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Friday 3/4/11

2:45 AM More Max
Fourteen Hours (1951 USA): And after Twelve Monkeys, of course, comes Fourteen Hours, a superior Fox suspenser about a man threatening to commit suicide. Richard Basehart plays the potential jumper, whilst the calming presence of Paul Douglas enters the picture as the friendly cop who tries to talk him down. Well directed by action specialist Henry Hathaway and featuring a great supporting cast (including Grace Kelly, Frank Faylen, Agnes Moorehead, and Howard da Silva), Fourteen Hours earned an Oscar nom for Best Art Direction, because nothing says great art direction quite like a window ledge.

9:00 PM Sundance
Death Bell (2008): Yay, Asia Extreme is back! I haven’t seen this delightfully titled South Korean slasher flick yet, but what little information I can find suggests it’s a North Asian knock-off of Saw. Which, of course, will either be a good or a bad thing, depending on your perspective and your propensity for exquisitely detailed torture devices. Also airs 3/5 at 2:30 AM.

11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Road Games (1981 AUS): I guess 31 Days of Oscar is over for another year, because as enjoyable as it is, this Aussie thriller certainly didn’t earn any Academy recognition. Written and directed by Richard Franklin (Patrick, Psycho II), Road Games stars real-life wild man Stacy Keach as truck driver Quid, the kind of guy who picks up attractive female hitchhikers when the opportunity presents itself. There’s a serial killer on the loose, however, and when Quid picks up attractive female hitchhiker Pam (Jamie Lee Curtis), the two swap theories about the crimes and find themselves stalking the baddie themselves. I wish I could report this was screening in widescreen, but such does not appear to be the case: however, TCM has surprised me in the past, and the film is rare (and good) enough to warrant a look regardless of aspect ratio.

11:30 PM Flix
The Medusa Touch (1978 GB): Richard Burton plays a man with a deadly psychic talent in this decent if inauspicious thriller, which makes its widescreen television debut this evening. Burton is John Morlar, a novelist with an unfortunate power: simply by imagining disasters, he can will them into existence. Morlar has had the gift since childhood, but is now in a coma thanks to getting bashed on the head by an unseen assailant. It’s up to Inspector Brunel (the strangely Gallic Lino Ventura) to solve the crime and hopefully stop the somnolent Morlar from killing again, intentionally or otherwise. Co-starring Lee Remick, Harry Andrews, Gordon Jackson, and Robert Flemyng, The Medusa Touch is one of the more unusual ‘sixth sense’ thrillers from a decade awash in them.

Saturday 3/5/11

7:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Fighting Trouble (1956 USA): The Bowery Boys are back, if not by popular demand then surely by force of habit. At this point, the series was running on naught but fumes: the grief-stricken Leo Gorcey had gone into retirement after the death of father Bernard, leaving Huntz Hall to carry the banner alone. Unfortunately, every top banana needs a straight man, and Stanley Clements just doesn’t cut the mustard in Fighting Trouble. As for the story, it’s more of the same: the boys get mixed up with gangsters. This one’s for the hardest of hardcore fans only.

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