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11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Burnt Offerings (1976 USA): And speaking of horror classics...no, I don't think anyone would apply that appelation to Burnt Offerings. However, it's making its widescreen television debut this evening on TCM, and was partly shot in my adopted hometown of Oakland, California, so it's a must for the TiVoPlex. Oliver Reed and Karen Black star as Ben and Marian Rolf, a middle-class couple who rent a creepy mansion from wheelchair-bound Arnold Allardyce (Burgess Meredith) and his creepy sister Roz (Eileen Heckert). Ben and Marian bring along son Davey (Lee Montgomery) and dear old Aunt Elizabeth (Bette Davis) for a frolicsome summer holiday, but strange things start to happen and Ben begins to behave oddly. Does the old woman in the locked attic hold the key to the
bizarre goings-on? Reed gurns his way through the final reel and Davis is a treat to watch in this otherwise pedestrian shocker. It's followed at 1:00 AM by an even sillier horror flick, 1982's The House Where Evil Dwells, in which the ghost of a murdered woman possesses the body of scream queen Susan George.

Saturday 4/03/10

7:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Mr. Hex (1946 USA): Chapter 5 in the Bowery Boys saga, and by now the bloom is definitely off the rose, if it ever was a rose in the first place. This time, goofball Sach (Huntz Hall) is hypnotized into believing that he's a boxer. His newfound abilities attract the attention of racketeers, who decide they want a cut of the prize money he's earning. Hypnotism would return to haunt the Boys in 1957's Hold That Hypnotist, but we've got a further forty Saturday mornings to go before we get to see that one!

4:00 PM HBO Signature
Sugar (2009 USA): Yeah, I was impressed by The Hurt Locker, but this was my favorite film of 2009. What's that? You've never heard of Sugar? Well, it played on the arthouse circuit for a few weeks, and if you like indie dramas and/or baseball movies, you'll really, really love it, too. The story of a dirt poor Dominican pitcher (Algenis Perez Soto) climbing the minor league ladder in search of fame and fortune, this feature from writer/director team Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (the pair also responsible for the equally fine Half Nelson in 2006) neither asks the viewer to suspend disbelief nor relies on mawkish sentimentality to make its point. It's just about perfect, and should have a very long ancillary life as baseball fans begin to discover its many pleasures. Also airs 4/5 at 6:00 PM.

Sunday 4/04/10

5:00 PM IFC
Fear City (1984 USA): One of bad boy director Abel Ferrara's paeans to life on the mean streets of pre-Giuliani New York, Fear City makes its widescreen television debut this afternoon. This is one of Ferrara's bigger budgeted efforts (Fox initially funded it before bailing out later), and stars Tom Berenger as Matt Rossi, a ‘talent agent' whose clients are hired at some of the Big Apple's classiest nudie bars. When a serial killer starts slicing and dicing strippers, Matt is immediately considered suspect number one by police officer Wheeler (Billy Dee Williams, sans Colt 45 Malt Liquor), and learns that the only way to exonerate himself may involve doing a little detective work of his own. Co-starring Melanie Griffith as Matt's love interest and Rosanno Brazzi as a hoodlum, Fear City is typical Ferrara: nasty, brutish, and (relatively) short.

Monday 4/05/10

9:15 AM Sundance
The End of the Line (2009 GB): Punning title aside, The End of the Line is a sobering documentary about the depletion of fishing stocks and the unwillingness of governments, fishing companies, and fisherfolk to come to terms with the problem. Narrated by investigative reporter Charles Clover, the film examines the insidious spread of factory fishing, and cites examples of species—such as the cod of Nova Scotia—that have subsequently gone the way of the dodo. If you weren't already thinking twice about tucking into a nice Chilean sea bass or ordering some blue fin sushi, The End of the Line should provide you further food for thought. Hey, fish is brain food, right? Maybe that sustainably farmed Filet O' Fish Sandwich might be the more ecologically friendly entrée selection.

5:00 PM Sundance
Until the Light Takes Us (2008 USA): This rockumentary was in cinemas only a few weeks ago; I missed it then, and am thrilled to report its appearance this evening on Sundance. It's an examination of Norwegian black metal, a doomy sub-genre of hard rock renowned for adherents who devote themselves to the worship of tremolo picking, misanthropy, and Satan, but in reality enjoy knitting, puppy dogs, long walks on the beach, and burning down churches. Or so they say. Made by two San Franciscans who moved to Norway with the express purpose of traveling into black metal's heart of darkness, Until the Light Takes Us is, no doubt, going to be an eye-opening and ear-deafening experience.

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