July 13th 2013. Pick Of The Day.

Williamsburg's Nitehawk Cinema, my new fave theater in NYC, gets the day in classic screenings going with a reminder of why we once loved Tim Burton. BEETLEJUICE, the out-from-left-field sleeper hit that cemented the director's avant-weird status, as well as affording Michael Keaton one of his best showcase perfs, is offered up this afternoon along with the Nitehawk's excellent brunch fare. I'd say go with the Chicken Fried Steak on this one, but I sadly pass it up as my Pick today. Unless my name is called three times. Or maybe I shouldn't have typed that last part...

Michelangelo Antonioni's L'AVVENTURA saunters into the second of its twelve day booking at the Film Forum this afternoon. Chose it yesterday, gotta pass today. Monica Vitti's still a honey.

Also at the Forum today Yasujiro Ozu's FLOATING WEEDS unspools as part of a mini-reprisal of last month's exhaustive trib to the Japanese master. Grateful for the second chance to catch what I missed in June, but I skip it as my Pick today, as the weeds of Brooklyn's Prospect Park call to me today instead.

Museum of the Moving Image's summer See It Big! series continues apace this weekend with today's screening of Douglas Sirk's IMITATION OF LIFE. The Sirkmeister was the go-to name for sudsy Technicolor histrionics in 50's Hollywood and I have yet to realy dig into his CV, but I pass this up today in favor of a more grandiose perf, one for the ages, that features not merely scenery chewed but necks bit. Keep readin'...

Anthology Film Archives has turned this month's rep programming reins over to an icon of fashion design with their Agnes B. Selects series. Three choice works that helped form the artist's sensibilities unspool today; Luchino Visconti's ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS, Francois Truffaut's FAHRENHEIT 451, and Jean-Luc Godard's LA CHINOISE . Choice works that grace the screen of NYC's closest recreation of its glorious grindhouse past, but I choose today not to sit between a drunk Abel Ferrara and the guy who brings his own mattress in favor of summer outdoor screening magic and healthy Brooklyn air. I may just grow a beard while I'm there.

David Lean's epic DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, an intimate romance set against the backdrop of the Russkie revolution, screens again in its new pristine DCP resto in BAM's newly renovated movie palace, the Harvey Theater. Chose it last Thursday and attended the screening, which was the 1st time I'd ever watched the film fully straight through. I gotta say, the combo of the film and the venue resulted in a pretty magical experience. But my rules prevent me from choosing it again. And anyway the tale of a different ex-aristocrat coping with a world changing about him is my preference today. The Hungarian's solution to his troubles is, to put it politely, a tad more severe than the Russian's. You'll probably never read those words again...

Midnight in this balmy burg brings screenings of Walter Hill's THE WARRIORS at the Nitehawk Cinema and Steven Spielberg's RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK at IFC Center. Both classics of action cinema that also serve as distillations of their makers themes and styles, but I pass them up in favor of the true children of the night. And I'm not talkin' about the towel sitting hirsute denizens of Propect Heights either. Although that would be appropriate too, I gotta say. No I'm referring to a classic of the cinema that pretty much invented a genre, saved a studio, and both created and killed the career of the man most responsible for those achievements. Bram Stoker's dark hero was never supposed to end well, anyway.

Bela Ferenc Dezso Blasko, a banker's son, caught the acting bug in his teens and took as his stage surname Lugosi, a variation on his hometown of Lugos. He built a solid career in Hungarian theater and then film, but had to flee to Germany after his attempts to fortify an actor's union in his homeland got him banned from stage and screen. He worked in Germany for a time before making for America's more promising shores, and once in New York organized a troupe to cater to the city's Hungarian community. He soon drifted into NYC's still functioning film community, cast as heavies and European aristocracy. Then he was approached for the role that would become synonymous with the man, though he hardly saw it coming at the time. John L. Balderston and Hamilton Deane had adapted Irish author Bram Stoker's most famous novel, and were seeking the man to fill the lead role's cape. The play was a monster hit, no pun intended, and financially strapped Universal Pictures snapped up the film rights in a desperate gamble for survival. Longtime Lon Chaney collaborator Tod Browning was approached to direct, as he was no stranger to the macabre himself, and the dice were thrown.

They came up 7. The resulting film was such a box office behemoth it not only saved its parent studio from bankruptcy, it kicked off what is now generally beloved as the Universal Monster Cycle of the 30's and 40's. The studios won, the audiences won, everyone who benefitted from the horror genre in general going forward won. The only one who lost in the equation was the film's star, who would work only sporadically in the future, sometimes lucky enough to act without being hidden by ghastly makeup. He would go on to make further indelible impressions on film, as the Sayer of the Law in ISLAND OF LOST SOULS, Doctor Werdegast in Edgar G. Ulmer's THE BLACK CAT, and Igor in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, just to name a few, but he'd never be taken seriously again nor be offered A-list leads as would seem fitting for the man who saved a studio. His later decline is well documented in the cult fave ED WOOD, directed by the now-worse-than-his-subject Tim Burton, but his reassessment and current revered status also came about because of that film, due to the efforts of another great film icon, Martin Landau, who no doubt took delight in raising Bela from the grave and received an Oscar for his troubles I thank ye. Perhaps the man himself would think it only proper that he was awarded his due only whence ressurected from beyond. Perhaps we can find out tonight when he transfixes once more with his iconic perf for the ages.

Tod Browning's DRACULA screens tonight in Prospect Park accompanied by the Philip Glass Ensemble. Very few Summer film events will live up to this one methinks. Get there early. Take a comfy towel. Bring wine. What'd ya expect me to say?

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Be safe and sound and make sure the next knucklehead is too! Back next week with new Picks. In the meantime check the Twitter feed or Facebook page to get my recommendations. Enjoy ya Summah, Stockahz!

-Joe Walsh

joew@nitratestock.net