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"The following opinions are offered by a man determined to unironically watch a movie named GORILLA AT LARGE someday."
Tuesday April 20
[TCM sez Happy Birthday Harold Lloyd!]
1:40AM-4AM, Sun: FLAME & CITRON, 136m.
A recent WWII-resistance movie from Denmark auteur Ole Christian Madsen. A pair of Copenhagen assassins' partnership grows strained as their bodycount rises. What's to feel conflicted about if you're killing Ratzis, yo? Thure Lindhardt and Mads Mikkelsen star.
4:35AM-6:30AM, 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 on the 25th at 3:15AM.]
7AM-9:30AM, RetroPlex: LAURA, 87m.
I'm not much of an Otto Preminger fan, but I want to check out the titular portrait painting to see if it's worth parodying/plagiarizing. Also, this is a classic thriller, blah blah blah, show my the pretty picture. [Reairs on the 25 at 8:10AM and 6:30PM.]
8:30PM-9:30PM, Sun: CITIES ON SPEED "Cairo: Garbage," 51m.
Mikala Krogh launches this new Sundance series with a short film about the massive, unsettlingly fast expansion of Egypt's capital city and its attendant garbage problem. [Reairs at Midnight, and on the 25th at 10:30AM.]
9:30PM-11:15PM, Sun: ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD, 99m.
Werner Herzog goes to Antarctica. [Reairs at 1AM, on the 25th at 11:30AM and on the 26th at 10AM and 5:15PM.]
Wednesday April 21
10:20AM-11:20AM, Sun: AGNES MARTIN: WITH MY BACK TO THE WORLD, 56m.
Mary Lance's portrait of the Canadian minimalist/abstract-expressionist painter. [Reairs on the 26th at 2:45PM and on the 27th at 5:45AM.]
10:30AM-12:30PM, 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! [Reairs May 3rd at 9AM, and on May 15th at 9AM.]
10PM-12:30AM, Sun: BLACK BOOK, 146m.
Paul Verhoeven is the man. It's not just that he's the only cerebral filmmaker of his generation to develop and retain a sense of humor, he's somehow the most honest of his peers, even if it's a emotional or metaphorical honesty that often gets him in trouble. This film is his big Holland homecoming, a WWII spy thriller that gives you The Full Verhoeven: slyly funny characters tossed through a twisting plot told largely in amazing images and juxtapositions. Also, tits.
10PM-1AM, TCM: GRAND PRIX, 176m.
I haven't seen this racing drama in quite a while, but John Frankenheimer knows how to piece together an exciting car chase. James Garner and Eva Marie Saint star.
Thursday April 22
3AM-5AM, TCM: JUNIOR BONNER, 100m.
Sam Peckinpah engages the meaning of the death of the Old West in yet another way, this time as a very small family drama built around McQueen as a washed-up rodeo rider. Robert Preston and Ida Lupino co-star.
4AM-6AM, Sun: PAN'S LABYRINTH, 119m.
OK, everyone can stop badgering me about how awesome this movie is and what an asshole I am for not seeing it. I'll still be an asshole after seeing it, by the way; Guillermo Del Toro is a filmmaker, not a miracle worker. Ivana Baquero and Sergei Lopez star.
8:10AM-9:45AM, TCM: WILD STRAWBERRIES, 91m.
Ingmar Bergman! Disillusionment! Sadness! Exotic Sweden, filmed in glorious Black and White! Victor Sjostrom! Ingrid Thulin! Young Max Von Sydow!
8:45AM-11:15PM, Sun: ARMY OF SHADOWS, 145m.
Jean-Pierre Melville's classic 1969 Vichy/occupation thriller. Lino Ventura stars. [Reairs on the 25th at 2:15PM.]
9:30AM-11:30 am, FMC: TONIGHT WE SING, m.
Another probably-not-good-but-it-has-a-young-Anne Bancroft movie. 1953 biopic of opera impresario Sol Hurok starring David Wayne, Enzio Pinza and Roberta Peters, with direction by Mitchell Leisen from a script by Hurok, Ruth Goode, Harry Kurnitz and George Oppenheimer. [Reairs on May 26th at 8AM.]
11:15AM-1PM, Sun: DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID, 98m.
Actress Jeanne Moreau, screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere and auteur Luis Bunuel's 1964 take on the original Jean Renoir film adaptation of Octave Mirbeau's novel.
11:30AM-1:30PM, 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. [Reairs on the 24th at 6AM and on May 24th at 2PM.]
11:45AM-1:15PM, TCM: THE GUN RUNNERS, 82m.
Well, I'm always interested to see a Don Siegel movie I've never seen and keep tabs on the state of poor Everett Sloane's nose the last few years of his life, but an American-made movie about the Cuban revolution headlined by Audie Murphy and Eddie Albert may be a dealbreaker.
1:15PM-3PM, TCM: SMASH-UP, THE STORY OF A WOMAN, 103m.
I hope this is a Noir-ish melodrama; Susan Hayward and her rack star as a pop singer's wife who can't handle his success until her third or forth Hennessy. Lee Bowman and Eddie Albert costar.
8PM-10:30PM, TCM: THE RED SHOES, 135m.
"If you've not sen this classic, now's the time. Gorgeous and powerful color, music and acting." Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring and Moira Shearer star in a film by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
10PM-11PM, ESPNC: 30 FOR 30 "The Legend of Jimmy the Greek"
I enjoyed this look at television's greatest/only oddsmaker Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder, although I wonder if the filmmakers made a mistake trying to frame the Greek as almost a Cosell-level transcendent figure ... or if I'm just projecting that onto the film. Regardless, televised sports lost a big piece of its soul the day that they stopped including betting breakdowns on their pre-shows.
10PM-11:45PM, Sun: FIDO, 93m.
Andrew Currie's comedic mishmash of junk like old zombie movies and a-boy-and-his-pet melodramas. Billy Connelly plays the zombie/pet; it's that kind of movie. Carrie-Anne Moss, Dylan Baker and K'Sun Ray co-star. [Reairs at 5:05AM and on the 24th at midnight.]
10:30PM-1:30AM, TCM: ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, 165m.
"If you've not sen this classic, now's the time. Gorgeous and powerful color, music and acting." Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson and Claudia Cardinale star in a film by Sergio Leone.
11PM-12:30AM, IFC: STRANGELAND, 86m.
Et tu, my Linda Cardellini appreciation? Dee Snider wrote, produced and starred, with a cameo from Robert Englund.
Friday April 23
1:30AM-3:15AM, TCM: THE RIVER, 99m.
"If you've not sen this classic, now's the time. Gorgeous and powerful color, music and acting." Nora Swinburne, Esmond Knight and Arthur Shields star in a film by Jean Renoir, his first in color.
5:30AM-6:30AM, TCM: THE CHEAT, 59m.
Sessue Hayakawa lived a life far more heroic and dramatic than any of his movies, and the few movies of his that have survived are pretty heroic and dramatic. An unfair thumbnail would be if Rudolph Valentino had quickly grown disgusted with villainous horny-foreigner roles, and turned into a Fairbanks or Chaplin-style self-employed actor/mogul. This is Hayakawa's second film, made under Cecil B. DeMille's direction. Fannie Ward costars.
8AM-10:05AM, FMC: THE BIG TRAIL, 120m.
John Wayne's first starring role, very much like the old OREGON TRAIL video game [see also: UNTAMED; Fox really had a thing for this story]. Raoul Walsh was no John Ford, but neither was John Ford most of the time. Lots of magnificent scenery in this one, appropriately enough. [Reairs on May 22nd at 6AM.]
8AM-8:30AM, Sun: GREAT GENIUS & PROFOUND STUPIDITY, 27m.
Benita Raphan's thoughtful look at the idea of ideas and the thin line between clever and stupid. Features interviews the likes of Oliver Sacks and Merce Cunningham.
3:30PM-5:30PM, 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. [Reairs on May 2nd at 3:30PM and on May 25th at 6PM.]
8PM-11PM, TCM: 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, 149m.
Dude, this airing was three weeks late for the movie's debut anniversary/International Record Your Pet Reacting to 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY Day. Keir Dullea, William Sylvester and Gary Lockwood star in a film by Stanley Kubrick.
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, on May 2nd at 8PM, on May 31st at 9PM and on June 1 at 2:30AM.]
10PM-Midnight, H: BLACK BLIZZARD
Not the most cheerful of subjects, but one I've always wanted to know more about: The "black blizzards" were the catastrophic Dust Bowl storms of the 1930s. [Reairs at 2:01AM.]
11PM-1:30AM, TCM: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, 137m.
As much as I would now kill to have more movies featuring the team of Bob Balaban and Francois Truffaut, I think I would have been better off remembering nothing of this movie from seeing as a child except the shot of Richard Dreyfuss sculpting a model of the mountain out of mashed potatoes and saying that it means something. It's funny how many scenes in Spielberg's sci-fi movies revolve around the dinner table. Teri Garr costars.
Saturday April 24
Midnight-1:30AM, IFC: THE RAZOR: THE SNARE
I could have sworn I've written about this trilogy before on the blog, but I can't find anything. The "Hanzo The Razor" series is … something. Based on a Kazuo Koike manga, a samurai/cop discovers a plot against his master. As it just so happens, he has a gigantic penis, which he toughens by humping hot gravel and other techniques martial artists use on their fists. As it also just so happens, most of the conspirators/witnesses he needs to interview/interrogate are women who are generally unwilling to cooperate. You can probably do the math on how this story plays out. IFC confuses matters even more by airing the third Hanzo film first, with the first film airing next Friday.
5:15AM-5:30AM, TCM Short: WILD AT THE WHEEL, 10m.
5:30AM-5:45AM, TCM Short: ONE GOT FAT - BICYCLE SAFETY, 15m.
One specific thing I will miss about basic cable is this 5AM block of oddball training films. If you've not seen ONE GOT FAT, you must. [It's the one with kids riding bikes in monkey masks, if it sounds familiar.] The most crazymaking social-guidance film this side of THE CHILD MOLESTER.
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. [Reairs on May 24th at 2PM.]
4PM-6PM, TCM: FAHRENHEIT 451, 112m.
Francois Truffaut's first color film, and I think his only in English? I was listening to the raw tapes of his interviews with Alfred Hitchcock, who made one point I find quite pertinent here: Hitch pointed out that, while a number of European directors had great success in America -- Lubitsch, Billy Wilder, Lang, [himself, duh] -- none of the French directors quite made the transition. Not that I think Truffaut would have done better with this material in French; he clearly was not really that much of a book guy. Oskar Werner, Julie Christie and Cyril Cusack star.
6PM, TCM: THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, 102m.
There's really no reason to ever retell the Robin Hood story; this one gets everything right. Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Claude Rains and Basil Rathbone star in glorious full Technicolor under direction from William Keighley and Michael Curtiz and to a tremendous score from Erich Wolfgang Korngold.
7:30PM-9PM, HBO: 24/7 MAYWEATHER/MOSLEY Episodes 1-3
11:15PM-1:15AM, HBO: BOXING AFTER DARK
It's funny how, when the smaller promoters like Gary Shaw and Goossen-Tutor get a chance to put on a show for HBO, the fights are almost always competitive and intriguing. Tonight, we watch the charismatic, obese heavyweight Chris Arreola take on the fresh-from-dominating-the-entire-Cruiserweight-division Tomasz Adamek in one of the few headliner fights this month that really could go either way. On the undercard, we will speculate how Joel Julio continues to get TV fights -- compromising photos? HBO's President is Julio's godfather? Julio got Jesus' cat out of a tree in a past life? -- while Alfredo "El Perro" Angulo womps him to collect the interim WBO light-middleweight title. Whoopdee doodoo. [Reairs at 8:30AM and on the 27th at 12:30AM.]
8PM-Midnight, H: HOW THE STATES GOT THEIR SHAPES
I think Yahoo's listings for the History Channel is having a stroke right now -- this was not a four-hour-long program when I saw it, but perhaps there's a second doc in this series that airs after the original? The one I saw was fun and informative. [Reairs at 12:01AM.]
8PM-10PM, TCM: THE GRADUATE, 106m.
I only watch this movie for Anne Bancroft's scenes -- not just for her hotness, but how three-dimensional she makes Mrs. Robinson out of nothing. Dustin Hoffman and Katharine Ross are also in the movie, I hear.
9PM-11:30PM, SHO: THE SUPER SIX: "Carl Froch vs. Mikkel Kessler"
Tape-delayed from the MCH Messecenter in Herning, Denmark, this super-middleweight title bout is the second fight of Stage Two of the tourney. I will be deeply disappointed if Kessler does not demolish Crotch in what should be as much fun to watch as a shopping-cart demolition derby. Both men move in straight, predictable lines, and while Kesseler doesn't have much pop in his punches, Froch has even less in the way of defense on top of a suspect chin. [Shopping-cart demolition derbies are fun to watch, by the way. Not so much to hear, but the visuals are entertaining.] I'll be watching this fight "live" and going over to HBO to watch their card later -- again, deeply disappointed by how HBO counter-programs Showtime every time. For a fanbase as small and dwindling as boxing's, counter-programming is a World Champion Dick Move. [Reairs on SHO2 at 11:35PM and on the 26th at 10PM.]
10PM-11:30PM, TCM: THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, 88m.
I don't rank this as the greatest in Orson Welles' collection of butchered masterpieces -- I think he made several bad choices that would have weakened the film's effectiveness as art even before RKO panicked and had that hack Robert Wise chop up and reshoot it -- but it's still a truly great movie that rewards multiple viewings. Tim Holt, Joseph Cotten, Delores Costello and Agnes Moorehead star.
Sunday April 25
2:15AM-3:35AM, Sun: BROKEN NOSES, 78m.
One of photographer Bruce Weber's lesser-known documentaries/portraits, this one trails former Golden Gloves champion Andy Minsker as he mentors Portland, OR teens at a boxing club. Weber photographs Minsker's face with almost as much love as Vincente Minnelli filmed Judy Garland in their movies.
3:30AM-5:30AM, TCM: REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, 111m.
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.
6AM-7:45AM, 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 May 15th at 7:15AM, on May 22 at 8:30AM and on May 24 at 10AM.]
6AM-8AM, TCM: ON BORROWED TIME, 99m.
If the TCM logline is accurate -- "An old man and his grandson trap Death in a tree." -- this movie is fucking awesome. Lionel Barrymore, Cedric Hardwicke and Beulah Bondi star.
7:55AM-10AM, Sun: NIGHTS OF CABIRIA, 118m.
It's startling and enchanting how late-period Chaplinesque this this 1957 Fellini film is; the film even looks like a sound-era Chaplin in its grain. Giulietta Masina stars, with Amadeo Nazzari.
8AM-9:15AM, TCM: IT'S A GIFT, 68m.
I think this is the henpecked-husband W.C. Fields movie with the superb bit where he struggles to get some sleep on his porch. I used to think it was a stone pain in the ass to keep the Marx Brothers' pre-MGM movies straight in my head until I started digging into Fields' filmography. Kathleen Howard, Baby LeRoy and Jean Rouverol costar, with direction by Norman Z. McLeod.
11:50AM-1:30PM, RetroPlex: THE 39 STEPS, 87m.
My favorite of Alfred Hitchcock's early British thrillers and the definitive take on the dramatic workhorse -- which is funny considering how many liberties Hitch took with the text, but that's the power of film for you. Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll star.
8:05PM-10PM, IFC: THE CRYING GAME, 112 m.
Sometimes, I wonder if Orson Welles' ghost is angry that CITIZEN KANE is no longer the most spoiler-ed movie ever made. It's a shame that what Stephen Rea sees in the shower is what people take away from Neil Jordan's thoughtful political thriller -- like KANE, this movie grows more powerful and haunting without its "ah ha! …. wait, what?" ending. I'd also like to think that, if I hadn't already known the ending before I saw the film, I would have noticed how large Dil's hands are for a woman. Forest Whitaker, Jaye Davidson and Miranda Richardson co-star. [Reairs at 12:45AM.]
8PM-10PM, TCM: SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, 103m.
10PM-Midnight, TCM: SUNSET BOULEVARD, 110m.
Scheduling this lazy and obvious = TCM's guest programmer night.
Monday April 26
Midnight-2AM, TCM: SOULS FOR SALE, 90m.
TCM's Silent Sunday film is an early movie-about-the-movies: Young starlet stops at nothing to be a real star, or does she. Eleanor Boardman, Mae Busch and Barbara La Marr star.
1:15AM-3:45AM, Sun: THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU, 150m.
Dante Remus Lazarescu is an old man with a terrible headache; from here, the horror of modern healthcare begins. Clever choice of names from filmmaker Cristi Puiu; if Dante were alive today, he would set his stories in a hospital. Ion Fiscuteanu stars.
2AM-4AM, TCM: THE BLUE ANGEL, 107m.
I've never understood the praise for this movie; it's not close to being the best film Josef von Sternberg, Emil Jannings nor Marlene Dietrich made.
4AM-6AM, TCM: KNIGHT WITHOUT ARMOUR, 107m.
Pre-war British spy thriller starring Marlene Dietrich and Robert Donat? SOLD.
6AM-7:30AM, TCM: THE BICYCLE THIEF, 89m.
Vittorio De Sica's classic; I thought we had all agreed to call it the more accurate THE BICYCLE THIEVES? Oops, spoilers. Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola and Lianella Carell star.
7:05AM-8:30AM, Sun: FLIPPING OUT, 83m.
In the coming years, I expect we'll see a lot more documentaries about this general topic -- the psychological hammering the average soldier endures serving his country during this permanent wartime. In FLIPPING's case, it's Yoav Shamir's look at how so many Israeli soldiers flip out once their compulsory service ends. [Reairs at 1:15PM.]
10AM-Noon, TCM: KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS, 106m.
Here's hoping this is the original cut, not the one that tacked on an ending that really should have had "HOLY SHIT YOU AMERICANS REALLY DO NEED EVERYTHING SPELLED OUT FOR YOU" flashing across the screen. Dennis Price plays a young man of D'Ascoyne who's not going to let his family stand between him and the D'Ascoyne fortune; Alec Guinness plays the family. Joan Greenwood costars, Robert Hamer writes and directs.
10AM-11:45AM, Sun: ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD, 99m.
Werner Herzog goes to Antarctica. [Reairs at 5:15PM.]
4PM-6PM, TCM: THE SNAKE PIT, 108m.
Olivia de Havilland really excelled at playing damaged but courageous women after her informal partnership with Errol Flynn ended. I'm not much of an Anatole Litvak fan, but this mental-institution story is remarkably solid for 1948, and one of my favorites. Mark Stevens and Leo Genn costar.
8PM-9:30PM, Sun: MURDERBALL, 86m.
Dana Adam Shapiro and Henry-Alex Rubin's documentary about what is apparently "the ultra-macho world of quadriplegic wheelchair rugby, a rough and tumble competition that's part MAD MAX, part roller derby." [Reairs at 6:45AM.]
9:30PM-10PM, Sun: THE COWBOY AND THE FRENCHMAN, 26m.
A short film David Lynch made shortly after finishing BLUE VELVET, with the title roles going to Harry Dean Stanton and Frederick Golchan, respectively. [Reairs at 10AM.]
10PM-11:35PM, Sun: ANGEL-A, 91m.
Luc Besson returns to the director's chair for what I'm guessing is a hyperkinetic valentine to Paris. Jamel Debbouze and Rie Rasmussen star. [Reairs at 2:35AM.]
10PM-12:15AM, TCM: THE TALK OF THE TOWN, 117m.
12:15AM-2:15AM, TCM: WOMAN OF THE YEAR, 114m.
2:15AM-4AM, TCM: SWING TIME,104m.
4AM-6AM, TCM: GEORGE STEVENS: A FILMMAKER'S JOURNEY, 112m.
TCM celebrates George Stevens with a great block of his best pre-war comedies and a long cinematic portrait of the man. I wish I could love WOMAN unequivocally -- it opens with people listening to my beloved radio show INFORMATION PLEASE, for the love of Christ's cab fare -- but the movie stacks its world's deck a little too clumsily to make Spencer Tracy the good guy. Also, the last reel, where Katharine Hepburn's character fails to make breakfast to win Tracy back, couldn't come off as tacked-on and patronizing unless Hepburn wore blackface for it. Cary Grant, Jean Arthur and Ronald Colman star in TOWN; Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers star in TIME.
10PM-11PM, ESPNC: 30 FOR 30: "Muhammad and Larry"
A remarkable, heartbreaking documentary showing the lead-up to the 1980 heavyweight championship bout between a shot Muhammad Ali and a prime Larry Holmes. Albert Maysles and his brother were embedded with Ali in his training camp to make a movie about his planned triumphant, unprecedented return to boxing glory; what they recorded and initially abandoned was the shattering of the Ali myth that had been created after his world-shocking upset defeat of George Foreman in Zaire.
And there's another week.
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