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Wednesday 9/26/12

2:45 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Castilian (1963 ESP): Here’s a really weird one: a Spanish historical epic starring Frankie Avalon. The producers also hired fellow Americans Cesar Romero and Broderick Crawford to add extra appeal for Anglophone film fans, but Frankie? The same guy who’d later appear in such classics as Sergeant Deadhead and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini? I guess Avalon had a really good agent in 1963. Straying not too far from his teen crooner image, he’s cast here as Jerifan, a bard who sings and narrates his way through the picture, whilst Romero gets the meatier role of Fernan Gonzalez, a resolute nobleman facing off against Moorish invaders in 10th century Spain. Though pretty average by costume epic standards, The Castilian makes its widescreen American television debut this evening and co-stars Fernando Rey, Alida Valli, and future Jess Franco muse Soledad Miranda.

9:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Harper (1966 USA): Paul Newman plays a tough-as-nails private investigator hired to find a missing husband in this excellent and evocative mystery helmed by Jack Smight. Harper (Newman) is being paid by Mrs. Sampson (Lauren Bacall) to track down her absent spouse, but the story is really secondary to the California landscapes and beautiful women (Janet Leigh, Pamela Tiffin) he encounters during his investigation. Newman is as cool as a cucumber and the film looks great courtesy Conrad Hall’s sun-drenched cinematography.

Thursday 9/27/12

Midnight Starz
In Darkness (2011 POL): Poland’s official Academy Award entry at this year’s Oscars, In Darkness lives up to its title. Directed by Agniewska Holland, much of the film is set in the Lvov sewers during World War II, where a group of Jewish Poles are hiding from the Nazi occupiers hoping to herd them to Auschwitz. In need of help from above, they’re assisted by gentile businessman Socha (Robert Wieckiewicz), who’s willing to keep them fed and watered - for a price. When his clients’ money runs out, however, Socha is forced to make a decision: save them, or turn them over to the Nazi scum ruling his country? In Darkness has been compared unfavorably to Schindler’s List, but I think it stands up pretty well on its own. Also airs at 3:00 AM.

1:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Murder on Approval (1955 GB): Are you a stamp collector? I am, though no longer a very serious one. However, I still have happy memories of receiving stamps in the mail "on approval" - if you liked them, you kept them and remitted payment; if you didn’t, you sent them back. It was a quaint business model built on trust, and though it still exists today is no longer as popular as it once was. Which brings me to Murder on Approval, a British-made mystery about a rare stamp that turns out to be counterfeit. Originally released as Barbados Quest (the title referring to the stamp’s origins, not the film’s shooting location), the film stars Tom Conway as the Yank detective trying to get to bottom of the philatelic forgery.

5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Hoboken to Hollywood (1926 USA): Plenty more two-reel comedy yuks are on tap throughout this evening’s salute to producer Mack Sennett. The month-long series wraps up with some of Sennett’s best late silents, and then extends into the early sound era, with Laurel and Hardy’s legendary The Music Box (1932) airing at 2:15 AM the following morning.

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