014M S David Quinlan previews the films and Monty Smith the TV movies on screen this week SATURDAY International Settlement
Welsh valleys whose script about the Miners' Strike gets blown out of all proportion when Hollywood takes an interest. 1988
C4, 2.00pm-3.40pm Ever the opportunist, producer Sol M Wurtzel gathered together some press clippings, some very good newsreel shots of the Japanese invasion of China, a plot overlooked by the Charlie Chan films and an international cast and came up with a lurid, timely, novelettish melodrama that was good for a few dollars in its day. George Sanders almost makes the adventurer hero credible, Dolores Del Rio looks beautiful and sings. 1938
Valentino
Spartacus and the Ten Gladiators ITV, 2.45pm-4.35pm Archetypal continental muscleman epic, fast-moving, amusingly dubbed and played with vigour. Director Nick Nostro has a nice way with tracking shots, especially in a chariot pursuit through woods and along a lakeside, to put this one a step above the average. 1964
One Hour with You C4, 3.40pm-5.05pm Like Love Me Tonight, which viewers may have seen on C4, this is another scintillating vehicle for the delectable costarring team of Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald. Also similarly, it was notable at the time for its risque elements which Hollywood could get away with in the early Thirties. It is not a musical as such, rather a dramatic comedy with music (largely written by the operetta composer Oscar Straus, noted particularly for The Chocolate Soldier). One way and another, it's a treat for vintage film fans. 1932
The Strike C4, 10.50pm-12.05am There are more serious elements in this offering from the Comic Strip gang than in any of their other films from recent times. It's about a young writer from the
'TV version' Feature films shown on television are not necessarily in the form originally seen in cinemas. Often several variations are made at the time of production for use according to the intended outlet. In some cases cinema versions may be used, with minor cuts for violence, explicit sex and bad language.
C4, 12.05am-2.25am Ken Russell's 'pop' version of the career of the unique silent film idol is colourful, outrageous and keeps on the move and, even if we never really get to know the man himself, presents us with a vivid picture of the free-for-all life of New York and Hollywood in the Twenties. Nureyev is not actually asked to do much beyond look and seem like Valentino on the surface, and enact scenes from some of his most famous films, but there is a wealth of striking acting in support, especially from Leslie Caron (as Nazimova), Huntz Hall (as Jesse Lasky) and Felicity Kendal as Valentino's agent June Mathis. 1977
SUNDAY Blackbeard's Ghost ITV, 2.30pm-4.30pm The Disney studio at its most inventive and amusing, with all sorts of fun being had from the invisibility of Blackbeard's ghost as he helps athletes and gamblers alike past the winning post. Peter Ustinov enjoys himself engagingly in the title role, Dean Jones is a likeably harassed hero and heroine Suzanne Pleshette also has her moments, especially when she is winning at a casino and refuses to quit while she's ahead. As Pinetop Purvis, you'll see the familiar (if younger) features of Michael Conrad, the late lamented desk sergeant from
Hill Street Blues.
1967
Where the River Bends C4, 10.10pm-11.50pm This excellent western has top grade written all over it. One of a series made by star James Stewart with director Anthony Mann (W inchester 73 and The Man from Laramie were others), it features a scene-stealing performance by Arthur Kennedy as the good-bad guy who must be bested in the end, and provided almost the final rung on the ladder to stardom for Rock Hudson, here as a gambler. 1952
Frida C4, 11.50pm-1.55am Not so much a conventional film biography (of the Mexican painter and left wing intellectual)
Rudolph Valentino (Rudolf Nureyev) tangos with his partner (Christine Carlson) in K en Russell's 'Valentino': C4, Saturday as a visually rich collage of Harry 0: Such scenes from Frida Kahlo's life, Dust as Dreams enabling director Paul Leduc to abandon the constraints of a Are Made Of standard narrative structure in ITV, 11.20pm-12,40am favour of a fascinating individual The first of two cumbersomelyapproach to his subject. History, titled Harry 0 pilots (the second mind you, often gets short shrift was Smile Jenny, Y ou're Dead) Leon Trotsky's murder is which led to the popular series depicted not as the result of an starring David Janssen as the attack with an ice pick but via glum ex-cop with a bullet in his some Stalinist members of the back and a doleful line in partMexican militia armed with time detection. Good supporting machine guns. Even so, (Melia cast — Martin Sheen, Margot Medina's striking performance in Kidder, Mariana Hill, Will Geer the title role carries the film — helps to sustain interest in the along with great verve. 1985 wandering plot. TVM 1973
(W est only)
MONDAY The In-Laws ITV, 1.30pm-3.25pm Peter Falk and Alan Arkin costar in made-to-measure roles in this zany comedy. Arkin plays a New York dentist and family man who is about to meet his prospective son-in-law's parents for the first time. Little does he suspect that the father, Vince, quite unbeknown to anyone else, is an agent for the CIA. It's all too much for the unadventurous dentist! Arkin plays with what has been termed his 'brand of sub-hysterical panic' but many might well feel that, not for the first time, it's Falk who runs away with the entire film. 1979
T Dan Smith C4, 10.55pm-12.35am Made over two years in close collaboration with T Dan Smith, the politician sentenced to six years in connection with the Poulson affair, this 'docu-drama.' from the enterprising Amber Films is a fascinating and penetrating portrait of one man's political life. Raising pertinent questions about big business, the film contains elements of drama, thriller and expose. 1987
The Silent Cry C4, 12.35am-2.30am Stephen Dwoskin's highly individual films, often the centre of attention at international film festivals, have reached a wider audience in recent times thanks to C4. Dealing with such subjects as sexuality and disablement, these quirky movies have been highly praised by some, roundly condemned by others. But always they have proved challenging and controversial. This one is about an 'Alice' who may or may not step through her own looking-glass. 1977
TUESDAY For Those in Peril C4, 2.30pm-3.45pm Ealing Studios were the most war-conscious of British production companies; while the Rank Organisation was providing sheer escapism, Ealing got down to depicting the war as it was. Although the acting is no more than competent, its portrait of an air-sea rescue unit under fire provides vivid, gripping wartime realism. 1944
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