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Sunday 11/30/08

5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Runaway (?): Ah, sweet mystery of life. The Direct TV guide only lists the title for this film. The TCM website says this is the 1963 Runaway featuring Cesar Romero and the recently deceased Anita Page. However, it also lists a 62-minute running time, which just happens to be the exact running time of a British made thriller from 1963 which is, of course, also entitled The Runaway. Which shall it be? I'm hoping for the latter, expecting the former, but will be happy with either, as they're both obscure films.

9:00 PM Sundance
I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK (2006 ROK): The most recent film from Korean bad boy Chan Wook Park, I'm a Cyborg is a relatively restrained piece of work which will appeal to folks who found Oldboy a little on the bloody side. Su-jeong Lim stars as Young-goon, a pixie-like factory worker who thinks she's been transformed into a cyborg after an unfortunate encounter with a radio aerial. She gets herself committed to a mental hospital, where she meets loopy with the equally deluded Park Il-sun (pop star Rain), a serial kleptomaniac who insinuates his way into the crypto-cyborg's heart. It's all a bit twee, which is not a word one normally associates with Park.

9:15 PM Turner Classic Movies
Wizard of Oz (1925 USA): There were several silent film adaptations of the L. Frank Baum canon, but this is the one that's of more than passing academic interest. Produced and directed by silent comedy star Larry Semon, this version of the classic tale takes considerable liberties with the Baum narrative, but remains true in spirit to the popular series of novels. Semon himself stars as The Scarecrow (perfect casting, as Semon was a beak-nosed weed of a man), Dorothy Dwan portrays Dorothy, and Oliver Hardy appears as The Tin Woodsman. There's also some unfortunate racial humor involving Spencer Bell, an actor frequently employed by Semon (they're excellent together in 1924's Kid Speed) and here billed as G. Howe Black (ho ho). If you tune in expecting to see a straightforward precursor to the Judy Garland classic, you'll be disappointed - but fans of slapstick comedy will get satisfaction.

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