WEDNESDAY

JULY 18

2012

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

IFC, 8:00 p.m. ET

This 1999 movie, moodily directed by David Fincher, is an odd film to have risen to the status of cult classic, but it certainly has. Brad Pitt and Edward Norton stars – and so does Helena Bonham Carter, proving that she doesn’t need Tim Burton to cast her in movies to make some very lasting cinematic impressions.

A FACE IN THE CROWD

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

Tonight, TCM presents a four-movie salute to the late Andy Griffith, starting with his 1957 electrifying role as a prickly drifter who rides an unexpected ticket to fame and fortune – only to risk both because of his horrid treatment of those around him. This movie, written by Budd Schulberg and directed by Elia Kazan, doesn’t present the Griffith we know from Mayberry – but a vain, snarling, libidinous, greedy bastard. It’s a great role, a great performance, and a movie that dissects and predicts the future of TV almost as well as Paddy Chayefsky’s Network. All that, and the film debut of Lee Remick as well – but it’s Patricia Neal, as the woman who discovers Griffith’s “Dusty” Rhodes in prison, who, along with Griffith, makes the biggest impact of all. If you’ve never seen this movie, you owe it to yourself, and the memory of Andy Griffith, to watch it now.

DAMAGES

DirecTV Audience Network, 9:00 p.m. ET

Well, the first episode of this final season of Damages certainly set the stage for one wild last ride. It’s going to be Patty Hewes (Glenn Close) vs. Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne) in court – and three months later, thanks to a flash-forward glimpse, it’s going to be Patty in handcuffs, and Ellen on the ground, looking all the worse for wear, in an alley (pictured). Whets the appetite for more? Absolutely. And what happened to the whistleblower played by Jenna Elfman in the premiere? Absolutely brutal.

HIT & MISS

DirecTV Audience Network, 10:00 p.m. ET

Chloe Sevigny won me over by the time last week’s premiere episode was through. Now there are five more installments in this miniseries (which may or may not continue into a second season) in which Sevigny, as a transgender assassin, tackles one of the most unusual and unprecedented TV roles of the season. And the scene that won me over? The scene where she taught her young son, whom she’s only recently learned existed, to box. This series import is much more into character than caricature, and much less exploitive than it might sound.

NO TIME FOR SERGEANTS

TCM, 10:15 p.m. ET

This 1958 movie is the second of four Andy Griffith movies shown tonight, and shows him in the role in which he starred – on stage and TV as well as film. In fact, TV came first: a 1955 U.S. Steel Hour production, televised live, with a script written by Ira Levin, later of Rosemary’s Baby fame. Griffith stars as a drawling, smiling, good ole country boy drafted into the Air Force, and bedeviling his sergeant – an early prototype for the Andy Griffith Show spinoff, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. But after Griffith starred in the TV production, he repeated the same role on Broadway, and then, finally, three years after the live television play, starred in this 1958 movie version. Watch this tonight, then seek out the original TV version on DVD. It’s out there, and it’s even better.

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David Bianculli

Founder / Editor

David Bianculli has been a TV critic since 1975, including a 14-year stint at the New York Daily News, and sees no reason to stop now. Currently, he's TV critic for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and is an occasional substitute host for that show. He's also an author and teaches TV and film history at New Jersey's Rowan University. His 2009 Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour', has been purchased for film rights. His latest, The Platinum Age of Television: From I Love Lucy to the Walking Dead, How TV Became Terrific, is an effusive guidebook that plots the path from the 1950s’ Golden Age to today’s era of quality TV.

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BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

IFC, 8:00 p.m. ET

TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET

DirecTV Audience Network, 9:00 p.m. ET

DirecTV Audience Network, 10:00 p.m. ET

TCM, 10:15 p.m. ET

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