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Sunday 11/18/07

3:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Ring of Fear (1954 USA): A rather unusual independent production that ended up getting distribution through Warner Bros, Ring of Fear was originally intended for filming in 3-D, but ended up being shot flat in extreme 2.55:1 CinemaScope. The film features aging adventurer Clyde Beatty, who had made a number of jungle documentaries in the 1930s, as a circus operator whose road show is plagued by a series of deadly accidents that require the attention of a private investigator, played by none other than Mickey Spillane himself! To add to the bizarro quality of the proceedings, both Beatty and Spillane ostensibly play ‘themselves', receiving fictional support from Pat O'Brien and others. It's very colorful, quite enjoyable, and thoroughly strange.

9:00 PM Sundance
One Missed Call (2003 JAP): Directed by the prodigious Takashi Miike, One Missed Call is yet another telecommunications chiller in the vein of Phone and When A Stranger Calls, with a dash of Final Destination thrown in for good measure. This time, the victims receive voicemail from themselves on their cellphones—voicemail that apparently comes from the future and predicts their impending and extremely violent demise. Whilst the premise doesn't win any points for originality, Miike goes all out as usual, sparing little in the gore and grue department. And just to be on the safe side, I'm sticking to a landline.

Monday 11/19/07

9:00 AM Fox Movie Channel
Cabinet of Caligari (1962 USA): One of the most ill-advised remakes of all time, this Cabinet bears none of the hallmarks of its German expressionist predecessor and all of those of a sexually uptight early 1960s middle America. Glynis Johns stars as Jane Lindstrom, a young woman whose car breaks down near the remote mansion of Caligari (Dan O'Herlihy), a psychiatrist with some unhealthy obsessions. At first Jane is taken in by his apparent kindnesses, but when the sadistic shrink refuses to let her continue her journey she finds herself the victim of some extremely unpleasant mind games. Written by the estimable Robert Bloch, the producers would have been wise to excise the Caligari name entirely from the film, as it serves mostly as a reminder of how poorly it compares to Robert Wiene's original effort. Nonetheless, it's an intriguing little picture that reflects the unsavoury influence of Michael Powell's groundbreaking Peeping Tom, and gets a rare widescreen airing this morning.

4:45 PM Showtime
Fall From Grace (2007 USA): I haven't seen this documentary yet, but the subject matter renders it irresistible. Focussing on the bizarre antics of Pastor Fred Phelps and his Topeka, Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church (where they hate the sin, hate the sinner, and pretty much hate every one else, too), Fall From Grace certainly won't be boring. And if perchance Phelps and family don't provide you with enough nutty religious entertainment for one day, you might also want to tune in to Sundance at 6:00 PM for Philip and His Seven Wives (2005), a BBC documentary about a messianic Jewish rabbi and furniture dealer who was informed by God that he's actually a Hebrew king entitled to have much more than just a bit of crumpet on the side—all whilst living in sunny Hove on the south coast of England.

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