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Friday 07/10/09

7:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Good Bad Girl (1931 USA): Who could resist such a title? The Good Bad Girl is an incredibly obscure Columbia second feature starring Mae Clarke as Marcia, a gangster's moll trying to leave her sordid past behind in favour of a white picket fence in front. That doesn't sit well with lover Dan Tyler (Robert Ellis), who threatens to kill her, and after Marcia takes an unscheduled trip to Philadelphia to wed straight arrow Bob (James Hall) he does his damnedest to follow up on the threat. This is a fairly typical early talkie with the usual drawbacks (stagy scenes, poor sound), but director Roy William Neill does his best to spruce up the material and Clarke is good.

Saturday 07/11/09

11:30 AM Fox Movie Channel
Space Master X-7 (1958 USA): Deadly space fungus invades Earth in this rather lame Ed Bernds helmed sci-fier. Bill Williams and Robert Ellis (no, not the one from The Good Bad Girl!) are the lucky fellows who must remove the fungus among us and return planet Earth to its normal state of near catastrophic semi-equilibrium. Space Master X-7 sadly airs in pan and scan this morning, but watch out for Paul Frees and Moe Howard in small roles!

6:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
In the French Style (1963 USA): An evening of Jean Seberg films is highlighted by this rare drama based on a pair of Irwin Shaw short stories. The lovely Seberg stars as Christina James, an American art student in Paris who falls for teenage lothario Guy (Philippe Forquet), then dumps him in favor of journo Beddoes (Stanley Baker), who spends most of his time flying off to scoop stories in exotic and distant locales. Their relationship is, in turn, strained when Christina's father (Addison Powell) shows up and tries to convince her to return to her family in the good ol' U.S. of A, where respectability and marriage await. The film's narrative echoes aspects of Seberg's own life: she had lived on the continent for several years after her unpleasant stateside experiences with director Otto Preminger and wasn't real keen to go back any time soon. Though In the French Style doesn't stray too far from the Hollywood playbook, Seberg is always a pleasure to watch, and Michel Kelber's evocative black and white cinematography does a fine job capturing Parisian night life. It's a shame TCM couldn't dig up some even more obscure Seberg rarities, such as Who's Got the Black Box? or The Corruption of Chris Miller, but this will do.

Sunday 07/12/09

4:20 AM HBO
Hamlet 2 (2008 USA): Steve Coogan plays a failed, full-of-himself stage actor exiled to Tucson high school work in this comedy written and directed by Andrew Fleming (Dick, The Craft). Somehow my teenage son ended up seeing this on the big screen and I missed it, which is pretty odd considering how much I love Coogan and how much his mother loves the Bard of Avon. I blame David Tennant — after seeing the former Doctor Who portray Hamlet at the RSC during the summer of 2008, we must have been burned out on paranoid Danes. Also airs at 7:20 AM.

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