The following are some films on Sundance, Fox Movie Channel, and TCM that you might want to check out this month. All times Eastern. Remember, these films may be edited, time compressed, in the wrong aspect ratio, canceled, or eaten by bears. You know how it is.
***
SUNDANCE
The Deep End (2001)
July 7, 8:15 PM and 1:35 AM
Thriller about a mother who finds the body of a man she believes her son has killed. Remake of the 1948 A Reckless Moment.
The Housemaid (2010)
July 22, 1:50 AM (early morning the 23rd)
Thriller-drama following a young maid of a rich family who finds herself the victim of dangerous mind games.
FOX MOVIE CHANNEL
Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis (1988)
July 3, 9:15 AM
Made-for-TV reunion show of the classic 1960s “Dobie Gillis.” It’s a campy musical that makes pretty much no sense. I saw it in high school on its original run, having never seen an episode of “Dobie Gillis” in my life, and thought this was hilarious. It was sort of a middle class, suburban “Head.” 
It Shouldn’t Happen to a Dog (1946)
July 9, 4:50 AM
A reporter, a police officer, a dog and wacky criminal hijinks.
The Last American Hero (1973)
July 17, 7:45 AM
Almost-documentary about race car driver and moonshiner Junior Jackson. I saw this on television as a kid when I lived in Southern Missouri and didn’t realize it was a satire because, er, I lived in Southern Missouri.
Damien: Omen II (1978)
July 19, 1:00 PM
If William Holden didn’t fire his agent after this, he should have. Campy, predictable, and with some lovely scenery. Reviewed on the old SBBN here.
TCM
Three Harold Lloyd shorts on July 1st starting midnight EDT:
Number, Please? (1920)
Never Weaken (1921)
A Sailor-Made Man (1921)
Spike Lee is our current Oeuvre subject at Spectrum Culture Online and the TCM guest programmer on July 5, with a stellar line-up starting at 8:00 PM EDT:
Ace in the Hole (1951)
Night of the Hunter (1955)
On the Waterfront (1954)
A Face in the Crowd (1957)
Norma Rae (1979)
Possession (1981)
July 6, 2:00 AM (early morning the 7th)
Remarkably graphic, intense, creepy and graphic (did I mention graphic?) French cult horror flick about a woman who wants a divorce from her spy husband but won’t say why. He follows her through a series of odd events to discover the horrifying truth. If you like David Lynch and David Cronenberg, I think you’ll like this. I believe this is an unedited version, or at least it seemed to be when it last aired on Underground.
Repulsion (1965)
July 6, 4:15 AM (early morning the 7th)
A lonely and repressed woman begins to take her revenge on those she believes want to harm her.
The Green Hornet (1940) movie serial, hilariously recapped weekly by Ivan at TDoY, begins its run on TCM on July 7 at 12:00 noon with the first three episodes. The remaining episodes air each Saturday, three at a time until July 28 when they show the final four.
Ep. 1: Tunnel of Terror
Ep. 2: The Flying Coffins
Ep. 3: Thundering Terror
The Racket (1928)
July 8, 12:15 AM (early morning the 9th)
Terrific Marie Prevost silent about a cop out to get a big-time gangster who’s a little too closely involved in politics.
Sam Fuller is the director of the day, and July 13 has some of his best films starting at 8:00 PM Eastern::
I Shot Jesse James (1949)
Park Row (1952)
Shock Corridor (1963)
The Naked Kiss (1964)
George Melies shorts
July 15, midnight
Seventeen restored shorts by Melies from the late 1890s.
Several pre-codes directed by Jack Conway (and a couple of silents by Raoul Walsh and George Melford) early morning on July 17th starting 3:45 AM Eastern :
The Thief of Baghdad (1924)
The Sheik (1921)
Our Modern Maidens(1929)
Untamed (1929)
They Learned About Women (1930)
The Easiest Way (1931)
But the Flesh is Weak (1932)
The Solitaire Man (1933)
More Leslie Howard, the TCM star of the month, with pre-codes the evening of July 17::
10:15 PM: A Free Soul (1931)
12:00 midnight: Smilin’ Through (1932)
1:45 AM: Outward Bound (1930)
3:15 AM: Captured! (1933)
All-American Co-Ed (1941)
July 18, 1:30 PM
Better late than never, it’s this month’s What The Shit Is This? Official Selection. This comedy musical’s entire reason for existence is to repeatedly make “being gay is stupid and funny” jokes. It’s occasionally campy and fun, reminiscent of El Brendel’s jokes in “Okay, Jose” or even Paul Lynde, Rip Taylor or Charles Nelson Reilly’s jokes of the 1970s. Mostly, though, it’s the full-on Vaudevillian experience where humor is at the expense of whatever sexuality or ethnicity they want to mock, in this case, basically cross-dressers, gays, women, and black people. You know, anyone who isn’t a straight white male. That’s how this got past the Code, because it’s mockery and not celebration. It is, however, so over-the-top that it will make you laugh despite yourself, though a lot of people enjoy it straight (no pun) without any sense of irony. If you want to extend your horror after watching this hour-long atrocity, read the reviews online where people gripe that being gay is just a fad nowadays and also this movie speaks 100% truth about women because women buy too many shoes.
The Andy Griffith tribute will be July 19th, starting at 8:00 PM Central with A Face in the Crowd followed by No Time for Sergeants, Hearts of the West and Onionhead.
Two pre-codes the morning of July 19:
6:00 AM: Ladies They Talk About (1933)
7:15 AM: The House on 56th Street (1933)
Barbara Stanwyck pre-codes on July 20 starting at 8:00 PM Eastern:
Shopworn (1932)
Ten Cents a Dance (1931)
Illicit (1931)
Forbidden (1932)
More pre-codes, most with Leslie Howard, on the evening of July 24:
9:45 PM: Berkeley Square (1933)
11:15 PM: Devotion (1931)
12:45 AM: The Animal Kingdom (1932)
2:15 AM: The Bishop Murder Case (1930)
A 24-hour tribute to Ernest Borgnine will be on TCM Thursday, July 26. For the full schedule, see TCM here. Note that as of the 16th, the TCM schedule still has not updated.
Starting at 8:00 PM EDT on July 28, a series of Joan Crawford films from the 1960s. Thanks to BBFF Ivan in comments for pointing this out!
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962)
I Saw What You Did (1965)
The Caretakers (1963)
Strait-Jacket (1964)
Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star (2002)
The Walking Dead (1936)
July 29, 6:00 AM
Karloff horror classic directed by Michael Curtiz. If you haven’t seen this one before, check it out.
If you have any films in July you want to let us know about, drop a note in the comments!
So you have seen Possession, the only movie I ever walked out on in a movie theater. (Story here.) I should have guessed this.
The Reckless Moment, the film The Deep End is a remake of, will also be on TCM in July (10:30am on the 15th), in case you want to whip up a “compare-and-contrast” essay later in the month.
And thanks for the heads-up on Bring Me the Head of…. It is no secret that The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis is one of my all-time favorite TV sitcoms, and while I was disappointed at the time that Tuesday Weld couldn’t reprise her original role as Thalia I still think the reunion is a hoot. (“I gotta kill that boy…I just gotta!”)
Hey, thanks for the heads up on The Reckless Moment, and on the Joan Crawford day on the 28th that you mentioned on your blog. I somehow forgot that, so I’m adding it to the post with credit, of course.
And you know I watch some of the most hideous cinematic shit known to humankind… but I like Possession. Eh, what can I say, I’m not normal.
I have been remiss at not thanking you for posting these monthly alerts. I’ve just lined up several of these to record.
On The Last American Hero, the character’s last name is Jackson but it’s modeled on Junior Johnson (see the famous Tom Wolfe article for way too much info).
No problem Dwight, and thanks for joining us here in the new digs!
Thanks for the mention about Junior Johnson’s last name. Jackson sounded right so I didn’t bother looking it up, which is exactly the sort of doofus-ey thing I’m known for.
You’re made of sterner stuff than I am. Taped and watched 30 minutes of Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis–I kept waiting for Allen Funt to show up on the screen and tell me it was all a joke. Unfortunately he didn’t.
This is a card I don’t play very often, but ABSOLUTELY ONE OF MY FAVORITE FILMS OF ALL-TIME is on TCM this week (in fact just over 24 hours from now): Umberto D (Monday, July 2, 2am EDT). If I were to construct an all-time list of international humanist, humane films, it would would contain films like Grand Illusion, Pather Panchali, Wild Strawberries–and this one. In fact, I prefer it over Di Sica’s more renowned (by many) Bicycle Thieves. It was Di Sica’s favorite of his own films, and Bergman thought it one of the greatest films ever made–I’m with him.
Here’s a recent, brief essay on the film that I thought was very good (alas, it should NOT be read by anyone who has yet to see the film since it is loaded with spoilers): http://themovieprojector.blogspot.com/2012/02/umberto-d-1952.html. It is also commented on in Ebert’s “Great Movies” list (also with spoilers): http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20020428/REVIEWS08/204280301/1023/
Beckett famously ended The Unnameable with the phrase “You must go on, I can’t go on, I’ll go on.” This film is about how that comes to be.
Sorry your comment didn’t automatically go through, I had to approve it. No idea why. WordPress is a crazy mistress.
I actually wrote a Film Dunce review on Spectrum about The Bicycle Thieves; long story short, I didn’t care for it. But you’ve convinced me to give Di Sica another try, especially since you find Umberto D along the lines of Wild Strawberries, which is just such a fabulous movie I can’t stand it.