Adventures in Blu-ray: Television’s Lost Classics, Volume 2

Back in September of this year, I reviewed a new VCI/MVD Entertainment release in Television’s Lost Classics, Volume 1...and in that essay I mentioned that a second collection of Golden Age treasures would sally forth on October 9th.  In Lost Classics, Volume 2, the presentation spotlights four half-hour “pilots” for potential boob tube fodder—with two…

Boris Bad Enough

The very first “blogathon” in which I participated took place in 2009, when the Frankensteinia blog hosted a seven-day tribute to actor William Henry Pratt—better known to (and beloved by) fans as Boris Karloff.  My love of Karloff’s work was an inspirational muse during this event; I posted entries on Thrilling Days of Yesteryear for…

What a girl, what a whirl, what a life

Though she had firmly established herself in motion pictures as America’s favorite man-chaser, it could be argued that comedienne Joan Davis really achieved major fame in radio.  From 1941 to 1943 she was a regular on Rudy Vallee’s popular Sealtest variety show and when Vallee went into the Coast Guard to “do his bit” for…

“At last—America’s most beloved ‘Funnies’ family on the screen!”

This November 24, the longest running comic strip currently being published in the United States will celebrate its centennial birthday.  Technically, Gasoline Alley is the second-longest running strip of all time; the champion remains The Katzenjammer Kids, who enjoyed a staggering 109-year run in “the funny papers” (1897-2006) and is still in syndication today (though…

Adventures in Blu-ray: Television’s Lost Classics, Volume 1

I recently celebrated a birthday a little over a week ago, and my sister Kat gifted me with a copy of David Bianculli’s The Platinum Age of Television, a book that posits that while the 1950s may have been the medium’s “Golden Age,” the offerings on what the late Harlan Ellison sardonically called “the glass…

“That’s liable to happen to anyone!”

In May, I received an e-mail from ClassicFlix asking me to contribute the back liner notes for a DVD collection that I knew would generate waves of enthusiasm throughout the classic film and movie comedy communities I associate with on Facebook.  All 21 of the two-reel Hal Roach Studio comedies starring Thelma Todd and Patsy…

If I were a Carpenter

My Facebook compadre John Carpenter (not to be confused with the director of Halloween...particularly since the Facebook Carpenter goes by "John K.") is known to friends and creditors as "The Movie Man"; John's a devoted classic film buff and collector of 16mm cinematic antiquities, which he's been sharing with appreciative audiences in his home base…

Menjou En Gros

The recent VCI/Sprocket Vault DVD release of Hal Roach Forgotten Comedies could just have easily been titled “Adolphe Menjou at Hal Roach” because the three features in the collection—The Housekeeper’s Daughter (1939), Turnabout (1940), and Road Show (1941)—all star the actor known for both his sartorial splendor (he was voted “The Best Dressed Man in…

Fire and Fury

Stand-up historians (well...it might be a thing) like to point out that the United States and Australia share a common kinship in that our forefathers emigrated to their respective countries from the United Kingdom.  The only difference, of course, is that it was a voluntary deal for Americans; the Aussies, on the other hand, consisted…

Smile when the raindrops fall

In August of last year, I prematurely announced that our good friends at The Sprocket Vault would begin releasing Charley Chase shorts to DVD, beginning with a 2-disc release of the comedian’s output in 1930 and 1931 in November.  The news of this release was warmly received by the Facebook fans that propagate a lot…