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5:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Thirteenth Chair (1937 USA): Not to be confused with either 1919’s or 1929’s The Thirteenth Chair (the former is lost, the latter one of Tod Browning’s more obscure efforts), this is a very entertaining MGM second feature starring Dame May Whitty as Madame La Grange, a medium hired by the police to assist in a murder investigation. How does she help? Why, by holding a seance, of course – one to which a number of suspects and red herrings have been invited so that Inspector Marney (Lewis Stone) can ferret out the culprit. Instead of solving the crime, however, the seance muddies the waters, as one of the participants ends up dead when the lights unexpectedly go out. A wealth of familiar faces enliven the film, including Elisa Landi, Holmes Herbert, and Henry Daniell.

Saturday 5/18/13

4:15 PM HBO
Moonrise Kingdom (2012 USA): Despite rave reviews and a long engagement at the arthouse a mere five blocks from my house, I neglected to see Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom earlier this year. Was I put off by the effusive praise the film earned? Did the presence of Bruce Willis temper my enthusiasm? I’m still not sure what kept me away, but I’m definitely planning on playing catchup now that the film has arrived on HBO. Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Bob Balaban, Tilda Swinton...what on Earth was I thinking (or not thinking)? Also airs at 7:15 PM.

Sunday 5/19/13

11:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
Late Autumn (1960 JAP): TCM Imports has been on a bit of a Yasujiro Ozu tear over the last few months –both Early Spring and Early Summer have made recent Sunday evening appearances – and here’s another of the director’s seasonally themed flicks. A little lighter in tone than some of Ozu’s earlier work, Late Autumn stars Setsuko Hara as Akiko, a widow trying to find a suitable husband for daughter Ayako (Yoko Tsukasa). What Akiko doesn’t anticipate is the interest potential suitors start showing her during the process! A subtle and intelligent dissection of Japanese cultural mores and the generation gap, Late Autumn won the best Film prize at 1961’s Asia-Pacific Film Festival.

Monday 5/20/13

10:45 PM Turner Classic Movies
Carry On Spying (1964 GB): The Carry On series has, by and large, remained a distinctly British phenomenon. The films were aimed squarely at the British working class, and were popular enough to turn a profit without the benefit of being widely released in foreign territories (though I imagine they also did well in Australia and South Africa). Filled with ribald double entendres, scantily clad Cockney women and horrendous puns, the films were lowbrow laughfests that simply didn’t register with American audiences. That said, Carry On Spying was one of the series’ more ambitious efforts, parodying the James Bond films to decent effect whilst hewing closely to the classic "Carry On" recipe. Kenneth Williams – who probably wouldn’t have been cast as Bond if he were the last man on Earth – plays Desmond Simpkins, a secret agent tasked with the recovery of a top-secret formula stolen by the baddies of STENCH (Society for the Total Extinction of Non-Conforming Humans). He has help, of course, in the form of fellow agents Bind, Carstairs and Crump (Charles Hawtrey, Jim Dale, and Bernard Cribbins) – but with help like that, who needs enemies? If you’ve never dipped your toe into the deep Carry On filmography, this is as good a place to start as any. It’s a little less Brit-centric than most of the films in the series and a little funnier than most, as well.

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