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Saturday 01/27/07

10:15 PM Sundance
Down to the Bone (2004 USA): Vera Farmiga, recently seen to reasonable effect in Martin Scorsese's The Departed, stars in this gruelling drug addiction drama about a bored housewife trying to balance homemaking and childcare with hardcore cocaine abuse. After cashing one of her kid's birthday checks and turning it into nose candy, she decides she's reached the end of the line and checks herself into rehab, where a new love and a new career as a housecleaner await her. Written and directed by Debra Granik, Down to the Bone is strong stuff and never had a chance at the box office. Happily, however, critics recognised the quality of Farmiga's performance, and she won the Best Actress Award from the Los Angeles Film Critics' Association in 2005 - the same year Reese Witherspoon took home the equivalent Academy Award for Walk the Line.

Sunday 01/28/07

5:00 AM The Movie Channel
Yellowbeard (1983 GB): It's not terribly funny, but this pirate comedy from ex-Python Graham Chapman and a past his prime Peter Cook features a cast to die for, including (besides Chapman and Cook) Peter Boyle (who gets all the best lines, such as they are), Marty Feldman, Cheech and Chong, Michael Hordern, James Mason, Madeleine Kahn, John Cleese, Kenneth Mars, Spike Milligan, Nigel Planer (you know, Neil from The Young Ones), Susannah York, Beryl Reid, Peter Bull, and Bernard Fox. If you can overlook the fact that the laughs are few, far between, and rather labored, you may still enjoy Yellowbeard, which airs in widescreen this morning and again at 8:00 AM.

5:15 PM Turner Classic Movies
Dragnet (1954 USA): The face that launched a thousand frowns, Jack Webb, also launched his immortal Joe Friday character to the big screen via this police procedural about the investigation of a gangland slaying. The original 1951 TV series had already established a formula encompassing Friday's laconic just the facts ma'am attitude, the underlying message that criminals are a bunch of irredeemable scumbags, and constant reminders that the police are a very thin blue line indeed, and those characteristics are in abundance throughout this feature. The film does, however, eschew the black and white noir influences evident in the early television episodes, an unfortunate decision that presaged the series' 1966 return to the small screen In Living Color on NBC (oh, how I miss the peacock). If you're a fan of Webb's poker face, though, you won't want to miss Dragnet, which also features Richard Boone, Dennis Weaver, and Virginia Christine in its cast.

Monday 01/29/07

3:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Bop Girl Goes Calypso (1957 USA): A morning of obscure rock and roll exploitation flicks kicks off with Bop Girl Goes Calypso, a film that hopefully suggested that rock is passé and calypso is the Next Big Thing down Jamaica way. The film features Bobby Troup as Robert Hilton, a psychology student working to complete his thesis, ‘Mass Hysteria and the Popular Singer', and Lucien Littlefield as his academic mentor. Robert scientifically measures nightclub applause, and has made a vital discovery: applause at rock shows has gone down, whilst applause at calypso shows in on the upswing! Produced on the cheap to tie in with a very short-lived boom in Caribbean music - which saw even Robert Mitchum recording a calypso-themed LP - Bop Girl Goes Calypso is an unintentionally hilarious adult fantasy about the ‘passing fad' of rock, but at least has the good taste to feature a performance by Lord Flea, one of the foremost practitioners of mento, the Jamaican style that anticipated ska, rocksteady, and reggae. It's followed at 4:30 AM by 1956's Rock Around the Clock, a vehicle built around the popularity of Bill Haley and the Comets; at 6:00 AM by 1961's Twist Around the Clock, which reheats the formula with Chubby Checker and Dion sitting in for Bill and his boys; at 7:30 AM by 1956's Alan Freed vehicle Don't Knock the Rock, featuring Haley, Little Richard, and the marvelous Treniers; at 10:30 AM by 1959's very rare Juke Box Rhythm, starring Johnny Otis, Brian Donlevy, and (gulp) Jack Jones; at noon by 1958's equally unhip Julius LaRosa musical comedy Let's Rock, and at 1:30 PM by Richard Lester's extremely hip and very amusing trad jazz tribute, Ring A Ding Rhythm (1962).

5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Show (1927 USA): The highlight of the week arrives at the end of the week - well, the end of the TiVoPlex week, that is. This is the world television premiere of a quite rare Tod Browning feature which has been on my ‘must see' list for many years. Unlike most of Browning's MGM output, The Show doesn't star Lon Chaney, but features in his place John Gilbert - then at the peak of his popularity - as Cock Robin, an Austrian carny who manages the Palace of Illusions, where physical grotesqueries are the draw that brings in the suckers. Where can I buy a ticket? Also airs at 10:00 PM.

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