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Thursday 4/08/10

5:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
Secrets (1933 USA): This is the film that rang down the curtain on Mary Pickford's screen career, but it should be remembered as more than just an historical footnote. Directed by Frank Borzage, Secrets tells the Cavalcade-esque tale of a couple's (Pickford and Leslie Howard) enduring relationship over the course of their decades-long marriage. Featuring what many consider to be Pickford's best talkie performance, Secrets was actually a remake of an earlier Borzage film in which Norma Talmadge assumed the lead role, but that silent feature now exists only in incomplete condition. 1933's version was a film close to Pickford's heart, but its release at the height of the Great Depression's banking crisis spelled box-office disaster, and the critics didn't offer much in the way of solace. Happily, the film has aged well, and the renewed interest in all things Borzage means Secrets is no longer the secret it once was.

11:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
Dangerously They Live (1941 USA): Released within weeks of the attack on Pearl Harbor, this prescient Warners second feature stars a pre-stardom John Garfield as a doctor trying to warn Uncle Sam of a U-boat fleet lurking off the Eastern Seaboard. Garfield is Mike Lewis, a sawbones who finds himself aiding mysterious Jane Graystone (Nancy Coleman), who claims she's a British spy with secret information about Nazi subs. Will anyone believe Mike and Jane's ridiculous tale of a pending Axis surprise attack? And is friendly Dr. Ingersoll (Raymond Massey) really working for the other side? It's a pretty routine programmer, but the cast—which also includes Moroni Olsen and Frank Reicher—is better than the material deserves.

Friday 4/09/10

3:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Secret Fury (1950 USA): A little known drama directed by actor Mel Ferrer, The Secret Fury is one of the better pictures produced during the waning days of RKO. Claudette Colbert and Robert Ryan star as Ellen and David, an engaged couple whose wedding ceremony is interrupted by someone who responds affirmatively to the rote plea to ‘speak now or forever hold your peace'. Big mouth is a stranger to all concerned, but he claims to have evidence proving that Ellen is already married--which comes as a surprise to Ellen—but the evidence begins to mount and the mystery continues to deepen. If the plot sounds a bit gimmicky, it is, but Colbert and Ryan render the proceedings reasonably believable, and Paul Kelly and Vivian Vance offer additional value on the thesping front.

7:00 PM Showtime
Religulous (2008 USA): Bill Maher's snide documentary isn't consistently effective, but it at least makes an effort to equate the absurdities and evils of fundamentalist Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The film's most pointed and effective moments are aimed at Christianity (particularly the Catholic Church), but Religulous falters a little when it confronts the other Abrahamic religions: Judaism gets off a little too easily, whilst Islam gets (predictably if briefly) slammed hard. It's a laff riot for non-believers, but the faithful will not be amused. Also airs at 10:00 PM.

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