New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Friday 6/18/10

12:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Before Midnight (1934 USA): Edward Arnold (not the actor, but a character portrayed by William Jeffrey) lives in an old dark house with an old dark secret—to wit, family lore suggests he is going to be murdered in the same fashion as his beknighted grandfather. One dark and stormy night, he pops his clogs, but Doc Marsh (Arthur Pierson) claims it was just a case of good old-fashioned heart failure. Police Inspector Trent (Ralph Bellamy) is not so sure, however, and his suspicions are proven correct when an autopsy finds poison in Arnold’s system. Could his death be related to his decades-long sojourn in the mysterious Orient—or did the secretary (Claude Gillingwater) do it? This thoroughly entertaining Columbia second feature was directed by Lambert Hillyer (The Invisible Ray, Dracula’s Daughter), and has atmosphere to spare.

5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Around the World Under the Sea (1966 USA): …but not in eighty days. This rather pallid science-fiction adventure features Lloyd Bridges as scientist Doug Standish, in command of a submarine travelling the ocean blue in search of earth tremors. It all adds up to an incredibly predicatable, Neptune Factor-style tale, complete with boring romantic subplot and copious nature footage. The supporting cast (including Shirley Eaton, Gary Merrill, David McCallum, and Keenan Wynn) however, offers reason enough to watch.

Saturday 6/19/10

7:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Angels in Disguise> (1949 USA): The Bowery Boys investigate a murder. Again. In this, the fifteenth chapter of the series, Hollywood nearly-man Mickey Knox (he turns 89 this coming December) stars as mobster Angles Carson, whilst pin-up girl Jean Dean clocks time as tootsy Vickie Darwell, who (you may be relieved to know) looks nothing like Jane Darwell.

12:45 PM Sundance
Still Walking (2008 JAP): Another contemplative and maudlin examination of the aging process and mortality from Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda (After Life, Nobody Knows), Still Walking will remind cineastes of Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story. This time, however, the tables have been turned: the children have travelled to reunite with the elders to celebrate the memory of a deceased sibling, and find that things have, ever so subtly but indelibly, changed over the years—and that some old wounds still haven’t healed. If you’re a Koreeada fan, his most recent effort, Air Doll, is just now beginning its U.S. arthouse run.

Continued:       1       2       3       4