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Thursday 7/28/11

Midnight Turner Classic Movies
Every Little Crook and Nanny (1972 USA): This long-forgotten MGM comedy stars Lynn Redgrave as a woman who kidnaps the son of gangster Victor Mature after his goons take over her dancing school and convert it into an illegal casino. Featuring an absurd plot only slightly more believable than that of 1971’s senior citizen motorcycle caper Bunny O’Hare, this is slight amusement at best, but in addition to Redgrave and Mature, you’ll spot boob-tube regulars like Pat Morita, Dom DeLuise, Severn Darden, John Astin, and Esther Rolle. Long unavailable on home video and unseen on television since 2004, this is a genuine rarity.

5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Princess Tam Tam (1934 FRA): Arab Images in Film month wraps up this evening with a solid triple bill, starting with 1934’s Princess Tam Tam, a showcase for African-American dancer, singer and actress Josephine Baker. Baker plays Alwina, a poor shepherdess who serves as inspiration for down-on-his-luck novelist Max de Mirecourt (The Italian Straw Hat’s Albert Prejean). Max has been cuckolded by wife Lucie (Germaine Aussey from A Nous la Liberte), and cooks up a plan to use Alwina - masquerading as North African royalty - to get his revenge. Alas, the newly minted "Princess Tam Tam" falls in love with the old rogue and interracial romantic tragedy inevitably ensues. The story may be maddeningly soapy, but Baker is a knockout and the music and dance scenes outstanding. Princess Tam Tam is followed at 6:30 PM by The Band’s Visit (2007), a delightful character study about an Egyptian orchestra stranded in Israeli territory; and at 8:15 PM by Rana’s Wedding (2002), a Palestinian drama in which a young woman’s marital hand is forced by her anxious father.

Friday 7/29/11

9:00 AM Fox Movie Channel
House of Bamboo (1955 USA): Directed by the legendary Sam Fuller, House of Bamboo is a slam-bang crime drama set in and around the Tokyo underworld - which, oddly, seems to be owned and operated entirely by Caucasians. The film stars Robert Ryan as Sandy Dawson, a mob boss whose outfit specializes in bank jobs. One of Sandy’s men is "Spanier" (Robert Stack), a good fella otherwise known as Eddie Kenner, a G-Man who’s successfully infiltrated the Dawson gang. Sandy takes a real shine to Spanier - the film even hints that his interest might not be of the strictly platonic variety - and foolishly opens up to him about his bank robbery operations. Whoops. An early Cinemascope production shot on location in Japan, House of Bamboo is well worth visiting. Just don’t expect Beat Takeshi to greet you at the door.

11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm (1968 USA): Try saying that three times fast. This film screened on Sundance Channel seven or eight years ago but hasn’t been seen since, probably because no programmer wanted to be responsible for spelling the title correctly. As odd and unique as its title suggests, Symbiopsychotaxiplasm is both a meta-documentary and a forerunner of the reality TV craze: director William Greaves filmed a group of auditioning actors, filmed the cameras filming them, and filmed himself filming the cameras filming them. Your head will be spinning after watching this film - heck, it’ll be spinning after you simply try to say Symbiopsychotaxiplasm three times. Go ahead, I dare you.

Saturday 7/30/11

8:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Zorro Rides Again (1937 USA): Zorro’s great grandson James represents truth, justice, and the Hispano-American way in the second and third chapters of this Republic serial.

9:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Tarzan and the She-Devil (1953 USA): Tarzan’s problems with women continue. The She-Devil in question is Lyra (Monique Van Vooren), an ivory hunter assisting evil dudes Vargo (Raymond Burr) and Fidel (Tom Conway) in their efforts to wipe out the local elephant population. Naturally, the Jungle Lord (Lex Barker) doesn’t think too much of their plans and intercedes on behalf of the pachyderms. It was back to the back-lot for this series entry, which is of primary interest due to the scowling presence of Burr.

Sunday 7/31/11

1:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Donovan’s Brain (1953 USA): Based on Curt Siodmak’s novel of the same name, Donovan’s Brain is one of the best sci-fi features of the early ‘50s. Lew Ayres and Gene Evans headline as Doctors Cory and Shratt, two sawbones who spend their off-hours poking, prodding, and otherwise examining the living brain of a dead criminal named Donovan. The brain, however, has its own ideas - it’s sick and tired of being suspended in saline solution and wants to break free, preferably by assuming control of Cory’s body. Quite a trick if you can pull it off, Brain. Future Mrs. Reagan Nancy Davis pops in from time to time to provide love interest for Schratt.

5:00 AM Flix
A Private Function (1984 GB): Here’s a film I hadn’t thought about for years until I read recently that it had been adapted for the stage and turned into a West End musical. A West End musical about a pig? Well, don’t that beat all. As for the film, I recall it being a delightfully droll and very English tale of post-war rationing (and the concomitant black market) starring Maggie Smith, Michael Palin, and Denholm Elliott. Oh, and the pig, of course.

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