TCM
TiVo ALERT
For
June
23-June 30
DAVID’S
BEST BETS:
BORN
TO KILL (June 25, 11:00 pm): A
gritty, dark, violent film noir that smacks you in the face much
harder that other movies in this genre. Lawrence Tierney is in
top form as Sam Wilde, a psychopath who comes across as charming one
minute and an out-of-control killer at even a perceived slight in
this 1947 film from RKO. Claire Trevor is great as a heartless,
conniving gold-digger, who gives Tierney a run for his money. Veteran
character actress Esther Howard is a scene-stealer as the owner of
the boarding house in which Trevor's character lives while getting a
quickie divorce in Reno.
JULIUS
CAESAR (June
27, 2:15 pm): This 1953 film may be the best cinematic
adaption of a William Shakespeare play that I've ever seen. Only
Laurence Olivier's Hamlet can compare. What makes it
remarkable is how good Marlon Brando, who was at his method acting
mumbling peak, is brilliant as Mark Antony. Brando more than holds
his own in a film that features an outstanding all-star cast of
Shakespearean veterans such as James Mason, John Gielgud and John
Hoyt as well as extraordinarily talented actors including Louis
Calhern (as Caesar), Edmond O'Brien, George Macready, Greer Garson
and Deborah Kerr. That it came from MGM, known for its slick
production values, and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who made
fine films, but nothing even remotely close to Shakespeare, are
surprises. But how well this movie works makes those very pleasant
surprises and showed the versatility of Brando and Mankiewicz, and
that MGM could make films such as this and make them well.
ED’S
BEST BETS:
THE
SEVENTH VICTIM (June 23, 10:45 am): A superb film
from the team of producer Val Lewton and director Mark Robson. A
girl’s search for her missing sister leads her to discover that the
sister was mixed up with a satanic cult in Greenwich Village called
the Palladists. She turns for help in the search from her sister’s
husband and a mysterious psychiatrist, which in hindsight, may not
have been the best course to take. Lewton and Robson give us a
wonderful mise en scene, as the backlot is converted into
a replica of the West Village, with its cobblestone streets, imposing
brownstones, and cozy restaurants. In the capable hands of
cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca it becomes something akin to Edward
Hopper Meets Alfred Hitchcock and adds to the tension. As usual,
Lewton had a budget somewhere in the low figures to perform his
magic, and also as usual, he managed to overcome this limitation and
give us a good horror film.
FIVE
MILLION YEARS TO EARTH (June 28, 4:15 pm): While
their Gothic horrors could oft times be hit-or-miss affairs, Hammer
Studios always managed to hit a home run with their science-fiction
films. And it’s no different here: Hammer took a BBC serial from
the ‘50s called Quartermass and the Pit, added a
little, subtracted a little, but on the whole remaining faithful to
the original story. Hammer and director Roy Ward Baker capture the
intelligence and the mystery of the original not by throwing special
effects at the viewer, but in telling the story through the
characters. What begins as the discovery of a Nazi bomb in an
Underground tunnel being dug up for repairs, soon leads to the
finding of ape-like skulls surrounding it, which leads to the
realization that this is a not a Nazi weapon, but a spacecraft not of
this Earth, but from Mars, complete with arthropod corpses stored
inside. In the end we are wrestling with the philosophical issues of
history and evolution before reaching a climax by recalling the
Collective Unconscious and, especially, its archetype of the Devil.
And despite all these weighty subjects, the film is an excellent
piece of suspense and terror, supplying some pretty good jolts along
the way.
WE
DISAGREE ON ... HAXAN (June 23, 7:15 am)
ED:
A-. This seven-part
historical view of witchcraft from Denmark ranks of one of the best
horror films ever made. The movie is loaded with great imagery, with
the acting several levels above what is usually offered in films of
its time. The costumes, lighting, sets, and effects are all superb
leading to the end where director/star Benjamin Christensen tries to
make a correlation between the actions and mannerisms of witches as
attributed by observers in their time to the modern symptoms and
affects (1922) of hysteria. I don’t know if I’m buying into it,
but he does raise an interesting point. Above all, watch this not
only for itself, but also with respect to its influence on such
subsequent films as Ulmer’s The
Black Cat,
Tourneur’s Night
of the Demon,
Bava’s Black
Sunday,
Polanski’s Rosemary’s
Baby, Friedkin’s The
Exorcist, and
Hardy’s The Wicker
Man, among others. This
is a film that demands to be seen.
DAVID:
C+. While ambitious for its time, and I'm not losing
sight that it's 92 years old, it's a film that doesn't know what it
want to be. Sometimes it's a documentary, including the exceptionally
boring beginning in which we are shown photographs from books as if
we are trapped in a bad high school class on the supernatural with
one of those classroom pointers. Sometimes it's a theatrical
production with over-the-top acting of witch-trial reenactments and
dreams about demons, making it laughable at certain points. Then it
becomes a mockumentary as we are schooled on evil in some silly
skits. Perhaps the worst is the supposed initiation of witches who
kiss the devil on his behind. At times, it's a combination of all
three so you don't know what's going on. Benjamin Christensen, who
directed and was one of its main actors, wanted to show and tell so
much and shove all sorts of theories and stories that he damaged the
end product. I agree with portions of what Ed wrote about the
costumes, lighting, sets and effects being ahead of its time, but the
storyline is lacking.
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