NOVEMBER 2012! DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, THE WARNER ARCHIVES AND THE SECOND GREATEST MOVIE EVER MADE! AND SANDY.

I had quite a different idea of how I'd be celebrating the site's six month mark. Instead movie chat has been rendered completely trivial by the devasting forces of last week's hurricane. I debated whether I should put off posting the monthly overview til next week, instead dedicating the site to the relief efforts and how you can help. I decided that as petty as it may seem some of us geeks need a little film talk to brighten our spirits while we get through this recovery, so I'm going to attempt to provide both the usual look at the month in classic films and a few links to websites that will help you to donate and/or volunteer for the victims of Sandy. Hopefully you'll choose the latter over the former. Below are the links I've found most helpful, and I welcome any others you might suggest in our effort to get aid to our neighbors.

http://interoccupy.net/occupysandy/les/

http://www.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2012/oct/30/how-help-hurricane-sandy/

My thanks to Susannah Ringel for the info. My thoughts go out to everyone affected by the storm last week and still suffering in its wake. Stay warm, stay safe, and stay hopeful.

Now to the movies.

Happy to report that November 2012 has much to offer the cinegeek. Anthology Film Archives wins this month's top honors with its Edgar G. Ulmer trib, William Lustig's Warner Archive fest, and the return of their excellent From The Pen Of...series. Ulmer came from an art direction background in German film and is best known for his sytlish basement budget auteurism. His mainstays THE BLACK CAT and DETOUR are on display, as well as lesser known and critically well regarded works like RUTHLESS and HER SISTER'S SECRET. From serious 40's melodrama to batshit 50's cheapie scifi, his body of work is fascinating and worth your evaluation.

Next up at AFA exploitation king William Lustig gets to program a retrospective based on the Warner Archive, lesser known titles from that studio available only by MOD, Manufacture On Demand. Lustig of course knows the cellars of the film world quite well, and has picked few familiar titles but none that seem REMOTELY boring. Everyone knows GET CARTER, kicking off the fest on the 9th; how many people know about HIT MAN, a remake of CARTER starring Jim Brown and Pam Grier, screening on the same night? How often does the once promising Michael Reeves' sophmore effort, the ode to witchcraft and swinging 60's London THE SORCERERS, grace our fair screens? When has Antonio Margheriti's Gamma One "trilogy", the $5 and change budgeted WILD WILD PLANET, WAR OF THE PLANETS and THE SNOW DEVILS, unspooled on a single day? Film after film in the series promises its own particular brand of headscratch. You expect less from the director of the MANIC COP films? Mr. L will appear for intros and Q&A's for a few of these gems.

Closing out AFA's month is the return of their From The Pen Of...series. The fest runs through the month of December but kicks off on the 30th with a double bill of Philip Kaufman's remake of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978) and John Carpenter's last truly great flick BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA. Love Kaufman but I've never been sold on his rethink of Don Seigel's masterpiece. However it's beloved by a loyal fanbase so AFA provides the opportunity to catch it screened large. On the other hand BTILC was one of my faves upon release and remains so. It capped off a 9-film run that pretty much solidified JC's place as the modern Howard Hawks, his idol. From sci-fi to action to horror to romance he erred not once in 12 years, which is a fairly stunning achievement. He and W.D. Richter (the scribe behind both of today's offerings) pretty much predicted the gonzo grindhouse vibe that would define 90's cinema with this excursion into the Shaw Brothers universe, and it was a big influence on guys like Tarantino and Rodriguez. BTILC also marked the end of the long collaboration with DP Dean Cundey, who did so much to help create Carpenter's signature style. Unique and a big smile. Take a chick with green eyes.

AFA has also dusted off the silent film reels to go George Melies all over your ass, as they do every couple of months. And there's not a damn thing wrong with that. Saturday the 24th sees three separate programs of the master's most ingenious works. And yes, LE VOYAGE DANS LA LUNE will unspool. Kill a day with trip through film history, whydonch'ya?

Over at the venerable Film Forum Polanski's REPULSION winds down its week long run and makes way for Michael Roemer's groundbreaking NOTHING BUT A MAN, with an intro from the director at the 7:30pm show on the 9th. A frank and often brutal portrait of the waning days of the Jim Crow south, it also features cinema's first Motown soundtrack and the gritty DP work of Robert M. Young. Selected in 1993 for inclusion in the National Film Registry, that institution's restored print is the one FF screens all week. Lightening the mood considerably the week after is the Ealing Studios classic THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT, which naturally stars Alec Guinness, playing a physics whiz who invents an indestructible and undirtiable (I don't care if that's not a word) fabric that gets him in hot water with the clothing industries. Following the next week the Forum gives you 7 days to catch the 8K restoration of Sergio Leone's final masterpiece ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA, which is stunning and worth all three-plus hours of your time. And the month's final day kicks off a week of Polanski's TESS. 'Cause apparently the Forum can't get enough of the guy. Mabe it's a lure by the DOJ.

As the Harold Lloyd festival closes out silent cinema continues at the Forum with a couple of month's worth of Douglas Fairbanks Sr. classics, starting with his first foray into costumed adventure THE MARK OF ZORRO, continuing with THE BLACK PIRATE and closing out November with THE NUT, one of DF's few surviving comedies. All accompanied by Steve Sterner at the piano. All fekkin' brilliant.

The perpetually piquant MOMA winds down its To Save And Projert series this month and they've saved some of the best for last. JOHNNY COOL is a hipster NYC mafia assassin flick written and directed by future BEWTICHED creator Willima Asher and starring future wife and BEWITCHED star Elizabeth Montgomery. Plus a few memenbers of the Rat Pack dally about. Elio Petri defines his key themes of paranoia and anxiety with the sophmore effort I GIORNI CONTATI. Robert Aldrich not only provides one of the closing offerings of the fest, 1977's gripping TWILIGHT'S LAST GLEAMING, but is on display in MOMA's ongoing series An Auteurist History of Film with the cynical WW2 procedural from 1956, ATTACK! TWILIGHT concerns an ex-air force general who hijacks a nuclear silo and threatens WW3. ATTACK! features Eddie Albert's cowardly military career man willing to sacrifice the lives of his men to cover up his incompetence. With Jack Palance. Breezy. Also in the museum's Auteurist series this month are the debut of one Satyajit Ray, PATHER PANCHALI, which had its American debut at MOMA 57 years ago, and ON THE BOWERY, a quasi-doc set amidst the squalor that once defined that section of NYC's latest Hipsterville. Both essential viewings.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center offers a 9-day retrospective of one of Japan's most popular filmmakers from the 40's and 50's, who of course I've never heard of. Back in his native land, however, Keisuke Kinoshita was second only at the box office to a little guy named Akira Kurosawa. Unlike AK and Ozu and Mizoguchi, Kinoshita never found much success in the states, and the Film Society seeks to rectify that situation. 15 of the director's films comprise the series, and vary from comedic farce to harsh postwar soul search. I've seen none of these, I'm going to as many as I can.

Nitehawk Cinemas in Brooklyn offers a treasure trove from the vaults weekends this month at both noon and midnight. Standouts include the absolutely bugfuck Lon Chaney classic THE UNHOLY, whose plot I can't even begin to describe; Chaplin's THE GOLD RUSH; Nick Ray's Technicolor masterpiece BIGGER THAN LIFE; and the totally awesome TRON screened with live music from experimental unit GERSH/REED/KNOCHE! Plus ya don't have to sneak any booze into the theater! They'll bring it right to ya! It's the emes!

The Landmark Jersey Loews, the church of the cinegeek out in Journal Square, NJ, starts their monthly film slate a little earlier than usual, but as usual have chosen some impressive flicks. The weekend of the 17th starts with a film that has long held the #2 spot on my all-time best list, just behind THE THIRD MAN. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH is both simple romantic fable and complex dialogue on matters political and spiritual. Y'know, the Archers' usual brilliance. It's followed by WINGS, which has the distinction of being the first winner (CO-winner actually) of the best picture Oscar, and features aerial fighter plane sequences that still thrill and will look spectacular on the Loews' 50ft screen!

The following day Don Murray and Kier Dullea visit the Loews to introduce THE HOODLUM PRIEST, and Murray sticks around later to do the same for BUS STOP. PRIEST follows Murray's inner city holy guy as he tries to turn around the lives of directionless ex-cons, one of which is played by Dullea. BUS STOP features a hot Marilyn Monre. Did I mention the screen's 50ft high?

The 92YTribeca offers up a few cool picks this month starting with two offerings from their Overdue series, THE INDIAN FIGHTER and PLAY DIRTY, both celebrating the career of director Andre De Toth. INDIAN concerns wagon master Kirk Douglas as he leads a trail of settlers through dangerous Sioux country. He plays a cat named Johnny Hawks. It writes itself. PLAY DIRTY is one of many DIRTY DOZEN ripoffs but a superior one, as Michael Caine leads a crew of outright scuzzbags on a mission to destroy Rommel's oil supply. Grrrr.

Also at Little 'Beca Sam Fuller's personal fave PARK ROW screens as part of their excellent Not Coming To A Theater Near You series. Fuller self-financed this ode to newspaper men at the turn of the century, and himself began his career as a reporter. As usual it's melodramatic as hell, and extremely well designed and photographed on a barely existant budget. Worth a look.

Finally 92YT screens RAW MEAT, starring Donald Pleasance and Christopher Lee as detectives who uncover a race of cannibal cavemen living in the London tubes. So, y'know, I'm in.

The Cabaret Cinema series at the Rubin Museum offers potent liqour and classic flicks, and the former buys your admission to the latter. So we all win! Yay! Serial woman cutter Ingmar Bergman gets the month started with CRIES AND WHISPERS, so you'll need that drink. Trust. Next up is the still heartbreaking BRIEF ENCOUNTER, from the team of Noel Coward and David Lean. It's okay to be a dude and cry at this one. I know. Then the Rubin gets all kinds of happy with SOUTH PACIFIC, before closing out with friggin' masterpiece CASABLANCA! I love this spot! Oh, and apparently there's some kind of museum attached to the screening room. Whatevz. Check it out!

The Clearview Chelsea offers the rarely screened THE GIRL ON THE RED VELVET SWING. Farley Granger kills Ray Milland over Joan Collins. So would I. In 1955. Shot in Cinemascope with color by DeLuxe by the criminally underrated Richard Fleischer. Also at the CC Rosalind Russell puts on a Broad Clinic in the perennial fave AUNTIE MAME. This is the chick who told off Howard Hawks. The least you can do is pay some respect, bastidz.

The Museum of Art and Design, or MAD, scares me. So Ive never seen a flick there. However they've chosen to screen Ralph Bakshi's animated classic from the 70's HEAVY TRAFFIC, so they tempt once more.

Finally Universal Pictures. celebrating its 100th year, is re-issuing one of its most enduring masterpieces to first run screens for one day this month, Novemeber 15th. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD celebrates its own anniversary this year, its 50th, and it has not lost one ounce of its power to embolden your spirit or reduce you to tears. Gregory Peck routinely tops every list for Best Screen Father, indeed as well for Best Movie Hero, in the role he will always be primarily remembered for. If you've never seen this screened with an audience I cannot implore you enought to do so. It's playing at several locations in the city.

That about wraps it up! Lotsa quality offerings at the flickers this month! Museum of the Moving Image and BAM were fairly quiet on the classic film front this month but that could change any day, so check back in regularly for calendar updates and y'know, the rest of the usual; LIKE us on Facebook, JOIN the Facebook group and FOLLOW me on Twitter! It never ends, I swear. Donate and volunteer to the hurricane relief however you can and be well, Stockahz! December's aleady looking friggin' awesome!

-Joe Walsh

Not The Ex-Senator