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Monday, March 15
Midnight-1:30AM, TCM: THE MAGICIAN, 79m.
This week's Silent Sunday is a 1926 Rex Ingram drama: "A devil worshiper tries to seduce a young innocent." SOLD! Paul Wegener, Ivan Petrovitch and Alice Terry star.
4:15AM-6AM, TCM: BRUTE FORCE, 98m.
A postwar Jules Dassin thriller about some convicts preparing to smash their way off the drain-pipe detail and on to freedom. Burt Lancaster [in, I think, his feature-film debut], Vince Barnett and Hume Cronyn star.
6AM-8AM, FMC: NIGHTMARE ALLEY, 110m.
Tyrone Power, getting ground into the dirt and then ground even further! Joan Blondell, being so lovely you'll want to punch yourself in the face after a while! Edmund Goulding, in a once-in-a-lifetime performance as a director! George Jessel, earning a producer credit in his filmography guaranteed to trigger generations of double-takes to come! Circus Noir Overdrive!
8PM-10:15PM, TCM: BOOM TOWN, 119m.
I'm often surprised to see that Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy didn't really make that many movies together; they had an exciting, engaging chemistry. Hedy Lamarr and Claudette Colbert co-star under direction by Jack Conway.
10PM-Midnight, SHO2: SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING "Edwin Valero vs. Antonio DeMarco"
Edwin Valero's American-television coming-out party. It's a terrible idea for him to move up in weight as fast as he can when he's still a young man and one hell of a banger as a lightweight. [Reairs on the 15th at 10PM.]
10:15PM-12:15AM, TCM: THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER, 118m.
Warner Bros. workhorses William Keighley & Laird Doyle's adaptation of the Mark Twain novel. The Mauch twins star, with support from Errol Flynn and Claude Rains.
10:30PM-12:10AM, IFC: KURT COBAIN: ABOUT A SON, 96m.
The most attractive aspect of this particular recounting of Cobain's story is that he narrates it himself via a cache of interview recordings. [Reairs on the 20th at 8PM and on the 21st at 4AM.]
11PM-12:30AM, Sun: ALICE NEEL, 83m.
Andrew Neel assembled a fascinating, appropriately frustrating profile of his grandmother, the late great portrait painter Alice Neel. [Replays at 4:40AM.]
Tuesday, March 16
12:15AM-2:15AM, IFC: THE CROSSING GUARD, 120m.
Sean Penn's sophomore outing as a writer/director stars Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston as parents of a child killed by a drunk-driving David Morse. I'm not wild about Penn's Cassavettes pastiches -- Penn seems to see Cassavettes' more unfortunate habits as his most admirable traits -- but I could watch the scene where Nicholson dismissively manhandles Robbie Robertson over and over. [Reairs on the 24th at 6PM.]
2AM-4AM, FMC: MILLER'S CROSSING, 115m.
The Coen's finest, so I've been told. It's my favorite, but I'm a soft touch for Gabriel Byrne and Marcia Gay Harden. John Turturro, Jon Polito and Albert Finney co-star.
5:20AM-9:15PM, Indie: ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA, 229m.
One of the few four-hour films that can [or should] easily sell you on sitting for the whole thing with just a thumbnail description: "Sergio Leone's GODFATHER, but Jewish." I wonder if the stories that Leone's rough cut was eight to ten hours long are true, and if that footage still exists if it ever did; there's a TV miniseries that would still rake in eyeballs 25 years later. Robert De Niro heads a hugh cast featuring Joe Pesci, Burt Ward [at long last, both greasy sidekicks in the same movie], James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Danny Aiello, Tuesday Weld, Treat Williams, William Forsythe, et al. with Jennifer Connelly making her film debut. [Reairs at 5:05PM, and the 27th at 5:45AM and 3:25PM.]
6:30AM-8AM, Sun: LYNCH, 84m.
Soren Larsen's portrait of David Lynch, made during his making of INLAND EMPIRE. [Reairs at 11:30AM and 4:20PM.]
7:30AM-8:45AM, TCM: THE BIG TIMER, 72m.
Yeah, it's a boxing movie, but I'm interested to see more of Thelma Todd. Ben Lyon and Constance Cummings co-star under Edward Buzzell's direction.
7:45AM-9:30AM, IFC: SHATTERED GLASS, 94m.
I guess Hayden Christensen has officially been typecast as the go-to guy for whiney, ineffectual protagonists now. I'm a soft touch for journalist movies, and it's sort of fun to watch Anakin Skywalker struggle to not be outacted by the far-stronger ensemble of actors around him, especially understatement-maker supreme Peter Sarsgaard and Steve Zahn's irrepressible scene bandit. [Reairs at 1:05PM, 5:40AM, 7:35AM and 4:20PM.]
8:45AM-10AM, TCM: THE MIND READER, 70m.
10AM-11:30AM, TCM: THE CLAIRVOYANT, 81m.
A pair of early '30s fake-psychic potboilers: The former features Warren William, Constance Cummings and Allen Jenkins under director Roy Del Ruth; the latter can boast of stars Claude Rains, Fay Wray and Jane Baxter, with Maurice Elvey directing.
10AM-11:45AM, FMC: THE MARK OF ZORRO, 94m.
An enjoyable romantic adventure from the team of director Rouben Mamoulian and stars Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell. [Reairs on the 28th at 10AM.]
11:30AM-1PM, TCM: THE LAVENDER HILL MOB, 81m.
Another fine Alec Guinness heist movie. Stanley Holloway and Sidney James co-star.
1PM-4PM, TCM: THE GREAT ESCAPE, 172m.
You know you love John Sturges' international all-star WWII POW epic. James Garner, Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, et al co-star.
3:30PM-5:45PM, FMC: HOW TO STEAL A MILLION, 123m.
William Wyler! Audrey Hepburn! Hugh Griffith! Peter O'Toole! Charles Boyer! Eli Wallach!
8PM-10PM, H: SAMURAI
History Channel documentary about the Japanese warriors and the great 16th-century master Miyamoto Musashi in particular. [Reairs at 12:01AM and on the 20th at 5PM.]
8PM-10:45PM, TCM: THE BAD SLEEP WELL, 151m.
10:45PM-1:15AM, TCM: HIGH AND LOW, 143m.
The celebration of Akira Kurosawa's centennial continues with this double feature of early '60s urban dramas. The scenes in LOW's "High" half may been the best acting in Kurosawa's entire oeuvre. Toshiro Mifune and Kyoko Kagawa star in both.
10PM-11:30PM, Sun: KEANE, 90m.
Lodge Kerrigan and Damian Lewis present a jittery first-person perspective of a man stumbling down the line between mental illness and outright insanity. Amy Ryan and Abigail Breslin co-star. [Reairs at 3AM and 6:20PM.
10PM-Midnight, SHOFamily: BUD GREENSPAN'S KINGS OF THE RING: FOUR LEGENDS OF HEAVYWEIGHT BOXING
A stately collection of profiles of Jack Johnson, Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali. [Reairs at 4:20AM.]
10:30PM-12:15AM, IFC: RADIOHEAD: MEETING PEOPLE IS EASY, 98m.
Grant Gee's portrait of the band during the recording of OK COMPUTER and subsequent world tour. SPOILER: Life in Radiohead is nothing like being a member of Van Halen. END SPOILER. [Reairs on the 28th at 2PM.]
Wednesday, March 17
1:15AM-4:30AM, TCM: RED BEARD, 185m.
The Kurosawa marathon continues with this medical epic starring Mifune, Yuzo Kayama and Yoshio Tsuchiya.
4:30AM-6:15AM, TCM: I LIVE IN FEAR, 103m.
I'm not thrilled that Turner has been burying A.K.'s non-action dramas in the schedule graveyard, but I shouldn't complain as FEAR is one of his least-seen '50s films. A great character study and meditation on the fear of nuclear annihilation -- not exactly as crowd-pleasing as GOJIRA, made around the same time -- starring Kamatari Fujiwara, Kazuo Kato and Mifune.
6:15AM-8AM, TCM: SCANDAL, 105m.
A 1950 drama that Kurosawa used as a vehicle to ponder tabloid journalism and fame. Stars Yoko Katsuragi, Mifune and Noriko Sengoku.
7:15AM-8:45AM, IFC: CHAN IS MISSING, 80m.
Wayne Wang's movies improve as his budgets shrink; this shaggy, ambling illustration of a community has a nominal plot -- two Chinatown cabbies look for Chan, the guy who ripped them off -- and tons of character[s]. Wang's the filmmaker who one-upped a Paul Auster script by making an improv film [BLUE IN THE FACE] between takes on SMOKE, right? [Reairs at 1:35PM.]
10:30AM-Noon, HBO: ASSAULT IN THE RING, 83m.
A truly gripping, admirably nuanced look at the controversial 1983 Luis Resto-Billy Collins boxing match, and the many lives it destroyed. Eric Drath raised the bar on sports documentary-making, and HBO Sports deserves props for not shying away from presenting a candid and honest look at the shady aspects of its centerpiece sport.
8:30AM-10:25AM, Indie: NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR, 113m.
It's strange how this movie … well, it rarely pops up at all in conversations, but I was going to say that it's strange that it rarely pops up in discussions of artistically successful film adaptations of novels. There's really nothing you could add or subtract from it to improve it, is there? The sets are the right kind of squalid futurism, the script doesn't whitewash the more horrifying ideas in Orwell's book and the casting couldn't be better -- John Hurt was the perfect choice for Winston Smith; Richard Burton made an ideal O'Brien and Suzanna Hamilton's Julia is the right mix of heartless and sensual. Michael Radford, we salute you. [Reairs at 4:45PM, and on the 26th at 4:10AM and 3:30PM, then on the 30th at 4:10AM and 3:20PM.]
9:25AM-10:15AM, Sun: A SKIN TOO FEW: THE DAYS OF NICK DRAKE, 48m.
Jeroen Berkvens's documentary about the late singer-songwriter is wispy but solid, just like a good Nick Drake song. [Reairs on the 29th at 11PM and the 30th at 4:20AM.]
2:30PM-4PM, TCM: PEG O' MY HEART, 87m.
Normally the phrase "spunky Irish girl" and a title like this are more than enough to get me to purge it all from my memory, but it's a [presumably talkie] Robert Z. Leonard movie starring Marion Davies. Praying that it's a comedy.
6PM-, FMC: CLAUDINE,
John Barry is a fascinating case -- a Mercury Theatre alumnus, blacklisted in the 1950s, etc. -- CLAUDINE may not be a JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN or a SALT OF THE EARTH, but it's a remarkable achievement from a director who strove for something more than genre crowd-pleasing. [Reairs on the 25th at 4:15AM.]
8PM-9:45PM, Sun: THAT OBSCURE OBJECT OF DESIRE, 104m.
Luis Bunuel's final movie. Fernando Rey stars as man in love with his maid, as played by Angela Molina and Carole Bouquet; sexy funny times ensue. [Reairs at 3AM.]
11PM-1:05PM, Sun: RESCUE DAWN, 125m.
Werner Herzog dramatizes his documentary LITTLE DIETER NEEDS TO FLY as a Hollywood P.O.W.-escape movie. I'm not a big fan of this one but it's fascinating to compare the doc to the drama. The most crackling action in DAWN isn't between the prisoners and the Laotian guards but between century-class character actors Steve Zahn and Jeremy Davies as they bulldoze star Christian Bale in their twitching battle to steal the most scenes. [Reairs at 4:45AM, on the 24th at 1AM and on the 29th at 12:05AM.]
Thursday, March 18
Midnight-2:45AM, Sun: A CHRISTMAS TALE, 152m.
A Christmas family comedy [sorta] from Arnaud Desplechin,
Catherine Deneuve and Jean-Paul Roussillon? I'm sold, but why show an Xmas movie in March? Mathieu Amalric and Emmanuelle Devos costar. [Reairs on the 28th at 5:50PM and on the 29th at 4:05AM.]
6AM-8AM, FMC: THE SHERIFF OF FRACTURED JAW, 103m.
A late model, uncharacteristic Raoul Walsh Western, starring Kenneth More, Jayne Mansfield and Connie Francis as Mansfield's singing voice for one of those insipid but undeniably memorable theme songs that you normally have to hire Rod McKuen to write.
7AM-9:45AM, Sun: THE YACOUBIAN BUILDING, 165m.
A recent Egyptian metaphorical epic about the inhabitants of a run-down Cairo apartment building. [Reairs at 2PM, on the 23rd at 6:15AM and 1:35PM and on the 31st at 7:30AM and 2PM.]
8AM-10AM, FMC: O. HENRY'S FULL HOUSE, 117m.
I've not been very into Fox's mid-'50s line of multi-unit anthology movies, but a cycle of short films based on O. Henry's short stories was a natural. I thought it was weird that, of Jean Negulesco, Henry Hathaway, Howard Hawks, Henry King and Henry Koster, Hawks' segment was widely cited by critics as the weakest and was actually cut by the producers before the film received a wide release. Then I saw the film; Hawks' yarn about two city-slicker crooks [Fred Allen and Oscar Levant, no less] getting more than they bargained for when they kidnap a hayseed child is solid, but it's out of place in an anthology of Henry's urban fables. [The Hawks piece was restored when the film was first syndicated in the '60s, probably more to help fill a time slot than out of any aesthetic consideration.]
9:45AM-11:30AM, Sun: METROPOLITAN, 98m.
Whit Stillman's debut as a writer-director, a Wilde-esque comedy of manners and another fine movie that makes you love Christopher Eigeman at the same time you want to punch his character in the mouth. Edward Clements co-stars. [Reairs at 4:45PM and on the 27th at 8:15AM.]
3PM-5PM, FMC: H.E.A.L.T.H., 105m.
In the abstract, this should be fantastic: A ensemble comedy about a health-food convention by Robert Altman in his prime, with a cast boasting of James Garner, Carol Burnett, Alfre Woodard, Lauren Bacall, Paul Dooley, Donald Moffat, Henry Gibson, Dick Cavett, Dinah Shore, et al. It was better than I remembered -- saggy and directionless -- but it doesn't have a puncher's chance at surpassing your expectations. FYI: I understand that securing the rights to show the many real-world health-food logos and references may prove too difficult for the film to ever see a commercial DVD release any time soon.
4:45PM-6PM, TCM: DOWN TO EARTH, 101m.
I'm a sucker for a dancing Rita Hayworth movie. Larry Parks and James Gleason co-star under direction by Alexander Hall.
5PM-6:30PM, FMC: SILENT MOVIE, 87m.
Mel Brooks assembles his crew -- Marty Feldman, Dom DeLuise, Sid Caesar, Ron Carey and Bernadette Peters this time -- and gives silent cinema the business. [Reairs on the 23rd at 1:15AM and 4:30AM.]
6:30PM-8:05PM, FMC:THE ADVENTURE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES' SMARTER BROTHER, 91m.
If you squint, this movie could look like a lost mid-'70s Mel Brooks film; Gene Wilder wrote the screenplay and stars with Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman, Leo McKern and Dom Deluise in this specifically sub-genre specific spoof, complete the inspired Brooksian stunt-casting of Leo McKern as Professor Moriarty. But Wilder also directed the film and showed that he is no borscht-belt fartypants like his one-time mentor, producing a far more adult piece of silliness than YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN or HIGH ANXIETY.
8PM-10PM, TCM: MY DARLING CLEMENTINE, 97m.
John Ford's gorgeous take on Wyatt Earp's battle with the Clantons. Henry Fonda, Victor Mature and Walter Brennan star.
10PM-12:15AM, TCM: GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL, 123m.
John Sturges' epic take on Wyatt Earp's battle with the Clantons. Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas and Jo Van Fleet star.
10:30PM-, IFC: loudQUIETloud: A FILM ABOUT THE PIXIES, 85m.
The new gold standard in concert-tour documentaries, and I'm not even that big a Pixies fan. I could do with more Kim Deal not being recognized by checkout clerks and less Black Francis manmories, though.
Friday, March 19
Midnight-1:45AM, IFC: THE COOLER, 103m.
Wayne Kramer's romantic drama about a professional cooler, an unlucky man hired by casinos to somehow rub some of their unluckiness on the high-rolling gamblers in their joint. This sounds too stupidly superstitious to not be real. William H. Macy stars, with Alec Baldwin, Ron Livingston and Maria Bello -- again, does Bello plays every waitress/whore in every movie made in Las Vegas, or does it just seem that way? -- with cameos from Joey Fatone and Paul Sorvino as lounge singers. It's that kind of indie film. [Reairs on the 30th at Midnight.]
Midnight-2AM, FMC, THE VAN, 100m.
The final part of Roddy Doyle's "Barrytown Trilogy," [following THE COMMITMENTS and THE SNAPPER] is a more straightforward comedy about two goofs deciding to make their living selling fish & chips out of a van. Colm Meaney and Donal O'Kelly star, and Stephen Frears directs from Doyle's screenplay adaptation of his novel.
12:15AM-2AM, TCM: HOUR OF THE GUN, 101m.
John Sturges' actorly sequel to Wyatt Earp's battle with the Clantons. James Garner, Jason Robards, Jr. and Robert Ryan star.
2AM-3:30AM, TCM: MASTERSON OF KANSAS, 72m.
William Castle's programmer take on Bat Masterson joining Wyatt Earp's battle with the Clantons. George Montgomery, Nancy Gates and James Griffith star.
6:35AM-8:35AM, Sun: NIGHTS OF CABIRIA, 118m.
It's startling and enchanting how late-period Chaplinesque this this early Fellini film is; the film even looks like a sound-era Chaplin in its grain. Giulietta Masina stars, with Amadeo Nazzari. [Reairs at 1:30PM, on the 25th at 6PM and on the 26th at 5:15AM and 12:30PM.]
8:35AM-10:30AM, Sun: THE HOME SONG STORIES, 103m.
Tony Ayres wrote and directed this semi-autobiographical, appropriately meandering movie about his desperately materialistic single-mother [Joan Chen], his sister and their ever-shifting home life. I still haven't actually Googled it yet to confirm, but the idea that Joan Chen's not only a protege of Chairman Mao's wife, but may also still be pro-Cultural Revolution even now has made her much less bonerific in my eyes. Eye. Whether that's true or not, my penis and its two closest advisers in the Gang of Three have already denounced me for being Counter-Revolutionary. Still, Chen is compelling in this film, letting the viewer in on everything she's feeling except, in key points, whatever the thoughts are every mother clearly hides from her children. [Reairs at 3:30PM and on the 23rd at 9AM and 4:20PM.]
Noon-2PM, FMC: BANDOLERO!, 106m.
You would think that Dean Martin would be a bad fit for Westerns, but he's often the best part of the ones he's in -- even RIO BRAVO wouldn't be as great without Dino. BANDOLERO! is no BRAVO but it can sit proudly next to THE PROFESSIONALS, which shares a lot of the same tropes and possibly a few character actors, and the better late '60s light Westerns. The scene where Dean and Jimmy Stewart talk about what Indians there are in Montana should be a classic, but it might rely too much on context to appreciate. Raquel Welch, Will Geer, Andrew Prine and George Kennedy co-star, Andrew V. Mclaglen directs from James Lee Barrett's screenplay based on Stanley Hough's story.
3:33PM- , FMC: THE DETECTIVE, 114m.
I really can't tell these "Tony Rome" movies apart, but they're good potsimmerers. I think this is the one where he plays Rome with a different name, and the film ends with Sinatra admiring Lee Remick's ass as she walks away. Class. Features supporting acting from a small army of solid character actors, including Jack Klugman, Lloyd Bochner, Ralph Meeker, William Windom, Tony Musante and Robert Duvall, and a bit part from Sugar Ray Robinson. Gordon Douglas directs from Abby Mann's screenplay based on Roderick Thorp's novel.
6:05PM-7:50PM, IFC: INTERMISSION, 102m.
John Crowley made his debut as a director with this clever early '00s ensemble crime movie. Not nearly an Irish Altman movie but far less annoying and self-important as the Sandra Bullock CRASH. Colin Farrell, Colm Meaney, Cillian Murphy, Kelly MacDonald [does anyone else remember when she was going to become the next Winona Ryder?] Michael McElhatton, David Wilmot, Brian F. O'Byrne and Shirley Henderson star. [Reairs at 2:10AM.]
7PM-10PM, ESPN2: CLASSIC BOXING "Mike Tyson"
A block of Iron Mike fights: First, the 1986 three-rounder against Steve Zouski, followed by the James "Quick" Tillis fight, which took Tyson into deep waters for his first judges-decision win, then Tyson becomes the youngest heavyweight champion ever by destroying Trevor Berbick in two rounds. At 9PM, they're showing the 1990 Tyson vs. James "Buster" Douglas upset, because we can't see this and Ali vs. Foreman often enough.
8PM-10PM, TCM: THE BROWNING VERSION, 90m.
10PM-Midnight, TCM: GOODBYE MR. CHIPS, 114m.
An unhappy-teacher double feature. For some deranged reason, I always thought that BROWNING was a biopic about the man who perfected the machine gun. Apparently, it's a British film about a soon-to-retire schoolteacher struggling to find meaning to his life. I assume there will be a lot less gunfire in this film than I expected. Michael Redgrave, Jean Kent and Nigel Patrick star under Anthony Asquith's direction. CHIPS is a more cheerful American story starring the mighty Robert Donat, with Greer Garson and Paul Henreid and direction by Sam Wood.
10PM-11PM, SHO2: SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING "Israel Vazquez vs. Rafael Marquez I & II"
11PM-1AM, SHO: SHOBOX: THE NEW GENERATION
Just a nice little night at the fights, spanned across two channels: a rerun of the first two of the Marquez-Vazquez wars, followed by a new fight card on the main channel featuring boxers with names you probably kinda sorta recognize. [SHOBOX reairs on SHO2 at 1AM.]
10PM-Midnight, ESPN2: FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS
Light-middleweights Deandre Latimore and Sechew Powell headline another card of live boxing. [Reairs Sunday at 1AM.]
10:30PM-12:35AM, IFC: JOE STRUMMER: THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN, 123m.
Julien Temple's 2007 documentary on the already iconic late musician and activist.
Saturday, March 20
12:35AM-2:10AM, IFC: KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS, 94m.
William Shatner fights thousands of hungry spiders. I've seen the movie twice, and I still can't tell you who won. It's nice that IFC and indie douchebags have finally embraced drive-in movies as part of the independent-film scene/history, even if it took Tarantino and Rodriguez's pretentious faux-grindhouse double-feature a few years ago.
2AM-3:30AM, TCM: KITTEN WITH A WHIP, 83m.
Delinquent Ann-Margret escapes from a 1964 reform school and holds a politician hostage. How good could it be? John Forsythe and Peter Brown co-star under Douglas Heyes' direction
3:30AM-5:15AM, TCM: CAGED, 97m.
The ladies continue to go crazy on Turner Classic Movies: Eleanor Parker stars as an innocent trapped in a women's prison. Agnes Moorehead [total Bull] and Hope Emerson co-star under John Cromwell's direction.
5:15AM-5:38AM, TCM Short: BOOKED FOR SAFEKEEPING, 32m.
I saw this training film a while ago, but I remember being surprised by how not-totally awful the police were trained to be to the mentally ill that they encountered in 1960. These days, of course, the cops have no choice but to taser first and ask questions later if the tased survive.
6AM- , BACHELOR FLAT, 91 or 88m.
ALL HAIL FRANK TASHLIN! TASHLIN IS THE WAY AND THE LIGHT!! A 1962 comedy starring Tuesday Weld, with Terry-Thomas in the sexually-put-upon leading-man role that actors like Dick Powell and Tom Ewell filled in Tash's '50s films? What more could you want? Richard Beymer and Celeste Holm co-star. [Reairs at 2PM.]
6AM-8:30AM, TCM: DESTINATION TOKYO, 135m.
I don't hope for much from this wartime Delmer Davies-made submarine movie except lots of scenes with Cary Grant and John Garfield playing off each other.
8:30AM-10:30AM, TCM: KISS ME DEADLY, 106m.
I'm working on a time machine solely so that I can pluck Robert Aldrich and his team out of 1955 to record a commentary track for this movie. Ralph Meeker, Cloris Leachman and Albert Dekker star.
8:30AM-10AM, Sun: ERASERHEAD, 85m.
David Lynch's debut feature film. It's a classic. I haven't seen it. Chinga tu madre, cineastehole. [Reairs at 4PM, on the 24th at 10:30PM, on the 25th at 5:45AM and on the 29th at 11:50PM.]
Noon-2PM, TCM: THE OUTLAW, 116m.
It's hard to tell, but I suspect that producer/director Howard Hughes kinda had a thing for Jane Russell. Maybe. Jack Beutel and Walter Huston co-star.
2PM-4:15PM, TCM: STALAG 17, 120m.
Billy Wilder's WWII P.O.W. film. Stars William Holden, Don Taylor and Otto Preminger.
4:15PM-6PM, TCM: 12 ANGRY MEN, 96m.
Is this the legal drama that made Sidney Lumet the go-to guy for legal dramas? Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb and E.G. Marshall star.
6PM-8PM, TCM: SPELLBOUND, 111m.
Not nearly as sexy as NOTORIOUS and Hitchcock's presentation of psychiatry is about as realistic as the clouds in ROPE, but Gregory Peck made an interesting leading man in a Hitch movie because he's the wrong man to play "The Wrong Man". Ingrid Bergman and Michael Chekhov co-star.
7:30PM-9PM, Sun: NEAL CASSADY, 80m.
I don't recognize writer/director Noah Buschel's name and I'm leery of the idea of Tate Donovan playing the title role, but I love stories about the creative-arts equivalent of the Pretty Girl's Best Friend. [See also: Joe Ancis, Noel Sickles, John Houseman.] [Reairs at 2:15AM and on the 25th at 11PM.]
8PM-10PM, FMC: THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, 100m.
It's so weird to think that this movie was once considered a terrible movie -- it's no CITIZEN KANE, but it's certainly better than any other movie that has any combination of "ROCKY" "HORROR" and "PICTURE SHOW" and a respectable number of movies that have a "THE" in the title -- I imagine largely because it was a flop. [Someday, probably after some real entertainment company properly releases it on DVD so it can finally connect with its audience, lazy-minded morons will stop making jokes about ISHTAR; the movie's a bit of a mess, but it's smart and funny.] Richard O'Brien and Jim Sharman, with Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Tim Curry, Patricia Quinn, Nell Campbell, Meat Loaf and the older guys who played Dr. Scott and the Criminologist, we salute you. [Reairs at 10PM and Midnight.]
8PM-Midnight, TCM: LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, 227m.
Saturday's alright for a David Lean epic. Or not. Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif and Alec Guinness star.
8PM-9:45AM, IFC: KURT COBAIN: ABOUT A SON, 96m.
The most attractive aspect of this particular recounting of Cobain's story is that he narrates it himself via a cache of interview recordings. [Reairs at 4AM.]
10PM-12:30AM, Sun: THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH, 139m.
The mid-'60s to mid-'70s were a golden age for speculative-fiction movies. This Nicolas Roeg-David Bowie-Rip Torn-led fable is one of my favorites of that cycle, and not just because it was the first time I saw a woman peeing. [Reairs at 3:45AM.]
Sunday, March 21
12:15AM-2:15AM, IFC: THE CHANGELING, 114m.
I don't know much about horror movies, but it certainly looks to me that this Peter Medak and George C. Scott collaboration [a heartbroken music professor/composer suspects that his new cottage in the woods is haunted by the ghost of a boy] was a bigger influence on the last few waves of Asian supernatural horror movies than anything else going on in the West circa 1980.
7:15AM-8:45AM, FMC: THE BLACK SWAN, 87m.
Tyrone Power! Maureen O'Hara! Anthony Quinn! Pirates! Technicolor!
10AM-Noon, TCM: MIDNIGHT, 94m.
Noon-2PM, TCM: THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK, 112m.
There are probably more than a few reasons why these movies never pop up in the endless discussions about how 1939 was the Greatest Year Ever in The Golden Age Of Hollywood. In MIDNIGHT, Claudette Colbert stars as an unemployed showgirl sent on a secret mission to Paris disguised as Hungarian royalty. Eek. Don Ameche and what was left of John Barrymore co-star under Mitchell Leisen's direction. MASK is a James Whale adaptation of the Three Musketeers story, starring Louis Hayward, Joan Bennett and Warren William.
1PM- FMC: THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT, 99m.
Frank Tashlin brings his animated-cartoon chops to live-action film. Lurid full-color in Cinemascope, and performances from Fats Domino, Eddie Cochran, Little Richard, Gene Vincent & His Blue Caps and The Platters. Also, Jayne Mansfield's tits. There's an entire universe of a life lived in Tashlin's comment, "There's nothing in the world to me that's funnier than big breasts." Tom Ewell and Edmond O'Brien co-star. [Reairs on the 24th at 10AM.]
2:45PM-4:15PM, FMC: HIGH ANXIETY, 94m.
Mel Brooks does Alfred Hitchcock. Did he ever make a movie with Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman and Bernadette Peters? [Reairs on the 23rd at 2:45AM and on the 24 at 4PM.]
4:30PM-6:30PM, FMC: OUR MAN FLINT, 108m.
When no one's looking, I try to rewrite film histories to claim this 1966 James Coburn vehicle as a remake of ALPHAVILLE.
6PM-8PM, TCM: BORN YESTERDAY, 102m.
Judy Holliday! Broderick Crawford! William Holden! George Cukor!
6:15PM-8PM, IFC: ROBOCOP, 103m.
If you don't love Paul Verhoeven and this movie, preferably for reasons entirely different from the reasons you had on the first viewing, then we can't be friends. [One perennial reason for loving ROBOCOP: "Bitches, leave."] Peter Weller, Miguel Ferrer and Kirkwood Smith star. [Reairs at 1AM.]
7PM-9PM, Sun: LET'S GET LOST, 120m.
Everyone should see Bruce Weber's iconic profile of cool-jazz trumpeter/singer Chet Baker at least once; Sundance has scheduled it to air often enough this month that everyone will. [Reairs at 6:35AM and 11:55AM, on the 26th at 10:30AM and 5PM and on the 31st at Noon.]
8PM-10:30 FOX LEGACY: HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY,118m.
John Ford's gentle, elegiac classic about a family of Welsh coal miners beat out CITIZEN KANE, HERE COMES MR. JORDAN, THE LITTLE FOXES, THE MALTESE FALCON, SERGEANT YORK and SUSPICION for the Best Picture Oscar in 1941. I don't know if it deserved it -- the film raked in more Awards for Best Director and Best Supporting Actor, Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography as well as nominations for Best Supporting Actress, Best Film Editing Best Music for a Dramatic Picture, Best Sound Recording and Best Writing -- but it's undoubtedly one of John Ford's, Philip Dunne's, Walter Pidgeon's, Maureen O'Hara's, Donald Crisp's, Sara Allgood's and Roddy McDowall's greatest efforts. Warning: This is a "Fox Legacy" presentation of the movie, so the first 20 minutes or so will be FoxFilm CEO Tom Rothman talking about how awesome the movie and Fox are, so don't lowball the recording time on your TIVO/DVDR/Betamax timer.
8PM-10PM, TCM: THE OUTRAGE, 96m.
10PM-12:15AM, TCM: THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, 128m.
Context is everything; it's kind of cool to air a double-bill of American adaptations of Kurosawa classics [RASHOMON and THE SEVEN SAMURAI, respectively] but it's somewhat uncool to do it in the middle of his 100th-birth month. Or not, I dunno.
9PM-10PM, HBO: THE PACIFIC: Episode Two, 50m.
Part Two of Ten. It's World War II in the Pacific Theatre of Operations. That's all I know, honest. [Reairs on the 23, 24, 26, 27 and 31.]
Monday, March 22
12:15AM-1:30AM, TCM: OUR HOSPITALITY, 73m.
This week's silent Sunday is a 1923 feature from Buster Keaton, who plays a young man caught in the middle of a family feud. Keaton's wife Natalie Talmadge costars.
6:15AM-8AM, TCM: TAKE THE HIGH GROUND!, 101m.
8AM-9:45AM, TCM: FEAR STRIKES OUT, 100m.
A Karl Malden double feature that, no offense to the late Method great, I'm interested in solely because the former is a Richard Brooks-directed Korean War movie made too soon after the War ended to not be bitterly ironic [also, Richard Widmark stars], and the latter stars a young Anthony Perkins before PSYCHO typecast him. Then again, in FEAR, Perkins plays a Major League baseball player on the edge of insanity, but there's probably a lot less mother taxidermy in this movie.
7AM-10AM, FMC: THE BIBLE IN THE BEGINNING …, 174m.
10AM-Noon, FMC: HEAVEN KNOWS, MR. ALLISON, 108m.
A John Huston double-header. First, Huston does the big book in the last film in the first cycle of widescreen Biblical epics. Huston directs, writes and stars as Noah, with George C. Scott as Abraham, Ava Gardner as Sarah, Richard Harris as Cain, Franco Nero as Abel, Peter O'Toole as the Three Angels and Gabriele Ferzetti as Lot. ALLISON teams Huston and Robert Mitchum for a WWII yarn about a Marine and a Roman Catholic nun [Deborah Kerr] being marooned on an island in the South Pacific. John Boorman later remade this elliptical romance as HELL IN THE PACIFIC with Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune, which I'm going to keep claiming until either someone calls me on it or it gets added to both films' Wikipedia entries.
10:15AM-Noon, Sun: HOMETOWN BAGHDAD, 97m.
A collection of the short short Web diaries of three Iraqi youths make for a slice of life in wartime. [Reairs at 3:05PM.]
11:30AM-1:30PM, TCM: ALL FALL DOWN, 110m.
1:30PM-4PM, TCM: BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ, 149m.
A pair of 1962-released films from John Frankenheimer; DOWN is a romance starring young Warren Beatty, Eva Marie Saint and Angela Lansbury. BIRDMAN is the Robert Stroud biopic that starred Burt Lancaster, with Telly Savalas and Thelma Ritter.
Noon-1:35PM, IFC: WORDPLAY, 94m.
Patrick Creadon's examination of the noble crossword puzzle, its history, production and fan culture. Features interviews with Will Shortz, Bob Dole, Ken Burns and Jon Stewart.
4PM-6PM TCM: THE CINCINNATI KID,103m.
A poker version of THE HUSTLER, only Steve McQueen and Edward G. Robinson try to steal scenes by underacting. Ann-Margret co-stars, Norman Jewison directs.
4:45PM-5PM, Sun: NEW BOY, 11m.
A short film from Steph Green and Roddy Doyle about a 9-year-old African boy's first day at an Irish school. [Reairs on March 28 at 5:35PM.]
6PM-8PM, TCM: MURDERERS' ROW, 105m.
The human race lost untold riches and glory when it somehow reached 1970 without a Matt Helm-Derek Flint team-up movie; if memory serves, the closest Dean Martin and James Coburn ever came to sharing the screen together was maybe a Western or a TV roast. This slice of Helm cheese co-stars Ann-Margret and Karl Malden, under the direction of Henry Levin.
8PM-9:30PM, IFC: MONTY PYTHON LIVE AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL, 77m.
[Reairs at 3AM.]
Concert film of the Pythons' last [I presume] live performance with the full troupe: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, with Carol Cleveland and Neil Inness. A last hurrah before Chapman had to be an asshole and die on them.
8PM-10PM TCM: THE BIG SLEEP, 114m.
10PM-11:45PM, TCM: THE MALTESE FALCON, 101m.
Sometimes schedule programming this lazy deeply offends me.
11PM-12:20AM, Sun: A WALK INTO THE SEA: DANNY WILLIAMS AND THE WARHOL FACTORY, 77m.
Whatever happened to Danny Williams? Well, first: Who is Danny Williams? He was a key member of the filmmaking section of Andy Warhol's factory, who reportedly "edited some of Warhol's films and created the revolutionary lighting design for a notable stage show. Additionally, Williams was also Warhol's sometime lover." Williams' niece Esther B. Robinson made this documentary to investigate her uncle's life, work and 1966 disappearance. [Reairs at 4:50AM and 12:15PM.]
And, there's another week.
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