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'Ben-Hur' 1959 with Stephen Boyd and Charlton Heston: TCM's '31 Days of Oscar.' '31 Days of Oscar': 'Lawrence of Arabia' and 'Ben-Hur' are in, Paramount stars are out Today, Feb. 1, '16, Turner Classic Movies is kicking off the 21st edition of its “31 Days of Oscar.” While the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is being vociferously reviled for its “lack of diversity” – more on that appallingly myopic, self-serving, and double-standard-embracing furore in an upcoming post – TCM is celebrating nearly nine decades of the Academy Awards. That's the good news. The disappointing news is that if you're expecting to find rare Paramount, Universal, or Fox/20th Century Fox entries in the mix, you're out of luck. So, missing from the TCM schedule are, among others: Best Actress nominees Ruth Chatterton in Sarah and Son, Nancy Carroll in The Devil's Holiday, Claudette Colbert in Private Worlds. Unofficial Best Actor...

Claudette Colbert movies on Turner Classic Movies: From ‘The Smiling Lieutenant’ to TCM premiere ‘Skylark’ (photo: Claudette Colbert and Maurice Chevalier in ‘The Smiling Lieutenant’) Claudette Colbert, the studio era’s perky, independent-minded — and French-born — "all-American" girlfriend (and later all-American wife and mother), is Turner Classic Movies’ star of the day today, August 18, 2014, as TCM continues with its "Summer Under the Stars" film series. Colbert, a surprise Best Actress Academy Award winner for Frank Capra’s 1934 comedy It Happened One Night, was one Paramount’s biggest box office draws for more than decade and Hollywood’s top-paid female star of 1938, with reported earnings of $426,944 — or about $7.21 million in 2014 dollars. (See also: TCM’s Claudette Colbert day in 2011.) Right now, TCM is showing Ernst Lubitsch’s light (but ultimately bittersweet) romantic comedy-musical The Smiling Lieutenant (1931), a Best Picture Academy Award nominee starring Maurice Chevalier as a French-accented Central European lieutenant in...

The following is a list of all comic books, graphic novels and special items that will be available this week and shipped to comic book stores who have placed orders for them.

12-gauge Comics

Afflicted Gn (not verified by Diamond), $12.99

Archie Comics

Archie Double Digest #233 (not verified by Diamond), $3.99

Sonic The Hedgehog Select Volume 6 Tp (not verified by Diamond), $11.99

Sonic Universe #44, $2.99

Aspen Comics

Dead Man’s Run #3 (Cover A Tony Parker), $3.50

Dead Man’s Run #3 (Cover B Jason Fabok), $3.50

Barron’S Education Series

Complete Guide To Figure Drawing For Comics And Graphic Novels Sc, $24.99

Bongo Comics

Simpsons Comics #194, $2.99

Boom! Studios

Extermination #4 (Cover A Trevor Hairsine), $3.99

Extermination #4 (Cover B Tom Derenick), $3.99

Extermination #4 (Cover C Michael Gaydos), Ar

Extermination #4 (Cover D Tom Derenick Black & White), Ar

Extermination #4 (Cover E Trevor Hairsine Black & White), Ar

Extermination #4 (Cover F John Cassaday Sketch Cgc 9.8), Ar

Higher Earth Boom Builder Pack (Issues 1-3), $2.99

Peanuts Volume 2 #2 (Of...

The following is a list of all comic books, graphic novels and special items that will be available this week and shipped to comic book stores who have placed orders for them.

007 Magazine And Archive

007 Magazine #55, $18.00

215 Ink

Little Heroes Gn, $10.99

Aam Markosia

Ketsueki Gn, $15.99

Toybox Turmoil Gn, $15.99

AC Comics

Femforce #161, $9.95

Aladdin Books

So You Want To Be A Comic Book Artist Ultimate Guide On How To Break Into Comics Hc (not verified by Diamond), $16.99

So You Want To Be A Comic Book Artist The Ultimate Guide On How To Break Into Comics Sc, $9.99

Archaia Entertainment

Return Of The Dapper Men Hc (Special Edition), $29.95

Archie Comics

Betty And Veronica Double Digest #205, $3.99

Knuckles The Echidna Archives Volume 3 Tp, $9.99

Mega Man #17 (Chad Thomas Regular Cover), $2.99

Mega Man #17 (Chad Thomas Variant Cover), $2.99

Avatar Press

Crossed Badlands #13 (Jacen Burrows Regular Cover), $3.99

Crossed Badlands #13 (Jacen Burrows Red Crossed Incentive Cover), Ar

Crossed Badlands #13 (Oscar Jimenez Torture...

Above: Gregory La Cava (seated, right) directs Joel McCrea, Claudette Colbert and a blonde Joan Bennett.

New artistic director Chris Fujiwara's Gregory La Cava retrospective at Edinburgh International Film Festival (six films, followed by six films at Edinburgh Filmhouse after the Festival) has brought to light several obscure titles from the great Hollywood director. For instance, I heard several of the lucky few crammed into the sweaty confines of Filmhouse 3 declare the silent comedy Feel My Pulse (1928) to be their favorite experience of the fest. But Private Worlds (1935), the penultimate film shown, is pretty fascinating too.

For one thing, it demonstrates La Cava's ability to work outside the screwball comedy genre for which he was most celebrated (although the film is far from humorless). The cast, which includes Claudette Colbert, Charles Boyer, Joel McCrea and Joan Bennett, could certainly have filled out a romantic comedy to perfection (Colbert and...

Cannes is now over which means it’s time to move to Britain as the Edinburgh Film Festival kicks off!

We’ve just been sent the full line-up for the 2012 Edinburgh Film Festival which is now in it’s 66th year. We have our people (Jamie, Steven and Emma) on the ground at the event right now ready to catch as many films as they possible can throughout the next wee or two as we get to see 121 new features and 19 world premieres.

I’ll let the full press release below do the talking but let us know what you’re looking forward to in the comments section below.

World Premieres:

Berberian Sound Studio Borrowed Time Day Of The Flowers Exit Elena Flying Blind Fred Future My Love Guinea Pigs Here, Then Leave It On The Track The Life And Times Of Paul The Psychic Octopus Life Just Is Mnl...

The full programme for the 66th edition of the Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff), which runs from 20 June to 1 July, has been officially announced and will feature nineteen World premieres and thirteen International premieres.

The Festival will showcase one hundred and twenty-one new features from fifty-two countries, including eleven European premieres and seventy-six UK premieres in addition to the World and International premieres. Highlights include the World premieres of Richard Ledes’ Fred; Nathan Silver’s Exit Elena and Benjamin Pascoe’s Leave It On The Track and European premieres of Lu Sheng’s Here, There and Yang Jung-ho’s Mirage in the maiden New Perspectives section; and the International premiere of Benicio Del Toro, Pablo Trapero, Julio Medem, Elia Suleiman, Gaspar Noé, Juan Carlos Tabio and Laurent Cantet’s 7 Days In Havana and the European premiere of Bobcat Goldthwait’s God Bless America in the Directors’ Showcase. In addition to the new features presented,...

Jean Dujardin kissing Oscar statuette Best Actor Oscar winner Jean Dujardin kisses his Oscar statuette at the Governors Ball 2012. For his performance as a fading silent-film star in Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist, Dujardin became the first Frenchman to win an Oscar in the acting categories: Charles Boyer, Maurice Chevalier, and Gérard Depardieu had all been nominated before, but none of them had ever won. (Photo: © A.M.P.A.S.) The list of Frenchwomen who either won or were nominated for Oscars in the acting categories is much more extensive. The French-born, American-raised Claudette Colbert was the Best Actress of 1934 for Frank Capra's comedy It Happened One Night. The other French Best Actress Oscar winners are Simone Signoret for Jack Clayton's 1959 British drama Room at the Top and Marion Cotillard for Olivier Dahan's French-language Edith Piaf biopic La Vie en Rose. Additionally, Juliette Binoche was a...

The unofficial theme of the 2012 awards season could be "Vive la France," with the French-helmed "The Artist" picking up dozens of awards and going into Oscar night with 10 nominations, second only to 11 nods for "Hugo."

The movie has picked up wins for director Michel Hazanavicius and leading man Jean Dujardin at the BAFTAs, Critics Choice, Directors Guild and Screen Actors Guild Awards, as well as a multitude of trophies for the film, its score, art direction, editing and costumes. It's not just picking up steam, it's a veritable awards locomotive.

Also Check Out: 2012 Oscar Predictions

With "The Artist" positioned so strongly for the Academy Awards, and its key players, including nominated costar Bérénice Bejo, being French (even though the film was shot entirely in Los Angeles, where it is set during the dawn of the talkies), we decided to take a look at the roster of other French talent that...

Mostly a Paramount star, Claudette Colbert hasn't been a frequent presence on Turner Classic Movies — that is, apart from reruns of her relatively few movies at MGM, Warner Bros., and Rko. Unfortunately, TCM's "Summer Under the Stars" day dedicated to Colbert — Friday, August 12 — won't rectify that glaring cinematic omission. [Claudette Colbert Movie Schedule.] Despite the fact that dozens of Claudette Colbert movies remain unavailable — thanks to Universal, owner of the old Paramount movie library — TCM is only presenting one Colbert premiere, Ken Annakin's British-made 1952 drama The Planter's Wife / Outpost in Malaya, co-starring Jack Hawkins. Of course, one rarely seen movie is better than none, but still… Think The Wiser Sex, The Lady Lies, Manslaughter, Young Man of Manhattan, The Phantom President (in case it's lying in some vault somewhere), The Man from Yesterday, Misleading Lady, His Woman, Zaza, Secrets of a Secretary, I Met Him in Paris, Texas Lady, Practically Yours, Skylark, Private Worlds,...

Eb White's classic is a fine example of literature helping children deal with death. So why couldn't I use it in my new play?

There's a heart-wrenching scene in Eb White's much-loved book, Charlotte's Web, where Charlotte (a spider) tells Wilbur (a pig) that she's going to die. I wish I could quote it. But, after having the fear of God struck into me by the American lawyers who control the rights to the book, I daren't even paraphrase it.

When I started writing my new play, Notes to Future Self, I had no idea what a sticky, tangled web I'd find myself in.

The play was a commission by Birmingham Rep which would, under the auspices of the Barry Jackson Trust, tour schools and community centres as well as theatres. I knew from the start that I wanted to try to write something similar to the books and films I'd loved when growing up.