yendi

I have to say, as I do every few months, just how much I love TCM. I want to be Robert Osborne when I grow up. Of the dozens of movie-centric channels we receive, it's the one I consider most essential on any cable lineup.

Just watched the classic Buster Keaton movie The Scarecrow (TCM+Tivo for late-night recording is made of win). It's filled with tons of silly gadgets and ideas (including a crank-powered cart that can deliver bread to either end of the table, salt and pepper shakers hung from above the table on pulleys, a piano that converts to a bed, a bookcase that converts to a fridge, and the best dishwashing idea ever). Moreso than most Keaton films (other than Paleface, which simply isn't as funny), it owes a huge debt to Joe Roberts, who gets as many laughs as Buster does in the first half, not counting the one extended sequence in which Buster is chased by a dog. It ends with a motorcycle-mounted wedding, which is something more films need.

At the same time that this and Harold Lloyd's Number Please (next on my Tivo) were airing on TCM, AMC was airing the classic Seagal flicks Marked for Death and Above the Law (in fairness, AMC is airing The French Connection this afternoon, and has The Searchers in rotation).

TCM will be showing the not-quite-classic Skidoo, which I've never seen, but have heard wonderfully awful things about. It's one of those rare times when I'm perfectly okay with TCM showing something that subpar, if only to catch the final performance of Groucho Marx (as God) alongside three of the four core Batman TV villains (Burgess Meredith, Frank Gorshin, and fellow Collegiate alum Cesar Romero), all directed by Mr. Freeze himself, Otto Preminger. And with Jackie Gleason in the lead. As clusterfucks go, I'm really looking forward to this one. Skidoo airs Saturday at 2AM, so set your Tivo.