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Monday 12/22/08

2:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Young and Innocent (1937 GB): Alfred Hitchcock's penultimate British film — well, if you don't count Frenzy—stars Derrick De Marney as author Robert Tisdale, the boy toy of film actress Christine Clay (Pamela Carme). Christine's estranged husband has returned to her after an eight-year absence, and he's none too pleased to learn he's been cuckolded. She ends up dead, her body washes ashore on the beach, and the police naturally suspect her lover of the crime. It's up to spunky bobby's daughter Erica Burgoyne (Nova Pilbeam) to save the day: she doesn't believe for a minute that Robert is the killer, and attempts to help him prove his innocence after first assisting him to escape his jail cell. Though not quite as good as The Lady Vanishes or Sabotage, Young and Innocent is still in the first rank of early Hitchcock.

4:00 PM Sundance
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis (2006 USA): I'm not that familiar with the work of underground filmmaker Jack Smith — I've never even seen Flaming Creatures — but I'm sure I'll appreciate his efforts once I scope this documentary. Smith is said to have been an influence on Andy Warhol and John Waters, as well as being a pioneer in the field of performance art, so this is bound to be interesting and outrageous stuff.

8:00 PM Sundance
Cocalero (2007 BOL): The excitement generated by Bolivian presidential candidate (and now President) Evo Morales is palpable in this excellent documentary about his 2005 campaign and the plight of the farmers who formed his base. United in opposition to the anti-drug efforts of the United States and their own pre-Morales government, the farmers rely on coca for a living, and didn't think they should lose their livelihood at the behest of gringos with too much money and too little self-control. Morales tapped in to their anger and became the first indigenous chief executive of this land-locked country, where the descendents of white settlers have long controlled wealth at the expense of the Indian majority. His reward? A secession effort by the moneyed Anglos, and a sub-plot in Quantum of Solace. Congrats, Evo!

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