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Thursday 6/16/11

5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Attack of the 50-Foot Woman (1958 USA): This week’s Drive-In Double Feature kicks off with Attack of the 50-Foot Woman, a classic AIP thriller starring voluptuous Allison Hayes as Nancy Archer, a distaff version of The Amazing Colossal Man who’d terrified audiences six months prior. Nancy, an alcoholic in an unhappy marriage, has a night on the tiles that takes a bizarre turn when she encounters a radioactive alien in the middle of the desert. After soaking up enough isotopes to power L.A. for a month she begins to grow...and as she gains inches, her desire for revenge against lousy husband Harry (William Hudson) begins to grow, too. Hell hath no fury like a 50-foot woman scorned! It’s followed at 6:30 PM by Village of the Giants (1965), a sci-fi comedy about groovy teenagers (including a very young Beau Bridges) who ingest a chemical that turns them into behemoths; at 8:00 PM by Queen of Outer Space (1955), featuring the incomparable and apparently immortal Zsa Zsa Gabor in the title role; at 9:30 PM by Mars Needs Women (1965), a truly execrable comedy headlined by Tommy Kirk as an inter-galactic bride-hunter; at 11:00 PM by The Cyclops (1957), a rare Bert I. Gordon joint about a huge one-eyed Mexican monster; at 12:30 AM by The Manster (1959), an above-average shot-in-Japan tale of science gone horribly wrong; and at 1:45 AM by The Killer Shrews (1959), in which dogs with dentures masquerade as deadly rodents.

Friday 6/17/11

5:30 AM Sundance
Join Us (2007 USA): If you’ve ever felt like joining a cult or have tried to persuade a family member to join one, here’s a film that may give you pause. Directed by Ondi Timoner, whose 2004 doc Dig! dug deep into the tortured relationship between indie rockers The Brian Jonestown Massacre and major label musos The Dandy Warhols, Join Us takes a look at a family trying to escape the clutches of Mountain Rock Church, an innocuously named South Carolina cult. The film also more broadly examines the meaning of the word "cult": it’s estimated that up to 15,000,000 Americans belong to one, and that doesn’t include folks who subscribe to mainstream religion or either of the major political parties! Could your next door neighbor be amongst them? Watch Join Us and start casting furtive sideways glances their way!

1:45 PM Turner Classic Movies
Lizzie (1957 USA): Hugo Haas was one of the most interesting filmmakers of the 1950s. Responsible for a series of social problem pictures steeped in the conventions of the classic melodrama - including the remarkable 1959 miscegenation feature Night of the Quarter Moon - the Czech-born Haas frequently wrote, directed, produced, and appeared in his films. Haas did it all in Lizzie, and had an excellent cast - including Joan Blondell, Eleanor Parker, and Richard Boone - to help tell his tale of multiple personalities, which beat The Three Faces of Eve to the box-office by several months. Look for Mrs. C. herself, Marion Ross, in a small but crucial role. How about a Hugo Haas film fest, TCM?

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