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Sunday 07/20/08

11:15 PM Fox Movie Channel
Little Murders (1971 USA): Alan Arkin directed this pitch-black comedy on behalf of Twentieth Century Fox, who obviously didn't know what they were getting into when they gave the project the greenlight. Based on a play by Jules Feiffer, the story revolves around a young couple (Elliott Gould and Marcia Rodd) going a-courting whilst random sniper murders are terrorizing the city. Arkin and Donald Sutherland appear in cameo roles but the real scene-stealer is quintessential New York tough guy Vincent Gardenia as Rodd's father. A paranoid classic about the price paid by those living in The City That Never Sleeps, Little Murders is an overlooked gem with a heart of festering, wormy, and gleefully wicked genius.

Monday 07/21/08

6:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Barefoot Mailman (1951 USA): Organic foods fancier Robert Cummings stars as a late 19th century conman in this unusual, and very rare, comedy from Columbia. He plays Sylvanus Hurley, whose plans to invest in property hinge on his ability to safely transport his wad of cash from the Florida panhandle to Miami. He decides to mail the money to himself — and also decides to accompany postal worker Jerome (Steven Pierton) in order to make sure that neither sleet, nor snow, nor mail thieves shall keep this postman from his appointed rounds. To complicate matters, they're accompanied by teenage runaway Adie (Terry Moore), and are soon engaged in battle with alligators, swamps, and villainous beachcomber Theron (John Russell). It's a most unusual premise for a picture, and the film can't decide whether it's more comedy than thriller or vice versa, but is still worth watching thanks to a stellar cast, which also includes future Walton grandparents Will Geer and Ellen Corby.

6:00 PM Sundance
Murderball (2005 USA): The world of quadriplegic rugby is explored in this feel-good Academy Award-nominated documentary. Focussing on the efforts of the American national team (yes, this is an organized sport), Murderball explores this unusual full contact game, which resembles nothing so much as medieval jousting, Mad Max-style. It also probes the off-court lives of these differently-abled athletes, and does a decent job of doing so in a non-condescending, non-pitying manner.

9:50 PM Sundance
Two People (1973 USA): Robert Wise directed a lot of really good and deservedly well-known pictures over the course of his illustrious 40-plus year career. Chances are, however, that you probably haven't heard of Two People, Wise's effort to break bread with the counterculture. It stars Peter Fonda as a draft dodger who's planning to return to the States and turn himself in after spending time getting his head together in Morocco. Before he's able to do so, however, he meets fellow American Deirdre (future Bionic Woman Lindsay Wagner), a model on a Marrakesh photo shoot, and the duo decide to spend some quality time together in Paris before returning home to face the music. The film hasn't aged well, but wasn't all that good even in its day thanks to a soapy and ham-fisted screenplay and Wagner's flat as a pancake line readings. Regardless, admirers of Wise still need to give it a look, if only to admire a fine Estelle Parsons performance as the editor of a fashion magazine.

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