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

9:00 PM Sundance
Dead Hooker in a Trunk (2009 CAN): I haven’t seen this film yet, but without a doubt it’s the best title I’ve had the opportunity to mention since Hobo with a Shotgun aired. Plot synopses make the film sound like a Canadian take on the Harmony Korine style, which is not a good thing, but I’m going to check it out anyway. Plus, who could resist a movie written and directed by twin sisters (Jen and Sylvia Soska)??

Friday 3/23/12

Midnight Fox Movie Channel
Murder Once Removed (1971 USA): I could have sworn up and down I wrote about this film quite recently, but I can’t find the proof, so here’s my (re?) take on the matter. In my humble opinion, Murder Once Removed is at the top of the second tier of TV Movies-of-the-Week, with Barbara Bain and John Forsythe both top notch as lovers on the sly trying to knock off unwanted hubby Richard Kiley. The film is suspenseful, well-acted, and reasonably believable, and also features small screen regular Joseph Campanella as a cop who suspects something’s up.

Saturday 3/24/12

8:00 AM Flix
The Romantic Englishwoman (1975 GB): Here’s a highbrow drama where you can really feel the quality. Based on a novel by Thomas Wiseman and adapted for the screen by Tom Stoppard, The Romantic Englishwoman stars Michael Caine as Lewis Fielding, a novelist hoping to overcome his writer’s block by penning a film script. Recently returned from abroad wife Elizabeth (Glenda Jackson) introduces him to holiday fling Thomas (Helmut Berger), and Lewis decides to work Thomas and Elizabeth’s infidelity into his screenplay. Perfect post-modern material for Stoppard, The Romantic Englishwoman co-stars Michael Lonsdale and Kate Nelligan, and is one of the best of director Joseph Losey’s "late period" features. Flix is airing this highly satisfactory think-piece in its original aspect ratio.

9:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Lord of the Jungle (1955 USA): Bad news, Bomba fans - this is the end of the road. Allied Artists threw in the loincloth after Lord of the Jungle, leaving Johnny Sheffield unemployed and - let’s be honest - unemployable, at least in the motion picture field. This time, our hero is tasked to eliminate a group of troublesome elephants, who’ve been stampeding left and right and tramping all over the natives. Luckily, series regular Eli (Smoki Whitfield) is not one of the victims - and speaking of Smoki, his career didn’t end here: he made another dozen films in which he portrayed some slightly more dignified working-class characters.

Sunday 3/25/12

9:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
La Roue (1923 FRA): This epic tale of life in the French railyards cemented Abel Gance's reputation as the world's most technically innovative filmmaker (Eisenstein and Vsevolod Pudovkin came to him for tips, if you can imagine that). Originally running a Warholian 9 hours(!), La Roue airs tonight in a truncated but beautifully restored four hour print.

Monday 3/26/12

Midnight Fox Movie Channel
Footsteps (1972 USA): Here’s another pretty decent made-for-TV movie, this one especially of interest to fans of American football. Despite the fact that I’m about as interested in football as I am in Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald movies, I’ve noticed that gridiron flicks are almost always entertaining, as are baseball movies. Basketball, on the other hand, is not a good movie sport - and unless we’re talking about Talladega Nights, don’t even get me started on NASCAR. Anyhoo, Footsteps stars Richard Crenna as Paddy O’Connor, a coach hired by a small college to improve their pigskin program. Paddy’s up for the task, but hasn’t reckoned on the local mobsters, however, who need his team to keep failing. Nominated in 1973 for a "Best TV Movie" Golden Globe, Footsteps co-stars Ned Beatty, Joanna Pettet, Clu Gulager, Forrest Tucker, Robert Carradine, and - in one of his very first roles - James Woods.

8:45 AM Turner Classic Movies
Arrow in the Dust (1955 USA): You know the routine: TiVoPlex doesn’t do westerns very often, especially of the non-Spaghetti variety. That said, there are always exceptions, especially when Sterling Hayden is headlining. This time, Sterling plays Bart Laish, a US Army deserter who finds himself in plot complications worthy of a film noir. Produced by lowbrow Allied Artists, Arrow in the Dust really isn’t more than an average second feature oater, but I’m a huge Hayden fan and the supporting cast - including Lee Van Cleef, Iron Eyes Cody, Coleen Gray, and Sheb "Purple People Eater" Wooley - is pretty hard to resist.

Continued:       1       2