New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

6:45pm Turner Classic Movies
Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (1933 USA): Titles rarely get better than this one, and thankfully the film itself is a doozy, too. A bizarre, fanciful musical directed by the great Lewis Milestone, Hallelujah, I'm a Bum stars Al Jolson as Bumper, a hobo who saves the life of suicidal June (Madge Evans) after she jumps into the river. June is the gal pal of befuddled New York City Mayor Hastings (the Wizard of Oz himself, Frank Morgan), who frequently lends Bumper ("The Mayor of Central Park") and his street brethren a helping hand when the chips are down. Featuring songs by Rodgers and Hart and co-starring silent comedian Harry Langdon as a Communist rabble-rouser, this is essential viewing for both admirers of pre-Code cinema and fans of Thirties musicals.

Friday 10/09/09

12:30am Turner Classic Movies
Black Moon (1934 USA): Not to be confused with the Louis Malle feature of the same name, this Black Moon is a very rare horror film directed by Roy William Neill (Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man). Fay Wray stars as Gail Hamilton, a young woman whose parents were sacrificed in a voodoo ceremony when she was a child. Now married and with children of her own, Gail feels compelled to return to the island where the horror unfolded, and once there, is adopted by the islanders as a goddess, a development which does her family life no good at all. Produced at Columbia and co-starring Clarence Muse and Madame Sul-te-wan, Black Moon has never had an official home video release and hasn't aired on TCM since the channel's earliest days, so don't you dare miss it this morning. It's followed at 1:45am by 1944's The Missing Juror, an equally obscure noir from director Budd Boetticher.

3:15pm Turner Classic Movies
Killers of Kilimanjaro (1959 GB): Robert Taylor tries to construct an East African railway in this so-so Richard Thorpe-helmed period adventure. Set in the 1880s, the film features Taylor as gung-ho engineer Robert Adamson, a determined all-American type who isn't going to let a little jungle get in the way of his master plan. Whilst in transit to the Dark Continent, Adamson meets young lovely Jane (Anne Aubrey), and agrees to help her find her father and fiancé, who have gone missing in treacherous territory. Are the warriors of the Warush tribe responsible...or are Arab slavers to blame for their disappearance? The story isn't terribly exciting and Taylor is dull, but there's handsome wide-screen cinematography from Ted Moore and a solid supporting cast, including Donald Pleasence, Grégoire Aslan, Allan Cuthbertson, and Anthony Newley.

9pm IFC
Motel Hell (1980 USA): If it has nothing else of merit, Motel Hell can at least lay claim to one of the great taglines of cinema history: "It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent fritters!" This gruesome parody of slasher films features former cowboy star Rory Calhoun as the aforementioned agronomist, whose crop consists of kidnapped passers-by who later end up in the food chain. Director Kevin Connor - fresh off his series of kiddie-oriented Amicus features - adapted well to the genre, and all but the most hardened gorehounds will be squirming in their seats by the time Motel Hell reaches its pulse-pounding conclusion. Wolfman Jack co-stars as Reverend Billy, who, regrettably, is no relation to the current anti-globalization performance artist of the same name.

Continued:       1       2       3