Hammer Films Box Set Being Released by TCM

Hammer Films will be back with a vengeance this fall with the vampire remake Let Me In. And the company just announced its first 3-D film last week, The Woman in Black. But Hammer is a legendary force in horror and monster movies, which has now partnered with Warner Bros. Home Video and Turner Classic Movies for a new DVD box set featuring some of the studio's catalog, due out September 7th.

Actually, TCM has a few "Greatest Classic Film Collection" box sets - Westers, war pictures, Marx Brothers movies, classic horror, sci-fi, Best Picture winners, and so on. And they're all priced to move, retailing at just $19.99. The only bad thing is it's one of those four movies on two discs scenarios, and it's doubtful you'll get much in the way of special features.

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TCM Classic Film Festival Has the Best Posters Ever

The first TCM Classic Film Festival is just a few weeks away. It's a great idea, one that would be even better if it were more affordable. More on that in a moment. First, by all means check out the gorgeous new event posters inspired by some of those moments so classic that we don't even need to see faces to immediately recognize them.

Click any image to enlarge; posters courtesy of IMP Awards Aren't those cool?

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Video - The Wonderful 'TCM Remembers: 2009'

Turner Classic Movies has issued its annual In Memoriam video, remembering members of the film community we lost in 2009. This year, it's set to the tune of "To Live is To Fly" by the great Steve Earle, covering a song by his late mentor, Townes Van Zandt.

These videos are always very tastefully put together, never giving someone more or less attention because of how brightly his or her star might have shone. Actors, of course, are seen in their performances, while writers, directors, composers, and technicians are all captured here in black and white photographs. And the TCM videos are fairly specific about whom they honor - Michael Jackson isn't seen here, even though he did appear in films and provide songs for films at various points in his career. It's a great tribute to some wonderful performers, both active at the time of their passing and already (unfortunately) distant memories to a lot of us.

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TCM Classic Film Festival Coming In April 2010

Given the strength of its television programming, I'd really like to be a part of the first Turner Classic Movies Classic Film Festival, which will be in Los Angeles April 22 - 25. I'll get this out of the way upfront: There is no comparison - zero - between TCM and AMC, which also has "Classics" in its name.

As much as people hated that Ted Turner bought all those old films after the success of TBS and CNN in the 1980s, it's hard to imagine a better representation of the bygone era on mainstream cable than TCM, and it's always worth tuning in a couple times a week to finding something you've never seen. So now there will be a full-on film festival, with more than 50 screening and "appearances by actors, actresses, directors, producers, and other key figures," according to a press release about the event. And that all sounds great, but the prices are...well, let's just say they're real proud of it.

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Great Poster Redesigns for TCM Summer Series

We found this at Rope of Silicon, so we'll gladly give them the credit for steering us to TCM's Summer Under the Stars movie series. TCM is the best movie network around, and in August, every day is devoted to a different star, from Cary Grant to Peter Sellers and from Sinatra to Elvis.

The series will also introduce over three dozen new films to the TCM family, classics that are getting their debut on the network in August. To find out which ones, and to get a full schedule, download this PDF. And with no new network shoes and only a handful of cable series up and running in August, it's a great time to revisit some of these films or see them for the first time. The highlight of the Summer Under the Stars series is this collection of redesigned posters, which includes that gorgeous new take on Jailhouse Rock featured above. Click on any of the images to enlarge them and enjoy.

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