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Friday 12/14/12

11:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural (1973 USA): One of the best independently produced horror flicks of a very good decade for independently produced horror flicks, Lemora relates the dangers awaiting young Lila Lee (Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith) after she flees a deeply unhappy home situation and ends up in the town of Asteroth, where she meets the creepy title character (Lesley Gilb). Set during the 1930s and based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft, the film was the freshman effort of director Richard Blackburn, who would later go on to produce and write the classic black comedy Eating Raoul. He’s hardly worked since, but between Lemora and Raoul has already earned TiVoPlex immortality.

Saturday 12/15/12

3:00 AM Fox Movie Channel
Legions of the Nile (1960 FRA-ITA): Good news: this sword and sandal epic hasn’t been seen on TV in many years (well, it hadn’t been until it showed up on Fox last May). Bad news: this is the dubbed, pan and scan print we all grew up watching on the late, late show - which for nostalgics like me, of course, isn’t entirely bad news. Even more interestingly, the only reason Fox ended up distributing this picture was because they bought the US rights in order to prevent it from competing with their own epic of ancient Egypt, 1963’s Cleopatra. How’s the film? In two words, historically inaccurate - but Linda Cristal is easy on the eyes as the legendary lady pharaoh.

5:45 AM Turner Classic Movies
Impact (1949 USA): Brian Donlevy plays a man targeted for murder by his cheating wife in this excellent, if ever so slightly overlong, suspenser. Donlevy is Walter Williams, a San Francisco businessman whose spouse Irene (star-crossed Helen Walker) dispatches lover Jim Torrance ( Tony Barrett) to do him in. Jim, however, does a sloppy and incomplete job and ends up dead himself, whilst Walter bides his time in an Idaho gas station plotting revenge. Things get more complicated, however, when he in turn falls for gas station owner Marsha Peters (Ella Raines). Co-starring Charles Coburn, Anna May Wong (this her penultimate picture), and Mae Marsh, Impact provided Donlevy one of the better roles of his career.

Sunday 12/16/12

5:00 AM Sundance
A Year Ago In Winter (2008 GER): Written and directed by Caroline Link, whose Nowhere in Africa won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2002, A Year Ago In Winter is the contemplative tale of an artist trying desperately to capture the essence of his subject. The artist is Max Hollander (Josef Bierbichler); the subject a young man (Cyril Sjostrom) who just so happens to be dead. A challenge indeed for any painter, and there’s plenty more family drama as Max must contend with the mother and sister of his (very) still life. This one’s for fans of late period Ingmar Bergman - others may find the film a little too insular.

9:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Iron Petticoat (1956 GB): This is a weird one – a really weird one. Shot in Britain and directed by future Carry On king Ralph Thomas, The Iron Petticoat stars Katharine Hepburn as Vinka Kovelenko, a Soviet officer who defects to the West because of those sexist pigs in the Politburo. Safely ensconced in London, Vinka is assigned to case officer Chuck Lockwood (Bob Hope?!?), who tries to convince her that capitalism is just peachy. An awkward melding of elements from better films (Comrade X, Ninotchka), The Iron Petticoat was penned by Ben Hecht, who wanted his name removed from the credits. He didn’t get his wish. Long unseen, this film popped up on TCM last month and gets an encore screening this morning. It’s not a good film (and Hepburn’s Russian accent is absolutely atrocious), but remains a fascinating misfire nonetheless.

5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Carol for Another Christmas (1964 USA): Now this is more like it. Made for television in 1964, Carol for Another Christmas was produced by Xerox for the United Nations (eager as ever to spread universal goodwill) and written by Rod Serling. An updated version of A Christmas Carol with Sterling Hayden cast in the Scrooge role (here named "Daniel Grudge"), the film features an amazing supporting cast, including Peter Sellers, Britt Ekland, Pat Hingle, James Shigeta, Eva Marie Saint, Ben Gazzara, Robert Shaw, and, erm, Steve Lawrence as The Ghost of Christmas Past. Rarely seen since its initial broadcast, this is not to be missed.

9:40 PM The Movie Channel
Farewell My Concubine (1993 CHI): You can’t go far wrong with Chinese frock flick specialist Chen Kaige, and Farewell My Concubine is no exception. Of course, it always helps to have the luminous Gong Li headlining your film, and here she’s cast as point woman in a half-century long love triangle involving members of the Peking Opera (the other two corners of the triangle being Leslie Cheung and Fengyi Zhang). It’s a beautifully made, superbly acted, leisurely paced but never boring drama. Also airs on 12/17 at 12:40 AM.

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