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Thursday 5/24/12

1:15 AM Sundance
X (2011 AUS): Who can resist a film with the tagline “A jaded callgirl... a fledging hooker... the night from hell”? I know I can’t. The delightfully named Viva Bianca (paging Russ Meyer and Radley Metzger!) stars as Holly, a Sydney call girl who eyeballs a murder while at, ahem, "work." To make matters worse, the killer is a police associate of one of Holly’s clients…and the bent copper has no qualms about rubbing out witnesses. X is about as grungy and exploitative as a film being aired on Sundance can get.

8:00 AM Fox Movie Channel
Visiting Hours (1981 CAN): Ready for some Canadian horror, eh? It’s aboot time! Here’s Visiting Hours, in which the 100% non-Canadian Lee Grant headlines as Deborah, a tabloid television star who denounces domestic violence on the air - a mistake that immediately attracts the attention of psychotic domestic violence practitioner Colt Hawker (Toronto’s own Michael Ironside). Taken to hospital after Colt’s shocking assault, Deborah befriends nurse Sheila (Linda Purl) - but will they be able to survive the obsessed Colt’s all out assault on the facility and its inhabitants? Co-starring Montreal-born William Shatner as Deborah’s boss, Visiting Hours is a pretty typical slasher flick of the period, but Grant’s fine performance transcends the routine material.

6:35 PM Showtime
Dragonslayer (2011 USA): Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? Wait, let me rephrase that: Joey, do you like movies about aging Peter Pans who’ve spent the better part of the last 20 years trying to pull off the perfect pop-shuvit? If you answered "yes" to the first question, go and rent Airplane; but if your preference is for skateboarding, check out this hagiographic look at aging skate legend Skreech Sandoval. It won’t make you forget Dogtown and Z-Boys, but it might make you hanker for the days when you were young enough to indulge in a little sidewalk surfing yourself. Also airs at 9:35 PM.

Friday 5/25/12

Midnight Turner Classic Movies
The Valachi Papers (1972 FRA-ITA): One wag on IMDb describes this period gangster flick as "Ed Wood meets Francis Ford Coppola," then goes on to detail the film’s many creative anachronisms - the best of which, of course, is the presence of the Twin Towers almost 40 years before they were built. Set during the Great Depression, The Valachi Papers is a highly fictionalized account of the life and times of mob member and FBI informant Joe Valachi, here portrayed by the reliably stone-faced Charles Bronson. Also on hand: the great Lino Ventura as mob boss Vito Genovese, Joseph "Dr. No" Wiseman as bootlegger Salvatore Maranzano, and Jill Ireland as Joe’s loyal spouse Maria. Despite its shot-on-location exteriors, most of this film was actually filmed in Italian studios by director Terence "Dr. No" Young, its Italian supporting cast duly dubbed into English during post-production. Flaws aside, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable gangster flick, and makes its widescreen television debut this morning - and in case you’re wondering, Dr. No star Sean Connery has absolutely no connection to it.

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