arthur kennedy - The Screengrab

The Screengrab Holiday Special, Part Three: Live Blogging TCM's Easter Sunday Line-Up: "Barabbas", "Easter Parade", "King of Kings"

4:30 PM: Barabbas, a 1961 epic based on a novel by Pär Lagerkvist, stars Anthony Quinn as a footnote historical character, the "rebel and robber" who the rabble selected, out of the same pool that included Jesus, to be spared execution and set free. The movie, directed by Richard Fleischer, starts right out of the gate with the scene of Barabbas being pulled out of holding cell and turned loose, and the minor-character's-eye view on important historical (Biblical) events has me thinking of Monty Python's Life of Brian even before Quinn backed into the crucifix being prepared for Jesus and the Foley guy, having a little fun, provided the sound effect to go with Quinn hitting his head with what sounded like someone smacking a hollow coconut. This was an international production, shot in Rome and produced by Dino De Laurentiis for Columbia Pictures, with a cast that includes Silvana Mangano (as Barabbas's old flame, who has fallen under Jesus's sway while her boyfriend had been in the jug, and who talks about her new crush as if she prayed to a picture of him that she tore out of Tiger Beat), Arthur Kennedy as Pilate, Katy Jurado, Harry Andrews, Vittorio Gassman, Ernest Borgnine, and Jack Palance as, shockingly, a bad guy. It features some weird, faintly arty effects--such as the synthesizer-like sounds that accompany the sight of a whip lashing Jesus's back--that might have just been in the air of Rome during the time of Fellini's greatest popular successes, and it's very badly dubbed, with a lot of awkward chatter when there are more than three people on the screen: "Hey, look, it's Barabbas!" "Look, everybody, Barabbas is out!" "What's it like to be free, Barabbas?" If Quinn seems to be about as right in the lead role as anybody could be, that may be because, after so many international-cast jobs, he had developed the weird ability to sound dubbed while speaking in what was clearly his own voice, if only because nobody else could deliver a bad line like "You're afraid to look at me because I'm alive!" in quite the same way, as if he regretted that he couldn't have it tattooed on his forehead. When this lowlife staggers into the local watering hole and all the other lowlifes start jabbering in other people's voice, Barabbas has the special feel of a spaghetti Western religious epic.

Reviews by Request, For Real This Time: Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974, Jorge Grau)

Note: As promised, this is my review of the previously-requested Let Sleeping Corpses Lie that I was unable to watch in time for last week’s Reviews by Request column. My next regularly-scheduled column will appear next Friday due to the Veteran’s Day holiday and a special Yesterday’s Hits I have planned for the occasion. Apologies for the delays, and enjoy!

One of the first thoughts that occurred to me after watching Jorge Grau’s Let Sleeping Corpses Lie was how small of a role the undead actually play in the story. Sure, there are some choice zombie attacks, rendered in loving, graphic detail by Grau and his makeup team. But strangely, the zombies seem almost incidental to the storyline. What initially seems to be the story of a battle between the living and the undead becomes something else entirely, which makes the movie more intriguing than your garden variety zombie thriller.

Summerfest '08: "A Summer Place"

Summer is one of my favorite times to see a movie. Growing up in Arizona in the shadows of a shopping mall, going to the multiplex on a hot summer day when I didn't have school and wanted to kill a few dozen brain cells out of the blinding sun and wilting heat was one of my absolute favorite things to do. Let the cool kids go show off by the swimming pool: for me it was the air-conditioned comfort and the fulfilling fantasies of the silver screen. This summer, in between checking out what's new in the world of blockbusters and indie flicks of today, I'll be bringing you a mini-review of 15 'summer' movies of the past, judged by criteria I made up the other day over a couple of watermelon margaritas. They won't always be good movies, but they'll always bring you a certain summery je ne sais quoi.

Let's start with one of the most famous summer flicks of all time: 1959's A Summer Place.

THE ACTION: Rich toff Richard Egan totes his snobby, moralistic wife (Constance Ford) and pouty, vine-ripe teenage daughter to a New England resort. The owner of the resort is grungy failed capitalist Arthur Kennedy and his lovely lady Dorothy McGuire, who run the joint alongside their dimwitted but hunky son, Troy Donahue. Twenty years prior, Egan had a little thang-thang going with McGuire, and as everyone goes about their summer business, the two rekindle their hot and heavy relationship, as their hormone-crazed children follow suit. This being the 1950s and all, Ford completely flips out, a shameful divorce takes place, a pregnancy scare ensues, and everyone looks at each other very meaningfully while wearing not particularly revealing swimwear. You got all that?