Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Congratulations to our Holiday DVD winners!

    


Congratulations to Stacey Young and Charlie Zabbia, our Holiday DVD winners!

Stacey won 1st prize: Peanuts deluxe Holiday Collection BD/DVD set of 3 remastered Peanuts Holiday classics: A Charlie Brown Christmas, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

Charlie won 2nd prize: 'Twas the Night Before Christmas animated holiday classic remastered deluxe edition DVD, with special features.

Enjoy the DVDs, you two, and thank you for participating!

Friday, November 26, 2010

Holiday DVD drawing


You can WIN one of these two holiday DVDs!

    

Classic Cinema Online and Warner Brothers Entertainment are giving away these two fun holiday DVDs! Enter the drawing today for your chance to WIN!

The drawing will be held Wednesday, December 1, 2010. Two names will be drawn, each winner will receive one of these two prizes:

  • First Prizeis the Peanuts deluxe Holiday Collection BD/DVD set of 3 remastered Peanuts Holiday classics: A Charlie Brown Christmas, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.
  • Second Prize is 'Twas the Night Before Christmas animated holiday classic remastered deluxe edition DVD, with special features.

To enter the drawing simply send an email with your name and mailing address to classiccinemaonline.com@gmail.com; you must put "Holiday DVD drawing" in the subject line.

The drawing will take place on Wednesday, December 1, 2010, and is open to US residents only. Must be 18 or over to participate. Please read our official drawing rules for details.

    

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Celebrating Claude Rains

You enjoyed him in Casablanca, The Invisible Man, and countless other films. This versatile actor would be 121 years old if he were still with us today.

I thought I'd honor his memory with the lighthearted and whimsical "Pied Piper of Hamelin". Click the poster and enjoy!

Monday, November 1, 2010

Bargain Bin Delight - Breakfast at Tiffany's











Audrey Hepburn plays that daring, darling Holly Golightly to a new high in entertainment delight!




I found this wonderful flick in the $5 bin at WalMart, and couldn't believe it! Such a classic for only five bucks?!


And with a cast like Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Mickey Rooney and Buddy Ebson, what could possibly go wrong? This movie was flawless! And is it any wonder? It was directed by Blake Edwards!


As usual, Audrey Hepburn was flawless. Her acting, her grace, her poise, her natural beauty and style was always perfect - no wonder so many people adored her!


And that handsome looking co star of hers - wow! What a lovely on screen couple they made!


Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) is a beautiful and somewhat eccentric young woman who loves to dress up, drink, and socialize. She's really a call girl - the original lead was supposed to go to Marilyn Monroe who turned it down because her agent thought it would be bad for her image, but the storyline was watered down quite a bit from the novel, so it wasn't really apparent that she was a call girl. Known to throw loud parties that would annoy her neighbor (Mr. Yunioshi, played by Mickey Rooney), the loveable, mixed up character was enjoyable to watch .


She and her nameless cat lived in a small apartment (How'd they get all those partiers in there?!) in New York, enjoying the heck out of themselves. Along comes a handsome new neighbor (Paul Varjack, played by George Peppard) and her life gets even more crazy! As she repeatedly fails at her attempts to land a sugar daddy, she goes from man to man hoping to "marry for money".


Paul is immediately smitten with Holly, but seems to be having some weird kind of relationship with an extremely wealthy woman whom he introduces to Holly as his "designer". Apparently she's also his publishing agent - as he's a writer.


Holly and Paul seem to get along great - like best friends. Somehow Paul reminds her of her brother Fred, with whom she is close, so she decides to call him "Fred".


The story keeps getting better - it turns out that the party girl was married at the age of 14 to some hillbilly horse doctor (Buddy Ebson - who else?) who is still smitten with her, so he looks her up in New York.


This film has some really funny moments - like the drunken woman who is laughing at herself in the mirror, then in another scene she's bawling her eyes out. And there's Mr. Yunioshi - who is always annoyed. You know, that doesn't even look like Mickey Rooney - I'd have never guessed it was him, myself, but he played the role flawlessly. That makeup job and his witty talent added an extra element to this film that I thought was delightful.


If it wasn't noise, it was the doorbell. And he'd always meet his annoying neighbors in the stairwell, glaring at them and threatening to call "the po-reece".


Cat lovers everywhere will probably become angered - there is a scene towards the end of the film where Holly and Paul are in a taxi, it's raining out, and he's getting after her because he loves her and she's fighting the feeling. So she orders the cab driver to stop the cab and she kicks the cat out of the cab and into the rain. There's a scene of the poor, soaked kitty with this confused look on his face.


Now, I like cats, myself, so this scene really got to me. I actually yelled at the screen (as if she could hear me) "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" That poor kitty! I wanted to go pick him up and feed him some Salmon.

Anyway I loved this film, and it really didn't deserve to be tossed into the $5 bin at WalMart, but I'm glad it was otherwise financially strapped people like me wouldn't have been able to enjoy it. This was a real treasure.


Go check out the $5 movie bins at your local WalMart (or other discount store) and see what treasures you can find in there. Then send me an email and tell me about it!




Thursday, October 21, 2010

We love red drapes!

If there is one thing about Classic Cinema Online that seems to have impressed people, it's our red drapes, which have been an important part of our theme since we began.

Traditionally, cinemas of old would have a velvet Grand Drape that was red, which is why Classic Cinema Online has red drapes.  There is something about red and black together that cause black and white pictures to really stand out, and the artistic value of the colors together anyway is priceless.

Currently, Classic Cinema Online is now on it's 4th set of red drapes.  Our first set is no longer in use, and our second set seems to be the most popular.  That set is still in use on this blog and our MySpace page.  Our third set was actually a modification of the second set and is still used on our Twitter profile, while our fourth and current set is a completely new set used in the background of Classic Cinema Online's main site.  That set has been in use since about July of this year.

I've discovered that since Classic Cinema Online was first published on the web in December of 2006, over time other blogs and websites dedicated to vintage film and entertainment have also started to use red drapes in their backgrounds -- some of those sites and blogs are actually using Classic Cinema Online's second set of drapes.

I was approached about this recently and asked if I felt violated or infringed upon.  No way!  I'm honored that Classic Cinema Online's look is so popular! 

If your "Vintage Film" or "Golden Hollywood" type of blog happens to have red drapes in the background (Which you can find in the default blogger background settings, by the way), please send me an email and I'll link to your blog or website on our links page.  (Of course, the blog or website has to be Classic Cinema Online type of material to qualify for this - I won't link to sites that promote anything illegal or "adults only" oriented, for example.)

Acceptable site content would include information about vintage films, film production and stars; vintage movie posters, movie houses, vintage movie DVDs, personal memories of the movies, and so on.  If it's dedicated to vintage Hollywood and has red drapes it should have no problem qualifying.

-- Sandra
Classic Cinema Online

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Here's lookin' at you, Bogie





On October 5, Warner Brothers released Humphrey Bogart: The Essential Collection - a collection of 24 Bogart films complete with goodies!

The set includes a 48-page book about Bogie with an introduction by Robert Osborne - TCM's host and film historian, 12 Discs containing 24 movies and special features including bloopers, radio shows, classic cartoons and newsreels plus short documentaries.

Another added bonus is a 13th disc, "The Brothers Warner" - an interesting documentary about the Warner Brothers themselves, who brought Humphrey Bogart to fame.

Finally, one of my favorite parts of this classic collection is a special collector's set of photo cards with posters and rare correspondence about Humphrey, which shows someone's sense of humor.

This must have set contains hours and hours of vintage entertainment for any Bogie fan out there.

The collection includes To Have and Have Not (1944) - the film he was making when he met Lauren Bacall; Casablanca (1942), The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Big Sleep (1946),  The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), Key Largo (1948), and more.

You can purchase this collection today for only $79.95 ( and FREE SHIPPING!) at the WB Shop.


Thursday, September 23, 2010

WARNER HOME VIDEO TO RELEASE KING KONG (1933) SEPT 28




Press Release

On September 28, 2010, the original 1933 RKO classic King Kong makes its long awaited debut on Blu-ray Disc™. Presented by Warner Home Video, the newly remastered King Kong features extensive bonus content, including a collectible Blu-ray Book written by renowned film historian Rudy Behlmer; a feature length documentary on Kong creator Merian C. Cooper, directed by acclaimed filmmakers Kevin Brownlow and Christopher Bird; commentary by Ray Harryhausen and Ken Ralston with Merian C. Cooper and Fay Wray; and a seven-part documentary that delves deeply into just about every aspect of the making of the film.


With 32 pages of rare photography and trivia, the captivating Blu-ray Book, written by Rudy Behlmer, centers around the vision of director, Merian C. Cooper and his larger than life persona that brought the story of King Kong to the screen. A prolific film researcher and historian, Behlmer personally interviewed Cooper and has written numerous books and contributed to a wide variety of documentaries, videos, DVDs and laser discs about Hollywood's Golden Age.


In this very special Blu-ray release, the newly remastered film is presented in its 1933 entirety and includes scenes that were originally considered too shocking for the 1938-1956 re-releases. With equal parts adventure, horror and old-fashioned romance, King Kong is a milestone of movie-making that has endured for more than seven decades. Named as one of the “100 Best Films of All Time” by Time Magazine, King Kongpremiered in New York City in 1933. The film was an instant success, breaking box-office records to become one of the top moneymakers of the 1930s.


Available on Blu-ray: September 28, 2010

Official Site URL: www.wbshop.com

UPDATE: KING KONG is also now available FOR DOWNLOAD on iTunes: http://bit.ly/WBD_KINGKONG






Monday, September 13, 2010

Wonderful things happening at Classic Cinema Online!

Hello everyone!

As Classic Cinema Online gets ready to celebrate it's fourth year on the net in December, some changes are taking place behind the scenes.

This blog will no longer be used to update our weekly features, from now on we'll actually blog on the blog and use the main site for showing our features.

Beginning this week, look for our new links page called CCO recommends. These are websites that Classic Cinema Online thinks you will enjoy. We'll also blog about those sites right here.

Classic Cinema Online is also getting ready for a new look (hopefully to launch by the beginning of the year) that will make navigating the site and searching for your favorite films much easier. The look will still have that old time theater feel but the content will be more streamlined with extended movie billboards.

All those and more are coming your way right here at Classic Cinema Online.

Grab some popcorn and enjoy the show!

Sunday, August 8, 2010

ANNOUNCEMENT

Starting this week all of our "Now Playing" features will replace the daily matinees for a while.

These are the same great movies that Classic Cinema Online would normally be presenting every Sunday, but instead of presenting them all at once, they're being shown one day at a time, Monday through Friday.

You'll still be able to access the entire week's worth by clicking on the number that appears at the under of the day's feature, Tuesday through Friday.

Saturdays will still be devoted to silent films and Sundays will be devoted to Old Time Radio programs. Plus you can always browse our selection of films by accessing the Movie Billboards and the Movies Master List, which I'll be updating soon.

Showing the films this way will allow me to be more efficient so that I may bring you more Classic Cinema Online goodies.