News From the Lake for December 10th, 2013

With finals ramping up this week I didn’t want any news to escape my attention, and thus you get a special Tuesday edition of News From the Lake.  If anything pressing happens, you might see a regularly scheduled one Wednesday.  A few brief snippets in this update including an amazing opportunity to capture some film history if you live in the L.A. area, and a chance to see my smiling face discuss classic film.

The TCM Classic Film Festival is four months away, but the network is pulling out all the stops.  It’s been announced that music legend, Quincy Jones is receiving a personal tribute at the festival.  He’ll make appearances at several events as well as presenting a 50th anniversary tribute/screening of Sidney Lumet‘s drama, The Pawnbroker for which Quincy did the score.  On top of that, three movies are set for presentations with brand-new restorations; Double Indemnity is celebrating its 70th anniversary, Orson Welles‘ Touch of Evil, and The Best Years of Our Lives are all set to have restored screenings.  This is on top of the previously announced restoration screenings for Gone With the Wind and the Wizard of Oz in IMAX 3D.  You can purchase passes to the festival now.  The TCM Classic Film Festival runs April 10th-13th in Hollywood.

In conjunction with this years TCM Classic Film Festival, the network is celebrating its twentieth anniversary.  I can’t fathom a world before TCM, can you?  In honor of this important birthday, TCM host/all-around awesome guy, Robert Osborne will be switching seats and become the subject of a special edition of Private Screenings.  Alec Baldwin, past co-host of The Essentials, will interview Osborne for  Private Screenings alongside four of Bob’s movie choices for the night.  Robert Osborne is definitely the face of TCM, so it’ll be fun to hear about his life and love of classic films.  You can watch Private Screenings: Robert Osborne on January 6th at 8pm Eastern followed by showings of The Third Man, Libeled Lady, Love Letters, and The Band Wagon.  An encore of Private Screenings: Robert Osborne will air in between movies.

If you live in the Los Angeles area, today is your lucky day.  I mentioned in my Warner Brothers Studio Tour report about the studio celebrating their 90th anniversary.  Today, between 3-6pm you can celebrate Christmas at the studios for free!  A “holiday social” for area residents is all set for this afternoon starting with a free lecture hosted by Warner Brothers historian, Marc Wanamaker followed by a tree decorating event (the studio urges fans who show up to bring an ornament adorned with your favorite star), Christmas carolers,  and refreshments.  Did I mention this is all free?  Afterwards, at 6:30pm Wanamaker will give a talk as part of Warner Brothers Speakers Series.  Admission is free but seating is limited.  As always the studio tour runs seven days a week, so if you’re there for the holiday event feel free to ask about booking a tour.  If anyone goes tonight feel free to send in a report!

I reported a few weeks back about my work with Lauren LoGiudice on Dames and Dons, a discussion about classic Hollywood.  A few classic film friends were able to watch live, but if you missed it Lauren was able to record it for your viewing pleasure.  My apologies on my crappy camera, but enjoy 30-minutes of Lauren and I discussing the Golden Era of leading ladies and what made them so special.  I love doing things like this, and hopefully Lauren will want to do another talk in the future!

Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray

Kino Classics: Kino is going silent with their first 2014 Blu-ray release.  They’re transferring the 1920 John Barrymore version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to Blu-ray with an awesome deluxe edition.  There haven’t been confirmations of new bonus content, but it’s presumed the features from the last DVD release will make the cut; said features include a rare 1909 audio recording of the transformation scene, a 1925 Stan Laurel parody of the film, an excerpt of the 1920s Sheldon Lewis interpretation of the movie, an illustrated essay on the movie’s origins and adaptation, and a featurette on the score.  You can purchase Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde on Deluxe Edition DVD and Blu-ray on January 28th.

That’s all from the Lake this week.  If anything pressing happens I’ll do a regular Wednesday update, but if not we’ll look at more news next Wednesday!