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Wednesday 11/28/07

8:45 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Wrong Box (1966 GB): It's simply not as good as it should be (or could have been), but this off-kilter black comedy still has much to recommend it. Set in the 1880s, the film features John Mills and Ralph Richardson as Masterman and Joseph Finsbury, the aging would be beneficiaries of the family estate. The terms of the will, however, demand that only the last surviving brother shall receive the inheritance, and the two siblings - with the assistance of their younger relatives - are conniving to make sure they're the last man standing. Also featuring Michael Caine, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Nanette Newman, Irene Handl, Thorley Walters, John le Mesurier, and many other familiar British thesps, The Wrong Box is ultimately let down by Larry Gelbart's uneven screenplay, which doesn't go for the jugular often enough and seems a little uneasy with the cultural milieu of Robert Louis Stevenson's original story. With a cast like this and a John Barry score, however, a lot can be forgiven.

Thursday 11/29/07

7:15 PM Turner Classic Movies
A Face In the Crowd (1957 USA): Many movie fans consider 1939 the apex of American filmmaking, but I'd make the argument that 1957 was just as strong a year - if not stronger, thanks to the slow but steady relaxation of the Production Code. 12 Angry Men, A Hatful of Rain, and Paths of Glory are all amazing films - and then there's A Face In the Crowd, as relevant today as it was fifty years ago. Andy Griffith - yes, Matlock himself - should have received an Academy Award nomination for his performance as Lonesome Rhodes, a no-good hobo who hustles his way to the top of the heap with the assistance of Arkansas radio broadcaster Marcia Jeffries (the luminous Patricia Neal, who never looked more beautiful than she does here). Griffith's performance is a true tour de force, his Rhodes a primal force of nature who uses his gift of gab to move from a backwoods jail cell to a nationally broadcast television show, where his faux-homespun, cracker barrel wisdom strikes a chord with the great American public. Perhaps arguably, though rock and roll is never mentioned in the film, I'd submit that A Face in the Crowd IS, secondarily, a film about rock and roll. The narrative arc - hardscrabble country boy with a killer voice sings and talks his way into the hearts of his countrymen—certainly bears some similarities to the life story of one Elvis Aron Presley, and the film's prescient examination of the inevitable intersection of revolution and commodification is fascinating food for thought. This is a great film, keynoted by two great performances by Griffith and Neal, and comes with my strongest recommendation.

9:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
Juliet of the Spirits (1965 ITA-FRA): This is a film that deserves multiple viewings, scene-by-scene (and sometimes frame-by-frame) analysis, and a hearty appreciation for surrealism. Giulietta Masina is perfect as the middle-aged woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown, trying to decide if husband Mario Pisu is cheating on her. Director Federico Fellini's camera flatters Masina (his real life wife) at every turn, in sharp contrast to the outrageously costumed and made-up likes of Sylva Koscina and Valentina Cortese. Hints of the macabre are laced throughout, in anticipation of Fellini's own Satyricon (1969) and countless Italian horror films of the '70s. I pose two questions: what is the symbolic importance of the very frequent facial shots of characters that are shrouded in shadow? And is the split-second shot of a David Hemmings look-alike, complete with camera, some sort of psychic forecast of what Michelangelo Antonioni would be filming in Blowup (1966)? Watch the film, and submit your answers to the usual address!

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