Vintage T.V.: One Step Beyond

8232The Golden Age of Television is a name given to the earliest days of the medium (approximately 1949 to 1960) when American prime time television was largely comprised of dramatic anthology series, and when most Americans switched from radio and cinema to television as their primary entertainment source. Though many modern viewers may consider vintage TV programs to be technically crude and/or thematically simplistic by contemporary standards, the vast majority of shows on the air today still rely on the formulas and genres invented during that era.

Watch a complete line-up of vintage T.V. this Saturday, including:

The Executioner (4:00 PM)
Where Are They? (4:30 PM)
To Know The End (5:00 PM)
Gypsy (5:30 PM)
The Stone Cutter (6:00 PM)
The Mask (6:30 PM)
Tonight at 12:17 (7:00 PM)
The Lovers (7:30 PM)
Legacy of Love (8:00 PM)
The Trap (8:30 PM)
Front Runner (9:00 PM)
Call From Tomorrow (9:30 PM)
Ordeal on Locust Street (10:00 PM)
Midnight (10:30 PM)
Delia (11:00 PM)
Anniversary of Murder (11:30 PM)

Visit World Cinema Saturdays to learn more and see what’s playing in the weeks ahead.

Schlockalypse Now (Say THAT three times fast…)

381As noted elsewhere, and for better or worse, the best science fiction and fantasy films reflect their era and cultural environment. Some observers argue that this dictum applies even more strongly to the – how shall one put it delicately – the more offbeat, financially-compromised examples of the genre. Let the viewer be the judge (while acknowledging that not every filmmaker can be Bergman).

Don’t miss this week’s movies:

1761Creature From the Haunted Sea
American crook Sparks Moran sees a chance to make a bundle when a Caribbean island has a revolution.

1754The Giant Gila Monster
A small town in Texas finds itself under attack from a hungry, fifty-foot-long gila monster.

1742White Zombie
A devilish scientist is hired by a man, to change the girl he likes into a zombie so he can marry her, since she truly does love another. But a twist happens when the scientist captures the man as well to turn him into a zombie as well. But there is a happy ending.

1742The Brain That Wouldn’t Die
After a car crash, a man keeps his wife’s head alive in his laboratory. To complicate matters, an evil beast pounds and screams from a locked room adjacent to the lab.

1742Robot Monster
Moon monsters launch attack against Earth! Only science can keep the astral assassins at bay.

1742The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
A man named Francis relates a story about his best friend Alan and his fiancee Jane. Alan takes him to a fair where they meet Dr. Caligari, who exhibits a somnambulist, Cesare, that can predict the future. When Alan asks how long he has to live, Cesare says he has until dawn.


Watch all of these movies this Saturday on UCSD-TV. Find out where to watch UCSD-TV in your neighborhood.

Visit World Cinema Saturdays on UCSD-TV to see what’s playing in the weeks ahead.

World Cinema Saturdays: Monster Horror Chiller Theatre! (August 30th)

381 Some of the most beloved horror films came from a time before gory special effects, prosthetic limbs and reliance on cheap shocks (and sudden loud noises) dominated the genre. Whether the products of German Expressionism or early Hollywood creature features, these films continue to intrigue and influence film makers and audiences, and many horror movies from that more innocent era have deservedly attained cult status.

Don’t miss this week’s movies:

1761The Bride of Frankenstein
Dr. Frankenstein must create a companion for his monster when his fiancé is kidnapped. (USA, 1935, B&W, 75 mins, dir. James Whale, with Boris Karloff, Colin CLive and Valerie Hobson).


1754Vampyr
Young traveler David Gray arrives in a remote castle and starts seeing weird, inexplicable sights (a man whose shadow has a life of its own, a mysterious scythe-bearing figure tolling a bell, a terrifying dream of his own burial). (France/Germany, 1932, B&W, 73 min, dir. Carl-Theodor Dreyer, with Julian West & Sybille Schmitz, French & German with English subtitles)


1742The Phantom of the Opera
Based on Gaston Leroux’s novel, a disfigured phantom terrorizes a Paris Opera house in order to get his beloved singer Christine. (USA, 1925, 80 mins, dir. Rupert Julian, with Lon Chaney Jr. & Mary Philbin, Silent)


1742Nosferatu
This classic follows the familiar story of Count Orloc moving from his ruined castle to the city of Wisborg, after the visit of one Jonathan Harker. Once there he becomes involved with Jonathan’s fiancee Nina, who alone holds the power to destroy him. (Germany, 1922, B&W, 81 mins, dir. F.W. Murnau, with Max Schreck & Alexander Granach, Silent)


1742Person Unknown
In Mexico, an escaped convict hides out in a monastery. Unfortunately, it is on the night when the ghost of an Aztec warrior is said to roam the halls. When a murder is discovered later that night, he must prove that he not only didn’t commit the murder, but that it was in fact committed by the ghostly warrior. (One Step Beyond, 1959-1961 television series about the supernatural.)


Watch all of these movies this Saturday on UCSD-TV. Find out where to watch UCSD-TV in your neighborhood.

Visit World Cinema Saturdays on UCSD-TV to see what’s playing in the weeks ahead.

This Saturday: Tinseltown Lit

Many of Hollywood’s great classic movies were screen adaptions of time-honored works of literature. This Saturday, UCSD-TV celebrates these representations of classics with Tinseltown Lit Movie Night!

The saga begins at 4 pm with Of Human Bondage, a movie based on the W. Somerset Maugham’s masterpiece novel. UCSD-TV will be showing the first of the three film adaptions of the story, released in 1934, featuring Bette Davis and Leslie Howard.

Then, things turn tragic in A Farewell to Arms, a 1932 film based on Ernest Hemingway’s World War 1 novel.

The 1934 film adaption of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre begins at 7 pm.

In case you missed the first two classics, Of Human Bondage and A Farewell to Arms will play again at 8:30 pm and 10 pm, respectively.

To find out more about Tinseltown Lit Night, check out the upcoming UCSD-TV movies!

Old School Gangstas on World Cinema Saturdays

This week, gangster films take over UCSD-TV’s World Cinema Saturdays. Watch gritty performances from leading actors including James Cagney, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, and Edward G. Robinson.

The night begins with Angels with Dirty Faces directed by Michael Curtiz. The film, starring Cagney and Bogart, explores the idolization of gangsters, chiefly through the eyes of young people. The Dead End Kids, featuring a noted group of young actors in their day, disrupt the friendship between the local priest and a big-time gangster, played by Cagney.

Later, Edward G. Robinson joyously portrays the gangster Caesar Enrico Bandello in the 1931 classic, Little Caesar. This film is a first-rate example in which cinema audiences experience the thrill of gangster violence while also seeing that violence turned against the gangster, himself. This is Edward G. Robinson’s breakthrough performance placing him permanently on the Hollywood landscape. Little Caesar garnered a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination at the fourth (that’s right — the fourth) annual Academy Awards.

The Petrified Forest, The Public Enemy, and White Heat round out the star-studded lineup!

Visit UCSD-TV’s World Cinema Saturdays for a complete schedule and upcoming films.