By Jason Apuzzo. • Given the recent dust-up over the new-look Wonder Woman, we thought we’d let Lynda Carter lead things off by wishing everyone a Happy 4th of July. Lynda certainly has a way of raising everone’s spirits. I know that just looking at the picture above has put me in a kind of patriotic fervor.
We’ve put the entire Wonder Woman TV series in the LFM Store below for your perusal and patriotic edification. I remember liking the show back in the day, but my sense is that’s its appeal must only be greater now. May I be frank? I’d rather spend hours watching Lynda Carter than Jack Bauer. But’s that’s just me.
In any case, the show lasted for 3 seasons – all of which are gathered together in this tidy little collection.
• Turner Classic Movies has a nice run today of patriotic films. My personal recommendations: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, the highly underrated The Devil’s Disciple (has Laurence Olivier ever been better?) and Yankee Doodle Dandy. I can’t actually watch James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy because I get too emotional. God bless Michael Curtiz – he’s probably the greatest director ever, and nobody even knows it. All these movies are available in the LFM Store below.
• Humphrey Bogart is coming to Blu-ray in a big way this October. Visit the HeatVision blog at The Hollywood Reporter to read about the new Humphrey Bogart: The Essential Collection that will be coming to Blu-ray. As the picture below illustrates, this collection is basically going to have all the best stuff Bogey did for Warner Brothers. Plus, I believe that Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The Maltese Falcon will be released separately on Blu-ray. You can pre-order Treasure and Maltese in the LFM Store below.
• New York’s Film Forum is presenting a 32-film Anthony Mann retrospective from 25 June – July 15. Mann was easily one of our greatest directors, and a personal favorite of mine. You can read more about that film series here. I’ve put a few Anthony Mann classics in the LFM Store below.
• Eminent film writer David Bordwell has an interesting piece up on his site now about John Ford’s work as a silent film director … and somewhat related to this, Turner Classic Movies will be doing a mini-festival on July 10th of films shot at Monument Valley, which will (obviously) include Ford’s Stagecoach, The Searchers, My Darling Clementine, Sergeant Rutledge, and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. I actually think Cheyenne Autumn is the best looking film Ford ever shot in Monument Valley, although the film is a bit tedious and left wing. We’ve got a few Ford-Monument Valley films in the LFM Store below.
• Producer Elliot Kastner has died. Kastner produced, among other films, one of my absolute all time favorites: Where Eagles Dare. You can read the article about his life and career in Variety. He will be missed. Pick up Where Eagles Dare in the LFM Store below.
• Carol Reed’s Night Train to Munich is finally getting a decent DVD release (Criterion, of course), and Turner Classic Movies has a review of it. In other news, the Arnold Schwarzenegger-John McTiernan classic Predator is coming to Blu-ray, as is a restored version of Visconti’s The Leopard – which recently had a screening at the LA Film Festival. All these films are available in the LFM Store.
• The magnificent Greenbriar Picture Shows classic movie blog has a wonderful 2-part look at the career of Orson Welles, see here and here. I really love what they do at that site. For the heck of it, I’ve put one of my favorite Welles books in the LFM Store: Peter Conrad’s Orson Welles: The Stories of His Life.
• Praise be to the heavens … Raquel Welch’s Hannie Caulder is finally coming to DVD! You can read a new DVD review of the film at Turner Classic Movies. This film is a major cult classic and it’s a crime that it hasn’t been available except on cheap VHS copies for years. The film stars Raquel, along with Christopher Lee and Ernest Borgnine. You can pre-order it in the LFM Store below.
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY EVERYONE!
Posted on July 4th, 2010 at 12:15am.
Happy 4th of July you guys! Nice photos of Wonder Woman (love her patriotic outfit) and Raquel Welch. Now how about some cheesecake shots of some guys, hmmm…?
I will speak to our female staff about that.
Happy Fourth of July everybody! Love the patriotic photos, Jason.
Wow..Lynda Carter is HOT!
That’s what I’m talking about, here. I actually just started watching the original “Wonder Woman” series on DVD. It is a total hoot, and Lynda looks incredible.