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Sunday 06/21/09

4:45 AM Fox Movie Channel
The Girl Can't Help It (1956 USA): Perhaps the greatest rock-and-roll film ever made, The Girl Can't Help It is fun from the opening credits to the final fade-out. Director Frank Tashlin got his start directing Looney Tunes shorts for Warner Bros, and his eye for the outrageous is on full display here, as is his ability to transfer cartoon-like qualities to his characters. Starring ‘50s sex bomb Jayne Mansfield as the unlikely protégé of music promoter Tom Ewell (excellent here as always), the film is a wonderful excuse to parade various rock-and-rollers across the screen in glorious Technicolor. Need to see Little Richard, Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps, Eddie Cochran, Fats Domino, The Platters, and The Treniers (The Treniers, I tell you!) in full color? This is the best (and in some cases only) way to see them that way. Tashlin also co-wrote the screenplay with Herbert Baker, and its hilarious over-the-top characters include the wonderful Edmond O'Brien (overweight and elderly only a few years after being a matinee idol) as "Fats" Marty Murdock, the over-the-hill gangster who hires Ewell to turn Mansfield into a star, and Henry Jones as O'Brien's loyal-but-meek sidekick, Mousey. Perfect in almost every respect, The Girl Can't Help It is the ultimate rock flick, embodying in its 99 minutes everything you need to know about the music that changed the world.


6:45 AM IFC
Hearts and Minds (1974 USA): My earliest Oscar memory is of Sacheen Littlefeather. My SECOND earliest memory is the acceptance speech of Hearts and Minds producer-director Peter Davis, who, I seem to recall, was wearing a really hideous tuxedo and bowtie combination when he laid claim to the Oscar for Best Documentary at the 1975 Academy Awards. Davis, whose film was one of the first American films to tell the ugly truth about the Vietnam War, laid into American foreign policy with a zeal that would only be topped by Vanessa Redgrave's Zionism is racism speech a couple of years later. Must-see TV it was, as is his film, which remains a red-hot burst of righteous indignation that urgently needs to be seen again as we escalate our war in Afghanistan. The United States eagerly continues to maim and kill civilians around the world: we still haven't quite figured out the hearts and minds bit.

Monday 06/22/09

1:35 AM More Max
Crash Drive (1959 GB): I'm not quite convinced that the program guide is telling the truth regarding this one, but we'll give it a mention just in case. This low budget British programmer stars Dermot Walsh as Paul, a race-car driver paralyzed from the waist down in an horrendous track accident. Paul's wife Ann (Wendy Williams) still loves him, but can't quite come to terms with his new lot in life, whilst Mum (Grace Arnold) empties her piggy bank in a fruitless effort to "cure" her son. This Danziger Brothers production packs a fair amount into its 65-minute running time, but unless you're like me — an indiscreet fan of British film — you can probably give it a miss.

3:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Devil Commands (1940 USA): One of Boris Karloff's generally mediocre "mad doctor" films of the late ‘30s and early ‘40s, The Devil Command features Dear W. H. Pratt himself as Julian Blair, a good man driven insane by the death of his wife. Determined to communicate with her from her new abode in the great beyond, Blair retires to a remote old dark house and begins conducting weird experiments that threaten to delve into areas of knowledge best left unexplored by mortal man. A decent if unexceptional Columbia second feature helmed by a young Edward Dmytryk, The Devil Commands also features three-time Oscar nominee (and one time winner!) Anne Revere in a supporting role.

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