Thursday, 13 December 2007
Christmas: a time for watching Zulu
posted @4:18 p.m. by Richard Kelly
Do you remember when the Christmas TV schedules meant something to you? A bill of fare that might actually persuade you to make a firm date with the sofa? Those of you looking forward this season to 'Richard Hammond Meets Evel Knievel' and Kylie Minogue in 'Doctor Who' will wonder why I'm grousing. But I speak of the days of 'the captive audience', the pre-VCR era, or even the time when a movie's Home Entertainment release window was still 2-3 years behind Theatrical, and so I used to REALLY PAY ATTENTION to what movies were lined up on telly over the Holidays, as laid out in the groaning Festive Fortnight edition of Radio Times. Nowadays, time-poor, with Tivo and On-Demand and the DVD and whatnot, we only watch things at the precise hour that we have to spare, don't we? Or am I just blindly believing lifestyle newspaper rubbish as usual? Anyhow the following list has me fantasising about spending a fortnight mostly in front of the telly with said Radio Times, a lot of slightly dry white-bread turkey sandwiches, and a fridge full of McEwans Export. Yes, it's the TEN MOVIES I'D MOST LIKE TO WATCH ON TELLY OVER CHRISTMAS...
Where shall we start? Where's that remote?
10. Bell Book and Candle (1958)
Yup, the Jimmy Stewart/Kim Novak movie with the HAPPY ending.
9. Beat The Devil (1953)
Bogie, a blond Jennifer Jones, Peter Lorre...
8. Winter Kills (1979)
If it's a Jeff Bridges 70s movie, it must be a little-seen cult item. Whatever happened to Belinda Bauer?
7. Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
Still gives me a chill at times, those shuddering stabbings, and the low lighting on Wendy Hiller...
6. Death Line (1972)
For Russell Square tube station, and Donald Pleasance's loony copper.
5. Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956)
It's been so long I've nearly forgotten the twist, or at least how it's set up.
4. Maria’s Lovers (1984)
Emblematic of Ms Kinski's mid-80s work frenzy, a forgotten gem with Mitchum, Keith Carradine and Jon Savage amongst others. I'd also settle for Hotel New Hampshire (the bear suit) or Moon in the Gutter (the billboard...)
3. The Fortune (1975)
For Stockard Channing. Talk about bad luck - which other Warren Beatty/Jack Nicholson movie goes missing for so long?
2. Little Big Man (1970)
Used to be on annually like clockwork. Still joyous, I'm sure.
1. Frankenstein: The True Story (1973)
For Isherwood's script, James Mason, David McCallum, and Jane Seymour. To Mary Shelley what 'Mary Reilly' was to Stevenson: a brilliant meditation on the original's fascination. To be viewed over two nights - but not this year, methinks...
Comments
You've got two of my favourites there - "B. B and C." and "Murder on the OE." Crusdade looks very interesting, by the way. Can't wait to read it.
An excellent list of films I mostly have yet to see.
I must admit that mention of Wendy Hiller would make me feel that for Christmas holidays I have to rewatch 'I Know Where I'm Going' and then it will be on to ' Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, maybe followed by 'A Canterbury Tale' and then the temptation of a gigantic bottle of Whisky I have been saving for years, to accompany 'Small Back Room', and a moral descent through Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, ending up at Peeping Tom. This is my ideal Christmas alone.
The likely reality is that 'Battle of the River Platte' will be on 7 different channels, clocking up 20 airings for the year.
Ten Michael Powells, eh? Admittedly I could make do with ten Jimmy Stewarts. Or ten Kurt Russells excepting 'Tango and Cash'. Or ten Donald Pleasances as long as they're all pre-1981. Belinda Bauer, regrettably, doesn't seem to have been in ten movies. Nastassja Kinski was in ten movies in 1984 alone.
Nothing like a tortured "Mind The Gap" to bring the fact that it's Christmas home!
Ten James Masons starting with Thunder Rock, Restless moment and Man Between (if you can forgive the accent, or lack thereof of any attempt at an accent)!
James, I'd have thought most people surveying the gnawed debris of their Christmas dinner table would be reminded of Death Line and that looooong moving shot that takes us into the cannibal's lair, past a few victims, some dead, some half-alive...
Andrew, I could live with ten James Masons, but if's Christmas, the season of big false emotions, we need A Star Is Born, Bigger Than Life, and of course Lolita...
OK - I have had a mixed up day with the James Mason's ( I meant Reckless Moment and Odd Man Out) and you may well be right about the big false emotion requirement(although the near infanticide of Bigger Than Life could ruin Christmas if it wasn't for good old Walter M. -As for Lolita...) I still think that nothing beats a good ghost story at Christmas and Thunder Rock has to stay - maybe North By Northwest?
That said, I am hoping for the recent Fassbinder DVD releases - so that could be my Merry Christmas sorted.
On the other line - I often miss hear 'Mind The Gap' as 'Mind Figure'. I haven't seen Deathline. I very much want to. That is not a Christmas hint to anyone.
Your thoughts