbergh's ambitious, epic screen biography of iconic Marxist revolutionary leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara (Benicio Del Toro) is presented in two parts and documents the rebel's involvement in the 1959 downfall of the Batista dictatorship in Cuba.

11. Onimasa: A Japanese Godfather - 1982 Yakuza Epic on DVD
A young girl, adopted by a Yakuza boss and brought up inside his criminal clan, strives to assert a sense of command while making plans to break free from his control in this acclaimed revenge drama from director Hideo Gosha.

12. Bad Girls of Film Noir, Vol. 2 on DVD
Sony Pictures offers up another collection of femme fatales that includes a double whammy of Cleo Moore in One Girl's Confession (1953) & Over-Exposed (1956), plus Night Editor (1946) with Janis Carter and Women's Prison (1955) starring Ida Lupino.

13. History by Hollywood - A New Edition of Robert Toplin's Book
With a fresh look at recent films and television productions such as Titanic, Pearl Harbor, The Patriot, and JFK, the author examines how filmmakers have interpreted American history through their movies.

14. The Brigitte Bardot Classic Collection on DVD
The internationally famous French sex symbol is showcased in three films including The Night Heaven Fell, Plucking the Daisy and If Don Juan Were a Woman, directed by Roger Vadim.

15. All My Shows Are Great!: The Life of Lew Grade
Lew Chester's biography is an endlessly entertaining portrait of someone who was truly larger than life and the first bio to be written about the mogul.

16. The Vanished Empire - Acclaimed 2008 Russian Film on DVD
A Russian teenager, reeling from burdensome family obligations at age 18, decides to pursue the pleasures of liquor, women, illicit drugs, and Western rock songs in this drama set against the recent collapse of communist Russia.

17. George Méliès Encore - New on DVD
An additional 26 films produced by Méliès between 1896 and 1911 have been found and made available for this single-disc, supplemental collection from Flicker Alley. They further support that Méliès was the most accomplished filmmaker in the world during the first years of cinema.

18. Hardboiled Hollywood: The True Crime Stories Behind the Classic Noir Films
From Kiss Me Deadly, Bonnie & Clyde and Psycho, to The Godfather and L.A. Confidential, Max Décharné uncovers the little-known stories behind each of these classic films and more.

19. Peter Firth in Born of Fire - 1983 Cult Fantasy Thriller
A classical musician nearly driven to madness by visions of fire and apocalyptic destruction seeks answers in the volcanic wastes of northern Turkey. A bizarre tale of mystical forces from director Jamil Dehlavi.

20. How To Be A Man - Classic Educational Shorts from Kino
Guys, if your parents didn't do the job when it was needed, why not get helpful hints on how to be a fully-functioning adult male by consulting these 11 vintage shorts that include Fears of Children & Am I Trustworthy?.

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