Monday, March 1
4:30AM-7:30AM, TCM: LOLITA, 153m.
As far as LOLITA goes, it's not that Peter Sellers was born to play Clare Quilty; it's that Vladimir Nabokov was born to write the character for Sellers to play. Nabokov adapted his novel for the screen with director Stanley Kubrick; James Mason, Shelley Winters and Sue Lyons co-star.
9:15AM-11AM, Sun: A PERFECT CANDIDATE, 105m.
R. J. Cutler and David Van Taylor's documentary about the 1994 Virginian Senatorial race between incumbent Charles Robb and a bizarre motley crew of challengers [which inevitably dwindles to a doesn't-feel-a-shred-of-disgrace Republican candidate Oliver North] presents a remarkable fly-on-a-wall view of North's campaign machinery. I imagine that North's apparatchiks assumed, quite rightly, that they could be as candid as they wanted, since the voters they clearly have contempt for would never actually seek out and watch such a documentary. [Reairs at 3PM.]
10:15 AM-11:50PM, IFC: TAPEHEADS, 93m.
I've still done no research to confirm this, but I'm reasonably sure that everyone who was cool in 1988 is in this movie. [Reairs at 5:20PM, and on the 13th at 8:05AM and 1:50PM.]
Noon-2PM, 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!
Noon-1:05PM, Retro: SHERLOCK HOLMES IN TERROR BY NIGHT, 63m.
Rathbone's Holmes + a priceless diamond + jewel thieves - any patriotic speeches designed to bolster morale, which was a staple of the series up until now = another agreeable 63 minutes of your life spent. [Reairs at 7PM.]
2PM-4PM, FMC: COMPULSION, 103m.
Richard Fleischer did better work in B movies, but this one's worth your time just for Orson Welles' Clarence Darrow character's final remarks near the end of the film. I'd love to believe Welles' claim that he delivered the speech in one uninterrupted take with the aid of an off-camera prompter, but I know too much about his bullshit artistry. Co-stars Dean Stockwell and E.G. Marshall as Leopold and Loeb, or as Loeb and Leopold, I can never tell them apart.
3:20PM-5PM, Retro: 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.
6PM-8PM, 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.
8PM-9:30PM, IFC: MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL, 89m.
We love this movie despite the people who really love this movie. Written by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, under direction by Gilliam and Jones. [Reairs at 3AM.]
8PM-10:10 Retro: THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES,
10:10PM-11:45PM, Retro: THE ADVENTURE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES' SMARTER BROTHER, 91m.
Double feature of '70s takes on the immortal sleuth; We covered BROTHER above. PRIVATE LIFE is writer-director Billy Wilder and actor Robert Stephens' version of Holmes, which I'm looking forward to seeing. Colin Blakely co-stars as Watson, with Christopher Lee as Mycroft.
11:45PM-1:20AM, Retro: LOST IN AMERICA, 91m.
An Albert Brooks movie about middle-aged yuppies getting thrown out of the rat race and into a Winnebago, where they go explore America. Julie Hagerty and Brooks star.
10:15PM-Midnight, TCM: DAYS OF HEAVEN, 94m.
Only Terrence Malick can make you not want to punch Richard Gere in the face. Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard and Linda Manz co-star.
Tuesday, March 2
2AM-4AM, FMC: BARTON FINK, 116m.
Writing movies really will drive you crazy after a while. [Reairs on the 10th at 12:30AM.]
2:30AM-4:30AM, TCM: TOOTSIE, 116m.
A curiously overlooked Larry Gelbart classic -- maybe even cineastes are sick of Dustin Hoffman and/or movies starring men who aren't drag queens dressing as women -- even by me. I guess we'll find out if there's a reason for that soon. Jessica Lange and Teri Garr co-star under direction from Sydney Pollack.
3AM-4AM, ESPNC: CLASSIC BOXING "2006: Joel Casamayor vs. Diego Corrales"
4AM-5AM, ESPNC: CLASSIC BOXING "1952: Jersey Joe Walcott vs. Rocky Marciano"
An odd but fun pair of fights back-to-back; one of the exciting lightweight title fights between the cagey Casamayor and the beast Corrales. Then, a [probably abridged, unless it runs past 5AM] world-heavyweight brawl from the '50s.
3AM-4:15AM, Sun: CARNY
A documentary by Alison Murray about itinerant carnival workers. I'm looking forward to the section about the dental plan most fairground employees get. Also, the face-punching contests.
4:15AM-5:45AM, Sun: SECRECY
A history of the United States' state-secrets policies, presumably starting with its widely accepted starting point with the Supreme Court case "United States v. Reynolds" [a 1948 crash of B-29 airplane in Georgia, which killed nine men]. It's probably more appropriate than we'll ever know that the foundation of this policy of secrecy is a case where the government really was just negligent and hustled to cover its ass.
6:35AM-8:15AM, IFC: BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS, 105m.
Writer/actor/first-time director Stephen Fry adapts Evelyn Waugh's novel VILE BODIES into a fine, witty ensemble period-piece. Stephen Campbell Moore, Emily Mortimer, Peter O'Toole star, Dan Aykroyd, Simon Callow and Stockard Channing cameo. [Reairs at 12:05PM and 5:35PM; on the 12th at 8:40AM and 2:45PM; and on the 27th at 6:30AM and 1:15PM.]
6:45AM-9:25AM, Sun: A CHRISTMAS TALE
A Christmas family comedy [sorta] from Arnaud Desplechin,
Catherine Deneuve and Jean-Paul Roussillon? I'm sold, but why show it in March?
8AM-10:30AM, FMC: BLOOD AND SAND, 125m.
10:30AM-Noon, FMC: THE BLACK SWAN, 87m.
Tyrone Power! Linda Darnell! Rita Hayworth! Rouben Mamoulian! When they were all young-ish! A really young Anthony Quinn! Vicente Blasco Ibanez's novel! Bull fights! Passion! Technicolor! And, for SWAN: Tyrone Power, again! Maureen O'Hara! Quinn, again! Pirates! Even more Technicolor! [SAND reairs on the 12th at 9AM and on the 28th at 7:30AM; SWAN reairs on the 12th at 6AM and on the 21st at 7:15AM.]
9:30AM-11:30AM, TCM: THE MALTESE FALCON, 101m.
I already have this on DVD but I still tune in just to see the scene where Bogie's Sam Spade starts talking about who can be framed for the murders of his partner Archer and the hoods Jacoby and Thursby. It's a hair-raising moment, the kind you rarely see in this sort of entertainment.
10AM-Noon, H: EARTH 2100
Another History Channel documentary about what Earth would probably be like without us. I'm no scientist, but I would guess that it would be just fine. They should license Clarence the Angel's likeness from IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE and computer-animate him as a host for these post-annihilation shows; it's easy to forget that most of the people in George Bailey's life would have been better off if he had never been born. [Reairs at 4PM.]
11AM-12:45PM, 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.
10:15AM-Noon, IFC: CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS, 104m.
I haven't seen this since it came out on VHS; I'm very curious to see how Woody Allen & Alan Alda's four-handed [well, maybe two and a half] middle finger to Larry Gelbart plays out now that he's dead. I didn't know that Alda was imitating him when I saw it, but I remember wondering why Allen seemed to want us to dislike Alda's character when he didn't seem so bad, just a little too glib -- I chalked it up to yet another actor not wanting to be disliked. I'm really hoping that I'm old enough to appreciate the Martin Landau-Anjelica Huston-Jerry Orbach half of the film. It can't be as leaden as I thought, it was me not getting it, right? [Reairs at 3:45PM; on the 13th at 6:20AM, Noon and 5:15PM; and on the 29th at 5:55AM, 11:30AM and 5:15PM.]
11:30AM-1:30PM, TCM: THE SPANISH MAIN, 101m.
Sounds like a solid B-picture Caribbean swashbuckler. Did Maureen O'Hara ever star in a movie where she wasn't a damsel in distress? Paul Henreid and Walter Slezak co-star, Frank Borzage directs.
1:30PM-3:45PM, TCM: THE THREE MUSKETEERS, 126m.
Another unheralded adventure movie I've not seen, but the combination of Gene Kelly's athleticism and a story that requires a lot of sword fights must be entertaining. Lana Turner and June Allyson co-star.
2:30PM-4PM, FMC: SPACE MASTER X-7, 71m.
This sounds like a terrible movie -- a super cheap '50s sci-fi programmer about the invasion of a deadly alien fungus that rusts the very blood in your veins!!!!!1!!!! -- but the idea of Paul Frees playing an antagonistic scientist and a straight [more or less] role for Moe Howard sound too odd to not give the movie a try. [Reairs on the 7th at 8AM.]
5:30PM-6PM, TCM Short: THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG, 30m.
One of the strangest short films in regular rotation on TCM [that doesn't involve dogs stand on their hind legs dressed as humans], this is a reenactment of the famous Civil War battle starring …. no one. Well, Leslie Nielson narrates, but other than him, no one.
6PM-7:45PM, TCM: SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS, 102m.
I've long avoided this movie -- it just sounds like two hours of empty calories -- but I might as well see for myself what a Stanley Donen musical is like without a Gene Kelly. Howard Keel, Jane Powell and Russ Tamblyn star.
7:30PM-9:05PM, HBO: REPORTER, 92m.
I'm hoping this HBO Documentary about Nicholas Kristof, the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning NEW YORK TIMES columnist, will finally place which NY/DC pundit he is firmly in my mind. I can pick Frank Rich's writing and Maureen Dowd's headshots out from the pack, but that's it. [Reairs March 7 at 1:45PM.]
8PM-9PM, CLASSIC BOXING "1988: Buddy McGirt vs. Meldrick Taylor"
It's a shame that Taylor's legacy these days -- at least, what the first thing boxing fans mention if his name comes up -- is him being beat up and eventually stopped by Julio Caesar Chavez. When he was great, he was [or least could have been] the best junior welterweight of our lifetime.
10PM-10:30PM, SHO2: FIGHT CAMP 360: INSIDE THE SUPER SIX WORLD BOXING CLASSIC
Presumably a repeat of the most recent episode, which focuses on Jermaine Taylor's exit from the Classic and the entry of instantly likable, presumably comic-book-nerd Allan Green [dude not only has Jack Kirby's Asgardian Destroyer and his design of Thor's hammer Mjolnir on his left shoulder, he can actually pronounce "Mjolnir" correctly] in Taylor's place. I really hope Green steps up and surprises everyone.
The irony of so much of Arthur Abraham's "scenes" in the episode being of him checking out and getting used to the Agua Caliente Casino's arena [where his fight with Andre Dirrell was scheduled to be held] is too funny for it to be accidental; their match was moved from Rancho Mirage, CA to the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, MI after Dirrell's camp announced he injured his back in training. [Episodes air this week at 10PM.]
10PM-11PM, H: LIFE AFTER PEOPLE "Sky's the Limit"
Locusts black out the Midwest sky! Air Force One explodes! Other things happen theoretically! [Reairs at 2:01AM]
11PM-12AM, H: LIFE AFTER PEOPLE "Waves of Devastation"
Water, water, everywhere; but no one there to drink. [Reairs at 3:01AM]
11PM-1AM, TCM: REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, 111m.
1AM-4:30AM, TCM: GIANT, 201m.
James Dean double feature. It's a shame that CAUSE has been eclipsed as much by the weak imitations that followed it as by the tragic early ends that befell its stars James Dean, Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo. Despite some of the stylization and dated cultural mores in his youth movies, Nicholas Ray consistently found and tapped in those crucial, primal emotional moments of late adolescence. I have yet to make it through GIANT in one sitting, but I'm feeling lucky this time.
Wednesday, March 3
Midnight-1:45AM, IFC: THE PROPHECY, 96m.
So, HIGHLANDER creator Gregory Widen made his directorial debut with a movie starring Christopher Walken as the angel Gabriel, who plans a bloody coup in Heaven, and Eric Stoltz as the angel Simon, who struggles to thwart Gabriel's plan before anyone gets hurt. In Heaven. Moriah Snyder, Elias Koteas and Virginia Madsen co-star. Viggo Mortensen plays Satan. I will be so disappointed if this movie is good. [Reairs on the 26th at 8:45PM.]
2AM-4:28AM, FMC: LUNA
A rare 1979 Bernardo Bertolucci film that Fox claims is "cinematically exciting, yet controversial." I can buy that. Jill Clayburgh and Matthew Barry star, with support from Fred Gwynne.
4:30AM-6AM, TCM: CIMARRON, 148m.
Another late '50s non-Biblical epic I've never made it all the way through in one go. I think I like my Anthony Mann lean and mean. Glenn Ford, Maria Schell and Anne Baxter star.
6AM-8AM, FMC: NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH
An early Carol Reed thriller about a British spy sneaking an inventor and his daughter out of Nazi Germany. Rex Harrison, Margaret Lockwood and Paul Henreid star.
7AM-8:45AM, Sun: THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD, 100m.
Guy Maddin's best. Mark McKinney is a great leading man. [Reairs at 1:00pm and 6:00am]
11:12AM-11:30AM, TCM Short: I WON'T PLAY, 18m.
One of the funnest shorts I've ever seen. G.I. stationed in the Pacific claims to have been a great pianist who's accompanied so many famous singers, but won't play when the guys acquire a piano. They write him off as a bullshitter and rib him mercilessly. One day, one of "his singers" shows up on a USO tour ….
11:30AM-1:30PM, TCM: ADAM'S RIB, 101m.
I missed seeing this one the last time TCM aired it, but I still often ponder the dynamic/formula in the movies Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy made as a team -- unlike some longtime screen couples, Hepburn & Tracy were almost always cast as antagonists. Groucho insulted Margaret Dumont's matron constantly, but it was rare that either character actively worked against the other. Bogie's and Bacall's characters sometimes double-crossed each other but that was business, not personal. But even in movies where they meet-cute, Hepburn & Tracy often have the dynamic of an old, unhappy-so-long-they-don't-know-they're-unhappy married couple. If I remember it well, this is one of the team's best, regardless. Judy Holliday, Tom Ewell and Jean Hagen costar and George Cukor directs from a script by married couple Ruth Gordon & Garson Kanin.
1:30PM-3:30PM, TCM: THE ASPHALT JUNGLE, 112m.
John Huston's finest and most rewatchable movie. That's right, I said it. Sterling Hayden and Louis Calhern star, with memorable support from Marilyn Monroe in the sweet spot of attractiveness between her rough-cut early years and the empty perfection of her prime. Richard Fleischer could have told this story in half the time, Abraham Polonsky could have told it with twice the style and Robert Aldrich could have wrung twice as much character dynamic out of the performances, but only Huston could make a heist movie breathe [or wheeze]. If not for a few Warner Bros.-esque crutches, this movie is truly evergreen.
2:45PM-4:30PM, 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, she's 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.
5:30PM-8PM, HITLER'S SS: PORTRAIT IN EVIL
This sounds promising, albeit a bit long and possibly a mid-'80s TV movie: two German brothers are separated politically as the Nazis come to power. John Shea and Bill Nighy star, with support from Tony Randall, Carroll Baker, Lucy Gutteridge and Jose Ferrer
8PM-9:45PM, Sun: THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE, 101m.
I used to think that I like my Luis Bunuel movies funny, then I discovered that they're all funny. This one probably makes a great double feature with MY DINNER WITH ANDRE. Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, Jean-Pierre Cassel and Stephane Audran
star. [Reairs at 4:15am]
9:45PM-11:50PM, IFC: VOLVER, 121m.
A whimsical family comedy from Pedro Almodóvar, starring Penélope Cruz and Lola Dueñas, with support from Antonio de la Torre, Yohana Cobo, Carmen Maura, Chus Lampreave, Blanca Portillo.
10:15PM-12:15AM, TCM: ALIEN, 117m.
I'm too young to have seen this one when it was new and neither the Jim Cameron sequel nor the second-hand version of the chest-burster scene from SPACEBALLS appealed to me, even at 12 years old. I may skip this airing too; at this point, the haunted-house-in-space movie I imagine for those H.G. Giger designs and a cast of Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, John Hurt et al. is probably better than what Ridley Scott could have gotten on film in 1979.
Thursday, March 4
12:15AM-4AM, TCM: HEAVEN'S GATE, 219m.
At three and a half-plus hours, I assume this is the director's cut. Hubris, thy name is Michael Cimino. This seems to be marathon-length movie week and/or I've been a masochist, even if these movies are worth the effort. Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken and John Hurt star
12:45AM-2:35AM, Sun: THE CIVILIZATION OF MAXWELL BRIGHT, 107m.
Asshole buys a mail-order bride, gets more than he paid for. Indy-movie clumsiness and a few laughs ensue. You have to love any movie that can pull off casting Eric Roberts, Carol Kane and Simon Callow.
4AM-6AM, TCM: DINER, 110m.
Another movie that I've angered friends and strangers by having the sheer gall to have not seen. A part of me will always loathe Barry Levinson for making [a lot of auties' lives harder because of] RAIN MAN, even if he did write SILENT MOVIE and make a remarkably enjoyable Bush-era political documentary, POLIWOOD. But, I understand that this is an influential classic so I might as well see it to know who's stealing what from it. Also, to see what Mickey Rourke originally looked like. Steve Guttenberg, Daniel Stern, Kevin Bacon, Tim Daly, Ellen Barkin and Paul Riser star.
6AM-8AM, FMC: AMERICAN GUERRILLA IN THE PHILIPPINES, 105m.
Even when that pussy MacArthur took off and left the Filipinos high and dry, Tyrone Power stayed behind to help them help themselves … kill as many Japanese invaders as they could. GUERRILLA largely treats the Flips as background to the by-the-numbers war movie going on, but it doesn't outright condescend to them. It's more Lamar Trotti's [who produced the film and wrote the adaptation of Ira Wolfert's novel] movie than director Fritz Lang's, alas, who shows almost none of his usual stylishness nor his usual obsessions -- except maybe his love for secret communication apparatus; once Power and Tom Ewell's characters have an actual goal to achieve -- building a broadcasting network in preparation for Mac's return -- Lang seems to sit up and notice. Micheline Presle, Bob Patten and Tommy Cook co-star.
8AM-10AM, FMC: DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK, 104m.
John Ford's first color film, and his most gorgeous. Henry Fonda! Claudette Colbert! The Revolutionary War! [Reairs on the 31st at 6AM.]
8:30AM-10AM, 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. [Reairs March 17 at 10:30AM.]
10AM-11:35AM, FMC: FIXED BAYONETS, 92m.
One of Samuel Fuller's lesser-known war movies, this Korean War cheapie [made during the war] stars Richard Basehart, Michael O'Shea and Gene Evans as [not that] Sgt. Rock. [Reairs on the 31st at 8AM.]
Noon-2PM, FMC: UNTAMED, 111m.
For some deranged reason, Fox shows this exceptionally wide Cinemascope [2.55] film in pan & scan. It was recorded in quadraphonic sound but I don't have surround sound to check the print. I originally thought that a spectacle motion picture needs its spectacle to succeed, but the loss of 3/5 of the screen image isn't too much of a loss here, as this is a movie for the ladies. Once the story gets moving, I forgot to be annoyed about the print and just enjoyed seeing Tyrone Power play another assholish rogue against some very pretty backgrounds.
Henry King directs a script that's essentially the old OREGON TRAIL video game set in South Africa, except with clearer race exploitation and a richer assortment of wagon crashes. ["YOU HAVE REACHED THE FIRST ZULU-BATTLE SET PIECE. WOULD YOU LIKE TO LOOK AROUND? Y/N"] But in its finer details, it's a romance that pushes Power out of the story for goodly stretches of time; he's a Bogart in THE AFRICAN QUEEN and more like the boat pilot in an all-female produced version of HEART OF DARKNESS, but not as well-written. Susan Hayward and Susan Hayward's Heaving Bosom co-star, with support from Richard Egan, Agnes Moorehead and a young Rita Moreno.
1PM-2PM, MONSTERQUEST "Chupacabra"
Normally, I can't shit on these nominally history programs that try so hard to make the big H cool and sexy to the bewildered herds' atrophying attention spans. But … ¡¡¡El Chupacabra!!! [Reairs at 7:00pm]
11PM-1:30AM, TCM: ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, 138m.
It's hard for me to believe that William Goldman, Alan J. Pakula, Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford ever made a movie that I will watch whenever it's on, even though I already have it recorded. The Watergate intrigues and Deep Throat being all mysterious are nice and all, but I think I enjoy this movie mostly for the mundanely funniness/funny mundaneness of the newsroom and source interview scenes [I used to wonder if all District Attorney's/State Judge's offices chose their chiefs by who could do the best imitation of the Ned Beatty character] but mainly for Jane Alexander's scenes and the meeting scenes where Jason Robards, Jr., Jack Warden and/or Martin Balsam play off each other.
Or, if you prefer a more themed bunch of movies to timer-record/TIVO or watch when you should be working: It would have been John Garfield's 97th birthday today, and TCM is celebrating with a marathon of his movies. I like these five the most:
6AM-7:30AM, TCM: FOUR DAUGHTERS, 90m.
Ostensibly a vehicle for the Lane Sisters, Garfield stole the show and became a star, more or less fully formed in only his second film. Priscilla Lane and Claude Rains star in a somewhat uneven romantic comedy/melodrama helmed by Michael Curtiz.
7:30AM-9:15AM, TCM: THEY MADE ME A CRIMINAL, 92m.
It's always interesting to see how a great filmmaker who specialized in frothy escapism [Like Lubitsch or, in this case, Busby Berkeley] handled a gritty drama. Garfield and Rains return [they made six features together, three of them sequels to FOUR DAUGHTERS] in Garfield's first movie as a star, a story about a young boxer wanted for a murder but believed dead, and the New York City cop [Rains was forced to take the role] obsessed with the idea that the guy's still alive. The Dead End Kids, Ann Sheridan and Gloria Dickson co-star.
12:30PM-2PM, TCM: OUT OF THE FOG, 85m.
Anatole Litvak was a mediocrity, but I've often heard that legendary cinematographer James Wong Howe's work on this movie is amazing. Garfield, Ida Lupino and Thomas Mitchell star in a drama about a gangster who falls in love with the daughter of one of the Brooklyn fishermen he brutalizes.
2PM-3:30PM, THE SEA WOLF, 87m.
I missed this one as a part of an Edward G. Robinson double feature last month. Eddie stars as Jack London's crazed, violent sea captain in a clever Michael Curtiz adaptation/pre-War meta-commentary on Nazism, with Garfield and Lupino returning as lessers among equals. It's interesting -- and telling -- to see that Garfield often worked with the same above-the-line crews.
3:30PM-5:30PM, TCM: BETWEEN TWO WORLDS, 112m.
I've wanted to see this movie for years, ever since I first heard a logline for it: "Passengers on a luxury liner slowly realize that they're sailing to the afterlife." I hope this isn't like ALIEN, where I'm imagining a movie far better than what 1944 could humanly achieve. Garfield heads an ensemble featuring Edmund Gwenn and Eleanor Parker.
Friday, March 5
1:30AM-4AM, TCM: THE LOVED ONE, 121m.
Tony Richardson had a remarkable streak of films in the '60s: A TASTE OF HONEY, THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER, TOM JONES and then this black comedy about a Hollywood funeral parlor. Robert Morse, Jonathan Winters and Rod Steiger star.
2AM-4AM, FMC: JOHN AND MARY, 92m.
Normally, a 1969 romantic comedy starring Mia Farrow and Dustin Hoffman in New York City would give me hives, but dude -- John Mortimer wrote it [?!?] and Peter Yates directed it. Who cares if it was Bizarro-Earth Mortimer who wrote it and Peter Yates had his AD direct everything except the scenes in cars -- MORTIMER AND YATES! Tyne Daly, Michael Tolan and Olympia Dukakis co-star.
4AM-5:30AM, TCM: DEMENTIA 13, 75m.
5:30AM-7AM, TCM: THE TERROR, 79m.
Roger Corman double feature. Corman produced DEMENTIA, Francis Ford Coppola's first feature film as a writer-director, on the understanding that the film shared the same sets, cast and crew as the film he was directing, THE YOUNG RACERS. Dunno why they're running TERROR after it -- it's like airing THE SHOOTING and then VON RICHTHOFEN AND BROWN instead of RIDE IN THE WHIRLWIND -- but oh well. I've never seen a print of DEMENTIA that wasn't terrible; it's exciting to think that TCM found and/or cleaned up a copy that doesn't look like it's disintegrating and breaking apart in the last reel. THE TERROR was shot as almost an afterthought -- hey, maybe this is a double feature of movies that were made out of spare time and parts -- after shooting on THE RAVEN wrapped, presumably a few days early. I used to wonder why Corman had a rep for making schlock -- posterity, DVDs and the death of television stations willing to show anything non-pornographic that fills two hours of broadcast time plus commercials have conspired to unearth Corman's triumphs and bury his mistakes -- until I read that he was excited to make this gothic romance mostly to squeeze maximum bang for the buck off the RAVEN sets and so that he could destroy the story's cursed castle with a flood instead of an inferno for a change. Dude. William Campbell, Luana Anders and Bart Patton star in DEMENTIA. Boris Karloff, Jack Nicholson and Sandra Knight star in TERROR.
6AM-7:30AM, Sun: AMAZING JOURNEY: SIX QUICK ONES
Six short films about The Who. How could it not be good?
8AM-10AM, H: MORE EXTREME MARKSMEN
More sniper fun, although I would prefer more shooting Vietnamese snipers right through their scopes from a tenth of a mile away and less, throwing knifes and shooting arrows really good. [Reairs at 2:00PM]
9:30AM-11AM, TCM: SONG OF THE THIN MAN, 87m.
TCM closed out 2009 with a mini-marathon of movie adaptations of Dashiell Hammett's crime-solving couple, Nick and Nora Charles. They even did movie fans and other insomniacs a solid by not showing SONG OF THE THIN MAN, the last in the series. Maybe "never showing this movie again" was one of the channel's New Year's resolutions and, like quitting smoking or going to the gym every day, they only could make it a few months before relapsing. William Powell and Myrna Loy return as the once insouciant inebriates, now trying-too-hard-to-be-hip aunt & uncle, who work to solve a murder at a jazz club.
10:30AM-Noon, FMC: DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK, 76m.
A snappy, noirish programmer starring a young Richard Widmark, a young Marilyn Monroe and a very young Anne Bancroft in her feature-film debut. Daniel Taradash wrote the screenplay for director Roy Ward Baker. It's not Billy Wilder's, but the dialogue fairly crackles throughout. "I'm not angry; I'm just furious." [Reairs on the 23rd at 9AM.]
11AM-12:30PM, TCM: THE BOY WITH GREEN HAIR, 82m.
Joseph Losey so thoroughly jams my critical faculties I barely know what the hell is going on after seeing one of his movies. Dean Stockwell, Pat O'Brien and the mighty Robert Ryan 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! [Reairs on the 16th at 3:30PM.]
8PM-11:30PM, FMC: FOX LEGACY: PATTON
One of the most interior epics you'll ever see. George C. Scott really is mesmerizing, even when the movie around him is a slogging march through war cliches and Cliffs Notes history. I'm fairly sure that "Fox Legacy" is the packaging that presents Fox's CEO talking about how great the movie is, how great 20th Century was in bankrolling it and how awesome Fox Movie Channel is for airing it so often, so you might want to program your recorders or your schedules accordingly. [Reairs at 11:30PM, and on the 14th at 8PM.]
10PM-11:45PM, TCM: AIRPLANE!, 88m.
11:45PM-1:15AM, TCM: ZERO HOUR!, 81m.
Sometimes I'm convinced that the programming elves at Turner Classic Movies are actually recording my movie thoughts or at least my visits to IMDB.com; I've been thinking a lot about ZERO HOUR, the so straightfaced-terrible it's hilarious airplane disaster movie; about how much of ZERO was used in AIRPLANE and how odd it is to diligently parody a movie that had to be pretty obscure, even in 1980; and how sweet it would be to program a double feature of the movies back-to-back. Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Robert Graves and Leslie Nielsen star in AIRPLANE. Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell and Sterling Hayden star in HOUR. Also: Andrews and Hayden were still alive in 1980 -- did anyone ever ask them what they thought of AIRPLANE?
10PM-Midnight, ESPN2: FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS
It's there, if you want it.
Saturday, March 6
Midnight-2:20AM, Sun: THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH
The mid-'60s to mid-'70s really were a golden age for speculative-fiction movies. This Nicolas Roeg-David Bowie-Rip Torn-led fable is one of my favorites, and not just because it was the first time I saw a woman peeing.
2:45AM-4:15AM, TCM: BIG BAD MAMA, 84m.
Everyone can use a good-bad exploitation movie to come home to alone just before the bars close, especially one that stars Angie Dickinson AND William Shatner. My cup runneth over.
7:16AM-8:30AM, FMC: DANCING MASTERS, 63m.
A WWII-era Laurel & Hardy movie that could just as easily been titled LAUREL & HARDY's CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATION VOLUME ONE, but even a L&H movie that they phoned in is better than most other comedies. Trudy Marshall and Margaret Dumont costar under Malcolm St. Clair's direction.
8:30AM-10:05AM, TCM: THE LADYKILLERS, 91m.
There's not a single unfunny frame of Alec Guinness to be seen anywhere in this film; it's not an argument held often, probably for a reason, but this film makes an airtight case that an actor has an inherent advantage over a comedian when it comes to being funny in a motion picture. Peter Sellers, Katie Johnson, Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom and Danny Green co-star, and Alexander Mackendrick directs from the original screenplay by William Rose. Don't let the Coen Brothers remake scare you off; if you've not seen this, you should.
12:30PM-2:30PM, FMC: IN LIKE FLINT, 114m.
James Coburn's superspy franchise lands ass-first on out and out camp; a fun crappy movie for a Saturday afternoon. Lee J. Cobb and Jean Hale costar. [Reairs on the 10th at 4PM.]
1PM-2PM, ESPNC: CLASSIC POOL "2004 WPBA San Diego Classic"
If you don't enjoy watching ladies play billiards, you and I have nothing to say to each other.
3:45PM-4PM, Sun: GENTLE GIANTS
A short film from photographer Bruce Weber about some of his favorite photos. [Reairs at 6:25AM.]
5PM-7PM, H: EXTREME MARKSMEN
History Channel documentary about dudes [let's face it, only dudes would spend so much time of stuff like this] who have mastered all sorts of guns and weapons. If I remember right, the high-speed-camera trajectory breakdowns were remarkably helpful for lining up shots in pool. Not DONALD IN MATHMAGICLAND helpful, but it was food for thought.
5:30PM-7:45PM, TCM: ON THE BEACH, 134m.
A cheerful post-nuclear apocalypse from that barrel-of-monkeys Stanley Kramer [JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBERG, INHERIT THE WIND]. U.S. sailors stationed in Australia miss out on the armageddon and then struggle to figure out what to do next. Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Anthony Perkins and Fred Astaire star. Everyone dies, but that's life, Charlie Brown.
7PM-8PM, ESPNC: CLASSIC BOXING "George Foreman vs. Muhammad Ali: The Rumble in the Jungle"
I bet George Foreman must be thrilled that his worst moment as a professional athlete is replayed on television almost as much as some infomercials. [Reairs at 1:00am.]
9PM-11:30PM, SHO: SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING "Vic Darchinyan vs. Rodrigo Guerrero"
The Raging Bull [33-2-1] is on the comeback fighting the young [13-1-1] Guerrero, in a fight that would have been far more acceptable as the televised undercard to Dirrell-Abraham. Also: Leonardo Zappavigna [22-0] and Fernando Angulo [22-6] fight for the vacant IBO lightweight title. [Reairs on SHO2 at Midnight and on Monday at 10PM.]
9:30PM-11PM, HBO: BOXING AFTER DARK "Devon Alexander vs. Juan Urango"
Who sez HBO's BAD and Don King can't put on a genuine barnstormer every once and a while? It's always exciting when King periodically notices that he still has a surprising large number of great fighters under contract who aren't heavyweights. [The opposite is also true.] Considering how many of today's top junior welterweights are HBO fighters, this title unification could almost serve as a backdoor first round for a Super Six-style tournament. [Reairs at 9AM and at 12:35AM Tuesday.]
10PM-Midnight, Sun: NIGHTS OF CABIRIA
I recently saw this early Fellini film for the first time in years and was surprised and enchanted by how late-period Chaplinesque it was. Giulietta Masina stars, with Amadeo Nazzari. [Reairs at 4:20AM.]
10:15PM-12:15PM, TCM: SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME, 114m.
Paul Newman plays boxer Rocky Graziano and acts all over the screen and into the theatre aisles and into the …. lobby, the lobby. But THEN, the acting reaches THE PARKING LOT! THE PARKING LOT!!!! Director Robert Wise does a fine job of doing almost nothing, but the movie still gets major points for the unearthly Pier Angeli and for being a boxing movie that doesn't wallow in all of the boxing-movie cliches.
11PM-11:30PM, HBO: THE ROAD TO DALLAS: MANNY PACQUIAO VS. JOSHUA CLOTTEY, 27m.
If the rumors are true that the Shane Mosley-Floyd Mayweather Jr. Pay-Per-View will be getting a four-episode 24/7 lead-in but all the Pac-Clotty PPV is getting is this single program to promote it, then I call bullshit. Then again, I'm really tired of the 24/7 formula and nothing will make me happy and I will die alone and probably not in one piece wah wah waaaaaaaaahhh. [Reairs at 1AM, 10:30AM, 12:05AM on Tuesday and all throughout the first two weeks of the month.]
Sunday, March 7
3:15AM-4:20AM, Sun: THE RED CARPET ISSUE
Olivier Nicklaus's history of how Western Civilization just can't get enough of Hollywood actors standing on ugly carpet selling their crappy movies to desperate media outlets fronted by other vapidly attractive "journalists." [Reairs at 4PM and 1:30AM.]
6AM-7:45AM, TCM: RIFFRAFF, 94m.
I know nothing about this movie before seeing it beyond the schedule's info -- made in 1936, "Young marrieds in the fishing business run afoul of the law" stars Jean Harlow, Spencer Tracy and Joseph Calleia, directed by J. Walter Ruben -- and I'd like to keep it that way.
6AM-7:45AM, FMC: ON THE THRESHOLD OF SPACE, 98m.
Guy Madison stars in a pre-astronaut drama as an Air Force Captain/NASA guinea pig for testing the effects of space travel on the human body. Virginia Leith, John Hodiak, Dean Jagger and Martin Milner costar under Robert D. Webb's direction.
2PM-4PM, DAUGHTER OF THE MIND
A 1969 cybernetics professor believes that his dead daughter is trying to contact him. Ray Milland, Pamelyn Ferdin, Ed Asner, Gene Tierney and John Carradine co-star under Walter Grauman's direction.
8PM-10:15PM: TCM: THE OSCAR, 119m.
10:15PM-12:15AM, TCM: THE BIG KNIFE, 114m.
A fun, Fuck You Hollywood double feature -- is tonight the night of the Oscar Awards? KNIFE is sleazy, stupid fun for smart people; Jack Palance stars as a movie producer who will stop at nothing to get a star under contract and under his thumb. A Robert Aldrich movie that co-stars Ida Lupino and Rod Steiger. THE OSCAR, on the other hand, is sleazy, highbrow-striving unintentional fun for smart people. It's what you would imagine a movie about an actor who will stop at nothing to become a star would be like if a young Harlan Ellison wrote it at his most full-of-beans/hubris/shit, which is exactly what happened. [Again, I think TCM has been monitoring my IMDB traffic the last few months.] Stephen Boyd, Elke Sommer and Tony Bennett star, with a constellation of unwitting stars making cameos under direction from Russell Rouse.
Monday, March 8
12:15AM-2AM, TCM: SHOW PEOPLE, 79m.
Yep, it's Oscar/Hurray for Hollywood night. "Silent Sundays" makes its return with a classic Marion Davies comedy about a young starlet struggling to make it in Tinseltown. William Haines and Polly Moran co-star. King Vidor directs.
2AM-4AM, TCM: CONTEMPT, 102m.
Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 masterpiece; I'll never grasp how he squeeze so much material into an hour-forty-two without it not feeling rushed or dense. When I was a young man, I loved the moviemaking scenes and tended to tune out the arguments between Brigitte Bardot's and Michel Piccoli's married couple. Now, those scenes are riveting because they're so resonant and true. Jack Palance's producer character also comes off as even more vague and shaded than what I remember of his first impression. Fritz Lang's scenes are even sadder, too.
4AM-6AM, TCM: THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, 118m.
From here, a belated-birthday [February 28, 1903] Vincente Minnelli mini-marathon begins: Minnelli & Charles Schnee's trashy piss take on producer David O. Selznick is far too beautifully made for its own good, but making a smaller, less polished movie based on Selznick's life probably would have offended him more than making a movie about what a dick he was in the first place. You're gonna do it, do it big and do it right. Kirk Douglas, Lana Turner and Dick Powell star.
6AM-8:15AM, TCM: THE STORY OF THREE LOVES, 122m.
Early '50s anthology film about …. the dance! I love any movie that can star Pier Angeli, Leslie Caron, Agnes Moorehead and Ethel Barrymore. James Mason, Kirk Douglas and Farley Granger co-star. Minnelli shared the director's chair with Gottfried Reinhardt, although I don't know why.
6AM-7:30AM, Sun: LYNCH
Portrait of the artist as a filmmaker making INLAND EMPIRE. [Reairs at 1PM.]
6:15AM-7:45AM, IFC: BROADWAY DANNY ROSE, 86m.
A funny mid-career Woody Allen movie. [Reairs at 12:05PM and 5:30PM; and the 23rd at 8:30AM and 1:30PM.]
7:30AM-9AM, Sun: THE RETURN OF THE WAR ROOM
Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker return for an updated view of how politicians' lackeys more effectively lie to us about the bill of goods pretending to be a government reformer or maverick. WARNING: There's a lot of asskissing from the now-sidelined media dinosaurs to today's smaller, quicker-adapting mammals; it gets nauseating fast. [Reairs at 2:30PM.]
8:15AM-10:15AM, TCM: THE BAND WAGON, 112m.
And from here, a 79th birthday marathon for the late Cyd Charisse begins: WAGON is a fun Broadway jaunt starring Fred Astaire [in a role that could have easily plunged into self-parody and self-pity; Astaire was a better actor than he ever got credit for], Jack Buchanan and an absolutely gorgeous Cyd Charisse. I've often wondered why [or if] Minnelli's use of color grew more muted over the years, even on projects that demanded vivid, bold work like this movie -- or if it's the film itself. I understand that color-timing 3-strip Technicolor was more art than science, so even with these DVD remasterings and restorations, we may be seeing a 2003 techie's best guess of what a 1953 director/cinematographer intended.
10AM-Noon, FMC: THE STREET WITH NO NAME
Noon-2PM, FMC: THE DARK CORNER, 99m.
A sentence probably ever before typed: "Wow, a Mark Stevens double feature!" Two nice 20th Century Fox noirs starring the largely forgotten leading man; to show his versatility, he played a determined FBI Agent in the former and a determined private eye in the latter. William Keighley directed STREET with fine acting from Richard Widmark, Ed Begley and Barbara Lawrence; CORNER co-stars Lucille Ball [yes really] and Clifton Webb, with support from William Bendix. Henry Hathaway directs from Jay Dratler's & Bernard C. Schoenfeld's screenplays from Leo Rosten's story. [These films reverse order and reair on the 27th at 10AM.]
10:15AM-12:15PM, TCM: BRIGADOON, 108m.
Never seen it, have no excuse -- a Vincente Minnelli Technicolor musical about two Americans stumbling across a Scottish village that only materializes once a century, starring Gene Kelly and Charisse, who undoubtedly dance together? Duhr.
11:45AM-12:50PM, Sun: STANLEY KUBRICK'S BOXES
Probably the program I'm most looking forward to seeing this week. Even by director/producer/perfectionist standards, Kubrick left behind a massive archive of notes and material; this is a documentary about those boxes. [Reairs at 5:45pm]
12:15PM-2PM, TCM: IT'S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER, 101m.
Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen direct, Kelly stars with Dan Dailey and Cyd Charisse.
2PM-4PM, FMC: THIEVES' HIGHWAY
A noir-ish Jules Dassin drama about a war veteran returning home to San Francisco to avenge the maiming and robbing on his father by a rival fruit seller. Richard Conte stars with Valentina Cortese and those warhorses Lee J. Cobb and Barbara Lawrence.
4PM-6PM, TCM: SILK STOCKINGS, 118m.
A hodge-podge adaptation of both the original Ernest Lubitsch, Melchior Lengyel, et al.'s film NINOTCHKA and its stage-musical adaptation by George S. Kaufman, Leueen MacGrath and Abe Burrows, this movie is a broth ruined by too many cooks. Rouben Mamoulian directs a cast boasting the likes of Fred Astaire, Charisse, Janis Paige, Peter Lorre and George Tobias, produced by Arthur Freed and songs by Cole Porter. It was Mamoulian's last completed movie and Astaire's last musical, two sad facts forgotten a few seconds into Charisse's opening strip tease.
6PM-8PM, TCM: TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN, 107m.
Minnelli loved doing Broadway/Hollywood behind-the-scenes movies; this is one of his edgier [if such a term can be applied to the auteur as song & dance man] efforts. I'd love to know if how autobiographical this story of a recovering-alcoholic director struggling to get his career back on track in Rome is, but I don't want to find out. Kirk Douglas, Edward G. Robinson and Charisse star
6PM-8PM, GUILTY CONSCIENCE
It sounds like another cheap '80s made-for-TV movie, which it probably was, but it also sounds like an ideal vehicle for a leading actor with chops, which it has: Anthony Hopkins plays a brilliant lawyer who decides to kill his wife. He mentally puts himself on trial over and over to find the perfect alibi before he does the deed. Blythe Danner and Swoosie Kurtz co-star under David Greene's direction.
8:20PM-10PM, Sun: METROLAND
This is either a charming indy movie or it's a patronizing, split-the-difference cop-out: Christian Bale and Emily Watson play a young couple who just moved to the suburbs to live that life when Bale's best friend [Lee Ross] from the days when he had a life of culture and excitement reenters his life. Many questions about the life choices are presumably made.
9:45PM-11:15PM, TCM: THE JAZZ SINGER, 89m.
You ain't heard nothing yet, folks. We should all work to perfect our Al Jolson impersonations so that, if David Mamet calls to discuss us working on his next play, we can pick up the phone and bellow "HELLO MAMAAAAYYYYYET!!!" I bet he'd enjoy that the first few times.
11PM-1AM, Sun: LET'S GET LOST
Bruce Weber's iconic profile of jazz trumpeter/singer Chet Baker; if you've never seen it, you should. [Reairs at 5AM.]
And there's another week.
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