My, how time flies. It was one hundred years ago that Hal Roach came up with the idea of putting ordinary kids together in a series of comedy shorts. The official name was Our Gang, but the titles often referred…
You may have overlooked Kino Lorber’s February Blu-ray release of The Great Moment (1944), starring Joel McCrea and Betty Field. It’s not an especially well-known title from the Paramount library, but it inspired Constantine Nasr, who produces bonus content for many…
JACK AND THE BEANSTALK (ClassicFlix) While I would never tout this as a great Abbott and Costello comedy, the vast array of bonus features on this release supersedes my interest in the film itself. Kudos to Bob Furmanek and…
REPEAT PERFORMANCE (Flicker Alley) Joan Leslie, Louis Hayward and newcomer Richard Basehart top the cast of this intriguing drama that takes place on New Year’s Eve and enables its leading character to relive a painful and upsetting year. It…
The Criterion Collection has done it again: its treatment of the celebrated 1938 screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby offers a feast of fresh material to sink your teeth into. There’s a German-made interview documentary with Howard Hawks filmed in 1977, a…
Like the rest of the Hal Roach library, the 80 Our Gang talkies have not been cared for, to put it mildly. That’s why it’s heartwarming to see what tender loving care can do with the original negatives and 35mm materials…
First, I want to spread the word that the good folks at Film Preservation Society (www.filmpreservationsociety.org) are offering a Blu-ray copy of the 1925 Richard Dix comedy Too Many Kisses, which features the screen debut of Harpo Marx. The entertaining…