Upcoming Movies on TV (UK)

[colinr0380]

As jlnight has noted, the big premiere of the week is Juliette Binoche in Tran Anh Hung's The Taste of Things on BBC4 at 9:35 p.m. on Saturday 14th (on Valentine's Day you have the choice of that, Sleepless in Seattle on Film4 or Fifty Shades of Grey on the 5Star channel!)

Amusingly in a counter-programming move to BBC1's latest adaptation of Lord of the Flies on Sunday 15th, ITV1 is belatedly beginning to show the first series of Yellowjackets with a double bill of the first two episodes at 10:15 p.m.

BBC4's Storyville documentary of the week is The Darkest Web at 10 p.m. on Tuesday 17th. Currently it only exists as part of the BBC's list of upcoming titles in the season. Yes, there inevitably is another Ukrainian documentary in the roster too. That is up against Film4's premiere of Renfield at 9 p.m. on Tuesday 17th.
___
Repeat-wise, BBC4's Ibsen season continues with the 1988 adaptation of A Master Builder at 10 p.m. on Sunday 10th. And on BBC4 on Wednesday 18th February there is a new introduction by Derek Jacobi at 10 p.m. to a screening of the 1997 film in which he starred as Alan Turing, Breaking The Code.

Film4 has a couple of late night showings of turn of the millennium UK films with Lucky Break at 1:35 a.m. in the early hours of Monday 16th, and Michael Winterbottom's With Or Without You at 1:55 a.m. in the early hours of Thursday 19th.

Film4 also has a couple of Sam Fuller films with Hell and High Water at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday 17th and Fixed Bayonets! at 3 p.m. on Wednesday 18th. They are also doing a Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes season it appears, with Terror By Night at 11 a.m. on Sunday 15th and Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon at 1 p.m. on Tuesday 17th. Although the most interesting film of the classics during Film4's week is a screening of 1943's Crash Dive at 2:20 p.m. on Tuesday 17th (i.e. sandwiched in between Sherlock Holmes and Hell and High Water). Plus the Richard Burton and Joan Collins team up Sea Wife is showing at 1:10 p.m. on Friday 20th.

"Legend Xtra"-wise, the Hammer film of the week is The Scars of Dracula at 11:15 p.m. on Wednesday 18th. The most exciting film of the week there is a screening of the controversial (because of being a Vietnam allegory) Soldier Blue at 9 p.m. on Wednesday 18th. The curio of the week is the other Nicolas Cage film with Jiu Jitsu at 11 p.m. on Monday 16th, which is from the director of Jean-Claude Van Damme film Kickboxer: Retaliation, and interestingly the original JCVD Kickboxer film is showing at 9 p.m. on February 20th.

And the film I most want to highlight from "Legend Xtra"'s schedule of the week is Blood and Money with Tom Berenger at 11:15 p.m. on Tuesday 17th. Which starts out extremely low key for the first half of its running time, showing a reclusive guy doing his solitary routine before the final section turns into a more standard 'bag of money' crime thriller direction. Which is not quite as good as the languid set up to the situation, but I was still very impressed by that first half which is kind of in the same territory of just showing the process of daily routines of something like David Gordon Green's Joe. And it is nice to see Tom Berenger getting a meaty late period role as well.

[domino harvey]

All I remember about Sea Wife is Richard Burton saying “Sea Wife” approximately 500 times

[colinr0380]

In the wake of James Van Der Beek's passing, it may be worth noting that the "Legend Xtra" channel is serendipitously showing the 2007 Kraken-themed horror Eye of the Beast at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning, Friday 13th.

[thirtyframesasecond]

Always had a lot of time for Tom Berenger. I suppose Inception was the last decent film he was in, but he had a good run between Platoon and Shattered (not seen the Alan Rudolph and Abel Ferrara films he's in, but they're bound to be interesting).

[colinr0380]

I keep meaning to check out those Sniper films that Tom Berenger was in because he was in a couple of the sequels as well, so I presume that was quite a successful franchise for him. But as of yet I have not managed to sit down with them. Although whilst watching it I was speculating to myself on whether Blood and Money is alluding to that series, just with a much older hunter at the end of his life having to tackle baddies!

[jlnight]

The Fabelmans, Sat 21st Feb, Channel 4. Or...
Adventures of a Taxi Driver, Sat 21st Feb, Together TV. (last on TPTV) Or...
Vampire Hookers (1978), Sat 21st Feb, Rewind TV.
Rentadick (1972), late Sat 21st Feb, Talking Pictures.

Magid/Zafar (2025 short), late Sun 22nd Feb, Channel 4.

Three Sundays to Live (1957), Mon 23rd Feb, Talking Pictures.
Nostalgie (2025 short), late Mon 23rd Feb, Channel 4.

The Major and the Minor, Wed 25th Feb, Film4. Or...
Donovan's Reef, Wed 25th Feb, Legend. (been on Film4)

Scrapper (2023), Fri 27th Feb, BBC2. Or...
Supernatural: The Werewolf Reunion + The Terror (1963), Fri 27th Feb, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club)



Rewind TV showed Emmanuelle in Soho on Friday and Pets (1973) yesterday.

[colinr0380]

Lots of things next week. The big film is Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans on Channel 4 at 9:15 p.m. on Saturday 21st. BBC4's Storyville documentary of the week is "Rebuilding Bucha" at 10 p.m. on Tuesday 24th, which clashes against Film4 showing BlackBerry at 9 p.m. on Tuesday 24th.

BBC2's BFI new British cinema season continues with Scrapper at 11 p.m. on Friday 27th, which clashes up against the real curio of the week in Film4's premiere of South Korean unwieldy titled film The Witch: Part 2 - The Other One at 11:40 p.m. - very strangely Film4 have not chosen to repeat The Witch: Part 1 - Subversion in the run up to this, which would have seemed to have been the sensible move since it has been at least two years since it was last shown on the television.
___
Straddling the new programme-old programme divide is a new programme on artist LS Lowry with Ian McKellen lip synching to audio recordings of Lowry in LS Lowry: The Unheard Tapes on BBC2 at 9 p.m. on Wednesday 25th, which is immediately followed at 10 p.m. on BBC4 by a 1987 ballet production Lowry: A Simple Man which is introduced by Albert Finney and features Moira Shearer as one of the main dancers.

BBC4's Ibsen season continues with a showing of the 1971 production of The Wild Duck starring Jenny Agutter and Denholm Elliott and directed by Alan Bridges who would go on to The Hireling and that notorious remake of Brief Encounter with Richard Burton and Sophia Loren that completely ignored the key aspect of the romanticism of steam trains in its ill fated attempt to update the tale for the diesel age.

BBC2 has a rare classic film showing at 2 p.m. on Saturday 21st with Anthony Asquith's film We Dive At Dawn

Film4 has a real curio in the form of the 1958 Son of Robin Hood at 11 a.m. on Saturday 21st. Twelve O'Clock High is on Film4 at 1:10 p.m. on Tuesday 24th. Billy Wilder's first solo-directed film The Major and the Minor is showing on Film4 at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday 25th.

"Legend Xtra"-wise, there is a lot too. Hal Ashby's final film 8 Million Ways To Die is showing at 10:55 p.m. on Saturday 21st. There is a double bill of 2018 horrors on Sunday 22nd with the very Robert Eggers-esque The Golem at 11:15 p.m. followed by the lockdown anticipating Await Further Instructions at 1:10 a.m. The Henry Cavill starring Night Hunter is at 9 p.m. on Tuesday 24th. The Hammer film of the week is The Witches at 1:10 a.m. in the early hours of Thursday 26th. Another curio is the 1991 TV movie Western Blood River at 5 p.m. on Thursday 26th, which is written (though not directed) by John Carpenter(!). And there is a late period 2019 Steven Seagal film Beyond The Law at 11:20 p.m. on Thursday 26th, which is directed by James Cullen Bressack, who was also behind that run of dozens of Bruce Willis films that hit the headlines a few years ago.

And there is an interesting triple bill on Friday 27th with Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning in Push at 9 p.m., another in the run of these late 2010s-early 2020s 'geezer teaser' films is the Sylvester Stallone starring Backtrace at 11:10 p.m., and 1982's Fighting Back with Tom Skerritt and Yaphet Kotto, at 1 a.m., which looks inspired by Death Wish, but also was released in the same year as William Lustig's Vigilante starring Robert Forster. So "Legend Xtra" is consistently throwing up the most interesting titles of each week!

[colinr0380]

Film4's showing of Son of Robin Hood was rather disappointing, because it is a rare example of a television screening these days as a film that begins with the 20th Century Fox logo, "A Cinemascope Film" and opening credits in 2.35:1 widescreen and then turns into a 4:3 pan-and-scan ratio for the rest of the film, unti the end credits appear in their widescreen ratio at the end.

[jlnight]

Mission: Killfast, Sat 28th Feb, Rewind TV. Or...
Showdown At Spiggots Store (1984 short), Sat 28th Feb, Talking Pictures.

Tarzan and the Green Goddess (1938), Sun 1st Mar, Talking Pictures.
Carrott Del Sol (1981 ITV TVM), Sun 1st Mar, Rewind TV.

Innocent Meeting (1959), Mon 2nd Mar, Talking Pictures.

Magnificent Obsession, Tue 3rd Mar, Film4. (on before)

Sailor of the King, Wed 4th Mar, Film4. Or...
Thunder in the Sun, Wed 4th Mar, Legend.

The Thin Red Line (1998), Fri 6th Mar, Great Action. Or...
The End We Start From (2023), Fri 6th Mar, BBC2. Or...
Evil Come Evil Go (1972), Fri 6th Mar, Rewind TV. Or...
Supernatural: Mr Nightingale + Devil's Partner (1960), Fri 6th Mar, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club)

[colinr0380]

Just a couple of premieres next week. The third(!) in the Trolls series, Trolls Band Together is tucked away on ITV2 at 2:50 p.m. on Sunday 1st. Film4's premiere of the week is Orphan: First Kill at 9 p.m. on Tuesday 3rd (nervy A24-style strings ahoy!). And the BFI/BBC British film season continues with Jodie Comer in The End We Start From at 11 p.m. on Friday 6th, which looks, like last year's Zero, like another in the post-Handmaids Tale run of gender-based sci-fi dystopian films. Although I was most interested to see the Republic Pictures logo(!) at the start of that trailer! How did that studio come to be unearthed after all these years! (EDIT: Blackberry also started with the Republic Pictures logo too!)

BBC4's Storyville documentary series continues with Red Light To Limelight at 10:20 p.m. on Tuesday 3rd.

Solomon and Gaenor

Wow,I fancy watching this one, never heard before. Thank you.

No problem! Welsh cinema in general really needs championing and rediscovery even in the UK itself. There were some excellent Welsh language films in the 1990s particularly with Endaf Emlyn's Storms of August, Un nos ola' leuad (One Moonlit Night) and Leaving Lenin. And I think there is a fourth film according to imdb, The Making of Maps. That's the kind of thing that if I had Fran Simeoni's ear I would be championing for a Radiance box set of, if such a thing were possible.

After talking up Welsh cinema recently, the once every five years or so event of Channel 4 showing something interesting occurs next week with the black-and-white Welsh opera film Fires of the Moon showing at 10 p.m. on Sunday 1st. That is one of the two big programmes showing next week that I am most interested in...
___

... the other being the programme that inevitably has to clash against it at the same time over on BBC4 at 11 p.m., with their Ibsen season continuing with a screening of the 1953 production of The Lady By The Sea.

Elsewhere in the repeats Film4 is showing Howard Hawks' Monkey Business at 12:55 p.m. on Saturday 28th (repeated at 5:15 p.m. on Friday 6th); the 1954 Magnificent Obsession is showing at 11 a.m. on Tuesday 3rd; Leave Her To Heaven is at 11 a.m. on Wednesday 4th; and Rock Hudson and Doris Day in Send Me No Flowers at 11 a.m. on Thursday 5th. Mean Streets is showing at 1:15 a.m. in the early hours of Wednesday 4th, and Terrence Malick's A Hidden Life is showing at 11:40 p.m. on Wednesday 4th (which is always appreciated as that Malick film never made it to any physical media release in the UK, so the Film4 screenings are particularly noteworthy).

Also Film4 appear to be doing (after showing Hell and High Water and the 1959 Warlock last week) an unacknowledged Richard Widmark season with Yellow Sky is showing at 2:30 p.m. on Monday 2nd; The Frogmen is showing at 1:15 p.m., Destination Gobi at 4:55 p.m. both on Tuesday 3rd; and Halls of Montezuma at 1:15 p.m. on Wednesday 4th.

On every weekday night at 10 p.m. Channel 5 are showing random episodes from The X-Files presumably to tie in with the recent announcement of a new reboot of the show - the Pilot episode and Episode 1:3 - Squeeze are showing on Monday; Episode 3:24 - Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose on Tuesday; Episode 3:17 - Pusher on Wednesday; Episide 5:12 - Bad Blood on Thursday; and Episode 6:2 - Drive on Friday.

"Legend Xtra"-wise, the most exciting film of the week is Joseph Losey's 1960 film starring Stanley Baker The Criminal (aka The Concrete Jungle in the US) showing at 9 p.m. on Sunday 1st. Just as exciting is Wanted: Dead or Alive is showing at 9 p.m. on Tuesday 3rd, starring Rutger Hauer and Gene Simmons from that weird period where Simmons was playing baddies in films(!) and directed by Gary Sherman (of classic London Underground cannibal film Death Line aka Raw Meat, Dead & Buried, and coming a couple of years before Sherman directed Poltergeist III) Nicholas Winding Refn's Drive is showing at 9 p.m. on Saturday 28th; Paul Bartel's Death Race 2000 is at 1:25 a.m. in the early hours of Thursday 5th; Jean-Claude Van Damme's breakthrough film AWOL is at 10:55 p.m. on Thursday 5th; and whilst there is no Hammer film next week, there is Blood On Satan's Claw at 1 a.m. in the early hours of Saturday 7th!

[jlnight]

Aberdeen: The Silver City (short), Sat 7th Mar, Talking Pictures.
Blood for Dracula (1974), Sat 7th Mar, Rewind TV. Or...
Brief History of a Family (2024), Sat 7th Mar, BBC4.

You Can't Win 'Em All (1970), Sun 8th Mar, Together TV.
Zero Dark Thirty, Sun 8th Mar, Legend. Or...
The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Sun 8th Mar, Sky Arts. Or...
Flesh For Frankenstein (1973), Sun 8th Mar, Rewind TV. (last on C4 in 2009)

Mistress Dispeller, Tue 10th Mar, BBC4.

Dakota Incident (1956), Wed 11th Mar, Legend.
Quant, Wed 11th Mar, Sky Arts.

Girl (2023), Fri 13th Mar, BBC2. Or...
Supernatural: Lady Sybil + The Manster (1959), Fri 13th Mar, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club) Or...
Emmanuelle in Soho, Fri 13th Mar, Rewind TV.


Evil Come Evil Go is a no-show, replaced by Pets.

[colinr0380]

Interesting stuff next week. The BBC has a China-centric week with as jlnight has noted Brief History of a Family on BBC4 at 10:40 p.m. on Saturday 7th; and the documentary Mistress Dispeller as part of BBC4's Storyville series at 10 p.m. on Tuesday 10th.

The big premiere of the week (although unfortunately clashing with Brief History of a Family) is Jim Broadbent starring in The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry on Channel 4 at 10 p.m. on Saturday 7th. And the BFI/BBC British film season continues with Girl at 11 p.m. on Friday 13th.
___

Repeat-wise, BBC4 has an excellent night on Sunday 8th devoted to the late Humphrey Burton who ran the music and arts strands at the BBC for a number of years and passed away last December - after a 1991 lecture from Burton there is the 1966 "Conversation with Glenn Gould" at 9 p.m.; the 1960 Monitor film Profile of a Quartet, about the Allegri Quartet, at 9:40 p.m.; and the very first episode of the "Arena" arts strand from 1975 "Theatre", with an interview with Laurence Olivier at 10 p.m.

Then straight after that is a double bill in the ongoing Ibsen season with the 1980 version of An Enemy of the People at 10:30 p.m. followed by the 1959 adaptation of Brand at 11:50 p.m.

Platoon is getting two screenings during the week - un-DOG-tagged on BBC2 at 10 p.m. on Sunday 8th, and repeated on the DOG-tagged BBC4 at 9 p.m. on Thursday 12th, which is followed straight afterwards by the 1990 Face To Face episode interviewing Oliver Stone at 10:55 p.m.

Film4-wise the classic films entering the rotation next week are Fritz Lang's Western Union showing at 4:45 p.m. on Tuesday 10th and 11 a.m. on Friday 13th; and Henry Hathaway's Garden of Evil at 4:50 p.m. on Friday 13th (another in Film4's unofficial Richard Widmark run of screenings going on currently as it shows as the second half of a double bill with The Bedford Incident).

"Legend Xtra"-wise, the notable films showing next week are: The Replacement Killers with Chow Yun-Fat and Mira Sorvino (just off her Oscar win in Woody Allen's Mighty Aphrodite) at 11:30 p.m. on Saturday 7th; the John Huston 1956 version of Moby Dick at 9 p.m. on Sunday 8th (an early example of Huston filming 'unfilmable' existential novels); the real oddity of the week is the Chuck Norris, Richard Roundtree and Christopher Lee(!) film An Eye For An Eye at 9 p.m. on Tuesday 10th; Danny Glover and Vinnie Jones together at last in another take on Moby Dick but with the whale swapped out for something more appealing to the Game of Thrones crowd with Age of the Dragons at 9 a.m. on Wednesday 11th; Linda Hamilton and John Savage(!) in wacked out Asylum movie Bermuda Tentacles at 5 p.m. on Wednesday 11th; Nicolas Cage revenge film Vengeance: A Love Story at 11 p.m. on Wednesday 11th; and, in a week where Platoon is screening, the third big Vietnam film of 1986-7 (after Full Metal Jacket, of course!) Hamburger Hill is showing at 10:55 p.m. on Friday 13th.

[jlnight]

Little Big Man (1970), Sat 14th Mar, 5Action.

Puppet on a Chain (1970), Sun 15th Mar, Together TV. Or...
The Island (1980), Sun 15th Mar, Legend. Or...
Exodus (1960), Sun 15th Mar, Sky Arts. Or...
Brimstone and Treacle (1982), Sun 15th Mar, Rewind TV. (last on London Live)

That Woman Opposite, Mon 16th Mar, Talking Pictures.
Massage Parlor Murders!, Mon 16th Mar, Rewind TV.

All That Heaven Allows, Tue 17th Mar, Film4. (ex-Moviedrome)
The Debt Collector, late Tue 17th Mar, Film4.

Fair Wind to Java (1953), Wed 18th Mar, Legend.

The Andromeda Strain, Thu 19th Mar, Film4. (ex-Moviedrome) Or...
Becoming Cary Grant (2017), Thu 19th Mar, Talking Pictures.
Cabaret + New York, New York, Thu 19th Mar, BBC4.

In Camera (2023), Fri 20th Mar, BBC2. Or...
Supernatural: Viktoria + Tales of Tomorrow: The Evil Within, Fri 20th Mar, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club) + live

[colinr0380]

Just a few things next week. jlnight has noted the Liza Minelli double bill of Cabaret and New York, New York on BBC2 from 10:55 p.m. on Saturday 14th, but that is preceded by the first showing of Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story at 9:15 p.m.

Florian Zeller's follow up to 2020's The Father, 2022's The Son is on Channel 4 at 11 p.m. on Sunday 15th, and the fraught father-son theme continues with BBC4's Storyville documentary of the week with Portrait of a Confused Father at 10 p.m. on Tuesday 17th. The Son clashes both against the live coverage of the Oscars on ITV1 and BBC4's Ibsen season noted below (and BBC2 showing The Martian and that 2024 Zero film in a sci-fi double bill), making Sunday the busiest night of the entire week.

And the BFI/BBC season continues with In Camera on BBC2 at 11:10 p.m. on Friday 20th
___
Repeat-wise, BBC4's excellent Ibsen season continues on Sunday 15th with the 1972 production of Hedda Gabler at 10:15 p.m., preceded by a new 15 minute introduction by Janet Suzman at 10 p.m.

Film4's unofficial Richard Widmark season continues into its fourth week with The Last Wagon at 1 p.m. on Monday 16th, and The Long Ships at 1:15 p.m. on Thursday 19th (plus repeats of Garden of Evil and The Bedford Incident). Even BBC2 gets in on the action with the Widmark-appearing How The West Was Won at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday 15th! Notably though, we are not getting any of Widmark's tougher and more manic noir films in any of these weekday afternoon slots (I do not think that Night and the City, Pickup On South Street and of course his most famous role in the original Kiss of Death have appeared on UK television for decades!)

As jlnight has noted Film4 are showing The Andromeda Strain on Thursday 19th, though its 4 p.m. timeslot would probably suggest it is going to be the usual edited version that Film4 has previously shown, i.e. without the wrist cutting moment, the monkey's death throes and some of the nudity. Even so it is a film that is well worth catching, but thank goodness for Arrow putting it out in an unedited edition!

jlnight has noted the rare curio of the week on Film4 with the Billy Connolly starring The Debt Collector at 1:10 a.m. in the early hours of Wednesday 18th. Which being from 1999 I presume is part of the wave of British Gangster films that came out in the wake of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. A rather unexpectedly gritty role for the better known as a comedian and regularly getting naked in travel programmes Connolly as well, who presumably was using his increased profile from that Mrs Brown film to move into more acting roles. And The Debt Collector is from the same year that Connolly also appeared as a mysterious killer in a small but significant role in Troy Duffy's notorious The Boondock Saints (notorious because his 'making of' crew turned their footage into a viciously scathing teardown of the director's ego, Overnight).

As usual though, the "Legend Xtra" channel has the most interesting screenings. Clint Eastwood's In The Line of Fire is showing at 9 p.m. on Saturday 14th; the 1970 Airport (which is the best of the series, and still entertaining even after its basic plot structure got mercilessly mashed together with Zero Hour! in order to create Airplane!) is at 9 p.m. on Sunday 15th; the film that I am most interested in catching of the week is John Frankenheimer's 1991 Year of the Gun at 10:45 p.m. on Tuesday 17th, with a just-pre Basic Instinct Sharon Stone and is one of a number of films based on the Aldo Moro kidnapping and assassination by the Red Brigade (the most notable being Marco Bellocchio's 2003 Good Morning, Night); and the third in 1989's 'underwater trilogy' (the others being Leviathan and The Abyss) DeepStar Six is at 11:10 p.m. on Wednesday 18th.

And of course there is the bizarre Asylum rip of of Gozilla vs Kong - the legally distinct and hilariously generically titled Ape vs. Monster is at 2 p.m. on Tuesday 17th, which stars Eric Roberts and a lot of admirably sraight faced line readings throughout. And this led me to discover that there are two(!) sequels with Ape vs. Mecha Ape (which stars Tom Arnold!!) and Ape x Mecha Ape: New World Order (which stars Sean Young!!!)

[domino harvey]

Don’t sleep on the Last Wagon, it’s incredible (and Fox/Disney, so unlikely to get many more chances to see it)

[colinr0380]

Don’t sleep on the Last Wagon, it’s incredible (and Fox/Disney, so unlikely to get many more chances to see it)

And I can highly recommend Garden of Evil as well as another 20th Century Fox Richard Widmark western, which after the disappointment of the pan-and-scanned Son of Robin Hood a few weeks ago screened in its full widescreen ratio and looked absolutely gorgeous throughout, with its beautifully composed landscapes and painterly sunsets. And it is possible to see both a bit of that 'characters grouped in the middle of the frame ready for the pan-and-scanned version for TV' aesthetic, but it keeps alternating with shots that fully utilise the entire width of the screen really well also. It also builds up a lot of tension in its final third with its relentless chase sequence and cliff side climax, as the supporting cast gets slowly whittled down by Indian attacks. Really dark too, with a kind of romantic fatalism about it, almost like it was a western influenced by the contemporaneous Wages of Fear. In that sense Susan Hayward's 'Eve' character is really interesting as fulfilling a similarly erotic motivational role as Vera Clouzot does in The Wages of Fear, but kind of anticipates the main female character in the much later True Grit also, as an - arguably selfish, or at least driven beyond consideration of others - woman who to achieve her goals is not afraid to treat the men around her like the horses she rides, and relentlessly spur them onwards towards conflict and potential death.

Plus it has an upside down crucifixion scene!

[jlnight]

Game Show Models (1977), Tue 17th Mar, Rewind TV.

The Incredible Shrinking Man, Sat 21st Mar, Film4. (ex-Moviedrome)
The Dirty Heroes (1967), Sat 21st Mar, Together TV. Or...
La Chimera (2023), Sat 21st Mar, BBC4.

Major Dundee, Sun 22nd Mar, Great Action. (ex-Moviedrome)
From Hell to Victory (1979), Sun 22nd Mar, Together TV.

To the Four Corners (1956 short), Mon 23rd Mar, Talking Pictures.
Selsey Pavilion: The Journey So Far (short), Mon 23rd Mar, Talking Pictures.
The Stranglers of Bombay, Mon 23rd Mar, Talking Pictures.
Night of the Living Dead (1968), Mon 23rd Mar, Rewind TV. (been on other channels)

In Harm's Way (1965), Wed 25th Mar, Legend.

Peter Lorre: Behind the Mask (2024), Thu 26th Mar, Talking Pictures.

Femme (2023), Fri 27th Mar, BBC2. Or...
Supernatural: Night of the Marionettes + Tales of Frankenstein (1958 pilot) + The Devil Bat (1940), Fri 27th Mar, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club) Or...
Pets (1973), Fri 27th Mar, Rewind TV. (on before)


EDIT: Brimstone and Treacle was replaced by an earlier screening of Game Show Models. Rewind TV are pushing that 'all listings are subject to change' phrase a bit too much for my liking.

[colinr0380]

Lots of stuff next week. The big premiere is La Chimera on BBC4 at 9:20 p.m.on Saturday 21st. BBC4's Storyville documentary of the week is Khartoum at 10 p.m. on Tuesday 24th, which clashes against Film4's premiere of Theater Camp at 9 p.m. the same evening. Another clash occurs on Friday 27th with the BFI/BBC season continuing with Femme at 11 p.m. on BBC2, whilst at 10:50 p.m. Film4 is showing Horizon Line, which seems like a modern 'against all odds' revamp of Airport '75....
___

...which amusingly turns up at 9 p.m. on the "Legend Xtra" channel on Sunday 22nd! Which is goofier than Airport (and of course is where Airplane! got its guitar strumming nun from!), but is still very entertaining.

Elsewhere, Film4's Richard Widmark season appears to have come to an end next week, but jlnight has noted the big classic film entering the rotation for the first time in years with The Incredible Shrinking Man showing at 1 p.m. on Saturday 21st (and 2:45 p.m. on Friday 27th)

BBC4's Ibsen season continues with the 1972 version of Peer Gynt at 10 p.m. on Sunday 22nd. And on Thursday 26th BBC4 is doing a Julian Barnes evening with a new interview with the author at 9 p.m. followed by the 2017 adaptation of The Sense of an Ending at 9:30 p.m., and then a 2014 interview at 11:15 p.m.

"Legend Xtra"-wise, straight after the screening of Airport '75 on Sunday 22nd there is the most exciting double bill of the week with James Spader as a 1980s Jack The Ripper type in Jack's Back at 11 p.m., followed by Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in 1967's Doctor Faustus at 1 a.m.

(And Legend Xtra seem to be continuing on with their Sharon Stone theme from tonight's screening of Year of the Gun by showing Basic Instinct at 10:45 p.m. on Thursday 26th)

[jlnight]

Battle of the Coral Sea, Sat 28th Mar, Talking Pictures. (last on Sony Movies)
Suspect (1987), Sat 28th Mar, Talking Pictures. Or...
Virgin Witch, Sat 28th Mar, Rewind TV.

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, Sun 29th Mar, Film4.
Abigail's Party (BBC Play for Today), Sun 29th Mar, Talking Pictures. Or...
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Sun 29th Mar, BBC2.

La Mariee Est Trop Belle (Bride is Much Too Beautiful), Tue 31st Mar, Talking Pictures.
New Life (2023), Tue 31st Mar, Film4.

Clint Eastwood: The Last Legend (2021), Thu 2nd Apr, Talking Pictures.

Supernatural: Dorabella + Les Yeux Sans Visage (Eyes Without a Face), Fri 3rd Apr, Talking Pictures. (Cellar Club) Or...
For Men Only (1967 short), Fri 3rd Apr, Rewind TV.



Rewind TV somehow left out showing the ending to Massage Parlor Murders/Hookers. The usual sloppy presentation from this channel! And Pets has been replaced again. From Hell to Victory didn't turn up on Together TV.

[GaryC]

I didn't see it but TPTV showed just the last 38 minutes of Robinson Crusoe last night, and that's what's available on TPTV Encore. This Play of the Month was originally broadcast in 1974 and ran 100 minutes. Apparently it was "the version available" according to TPTV though that seems curious as the play survives complete in the BBC archives.

[jlnight]

That might explain why there were no opening credits or titles! The whole thing was scheduled in a 55 minute slot which did feel a bit short but some of these TV plays did vary in length.

Rewind TV recently repeated the 1993 TV version of Jilly Cooper's Riders and on the first showing they screened it in two parts, 65 mins each part. They showed it again, advertised as an 'extended version', and it was again in two parts but ran to over two hours per part. This full version made more sense story-wise (and of course contained more nudity!). I wonder whether the shorter version was all that ITV offered to them in the first place.

[colinr0380]

BBC4's Ibsen season continues with the 1972 version of Peer Gynt at 10 p.m. on Sunday 22nd.

The 1972 version of Peer Gynt was not shown on BBC4 last night, but was instead replaced with another version of A Master Builder, this one the "Television World Theatre" version from 1958 starring Donald Wolfit and Mai Zetterling! Incidentally all of these Ibsen productions are receiving their first UK television broadcasts for the first times since their initial broadcasts.

[GaryC]

The 1972 version of Peer Gynt was not shown on BBC4 last night, but was instead replaced with another version of A Master Builder, this one the "Television World Theatre" version from 1958 starring Donald Wolfit and Mai Zetterling! Incidentally all of these Ibsen productions are receiving their first UK television broadcasts for the first times since their initial broadcasts.

I don't know why Peer Gynt was replaced - best guess is a licensing glitch with one of the participants.

Incidentally, the 1953 The Lady from the Sea is the second-oldest surviving telerecording of a live drama broadcast. It precedes the first two episodes of The Quatermass Experiment (the earliest surviving episodic drama) by five months, but It Is Midnight, Dr Schweitzer was three months earlier.

[colinr0380]

Did you know that the year before Harrison Ford starred with a CGI-dog in the 2020 remake of The Call of the Wild, that Willem Dafoe did much the same thing with a CGI-Alaskan huskie? I didn't! The big film premiere of next week is the 2019 Disney film Togo on Channel 4 at 4:20 p.m. on Saturday 28th. Which is another one of those productions that disappeared onto a proprietary streaming platform and appeared to never get advertised or released anywhere else until now, certainly not on physical media and seemingly never theatrically either. I do wonder if it was made in the knowledge that the Call of the Wild remake was coming out? If so that one stamped Togo into obscurity by virtue at the time of being a 20th Century Fox film and therefore getting a theatrical release.

(I am also curious to see it to see how close it may come to my pitch for a schmaltzy film about huskies from 2016:

"Northern: A Serco and Abellio Joint Venture" - when two Alaskan huskies Serco and Abellio lose their mother to ruthless hunters, they face a thousand mile trek across the wilderness to reach their estranged pack. The beautiful CGI animation is only enhanced by the endearing voice of Steve Carrell as the voice of Peter the Penguin, a character who only appears during the hallucinations that our main characters have as they succumb to exhaustion, and the heartbreaking new song duets by Tom Waites and Alicia Keys: "Husky Melody" and "Woof, and I'll Be Right There By Your Side".

The trailer looks a lot more serious, and of course appears to be going for realism rather than fully Happy Feet-style CGI and musical numbers, so it may be more grounded!)

BBC4's Storyville documentary of the week is Fatherhood (which for some reason the BBC have title changed to "Thee Dads and a Baby") at 10 p.m. on Tuesday 31st, which clashes against Film4's one premiere of the week in Canadian film New Life at 10:55 p.m., which is another film that never received any form of theatrical or physical release in the UK, going straight to internet streaming before it has now surfaced on network television.
___
Repeat-wise, BBC4's Ibsen season continues at 10:15 p.m. on Sunday 29th with the 1982 version of Little Eyolf starring Diana Rigg, Anthony Hopkins and Charles Dance, preceded by a new 15 minute introduction by Dance at 10 p.m.

The "Legend Xtra" channel has another really interesting week with the 2004 remake of The Alamo at 9 p.m. on Saturday 28th. I was actually just re-watching the John Wayne 1960 version again over the weekend (Film4's Richard Widmark season sent me on a rewatch through his other films, because he appears in that version playing Jim Bowie!) and it struck me that this is kind of the American equivalent of Zulu in its big against all odds siege situation. The big problem of course with The Alamo is that it has to have a historically accurate downer ending! I do have this 2004 John Lee Hancock directed version on DVD from when it was new, and unfortunately remember it not being too deep in its historical context, but at about the same kind of handling level as the John Wayne version (basically the 2004 version seemed quite influenced by the battles in the second Lord of the Rings film; whilst the 1960 John Wayne version feels like it is competing with Spartacus, particularly in its 'love story and sacrifice' aspect). It also comes in between John Lee Hancock's two 'true story unorthodox sporting hero' productions, 2002's The Rookie (with Dennis Quaid, who stars in the John Wayne part in the Alamo remake) and 2009's Oscar winning The Blind Side with Sandra Bullock.

A double dose of wackiness on the evening of Sunday 29th with Airport '77 (which is the underwater Bemuda Triangle-set entry in the series that is the closest to the Irwin Allen disaster movie template, and very entertaining for that. Let's see if the "Legend Xtra" channel have the guts to do the truly wonderfully awful The Concorde: Airport '79 next Sunday! Really the funniest that Airport '77 gets is the really undignified position that Brenda Vaccaro is left in after everyone is knocked out by the gas in the early scene of the film! Kudos to her for going that far for 'realism'! ) at 9 p.m. followed by Stephen King's directorial debut Maximum Overdrive at 11:10 p.m.

I had also not realised that in 2005 the Hallmark channel did a version of The Poseidon Adventure (as distinct from the 2006 theatrical remake, Poseidon, by Wolfgang Petersen, but probably not uncoincidentally made to tie in with a big upcoming remake). That is showing at 5 p.m. on Tuesday 31st. Quite an eclectic cast as well, which you need for a disaster movie ensemble cast: Adam Baldwin, Rutger Hauer (as a Bishop - presumably the Gene Hackman part? ), Steve Guttenberg(!), Bryan Brown (!!), C. Thomas Howell, Peter Weller (as the Captain, so presumably the small Leslie Neilsen part equivalent), Alex Kingston, Clive Mantle and Sylvia Sims(!!!). It appears that the version that "Legend Xtra" will be showing will be the shorter "NBC" one rather than the three hour full version of it.

And continuing with "Legend Xtra"'s disaster theme, they are also showing the Sylvester Stallone Daylight at 9 p.m. on Wednesday 1st.

[jlnight]

Damn the Defiant! (HMS Defiant), Sat 4th Apr, Talking Pictures. (recently on Legend)
That Summer! (1979), Sat 4th Apr, Talking Pictures.

Being There (1979), Sun 5th Apr, BBC2.

Brimstone and Treacle (1982), Mon 6th Apr, Rewind TV.

Au Grand Balcon (1949), Tue 7th Apr, Talking Pictures.

Jules (2023), Wed 8th Apr, Film4.

David Bailey: Four Beats to the Bar and No Cheating, Thu 9th Apr, Talking Pictures.

Confessions of a Sex Maniac (1974), Fri 10th Apr, Rewind TV. (last on London Live)
Four Lions, Fri 10th Apr, Film4. (on before)