After a hiatus much longer than I intended, the Film on TV column is active again over on Row Three. I’m not going to cross-post this and the DVD Triage column as much as I used to. Instead, I’ll just post notices over here when I post something over there, maybe with a highlight or two. So here are my top five recommendations for films playing on TV next week. All times are EST.

North by Northwest

Monday, Feb 13 at 5:30pm on TCM
Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) gets mistaken for George Kaplan and pulled into an elaborate web of espionage in one of Hitchcock’s most enjoyable and funniest thrillers. So many great scenes it’s impossible to list them all.
1959 USA. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Starring: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Martin Landau.

Z

Monday, Feb 13 at 8:00pm on TCM
Extremely solid political thriller following the true story of the overthrow of Greece’s democratic government. Equal parts historically accurate political document and detective thriller as the magistrate tries to uncover the conspiracy behind a liberal politician’s assassination, the whole thing is riveting.
1969 France/Algeria. Director: Costa-Gavros. Starring: Yves Montand, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Irene Papas.

Top Hat

Tuesday, Feb 14 at 8:00pm on TCM
For me, Top Hat and Swing Time battle it out for the top Astaire-Rogers film constantly, with the one I’ve seen more recently usually taking the crown. Mistaken identity follows mistaken identity here, as Ginger thinks Fred is her best friend’s husband, causing her a lot of consternation when Fred starts romancing her. That’s far from the end of it all, though. Also has the most definitive collection of Astaire-Rogers supporting actors.
1935 USA. Director: Mark Sandrich. Starring: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton, Helen Broderick, Erik Rhodes, Eric Blore.

Sunshine

Wednesday Feb 15 at 6:00am on IFC
I think this film, like many of Danny Boyle’s, falls to pieces in the third act. Still, the set-up and middle are right up there with the best sci-fi I’ve ever seen – a sci-fi of ideas and existential contemplation – so I still give it a hearty recommendation.
2007 UK. Director: Danny Boyle. Starring: Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Chris Evans, Michelle Yeoh, Mark Strong.
(repeats at 1:45pm)

They Were Expendable

Wednesday, Feb 15 at 3:15pm on TCM
There are films that don’t seem to be all that while you’re watching them – no particularly powerful scenes, not a particularly moving plot, characters that are developed but don’t jump out at you – and yet by the time you reach the end, you’re somehow struck with what a great movie you’ve seen. This film was like that for me – it’s mostly a lot of vignettes from a U-boat squadron led by John Wayne, the only one who thought the U-boat could be useful in combat. But it all adds up to something much more.
1945 USA. Director: John Ford. Starring: John Wayne, Robert Montgomery, Donna Reed, Jack Holt, Ward Bond.

Fanny and Alexander, playing Sunday on TCM

A few choice new ones this week, including holiday favorites A Christmas Carol (the 1951 British version) and The Bishop’s Wife, plus iconic Newman film The Hustler, Amy Adams breakthrough film Junebug, Katharine Hepburn-Cary Grant collaboration Holiday (playing in a block with their other three films together), and Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander.

Monday, December 12

6:00pm – MGM – A Shot in the Dark
Here’s your counter example for the “sequels are never as good as the original” argument. This second film in the Pink Panther series is easily the best, and stands as ones of the zaniest 1960s comedies ever.
1964 USA. Director: Blake Edwards. Starring: Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom.

8:00pm – TCM – A Christmas Carol
Usually considered among the best of the classic adaptations of A Christmas Carol, with Alastair Sim certainly playing a pretty definitive Scrooge surrounded by a great cast of British character actors.
1951 UK. Director: Brian Desmond Hurst. Starring: Alastair Sim, Jack Warner, Kathleen Harrison.
Newly Featured!

9:45pm – TCM – Oliver Twist
One of a couple of definitive film versions of Dickens’ novels that David Lean did in the ’40s. This is one of the few Dickens stories I actually do like, yet I haven’t gotten around to this version of it yet.
1948 UK. Director: David Lean. Starring: John Howard Davies, Alec Guinness, Robert Newton, Kay Walsh, Anthony Newley.

2:00am (13th) – TCM – Great Expectations
David Lean’s definitive version of one of Charles Dickens’ most well-known books, about the boy Pip and his rise to fortune through the aid of a mysterious benefactor. I’ve avoided this because of my distaste for Dickens, but hey. The movie can’t have time to ramble on like Dickens does, so maybe I’d like it.
1946 UK. Director: David Lean. Starring: John Mills, Tony Wager, Valerie Hobson, Jean Simmons, Bernard Miles, Martita Hunt.

4:15am (13th) – TCM – Pygmalion
A straight non-musical version of the George Bernard Shaw play that would later become My Fair Lady, with Leslie Howard as the prickly Professor Higgins who takes in street vendor Eliza Doolittle (Wendy Hiller) to turn her into a lady. A bit more acidic than the musical version.
1938 USA. Director: Anthony Asquith, Leslie Howard. Starring: Leslie Howard, Wendy Hiller, Wilfrid Lawson, Marie Lohr.

Tuesday, December 13

11:15am – IFC – My Life as a Dog
Lasse Hallstrom gives us this simple but effective coming-of-age story, focusing on the every day life of a young boy as he’s sent to live in a provincial village after acting out at home.
1985 Sweden. Director: Lasse Hallstrom. Starring: Anton Glanzelius, Tomas von Brömssen, Anki Lidén, Melinda Kinnaman.

3:10pm – Sundance – Man on Wire
One of the most highly-acclaimed documentaries of recent years tells the story of high-wire walker Philippe Petit as he embarks on perhaps his most dangerous stunt yet.
2008 UK/USA. Director: James Marsh. Starring: Philippe Petit, Jean François Heckel, Jean-Louis Blondeau.

8:00pm – IFC – American Psycho
A virtuoso performance from Christian Bale leads this controversial thriller about an affluent Wall Street investment banker leading a double life as a psychopath carrying out his amoral and misanthropic fantasies through sex and murder.
2000 USA. Director: Mary Herron. Starring: Christian Bale, Justin Theroux, Josh Lucas, Chloe Sevigny, Reese Witherspoon.
(repeats at 2:00am)

9:00pm – Sundance – Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
Sadly this turned out to be Sidney Lumet’s final film before his death. But from what I hear, this is a fine one to have as a swan song, an intense and well-constructed heist thriller – something Lumet was certainly skilled at directing. I have got to get around to checking it out myself soon.
1997 USA. Director: Sidney Lumet. Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, Albert Finney.

11:00pm – IFC – The Shining
Kubrick’s take on one of Stephen King’s most well-known novels may not stick that closely to King’s original story, but manages to capture the creepy factor of the Overlook Hotel and Jack Torrance’s descent into madness in a supremely cinematic way. Many memorable and disturbing scenes, and one of the few movies in which I actually like Jack Nicholson. So there’s that. Definitely not one to be missed.
1980 USA/UK. Director: Stanley Kubrick. Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers.
Must See

12:00M – MGM – The Great Escape
I expected to mildly enjoy or at least get through this POW escape film. What happened was I was completely enthralled with every second of it, from failed escape attempts to planning the ultimate escape to the dangers of carrying it out. It’s like a heist film in reverse, and extremely enjoyable in pretty much every way.
1963 USA. Director: John Sturges. Starring: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasance, James Coburn, James Donald.
Must See

Wednesday, December 14

10:00am – Sundance – A Town Called Panic
One of the most delightful films I saw in 2009, a whacked out stop-motion film from Belgium that follows Horse, Cowboy, and Indian throughout a series of adventures, mostly focused on trying to rebuild their house which keeps getting stolen every night. This is mile-a-minute absurdity with more inventiveness in 75 minutes than I usually see all year.
2009 Belium. Directors: Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar. Starring: Stéphane Aubier, Jeanne Balibar, Bruce Ellison, Vincent Pater.
(repeats at 3:00pm)

1:00pm – Sundance – Flight of the Red Balloon
Hou Hsiao-hsien’s dreamy homage to the classic French film The Red Balloon, but with the Hong Kong director’s signature pacing and visual style. Action-filled it ain’t, but in it’s place is the lyrical nostalgia that Hou is so well known for.
2007 France. Director: Hou Hsiao-hsien. Starring: Juliette Binoche, Hippolyte Girardot, Simon Iteanu.
Newly Featured!

1:05pm – MGM – The Long Goodbye
One of the most delightful films I saw in 2009, a whacked out stop-motion film from Belgium that follows Horse, Cowboy, and Indian throughout a series of adventures, mostly focused on trying to rebuild their house which keeps getting stolen every night. This is mile-a-minute absurdity with more inventiveness in 75 minutes than I usually see all year.
2009 Belium. Directors: Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar. Starring: Stéphane Aubier, Jeanne Balibar, Bruce Ellison, Vincent Pater.

8:00pm – MGM – The Raven
Another of the several Edgar Allan Poe adaptations teaming up Roger Corman and Vincent Price, this time expanding greatly on Poe’s famous poem, making it about a bunch of magicians turning each other into ravens and fighting over the lovely Lenore, with a lot more comedy than you’d think one of the creepiest poems in literary history could inspire.
1963 USA. Director: Roger Corman. Starring: Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Hazel Court, Olive Sturgess, Jack Nicholson.

Thursday, December 15

8:00am – IFC – Mrs. Dalloway
Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway is likely my all-time favorite book or very close to it, and it’s a book that you’d never expect could be made into a good film. It depends an awful lot on stream of consciousness, internal monologue and memory, and a subjective experience of time – all stylistic and narrative elements that don’t translate well to film. However, this 1997 version of the novel with Vanessa Redgrave perfectly cast as the older Clarissa Dalloway and Natascha McElhone as flashback-Clarissa comes about as close as I think is cinematically possible. It doesn’t come close to matching the book for me, but it is a solid film and captures a lot of Woolf’s spirit.
1997 USA/UK. Director: Marleen Gorris. Starring: Vanessa Redgrave, Natascha McElhone, Michael Kitchen, Alan Cox, Sarah Badel, Lena Headey, John Standing.
(repeats at 2:00pm)

11:00am – MGM – Manon of the Spring
The sequel to the equally good Jean de Florette (but not really dependent on it), this quiet and pastoral French film focuses on Jean’s daughter Manon, who tries to right the wrongs done to her father.
1986 France. Director: Claude Berri. Starring: Yves Montand, Daniel Auteuil, Emmanuelle Beart, Hippolyte Girardo.

11:30am – TCM – Anatomy of a Murder
The sequel to the equally good Jean de Florette (but not really dependent on it), this quiet and pastoral French film focuses on Jean’s daughter Manon, who tries to right the wrongs done to her father.
1986 France. Director: Claude Berri. Starring: Yves Montand, Daniel Auteuil, Emmanuelle Beart, Hippolyte Girardo.

2:15pm – TCM – Witness for the Prosecution
This courtroom drama/thriller is among the last great films for all three of its stars, as Charles Laughton plays the crotchety judge overseeing the murder trial of Tyrone Power, with the major witness in the case being Power’s wife Marlene Dietrich. But not everyone is playing on the level here, and as the trial goes on, loyalties shift and double-crosses are revealed right and left.
1957 USA. Director: Billy Wilder. Starring: Charles Laughton, Marlene Dietrich, Tyrone Power.

6:00pm – TCM – In a Lonely Place
Simply a brilliant film from director Nicholas Ray – Humphrey Bogart gives probably his best performance as washed-up screenwriter Dixon Steele, who’s trying to make a comeback with a new adaptation. When a coatcheck girl gets murdered after he was the last to see her, he naturally comes under suspicion, but his neighbor Laurel (Gloria Grahame) gives him an alibi and soon the two begin a relationship which just might save Dix from more than a murder charge – or might not. There’s a raw intensity here that few films have ever matched.
1951 USA. Director: Nicholas Ray. Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame.
Must See

10:00pm – IFC – Zodiac
One of David Fincher’s most acclaimed films, and deservedly so, tracing the obsession of one journalist (Jake Gyllenhaal) with the Zodiac serial killer. Years of following the case and the clues left by the Zodiac bring investigators no closer to success, but Gyllenhaal can’t let go – the story is much more a character study of him than a mystery of the killer, and it’s among the best of the genre.
2007 USA. Director: David Fincher. Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards, Robert Downey Jr., Brian Cox.

10:35pm – Sundance – Tiny Furniture
Written, directed by, and starring Lena Dunham, this film has both staunch supporters and vocal detractors – some drawn to its DIY aesthetic and the post-grad ennui of the main character, others put off by those very things. When Criterion announced they were releasing it (part of their deal with IFC Pictures), it caused a good bit of controversy. That release is coming in February, but Sundance is running it now, so you can decide for yourself which side of the fence you’re on.
2010 USA. Director: Lena Dunham. Starring: Lena Dunham, Laurie Simmons, Grace Dunham.
Newly Featured!
(repeats at 3:35am on the 16th)

11:30pm – TCM – Mister Roberts
Henry Fonda is the title character, an XO on a cargo ship who often butts heads with the captain (James Cagney), who runs the ship with an iron fist. The tone is a satisfying combination of comedy and drama, and with a cast that also includes William Powell in his last role and Jack Lemmon in one of his first, you can hardly go wrong. Though John Ford and Mervyn LeRoy share credit for the film, it’s mostly Ford – LeRoy was brought in to finish it when Ford had to undergo emergency surgery, but he tried to emulate Ford’s style as much as possible.
1955 USA. Director: John Ford and Mervyn LeRoy. Starring: Henry Fonda, James Cagney, William Powell, Jack Lemmon, Betsy Palmer, Ward Bond.

2:15am (15th) – Fox Movie – Naked Lunch
This is a whacked out movie, more of an exploration of beat author William S. Burrough’s life and writing process than an adaptation of his novel of the same name, with addictive bug powder, murders, hallucinogenic trips, typewriters that turn into cockroaches, and espionage plots. I saw it ages ago when I probably wasn’t ready for it; ought to try it again sometime.
1991 Canada. Director: David Cronenberg. Starring: Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm.

Friday, December 16

12:45pm – Sundance – Lolita
“How could they make a movie of Lolita?” runs the tagline, and indeed, it’s hard to imagine anyone even trying in 1962 – both because of the pedophiliac content and the interior nature of the narrative, very difficult to reproduce in cinematic form. But Stanley Kubrick decided he was up to the task, and though it isn’t considered one of his best films, it still rates pretty highly.
1962 UK/USA. Director: Stanley Kubrick. Starring: James Mason, Sue Lyon, Shelley Winters.

8:00pm – TCM – The Bishop’s Wife
Cary Grant is an angel sent to help Anglican bishop David Niven, but not in the way he expects – Niven wants to get a new cathedral built, but his single-minded drive is hurting his family and parish more than he realizes. This has never been one of my favorite Christmas movies, but most people I know seem to love it.
1947 USA. Director: Henry Koster. Starring: Cary Grant, Loretta Young, David Niven.
Newly Featured!

10:00pm – TCM – Christmas in Connecticut
The always-worth-watching Barbara Stanwyck is a magazine columnist who makes up a traditional country home for her column while living in New York, a subterfuge which causes no problems until a serviceman on leave wants nothing more than to spend Christmas on her farm and her editor thinks it’s a great human interest piece. Her attempts to recreate that world while falling for the serviceman are funny, warm, and enjoyable enough to add this to your holiday rotation.
1945 USA. Director: Peter Godfrey. Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, Sydney Greenstreet, Reginald Gardiner, S.Z. “Cuddles” Sakall, Una O’Connor.

11:00pm – Fox Movie – The Hustler
One of Paul Newman’s early iconic roles as Fast Eddie Felson, an up-and-coming pool shark whose cockiness leads to a devastating loss. But the return from that loss with a new manager could cost him even more. Great character work from George C. Scott and Jackie Gleason support what remains one of Newman’s finest performances.
1961 USA. Director: Robert Rossen. Starring: Paul Newman, George C. Scott, Jackie Gleason, Piper Laurie.
Must See
Newly Featured!
(repeats at 2:00am on the 17th)

12:00M – TCM – The Shop Around the Corner
The original version of You’ve Got Mail has James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan as feuding employees of a shop who are unknowingly exchanging romantic letters. Ernst Lubitsch directs, bringing his warm European wit to bear.
1940 USA. Director: Ernst Lubitsch. Starring: James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan.
(repeats at 10:00am on the 18th)

Saturday, December 17

6:00am – IFC – Junebug
There’s not a whole lot to this film about a newlywed couple going to North Carolina to meet his family – a place the wife, a Chicago urbanite, can’t really relate to at all. But the real story is in his drifter brother, a solid role for O.C. alum Ben MacKenzie, and his pregnant wife, a breakthrough role for Amy Adams. These two overshadow the ostensible leads of the film completely, and they’re worth the movie.
2005 USA. Director: Phil Morrison. Starring: Embeth Davidtz, Alessandro Nivola, Amy Adams, Ben MacKenzie, Amy Adams.
Newly Featured!

3:30pm – TCM – Gypsy
One of the best shows ever written about stage mothers turns into a pretty decent film – it purports to be the story of vaudeville/burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee, but ends up being much more about her mother Mama Rose. It’s a good showcase for any actress, and Rosalind Russell, though not quite the singer that the role pulls on Broadway, does a fine job. Plus, it’s chock-full of showstopping tunes.
1962 USA. Director: Meryvn LeRoy. Starring: Rosalind Russell, Natalie Wood, Karl Malden.

5:30pm – IFC – The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Not Wes Anderson’s best perhaps – it skirts the line of self-consciously quirky and ends up a bit too awkwardly artificial even for him. But there’s still a lot about it to like, and the attention to detail is top-notch. It’s worth a watch for sure, especially for Anderson fans.
2004 USA. Director: Wes Anderson. Starring: Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Anjelica Huston, Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe.

8:00pm – TCM – Bringing Up Baby
Poor Cary Grant just can’t get away from delightfully ditzy Katharine Hepburn, especially after her dog steals his museum’s priceless dinosaur bone. Oh, and after her pet leopard escapes (and a dangerous zoo leopard escapes at the same time). Incredible situation follows incredible situation in this zaniest of all screwball comedies.
1938 USA. Director: Howard Hawks. Starring: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, May Robson, Barry Fitzgerald.
Must See

8:00pm – MGM – Blood Simple
The Coen Brothers’ first feature is already a pretty good indication of their style – a noirish thriller with a black comedy edge where everything goes more and more wrong the more people try to fix their mistakes. When the “mistakes” involve murder, leaving evidence at murder scenes, and having the worst time ever trying to get rid of a body, you’re in for a good time at pretty much every character’s expense.
1984 USA. Director: Joel Coen. Starring: John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya, M. Emmet Walsh.

8:00pm – Fox Movie – Young Frankenstein
My pick for best Mel Brooks movie of all time, yes, over Blazing Saddles and Spaceballs. Gene Wilder is the title character, a relative of the original Dr. Frankenstein who derides the research into the animation of dead tissue as poppycock. Until he inherits the Frankenstein castle and starts doing some experimenting of his own. And hilarity ensues. Pretty much right up there with the most quotable movies ever for me.
1974 USA. Director: Mel Brooks. Starring: Gene Wilder, Teri Garr, Cloris Leachman, Marty Feldman.
Must See
(repeats at 12:00M)

8:05pm – IFC – Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Easily one of the most absurd, random, hilarious, and quotable comedies of all time. A more hapless bunch of Round Table knights couldn’t be found, and Monty Python has never been better than they are here.
1975 UK. Directors: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones. Starring: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones.
Must See
(repeats at 2:00am on the 18th)

9:55pm – MGM – Blue Velvet
I’ll be honest, this is not one of my favorite David Lynch films. There are a lot of things I like about it. The unsettling take on suburbia, the gorgeously disturbing photography, the kids playing detective, the severed ear, you know, the normal Lynch stuff. But then it just gets to be too cruel for me. Still, it’s a Lynch classic, and you oughta see it. And I oughta see it again, see if my opinion has changed.
1986 USA. Director: David Lynch. Starring: Kyle McLachlan, Laura Dern, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper.

10:00pm – TCM – The Philadelphia Story
Katharine Hepburn is Tracy Lord, a spoiled socialite about to marry Ralph Bellamy when ex-husband Cary Grant turns up. Throw in newspaper columnist James Stewart and his photographer Ruth Hussey, along with a bunch of great character actors filling out the cast, and you have both rollicking wedding preparations and one of the best films ever made.
1940 USA. Director: George Cukor. Starring: Katharaine Hepburn, Cary Grant, James Stewart, Ruth Hussey, Ralph Bellamy, Virginia Weidler.
Must See

10:05pm – IFC – Monty Python’s Life of Brian
After dismantling the King Arthur legends, Monty Python turn their attention to the Bible itself, satirically suggesting what might happen if a random 1st century baby got mistaken for the Messiah. Irreverent and hilarious, though not as consistently so for me as Holy Grail.
1979 UK. Director: Terry Jones. Starring: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin.
(repeats at 4:00am on the 18th)

12:00M – TCM – Holiday
Overshadowed by the same year’s Bringing Up Baby, this Hepburn-Grant team-up is a really solid little film about a young man (Grant) engaged to a wealthy heiress. But her family doesn’t take too kindly to some of his more unorthodox ideas about business and life, except for his fiancee’s two black sheep siblings (Hepburn and Lew Ayres). Not up there with Baby or Philadelphia Story, but definitely worth watching.
1938 USA. Director: George Cukor. Starring: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Doris Nolan, Lew Ayres, Edward Everett Horton, Henry Kolker.
Newly Featured!

3:45am (18th) – TCM – Victor/Victoria
Pretty classic among gender-switching comedies, this one has Julie Andrews as a singer who finds she has more success pretending to be a man working as a female impersonator. Lots of fun and confusion ensues.
1982 UK/USA. Director: Blake Edwards. Starring: Julie Andrews, James Garner, Robert Preston.

Sunday, December 18

6:00am – TCM – Little Women
This first sound version of Little Women has a young Katharine Hepburn in the lead, along with a roll-call of great 1930s starlets and character actors. It’s a bit wooden compared to the 1994 version, but it’s got a lot of charm nonetheless.
1933 USA. Director: George Cukor. Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Paul Lukas, Edna May Oliver, Jean Parker, Frances Dee.

9:45am – IFC – Exam
Setting a film entirely in one room is a constraint that often results in some very interesting cinema, and Exam certainly sounds interesting, placing a bunch of people in a single room for a job interview that consists of only one question. But they aren’t told what the question is.
2009 UK. Director: Stuart Hazeldine. Starring: Adar Beck, Gemma Chan, Nathalie Cox.

1:00pm – TCM – Since You Went Away
A WWII homefront story of a middle America family offering a room for rent to help make ends meet while the husband/father is off at war. The great ensemble cast helps sell this, which covers day to day issues like food rations as well as major events like the daughter’s romance. Not as immediate or gripping as something like Mrs. Miniver, but still a solid and entertaining look at the American homefront.
1944 USA. Director: John Cromwell. Starring: Claudette Colbert, Monty Woolley, Jennifer Jones, Robert Walker, Joseph Cotten, Shirley Temple, Lionel Barrymore, Hattie McDaniel, Agnes Moorehead.

4:00pm – TCM – An American in Paris
Expat artist Gene Kelly in Paris meets Leslie Caron and woos her away from rival Georges Guetarey, all set to Gershwin music and directed with panache by Vincente Minnelli. All that plus Kelly’s ground-breaking fifteen-plus-minute ballet to the title piece.
1951 USA. Director: Vincente Minnelli. Starring: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Georges Guetarey.
Must See

6:000pm – TCM – State Fair
The only musical Rodgers & Hammerstein wrote directly for the screen, and yeah, it’s fairly inconsequential, but it’s a lot of fun. And really made me want my dad to take me to the Iowa State Fair when I was a kid. He never did, so I never got to find out if it was as much fun as this. Probably not.
1945 USA. Director: Walter Lang. Starring: Jeanne Crain, Dana Andrews, Dick Haymes, Vivian Blaine.

10:00pm – TCM – The Man Who Came to Dinner
A rare comedic film for Bette Davis, though the film mainly focuses on Monty Woolley as an acerbic newspaper critic forced to take up residence with a midwestern family when he breaks his hip outside their house. Woolley was a great character actor here given the spotlight, and he takes it and runs with it. A great script by Julius and Philip Epstein (of Casablanca) doesn’t hurt, either.
1942 USA. Director: William Keighley. Starring: Bette Davis, Ann Sheridan, Monty Woolley, Jimmy Durante, Billie Burke.

12:00M – TCM – Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
Everyone knows about Charlton Heston’s Ben-Hur. You know, the one that won eleven Oscars, a record which stood for, like, fifty years? This isn’t that one. This is the 1925 silent version of the same story, with pre-talkie hearththrob Ramon Novarro as Ben-Hur, and an equally impressive (for its time) chariot race sequence. In some ways, I actually prefer this version to the bombastic 1959 version, and it’s definitely worth a watch.
1925 USA. Director: Fred Niblo. Starring: Ramon Novarro, Francis X. Bushman, May McAvoy, Betty Bronson, Kathleen Key.

2:30am (19th) – TCM – Fanny and Alexander
One of Ingmar Bergman’s most beloved films, and one I’ve sadly yet to catch up with myself, about a pair of children who are uprooted from their theatrical milieu into an austere chancery when their mother marries a bishop after their father dies. TCM is showing the 189 min theatrical cut, not the longer TV edit.
1982 Sweden. Director: Ingmar Bergman. Starring: Pernilla Allwin, Bertil Guve, Börje Ahlstedt, Allan Edwall, Ewa Fröling.
Newly Featured!

The Bank Dick, playing Saturday on TCM

Pretty good grab bag of Newly Featured ones this week, from Christmas classics like A Christmas Carol (the 1938 version, Monday on TCM) and A Christmas Story (Tuesday on TCM) to more recent releases like Nights and Weekends (Wednesday on Sundance) and that thing you do! (Tuesday on Fox Movie Channel). Plus, W.C. Fields’ finest hour in The Bank Dick, playing Saturday on TCM.

Monday, December 5

11:45am – IFC – A Prairie Home Companion
One of Robert Altman’s final films, and one I’ve not yet gotten up to in my attempts to rectify my Altman blind spot. As much as I’ve enjoyed the films of his I have seen, though, I’m definitely putting his entire filmography higher on my to-watch list.
2006 USA. Director: Robert Altman. Starring: Woody Harrelson, Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Lindsay Lohan, Virginia Madsen, John C. Reilly, Maya Rudolph, Lily Tomlin.

12:15pm – TCM – The Man With the Golden Arm
Frank Sinatra gets one of his best acting roles as card dealer Frankie Machine, recently back from rehab and wanting to become a drummer, but held back and lured back into dealing and addiction by those around him. Solid direction and supporting performances, plus a great jazz score, make this a hard-hitting and excellent film.
1955 USA. Director: Otto Preminger. Starring: Frank Sinatra, Kim Novak, Eleanor Parker.

9:45pm – TCM – A Christmas Carol (1938)
Generally, the 1951 British version of Dickens’ classic novella is considered the best of the classic adaptations, but this 1938 version is pretty solid, too, with a solid group of character actors taking on the roles of Scrooge, Cratchit, and others.
1938 USA. Director: Edwin L. Marin. Starring: Reginald Owen, Gene Lockhart, Kathleen Lockhart, Leo G. Carroll, Ann Rutherford.
Newly Featured!

12:35am (6th) – IFC – Valhalla Rising
Nicholas Winding Refn’s nearly wordless take on the Viking action film, privileging visual storytelling and a somewhat surreal and philosophical feel.
2009 Denmark. Director: Nicholas Winding Refn. Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Maarten Stevenson, Alexander Morton.
(repeats at 2:35am)

Tuesday, December 6

6:00am – TCM – Johnny Belinda
Jane Wyman won an Oscar for playing a deaf/mute woman surrounded by a rape/pregnancy scandal, and may have given the best acceptance speech ever. Paraphrased: “You gave this to me for keeping my mouth shut, and I think I’ll do the same now.”
1948 USA. Director: Jean Negulesco. Starring: Jane Wyman, Lew Ayres, Charles Bickford.

10:00am – IFC – Hero
Jet Li is the titular hero in this Zhang Yimou film, arguably the best of Yimou’s period action-on-wires films (though I’m partial to House of Flying Daggers myself). The story unfolds in flashback as Li explains to a warlord how he eliminated three would-be assassins (who happen to be three of Hong Kong cinema’s biggest stars, incidentally) – but all may not be precisely how it seems.
2002 China. Director: Zhang Yimou. Starring: Jet Li, Zhang Ziyi, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung.
(repeats at 4:00pm)

4:00pm – Fox Movie – that thing you do!
Tom Hanks took his first turn behind the camera of a feature film with this film about a 1960s one-hit wonder band. It’s pretty slight, but it’s a lot of fun, with a rollicking soundtrack of oldies and imitation oldies.
1996 USA. Director: Tom Hanks. Starring: Tom Everett Scott, Liv Tyler, Steve Zahn, Tom Hanks, Charlize Theron.
Newly Featured!

6:00pm – Fox Movie – An Affair to Remember
For some reason, this has become one of the best-loved melodramas of classic Hollywood (possibly because its main plot point is memorialized in Sleepless in Seattle); it’s not one of my personal favorites in the genre, but as three-handkerchief romantic weepies go, it’s not bad.
1957 USA. Director: Leo McCarey. Starring: Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr.

8:00pm – IFC – Full Metal Jacket
Kubrick takes on the Vietnam war with one of his most highly-regarded films, following a unit of Marines from basic training under a tyrannical sergeant through fighting in the streets of Vietnam.
(1987 UK/USA. Director: Stanley Kubrick. Starring: Matthew Modine, Adam Baldwin, Vincent D’Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey.
(repeats at 11:00pm)

9:00pm – TCM – A Christmas Story
A staple on cable channels for years, this classic of childhood holiday cheer takes its turn on TCM (but only plays once, instead of all day!). The adventures of Ralphie are well-known to most everybody under the age of 40, but it’s always fun to revisit them around this time of year.
1983 USA. Director: Bob Clark. Starring: Peter Billingsley, Melinda Dillon, Darren McGavin.
Newly Featured!

9:00pm – Sundance – Hunger
A look at the last days of IRA member Bobby Sands, the leader of a 1981 hunger strike undertaken by IRA prisoners in the face of brutal prison conditions. I have yet to see it, but first-time director Steve McQueen’s stark yet artful style brought him huge amounts of critical acclaim, plus the film stands as Michael Fassbender’s breakout.
2008 UK. Director: Steve McQueen. Starring: Michael Fassbender, Stuart Graham, Laine Megaw, Brian Milligan.

10:05pm – Fox Movie – The Panic in Needle Park
A harrowing tale of NYC heroin addicts, exemplifying the dark side of youth culture that New Hollywood does so well. A star-making turn for Al Pacino, just a year prior to The Godfather.
1971 USA. Director: Jerry Schatzberg. Starring: Al Pacino, Kitty Winn, Alan Vint.
(repeats at 2:05am on the 7th)

12:00M – TCM – Miracle on 34th Street
The original classic Christmas tale of a Macy’s department store Santa who claims to be the real thing and the family whose cynicism is tested by his presence. One of Natalie Wood’s most memorable pre-growing-up roles, and an Oscar-winner for Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle.
1947 USA. Director: George Seaton. Starring: Maureen O’Hara, Natalie Wood, Edmund Gwenn, John Payne.

2:00am (7th) – TCM – Meet Me in St. Louis
The ultimate nostalgia film, harking back to the turn of the century and the year leading up to the 1903 St. Louis World’s Fair. Judy Garland holds the film and the family in it together as the girl who only wants to love the boy next door, but it’s Margaret O’Brien as the little willful sister who adds the extra bit of oomph, especially in the manic Halloween scene and the violent Christmas scene that carries the film from an exercise in sentimentality into a deeper territory of loss and distress.
1944 USA. Director: Vincente Minnelli. Starring: Judy Garland, Tom Drake, Lucille Bremer, Margaret O’Brien, Leon Ames, Mary Astor.
Must See

Wednesday, December 7

8:45am – TCM – You Can’t Take It With You
Capra won his third directing Oscar for this film (the others were for It Happened One Night and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town), but to me it’s not one of his more interesting pieces. Young couple James Stewart and Jean Arthur invite chaos when his staid, wealthy family meets her wacky, irreverent one.
1938 USA. Director: Frank Capra. Starring: Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Spring Byington.

10:45am – IFC – Dancer in the Dark
Bjork plays a factory worker whose increasing blindness threatens to keep her from being able to do her job, which will keep her from earning the money she needs for an operation that will prevent her son from suffering the same blindness. Add in the relationship with her not-as-happy-as-they-seem neighbors and a trenchant critique of the justice system and death penalty, not to mention several musical numbers juxtaposed throughout, and you have a film that’s unlike any other.
2000 Denmark. Director: Lars von Trier. Starring: Bjork, Catherine Deneuve, David Morse, Peter Stormare.

1:00pm – TCM – The Misfits
John Huston directs and Arthur Miller writes this final film for both Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. Though the film is remembered for that tragic fact, it’s also a pretty solid film on its own, about a divorcee caught between two rough and ready men of the west (Gable and Montgomery Clift), then opposing them when she discovers their plans for the wild horses in the area. And of course, with Miller behind it, there’s far more going on than just that.
1961 USA. Director: John Huston. Starring: Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, Thelma Ritter, Eli Wallach.

3:15pm – TCM – How the West Was Won
Mostly notable for cramming pretty much every star in Hollywood (and three directors!) into the same film, this film is quite Hollywoodized from actual history and rather overlong in its attempt to tell a long and sprawling history, but for fans of westerns and cameos, it’s an enjoyable watch.
1963 USA. Director: John Ford, Henry Hathaway, George Marshall. Starring: Caroll Baker, Lee J. Cobb, Henry Fonda, Carolyn Jones, Karl Malden, Gregory Peck, George Peppard, Robert Preston, Debbie Reynolds, James Stewart, Eli Wallach, John Wayne, Richard Widmark, Walter Brennan, Andy Devine, Raymond Massey, Agnes Moorehead, Harry Morgan, Thelma Ritter, Russ Tamblyn.
Newly Featured!

3:30pm – MGM – Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Tom Stoppard’s brilliant play about the “in-betweens” of Hamlet, following two minor characters around as they discuss existential philosophy and various other topics while the main action of the play happens elsewhere, becomes an almost-as-brilliant film. I still recommend seeing the play if you can, as it’s slightly different and I think better, but the film is still wonderful.
1990 UK/USA. Director: Tom Stoppard. Starring: Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, Richard Dreyfuss.

8:00pm – TCM – From Here to Eternity
There’s the famous part, yes, where Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr make love on the beach among the crashing waves. But there’s also a solid ensemble war tale, involving young officer Montgomery Clift and his naive wife Donna Reed, and embittered soldiers Frank Sinatra and Lee J. Cobb.
1953 USA. Director: Fred Zinnemann. Starring: Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Frank Sinatra, Donna Reed, Montgomery Clift, Lee J. Cobb.

10:45pm – Sundance – Nights and Weekends
Joe Swanberg and Greta Gerwig are two of the most visible faces in the Mumblecore movement, such as it is, and this is one of their more highly-regarded collaborations (both credited as directors, writers, and actors), with a typically lo-fi relationship-driven story of two people struggling through a long-distance relationship.
2008 USA. Director: Joe Swanberg, Greta Gerwig. Starring: oe Swanberg, Greta Gerwig, Alison Bagnall.
Newly Featured!

12:00M – MGM – Manon of the Spring
The sequel to the equally good Jean de Florette (but not really dependent on it), this quiet and pastoral French film focuses on Jean’s daughter Manon, who tries to right the wrongs done to her father.
1986 France. Director: Claude Berri. Starring: Yves Montand, Daniel Auteuil, Emmanuelle Beart, Hippolyte Girardo.

4:15am (8th) – TCM – They Were Expendable
There are films that don’t seem to be all that while you’re watching them – no particularly powerful scenes, not a particularly moving plot, characters that are developed but don’t jump out at you – and yet by the time you reach the end, you’re somehow struck with what a great movie you’ve seen. This film was like that for me – it’s mostly a lot of vignettes from a U-boat squadron led by John Wayne, the only one who thought the U-boat could be useful in combat. But it all adds up to something much more.
1945 USA. Director: John Ford. Starring: John Wayne, Robert Montgomery, Donna Reed, Jack Holt, Ward Bond.

Koyaanisqatsi, playing Sunday on MGM

Fairly low on newly featured ones this week, but TCM does have a John Carpenter double feature late Friday/early Saturday with They Live and The Fog, and are also showing Busby Berkeley extravaganza Dames on Tuesday and MGM has the mesmerizing visual tone poem Koyaanisqatsi on Sunday.

Monday, November 28

11:00am – Fox Movie – I Wake Up Screaming
Better known for bright and sunny musicals, Betty Grable took a turn for the noir in this crime film, playing the sister of a recently-murdered model with a rising career. It’s a slight noir, but fun nonetheless, especially for the chance to see Grable in a role unusual for her.
1942 USA. Director: H. Bruce Humberstone. Starring: Betty Grable, Victor Mature, Carole Landis.

2:00pm – Fox Movie – Call Northside 777
One of Jimmy Stewart’s first films after spending the war as a fighter pilot; he plays a reporter compelled to reopen an eleven-year-old murder case, coming to believe the wrong man was sentenced to life in prison. A good combo of film noir and mystery.
1948 USA. Director: Henry Hathaway. Starring: James Stewart, Richard Conte, Lee J. Cobb.

4:00pm – TCM – Stage Fright
An actress helps a friend try to defend his innocence when he’s accused of murder – but is she doing the right thing? This is one of the earliest examples I know of in film of an unreliable cinematic rendering of events; doesn’t follow through on it quite as well as Rashomon does (which was released the same year), but very interesting nonetheless.
1950 USA. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Starring: Jane Wyman, Michael Wilding, Marlene Dietrich.

8:00pm – TCM – Doctor Zhivago
Idealistic Zhivago experiences the Bolshevik Revolution while also dealing with his conflicting feelings for his wife Tonya and young nurse Lara. There are a few things about the romance side of the story that bother me, mostly the fact that I liked Tonya way more than Lara, but I have to admit Lean knows how to make epic films, and Maurice Jarre’s score is unforgettable.
1965 UK/USA. Director: David Lean. Starring: Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger, Alec Guinness.

8:00pm – IFC – Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Not everyone liked Tim Burton’s take on the macabre Sondheim musical, and I’ll admit the singing is, well, not that good. But the production design is among Burton’s best, and that’s saying a lot. I don’t love the film, either, but I enjoyed watching it.
2007 USA. Director: Tim Burton. Starring: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman.
(repeats at 12:30am on the 29th)

Tuesday, November 29

7:15am – TCM – Dames
Not really a top-notch entry in the Warner Bros-Busby Berkeley cycle of films, but it does have the requisite number of awesome Berkeley-choreographed dance numbers. In fact, the film helpfully loads them all at the end, so if you find the story a bit on the routine side, just fast-forward until the show starts.
1934 USA. Director: Ray Enright, Busby Berkeley. Starring: Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler.
Newly Featured!

9:00am – TCM – Gold Diggers of 1935
This movie is not nearly as good as Gold Diggers of 1933 (to which it is unrelated in plot), but it does have one thing that makes it eminently worth watching – the epic “Lullaby of Broadway” number that closes the show, with a full story-within-a-dance playing out through three verses of the song. It is possibly the most definitive number of 1930s backstage musicals.
1935 USA. Director: Busby Berkeley. Starring: Dick Powell, Joan Blondell, Gloria Stuart, Alice Brady.

4:00pm – MGM – The Party
It may not be quite politically correct to cast Peter Sellers as an Indian movie extra who accidentally gets invited to a big Hollywood party instead of being fired for bunglling a major stunt, but the movie certainly is hilarious, largely made up of a series of sight gags as Sellers bumbles his way around a swinging ’60s party.
1968 USA. Director: Blake Edwards. Starring: Peter Sellers, Claudine Longet, Natalie Borisova, Jean Carson, Marge Champion.
(repeats at 4:00am on the 4th)

6:00pm – MGM – A Shot in the Dark
Here’s your counter example for the “sequels are never as good as the original” argument. This second film in the Pink Panther series is easily the best, and stands as ones of the zaniest 1960s comedies ever.
1964 USA. Director: Blake Edwards. Starring: Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom.
(repeats at 2:00pm on the 3rd)

11:00pm – IFC – The Dreamers
Bernardo Bertolucci’s love letter to the French New Wave, with American Michael Pitt heading to Paris just in time to join the ’68 Cinematheque riots, becoming friends and eventually lovers with a siblings Louis Garrel and Eva Green, a pair of fellow cinephiles. Bertolucci draws on Band of Outsiders and Jules and Jim especially, as well as the history of the era and his own sensibilities. It loses me personally a bit in the eroticism of the second half, but the first part is fantastic.
2003 France/UK/Italy. Director: Bernardo Bertolucci. Starring: Michael Pitt, Louis Garrel, Eva Green.
(repeats at 3:30am on the 30th)

2:00am (30th) – TCM – Captain Blood
This was Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland’s first of eight films together, and it’s one of the best. Flynn is the eponymous captain, a dentist named Blood who gets captured by pirates and ends up escaping and taking over the pirate ship himself. Full of swashbuckling and derring-do.
1935 USA. Director: Michael Curtiz. Starring: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Lionel Atwill, Basil Rathbone, Guy Kibbee.

2:00am (30th) – Sundance – Heartbeats
The second film from wunderkind Xavier Dolan isn’t quite as impressive as his debut I Killed My Mother, but it’s still a really enjoyable watch, with two best friends silently fighting over the androgynous object of both their affection. It’s stylized as all get out, but there’s a fair bit of depth beneath its New Wave-inspired superficial veneer.
2010 Canada. Director: Xavier Dolan. Starring: Xavier Dolan, Monia Chokri, Niel Schneider.

Wednesday, November 30

7:30am – TCM – White Heat
James Cagney in one of his most powerful roles as the slightly (okay, make that more-than-slightly) unbalanced criminal Cody Jarrett. Probably counts as one of the last truly great Warner crime films, too.
1949 USA. Director: Raoul Walsh. Starring: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O’Brien, Margaret Wycherly.

8:00pm – IFC – Zodiac
One of David Fincher’s most acclaimed films, and deservedly so, tracing the obsession of one journalist (Jake Gyllenhaal) with the Zodiac serial killer. Years of following the case and the clues left by the Zodiac bring investigators no closer to success, but Gyllenhaal can’t let go – the story is much more a character study of him than a mystery of the killer, and it’s among the best of the genre.
2007 USA. Director: David Fincher. Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards, Robert Downey Jr., Brian Cox.
(repeats at 11:30pm)

8:00pm – TCM – To Catch a Thief
Not one of my personal favorite Hitchcock films, but certainly one of his classiest, most sophisticated entries. Cary Grant is a notorious cat burglar, Grace Kelly the Monte Carlo socialite he woos. It’s one of Kelly’s last films, and she’s already looking like the princess she was about to become.
1955 USA. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Starring; Cary Grant, Grace Kelly.

10:0pm – TCM – Dial M for Murder
Glossy Hitchcock film with Ray Milland hiring a hitman to off his wife Grace Kelly after discovered she’d been unfaithful to him, but when she turns the tables on the would-be killer, Milland is forced to ever more devious cover-ups and plots. Really solid suspenser, if not quite top-level Hitchcock for me. Still a must-see if you’re a Hitchcock fan.
1954 USA. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Starring: Grace Kelly, Ray Milland, Robert Cummings, John Williams, Anthony Dawson.

And God Created Woman, playing Monday on TCM

My two main recommendations among the newly featured ones this week are both kind of French New Wave-esque, though on opposite ends of the spectrum. Roger Vadim’s And God Created Woman (playing Monday night on TCM) is a precursor to the New Wave, catapulting Brigitte Bardot to stardom while showcasing her sexuality in a way films hadn’t done much up to that point. Xavier Dolan’s Heartbeats (playing late Saturday on Sundance), released in 2010 and hailing from Quebec instead of France, is a stylistic throwback to the brighter, more colorful side of the New Wave. Both films are definitely worth checking out.

Monday, November 21

8:15am – MGM – Judgment at Nuremberg
As the Cold War heats up, Nazi war trials are still going on, with four lesser Nazi judges up for trial. Meanwhile, outside the courtoom, German citizens try to put their life back together, providing a contrast for the Nazi atrocities discussed and even shown as evidence in the court. Judy Garland gives one of her few purely dramatic performances, and go an Oscar nomination for it, no less, among an extremely talented and diverse cast (Maximillian Schell did win an Oscar for his role).
1962 USA. Director: Stanley Kramer. Starring: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich, Maximillian Schell, Judy Garland, Montgomery Clift, William Shatner.
Newly Featured!

11:15am – TCM – The Naked Spur
One of several westerns that teamed director Anthony Mann and James Stewart in the 1950, this one is a fine example of the darker turn that both the western as a genre and Jimmy Stewart’s roles took in the hands of Anthony Mann. Stewart is a bitter bounty hunter who takes on two suspect partners to track down a fugitive – a wily man indeed who psychologically manipulates the three men into turning on each other.
1953 USA. Director: Anthony Mann. Starring: James Stewart, Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan, Ralph Meeker, Millard Mitchell.

11:35am – MGM – Manon of the Spring
The sequel to the equally good Jean de Florette (but not really dependent on it), this quiet and pastoral French film focuses on Jean’s daughter Manon, who tries to right the wrongs done to her father.
1986 France. Director: Claude Berri. Starring: Yves Montand, Daniel Auteuil, Emmanuelle Beart, Hippolyte Girardo.

1:00pm – TCM – Kiss Me Deadly
Iconic noir film, with hard-boiled action, nuclear paranoia, and one of the more memorable non-Hitchcock McGuffins in movie history. Plus some great LA locations. One of the pulpier noir films, and one of the most enjoyable.
1955 USA. Director: Robert Aldrich. Starring: Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Paul Stewart, Cloris Leachman, Marian Carr.

2:00pm – Fox Movie – Bedazzled
One of the best films of the British mod era, a comedic take on Faust with Dudley Moore a socially inept guy infatuated with the unattainable (to him) Eleanor Bron – granted seven wishes by Satan (Peter Cook), he tries to wish his way to her, but somehow fails hilariously every time.
1967 USA. Director: Stanley Donen. Starring: Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Eleanor Bron.

3:00pm – TCM – Paths of Glory
A relatively early Kubrick film, with Kirk Douglas as a WWI army officer who defends his soldiers’ decsion to refuse an order to attack in an impossible situation, leading to court martial back at home. The combination of war and courtroom drama is very solid, as is the evocation of WWI and the almost complete disconnect between superiors planning attacks from safe bunkers and soldiers carrying them out in the trenches.
1957 USA. Director: Stanley Kubrick. Starring: Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou, George Macready, Richard Anderson.

8:00pm – IFC – From Hell
Johnny Depp takes on the role of a troubled Victorian police detective on the trail of Jack the Ripper in this adaptation of Alan Moore’s graphic novel. Not quite as memorable as would hope, but worth a watch.
2001 USA. Directors: Albert and Allen Hughes. Starring: Johnny Depp, Heather Graham, Ian Holm, Robbie Coltrane.
(repeats at 12:35am on the 22nd)

10:30pm – IFC – Valhalla Rising
Nicholas Winding Refn’s nearly wordless take on the Viking action film, privileging visual storytelling and a somewhat surreal and philosophical feel.
2009 Denmark. Director: Nicholas Winding Refn. Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Maarten Stevenson, Alexander Morton.
(repeats at 3:05am on the 22nd)

12:00M – TCM – And God Created Woman
The film that really catapulted Brigitte Bardot to stardom, as a fickle and independent young woman who runs roughshod through a small seaside town, breaking hearts as she goes. She’s not simply a vamp, though, but a woman-child whose petulance gets her more than she bargains for. It’s an intriguing film, and not one easily pinned down – I still have my own doubts about the ending. But Bardot’s screen presence leaves no doubt at all.
1956 France. Director: Roger Vadim. Starring: Brigitte Bardot, Curd Jürgens, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jane Marken.
Newly Featured!

12:00M – MGM – Coming Home
One of the most highly acclaimed Vietnam home-front films, with Jane Fonda and Jon Voight both winning Oscars for their roles – Jane as a soldier’s wife with her husband away in Vietnam, Jon as war veteran with a paralyzing injury.
1978 USA. Director: Hal Ashby. Starring: Jane Fonda, Jon Voight, Bruce Dern, Penelope Milford, Robert Carradine.

3:45am (22nd) – TCM – A Foreign Affair
A lesser Billy Wilder film, but Billy Wilder nonetheless, and though Jean Arthur’s opening plot line of an uptight congresswoman going to Berlin to “keep up morale” among the post-war occupying US soldiers (by which she really means “keep up morals”) gets old quickly, Marlene Dietrich’s worldly cabaret singer – and possible Nazi collaborator – keeps things interesting.
1948 USA. Director: Billy Wilder. Starring: Jean Arthur, Marlene Dietrich, John Lund, Millard Mitchell.

Tuesday, November 22

6:00am – IFC – Away from Her
A very strong directing debut film from actress Sarah Polley, about an older woman (Julie Christie) suffering from Alzheimer’s and her husband’s difficulty in dealing with essentially the loss of his wife as she has more and more difficulty remembering their life together. It’s a lovely, heartbreaking film, bolstered by great understated performances.
2006 Canada. Director: Sarah Polley. Starring: Julie Christie, Gordon Pinsent, Olympia Dukakis, Stacey LaBerge.
(repeats at 1:00pm)

8:00am – Fox Movie – Heaven Can Wait
In this unusual Lubitsch fantasy, a recently deceased man tries to convince Satan that he’s belongs in hell; unconvinced, Satan listens to him recount his life. As with anything Lubitsch, wit and sophistication abounds.1943 USA. Director: Ernst Lubitsch. Starring: Don Ameche, Gene Tierney, Charles Coburn.

8:00pm – TCM – Sweet Smell of Success
One of the most acidically witty films of the 1950s, Sweet Smell of Success turns its gaze on Broadway gossip columnist Burt Lancaster, who connives with press agent Tony Curtis to break up his sister’s romance – a searing indictment of unscrupulous newspaper men, yes, and a bitingly funny one to boot.
1957 USA. Director: Alexander Mackendrick. Starring: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison, Martin Milner, Sam Levene.

9:45pm – TCM – Red River
Howard Hawks’ brilliant transposition of Mutiny on the Bounty into the Old West has John Wayne as a tyrannical cattle drive leader and Montgomery Clift (in one of his earliest roles) as his adopted son who soon defies him.
1948 USA. Director: Howard Hawks. Starring: John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Joanne Dru.
Must See

11:00pm – IFC – The Shining
Kubrick’s take on one of Stephen King’s most well-known novels may not stick that closely to King’s original story, but manages to capture the creepy factor of the Overlook Hotel and Jack Torrance’s descent into madness in a supremely cinematic way. Many memorable and disturbing scenes, and one of the few movies in which I actually like Jack Nicholson. So there’s that. Definitely not one to be missed.
1980 USA/UK. Director: Stanley Kubrick. Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers.
Must See
(repeats at 2:00am on the 23rd)

12:00M – Sundance – The Silence of the Lambs
Only three films have ever swept the top five Oscars (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Screenplay), and this is one of them, managing both to be a solid serial killer thriller and something more, in its exploration of psychosis and the demons we all hide inside ourselves.
1991 USA. Director: Jonathan Demme. Starring: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Ted Levine, Scott Glenn.
Must See
(repeats at 10:00pm on the 25th and 7:55pm on the 27th)

12:15am (23rd) – TCM – Gunga Din
Three British soldiers and an Indian water bearer join forces against an Indian cult gearing up for a murderous rampage. A classic adventure story, and one I should rewatch at some point.
1939 USA. Director: George Stevens. Starring: Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Sam Jaffe.

2:30am (23rd) – TCM – Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Frank Capra puts on his idealist hat to tell the story of Jefferson Smith (James Stewart), an inexperienced young man appointed as a junior senator because the corrupt senior senator thinks he’ll be easy to control. But Smith doesn’t toe the party line, instead launching a filibuster for what he believes in. Wonderful comedienne Jean Arthur is the journalist who initially encourages Smith so she can get a great story from his seemingly inevitable downfall, but soon joins his cause.
1939 USA. Director: Frank Capra. Starring: James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, Eugene Pallette, Thomas Mitchell.
Must See

Wednesday, November 23

6:00am – Fox Movie – The Snake Pit
One of the earlier films to deal with the realities of mental illness seriously, with Olivia de Havilland as a woman in an insane asylum, brilliantly moving back and forth between lucidity and falling back in the fog of illness. She got an Oscar nom for her role, based on a true story.
1948 USA. Director: Anatole Litvak. Starring: Olivia de Havilland, Mark Stevens, Leo Genn, Celeste Holm.
(repeats at 12:00N on the 26th)

10:00am – TCM – The Adventures of Robin Hood
I will state almost categorically that this is the greatest adventure film ever made. Maybe it’s a dead heat between this one and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Errol Flynn is Robin Hood, Olivia de Havilland is Maid Marion, a whole raft of fantastic character actors fill out the rest of the cast, and it’s all done in gorgeous Technicolor (it’s one of the earliest Technicolor films).
1938 USA. Directors: William Keighley & Michael Curtiz. Starring: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Claude Rains, Basil Rathbone, Eugene Pallette, Alan Hale, Patric Knowles, Una O’Connor.
Must See

12:30pm – Fox Movie – I Wake Up Screaming
Better known for bright and sunny musicals, Betty Grable took a turn for the noir in this crime film, playing the sister of a recently-murdered model with a rising career. It’s a slight noir, but fun nonetheless, especially for the chance to see Grable in a role unusual for her.
1942 USA. Director: H. Bruce Humberstone. Starring: Betty Grable, Victor Mature, Carole Landis.

2:00pm – TCM – Tarzan, the Ape Man
Get your pre-code action right here, as swimming champion Johnny Weissmuller brings Tarzan to life and Maureen O’Sullivan teaches him the ways of the human world as Jane. Generally, the sequel Tarzan and His Mate is considered the best of the series, but hey. Gotta start somewhere.
1932 USA. Director: W.S. Van Dyke. Starring: Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O’Sullivan.

6:00pm – TCM – Mogambo
A remake of 1932′s Red Dust, also starring Gable, this suffers a bit in comparison by not being pre-Code, but with John Ford at the helm and Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly taking the Mary Astor/Jean Harlow roles, it can’t be all bad, and it isn’t. It’s still a solid little love triangle/adventure film.
1953 USA. Director: John Ford. Starring: Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly.

8:00pm – Fox Movie – The Verdict
Powerhouse filmmaker Sidney Lumet returns to his 12 Angry Men courtroom milieu for The Verdict, starring Paul Newman as an on-the-rocks lawyer who takes a medical malpractice suit to trial in a somewhat desperate attempt to salvage his career.
1982 USA. Director: Sidney Lumet. Starring: Paul Newman, Charlotte Rampling, Jack Warden.

12:35am (24th) – Sundance – Summer Hours
In what sounds like a very beautiful and meditative film, Olivier Assayas explores a French family as the matriarch prepares for her own passing and then the actions of her family after she does. It got the Criterion treatment almost immediately upon release, which is enough for me to get excited on its own, but I’ve also heard really good things about it.
2008 France. Director: Olivier Assayas. Starring: Juliette Binoche, Charles Berling, Jérémie Renier.

3:00am (24th) – TCM – My Favorite Wife
After being shipwrecked and believed dead for seven years, Irene Dunne returns home to her husband Cary Grant on the eve of his marriage to another woman. Oh, and she brought Randolph Scott, her fellow shipwreckee, with her. Hijinks ensue. Not quite as strong a screwball comedy as the earlier Grant-Dunne opus The Awful Truth, but still fun for fans of the genre.
1940 USA. Director: Garson Kanin. Starring: Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Randolph Scott, Gail Patrick.

4:30am (24th) – TCM – The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer
In this slight but charming comedy, a nearly-grown-up Shirley Temple is the bobby-soxer crushing on Cary Grant’s bachelor, but he’s more interested in Temple’s sister Myrna Loy, a no-nonsense judge who’s caught Grant up on disorderly behavior more than once. There are a lot of great bits in here, including Grant’s attempt at the “man with the voodoo” patter.
1947 USA. Director: Irving Reis. Starring: Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Shirley Temple, Rudy Vallee.

Jason and the Argonauts, playing Monday night on TCM

A few notable ones to mention this week, including TCM playing something relatively recent for a change, with Saving Private Ryan on Tuesday as part of a special discussing the collaboration between Spielberg and John Williams. Don’t worry, they’ve got plenty of oldies as well, with a couple of Ray Harryhausen films overnight on Monday, pre-Code Mae West on Wednesday night, and a double hit of New Wave/New Hollywood over Sunday night/Monday morning next week with Stolen Kisses and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. Among other newer fare, Sundance has sweet indie In America and Fox Movie Channel has a young Tom Hanks in Big, both on Saturday night.

Monday, November 14

6:30am – TCM – Pandora’s Box
Flapper icon Louise Brooks’ best-known role is this story of a young dancer whose allure creates destruction everywhere she goes.
1929 Germany. Director: G.W. Pabst. Starring: Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Francis Lederer.

8:00am – IFC – Away from Her
A very strong directing debut film from actress Sarah Polley, about an older woman (Julie Christie) suffering from Alzheimer’s and her husband’s difficulty in dealing with essentially the loss of his wife as she has more and more difficulty remembering their life together. It’s a lovely, heartbreaking film, bolstered by great understated performances.
2006 Canada. Director: Sarah Polley. Starring: Julie Christie, Gordon Pinsent, Olympia Dukakis, Stacey LaBerge.
(repeats at 3:30pm)

10:50am – MGM – Elmer Gantry
Fast-taking salesman Elmer Gantry (Lancaster) sees an opportunity in the revivalism of the 1920s, latching on to hellfire preacher Sister Sharon Falconer (Simmons) as her promoter – but what will she thinks when she finds out his past isn’t all squeaky clean? Lancaster and Jones (as prostitute Lulu Bains) both won Oscars for their roles here.
1960 USA. Director: Richard Brooks. Starring: Burt Lancaster, Jean Simmons, Shirley Jones, Arthur Kennedy, Dean Jagger, Patti Page.

8:00pm – TCM – The Blue Angel
One of Marlene Dietrich’s early films, paired with her oft-director Josef von Sternberg – but even though she steals every scene she’s in and is the reason the film remains known at all, it’s really more about Emil Jannings’ tragic professor character, who is dragged from his respected life and social position by his infatuation with Dietrich’s showgirl. It’s a bit on the moralistic side, but with such a humanist touch that it’s tough not to be drawn into it at least a little bit.
1930 Germany. Director: Josef von Sterberg. Starring: Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich, Kurt Gerron, Rosa Valetti.

8:00pm – Fox Movie – Call Northside 777
One of Jimmy Stewart’s first films after spending the war as a fighter pilot; he plays a reporter compelled to reopen an eleven-year-old murder case, coming to believe the wrong man was sentenced to life in prison. A good combo of film noir and mystery.
1948 USA. Director: Henry Hathaway. Starring: James Stewart, Richard Conte, Lee J. Cobb.
(repeats at 10:00pm)

10:00pm – TCM – Shanghai Express
Marlene Dietrich is Shanghai Lil, a woman of somewhat ill repute traveling up and down on the Shanghai Express, surviving by her “wits” alone – until a former lover shows up and gets captured by Chinese guerrillas. An iconic role for Dietrich, one of several for director Josef von Sternberg.
1932 USA. Director: Josef von Sternberg. Starring: Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brook, Anna May Wong, Warner Oland, Eugene Pallette.

1:30am (15th) – TCM – Clash of the Titans
The original Clash of the Titans, complete with Ray Harryhausen stop motion effects, cheesy acting and dialogue, and no 3D. I haven’t seen nearly enough Harryhausen films, including this one, but I definitely love the stop-motion effects of his I have seen.
1981 USA. Director: Desmond Davis. Starring: Laurence Olivier, Claire Bloom, Maggie Smith, Ursula Andress, Harry Hamlin, Burgess Meredith.
Newly Featured!

3:45am (15th) – TCM – Jason and the Argonauts
An earlier film with stop-motion effects by Ray Harryhausen, following the legendary Greek hero as he and his crew seek the magical Golden Fleece. All the Harryhausen films I’ve seen thus far have been great fun, and I’d definitely like to check this one out, too.
1963 USA. Director: Don Chaffey. Starring: Todd Armstrong, Nancy Kovack, Gary Raymond, Lawrence Naismith, Honor Blackman.
Newly Featured!

Tuesday, November 15

6:00am – TCM – The Story of Three Loves
A very loose anthology film, its three stories connected only by the tenuous theme of “love.” In one, a ballerina must choose between her health and her love of dance; in another, a young boy gets his wish to be a man for a day and sees a new side of his pretty tutor; in the third, a trapeze artist loses his partner to a stunt, then ends up falling for his new partner. The third one is the longest and probably the best, but the other two have their moments as well, notably another chance to see ballerina Moira Shearer in addition to The Red Shoes.
1953 USA. Director: Vincente Minnelli, Gottfried Reinhardt. Starring: Kirk Douglas, Moira Shearer, Farley Granger, Leslie Caron, Pier Angeli.

7:00am – IFC – Dear Frankie
Emily Mortimer is a young mother who writes responses to her son’s letters to his father; when her elaborate ruse to convince him his father is just away at sea starts to fall apart, she hires a handsome stranger to pretend to be his father. A charming and unassuming tale, and the Glaswegian accents don’t hurt either, at least for me.
2004 UK. Director: Shona Auerbach. Starring: Emily Mortimer, Gerard Butler, Jack McElhone.
(repeats at 1:30pm)

9:00pm – TCM – Saving Private Ryan
It’s rare for TCM to play a film as new as Saving Private Ryan, but they’re doing it in conjunction with a new original series they’re doing about “the art of collaboration.” The first episode airs both before and after the film, and focuses on Spielberg’s collaboration with John Williams. Most people have probably seen Private Ryan before, but it’s definitely worth a look if you haven’t, especially for the virtuoso Omaha Beach landing sequence.
1998 USA. Director: Steven Spielberg. Starring: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi.
Newly Featured!

11:00pm – IFC – Saw
I have avoided all the Saw films myself, but from what I’ve heard, the first one is actually quite a well-made horror thriller with two men given increasingly horrific “games” to play to stay alive in the lair of the mysterious Jigsaw.
2004 USA. Director: James Wan. Starring: Leigh Whannell, Cary Elwes, Danny Glover, Ken Leung.
(repeats at 1:15am on the 16th)

1:00am (16th) – TCM – Spartacus
An historical epic of a Greek slave rebellion brought to the screen by the passion and personal investment of Kirk Douglas, but with some of the stylistic flair of director Stanley Kubrick (still relatively early in his career). Lots of great actors fill out the supporting parts with scenery-chewing glee, making every scene a whole lot of fun to watch – but there are a whole lot of scenes, and it does kind of drag by the end.
1960 USA. Director: Stanley Kubrick. Starring: Kirk Douglas, Jean Simmons, Laurence Olivier, Tony Curtis, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, John Gavin, Nina Foch.

Wednesday, November 16

8:00am – TCM – The Postman Always Rings Twice
Sizzling adaptation of James M. Cain’s classic pulp novel has Lana Turner as the unhappy wife of a middle-of-nowhere gas station owner and John Garfield as the drifter who drops in and plots her husband’s demise with her. Skip the 1982 remake, from what I’ve heard, but if you’re feeling adventurous, check out Luchino Visconti’s Ossession, a 1943 Italian adaptation of the novel widely considered to be a forerunner of the Italian Neo-Realist movement.
1946 USA. Director: Tay Garnett. Starring: Lana Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway, Hume Cronyn.

11:45am – MGM – The Party
It may not be quite politically correct to cast Peter Sellers as an Indian movie extra who accidentally gets invited to a big Hollywood party instead of being fired for bunglling a major stunt, but the movie certainly is hilarious, largely made up of a series of sight gags as Sellers bumbles his way around a swinging ’60s party.
1968 USA. Director: Blake Edwards. Starring: Peter Sellers, Claudine Longet, Natalie Borisova, Jean Carson, Marge Champion.

1:15pm – IFC – The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Julian Schnabel’s intensely moving retelling of the true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, who was almost completely paralyzed in a car accident, able only to move his left eye. The impressionist storytelling lends an otherworldly beauty to the film, already solid due to the script and acting.
2007 France. Director: Julian Schnabel. Starring: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Marie-Josee Croze.
Must See

1:45pm – MGM – A Shot in the Dark
Here’s your counter example for the “sequels are never as good as the original” argument. This second film in the Pink Panther series is easily the best, and stands as ones of the zaniest 1960s comedies ever.
1964 USA. Director: Blake Edwards. Starring: Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom.

8:00pm – TCM – Nothing Sacred
A newspaper offers to give terminally-ill Carole Lombard her dream trip to New York City in exchange for publishing her experiences. Only problem is, she’s lying about being terminally ill. One of the zaniest of all 1930s zany comedies – that said, it can be a little on the shrill side.
1937 USA. Director: William A. Wellman. Starring: Carole Lombard, Fredric March, Charles Winninger, Walter Connolly.

9:30pm – TCM – To Be or Not to Be
If you never listen to anything else I ever say, listen to this: To Be or Not To Be is one of the greatest films of all time, and you should see it. It’s a comedy about Nazi Germany. I know. Jack Benny plays the leader of a Polish theatre troupe, specializing in playing Hamlet alongside his philandering wife, played by Carole Lombard. I know. When Hitler takes over Poland, the troupe engages in an act of espionage both dangerous and ridiculous. I know! It’s simultaneously hilarious, ominous, and heartbreaking. Director Ernst Lubitsch’s finest hour? For me it is. Carole Lombard’s best role (the final one of her career, before she was killed in a plane crash returning from a war bond tour)? For me it is.
1943 USA. Director: Ernst Lubitsch. Starring: Jack Benny, Carole Lombard, Robert Stack, Felix Bressart, Lionel Atwill, Sig Ruman.
Must See

11:30pm – TCM – She Done Him Wrong
Mae West was a massive star for about three years in Hollywood – after talkies came in to allow her to deliver her innuendo-laden one-liners and before the Production Code clamped down to wouldn’t let her deliver those one-liners any more. This is one of her best-known films, one of a few where she plays off an extremely young Cary Grant, famously asking him to “come upon sometime and see me.”
1933 USA. Director: Lowell Sherman. Starring: Mae West, Cary Grant, Owen Moore, Gilbert Roland.
Newly Featured!

Repulsion, playing late Monday/early Tuesday on TCM

I‘ve thrown in a bunch of Newly Featured ones this week, trying to get in some more content from Sundance and IFC – it’s too easy for me to just focus on TCM, even though honestly, they have easily the best and most consistent film programming on cable. Anyway, look for that “Newly Featured!” tag to find them all. Most worth mentioning: great British horrors Village of the Damned and Repulsion tonight on TCM, late John Huston film The Dead on Friday on IFC, Row Three favorite The Limey on Saturday on IFC, and Kubrick’s Vietnam-focused Full Metal Jacket on Sunday, also on IFC. Meanwhile, TCM is bringing the noir in November, with a whole raft of great films I’ve featured before, and some that I haven’t, like Detour and Scarlet Street on Tuesday.

Monday, October 31

8:45am – TCM – Hammer Horror
TCM is playing Hammer Horror all day today; sorry this is going up late enough that some of them are already over. I unfortunately haven’t seen any of these except Horror of Dracula, but so far I’ve enjoyed all the Hammer films I have seen, so figure these are worth a look. Still to come today: Curse of Frankenstein, Frankenstein Created Woman, The Mummy, The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb.

4:15pm – Fox Movie – The Legend of Hell House
A disparate group of people go to the notorious Hell House to try to prove whether or not it’s haunted – previous attempts ended in madness or death. One of the quintessential haunted house films.
1973 UK. Director: John Hough. Starring: Pamela Franklin, Roddy McDowall, Clive Revill, Gayle Hunnicutt, Roland Culver.

8:00pm – TCM – Village of the Damned
A highlight of 1960s British horror, with a group of children all born mysteriously nine months after a village experienced “lost time.” They all have the same blonde hair, creepy vacantness, and the apparent ability to communicate telepathically. It’s a very quiet, chilling film, with a fine central performance from child actor Martin Stephens, who would bring his preternatural creepiness to The Innocents the following year. George Sanders is his inimitable self as the schoolteacher/parent trying to solve the mystery.
1960 UK. Director: Wolf Rilla. Starring: George Sanders, Barbara Shelley, Martin Stephens.
Newly Featured!

9:15am – Sundance – A Girl Cut in Two
One of the last films from great French director Claude Chabrol before his death, with Ludivine Sagnier as an up-and-coming TV personality faced with choosing between two men – with Chabrol at the helm, you know there’s more than that to it, and his touch for black comedy thrillers should make this one an enjoyable watch.
2007 France. Director: Claude Chabrol. Starring: Ludivine Sagnier, Benoît magimel, François Berléand.
Newly Featured!
(repeats at 12:00M on the 2nd)

9:30pm – TCM – Night of the Living Dead
Zombie movies can be conveniently subcategorized into pre-Romero and post-Romero, so influential has this film been. Eschewing voodoo and zombie masters, Romero posited a zombie created by our own nuclear follies and motivated by nothing more than insatiable hunger. More than that, the layer of social commentary makes Night of the Living Dead far more than the B-movie schlocker it seems like on the surface. It changed zombie films, and probably horror films in general to an extent, forever.
1968 USA. Director: George A. Romero. Starring: Duane Jones, Judith O’Dea, Karl Hardman, Marilyn Eastman.

11:15pm – TCM – A Night at the Movies: The Horrors of Stephen King
A TCM original, with Stephen King leading a history of horror cinema through film clips and his own personal reflections. Should be an interesting time if you’re a fan of horror and/or King, and probably a good chance to hear him talk about some of the films that have influenced him personally.
2011 USA. Starring: Stephen King.
Newly Featured!

12:00M – Fox Movie – Naked Lunch
This is a whacked out movie, more of an exploration of beat author William S. Burrough’s life and writing process than an adaptation of his novel of the same name, with addictive bug powder, murders, hallucinogenic trips, typewriters that turn into cockroaches, and espionage plots. I saw it ages ago when I probably wasn’t ready for it; ought to try it again sometime.
1991 Canada. Director: David Cronenberg. Starring: Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm.
(repeats at 4:00am on the 1st)

12:15am (1st) – TCM – The Innocents
A genuinely creepy and disturbing little horror film, with Deborah Kerr as a new governess hired to raise a young boy and girl on a lonely Victorian estate. She becomes convinced the two are possessed by the spirits of two former employees – but the truth may be even weirder than that. Extremely effective; this is honestly my favorite type of horror, and few are better at it than this.
1961 UK. Director: Jack Clayton. Starring: Deborah Kerr, Peter Wyngarde, Michael Redgrave, Martin Stephens, Pamela Franklin, Megs Jenkins.
(repeats at 10:00am on the 6th)

2:00am (1st) – TCM – Repulsion
Psychological horror of the best kind, with Roman Polanski directing Catherine Deneuve in the role of a repressed young woman whose fantasies come out to play in very destructive ways when she’s left alone in her sister’s apartment for a few days. Her terror of men and sexuality leads to hallucinations of grasping hands reaching through the walls in one of the movie’s more famous scenes. Deneuve is basically batshit crazy here, and beautifully so.
1965 UK. Director: Roman Polanski. Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Ian Hendry, John Fraser.
Newly Featured!

Click here to read on!

Carnival of Souls, playing Monday on TCM

There are a bunch of newly featured ones this post, thanks especially to TCM playing a bunch of horror films they usually don’t, including a raft of B-movie horrors tonight – some Corman, some Castle, and some Carnival of Souls. They’ve also got Val Lewton all night on Saturday, plus some non-horror ones we haven’t featured before, so be sure to check those out. In addition, IFC plays intriguing one-room thriller Exam on Thursday.

Monday, October 24

8:00pm – TCM – Carnival of Souls
One of the most enduring cult classics of American cinema, about a young girl apparently killed with her friends in a watery auto accident, but who emerges from the river seemingly intact much later – but a bizarre carnival seems to hold the secrets of her existence. It’s a strange film, but a mesmerizing one.
1962 USA. Director: Herk Harvey. Starring: Candace Hilligoss, Frances Feist, Sidney Berger, Art Ellison.
Newly Featured!

10:30pm – TCM – Dementia 13
One of Francis Ford Coppola’s earliest films, made under the tutelage of Roger Corman in his role of mentor to future New Hollywood filmmakers. A B-level potboiler of a woman trying to get a piece of her dead husband’s inheritance, but finding out more sinister things may be at work in his aristocratic family.
1963 USA. Director: Francis Ford Coppola. Starring: William Campbell, Luana Anders, Eithne Dunne, Bart Patton, Mary Mitchel.
Newly Featured!

12:00M – TCM – Strait-Jacket
Joan Crawford takes the screen in William Castle’s tale of madness and murder as a psychotic woman just let out of the mental institution twenty years after committing an axe murder – but is she ready to return to society?
1964 USA. Director: William Castle. Starring: Joan Crawford, Diane Baker, John Anthony Hayes, George Kennedy.

1:45am (25th) – TCM – The Pit and the Pendulum
One of several Roger Corman-Vincent Price collaborations built around an Edgar Allen Poe story, this time focusing on the apparent haunting of Price’s castle by his beloved wife, who may have mistakenly been buried alive. But there’s even more going on here than that, thanks to Price’s father’s active participation in the Inquisition and the remnants of his torture chamber. A good entry in the Corman cycle.
1961 USA. Director: Roger Corman. Starring: Vincent Price, John Kerr, Barbara Steele.

3:15am (25th) – TCM – The Masque of the Red Death
In this Corman-Price-Poe film, Price is a Satan-worshipping medieval Prince who holds a giant masque ostensibly to keep the nobles safe from the Red Death ravaging the nearby village, but with various cruel games in mind as well. Pretty effective in evocation of the macabre, and the use of color is pretty freaking awesome.
1964 USA. Director: Roger Corman. Starring: Vincent Price, Hazel Court, Jane Asher, David Weston.
Newly Featured!

Click here to read on!