The Shadow Cabaret

Robert F. Boyle
Oct. 10, 1909-Aug. 1, 2010

Larry Yachimec
Jan. 11, 1959-Aug. 1, 2010

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Classic film buffs with a yen for building up their home libraries should appreciate this crop of August blogs devoted to movies on dvd:

Writing on the Turner Classic Movies site, film writer Glenn Erickson provides a critical overview of Akira Kurosawa’s earliest directorial efforts in an absorbing article commemorating their release on a new four-disc collection from Eclipse.

Matt Zoller Seitz takes a jaundiced look at “director’s cuts” – the good, the bad and the unnecessary – in an entertaining and opinionated Salon commentary.

Kristin Thompson rhapsodizes on a trio of Josef von Sternberg silent classics, newly released on dvd – and takes a side trip to the 1927 Chicago, home of the scandalous Roxie Hart.

Finally, those behind on recent releases can check out this podcast archive of Dick Dinman’s weekly show about Hollywood classics newly out on dvd.

What are you looking at? Start clicking these links.

Ilene Woods
May 5, 1929-July 1, 2010

Geoffrey Hutchings
June 8, 1939-July 1, 2010

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(Part 1 began a look at Hollywood’s long-running love affair with the legend of Billy the Kid, whose brief and grubby real-life career came to an abrupt end at the hands of New Mexico sheriff Pat Garrett. The mythmaking continues:)
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July bloggers have covered the waterfront, with smart and entertaining pieces that range from the virtual dawn of cinema to thoughts on sharing movies with your offspring in your own home.

Turner Classic Movie “Morlocks” offer a roundtable discussion of what parents have learned about themselves while watching horror films with their children. You can read Part 1 here, and Part 2 here.
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JUNE LINKS

The lost worlds of Hollywood have been much on the minds of bloggers and reporters in June, including some rediscovered treasures that are sure to warm any movie lover’s heart:

The biggest news on the lost-film front in recent years has to be the discovery in New Zealand of 75 silent movies that were long considered gone forever, including a feature by John Ford, a chapter of the otherwise extinct serial The Active Life of Dolly of the Dailies, a Mabel Normand comedy short and more. There’s a nice story on the rediscovered trove at the Los Angeles Times site, and a New York Times piece with a slideshow of tasty stills.
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He’s been called everything from a homicidal moron to a cowboy Robin Hood – but whoever and whatever Billy the Kid really was, his brief and bloody career earned him an enduring place in the American imagination…and created a virtual cottage industry in Hollywood, where his legend has been mined, refined and reshaped in more than 60 motion pictures.
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Movie magic is much on the minds of this month’s featured film bloggers, each of whom takes the stage with some smart and entertaining tricks up their sleeves:

The distinguished David Bordwell reviews a new crop of DVD extras, including a look at the evergreen special effects of the 1959 Disney fantasy Darby O’Gill and the Little People. Read more

Bloggers in April have done themselves proud with this absorbing collection of think pieces, interviews and unabashed celebrations of movies that range from oddball cult items to the pinnacles of artistic and commercial achievement:

Dick Cavett continues to reminisce about a starry-eyed (and ultimately heart tugging) visit with John Wayne during the filming of the Duke’s last picture. Read more

Insights on films new and old mingle in this month’s collection of entertaining links on movies and TV:

Blogger R. Emmett Sweeney, of the Turner Classic Movies Morlocks gang, looks at the long shadows cast by a pair of Val Lewton cult favorites on Martin Scorsese’s creepy Shutter Island. Read more