According to Today's Globe

The Brattle Theatre in Harvard Square has raised 200K off their planned 400K Capital Campaign. They are therefore extending the campaign til' february 28th 2006.
Anyone who wishes to contribute to this cause can just go-here.
If it can possibly be avoided, then the Brattle must be saved...they are alone in mixing repertory titles with off beat new releases with a real zeal for community service.
We will be making a donation ourselves in the name of Channel Zero very shortly.
How about you?
I mean, where else can we see "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", "The Chimes at Midnight" or "Kiss Me Deadly" on the big-indoor screen?
Otherwise, the repertory impulse will be acted upon by the likes of Channel Zero, which while we have potent cost control factors and celerity to our credit, we DON'T have access to an ongoing big screen venue.
See my point, we need the Brattle it is a social and cultural necessity, if it were to close the arts in Metro Boston would suffer an irreparable blow.

Spell Checks and Sacraments

In a certain RC Church nestled in the Hills and Hollows of Arlington Mass, the Advent Missal renders the hymn "The First Noel" as "The First Nowell".
For one brief shining moment I thought Archbishop O'Malley had been forced to lay off his proof-readers in the local religious recession, turns out though "The First Nowell" is a legit Old English form of the title.
Of course, what a local Catholic Church is doin' pretentiously using Old English in its Missal, I'll never know.

"Good Night and Good Luck"

I didn't think much of George Clooney director after "The Confessions of a Dangerous Minds" this biography of veteran TV newsman Edward R. Murrow though, changed my mind.
Avoided is the first mistake of film biography, doing the whole life with relentless speed a'la "Ali".
No instead, we follow Murrow in the lead up and aftermath of a couple of 1953 television broadcasts criticizing Senator Joseph R. McCarthy. Staying on focus with respect to a few key incidents in a man's life is often good film-making IMHO.
David Strahairn impersonates Murrow to perfection, quizzical, ironic a little fatalistic...he knows one way or another the good times of "quality" TV journalism must end sooner or later.
No my only objection to the film is that it assigns a grandiose part to Murrow in McCarthy's fall. True the broadcasts did their part, but Joe was already deep into a suicidal attack on Dwight Eisenhower's Presidency when Murrow jumped ugly on him.
no Mccarthy did himself in, of course his response to Murrow's broadcasts in which he incoherently accuses the newsman of being a Wobbly stands as a sort of sad anti-classic teevee moment.
"Good night and Good Luck" is still lingering at the Lexington Cinema if'n anyone is interested.

Channel Zero Returns Tomorrow Afternoon...

Dear Friends:

Channel Zero is returning to Movies on a Menu for one last time this year. Join Us next Sunday Afternoon December 11th at 2pm sharp when we screen back to back episodes of The Jerry Lewis Show (1967) and the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (October 1968).
This time we opted for a unique clash of styles running the gamut from Tom and Dick Smothers’ controversial topical comedy to Jerry Lewis’ old timey vaudeville schtick.
Or as we like to think of it “comedy versus...even more comedy”.

Also along for the ride will the usual guest stars mostly notably The Beatles who contribute some musical footage for the Smothers Brothers. There will also be an appearance by mock Presidential Candidate Pat Paulsen and Sonny & Cher.
So please join us, Movies on a Menu (Arlington’s first “DVD Coffee House” ) is also a great place to do some holiday shopping and features a complete snack bar and coffee menu.

Presented by:
Channel Zero (Suggested Donation: $5.00)
Now in its tenth year of Genteel Video Transcendence
Movies on a Menu
148 Mass Ave
Arlington Ma. 02474-8689
781-316-8668
www.moviesonamenu.com
www.channel0.blogspot.com
"Jerry Lewis versus The Smothers Brothers"
Sunday, December 11th at 2pm (sharp!)

This one will be fun, we've got SmoBro in the middle of the 1968 Presidential campaign and Jerry Lewis in the middle of his mid-life crisis and perpetual quest for a alternate comic persona. Something...different from his deafening "dopey kid" act.

Flaming Rationality Moment:

Melissa Wentworth, local aesthete and patriot asks the following question about the original King Kong (1933:
"Why is the Door to Kong's Kingdom on Skull Island so...big?"
"If the goal is, to throw virgin sacrifices in, and keep Kong Out, then a smaller door would be job-one".

We have no answer to this entirely sensible observation.

Giving thanks

for American's Annual Familial group-high tryptophan...putting the US out of it's skull since the Glory Days of Plymouth Rock.

Cultural Pronouncement #1

"Girls are the New Boys".
remember that....25 years ago, when an 11 year old girl wanted a career in medicine it was still assumed she meant nursing. Now, today, she will have nothing less than Med School and a sinecure as a neurologist.
Times change, so start saving all you parents out there.

No Show Notes for Tonite's Screening of "The Man with a Cross"

directed by Roberto Rossellini, I don't really know enough about the neo-realist style to generate credible discourse.
I do find it interesting that viritually all the post-war Neo Realist machers got their start not only under fascism, but indeed most of them directed propaganda films glorifying Mussolini's regime.
Other than that "The Man with a Cross" is a strangely bifurcated film, it is at once a paean of praise to the coming Axis victory, yet at the same time it is curiously defensive, relying on the eternal verities symbolized by it's catholic chaplain hero rather than any ideological histrionics.
Regimes in trouble from within & without tends to fall back on such traditional values when things get tough.
Anyhow, don't forget tonight at Movies on Menu (148 Mass Ave in East Arlington MA. A few doors down from Dagg's Deli) we will be screening "The Man with a Cross" (1943) at 7:30pm sharp.
Suggested Donation" $5
Movies on a Menu is right on the #77 & #79 bus routes...

Channel Zero returns this Week!!!

Join us at....

Movies on a Menu (148 Mass Ave in the teeming heart of East Arlington) on Wednesday November 9th at 7:30pm for a rare screening of "The Man with a Cross" (1943), Fascist Italy's last real propaganda film.
Desperate to sell a war-weary population on a failed dream of world conquest, Mussolini's regime evoked religion and the defense of western civilization against the hordes of bolshevism.

An Italian military chaplain is captured by the Russians on the Eastern front, his faith is put to the ultimate test as the Soviets and the Axis battle for supremacy over a tiny Ukrainian village.

Directed in a bravura style Roberto Rosselini that suggests the coming neo-realist school, "The Man with a Cross" (aka "L'Uomo Dalla Croce") is an authentic rarity to all students of cinema in general and totalitarian propaganda in particular.
In Italian
Subtitled in English.
Presented by:
Channel Zero (Suggested Donation: $5.00)
Now in its tenth year of Genteel Video Transcendence
Movies on a Menu
148 Mass Ave
Arlington Ma. 02474-8689
781-316-8668
www.moviesonamenu.com

C'mon folks lets try and close the year on a strong note...

Classic Teevee Conundrum...

how come Barbara Eden has to keep her belly button covered up on "I Dream of Jeannie" when Ron Ely could run around and baring his for all and sundry on "Tarzan"?
What made his more decorous than hers?

Pick of the Week...

Undoubtedly it is Betsy Sherman's four week long Jerry Lewis series at the Coolidge Corner on Wednesday Nights. Tonight she is screening "The Ladies Man" which is not our favorite Lewis title but loaded up with Betsy's unique commentary (Ms. Sherman is to Jerry Lewis what Channel Zero is to Orson Welles)it will surely be an interesting evening.
I went to see "The Bellboy" last week, that has to be one of Lewis' best comedies absent "The Nutty Professor", it was $10 well spent IMHO.

Question for the week:

d'ye think Britney Spears has caught "husband" Kevin Federline schtupping the poolboy yet?

If you find the anthropomorphized Penguins in

"March of the Penguins" more than a bit much, then definitely check out Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man".
Therein one "Timothy Treadwell" a well-meaning bear-activist spends six months out of the year living among Alaskan grizzly bears trying to save them from poachers and their ilk. Over the course of some 13 Years Tim began to believe he was living among people, took no firearms into the wilderness, convinced his girlfriend to come along and then one day in October 2003 he and Amie Huegenard were eaten by an aging starving grizzly.
Before the iron law of irony caught up with him, Tim shot 100 hours of sumptuous video footage of the bears that represents Tim's legacy. Th camera also catches Tim in a virtual fugue state of fury, ranting at the National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service and whatever seems to irk him that day on a far off Alaskan shore.
Tim was, sad to say, completely crazy....he lived among wild animals with little personal protection and took his girlfriend along for the ride getting her killed in the process.
Was he passionate?
Yes.
Do bears and sundry endangered species desperately need passionate advocates?
Hell yes now more than ever.
But Tim? I think Tim thought he was a sort of Peter Pan of the Bears...one of them so to speak.
But unlike Pan the beastie got him.
Its a sad film in many ways...Tim was an American Original but like many eccentrics, paid the price in madness.

Pick of the Week...

has to be an improbable remake of the 1919 film "Trapped by the Mormons", a film none too kind to the LDS.
It is of course screening at midnight at the Brattle Theatre. Channel Zero has always wanted to screen the 1919 original but timing, good taste and the rest has as yet prevented us.
Oh well...drop us a note if Governor Romney pickets the screening...mindnight is way past his bedtime but you never know.
:)
JohnIAT@aol.com

Show Notes: "The Heart of Darkness"

At first, horror film actor Boris Karloff seems a strange choice to play Joseph Conrad's infamous "Mister Kurtz".
The part has generally falls to serious method practioners, notably John Malkovich and of course Marlon Brando by way of Apocalypse Now.
In another sense though, he is a perfect choice, his accent suggests debauched plumminess, and as a noted horror player he gets the sheer strangeness of the setting.
We ought to think of Karloff, like John Barrymore or Charles Laughton as a sort of artistic bridge from the English Classical Acting Tradition over to the Internal Rigors of the Method.
This is a process accelerated by the particular needs of sound film acting wherein voice is added to movement and there mere tone inflection and ferocity can divert, stop or speed up the action.
The method could never prosper in silent cinema...once films began to talk and once TV came in the need for intensity and intimacy became paramount.
Karloff isn't a method player but he is sufficiently intimate with his own emotions to deploy them to advantage in an intimacy-driven acting enviroment like a live television production.

***
Tonight's show is a happy artistic accident.
Boris Karloff had bought himself out of his contract at Universal in 1940 because he was unhappy with the shoddiness of the writing for his signature horror parts. He puttered around Hollywood for several years as a independent and then counterintuitively made his way to New York where he had several successes on Broadway (notably as Captain Hook in Peter Pan) and was readily availble for guest appearances on radio.
When TV came in, he was one of the few famous Hollywood actors unencumbered by a Studio Contract which would've otherwise restricted his ability to appear in that upstart medium.
Which is why all through out the 1950's Karloff turns up in things like Schlitz Playhouse, Lux Video Theater and tonight's Playhouse 90 Production of the "Heart of Darkness". He also hosted several anthology TV shows and appeared on shows like "Route 66".
TV was the re-making of Boris Karloff, his films where all sold to television in the mid 1950's so his old parts were suddenly widely distributed. His TV work demonstrated that his current acting skills were as sharp as ever, soon enough the phone was ringing again and the Prodigal Monster returned to Tinseltown bidding on something akin to his 3rd Comeback.

Pick of the Week...

Well, any time Mickey Rooney comes to Arlingtion, that is a signal to make tracks to the Regent Theater at top speed.
I'd just like to cordially invite Mr. Rooney to get up a bit early on Saturday to sample the delicious variety of fried dough available at Arlington's Town Day.

Our Next Event:

CHANNEL ZERO AND MOVIES ON A MENU PROUDLY PRESENT:
Boris Karloff as Mister Kurtz in Joseph Conrad’s
“THE HEART OF DARKNESS” (1958

Co-starring Roddy McDowell and in her television debut, Eartha Kitt!

THE HORROR, THE HORROR!
Armed with the best of intentions Mister Kurtz has journeyed into the depths of the Belgian Congo, only to become a Tyrant & a monster.
Now Young Marlowe (Roddy McDowall) is sent off to learn the secret of Kurtz’s madness and bring him back to Civilization.
Channel Zero is proud to Present this rare television adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s famed Novella.
Celebrating Boris Karloff’s legacy as a journeyman actor in the Golden Age of Television this is a video event not to be missed!
See Boris Karloff as the 20th Century’s Most Sublime and Elusive Literary Monster!Wednesday September 28th @ 7:30pm
Movies on a Menu 148 Mass Ave Arlington Ma.
Just a few doors down Dagg’s Deli in East Arlington
On the #77 & 79 Bus Route
781-316-8668
Tyrant? Man or Monster? You be the Judge!
www.moviesonamenu.com
www.channel0.blogspot.com

We live, as we dream - alone."
Joseph Conrad

Farewell to a Great American

A man of Stern Incorruptible Morals,
A Friend to the Republic
A Patriot...

Goodbye "Little Buddy"

Ah but as Hegel's proverbial "Owl of Minerva" flyeth by, all that comes to mind of the original "Gilligan's Island" is the show's unabashed sentimentality. Gilligan's idiocy is never punished by the other cataways (unlike modern type program like "Survivor" et al wherein Gilligan class simplicity is coded as weakness to be crushed or exploited)and the group's loyalty to one another is firmly established.
Otherwise, "Gilligan's Island" is one of the last stops in the imperial twilight of vaudeville knockabout comedy. The comedy of reliable bits and routines, pratfalls and spritzer-set ups would stagger on until the "Carol Burnett Show" gave it a proper Viking Funeral. It would however, never be as sure of itself as it was when Bob Denver was plunging out of palm trees and Jim Backus was camping it up.

No pick of the week....

too much disaster out there.
However, Fats Domino has been found alive....apparently his advanced age has not inhibited his ability to float.

Meanwhile yez kin donate some money real easy-like to the victims here.

If Massachusetts has an Empire...

then its in the Berkshires. And the jewel in the crown is Tina Packer's Shakespeare and Company who I think have had their best season in years...
Alyn Burrows as King John one of Shakespeare's lesser histories but brought vividly to life by Packer's flawless direction, and skilled performances from Burrows and Peter Macon as the King's Bastard Nephew whose lineage is corrupt as his heart is pure.

Their Taming of the Shrew stars the incomparable Celia Madeoy an actress whose speciality seems to be producing comely silk purses out of sow's ears...her Katerina is a wonder to behold and the stand out performance that anchors the show.
Ah but why shouldn't she dominate the proceedings? Did she not shine in S&C's gender reversed version of "The Shrew" a few years back? We recall that magnificent performance with pleasure. Few American Actresses say they have a serious claim to playing both Petruchio and Katerina!

In Tina Packer we have at last a pretender and a legitimate one to the vacated throne of the late Sifu Orson Welles.