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9:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Dick Tracy (1937 USA): The jut-jawed private eye engages in a Battle In the Clouds and enjoys a Stratosphere Adventure in Chapters 8, 9, and 10 of this Republic serial.

5:00 PM Showtime 2
No Look Pass (2011 USA): I don’t know much about this film, other than it’s a documentary about a Burmese lesbian basketball player at Harvard. I know, I know...that sounds like the stereotypical "politically correct" nightmare for right-wing troglodytes, but apparently it’s all true.

Sunday 6/10/12

11:15 AM Sundance
Fermat’s Room (2007 ESP): There's considerable fun - if an only partly satisfying payoff - in this fine Spanish suspenser from writer-directors Luis Piedrahita and Rodrigo Sopena. It's an old-fashioned locked room thriller about a group of mathematicians invited to a dinner party - only to find out that their host is serving naught but revenge. The first half of the film is particularly engaging, as the characters try to figure out why they've been targeted whilst also racing against time to solve complex math problems that may (or may not) save their lives. It's been described as Saw without the gore, which seems an apt description to me.

Monday 6/11/12

12:30 AM Showtime 2
A Lonely Place to Die (2011 GB): The Scottish Highlands are the spectacular setting for this above average thriller about the dangers of hiking. Melissa George headlines as Alison, a young woman out climbing rocks and scaling cliffs in the mountains of Ross-shire with a group of friends. All’s going swimmingly until they hear a wee small voice and discover a young girl buried alive. Rescuing the child, who speaks no English, our gallant adventurers determine to take her to safety - but the folks who put her in the box are eager to stop them. A Lonely Place to Die wisely avoids the caricatured characters you usually get in these sorts of films: they’re not your standard assortment of knuckleheads, horn dogs, and bimbos, just regular folks enjoying a day out. All in all, it’s one of the more satisfying - and intelligent - thrillers of recent vintage.

6:20 AM Fox Movie Channel
The Sweet Ride (1968 USA): Seems like I’ve been waiting a long, long time for this pseudo-biker flick to air in its original aspect ratio. Well, I’m still waiting...this is yet another pan and scan screening, albeit the first one on Fox in quite a few years. Jacqueline Bisset stars as Vickie Cartwright, a secluded movie star whose tete-a-tete with a motorcycle gang allows for Michael Sarrazin and Tony Franciosa to engage them in fisticuffs. Also along for the ride (so to speak) are Bob Denver (channeling the spirit of Maynard G. Krebs), Warren Stevens, Pat Buttram, Arthur Franz and (in uncredited cameos) Seymour Cassel, rock group Moby Grape, and laconic singer-songwriter-all around musical genius Lee Hazlewood! Icing on the cake is provided by Dusty Springfield, who belts out the film’s not terribly memorable theme tune.

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