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It’s a classic from the Golden Year of 1939, directed in fine style by Wild Bill Wellman and well cast with Paramount stars Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, and Robert Preston, and with Brian Donlevy as one of the movies’ most hissable villains. The popular story has been remade and spoofed innumerable times, yet this remains the indelible best version. A commentary with William Wellman Jr. and Frank Thompson points out many things we didn’t notice before, including where some excised scenes belong, and what originally happened in them.

Beau Geste

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1939 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 112 min. / Street Date April 7, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, Susan Hayward, J. Carrol Naish, Albert Dekker, Broderick Crawford, Charles Barton, James Stephenson, Heather Thatcher, George P. Huntley, Donald O’Connor, Billy Cook, Martin Spellman, Ann Gillis, David Holt, Henry Brandon, Nestor Paiva, Francis McDonald.

Halfway through the year, we’ve already lost a number of stars across Hollywood. Here’s a list of some of the notable celebrities and industry professionals in film, TV, music and sports who have passed away so far in 2018.

Jon Paul Steuer

Jon Paul Steuer, a former child actor who starred in “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” and most recently under the stage name Jonny Jewels for the rock band P.R.O.B.L.E.M.S., died on January 1. He was 33.

Mark Tenser

Mark Tenser, president and CEO of B-Movie studio Crown International Pictures, died on January 1. At his request, his age was not disclosed.

Frank Buxton

Frank Buxton, a writer and director best known for his work on “The Odd Couple” and “Happy Days,” died on January 2. He was 87.

Donnelly Rhodes

Donnelly Rhodes, a Canadian actor who played chief medical officer Dr. Sherman Cottle on the “Battlestar Galactica” reboot,...

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Blu ray

Kino Lorber Home Video

1938 / 1.33:1 / Street Date July 10, 2018

Starring Tommy Kelly, May Robson, Marcia Mae Jones

Cinematography by James Wong Howe

Directed by Norman Taurog

Though Hemingway suggested “all modern American literature” comes from Huckleberry Finn, a case could be made for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as the great American campfire tale.

David Selznick’s picaresque film version of Mark Twain’s bucolic farce plays out through the producer’s rose-colored glasses – an elegy to “the beautiful past, the dear and lamented past.” The brisk adaptation by screenwriter John Weaver (only 91 minutes) is a laundry list of Tom’s greatest hits – his graveyard vigil with Huck Finn, the pirate escapade, the hair-raising cavern finale – all are adventures ingrained in the collective unconscious of most sentient human beings – even those who never cracked a book.

Directed by Norman Taurog, a man who specialized...

A lost, unfinished script written by Stanley Kubrick in 1956 called “Burning Secret” has been found in Wales, and is so close to completion that it could be made into a feature film.

According to The Guardian, the screenplay was found by Nathan Abrams, a professor of film at Bangor University in Wales, who says he came across it while doing research for his upcoming book about Kubrick’s final film, “Eyes Wide Shut.”

Also Read: Is There More to 'The Shining'? 'Long Cuts' of Kubrick Film up for Auction in Italy

The script is dated October 24, 1956 — one year before he found his breakthrough hit with the Kirk Douglas antiwar film “Paths of Glory” — and bears the stamp of MGM’s script department. Kubrick moved to the U.K. in 1961 after becoming disillusioned with the Hollywood system, and many of his personal writings are archived there.

“I couldn’t believe it.

Warner Bros. has announced a new 50th Anniversary Edition of the iconic 1968 classic 2001: A Space Odyssey, following the movie's limited return to theaters last month. This brand new 4K restoration of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was overseen by filmmaker and devout 2001 fan Christopher Nolan, debuted at the Cannes Film Festival before it arrived in select theaters across the country last month, with the 4K Blu-ray and standard Blu-ray arriving October 30. Here's what Christopher Nolan had to say in a statement about this new 4K release of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

"2001 to me is the most cinematic film that has ever been made and it has been an honour and a privilege to be able to share the film with a new generation. 4K Uhd allows the closest recreation of viewing the original film print in your own home. Kubrick's masterpiece was originally presented on large format film and...

John Mahoney, who played family patriarch Martin Crane on the NBC comedy “Frasier,” died Sunday, a spokeswoman for the actor told TheWrap on Monday. “I am sad to confirm the Sunday, February 4th death of actor John Mahoney after a short illness in Chicago, Illinois,” Mahoney’s publicist told TheWrap.” The family will issue a statement at a later date.” In addition to playing small-screen dad to Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) and Niles Crane (David Hyde Pierce), Mahoney’s many other credits include “Hot in Cleveland” and “In Treatment.” Also Read: Ann Gillis, Star of 'Bambi' and '2001: A Space Odyssey,' Dies at 90 Born...

Ann Gillis, a child star from Hollywood’s golden age whose career continued through Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi classic “2001: A Space Odyssey,” died Wednesday at age 90. Her son Gordon Fraser confirmed her passing to The Hollywood Reporter. The Arkansas native was signed to Warner Bros. at age 7 and appeared in dozens of films, notably playing Becky Thatcher in David O. Selznick’s 1938 adaptation of the Mark Twain novel “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” Also Read: Hollywood's Notable Deaths of 2018 (Photos) She also voiced Fantine, Bambi’s eventual mate, in Walt Disney’s 1941 animated classic “Bambi.” Gillis mostly stepped away from film work...

Ann Gillis, the former child star who portrayed Tom Sawyer's love interest in David O. Selznick's 1938 adaptation of the classic Mark Twain novel, has died. She was 90.

Gillis died Wednesday in a nursing home in Horam, East Sussex, England, her son, Gordon Fraser, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Gillis also provided the voice of the adult Faline in Bambi (1942) and appeared in the Western film that gave Gene Autry his nickname, The Singing Cowboy (1936).

A contract player at Warner Bros., Gillis was groomed to be the next Shirley Temple and often played bratty kids. Much later, when...

Susan Hayward. Susan Hayward movies: TCM Star of the Month Fiery redhead Susan Hayward it Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month in Sept. 2015. The five-time Best Actress Oscar nominee – like Ida Lupino, a would-be Bette Davis that only sporadically landed roles to match the verve of her thespian prowess – was initially a minor Warner Bros. contract player who went on to become a Paramount second lead in the early '40s, a Universal leading lady in the late '40s, and a 20th Century Fox star in the early '50s. TCM will be presenting only three Susan Hayward premieres, all from her Fox era. Unfortunately, her Paramount and Universal work – e.g., Among the Living, Sis Hopkins, And Now Tomorrow, The Saxon Charm – which remains mostly unavailable (in quality prints), will remain unavailable this month. Highlights of the evening include: Adam Had Four Sons (1941), a sentimental but surprisingly...

Virginia Bruce: MGM actress ca. 1935. Virginia Bruce movies on TCM: Actress was the cherry on 'The Great Ziegfeld' wedding cake Unfortunately, Turner Classic Movies has chosen not to feature any non-Hollywood stars – or any out-and-out silent film stars – in its 2015 “Summer Under the Stars” series.* On the other hand, TCM has come up with several unusual inclusions, e.g., Lee J. Cobb, Warren Oates, Mae Clarke, and today, Aug. 25, Virginia Bruce. A second-rank MGM leading lady in the 1930s, the Minneapolis-born Virginia Bruce is little remembered today despite her more than 70 feature films in a career that spanned two decades, from the dawn of the talkie era to the dawn of the TV era, in addition to a handful of comebacks going all the way to 1981 – the dawn of the personal computer era. Career highlights were few and not all that bright. Examples range from playing the...

Hattie McDaniel as Mammy in ‘Gone with the Wind’: TCM schedule on August 20, 2013 (photo: Vivien Leigh and Hattie McDaniel in ‘Gone with the Wind’) See previous post: “Hattie McDaniel: Oscar Winner Makes History.” 3:00 Am Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943). Director: David Butler. Cast: Joan Leslie, Dennis Morgan, Eddie Cantor, Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Errol Flynn, John Garfield, Ida Lupino, Ann Sheridan, Dinah Shore, Alexis Smith, Jack Carson, Alan Hale, George Tobias, Edward Everett Horton, S.Z. Sakall, Hattie McDaniel, Ruth Donnelly, Don Wilson, Spike Jones, Henry Armetta, Leah Baird, Willie Best, Monte Blue, James Burke, David Butler, Stanley Clements, William Desmond, Ralph Dunn, Frank Faylen, James Flavin, Creighton Hale, Sam Harris, Paul Harvey, Mark Hellinger, Brandon Hurst, Charles Irwin, Noble Johnson, Mike Mazurki, Fred Kelsey, Frank Mayo, Joyce Reynolds, Mary Treen, Doodles Weaver. Bw-127 mins. 5:15 Am Janie (1944). Director: Michael Curtiz. Cast: Joyce Reynolds, Robert Hutton,...

Director: Charles Barton.

Writers: Val Burton, Walter DeLeon and Bradford Ropes.

Cast: Marjorie Reynolds, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello

Abbott and Costello is a comedic team that brought about a resurrection for Universal Studios. Their films from 1948 to 1953 brought back the monsters from the Golden Age of Hollywood legend and it made for some very good laughs. For the most part, these films were a modest success. The most widely recognized is Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, but the list does not end there.

However, the least recognized of these films is a product that does not involve them meeting anyone other than themselves in a twist of a Buddhist tradition. Bad karma finally caught up on Cuthbert Greenway (Bud Abbott), and he has to right what his ancestor did wrong.

Perhaps that's one of the ironies of why The Time of Their Lives is still enduring today. The script...

On Monday, June 29, Goodman Theatre Outgoing Board Chairman Shawn M. Donnelley and Artistic Director Robert Falls were honored with stars bearing their names as part of the Goodman's "Walkway of Stars." The stars were presented in appreciation and gratitude for their achievements and service to the theater, and commemorated Donnelley's leadership gift of $1 million to Goodman Theatre's endowment. A ribbon cutting and unveiling of the two stars followed brief remarks by Executive Director Roche Schulfer during an afternoon ceremony on the theater's black granite entryway beneath the 73-foot Goodman marquee at 170 North Dearborn Street. Present were members of the Goodman's Board of Trustees as well as friends of the theater, including: Chairman-Elect Patricia Cox; Goodman Resident Artistic Associate Henry Godinez; Academy Award-nominated playwright José Rivera; Goodman Trustees Sherry Barrat of Northern Trust, Ruth Ann Gillis of Exelon Corporation, Vikki Hood of Kirkland & Ellis; Goodman Scenemakers Council members Shannon Kinsella and...