Film4 Listings for Wednesday 8th April
13:00
Johnny O'Clock (Film)
Dick Powell stars as Johnny O'Clock, a high-class gambler with a shaky casino partnership. When crooked policeman Chuck Blayden tries to move in on the operation but ends up dead, trouble begins in Robert Rossen's superior noir thriller.
Director: Robert Rossen
Starring: Dick Powell, Evelyn Keyes, Ellen Drew, Lee J. Cobb, Nina Foch, Thomas Gomez
(Subtitles, Black and White, 1947, PG, 3 Star)
14:50
Human Desire (Film)
Fritz Lang's powerful film of human lust and desire is based on Emile Zola's novel La Bete Humaine. Railroad worker Carl Buckley asks his wife Vicki to beg her lover John Owens to use his influence to save his job. She succeeds, but when Buckley sees them together, he kills Owens in a fit of jealous rage and brutally dominates her, blackmailing her with the letter that implicates her in the murder. But the killing was witnessed by Jeff Warren, who lies at Owens' inquest and, dazzled by Vicki's beauty, begins an affair with her. She begs him to kill her now-alcoholic husband but he refuses. Eventually, Buckley is sacked from his job and he forces Vicki to leave town with him on the train, little knowing she plans to murder him. But in another compartment is Warren and as the train thunders through the night, insane rage leads to another brutal tragedy.
Director: Fritz Lang
Starring: Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Broderick Crawford, Edgar Buchanan, Kathleen Case, Peggy Maley
(Black and White, 1954, PG, 3 Star)
16:40
The Black Tent (Film)
Based on a script by Robin Maugham and Bryan Forbes, The Black Tent is a wartime romance mystery starring Anthony Steel as British officer Capt David Holland, who finds war and love in the Libyan desert. When Holland doesn't return to reclaim his vast estates in Britain after the war, his family presume he is dead and his brother Sir Charles travels to Libya to find out what happened to him. His investigations lead him from the British embassy in Tripoli to a Bedouin camp, where he is given a diary by the sheikh's daughter and begins to piece together his brother's strange story.
Director: Brian Desmond-Hurst
Starring: Donald Sinden, Anthony Steel, Anna-Maria Sandri
(Subtitles, 1957, U, 2 Star)
18:40
Corrina, Corrina (Film)
Jessie Nelson's romantic drama, which she also wrote and produced, stars Ray Liotta as Manny Singer, a widower whose young daughter Molly has become almost catatonically withdrawn following her mother's death. Realising he needs help, Manny advertises for a housekeeper and selects Corrina Washington, since Molly reacted positively to her. As Corrina draws Molly out of her shell, so Manny falls in love with her, but in 50s America, inter-racial relationships are still frowned on and the pair face prejudice from all sides as their relationship blossoms.
Director: Jessie Nelson
Starring: Whoopi Goldberg, Ray Liotta, Noreen Hennessey
(Widescreen, 1994, PG, 3 Star)
21:00
Elizabeth (Film)
Cate Blanchett received an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I in Shekhar Kapur's award-winning FilmFour Production. Elizabeth traces the early years of the monarch, from her battle for the throne against her stepsister Mary Tudor through political and emotional intrigues to her seizure of absolute power as the Virgin Queen, answerable to no man. With Geoffrey Rush, Christopher Eccleston, Joseph Fiennes and Sir Richard Attenborough.
Director: Shekhar Kapur
Starring: Liz Giles, Rod Culbertson, Paul Fox, Terence Rigby, Christopher Eccleston, Peter Stockbridge
(Editor's Choice, Widescreen, Subtitles, Audio Described, 1998, 15, 4 Star)
23:20
The Edukators (Film)
Austrian director Hans Weingartner's film is a witty drama about protesting against globalisation that mixes in a kidnapping, a love triangle and a test of true friendship. Jan, Jule and Peter are young radicals who break into the houses of the rich. Once inside they don't steal, but instead daub slogans and re-arrange the furniture. But their protest goes wrong when one of their victims is at home. So they kidnap Herr Hardenberg and take him to a remote chalet. But he too was a radical in the 60s and revels in pointing out that they will no doubt also become disillusioned and capitalist. As the trio try to decide on his fate, romantic tensions start to muddy the situation.
Director: Hans Weingartner
Starring: Daniel Brühl, Julia Jentsch, Stipe Erceg, Burghart Klaußner, Peer Martiny, Petra Zieser
(Subtitles, Subtitled, In German with English Subtitles, Widescreen, 2004, 15, 4 Star)
01:55
The Hired Hand (Film)
This restored print, which FilmFour financed, reveals the true beauty of Peter Fonda's classic directorial debut. Fonda plays Harry Collings, a cowboy tired of drifting, who returns home to the wife he deserted. He's taken on as a hired hand at her farm, and the film follows the slow re-building of their relationship, complicated by Collings' loyalty to his long-time companion Arch Harris, who hangs around the scene.
Director: Peter Fonda
Starring: Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Verna Bloom, Robert Pratt, Severn Darden, Rita Rogers
(Widescreen, 1971, 15, 3 Star)
13:00
Johnny O'Clock (Film)
Dick Powell stars as Johnny O'Clock, a high-class gambler with a shaky casino partnership. When crooked policeman Chuck Blayden tries to move in on the operation but ends up dead, trouble begins in Robert Rossen's superior noir thriller.
Director: Robert Rossen
Starring: Dick Powell, Evelyn Keyes, Ellen Drew, Lee J. Cobb, Nina Foch, Thomas Gomez
(Subtitles, Black and White, 1947, PG, 3 Star)
14:50
Human Desire (Film)
Fritz Lang's powerful film of human lust and desire is based on Emile Zola's novel La Bete Humaine. Railroad worker Carl Buckley asks his wife Vicki to beg her lover John Owens to use his influence to save his job. She succeeds, but when Buckley sees them together, he kills Owens in a fit of jealous rage and brutally dominates her, blackmailing her with the letter that implicates her in the murder. But the killing was witnessed by Jeff Warren, who lies at Owens' inquest and, dazzled by Vicki's beauty, begins an affair with her. She begs him to kill her now-alcoholic husband but he refuses. Eventually, Buckley is sacked from his job and he forces Vicki to leave town with him on the train, little knowing she plans to murder him. But in another compartment is Warren and as the train thunders through the night, insane rage leads to another brutal tragedy.
Director: Fritz Lang
Starring: Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Broderick Crawford, Edgar Buchanan, Kathleen Case, Peggy Maley
(Black and White, 1954, PG, 3 Star)
16:40
The Black Tent (Film)
Based on a script by Robin Maugham and Bryan Forbes, The Black Tent is a wartime romance mystery starring Anthony Steel as British officer Capt David Holland, who finds war and love in the Libyan desert. When Holland doesn't return to reclaim his vast estates in Britain after the war, his family presume he is dead and his brother Sir Charles travels to Libya to find out what happened to him. His investigations lead him from the British embassy in Tripoli to a Bedouin camp, where he is given a diary by the sheikh's daughter and begins to piece together his brother's strange story.
Director: Brian Desmond-Hurst
Starring: Donald Sinden, Anthony Steel, Anna-Maria Sandri
(Subtitles, 1957, U, 2 Star)
18:40
Corrina, Corrina (Film)
Jessie Nelson's romantic drama, which she also wrote and produced, stars Ray Liotta as Manny Singer, a widower whose young daughter Molly has become almost catatonically withdrawn following her mother's death. Realising he needs help, Manny advertises for a housekeeper and selects Corrina Washington, since Molly reacted positively to her. As Corrina draws Molly out of her shell, so Manny falls in love with her, but in 50s America, inter-racial relationships are still frowned on and the pair face prejudice from all sides as their relationship blossoms.
Director: Jessie Nelson
Starring: Whoopi Goldberg, Ray Liotta, Noreen Hennessey
(Widescreen, 1994, PG, 3 Star)
21:00
Elizabeth (Film)
Cate Blanchett received an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I in Shekhar Kapur's award-winning FilmFour Production. Elizabeth traces the early years of the monarch, from her battle for the throne against her stepsister Mary Tudor through political and emotional intrigues to her seizure of absolute power as the Virgin Queen, answerable to no man. With Geoffrey Rush, Christopher Eccleston, Joseph Fiennes and Sir Richard Attenborough.
Director: Shekhar Kapur
Starring: Liz Giles, Rod Culbertson, Paul Fox, Terence Rigby, Christopher Eccleston, Peter Stockbridge
(Editor's Choice, Widescreen, Subtitles, Audio Described, 1998, 15, 4 Star)
23:20
The Edukators (Film)
Austrian director Hans Weingartner's film is a witty drama about protesting against globalisation that mixes in a kidnapping, a love triangle and a test of true friendship. Jan, Jule and Peter are young radicals who break into the houses of the rich. Once inside they don't steal, but instead daub slogans and re-arrange the furniture. But their protest goes wrong when one of their victims is at home. So they kidnap Herr Hardenberg and take him to a remote chalet. But he too was a radical in the 60s and revels in pointing out that they will no doubt also become disillusioned and capitalist. As the trio try to decide on his fate, romantic tensions start to muddy the situation.
Director: Hans Weingartner
Starring: Daniel Brühl, Julia Jentsch, Stipe Erceg, Burghart Klaußner, Peer Martiny, Petra Zieser
(Subtitles, Subtitled, In German with English Subtitles, Widescreen, 2004, 15, 4 Star)
01:55
The Hired Hand (Film)
This restored print, which FilmFour financed, reveals the true beauty of Peter Fonda's classic directorial debut. Fonda plays Harry Collings, a cowboy tired of drifting, who returns home to the wife he deserted. He's taken on as a hired hand at her farm, and the film follows the slow re-building of their relationship, complicated by Collings' loyalty to his long-time companion Arch Harris, who hangs around the scene.
Director: Peter Fonda
Starring: Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Verna Bloom, Robert Pratt, Severn Darden, Rita Rogers
(Widescreen, 1971, 15, 3 Star)