May 4th 2013. Pick Of The Day.

Roberto Rossellini's ode to the nuances of marriage and the angels and/or demons time makes of them sails into its 4th day of 9 at the Film Forum. VOYAGE TO ITALY was cooly recieved in its day but has since climbed the critical ranks to reach #41 on the BFI top 50 all-time. They're also responsible for VERTIGO's perch at #1, so take that ranking as you will. Determined to catch this. Just not today.

John Ford's THE SEARCHERS is never long overdue a screening in NYC. Well, that depends on how much you love it, but it's never more than a couple of months between bookings. Today however you may ingest both Ford's masterpiece AND a spectacular bill of fare as John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter track the whereabouts of Natalie Wood as part of the Nitehawk Cinema's Country Brunchin' series. Breakfast tacos and redemption. That's a pretty strong double bill. I pass, however, in favor of a more restless set of natives.

Popeye and Cloudy brook no quarter in their relentless pursuit of Frog One in William Freidkin's insanely influential masterpiece, the Oscar-winning police procedural THE FRENCH CONNECTION. Screening at BAM as part of their tribute to the director. INCREDIBLY tough to NOT choose this flick today as it's one of my all-time faves, but I've already chosen the great Billy F once in the last week, and a different type of plot gets foiled today that may just be the more nefarious of the two. Keep readin'.

Robert Mitchum makes a return appearance in MOMA's series deciated to German expressionism's influence immediate and enduring on Hollywood filmmakers. His Preacher stalks two frightened but resilient tykes hiding the loot their deceased bank robber dad entrusted to them in Charles Laughton's Southern goth classic THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER. Part of the museum's slowly winding down The Weimar Touch series. An even hammier unstable is featured at the venue today, so I pass again.

The Silent Clowns, a.k.a. pianist Ben Model and film historians Bruce Lawton and Steve Massa, celebrate the 120th year of Harold Lloyd's birth with a presentation of the comic great's FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, accompanied by the three-reeler NEVER WEAKEN, today at the Library for the Performing Arts. I adore HL's particular brand of cinematic bufoonery, but I pass today for an even greater high-wire perf. As it were.

Richard Lester's HELP!, his followup with the Fab Four to their debut effort A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, takes the controlled anarchy of the first film and unsuccessfully contains it on the second try, but the charm of the leads and the great soundtrack, combined wth the director's genuine attempts to catch lightning in a bottle twice, still offer some rewards. Screens today at Astoria's Museum of the Moving Image as part of their Play This Movie Loud series. A better slice of anarchy is unleashed by a solo act today.

Hitch and Monty Clift's I CONFESS merits a second unspooling as part of MOMA's Weimar trib today as well. Not one of either men's better efforts but still an interesting meeting of different methods.

And midnight screenings overflow in our fair metropolis this eve! At the IFC Center alone we have Stanley Kubrick's 2001, David Cronenberg's THE FLY, and Terry Jones' MONTY PYTHON'S THE MEANING OF LIFE. The Nitehawk Cinema offers twin examinations of 70's subculture FIVE EASY PIECES and CANNIBAL FEROX. Hey, I didn't say it was the same subculture. And the Landmark Sunshine Cinema generously offers Patty Duke, Sharon Tate and Barbara Parkins in Mark Robson's adap of Jacqueline Susann's VALLEY OF THE DOLLS. Meowch!

But if I'm checking out genuine catwomen today, I'm sailing to more exotic climes.

Paramount Pictures, like most of the major studios in the early thirties, wanted to cash in on the success Universal had found with their enormously popular horror hits DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN. To wit they put Waldemar Young, a veteran scribe of the macabre Lon Chaney oeuvre, and novelsit Philip Wylie of WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE notoriety, to work on an adap of an H.G. Wells classic concerning the cross breeding of the human species with the animal world. The author was reportedly unamused by the resulting film, which required serious overtime from ace makeup artist Wally Westmore to create the horrific middle species, not man or animal, that populate the forbidding locale. It was these exact efforts and those of director Erle C. Kenton that most upset Wells, as their quest to create a nightmarish milieu, a horror film to match or even best the works of Tod Browning and James Whale, diminished in the author's eyes the philisophical implications his novel carried. History has thankfuly disagreed with the monumental sci-fi master's evaluation, and the movie, which was banned by 11 countries in the PRE-code era, has never strayed too far from popular culture. Both of the phrases "the natives are restless tonight" and "are we not men?" are derived from this film. One subsequent remake featured one of the most baroque, campy and over-the-top perfs to be found on Marlon Brando's CV. That's SAYIN' something. However, prime among the reasons I choose this as my Pick today is the perf Brando was following, the shoes he was filling, the persona he was attempting to best. In a career absolutely littered with memorable screen turns star Charles Laughton may have never enjoyed a better 71 minutes of celluoid. Laughton routinely sought real life models to base his screen characterizations on, and for the mad doctor who oversees the House of Pain he chose the cruellest man he'd ever heard of; his dentist. I can only imagine what the actor went through in that particular chair.

Charles Laughton is Doctor Moreau in Erle C. Kenton's ISLAND OF LOST SOULS, screening today at 4:30pm as part of MOMA's series dedicated to filmmaker Ken Jacobs. Skip the dentist and just catch this flick.

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Be safe and sound and make sure the next guy is too, Stockahz! Back next week with more classic screenings in and about our fair metropolis! Until then I leave you with these three sentiments; 1.) remember Adam Yauch, 2. ) May the Fourth be with you, and 3.) GO KNICKS!!!!!

Okay 1 & 3 are pretty much the same thing but if I'm gonna be redundant it'll be about MCA and the Knickerbockers. He's smiling somewhere.

-Joe Walsh