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10:45 PM More Max
The Presence (1981 ITA): The program guide indicates this is an airing of Bruno Mattei’s nunsploitation flick The Other Hell, here entitled The Presence. I have serious doubts that this is the case and suspect this will actually be another screening of 2010’s The Presence, a spook show with Shane West and Mira Sorvino. Set your DVR just in case.

Friday 4/5/13

6:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Dangerous Corner (1934 USA): A good cast compensates for a routine screenplay in this hour-long RKO billfiller. Conrad Nagel headlines as Robert Chatfield, a businessman who discovers his safe’s been rifled and the valuable McGuffin within stolen. There are four prime suspects, including Chatfield himself and his brother Martin (Ian Keith), who settles the matter by committing suicide – until, several months later, Robert pieces together his brother’s whereabouts and realizes he couldn’t possibly have been responsible for the robbery. Who done it? Tune in to find out if colleague Charles Stanton (Melvyn Douglas) might be the guilty party!

8:00 AM Encore
The Enforcer (1976 USA): Clint Eastwood returns as Dirty Harry Callahan in this decent second sequel. This time, Harry’s out to stop a gang of Vietnam vets dubbed The People’s Revolutionary Strike Force who are threatening to blow San Francisco apart. Why? PTSD, my friend! To make matters worse, Harry’s been assigned a new partner to help track down the terrorists – a girl (Tyne Daly)!! Eww. As Harry wells knows, girls have cooties, but he soon makes the best of a bad situation and finds that a little estrogen doesn’t always a bad police officer make. Co-starring Bradford Dillman and Harry Guardino, The Enforcer benefits from terrific Bagdad by the Bay and Alcatraz Island location footage. Whether it’ll air in its correct aspect ratio, however, remains to be seen – a pan and scan print will definitely cramp the proceedings. Also airs at 11:00 AM.

Saturday 4/6/13

5:00 PM HBO
Prometheus (2012 USA): Hey, even I like to take in a blockbuster now and then. Prometheus, of course, was Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel, and though not universally well received during its summer 2012 release found favor in the Seal household. That was partly due to the fact that we saw the film with a friend who found it to be roughly the equivalent of a bad acid flashback (causing untold merriment in the theater) and partly because it offered an intriguing take from a different angle on a familiar story. Add a stellar cast (Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, and TiVoPlex favorite Benedict Wong), and you have an exciting, gruesome, and even thought-provoking sci-fi adventure on a grand scale.

Sunday 4/7/13

5:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
I’ll Be Seeing You (1944 USA): Joseph Cotten and Ginger Rogers are star-crossed lovers in this solid, surprisingly affecting Selznick International drama. Cotten plays Zachary Morgan, a soldier recently released from an asylum, whilst Rogers is Mary Marshall, a woman who’s until recently been behind bars for a crime the film is reluctant to identify. It’s Christmas time, and on the train journey home Mary invites fellow passenger Zachary to spend the holidays with her family. As luck would have it the Marshalls are Norman Rockwell personified (could any family featuring both Spring Byington and Shirley Temple within its ranks possibly be otherwise?), but eventually the truth begins to leak out and Zachary and Mary must confront their respective demons. Marion Parsonnet’s screenplay is much too tentative about things – probably because the war was still on when she wrote it – but Cotten and Rogers are always a pleasure to watch. The less said about Temple, however, the better – she was an incredibly annoying teenager.

8:50 AM Encore Dramatic Stories
Atlantic City (1980 USA): Burt Lancaster headlines this excellent Louis Malle feature about residents of a ramshackle building awaiting the demolition of their home in the name of progress, or if not progress, legal gambling. In addition to (illegal) numbers runner Lou (Lancaster), there’s widow Grace (Kate Reid) and waitress Sally (Susan Sarandon), and the three of them make common cause as they wait for the axe – or in this case, the wrecking ball – to fall. Also on hand is Sally’s sister Chrissie (delightful Hollis McLaren from Outrageous!) and her drug-peddling boyfriend Dave (Robert Joy), who’s looking to unload his current stash on the high rollers of Atlantic City. The result is a terrific character study thanks to a fine screenplay from playwright John Guare, who earned one of the film’s five Oscar nominations.

11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Murderer Lives at Number 21 (1942 FRA): I’ve been a big fan of Henri-George Clouzot’s Vichy-era thriller Le Corbeau for many years, but have never seen this feature from the same period. This was, in fact, Clouzot’s feature length debut, and stars Pierre Fresnay as a police inspector on the trail of a serial killer. Being a Clouzot film it is, of course, considered a "comedy". I’m definitely looking forward to finding out exactly how funny it is.

Monday 4/8/13

6:00 PM HBO
50 Children: Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus (2013 USA): In all the years I’ve been writing this column I’ve recommended a fair number of films I haven’t seen. However, this is (I think) the first time I’ve gone back-to-back. It’s not as auspicious an occasion as, for example, announcing the first made-in-El Salvador feature in the TiVoPlex, but there you go. As for this film, it’s a Holocaust documentary about an American couple who (*spoiler alert*) saved 50 Jewish German children prior to the outbreak of World War II. I’m sure it will be interesting. Also airs at 9:00 PM.

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