TCM Look-Ahead - April 10
A weekly feature here on Big Heads that looks forward to the week ahead on the mighty Turner Classic Movies, for your viewing and recording pleasure.
Friday, April 10
08:00 p.m. PST The Masque of Red Death. From that strange era when Roger Corman and company cheaply adapted Edgar Alan Poe stories that made a ton of money and Vincent Price a star. This is the best of them, directed by Corman himself and sumptously shot by Nicolas Roeg. Price as a debauched prince. Very much influenced by Bergman's Seventh Seal.
Saturday, April 11
08:00 p.m. PST Get Carter. Much beloved, grotty crime thriller from 1971 with an unredeemable Michael Caine not trying to be charming in the least. Still packs a wallop.
Sunday, April 12
09:45 p.m. PST Hold Back the Dawn. This was one of two movies directed by Mitchell Leisen that so alienated the screenwriters of the films that it sent them each running to the director's chair. This one, concerning a seemingly callous gigolo who actually has a heart of gold, played by Charles Boyer, was penned by Billy Wilder, who hated Leisen's treatment (the other, for the record, was Remember the Night, penned by soon-to-hold-the-megaphone Preston Sturges). I think in both cases the screenwriters were wrong. I particularly like this one.
Monday, April 13
04:30 a.m. PST Sword of the Beast. A brilliantly choreographed samurai epic from the great Hideo Gosha. A seminal work in the Nuberu Bagu (the Japanese new wave) from 1965.
Tuesday, April 14
05:00 p.m. PST Robinson Crusoe. Yep, the Luis Bunuel adaptation of the castaway classic is just as weird as it sounds. One of only two forays into the English-language cinema by Bunuel. Ostensibly a family-friendly yarn, it features indelible images on the boney remains of a cannibal's victim, and unrepentant racist behavior by the truly terrible protagonist. It is arguably Bunuel's worst film and, therefore, great.
Wednesday, April 15
10:00 p.m. PST The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. Not to be confused with the Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (which plays on TCM a few hours earlier on this day), this is included here because I saw it in the theater when it came out and Sinbad's (John Phillip Law) sword fight with the Kali statue freaked me out. And Caroline Munroe made me feel feelings too. Yes, effects by the great Ray Harryhausen.
Thursday, April 16
05:45 p.m. PST The Legend of Lylah Clare. Robert Aldrich in the period when he would alternate between tough guy action films and odd, grand guignol women's pictures. It was to his credit he seemlessly shifted from one to the next. This is a fairly rare one, starring the great Kim Novak who rises to stardom from the dust heap with the help of a megalomaniac director (and possible Aldrich manque) Peter Finch.
