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11:00 PM HBO Signature
Padre Nuestro, la Ultima Cita (1985 ESP or 2005 CHI): Now this doesn't happen often! I wasn't going to include this film this week because I hadn't seen it yet, but when I checked out the HBO website to get more information, it soon became obvious that even HBO isn't quite sure what they've got on their hands. The plot synposis listed is for a 1985 feature starring the great Fernando Rey as a high-ranking Catholic clergyman whose illegimate offspring are coming home to roost, but the credits listed are for another, more recent Chilean comedy from director Rodrigo Sepulveda. It's probably worth a look either way, but I'm rooting for Rey!

Wednesday 11/21/07

1:30 AM Fox Movie Channel
Mickey Spillane's Margin For Murder (1981 USA): Spillane's Mike Hammer character made a surprising comeback in the early 1980s thanks to a new TV series starring Stacy Keach as the testosterone-oozing private dick whose gun was quick. This TV Movie of the Week doesn't feature Keach, but was indirectly responsible for the new series, and even earned small screen vet Calvin Clements Jr. an Edgar nomination for his teleplay. The film features future Knot's Landing star Kevin Dobson as Hammer, this time trawling the mean streets of Manhattan in search of the man (or woman) who murdered his best friend. Also along for the ride are best girl Velda (here depicted by Cindy Pickett), who does her darndest to introduce Hammer to feminist theory, and Charles Hallahan as Police Captain Chambers. For my money, Dobson makes a better hard-boiled lead than Keach, and the film wisely avoided the series' mistake of relocating things to sunny Southern California, a locale which, though it may have suited the producer's budget, simply didn't suit the character's temperament.

6:00 PM Sundance
Lower City (2005 BRA): The friendship of two Brazilian men comes apart at the seams when they fall for the same woman in this gritty working-class drama helmed by Madame Sata director Sergio Machado, who got his start assisting the great Walter Salles on Central Station. Set in the coastal province of Bahia, the film stars Alice ‘niece of Sonia' Braga as Karinna, a feisty lady of the evening who fancies sailors Deco and Naldinho (Sata's Lazaro Ramos and Wagner Moura, respectively). The jolly jack tars spend most of their days hauling freight along the Brazilian coastline, but when along-for-the-ride Karinna finds herself with a bun in the oven, business takes a backseat to possessiveness and jealousy, with predictably violent results. The film does little to damp down stereotypes of fiery Latin love affairs, and Ms. Braga seems willing to drop trow at any and all opportunities, so if you like a little sizzle with your steak, give Lower City the once-over. Also airs 11/24 at 8:30 PM.

10:00 PM Sundance
State of Fear (2005 USA): There was a time in the 1990s when Peru's Maoist revolutionary army, the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), almost acquired a patina of radical chic, with luminaries such as Rage Against the Machine's Zack de la Rocha giving complimentary shout-outs to philosophy professor and Path leader Abimael Guzman as he fought to bring down the corrupt governments of Fernando Terry, Alan Garcia, and Alberto Fujimori. Shining Path won some converts in the vast Peruvian hinterlands by summarily executing landowners, merchants, cattle thieves, and other assorted rotters, but soon began to alienate peasants by forcibly enlisting them in the revolution and killing those who wouldn't go along for the ride. This excellent documentary takes a look at the last four decades of bloodshed, during which 50,000 civilians lost their lives to overzealous security forces and bloodthirsty Maoists, who also had a profound hatred for homosexuals, which is probably a point de la Rocha wasn't aware of at the time he shot the video for RATM's Bombtrack. I hope. As for State of Fear, it's a terrific film that also draws some uncomfortable parallels between power-mad Peruvian President Fujimori and our own Dear Leader, who has a bit of a terrorism obsession himself.

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