filmlover

In Old Arizona (which Warner Baxter won an Oscar for as the Cisco Kid) will be released on Blu by Fox on June 4.

Hi, BingFan, We already have a whole forum here on the TCM message board where we announce upcoming releases, as well as talk about sales, WarnerArchives, etc. [f-362]

Duncan Renaldo:

Congrats, Swithin.

Updated details about the upcoming Blu-ray Warner Bros. Ultimate Gangsters Collection - Classic: The 4 titles will also be available individually. May 21st is the release date. These are the extras for each title *Little Caesar* (1931) * Commentary by film historian Robert Sklar * Leonard Maltin hosts Warner Night at the Movies 1931 * Featurette Beer and Blood: Enemies of the Public *The Public Enemy* (1931) * Commentary by film historian Richard B. Jewell * Leonard Maltin hosts Warner Night at the Movies 1930 * Featurette Little Caesar: End of Rico, Beginning of the Antihero *The Petrified Forest *(1936) * Commentary by Bogart biographer Eric Lax * Leonard Maltin hosts Warner Night at the Movies 1936 * Featurette The Petrified Forest: Menace in the Desert *White Heat* (1949) Commentary by Film Historian Drew Casper Leonard Maltin hosts Warner Night at the Movies 1949 White Heat: Top of the World

I just turned on TCM a moment ago, and without even looking at the screen I knew from the distinctive train whistle as the train pulls into the station that it was "High Noon." It is a sound no other train in movies has. It's almost like a music cue.

Gaby Andre and Steve Cochran: Robert Clarke and Mala Powers: Elizabeth Taylor and Don Taylor: Farley Granger and Ann Blyth:

The L.A. Times has an article this morning about this: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-cowardly-lion-costume-20130309,0,6879998.story By Susan King, Los Angeles Times For sale: one used lion costume. But we're not talking just any lion costume. Archivist James Comisar owns one of the largest archives of television artifacts, with about 10,000 individual objects. Now he's looking for a new home for the iconic Cowardly Lion costume designed by Gilbert Adrian and worn by Bert Lahr during all the "mane" sequences in the beloved 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz." This may be the perfect time to pique collectors' interest in the costume because of the opening Friday of Sam Raimi's big-budget "Oz the Great and Powerful," which tells the story of how the wizard came to take up residence in the Emerald City. Comisar, 48, is selling the costume, which he acquired about 20 years ago, to bolster his $35-million capital campaign to fund a Museum of Television in Phoenix, which would house his collection. "We are just starting to engage the entertainment community in building awareness for the museum goal," said Comisar, who lives in Los Angeles. The Comisar Collection Inc., currently stored in two massive climate-controlled facilities in Los Angeles, features such historical TV items as Ralph Kramden's bus driver jacket from "The Honeymooners," Maxwell Smart's shoe phone from "Get Smart," Johnny Carson's desk and couch set from "The Tonight Show," George Reeves' "Superman" costume and even a section of the downed plane from "Lost." The Cowardly Lion costume also is housed in one of the warehouses. Items from his collection are currently on display at the Paley Center in Beverly Hills and are featured in the upcoming comedy "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone." Comisar is planning to open a preview gallery of the museum by year's end and then hopes to open the doors of the 50,000-square-foot museum built out from an existing building in downtown Phoenix in 2016. So he's looking for someone with the courage to step up and buy the Cowardly Lion costume, which was made with real lion hair. "I feel like I am placing a child in a good home," said Comisar, who began collecting TV memorabilia in the late 1980s while he was working as a TV writer. He doesn't want to sell the costume through an auction house such as Bonhams or Profiles in History because he wouldn't be able to control who will get it. Comisar said that when Debbie Reynolds auctioned off her massive film memorabilia collection two years ago, a lot of the one-of-a-kind costumes and props were sold to buyers in "China, Macao and Dubai." "It's unlikely these great Hollywood materials will ever return to the United States," he said. "As a curator of Hollywood history, this really chills me to the bone. We need to find a buyer for the Cowardly Lion outside of public auction. We need to engage the Hollywood community." Last year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences acquired a pair of Dorothy's iconic ruby slippers from "The Wizard of Oz" for the academy museum it is planning at the historic former May Co. building on Wilshire Boulevard. The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, Steven Spielberg and Terry Semel were among the donors whose gifts to the Academy Foundation enabled it to make the purchase, and Comisar is hoping something similar might happen for him. He's entertaining offers via email, at jcomisar@museumoftv.org. Comisar said he believes that if the Cowardly Lion costume was put up for formal auction, the pre-sale estimate would be in the $2 million to $3 million range. The Cowardly Lion was far from a dandy lion when Comisar bought it from an individual who kept it in a Hefty bag. The unceremonious unveiling was accompanied by "a plume of dust and dirt," he recalled. Comisar made a call to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and talked to textile conservator Cara Varnell to see if she would authenticate and conserve the costume. In an email interview, Varnell confirmed that Comisar's Cowardly Lion costume "is the one worn in all the major scenes through the film." She said she and fellow conservator Irena Calinescu were able to make the determination by comparing the hair patterns of the costume with those in photos of Lahr wearing it. "All hair patterns are unique," she explained. "The variation in color and tone, all of the hair whorls, bumps, nick, hair length were exact," she added. As it happens, the Cowardly Lion is her favorite character in "The Wizard of Oz." Even 20 years after she first helped conserve the Cowardly Lion, Varnell said that "when I do my occasional checkup," to examine the condition of the costume at Comisar's warehouse, "I am moved."

When it is Saturday, I often think of the old movie serials. So, today, we have 4 comic covers of serials of yore. AC reprinted some Nyoka, Don Winslow and other comics in here, as well as providing new story art for the Masked Marvel.

> {quote:title=dpompper wrote:}{quote}So, this begs the question. Will today's youth, weened on SFX, grow up considering story to be un/less important? Just as I mentioned to tikisoo, the first words I said in the description were "*Well written*, terrific effects, and..."

I saw the movie this morning and LOVED IT! Well written, terrific effects, and without a doubt the best 3D movie I have seen in a theatre. If you love pop-outs, this movie has it. You will be dodging spears and reaching for little fluff pieces floating out of the screen. By the way, I saw it on an IMAX 3D screen. I highly recommend seeing it that way. I know, as fans of the 1939 movie, that we will be watching it to see if the 1939 story will fit in...and during the movie, I was wondering how they would make it work so it didn't interfere or change things from the classic. Turns out they did everything perfectly. And the name Gale does come into it, I give it a 10/10.

For today only, just a slight variation on movie star comics. I found this piece in an old Mad mag and thought it was funny in that is correct. Some of the items in a piece on "Cliche Movie Props"

I am pretty happy with the choices. Sure, it is just a little, but inch by inch we are getting a good amount of classics on Blu.

There were excellent items in each schedule, but Swithin gets my vote for having the most themes I liked in one schedule, starting right off the bat with the salute to Grand Central Terminal.

A few odd covers Roddy McDowell: Macdonald Carey:

Art by Frank Frazetta and Al Williamson

More Olive films on Blu and DVD for April or May: Three Faces West (1940), starring John Wayne The Men (1950), starring Marlon Brando

If anyone is around a day early, you might enjoy a trip to Downtown L.A. and stop in at the Fashion Institute of Design & Marketing. Through April 27th, they are running their annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design exhibit. http://fidmmuseum.org/exhibitions/current/#annual-art-motion-picture-costume-design

"Laura" can be had on Blu-ray at Costco for $9.99. Not all Costcos seem to have it, and at the Loz Feliz/Glendale warehouse they had only two when I got there. I left the remaining one at the front of the group of Blus there so someone can find it easily. They also still had some of the Hitchcock Blus.