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Saturday 10/22/11

6:45 AM Fox Movie Channel
The Reward (1965 USA): Serge "Beef" Bourguignon directed this rather odd western, sadly not screening in its original aspect ratio this morning. Everything about this film seems just a little off: from its French director to the casting of Max Von Sydow (!) as a Wild West bounty hunter, The Reward is far from your garden variety oater. Which, of course, makes it of considerable interest to yours truly! Add in Yvette Mimieux as eye candy, legendary Mexican director Emilio Fernandez as a policeman, Henry Silva as a baddie, and you have the ingredients for a pretty entertaining feature. Pity about the pan and scan, though.

8:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Zorro’s Fighting Legion (1939 USA): The mid-point of our serial is reached in Chapters 6 and 7, in which Zorro rescues his sweetie from a fate worse than death.

9:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Tarzan’s Three Challenges (1963 GB): Jock Mahoney played the T-Man one last time in this widescreen adventure in which our hero, last seen on the Indian subcontinent, travels to Indochina. This time Tarzan is hired to rescue the rightful heir to the throne of Sun Mai from a remote monastery, but that’s the easy part: once back in Sun Mai, our hero must lock horns with false prophet Khan (Woody Strode), who’s determined to seize the reins of power for himself. This is one of the most impressive of all Tarzan features, highlighted by excellent location footage and a riveting finale in which Tarzan and Khan lock horns above a deadly pit.

7:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Illegal (1955 USA): Illegal stars Edward G. Robertson as Victor Scott, an attorney with a black spot on his record: responsibility for a zealous prosecution that led to the execution of an innocent man. After a bout of drinking and soul-searching Scott decides to make amends for his misdeed and takes up a new career as a defense attorney. Hired by mob boss Frank Garland (Albert Dekker) to defend one of his murderous goons, Scott does the job and wins a not guilty jury verdict, raising the eternal scriptural question: what good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Co-starring Nina Foch, Hugh Marlowe, Edward Platt, DeForrest Kelly, and newcomer Jayne Mansfield, Illegal is an above average courtroom drama that sometimes gets mistakenly pigeon-holed as noir. It isn’t.

7:30 PM The Movie Channel
Frankenstein Syndrome (2010 USA): I haven’t seen this low-budget chiller yet, but I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt thanks to the presence of Ed Lauter, here playing a doctor willing to go to any lengths to find a cure for his terminal case of cancer. The film may suck, but Lauter will be good. Also airs at 10:30 PM.

Sunday 10/23/11

6:00 AM Fox Movie Channel
A Life in the Balance (1955 MEX-USA): Ricardo Montalban stars in this obscure Mexican-American co-production. He plays unemployed everyman Antonio Gomez, accused of a series of murders he didn't commit, and reliant on the investigative talents of his eight-year-old son (Jose Perez) to exculpate him and finger the real baddie (who else but Lee Marvin). Apparently based on a story by Georges Simenon (though it's not clear to me precisely which one), A Life in the Balance also features Anne Bancroft as a friendly woman of ill repute and character actor Rodolfo Acosta as a south of the border cop. It's pretty predictable and bears similarities to 1949's The Window, but the top-line cast makes it worth your while.

Monday 10/24/11

9:00 PM HDNM
The Host (2006 KOR): I don’t usually write about movies on the HD channels (I don’t have an HD TV and probably wouldn’t pay for those channels if I did), but its otherwise skimpy pickings today, so I’ll make an exception for The Host. A rather old-fashioned (in a good way) giant monster flick, The Host examines what happens when waste from a U. S. military facility gets dumped into the Seoul water supply. Without giving too much away, it ain’t good. Definitely worth a look if you get HDNM.

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