| Video pick of the week--find it in your video store Seconds (1966)--A middle-aged executive (John Randolph) exchanges his aging body for a new one, and gets a new name and lifestyle in the bargain. A haunting film with many moving moments, especially at the end. Directed by John Frankenheimer in the good years before his decline. Rock Hudson, in one of his best roles, plays the executive after the operation. Stunning photography by James Wong Howe, one of the great Hollywood cinematographers. With Salome Jens and Murray Hamilton. (MJ) |
Asterisk indicates a film of exceptional interest. All times are EDT.
A&E= Arts & Entertainment, AMC = American Movie Classics, FXM = Fox Movie Channel, HBOF = HBO Family, HBOP = HBO Plus, HBOS = HBO Signature, IFC = Independent Film Channel, TCM = Turner Classic Movies, TMC = The Movie Channel, TNT = Turner Network Television
Saturday, April 17
6:00 am (FXM)-- At Long Last Love (1975)--Burt Reynolds and Cybill Shepherd can neither sing nor dance--they are definitely not Astaire and Rogers. Still, it's fun to watch them mangle Cole Porter's beautiful music and lyrics. Peter Bogdanovich's glitzy, expensive film proves that a warm affection for 1930's film musicals is not enough. One of the great bombs. With Madeline Kahn (often funny, despite her material) and John Hillerman. (MJ)
8:30 am (HBOP)-- Saturday Night Fever (1977)--A hardware store salesman in Brooklyn becomes a champion disco dancer at night. This is the film that launched John Travolta's film career, and he is a marvel as a dancer. Music by the Bee Gees. Directed by John Badham. (MJ)
*9:30 am (Sundance)-- Salesman (1969)--Albert and Davis Maysles's exceptional cinéma verité documentary follows four Bible salesmen around the Midwest. Much of it is very sad as they sit around in drab motel rooms discussing their futile day and try to think up new selling strategies. (MJ)
*11:30 am (HBOS)-- The Graduate (1967)--Important coming-of-age film about a young man (Dustin Hoffman, in his first big role) deciding whether to throw in his lot with the adult world. Should he cast off his rebelliousness and join the prospering middle class of the late sixties--i.e., go into "plastics"? Anne Bancroft is the memorable middle-aged seductress (and mother of his fiancée) Mrs. Robinson. Excellent music by Simon and Garfunkel. Directed by Mike Nichols. (MJ)
*12:00 pm (FXM)-- The Culpepper Cattle Company (1972)--An unjustly forgotten film about a naive young man joining up with a cattle drive. Grittily realistic depictions of the daily working life of cowboys--the kind of detail rarely shown in Westerns. A gem. With Gary Grimes, Billy "Green" Bush, and Geoffrey Lewis. Directed by Dick Richards. (MJ)
12:15 pm (HBOP)-- The Firm (1993)--Another film that takes a shot at the legal profession. In this paranoid potboiler, a young, ambitious lawyer finds out that his high-toned firm is totally owned by organized crime. An unremarkable film is saved by a remarkable performance by Gene Hackman (always dependable), playing a cynical partner. From the bestseller by John Grisham. (MJ)
12:40 pm (TMC)-- Touch (1987)--Interesting but disappointing film written and directed by Paul Schrader about faith healing in the South. With Christopher Walken and Bridget Fonda. (MJ)
*1:30 pm (Showtime)-- Last Action Hero (1993)--Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle that proves to be a delight. A boy goes to a movie theater and meets his idol --an action hero --who steps out of the screen and takes him back in. A good action film that spoofs the genre and plays with the tension between movies and reality. It also includes hilarious sendups of Olivier's Hamlet and Bergman's The Seventh Seal. Directed by John McTiernan. (MJ)
1:30 pm (FXM)-- The Razor's Edge (1946)--An overlong film, with some embarrassingly silly moments, but also some extraordinarily believable ones. With Tyrone Power, looking for the meaning of life, Gene Tierney, Anne Baxter. Directed by Edmund Goulding, from the novel by Somerset Maugham. (DW)
2:50 pm (Encore)-- Hombre (1967)--Martin Ritt directed, from an Elmore Leonard story, this film about Indian-raised Paul Newman trying to survive in Arizona in the 1880s. With Diane Cilento, Fredric March, Richard Boone. (DW)
*4:45 pm (Sundance)-- Salesman (1969)--See 9:30 am.
6:30 pm (HBO)-- John Grisham's the Rainmaker (1997)--Francis Coppola took a John Grisham potboiler and made it into an engrossing but pedestrian film. Nonetheless, it is rich in characters, with particularly good work by Danny DeVito and Mickey Rourke (in a surprising stand-out performance as an ultra-sleazy lawyer) Also starring Matt Damon, John Voight, and Claire Danes. (MJ)
*8:00 pm (Cinemax)-- Last Action Hero (1993)--See 1:30 pm.
9:00 pm (HBOP)-- The Firm (1993)--See 12:15 pm.
*10:30 pm (Starz)-- Wag the Dog (1997)--A US president hires a PR team to distract attention from a sex scandal by fabricating a war with Albania. Barry Levinson's film has bite, and the screenplay by David Mamet is sinister and funny. Great ensemble acting by Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Denis Leary, Anne Heche.
10:45 pm (HBOS)-- Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997)--In Copenhagen, a half-Inuit scientist (Julia Ormond) investigates the suspicious death from falling of a young Inuit boy. A quiet, brooding film with beautiful photography of Denmark and Greenland is marred by a conventional melodramatic ending with a conventional corporate villain (overplayed by Richard Harris with evil white hair). Also starring Gabriel Byrne. (MJ)
12:50 am (HBOS)-- Days of Wine and Roses (1962)--Blake Edwards' somber film about alcoholic Jack Lemmon who drags Lee Remick into his orbit. (DW)
2:00 am (TCM)-- Treasure Island (1934)--A solid version of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale of pirates and treasure. With Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper, directed by Victor Fleming. (DW)
2:00 am (FXM)-- The Culpepper Cattle Company (1972)--See 12:00 pm.
3:30 am (FXM)-- The Razor's Edge (1946)--See 1:30 pm.
4:00 am (TCM)-- Tarzan, the Ape Man (1932)--The original Tarzan, with Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan (Mia Farrow's mother). Directed by "One-take" W. S. Van Dyke. (DW)
Sunday, April 18
6:00 am (HBOS)-- Little Women (1933)--George Cukor's film version of the Louisa May Alcott classic, perhaps the best of the lot. Four sisters growing up in Civil War America, with Katharine Hepburn and Joan Bennett. (DW)
6:00 am (TCM)-- A Woman's Face (1941)--Joan Crawford is a vengeful woman, whose face has been disfigured. Not a consistently good film, but it has some moments. With the wonderful Conrad Veidt. George Cukor directed. (DW)
*8:40 am (Encore)-- The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)--A visitor from another galaxy visits our planet to issue a stern warning. Robert Wise's film is a liberal plea for peace and understanding; as such, it defied the McCarthyite xenophobia and bellicosity dominating Hollywood at the time. It stands up surprising well almost 50 years later. Starring Patricia Neal and Michael Rennie. (MJ)
*10:45 am (TBS)-- Groundhog Day (1993)--Bill Murray plays a weatherman who must live the same day over and over and over in a very dull town. Funny and somewhat disturbing. Directed by Harold Ramis. (MJ)
*11:30 am (HBOP)-- Barbarians at the Gate (1993)--James Garner is outstanding in this saga of the 1980s, about the corporate piracy that led to the takeover of RJR Nabisco. Larry Gelbart wrote the witty screenplay for the made-for-cable film. (MJ)
12:00 pm (Comedy)-- History of the World--Part I (1981)--An example of Mel Brooks' scattershot humor. Many jokes are forced and lame, and most routines just limp along, but the Spanish Inquisition sequence, staged as a Busby Berkeley water ballet, is hilarious and worth staying for. (MJ)
12:55 pm (Encore)-- The Culpepper Cattle Company (1972)--See Saturday, at 12:00 pm.
4:30 pm (HBO)-- Gattaca (1997)--In this future capitalist society, your place in the productive process is determined by your genetic makeup--which is mapped at birth and stays with you as your main ID for life. One man rebels against the system. Andrew Niccol wrote and directed this intelligent film, highly derivative of the fiction of Philip K. Dick. (MJ)
5:00 pm (HBOP)-- Night Falls on Manhattan (1997)--Another of Sidney Lumet's tales of police corruption. They are usually incisive, with a good feel for urban realities, but this one, with Andy Garcia as a cop turned crusading DA, is a bit paint-by-numbers. (MJ)
*5:00 pm (A&E)-- Rio Bravo (1959)--Classic Howard Hawks western, with John Wayne as a sheriff, Angie Dickinson as a dance-hall girl, Dean Martin as a drunk and singer Ricky Nelson joining forces to thwart a jail-break and other crimes. Much first-rate dialogue by Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman. (DW)
5:00 pm (Bravo)-- Repulsion (1965)--Catherine Deneuve starred as a sexually repressed girl who goes homicidal when her sister leaves her on her own in an apartment for a few days. Startling at the time, it seems dated today. Directed by Roman Polanski. (DW)
6:00 pm (TCM)-- Bringing Up Baby (1938)--Classic screwball comedy, with Katharine Hepburn as bedazzling, eccentric heiress and Cary Grant as the sedate zoologist whose life she turns upside down. Howard Hawks directed this comedy of sex and morals. (DW)
6:00 pm (Comedy)-- History of the World--Part I (1981)--See 12:00 pm.
*8:00 pm (TCM)-- Dr. Strangelove (1963)--Classic satire on nuclear annihilation. Though heavyhanded in parts, it stll retains its incisive humor and impact. Peter Sellers is incredible playing several parts, including the President of the United States. Memorable line: "You can't fight in here--it's the War Room!" Directed by Stanley Kubrick. (MJ)
*8:00 pm (FX)-- The Stepfather (1987)--Gruesome slasher film that is actually a clever attack on the values of the Reagan era. A psychotic killer goes from city to city, marrying widows with children. When they fail to meet his high standards of a perfect family, he slays them all and moves on. A sleeper that shouldn't be missed. Starring Terry O'Quinn as the stepfather. Directed by Joseph Ruben. (MJ)
9:00 pm (HBOP)-- The Fifth Element (1997)--Vacuous, silly science fiction film in which the future of the universe hinges on a Brooklyn cabdriver (played in proletarian style by Bruce Willis) finding something called "the fifth element." Worth seeing only for its imaginative settings and special effects. Typical scenery-chewing villainy by Gary Oldman. Directed by Luc Besson. (MJ)
10:00 pm (AMC)-- The Molly Maguires (1970)--Sean Connery and Richard Harris co-starred in this well-meaning film about the secret organization of Irish-born miners in Pennsylvania in the 1870s. Directed by Martin Ritt. (DW)
10:00 pm (TCM)-- The Party (1968)--Peter Sellers is an Indian actor attending a fashionable Hollywood party in this uneven film by Blake Edwards. With Claudine Longet. (DW)
*1:10 am (Cinemax)-- The Ice Storm (1997)--Excellent film by Ang Lee of aimlessness and disillusionment in the 1970s. As the middle class disintegrates in suburbia, we see the disintegration of the White House playing out in the background as the Watergate crisis runs its course. The fine cast includes Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Joan Allen, Jamey Sheridan, and Christina Ricci. (MJ)
*2:00 am (TBS)-- Escape from Alcatraz (1979)--Clint Eastwood plays a convict determined to break out of Alcatraz, the supposedly inescapable prison. Based on a true story, the film methodically follows Eastwood's efforts. Directed by Don Siegel. (DW)
*2:00 am (TCM)-- Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)--One of Buster Keaton's later silent films, not directed by him (Charles F. Riesner). Buster must prove his toughness to his father, a steamboat captain. Anything with Keaton is essential viewing. (DW)
4:00 am (AMC)-- The Molly Maguires (1970)--See 10:00 pm.
4:25 am (HBOP)-- Night Falls on Manhattan (1997)--See 5:00 pm.
Monday, April 19
6:00 am (TCM)-- A Tale of Two Cities (1935)--Ronald Colman provides some outstanding moments in this film version of Charles Dickens' novel about the French Reign of Terror. An extravagant MGM production, directed by Jack Conway. With Edna May Oliver, Basil Rathbone and Reginald Owen. (DW)
7:45 am (Showtime)-- Duel in the Sun (1946)--King Vidor's intense Western psychodrama. Jennifer Jones, a "half-breed," is caught between two brothers (Gregory Peck and Joseph Cotten). With Lionel Barrymore, Lillian Gish, Herbert Marshall, Charles Bickford and Walter Huston. (DW)
11:30 am (TCM)-- Northwest Passage (1940)--King Vidor's vivid film about Rogers' Rangers, an elite corps opening up territory in pre-Revolutionary America. Spencer Tracy is Rogers, with Robert Young and Walter Brennan. (DW)
*11:30 am (Sundance)-- Salesman (1969)--See Saturday, at 9:30 am.
*11:45 am (HBOS)-- Barry Lyndon (1975)--An intelligent adaptation of William Thackeray's novel about an 18th-century scoundrel, directed by Stanley Kubrick. (DW)
12:15 pm (AMC)-- Written on the Wind (1956)--One of Douglas Sirk's extraordinary films about 1950s America and its discontents. Robert Stack is a drunken heir to an oil fortune, Dorothy Malone his restless sister. They destroy themselves and others without ever understanding why. Not to be missed. (DW)
12:30 pm (Bravo)-- Repulsion (1965)--See Sunday, at 12:30 pm.
1:00 pm (HBOP)-- Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997)--See Saturday, at 11:45 am.
1:05 pm (Sundance)-- Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995)--Bizarre crime thriller about horrific revenge exacted by mob boss (played with extreme creepiness by Christopher Walken in a motorized wheelchair) upon local hoods. With Andy Garcia and Steve Buscemi. Directed by Gary Fleder. (MJ)
2:00 pm (TBS)-- The Man from Laramie (1955)--Top-notch Anthony Mann Western, with James Stewart looking for the man who killed his brother. Morally ambiguous, as Mann's best films generally are. With Arthur Kennedy, Donald Crisp, Cathy O'Donnell, Alex Nicol. (DW)
*4:45 pm (HBOP)-- The Graduate (1967)--See Saturday, at 11:30 am.
6:00 pm (TCM)-- On the Town (1949)--Memorable MGM musical--three sailors with 24 hours' leave in New York City. Based on the show by Betty Comden-Adolph Green-Leonard Bernstein, with Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Vera-Ellen and Betty Garrett. Directed by Stanley Donen and Kelly. (DW)
*8:00 pm (Showtime)-- Twilight (1998)--Crisp dialogue and good plotting carry this film about an elderly detective (Paul Newman) solving murders in Hollywood. Excellent cast also includes Gene Hackman, Susan Sarandon, and James Garner. Many smart observations about growing old. Directed by Robert Benton, from a screenplay by Benton and novelist Richard Russo. (MJ)
8:00 pm (AMC)-- My Fair Lady (1964)--George Cukor's beautiful film of the Lerner and Loewe musical adapted from Shaw's Pygmalion. Memorable costumes and sets by Cecil Beaton. Starring Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn (whose singing is actually done by Marni Nixon). (MJ)
*9:00 pm (Sundance)-- Salesman (1969)--See Saturday, at 9:30 am.
10:35 pm (Sundance)-- Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995)--See 1:05 pm.
12:00 am (TCM)-- A Yank at Oxford (1937)--A lighthearted film, with Robert Taylor as an American trying to adjust to life at the English university. With Maureen O'Sullivan and a young Vivien Leigh; directed by Jack Conway. (DW)
12:10 am (HBOS)-- A Star Is Born (1954)--Judy Garland is the star on the way up and James Mason the unfortunate drunk on the way down, in George Cukor's version of the tragic tale. A remake of the 1937 film made by William Wellman, with Fredric March and Janet Gaynor. (DW)
*1:40 am (Encore)-- The Boys in Company C (1978)--One of the better realistic films about the Vietnam War. Avoids the cliches of most other war films. With James Whitmore, Jr. and Stan Shaw. Directed by Sidney J. Furie. (MJ)
*3:10 am (HBOS)-- Barry Lyndon (1975)--See 11:45 am.
3:30 am (AMC)-- My Fair Lady (1964)--See 8:00 pm.
Tuesday, April 20
6:30 am (AMC)-- A Woman's Vengeance (1948)--Hungarian-born Zoltan Korda directed an intelligent Aldous Huxley script about a philandering husband suspected of murdering his wife. With Charles Boyer, Ann Blyth, Jessica Tandy, Cedric Hardwicke. (DW)
10:15 am (AMC)-- Reap the Wild Wind (1942)--Cecil B. DeMille directed this intriguing film about 19th century salvagers off the coast of Georgia. Ray Milland and John Wayne fight over Paulette Goddard, as a spirited Southern belle. (DW)
11:00 am (TCM)-- The Quiet Man (1952)--John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara star in this John Ford film about an Irish-American boxer who goes back to his native country. (DW)
*1:15 pm (Showtime)-- Notorious (1946)--One of Alfred Hitchcock's best. American counterespionage agents convince the patriotic daughter of a convicted Nazi spy to marry a Nazi agent in South America. Very suspenseful (especially the sequence with the dwindling champagne bottles), and with complex characterizations. Wonderful chemistry between Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, and an oddly sympathetic performance by Claude Rains as the Nazi agent. (MJ)
1:30 pm (TCM)-- The Wings of Eagles (1957)--John Ford directed this biographical film about Frank "Spig" Wead (John Wayne), an aviator who turned to screenwriting (for Ford and others) after an accident. With Maureen O'Hara, Dan Dailey, Ward Bond. (DW)
3:15 pm (HBOP)-- The Firm (1993)--See Saturday, at 12:15 pm.
4:00 pm (AMC)-- Leave Her to Heaven (1945)--Extraordinary melodrama by John Stahl, about a woman (Gene Tierney) consumed by jealousy and possessiveness, to the point of madness and murder. With Cornel Wilde and Vincent Price. (DW)
6:00 am (HBOS)-- Night Falls on Manhattan (1997)--See Sunday, at 5:00 pm.
6:00 pm (AMC)-- I Was a Male War Bride (1949)--Cary Grant is a French officer marrying a WAC (Ann Sheridan) and encountering a series of dilemmas. The film is very funny, and it also provides director Howard Hawks an opportunity to examine sexual roles, and subvert them. (DW)
9:00 pm (USA)-- The Godfather, Part III (1990)--Not the best of the Godfather trilogy, but a cut above most current films. This time, the Corleone family, led by Michael (Al Pacino), gets involved with the sinister machinations of the Vatican and international finance. With Andy Garcia, Diane Keaton, and Sophia Coppola. Directed by Francis Coppola. (MJ)
10:00 pm (FXM)-- All That Jazz (1979)--Choreographer/director Bob Fosse's overwrought autobiographical film about his mental and physical crackup. Not strictly speaking a musical, but it is filled with musical numbers--including a bizarre one occurring during the main character's open-heart surgery. With Roy Scheider and Ben Vereen. (MJ)
1:05 am (TBS)-- The Dirty Dozen (1967)--Twelve convicts, serving life sentences, are recruited for a suicidal commando raid in Robert Aldrich's film. (DW)
1:45 am (AMC)-- I Was a Male War Bride (1949)--See 6:00 pm.
Wednesday, April 21
*6:00 am (HBOS)-- The Graduate (1967)--See Saturday, at 11:30 am.
7:00 am (AMC)-- Five Graves to Cairo (1943)--Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett wrote the screenplay for this North African wartime intrigue drama; Wilder also directed. Franchot Tone stars. (DW)
7:35 am (Encore)-- Hombre (1967)--See Saturday, at 2:50 pm.
8:00 am (HBO)-- Gattaca (1997)--See Sunday, at 4:30 pm.
10:00 am (Showtime)-- All About Eve (1950)--Joseph Mankiewicz wrote and directed this classic about backstabbing in the world of the theater. The dialogue is nonstop witty and incisive. Memorable performances by George Sanders and Bette Davis. (MJ)
10:30 am (HBOP)-- Night Falls on Manhattan (1997)--See Sunday, at 5:00 pm.
11:30 am (HBOS)-- Saturday Night Fever (1977)--See Saturday, at 8:30 am.
11:45 am (HBO)-- John Grisham's the Rainmaker (1997)--See Saturday, at 6:30 pm.
12:30 pm (Showtime)-- A Place in the Sun (1951)--A George Stevens film based on Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy. Not very faithful to the book, but valuable in its own right. Elizabeth Taylor is extraordinary as Montgomery Clift's dream girl. (DW)
*5:45 pm (Cinemax)-- Last Action Hero (1993)--See Saturday, at 1:30 pm.
6:05 pm (Encore)-- Hombre (1967)--See Saturday, at 2:50 pm.
6:15 pm (AMC)-- The Naked Jungle (1954)--Above-average jungle adventure directed by Byron Haskin, with Charlton Heston and Eleanor Parker. (DW)
8:00 pm (HBO)-- Gattaca (1997)--See Sunday, at 4:30 pm.
8:00 pm (TCM)-- La Strada (1954)--Federico Fellini directed this work about a brutal carnival strongman (Anthony Quinn), his long-suffering girl-friend (Giuletta Masina) and a kindhearted acrobat (Richard Basehart). (DW)
*9:00 pm (HBOS)-- The Graduate (1967)--See Saturday, at 11:30 am.
9:00 pm (USA)-- The Godfather, Part III (1990)--See Tuesday, at 9:00 pm.
*10:00 pm (FXM)-- The Name of the Rose (1986)--A murder mystery set in a medieval monastery (the MacGuffin is a lost book by Aristotle). Though lacking much of the rich detail of Umberto Eco's fine novel, the film stands well on its own. Sean Connery is perfect as the monk-detective, John of Baskerville. With Christian Slater, F. Murray Abraham, and William Hickey. Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud. (MJ)
Thursday, April 22
11:45 am (Showtime)-- Duel in the Sun (1946)--See Saturday, at 7:45 am.
12:15 pm (AMC)-- The Naked Jungle (1954)--See Wednesday, at 6:15 pm.
*5:45 pm (Showtime)-- Last Action Hero (1993)--See Saturday, at 1:30 pm.
6:00 pm (TCM)-- Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)--A lively musical directed by Stanley Donen. When Howard Keel decides to find a wife, his brothers follow suit. With Jane Powell, Russ Tamblyn, Virginia Gibson. A Johnny Mercer-Gene DePaul score and Michael Kidd's choreography. (DW)
*8:00 pm (AMC)-- The Manchurian Candidate (1962)--A Korean War hero (Laurence Harvey) returns to the US, brainwashed by his Chinese captors and programmed to kill a presidential candidate. Ostensibly a cold war conspiracy thriller, this film turns around and becomes an intense satirical attack on right-wing politics. Angela Lansbury gives a superb performance as the war hero's villainous mom, as does James Gregory, playing a politician based on Senator Joe McCarthy. The baroque direction is by John Frankenheimer, from the novel by Richard Condon. With Frank Sinatra and Janet Leigh. (MJ)
8:00 pm (TCM)-- High Society (1956)--Glossy musical version of The Philadelphia Story has music and lyrics by the great Cole Porter. Starring Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, and Louis Armstrong. Directed by Charles Walters. (MJ)
11:00 pm (HBOS)-- Night Falls on Manhattan (1997)--See Sunday, at 5:00 pm.
*11:20 pm (Starz)-- Wag the Dog (1997)--See Saturday, at 10:30 pm.
2:00 am (TCM)-- The Cincinnati Kid (1965)--Norman Jewison directed this film about a big poker game in New Orleans. The performances of Steve McQueen, Tuesday Weld and Edward G. Robinson are the best things in the film. (DW)
*3:30 am (AMC)-- The Manchurian Candidate (1962)--See 8:00 pm.
4:20 am (HBOS)-- Days of Wine and Roses (1962)--See Saturday, at 12:50 am.
Friday, April 23
6:30 am (HBOS)-- Little Women (1933)--see Sunday, at 6:00 am.
10:00 am (FXM)-- The Hustler (1961)--Basically a boxing film, but set among serious pool sharks. Robert Rossen's movie is beautifully shot and capably acted, but the dialogue is full of stagey, pseudo-profound, high-proletarian language. With Paul Newman, Piper Laurie, George C. Scott, and Jackie Gleason. (MJ)
*1:45 pm (TCM)-- Fort Apache (1948)--One of John Ford's classic cavalry trilogy. Henry Fonda is an unbending officer who can't get along with his own men, or the neighboring Apaches. With John Wayne and Shirley Temple. (DW)
*2:00 pm (Sundance)-- Salesman (1969)--See Saturday, at 9:30 am.
*2:00 pm (AMC)-- Sergeant Rutledge (1960)--Woody Strode plays a black US cavalry officer charged with rape and murder in post-Civil War America. John Ford directed. With Jeffrey Hunter, Constance Towers. (DW)
3:15 pm (HBOS)-- A Star Is Born (1954)--See Monday, at 12:10 am.
*4:00 pm (Bravo)-- Henry V (1989)--Kenneth Branagh's exuberant production of the great Shakespeare historical play about Britain's warrior-king. "He which hath no stomach to this fight,/Let him depart..." (DW)
5:00 pm (HBOP)-- Saturday Night Fever (1977)--See Saturday, at 8:30 am.
*6:15 pm (HBOS)-- The Graduate (1967)--See Saturday, at 11:30 am.
8:00 pm (IFC)-- Gas Food Lodging (1992)--Amiable film about a waitress (Brooke Adams) at a diner in Laramie, New Mexico, trying to get by, with two daughters. Directed by Allison Anders; with James Brolin, Ione Skye, Fairuza Balk. (DW)
9:45 pm (Cinemax)-- The Devil's Advocate (1997)--Satan (portrayed in an over-the-top performance by Al Pacino) runs a white-shoe law firm in New York City. Keanu Reeves, as an ambitious young lawyer, makes a Faustian bargain and suffers for it. A very funny horror film that trades on the public's distrust of the legal profession. (MJ)
12:00 am (FXM)-- The Hustler (1961)--See 10:00 am.
12:15 am (TBS)-- Spaceballs (1987)--Mel Brooks' send-up of the Star Wars saga. Rick Moranis is Dark Helmet and Daphne Zuniga is Princess Vespa. Other characters include Pizza the Hut. (DW)
1:00 am (IFC)-- Gas Food Lodging (1992)--See 8:00 pm.
*2:00 am (Sundance)-- Salesman (1969)--See Saturday, at 9:30 am.
4:05 am (HBOP)-- Face/Off (1997)--Hong Kong action director John Woo lets out all the stops in this exciting, humorous, and (of course) preposterous film about a government agent (John Travolta) and his terrorist nemesis (Nicolas Cage) exchanging faces. (MJ)