SEINFELD BLOG

The Manchurian Candidate, Fri. at 12m EDT/9p PDT on TCM. The original, with Frank Sinatra. Classic political assassination thriller.

Anatomy of a Murder, Sat. at 9a EDT & PDT on Showtime's Flix Channel. Jimmy Stewart and George C. Scott in a classic courtroom drama. Forget A Few Good Men. It's garbage. This has the most realisitic courtroom dialogue I've seen in a movie.

Kiss Me Deadly, Sat. at 8p EDT/5p PDT on TCM. Detective film noir classic from the 50s. Interesting camerawork. Little known fact: First use of a home answering machine in the movies.

The Wild One, Sat. at 2p on RetroPlex. A young Marlon Brando as a biker hoodlum (no kidding) who takes over a small town with his biker gang. (Girl: "Hey, Johnny, what are you rebelling against?" Brando: "What've you got?")

Uh, wait a second, wait a second...*snort*.... Are you suggesting that Jack Nickelson's long-winded, pre-rehearsed-sounding, flawless spiel... with no errors, and no pauses, in A Few Good Men was not realistic?

Oh, I suggest.

JIMMY: What is Manchuria?

BOOKMAN: It's a part of Asia.

JIMMY: No, that's Mandarin.

BOOKMAN: Manchuria is Mandarin.

JIMMY: Then who are the Koreans?

I'm not gonna say it like that.

Well... I'm, uh.... just tryin to get ahead...

Yes, but this work...It's almost like you have no experience at all.

Nobody has experience anymore. It went out with powdered wigs.

Slim pickings on Turner Classic Movies this weekend...

Born to Kill, Sat. at 8a EDT/5a PDT. Lawrence Tierney (who played Alton Benes) is a psychotic tough-guy killer. Just in case you missed it a couple of weeks ago.

Monkey Business, Sat. at 10a EDT/7a PDT. An early Marx Brothers classic.

Movies on "premium" channels...

High Plains Drifter, Fri. at 9:50p EDT/6:50p PDT on the Encore Western channel. Very underrated, even for a Clint Eastwood movie. Borrows story elements from two of Kurosawa's best movies, Seven Samurai and Yojimbo.

Poison Ivy: The New Seduction, Sat. 3:20a EDT/12:20a PDT on HBO Zone. Jaime Pressly naked! (No golden triangle, but everything else.) Well worth a peekaboo.

Shadow of a Doubt, Sat. at 7:40a PDT on Starz's RetroPlex channel. Obscure but great Hitchcock movie from the 1940s. I recommend it highly.

Fahrenheit 9/11, Sun. at 2:15a on the Sundance Channel. Michael Moore's famous documentary on George W. Bush's war policies since Sept. 11th.

The Gunfighter, Sun. 8:45a EDT/5:45a PDT on the Encore Western channel. Rarely-shown western from 1950 you probably never heard of. Gregory Peck is great as an aging gunman trying to quit. You probably won't see this anywhere but here (and, once in awhile, on TCM).

SuperSize Me, Sun. at 10p on the Sundance Channel. Documentary about what happened to a guy who ate "supersize" McDonald's meals three-times-a-day for one month. Alternately funny and eye-opening.

I guess me and the gals can take a load off and watch something on Lifetime.

Well, at least they're commercial-free and uncut...

Friday

To Kill a Mockingbird, TCM at 9p EDT/6p PDT. George W Bush doesn't care about black people? Well, Atticus Finch does. And if you think a couple of dead birds are going to get in his way, you're crazy. This kid's a fighter.

Saturday

Some Like It Hot, Encore Love channel at 3a EDT/12m PDT. Speaking of hot, Marilyn Monroe never looked better (with her clothes on). Probably Jack Lemmon's best performance. This is the movie where Tony Curtis imitates Cary Grant. This is so f**king good!

Niagara, Encore Mystery channel at 5:50a EDT/2:50a PDT. Marilyn Monroe again, this time in a deadly-serious film noir. A great shot of her in bed, implicitly naked, covered strategically by a sheet. Oh my--I'm not sure, but I think I see her......

The Verdict, Starz's RetroPlex channel 5p PDT. Hello, Newman! Paul Newman in his best performance, playing a personal-injury lawyer who grows a conscience. Tough-luck for Newman at the Academy Awards the following year. He was up against both Gandhi (winner) and Tootsie in the Best Actor category.

Jimmy, even if you killed somebody, I wouldn't turn you in.

The weekend starts early this week. Tonight, in fact...

Tonight on TCM:
The Conversation at 10p EDT/7p PDT. From 1974. Gene Hackman plays a private-sector surveillance expert. Great, great movie, if I do say so my own damn self. With a very young Harrison Ford in a small, creepy role. And if you watched Gomer Pyle reruns in between those truck-driving-school commercials, you'll be pleasantly surprised to see Luann Poovie strip bareass naked.
Nashville at 12m EDT/9p PDT. From 1975. One of my all-time favorites. Several Seinfeldianly-interconnected plots, an aptly-cynical political theme, and the Nashville country music scene as a comic (as it should be) backdrop. The mini-plots involve quirky characters played by Lilly Tomlin, Keith Carradine, Scott Glenn, Jeff Goldblum, Ned Beatty, Shelley Duvall, Keenan Wynn, Julie Chrisitie, Elliot Gould, and Henry Gibson, among others.

Seinfeld movie references and parodies...

Friday
Edward Scissorhands on FX at 11a PDT. "The Barber," of course.
Pulp Fiction on IFC at 5:15p PDT. "The Muffin Tops." Newman, as "The Cleaner," parodies this movie's unforgettable Winston Wolfe.

Saturday
Marathon Man on Thrillermax (Cinemax's Thriller channel). In "The Doorman," a white-haired old lady chases Kramer down the street after she recognizes him from an earlier fake stick-up. This scene parodies a more sinister one in this movie.

Sunday
Breakfast at Tiffany's on AMC at 1:30p PDT. The book that lands George on "The Couch" (well, the other couch) with his new, black friends.

A Humphrey Bogart 24-hour marathon on TCM, beginning Saturday at 6a EDT/3a PDT. Any movie with Humphrey Bogart is worth seeing, but here are my top picks, all classics:

The Petrified Forest, Sat at 7:15a EDT/4:15 PDT. You won't see this anywhere but TCM unless you rent it. Bogie reprises his Broadway role as ganster Duke Mantee. With Leslie Howard and Bette Davis.

Angels with Dirty Faces, Sat at 8:45a EDT/5:45a PDT. The sequel to Dead End (also with Bogie), which introduced the "Dead End Kids." Bogie's role here is minor, but Jimmy Cagney is great as a ganster sent to prison who comes out expecting his weasel partner (Bogie) to cut him in on his fair share. Jimmy's got some moves (he hitches his shoulders a lot). Check Jimmy out.

The Maltese Falcon, Sat. at 2:30p EDT/11:30a PDT. Bogie as Sam Spade. Directed by John Huston. One of the two best detective movies ever. (Chinatown is the other.)

To Have and to Have Not, Sat at 4:15p EDT/1:15p PDT. This is the movie that introduced "Bogie and Bacall"--Lauren Bacall. One of the few movies in which Bogie plays a hero.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Sat at 8p EDT/5p PDT. Don't miss this one. Another John Huston work. Bogie is a down-on-his-luck American who becomes a paranoid and ruthless gold prospector in the Mexican mountains. Huston, in a cameo, plays the American whom Bogie keeps pestering for money.

Plan 9 From Outer Space, Sat. Oct. 14 at 2a EDT/Fri. Oct. 13 at 11p PDT on TCM. You guys won't be watching? Who am I gonna make sarcastic remarks to--strangers?

passenger 69

passenger 69

Sorry about the double post. I hate my router!

Try the roman ogee bit.

I'm on it!