On April 2, Turner Classic Movies is broadcasting the 1951 Korean War movie The Steel Helmet. It’s a gritty classic by the great writer-director Sam Fuller, a WWII combat vet who brooked no sentimentality about war. Gene Evans, a favorite of the two Sams (Fuller and Peckinpah), is especially good as the sergeant.
Samuel Fuller
Coming Up on TV: Another Sam Fuller Trashterpiece
On March 23, Turner Classic Movies is airing Shock Corridor (1963). Director Sam Fuller started out as a tabloid reporter and never missed a chance to shamelessly sensationalize a subject (except for war, which he insisted on treating realistically). Shock Corridor is one of Fuller’s most sensationalistic films.
In Shock Corridor, Peter Breck plays a reporter who gets himself committed to an insane asylum so he can gather facts for an expose. He meets an African-American patient who dons Klan garb and gives white supremacist speeches in the corridor. He meets a fellow patient named Psycho who thinks he’s pregnant. He is attacked by a horny mob of women in the nymphomaniac ward, which causes him to yell a truly great movie line, “Nymphos!”. And then things don’t go so well for him after the electroshock therapy…
And, as you can see from the trailer, if Sam Fuller could get a stripper in his movie, he would find a way.
Coming Up on TV: Sam Fuller’s The Crimson Kimono
The Crimson Kimono (1959) is another sensationalistic and deliciously exploitative cop noir from the great Sam Fuller. As usual, Fuller has the guts to break ground, this time with a Japanese-American leading man (James Shigeta), an inter-racial romance and a stripper victim. Plays on TCM November 13.
For other great movie choices on TV, see my Movies on TV.
This week's Movies To See
Click here for this week’s recommendations. Scroll down this blog to watch trailers. My top recommendations are Toy Story 3, The Secrets in their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos), Micmacs and Iron Man 2. You can still find The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in theaters.
My top picks on DVD is The Deep End. Last week’s pick, Stranded: I’ve Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains and The Messenger are also good choices on DVD.
To Kill a Mockingbird and The Steel Helmet are on TV.