1940 flicks find time on boob tube
The Glassy
Eye
By Dave
Meile
Thursday, 7:05 p.m. WTBS,
Ch. 4:
"High Plains Drifter” (1973)
The guy with no name.
A really spooky, mysterious
guy rides into town (Clint
Eastwood). Who are you? every
one asks. Is he God, or Jesus, or the
Angel of Death? The mysterious
guy fills a bunch of unkempt guys
full of lead (Jesus or God or the
Angel of Death apparently
would’ve wanted it that way) and
then bums the town to the ground.
All-purpose midget actor Billy
Curtis from “The Wizard of Oz,”
, (last seen frequenting the posh
Hamburger Haven in L.A.), keeps
asking Clint: “What’s your name?”
Maybe he’s Rowdy Yates, since
the town bartender is the scuzzy
cook, Wishbone, from “Rawhide.”
One last question: But, Clint, could
you act your way out of a paper
bag? Jesus/God/Angel of Death
smiles. He knows better. In the
Clint Eastwood Self-Plagiarism
and Allusions to “Shane” Depart
ment, check out “Pale Rider.”
Friday, 1 a.m. USA, Ch. 17:
“Club Havana,’’ (1945) Tom
Neal, Margaret Lindsay.
Minimalist filmmaking from
cheapjack PRC studios. It’s worth
a look since it’s directed by cult
fave Edgar G. Ulmer. Leading man
Tom Neal is best known as the
doomed man in Ulmer’s fatalistic
noir piece “Detour,” for punching
out fellow actor Franchot Tone
over the affections of starlet Bar
bara Payton. And for being con
victed of manslaughter in the death
of his third wife in 1965.
"Virginia City” (1940) Errol
Flynn, Senor Bogart.
A harmless Warner pic with
some pretty strange casting. Bog
art as a Mexican saying, “Si,
Senor.”
WOWT’s Dale Munson’s Late
Night Theatre
Saturday, 5 a.m. Ch. 6:
"Man-Made Monster” (1941)
Lon Chaney Jr., Lionel Atwill.
Dynamo Dan, the Electric Man
(Chaney) in a circus sideshow, is
injured in a car wreck and is turned
into a luminous zombie by one of
Doc Atwill’s (white lab coal ap
pearance #892) fiendish experi
ments. Dan kills numerous people,
Courtesy of Ernest Mailer
Bette Davis and her “evil twin."
is hauled into court and says “1
killed ‘em” 27 times.
The movie is enhanced by John
P. Fulton’s special effects and
Chaney’s sympathetic portrayal,
which was used to full effect a year
later in director George Waggner’s
real classic, “The Wolfman.”
Stoke up the VCR for this encore
presentation.
Saturday, 9:30 a.m. Ch. 2:
"Sherlock Holmes and the
Voice of Terror” (1942)
Just like “Sherlock Holmes in
Washington,” Arthur Conan
Doyles’ 19th-century detective
somehow ends up in World War II
England to help the Brits find the
originator of Nazi propaganda
radio broadcasts. Great fun. Watch
for fish-faced bad guy Sir Henry
Daniel, who in other Holmes en
tries played his enemy, Professor
Moriarty.
Saturday, 2 p.m. Ch. 9:
"G uyana: Cult of the Damned”
(Mexico—1980) Stuart Whitman.
The true meaning of exploita
tion filmmaking wherein oodles of
has-beens are flown to Mexico to
capitalize on the death of hundreds
of lethal Kool-Aid fans. Stuart
“Why can’t I get a good role”
Whitman is the Rev. Jim Johnson.
Also featuring Lily Munster.
Director Rene Cardona Jr. also
did the tacky TV movie about the
Brazilian soccer team that crashed
in the Andes and resorted to canni
balism (remember Filet of Pelc?).
His father, the great Rene Cardona
Sr., did hilariously trashy films in
Mexico about voluptuous wres
tling women battling gorilla men
(“Doc tor of Doom”) and mummies
(The Wrestling Women vs. the
Aztec Mummy”).
With a history like this,
‘‘Guyana: Cult of the Damned,”
perverse as it probably is, should be
a real hoot.
Saturday, 11 p.m. Ch. 16:
“Double Dynamite” (1951)
Frank Sinatra, Groucho Marx,
Jane Russell.
Considering it has old Blue
Eyes, criticism must be worded
carefully or I may wind up with a
cement overcoat and tossed into
the East River. Please don’t watch
this. It is strictly pedestrian, and
even Groucho is relegated to doing
lame Catskills club schticks.
“Duck Soup" it isn’t. Sinatra was a
has-been at this point of his rather
tainted career. Two years later he
would get an Oscar for his rather '
overrated performance in “From
Here to Eternity.”
Saturday, 2:15 a.m. Ch. 6:
"AllThrough the Night” (1942)
Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre.
Bogart as Gloves Donohue is a
Broadway gambler who infiltrates
a gang of Nazis. Great cast includes
Karen Verne (who?), Martin Kos
leck (Nazi portrayal #395) and
Peter Lorre. Look for a very young
Jackie Gleason (as Starchie) and
Phil Silvers as a waiter.
Sunday, 2:30 a.m. Ch. 4:
"Dead Ringer” (1964) Bette
Davis, Karl Malden.
A Bette Davis Evil Twin
movie!! The evil twin murders the
good twin and assumes her iden
tity. Both twins were after the same
man. Whattcha call “dumb fun.”
Directed by “Casablanca” co
star Paul Henried, who also did a
great evil-twin movie called “Hol
low Triumph.” Much like Joan
Crawford, Bette made her living in
the ’60s doing “scary hag” films
like “Hush, Hush Sweet Char
lotte,” “Whatever Happened to
Baby Jane?,” “The Nanny” and
“The Anniversary ’ (where Bette
wears a cool eye p..ich).
Courtesy ol Universal Pictures
Lon Chaney Jr. and Lionel Alwill in “Man-Made Monster.”
Theater professor uses innovative attitude
GRANT from Page 5
over your life as a professional
actor,” he said.
Though he enjoys acting, he
says he is gradually fading it out to
further his directing career. But he
will return to New York this sum
mer to work in a show — but on his
terms.
His"terms” include a show with
plenty of movement and experi
mentation. He found and began to
explore and perform in experimen
tal theater while in college. He says
he finds experimental theater more
interesting than conventional thea
ter.
“It’s goi to be innovative,” he
said. “The director has to have a
vision of the show. I’ve got to be
inspired, not by the money, but
how it will change the world, and
it’s got to be challenging for me as
an actor.”
“The power of the theater is to
show them (the audience) things
they would never anticipate, some
thing not like their life,” he said.
“T V and movies capture real
ism better than I, so I try for a more
dream like quality, or in the ab
stract. A lot of people have trouble
with that,” he said.
He describes his upcoming
Theatrix production as “a fusion of
music, theater and dance.” He says
he enjoys giving his productions a
dream like quality with a no
holds-barrcd flavor.
“As a director, you have control
of your art, and the sky’s the limit,”
ho said. “Most people will hate
what you do, but that doesn ’ t mean
you’re wrong.”
