Turner Classic Movies kicks off its salute to the Golden Boy Thursday, Feb. 1. Consider this a DVR/TiVo/VCR alert. Here are a few of the selections that will get my VCR humming:

Feb. 1 Thurs.

10:30am Brief Encounter (1945) A classic love story, considered an all-time tearjerker in its day, starring Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard.

4:30pm The Garden of Allah (1936) Never seen it but the cast dictates that I record it—Marlene Dietrich, Charles Boyer, Basil Rathbone.

10:30pm The Professionals (1966) Exciting western starring Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin and Robert Ryan.

12:30am Detective Story (1951) A superb performance by Kirk Douglas highlights this police drama that can’t quite hide its stage origins. Look for Lee Grant in her film debut.

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If you aren’t an animal lover, it is hard to explain how the death of a horse you never met can make you weep. Animal people understand. We appreciate that Barbaro’s owners were willing (and had the money) to try and save Barbaro’s life, against the steepest of odds. It was Barbaro’s ability to battle his setbacks when most horses would refuse to put up with casts and slings and activities that were not natural for a horse that made us appreciate his courage. For anyone that has ever had a pet that needed expensive medical care they couldn’t afford, Barbaro represents what we would have done if we could afford it. Thanks to owners Gretchen and Roy Jackson, Dr. Dean Richardson and his staff at the New Bolton Center learned and developed treatment techniques that might save a horse down the road. That is the only good news about Barbaro’s passing. Pictured, above left, is Barbaro with Dr. Dean Richardson.

Four years ago, I signed up for a free tryout of a new DVD-by-mail service called Netflix. You went on-line to set up your list of movies, and the first three available were sent to your home. You watched them at your leisure, with no late fees. When you sent back a movie in a pre-paid envelope, the next movie on your list was sent to you. Despite the fact that the local Blockbuster had tons of movie titles available, I found myself relying on Netflix for all my video needs. Why? Well, the no late fee aspect was attractive, and the $20 a month fee was reasonable. I usually averaged 12 to 15 movies a month. Even at the then $3-a-title rental price at the Blockbuster, that meant I was getting $39 to $45 worth of movies for the monthly fee. (These days the fee is $18 and movies at the local video store are $4.50 a title so the savings are even greater.)

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Forest Whitaker will win the Academy Award this year for his performance as Idi Amin. Amazingly, enough it is his first nomination. For some inexplicable reason, his first breakout performance, as Charlie “Bird” Parker in Clint Eastwood’s film Bird (1988) did not receive a nomination. I’m sure I was outraged at the time. Whitaker won the best actor prize that year at the Cannes Film Festival. For the record the five nominees for best actor in 1988 were Dustin Hoffman (winner) in Rain Man, Gene Hackman in Mississippi Burning, Tom Hanks in Big, Edward James Olmos in Stand and Deliver and Max von Sydow in Pelle the Conqueror. Whitaker deserved a nod ahead of Hackman and von Sydow.

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This year’s Oscar nomination announcement went pretty much by the book, which made for a boring announcement. About the only shock wave was generated by the nine nominations for Dreamgirls, but not for best picture or best director. Of course the predictability of the nominations made me look as good as Medium’s Alison DuBois.

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A San Diego treat has arrived at Bally’s Palace Theater. Il Circo is a demonstration of athletic prowess wrapped up in Commedia dell’arte packaging. It is on a much smaller scale than the elaborate Cirque du Soleil extravaganzas that for my money are too much spectacle and not enough humanity.

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Duane Hopwood, an engaging low-key look at a man whose life is spinning out of control due to his alcoholism, recently came out on video. Starring David Swimmer and written and directed by Matt Mulhern (who grew up in Longport and co-starred in the TV series Major Dad), the film is set in Atlantic City and was filmed there in Feb., 2004. If you rent the DVD (Roger Ebert put it in his top 10 for 2005), look closely at the coffee table during a scene when Duane’s friend Gina (Susan Lynch) drops by Duane’s home in the rain. Sitting on the table is a copy of Atlantic City Weekly (the Feb. 5, 2004 issue to be exact), featuring a rodeo rider on the cover.
Rent the movie and also read my interview with Swimmer from the Nov. 17, 2005 issue about this underrated little gem.

This year’s Academy Award presentations will not include Oscar swag, those gift-laden thank-you bags given to Oscar attendees in years past that the IRS threatened to tax. The Academy decided it was better to lose the bags that get involved in an IRS nightmare.
Well, I received some Oscar swag last week. An impressive box arrived from Turner Classic Movies to announce their annual 31 Days of Oscar event from Feb. 4 to March 3. So it wasn’t an expensive watch or a spa coupon, but I’ve been enjoying my bag of red twists (for plot twists) and candy kisses (favorite kisses). Anyway, for this type of payola they get a nice blog about my favorite TCM event.

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AC Weekly graphic artist Rich Downs competed in the media race at the Gambler’s Classic Midget auto races I wrote about in the current issue. He has provided a guest blog about his experience. Check it out.

When the national anthem was sung Friday night in Boardwalk Hall I did not stand. Nor did I remove my headwear. Truth is, I couldn’t. I was strapped into a rear-engine slingshot midget auto with a crash helmet surrounding my head for the press race to begin the full slate of racing at the Gamblers Classic.

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This is normally the time of year that becomes a dumping ground for movies. Once the big holiday movies had shot their wad, what’s left for the first month of the new year are movies that have been sitting on a shelf somewhere, or were deemed not worthy of release during a prime movie-going season. Sometimes it is considered a good spot to slip in an indie film, or a horror film that might get more attention when there is nothing else to go see.
Of course the movies we are talking about this time of year are not the brand new 2007 films, but the 2006 flicks that have Academy Award aspirations. Since the Atlantic City region is not exactly a prime movie locale, there are 2006 movies that have not yet trickled down to our area, playing only in major cities until the Academy Award nominations come out on Tuesday, Jan. 23.

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