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

Wednesday 7/6/11

10:30 AM Fox Movie Channel
I Wake Up Screaming (1941 USA): This amazing Betty Grable vehicle was made years before the film noir was fully developed, but it's definitely one of the precursors of the style. Grable plays Jill Lynn, the sister of a murder victim whose beau Frankie (Victor Mature) is suspect number one as far as Police Inspector Cornell (the great Laird Cregar) is concerned. Frankie needs Jill to help clear his name, but she never liked him much and is less inclined to believe his story now. Will he convince her he's a straight-shooter, or will she end up wrapping him up in a bow for a trip up the river with Cornell? Based on an equally fine novel by Steve Fisher, I Wake Up Screaming transcends its B production values thanks to a solid cast and some first-rate cinematography by Edward Cronjager, a journeyman whose work always looked like it cost far more than it actually did.

9:00 PM Encore Mystery
The White Ribbon (2009 OST): Did you enjoy director Michael Haneke’s previous creep-fests, Funny Games and Cache? How about Wolf Rilla’s Village of the Damned or Werner Herzog’s The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser? If so, you should run - not walk - to the nearest DVR and set it to record The White Ribbon. Set in remote northern Germany in the days before World War I, the film tells the bizarro tale of a small village where the men beat their wives, the horses randomly tumble over, and accidents of all varieties keep happening - lots and lots of accidents. Shot in black and white, Haneke’s film reminds me of Michael Lesy’s classic photo essay, Wisconsin Death Trip. Yes, it’s that grim, and that good.

Thursday 7/7/11

11:45 AM Turner Classic Movies
Killer Shark (1950 USA): A quarter century before there was Jaws there was Killer Shark. Directed by Budd Boetticher, the film stars young Roddy McDowall as Ted White, a callow college student forced to assume command of a shark hunt after his foolish ways leave his sea-faring father (Roland Winters) injured. Produced on the cheap by Monogram Pictures, Killer Shark is strictly movie chum, but Boetticher and McDowall completists will still be interested. It’s followed at 1:15 PM by Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison, an equally threadbare tale of prison life that benefits from location footage shot at Folsom.

10:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Trunk to Cairo (1966 ISR-BRD): Here’s one that’s got me salivating: a German-Israeli spy drama with no reviews on IMDb! (I’m pretty sure this film used to air on local television back in the ‘70s, but don’t remember whether or not I’ve ever seen it.) Audie Murphy headlines as Mike Merrick, a Yank secret agent dispatched to Cairo to put the kibosh on Nazi scientist Schlieben’s (George Sanders) plans to threaten develop a dastardly super-weapon. Trunk to Cairo was Murphy’s only non-western feature, was directed by future Cannon Films bigwig Menachem Golan, and was penned - believe it or not - by Marc Behm, who only a year prior had written Help! for Richard Lester and The Beatles. Here’s hoping TCM has access to a widescreen print, but if not, this film is rare enough to warrant a look in any format.

Continued:       1       2       3       4