Jan. 1--If it's Thursday, it's a new year for the mailbag . . .

Q: How can someone request or acquire older movies? Like "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" with Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara or "Robin Hood" with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland? These two classics seem to have disappeared. I would like to watch these great movies again sometime.

A: Turner Classic Movies, still the best repository of classic movies shown on TV, has a "Suggest a Movie" page on its Web site (http://www.tcm.tv). Its movie database will also tell you if a title is already available on DVD, how to buy it and whether a telecast is scheduled. The Errol Flynn Adventures of Robin Hood and the Laughton Hunchback are both available on DVD. And TCM plans to show the Laughton Hunchback on Jan. 13.

Other sites you can search for movies include the Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com), which indicates if titles are available in authorized versions, and online retailers like Amazon.com, Moviesunlimited.com and Deepdiscount.com. And I do a lot of online keyword searches through Google and other means.

Unfortunately, I cannot find everything, as the next question and answer indicate.

Q: A number of years ago I saw "Hotel Splendide," a movie starring Daniel Craig and Toni Collette and have been searching ever since for a format that will work on my DVD or video. This, from Yahoo! Movies: "After an absence of five years, Kath, a spirited young sous-chef, returns to the Hotel Splendide in the hope of reconciling with Ronald, the most level-headed of the three siblings who run this spectacularly dilapidated resort on a desolate stretch of English coastline." It is a dark comedy with vivid visuals. Can you help?

A: The movies of Daniel Craig have generated more interest since he became the current James Bond, and some of the older titles are making their way to DVD. Unfortunately, the only authorized copies I found of Hotel Splendide were in overseas DVD formats and may not work in your DVD player. I did see a VHS for sale at http://www.robertsvideos.com but cannot vouch for the source or quality.

Q: After watching "The Shield" since its inception, I was unable to watch the final show. Do you know if it will be rerun or put on DVD? If not, where can I find out how it ended?

A: I am sorry you missed the finale, which ranks among the best endings for a TV series ever. So as not to spoil it for people who still have not watched, let me refer you to my notes and comments in the November 2008 posts in the HeldenFiles Online (http://heldenfels.ohio.com).